The Darkness in Dominion Mall

Chapter 8

“Michael!? Michael where are you!” Billie yelled in a raised voice as he searched in the cubicles.

“Michael?!” Layne hollered as he helped look around for his friend.

Layne was perplexed by the whole thing. Not even a few seconds before, it sounded as if Michael was no more than twenty or so feet away from the door before he suddenly disappeared along with his screams’. It was as if he was never there to begin with. Everything appeared to be normal and in place. Even the once broken door was now fixed perfectly in its original position, with the locking mechanism turned to the side.

“What the hell is going on?” Layne whispered to himself.

“GUYS GET IN HERE!” Renae screamed from inside the office.

Billie and Layne rushed in to see Renae pointing her light at something underneath the main desk in the fairly small office. From the front, all Layne could see was one very old and dusty shoe, what looked like a pair of faded and worn blue jeans, and what appeared to be a very dry and rotted hand.

“Hello?” Layne called out to no response. He wasn’t sure if what was under the desk was human or not. Calling out to it seemed like the only reasonable thing to do before checking it out further.

Reggie slowly walked around the corner with his Lantern. He constantly pulled his head back and forth, expecting it to jump out at him. Once he appeared to get a good look at the body, Reggie confirmed their suspicions’.

“It’s a dead guy. Just another, normal dead guy. I hope.” Reggie got up from his knees and scanned the room. “Where’s Michael?”

“I don’t know.” Billie said as he slid down the wall on his back, rubbing his head as he landed on the ground. He appeared disappointed.

Layne walked over to the body with Jill joining both him and Reggie. Both of them winced as they saw the body. It appeared to be as dry as a desert, with skin sinking and stretching onto the bones as well as flaking off in places. His mouth was open and c****d to the left, his white teeth were still perfectly intact. The man sat with his knees to his chest and had his head tucked into the far corner. Layne was afraid that if he touched the body, which he wouldn’t, it would instantly crumble into dust.

“What the hell’s that?” Reggie said as he pointed above the man’s head.

There was what appeared to be a dry and crusty material above his head. It was somewhat orange and red in coloration but also faded by time. It surrounded a hole that exited out the top of the desk. Before Layne could process it, Jill beat him to the answer.

“It’s dried blood.” Jill said calmly.

“Are you sure?” Reggie said as he continued to look at the dried blood.

“Yeah, we learned that in forensics. I remember seeing a picture that looked a lot like that.”

“So if that’s blood, and that’s a hole, then that means he shot himself with a gun…”

Reggie almost instantly checked under the desk but shot up in pain as his chest wound restricted his movements even more than they did before. He grunted as he got up. Jill lent him a hand, but he waved her off and said to look for and retrieve the gun instead.

Layne checked under the right side of the desk, under the drawers, and saw a metallic object. He was careful pulling it out as he didn’t want to damage it or anyone in the room.

“Got it.” Layne said as he held the gun in his hand.

The pistol was not only old in age, but also in its design. The grip was almost entirely wooden except for the middle strip and a couple of screws on the bottom. The barrel was elongated like old western revolvers, but not rectangular like a Glock or modern pistol would be like. Carved into the barrel were what looked like letters, but they were too illegible to read.

‘I’ve seen this before in some of the games’ I’ve played, but I just can’t remember the name of it. What is it called? I know it starts with an L I think.’ Layne thought to himself.

“Is that a Luger?” Renae said as she walked up to Layne. “Yeah it is!”

“Yeah. Yeah that’s what it’s called! I couldn’t remember…...How do you know this is what it’s called.”

“My grandpa was an army vet and collected older guns like this in his spare time. He even taught me how to shoot some before he died. Can I hold it?”

Layne gave her the pistol. She c****d it halfway and checked out the bullets. After a moment of quietness, she spoke up.

“They’re twenty-twos I think. Better than nothing I guess.”

“Yeah.” Layne said, but had absolutely no idea what she meant by what she told him.

“Maybe you should hold onto that.” Jill said. “No offense Layne, but I’ve seen you playing Battlefield and you’re pretty shite at it.” She finished off with a bit of her accent coming through and a small smile. It soon disappeared.

The smile warmed him up on the inside, yet he still felt cold.

“Let’s look around for anything else that’s useful.” Layne said as he got up and searched around him.

The office they were in was only about twenty by thirty feet. Boxes lined up most of the walls, most of them were filled to the brim with bills or other types of paperwork. There were a couple of shredders around on the ground with a few piles of shredded paper strewn about. From the looks of it, the man was in the middle of shredding important documents before he stopped for whatever reason. Now everything sat and waited for time to decay it away.

