A Night of Illusion and Enchantment
A short story by Anthony J Rea.
Iris ran down the hallway and out the door of the theater into the malls main lobby. Her long black hair flew behind her as she hit the door with all her might and practically fell on the tile floor beyond. She quickly looked around and as she feared there was not a soul in sight anywhere. She frantically ran to the other side of the lobby to the doors leading out to the parking lot. She grabbed a hold of them and pulled with all her might, but it was no use, the doors were locked, the mall had closed a long time ago. She fell down on her knees in front of the unyielding door and started crying. Small tear drops fell onto her faded blue jeans and made dark spots on them. She had such an important test to make up today and she had to go and fall asleep in the theater during a movie. How could no one notice a sleeping girl sitting there after the movie ended? How could everyone lock up leave her there alone until 11:00 at night? Missing this test meant that she may fail her last year of high school and have to start all over again. Her parents where going to be furies.
Realizing there was no point in crying Iris got up and wiped her face with the sleeve of her shirt and brushed the hair out of her face. From behind her she heard a noise and turned around. It had sounded like the tapping of feet on a floor above her. The sound was there and gone so fast that someone would had to have been running to make it. There was the faint hope of someone besides her being present in the abandoned mall, but when she looked up at the second floor she saw nothing but empty walkways above. There was no sight of what could have made the sound. Still hoping that she had just missed the sounds creator she ran to the escalators and started running up them. It took a little bit of time to reach the second floor, the escalators had not broken, they had become stairs. Once she had reached the spot the sound had come from she looked around, but nothing revealed itself. Looking at the stores nearby she saw a clothing shop, a electronics store and some kind of antique shop. In the antique shop window there were several odd trinkets. There was some kind of gold necklace, a wooden carving of an owl and a statue of a jester. The jester had an evil grin on its face and scared Iris, but she kind of liked the necklace. Its gold chin held a pendent that looked very old and it had gem stones of all sorts of colors circling the outer rim. As she was looking at the window of the clothing store she saw a manikin of a kid wearing the oddest outfit. While all the other manikins where wearing jeans, skirts, t-shirts and other normal clothing this one was wearing a pair of old looking pants and a brown cloak with a hood draped over its shoulders. It was also shorter than all the other manikins. As she was wondering if this was the new fashion that kids where getting into she heard a very faint humming noise behind her and turned around to see what it was.
She was running again. Turning another corner fast Iris continued to follow signs that pointed to the security room. When she had turned around in front of the window of manikins she saw that a security camera was pointed at her and the lens was focusing in and out making a soft buzzing sound. Of course there would be a security guard on duty, why had she not thought of that? If she could find the security office they could let her out and she could go home. Maybe one of them would even be nice enough to write her a note saying that she got locked in the mall and she could retake the test at school. Turning a final corner she almost ran right into the door to the security room and had to skid to a halt. Once she caught her breath she straightened herself out and looked around, in the corner of the small hallway at the back of the mall was another security camera facing the door that she was standing in front of. She watched it for a moment and heard the familiar sound of it focusing in on her. Turning back to the door she politely knocked on it three times and waited for the guard to answer. She stood in front of the door for a long time before figuring that no one heard her and knocked again. Again she waited for some time and knocked again, much louder this time. For some reason no one was answering the door, but for the life of her she could not figure out why. After another long wait she finally got impatient and reached for the doorknob. She was not really expecting it to be unlocked but to her surprise when she turned it the door popped right open. Unsure if she should even be doing this Iris pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked in.
Inside the room was a wall lined with controls and monitors looking out over the entire mall. There was a shelving unit attached to the wall on one side of the room with flashlights, walky-talkies and many other security guard related items. But nowhere in the room could she see a single security guard. Again she found herself thinking, how could the cameras focus like that without someone controlling them? Before she though too much on this she noticed something moving on one of the monitors and ran over to them to see what it was. One of the screens on the desk was displaying the second floor where a clothing store and antique shop where. She had been there just a moment ago. Standing almost exactly where she had been was a man with short black hair in a blue shirt and black slacks. He had a gold badge pinned on the breast of his shirt. Iris’s heart jumped with joy, there was a security guard. But why was he at the stores? He must have seen her on the monitor and saw that she was running to him. Why would he leave? She scanned over the monitors and found that the cameras covered the whole route from the three stores to the security room. He could have watched her run the entire way there. Looking back at the first screen she saw that the man had turned towards the camera. Looking directly at the screen she could now see his face; he had blue eyes, wore small round glasses and had a very friendly face. Iris was kind of jealous; she hated her brown colored eyes and always wished they had been such a pretty shade of blue. Looking at the camera he suddenly smiled a very kind smile, lifting his hand he started waiving at the camera. Without thinking Iris lifter her hand and smiling she waved back to him. His demeanor was just so nice she felt warm and happy just watching him. Then she realized, why was she waving to him? It’s not like he could see her threw the camera. On that same note how did he know that she was in the room in the first place?
