When The Water Runs Dry

Chapter 1: Old Mall

"Where are you even taking me?" A girl groaned as she swatted away another bug that had look her face for a resting spot. "Well, Shayne, I saw on google maps that there was a old mall here. I thought you'd be interested in seeing it with me. It's abandoned, maybe even haunted!" A male's slightly high pitched voice replied failing to hide the eagerness in his voice. "Oh, goodie a boring old shack." Shayne murmured with sarcasm dripping from her voice. He merely ignored her comment about the place.

"Carlos," Shayne spoke lowly. Carlos hummed a reply. "I'm bored." Shayne said more aggravated then bored. "Would it make you feel better if I told you we were almost there?" He mused as his voice got childishly high to make an emphasis that they were close. Shayne simply sighed as she took out her earbuds and phone, she put one in her ear as she started playing music.

Quietly humming to the song she finally noticed the dirt ground turn into a old cracked yellow paint causing her to look up at the building she assumed Carlos had been talking about earlier. She took back her comment about it being an boring old shack, she could clearly see the building was about two stories tall, it reminded her of a mansion in a weird way.

Shayne paused her song as she heard Carlos say something about it being the place he was talking about. "Is it a boring old shack now?" He chuckled. "Do you see how big this place is? It's an small abandoned shopping mall! I saw on google that down the street there is a bunch of small houses, what if it's a ghost town!" He said with fascination visible in his voice of the possibilities of what is in the area.

"Well we'll just check out the outside first, it's getting late my folks will start to worry." Shayne said with slight nervousness in her voice. "What? It's 1:39! The sun will be up for like another 7 hours!" Carlos exclaims, "Plus, you've never said anything about your grandparents will worrying about you staying after dark." He says with suspicion in his voice as he slightly glares at her as if he's trying to read her mind.

Shayne sighs knowing she's been caught in a lie. "Fine, can we just make this quick? Get in and get out?" Shayne kind of whispers as uncertainty lassoes itself around her words. Carlos takes quick notice of this, "Ok we'll only look at this for a few minutes we won't go inside but we gotta check and see if there's a town near by that's probably abandoned!" Carlos says as he notices her visibly calms down.

"Ok, deal." Shayne put her hand out as if she were still a child, Carlos stares at her hand for a second before taking it in his and shakes in up and down. "Deal." He laughs as her smile practically glows.

The two continue the trek to the front of the mall seeing noting but decayed walls and the crack sidewalk they walked down, along with a door that spelled out 'No Entry' in faded red across it. When they reached the front the mall had a fairly big parking lot that could hold maybe 75 cars in it. Along with the parking lot in what was most likely the back of the mall with few presumed white doors now tan by the scorching sun over the time possible employee parking.

Carlos walked up to the giant window and looked threw it seeing nothing but darkness and broken floor plates closet the windows, he sighed knowing he couldn't leave Shayne out there by herself not knowing how many big animals were around or if there was a cult that kidnapped people and sacrificed people for they're own gain. But in the back of his mind he knew Shayne knew how to fight and fend for herself, but still he couldn't bring himself to just leave her there by herself.

Shayne words snapped him out of his thoughts cause him to look behind him at her. "What did you say?" He askes, "I said do you want to look around the other side or follow the road to see if there's anything around." Shayne repeats herself. Carlos look at her slightly bewildered before checking his phone for indication of time. '2:17' His phone read. "It's 2:00 already?" He slightly exclaims surprised.

Shayne shrugs "Do you want to look around or go find a town." Shayne repeats. Carlos looks up at her "Uh, let's look around first I wanna see if there's windows or we can see what's on the inside on the other side." Shayne and Carlos decided to walked to the other side of the old mall, as they turned the corner Carlos immediately noticed a large hole in the wall leading into what looked to be some kind of food place. The hole looked to made by decay telling them that the building clearly wasn't as stable as they had thought. "Jesus, how old is this place?" Shayne questioned as Carlos hand makes contact with the wall as if he were seeing how old the wall had to be only to push out a single brick from the wall. "Can't say maybe from the 1920's? I don't really know but it old." Carlos slightly murmurs focusing his attention to the brick that had fell on the other side.

"Well do you want to go inside real quick?" Carlos asked but sounded more like he were begging her to go in with him. "Nah. I'll stay out here on lookout. we don't know if this place is under security." Shayne says as she nonchalantly looks inside the dark place. "Ok imma just check this area out take a few pictures and such." Carlos replies getting ready to leave her out there and go inside by himself.

While taking out his phone and turning on the flash Carlos takes a shaky step over the small rubble, shining the flashlight around the small area seeing nothing but what looked to be a old fashioned freezers and a few counters but nothing more.

Decided that this must be a food place he put on camera as his flashlight goes off and takes a few flash photos before turning back on. He here's Shayne outside the hole ask him if he's almost finished with his pictures. He looks around to see a double push door, one side was pushed open, he attempted to push the door open only to find something blocking it. Sighing as he silently cursed he turned around to leave but in the corner of his eye he saw someone move as if they were trying to hide from him, "Shayne?" He calls out but only to hear her voice call back still outside. Now feeling creeped out as if someone was breathing down his neck he took a quick glance behind him behind him at the door before almost screaming as his legs started to move on their own out the building.

Shayne turned her head as she heard quick footsteps charging out the hole in the wall before feeling someone crash into her almost knocking her down. "Hey, what's wrong with you?!" Shayne shouted as she immediately as recognized that familiar slightly chubby face and brown eyes. Carlos. "I-I saw s-somet-thing." Carlos said as his voice trembled with clear fear.