screaming season

mall rats

"the door is over here.." jenny followed faith as she led her down a narrow alley. Faith had a thirst for adventure and it got her in trouble a lot but it was one of the things jenny loved about her,she was never boring. Faith turned sideways so she could fit through the last stretch of the alley and jenny did the same. Faith brought Jenny to a door,faith opened the door slowly and held it open for jenny to follow her into the hallway behind the door. "How did you find out about that door?" Jenny asked. "I've been looking for a way inside ever since this place closed down" faith said. Jenny and faith had both loved this mall, it was the place they met and they were both so sad when it was announced to be closing. "I'm gonna miss this when it's gone" jenny said as she walked into the mall and felt nostalgic as she looked around at all the stores. She had memories with all of them, her dad taking her to build a bear when she was little, her mom dragging her into Spencer's with her to look for a birthday gift for her brother, spending countless hours in the food court and the theater. She was going to miss all of it but she thought she would miss the hot topic the most, it was the only place she got clothes from and it was the place she met faith. Faith suddenly appeared beside her and kissed her cheek as she hugged her. "Stay in the present babe, it's still here for tonight" jenny smiled and kissed faith back. Faith let go of her and began to move towards the escalator which was unmoving. "What happened anyway?" Jenny asked, she had no idea why the mall closed,it was still so popular. "You didn't hear? There was an accident.. one of the workers was found dead in the center of the mall, they closed it after that and no one has been here since,except for me and you of course" the mall lights were still on but everything felt so eerie when there was no one else, it was dead quiet,like a liminal space but bigger of course. Jenny made her way into the abandoned hot topic and was struck with the memory of how she and faith had met. They had both grabbed for the same pair of Ruby gloom socks and jenny let her keep them because she had way too many socks, they bonded over their love of spooky stuff and eventually their friendship grew into something more, jenny moved from the socks to the pins and grabbed the ones she liked hoping that the security cameras were already off. She attached a pin to her jacket and went to find faith, she found her in the Barnes and Noble, faith had a love for books that Jenny didn't share but she knew how important books were to her girlfriend and always listened when she was babbling about her favorite series or getting excited about a new book from an author she liked. "Picture books are over there" faith said as she noticed Jenny walking to her. "Ha ha" jenny said sarcastically when she grabbed a pair of socks and stuffed them into her backpack, she would give them to faith as a birthday present. "So what do you think happened to that employee?" Jenny asked as faith grabbed a book from the shelves. "I don't know.. there wasn't a lot of information." Jenny didn't hear what faith had said,she was staring at the mannequin in the store across from the bookstore. "I would've thought they got rid of those things" she said as she pointed towards it. Faith looked up from the bookshelves and looked at what Jenny was pointing at. "I thought they did.. I saw parts of them in the dumpster outside,maybe they didn't get rid of all of them" jenny continued to stare at the mannequin who seemed to be staring back at her. She had never liked the mannequins,they were one of the only things she didn't like about the mall. "Are you okay?" Faith asked as she put her arm around jenny. Jenny shook her head and turned towards faith. "Yeah I'm fine. I just never liked those things, they seemed too real." Faith started to walk towards the mannequin, she stepped into the store and tore off the mannequin's arm,she smiled and waved at jenny with the arm. Jenny laughed and walked towards her. Faith pulled jenny into a kiss but then pushed her away quickly. "I forgot something,stay here I'll be right back" faith ran out of the store and jenny began to look around the store,he noticed another mannequin. "I thought there was only one.." jenny thought to herself as she moved towards it. Jenny touched it's porcelain skin and it felt.. warm. "What the fuck??" Jenny thought. She had started to back away from the mannequin but bumped into another one,she screamed and ran but she bumped into another mannequin blocking the exit,they were everywhere. The mannequins started to close in on jenny and she didn't know what to do..

Faith made her way back to the store with her gift for jenny, but as she looked around the store she couldn't find jenny anywhere,but she did find a mannequin wearing the same outfit jenny was wearing.