Iris looked around the room instinctively to see if there was somehow a camera in this room as well. There did not seem to be any and realizing how ridicules that was she looked back at the monitor showing the guard. He was still standing in that same spot, looking at the camera, and waiving. Something else caught her eye. The manikin of the kid in the clothing store window was missing! Looking around the screens she searched frantically for the manikin. She had no idea why she felt it was so important to find it but somehow she felt she had to. As she continued to look her eyes fell back on the original screen with the security guard on it. He was still waiving at the screen, but it was the thing behind him that made Iris’s heart skip a beat. Turning the corner just a little behind the guard was someone wearing the manikins clothing. They had the hood up and they where moving slowly behind the unsuspecting guard. For some reason Iris was scared. She had no idea how she know something bad was going to happen but deep down in her heart she could feel it. The figure in the brown cape moved closer behind the guard who was still smiling and waving at Iris threw the camera. He seemed to have no idea what was going on behind him. Frantic and scared Iris grabbed the monitor and started yelling at it at the top of her lounges while shaking it violently. She could not understand why the man was just looking at her and smiling, he had such a pretty smile she did not want to see it go away. She yelled at the top of her lounges for him to look behind him but no matter how hard she tried it was no use. The cloaked figure continued to close the distance until it was directly behind the unsuspecting guard. Tears started forming in her eyes as Iris tried desperately to reach the man on the other side of the screen. As she looked on in horror the person behind him lifted one arm out from underneath the cloak and pulled it back ready to strike the guard. Iris gave one last attempt at reaching him by banging her fist hard on the security monitor before she met the guards smile for one last time. His eyes where looking directly into hers as the wonderful blue light was lost in them, and he collapsed to the ground.
Tears flowed out of Iris’s eyes as she run down the hall. She didn’t care about the test or restarting school anymore. All she wanted was to escape this nightmare. No matter how hard she tried she could not make the scene in her head go away. Blood sprayed everywhere as the hand of the figure ripped through the security guards center torso. Covered in blood, half the arm was sticking out from his chest. His blue shirt quickly turned dark red and he fell to the floor. The man in the cloak just stood over the body as it bled until the pool it formed reached all the way to his feet. The red liquid had surrounded the culprit’s feet and had even reached the railing, dripping down off the second floor.
Iris could barely see threw her tears and nearly fell over as she turned the last corner to the second floor exits. She entered a small lobby lined with stores with benches in the center. At the far end was a café with small tables and chairs set up for people to enjoy their drinks. Since the mall was built on a hill there was an exit to the parking lot on the second floor as well. All she had to do was get to the other end of this lobby and she could go home. Rushing across the space as quickly as her legs would carry her she reached the doors and grabbed them, pulling with all her might. In her fear stricken haze she had forgotten that the mall was closed and the doors locked. Without a second though she looked around and running over to the café grabbed one of the chairs. Dragging it back in front of the glass doors she lifted it over her head and threw it at the doors. The chair flew though the air and she could hear the sound of it smashing into the doors. The sound of glass shattering was followed by the thud as the chair hit the ground outside, but when she looked up the chair was on the other side of the doors lying in the middle of the sidewalk, and the doors where still intact. Iris looked at the doors in total disbelief. How could the chair be on the other side and the doors not be broken, what was the crashing sound she herd? Nothing made sense anymore and she grabbed her head in confusion. Then for the first time she heard the scrapping noise behind her. With her heart sinking into her chest Iris turned around and looked upon the monster standing in the lobby.
