This story happened to me when I was younger, like early twenties or even late teens. I was desperate for a job like all young people fresh out of school or even still in school. The job for me didn't have to be high paying or anything, it just had to be decent enough to help me pay rent for my new apartment and get food. It was in the late spring when I had managed a job at a mall. I won't say the mall or specific store I worked at. But let me just say that this, the mall I worked at was really run down, almost all the destinations were vacant or closed, the places that weren't closed were in bad condition, the malls electricity constantly faltered, there was barley security, the store i worked at in the mall wasn't all that great either, it was in severe need of staff because nobody WANTED to work there. The pay was low, security cameras were glitchy. We rarely got customers and when we did they looked... sketchy almost all the time, after all it was an easy place to shoplift. There was one place that creeped me my few coworkers out, the HUGE closed off section containing six stores across from us.
We had always had a weird feeling about it. It always felt like I was being watched whenever I would walk by it to go home or go to my store, the rest of the staff agreed. It was eerily unsettling.
I was a night shift worker. My job was to come in at night and restock shelves or take care of nighttime customers (we VERY rarely got any so I never really had to worry about that). It wasn't too difficult but it certainly was creepy that I was the only one in that dark mall. I had come in one hot July night. I had parked my car in the empty parking lot. All of the malls lights were off, all the doors were locked, exept one main door. But the staff door was closer to where parked I had a key so I could get in. My store was on the second floor so I had to walk through the desolate halls and take the stairs up. I was passing by the shops when I strode pass the closed off section. It was as creepy as usual. I shuddered. I unlocked the door to my shop as fast as I could feeling as if some monster would come after me if I didn't. As I got in I promptly closed and locked the door behind me.
I began organizing shelves, I don't even know how some stuff ends up in the places they do. It was all going as usual. The time was around one AM when I was checking the cameras. My shift would be done in two hours. While checking them I saw a man about in his early fifties with a hood and a ragged looking beard walking around the store. There was something off about him. Why would he be here at one AM? I went up to the counter, waiting patiently for him to buy something. He came up with nothing in his hands which I thought was odd. He stood there for a second looking straight at me, then started to laugh. Not a friendly laugh. It was disturbing ice cold. I was trying so hard not to sound frightened "can I help you, sir?" He said nothing and stopped laughing. I froze. He stood there looking me straight into my eyes before he walked out of the store. I continued back to work but I couldn't get that guy off my mind. It really messed me up. A little after that I called my boss to end my shift early, when he asked why I said that I was done stocking shelves. But the real reason was I just didn't want to be in that mall anymore. While walking out my eye caught something move in the closed off area. I started to pick up speed. When I heard the creaking and lifting of the metal blocker for the closed off section I dead bolted. I heard running and maniacal laughing behind me. I looked back and saw the man who came in earlier, holding a knife. I screamed. I ran as fast as I could down the stairs. When I got to the main doors I unlocked it as fast as humanly possible. When I got in my car and locked it I called up my boss telling him about the incident. He called the police. They found the man almost immediately. It turns out that he was a homeless drug addict who was living in the closed off section of the mall. He had set up a makeshift bed and everything. I quit my job only a month later. I NEVER went back to that mall again.
