Sunnydale Mills

D͏̸̧͞a̵̶̡̕͟y̷̴̨̛̕ 0͠10...

D͏̸̧͞a̵̶̡̕͟y̷̴̨̛̕ 0͠100̕100͝1 ͜0̀101̴01҉0̧0̢ 00̵1000͜0͢0 01͝00̡100̴1 ͢0́10̀10͜011 0͞01̷00000̕ 01010͏0͘10͡ 0́100̶01̵01̴ ͝0͏1000001 ͏0̧1͠0̴0110͜0

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They all exit the office in a hurry, and Rosie's flashlight wavers through the dark hallway as she continues looking back at Lena to make sure she's okay.

"Stop looking at me and lead us outta here already!" Lena grumbles at Rosie, causing her to nod wearily and face the path ahead of them. "You guys don't need to rush so much, it's not like I'm dying or anything."

"Still," Craig says, "you're hurt, and you're bleeding. This place is not safe."

Preston looks over at Craig with sad eyes and utters out a soft, "I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have pressured you to bring us all in here, Craig."

"Hey, it's not just your fault," Rosie hisses from ahead. "It's my fault too," she adds whilst leading them out of the service hallway and into the mall again. The group follows Craig down the mall corridors to get back to the store.

"This is all of our faults," Lena sighs while rolling her neck and shoulder uncomfortably. "There's no need for any apologies. I walked into this as much as everyone else did. We'll just not mention it ever again, okay?"

Everyone nods in agreement, finally slowing down their pace to a calm stride. Preston chuckles. "I can't believe I did that to your arm, though."

Lena smiles and lightly punches Preston's arm. "Yeah, it's kinda funny if you really think about it," Lena adds with a smirk.

Rosie laughs, feeling calmer and relieved now that they're closer to the store and making light of the entire situation. "Yeah, it could've been worse--"

Rosie is cut short when the buzz of the intercom clicks on. Everyone pauses where they are, just around the corner from the store. Preston looks at his coworkers with furrowed eyebrows.

"Did...did the intercom just..." Preston is unable to finish his sentence while the music volume grows a bit louder - as if to specifically mock him.

"It must be...some kids or something," Lena suggests with a wobbling voice. "You know, people like us that just realized they weren't alone and decided to f҉͢u̵҉͠҉c̡͟k̷̵̀ with us..."

"Yeah," Rosie agrees, "that's gotta be it," she cuts around the corner to enter the Darcy's wing of the mall. They all follow her but stop as the flashlights on their phones flicker off, leaving them in a dark hallway. They can see the small orange glow where they broke into the mall, but everything around it is pitch black without their lights on.

Lena hits the flashlight button again, and the light comes back on. Lena lifts her phone to shine the light in the hallway, but it flickers off again. Preston and Rosie try the same thing a few times, but to no avail; they're left in the dark.

"What the f҉͢u̵҉͠҉c̡͟k̷̵̀ is going on?" Preston growls furiously.

Lena gets fed up with her phone and decides to open an app with a white background. She turns her screen brightness all the way up, flinching a bit as it nearly blinds her. She turns her phone to face the hallway, and everyone's blood runs cold when the light reveals a shadowed figure standing in a dark corner a few feet beside the Darcy's entrance.

Lena's phone glitches out, completely turning the screen right off to leave them in the dark again. She barely notices this as she continues to stand like a statue with her phone out in front of her.