The creature must have stood at least eight feet tall. It looked like a huge bat with no fur and two large and powerful arms. Spikes protruded out of its back all the way down the spine. Each of its large leathery wings where longer then Iris was tall. Its claws scraped the ground as it slowly moved forward. Its mouth was open and saliva was dripping between its large pointed teeth and formed a trial behind it. Its bright red eyes where focused solely on the girl pressed against the glass door. Iris couldn’t move, she couldn’t think, this thing could not possible exist. She slid down the glass and fell to the floor as she watched the monster slowly continue its approach towards her. More tears flowed down her face as she sobbed openly and watched the creature take another step towards her. How could this be happening to her, how could this be happening at all? As the monster was within a few steps of her it suddenly stopped and turned around just in time for something to strike it in the face. It let out a scream of anger and pain as green blood squirted out from between its eyes and something ricocheted off the wall above Iris and fell to the ground beside her. A metal bar lay there dripping with green monster blood. Without thinking Iris jumped to her feet and rushed past the monster while it was distracted. It flapped its large leathery wings and almost knocked her over as she passed. Blood dripping from its face it turned as if to follow her and she could hear the sound of it roaring in anger behind her back. She reached the end of the lobby and turned the corner going back into the mall. As she reached it she heard another great thud and looking a little to the side to see a blur of brown move back in the direction of the monster from the other side of the lobby. Behind her there was another loud cracking sound like something hard being broken and Iris could hear the monster cry out in pain again. She paused for just a moment, tempted to turn around and see what had happened, but she was too scared and ran around the corner and as far away from the sounds of fighting as she could.
Iris continued to run. Not really knowing where she was going, she just continued to run, hoping beyond hope that she would find somewhere safe, or wake up from this horrible dream. Instead of waking up from her dream she found herself in one of the last places she wanted to be. She was standing at the end of the walkway that led to the spot where the guard had died. She stood there for a moment remembering the look on the guards face as the arm pierced his chest, the bits of bone and flesh that erupted from the wound and the river of blood that followed, and found herself crying again. The crying did not last as long this time as it had the other times. Before she know it she found that she was wiping her face and looking down the hallway. There was no escape from this, she already know that. So she decided that she had to do something, and the only thing she could think of at the moment was to walk forward and confront the bloody crime scene in person. She had to figure out what was going on around here. But once she reached the scene there were more surprises waiting for her.
Standing at the edge of the pool of blood she looked down at the spot that should have held the body of the security guard, but there was nothing there. It still made no sense, nothing in this night did. On the other side of the blood pool was the window for the antique shop. Shards of glass lay scattered all over the floor in front of the broken window. Inside the shop the gold necklace was missing from its spot on the display. Before Iris had too much time to think about it she heard another sound echoing behind her. If there was something that she had learned from this night it was that it was better to turn around and face what was behind her rather than hiding from it. So she gripped her hands into fists and with a hard motion turned her body around to fully face what was approaching her this time. Walking down the hall was a person in a brown cape and old looking pants. In one hand it held a metal bar covered in green blood. In the other hand it had the severed head of the bat creature. Its face was frozen in an expression of pure anger and pain, but its eyes had faded to a dark black and there was no more life in them.
The person stopped a little ways away from Iris and with a swift motion tossed the head to the side. A sickening thud sound echoed through the open mall as the head cleared the railing and fell to the first floor and hit with a thud, splattering blood across the ground. With its newly freed hand the person reached up to their hood of the now tattered and bloody cloak. As it grabbed the hood and pulled it down Iris saw that it was not actually a person underneath the cloak, but the manikin itself. It was not very tall and its short pink hair did not look like anything that she had ever seen on a store manikin before. It had a flawless face but lacked a lot of the features you would normally see on a human. Remembering the cracking sound when she left the last lobby she looked closely at it and saw that part of its torso had been broken. The ripped cloth and broken plastic around its waist showed nothing but an empty shell inside. Looking into its eyes was like staring at two marbles. They had no features; they were endlessly deep and empty. Iris was speechless, thinking back she realized that the same thing that killed the security guard may have actually saved her later. Realizing this she glanced over the railing and back to the manikin. Without a word it looked her in the eyes and nodded its head. Again Iris had to think, why? Before she had time to ponder this new mystery the manikin suddenly lifted the metal bar up and grabbed it in two hands like it was a sword. Surprised Iris took a single step back and her head bumped into something soft and wet. Tilting her head back she looked up and froze in complete terror as she found the empty faded eyes of the dead security guard looking down at her.
The manikin took a step forward but before it could do anything the security guard grabbed Iris around the neck with a single hand, lifted her off her feet and held her there dangling. The manikin stopped its advance at once and stared the guard down. Iris found herself helpless again; she was at the mercy of others. She could barely breathe as she watched what transpired next. The guard with the hole in his chest looked a little behind him at the broken window of the antique shop and then back at the half broken manikin. As if understanding what it was thinking the manikin reached into its pocket and produced the gold necklace that had been stolen from the display. The guard continued to look at the plastic manikin as it tossed the necklace to the ground. Still the guard did not react as the metal bar was lifted high in the air and brought crashing down on top of the gemmed center of the jewelry. With a loud clang the pendant bent and small gemstones flew in every direction. The soft metal of the necklace bent round the hard metal bar and was totally disfigured. Lifting its head the manikin stared the guard down as if it expected something to happen, but nothing did.
Iris was almost unconscious when she felt something hard and strong grab her left arm. The guard had used its other hand to take a firm grip on her forearm and with a swift motion twisted it around in a circle. Iris didn’t even have the breath to scream as she felt her bones break and skin rip. She couldn’t even cry out as her arm broke away from her shoulder blade, her shirt sleeve ripped and her entire arm was pulled clean off of her body. The guard held the girls left arm in one hand and the rest of her body in the other hand. At first there was no blood. The empty socket just hung there, then as if a switch was turned on blood started squirting out from the open wound. The guard dropped the severed arm to the ground and it lay there for a moment spewing blood across the floor. He then tossed the limp girl to the side like a piece of trash. The girl moved though the air with ease and rebounded off the clothing shops window before crashing to the ground in a heap beside the manikin, spraying blood the entire way. The manikin rushed forward without a second though and swung the metal bar to attack the guard. With another quick swing the guard struck the manikin in the shoulder with its hand. The simple backhand had dramatic effect. The entire shoulder area of the manikin shattered to pieces detaching one of its arms. Bits of plastic fell everywhere and the metal bar was released, it hit the ground adding to the noise and rolled back in the direction the manikin had come from. The manikin itself immediately fell to the ground and stopped moving.
When Iris opened her eyes she could see the lines of her own blood streaking across the clothing stores display glass. To her left was a small pool of blood that was growing larger by the second. Looking at her shoulder she could see the spot where her arm used to be, which was now nothing more than a bloody stump. She remembered the bright and happy smile of the guard as he waved to her on the security monitor and she realized it was all just a trick. He had tricked her back then, the smile meant nothing. But it was that trick that would be his undoing, for now she understood what was going on. Reaching out her right arm she grabbed a hold of the metal bar by the middle as it lay out in front of her. Pulling it to her side she used it as a prop to push herself up to her knees. Once she was sitting up she looked up at the guard. He made no move to stop her; he just stared at her with those empty dead eyes. It was still a trick, everything with him was a trick, and that vary fact was what told Iris what to do next. With all she had left in her she lifted the bar up above her shoulder like a javelin and aimed it in the direction of the guard who just continued to stare at her. With her left side soaked with her own blood and lousing strength fast she heaved the bar threw the air. The bar hit its mark, which was never meant to be the guard himself. With a thunderous crash the bar went through the hole in the antique shops display and hit the glass head of the jester statue. The glass head exploded into pieces and with it the head of the guard also blew up. The already bloody walkway was made even worse as the guards head exploded, sending new blood in every direction. Squirting even more then Iris’s arm wound the headless body fell to the ground never to move again. The last thing Iris remembered seeing before she blacked out was the detached arm of the manikin that had come off when it was struck by the guard laying in front of her. She reached out for it.
Iris heard a loud beeping sound and sat up quickly in her bead. Reaching over to her night stand she grabbed her alarm clock and turned it off. Leaping out of bed she ran to her closet and searched for a long time before pulling out a pair of long gloves. Grabbing the left glove she slid it on her arm until it reached all the way to the elbow. She continued to get dressed and made sure to grab a shirt that covered her arm all the way to the glove. Once fully dressed she ran down the stairs and right out the door of the house. Moments later she arrived at the mall and upon entering she passed in front of the movie theater. She paused for a moment looking at the listings and wondered whether she should watch one of them. After only a brief moment she decided not to. She had a makeup test at school later today. Passing the theater she went to the second floor and stood there for awhile, she just felt the need to come here. There was nothing unusual about the spot itself, she was standing in front of a clothing store. She turned to the side and looked at a window with a full line of Manikins showing off casual clothes. Out in front of her was an antique shop with three wooden owl statues on display. Off to the side she overheard two security guards talking. Someone had gotten sick yesterday and with such short notice they could not find a replacement so there was no one on duty that night. Iris smiled to herself; there was no point in staying here. Leaving the mall she returned home and went to her room. Once her door was shut and locked she sat on her bed and removed the glove she had put on her left arm. Looking at her arm for a moment she rubbed it, it still felt odd, the arm was hard and gave off no heat, the joints where oddly visible and there was little detail on it. Closing her eyes for a moment she listened carefully in her mind. After awhile of waiting she could hear the soft voice speaking to here again. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. “
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