‘What were you trying to get rid of? Were you hiding something, and someone found out?’ Layne thought to himself as he thought about the man.

He noticed that Billie was still sitting against the wall with his head down. His shoulders were slumped, and his general posture cried out “regret.” Layne didn’t need to question him because he knew what troubled his friend.

“I could have helped him.” Billie sighed as Layne sat next to him. “We could have helped him keep that thing back, but I pulled you back instead.”

It was true that they would have helped Michael fight the beast back. He couldn’t deny it. But he also couldn’t deny that they might have also come under attack as well. The canine seemed to only have been hurt because it wasn’t expecting them to retaliate, and so it didn’t let its own guard up. Maybe attacking it a second time wouldn’t have worked out in their favor if it knew to be more cautious?

“Michael did what he did to save us.” Layne said after a few seconds of silence. “We can’t beat ourselves up over it right now. I know how you feel, I want to bawl my eyes out right now, but we can’t mourn them right now. Right now, we need to figure out how to get out or else their deaths would have been for nothing. Besides, we don’t even know if Michael’s dead or not. He was there one second and then gone the next. He’s tough and slippery, I don’t doubt it that he might’ve gotten away from it.”

Billie said nothing but gave a few quick nods. Tears formed in his eyes as he laid his head back and inhaled heavily.

Layne got up and left because he knew the best thing for Billie was to be alone for a while.

Jill stood by the side of the desk that was the farthest away from the body. She had something in her hands that was opened up. A book of some sorts.

“You okay Jill?”

“About as good as I’ll ever be. What about you?”

“I’m fine, it’s just….I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Try to.”

“Well…” Layne whispered. He thought about the memories from before, how odd it was for him to be remembering them at a strange time and just how vivid they were. Putting them into words was both hard and easy to do. “Before Jonathan and Michael died, I was relivin’ some old memories that I had with them. I wasn’t dreamin’ it, I know I wasn’t, I just…. I don’t know. It’s weird.”

“Yeah. Maybe there’s something in the air and it was making you hallucinate?”

“Maybe. I just hope it isn’t bad.” The thought of there being an airborne hallucinogen was making Layne more uncomfortable than he liked. He decided to change the subject. “What’s that Jill?” Layne asked as he sat on the desk next to her.

“It’s a journal.” She said without looking up and skimming a few pages. “HIS journal I think. I found it in one of the drawers.”

“Anythin’ interesting in it?”

“Yeah.” She sat on the desk next to Layne.

Her mood wasn’t playful or some type of yearning. He could tell that she was upset about something other than just Michael. The only way for her to keep herself together was to be near him. That’s what he thought anyway.

“October 30th,1961. The Montgomery Ward finally finished construction today. No more digging, wiring, or constructing or to do. Finally. All that’s left is to wait for all of the merchandise to arrive and hire some of the locals’. It only took two years and a hefty amount of cash to build, but that what happens when the guys I hire don’t know what they’re doing! At least we were able to use some of the rocks as concrete. Who knows how much money that saved me in the end? Hopefully more money will come pouring in now. I’ve put so much into this one store that it might bankrupt me if it fails.”

She flipped through some of the pages.

“January 13th, 1963. Johnny, one of the night guards’, complained again about there being noises in the mall after everyone’s gone for the day. He also said that the last time he checked out the noises, some of the mannequins were in different poses than they were before. I hope no one’s breaking in and stealing the merchandise or money. If that’s the case, the little shits’ changing the mannequins’ positions would be the least of my worries. If Johnny doesn’t catch the sons of bitches by the end of the month, he WILL be looking for work elsewhere.”

She flipped a page.

“May 5th 1963. Another customer reported to me about seeing a man that was “as black as midnight” in one of the stores for a moment. I told her that it must have been a colored man playing a joke and that I’d find him. She thanked me and went on her way. That’s the tenth one this year. What’s the point of having security if they can’t catch someone? I’ll have to either hire more security or get better guys, otherwise Dominion’s’ reputation is at risk!”

“The dark guy? Isn’t that the thing we saw earlier?” Layne asked. He knew that it must have been it but wanted to give Jill a couple of seconds to herself.

“Might be.” She dryly replied as she turned a couple of pages.

“Did he really think there was some black dude running around and scaring people?” Reggie joked.

“December 21st, 1963. I think I finally saw this man that all the customers’ have been reporting. I was on the second-floor balcony, near the fountain, when I saw something dark for just a second. I figured people exaggerated how dark the man really was. They didn’t. Nothing they told me even came close. The man was so dark that I couldn’t make out any shadows or any details of his body at all. It was like staring at a colored in chalk outline of a body. I’m not entirely too sure what I should do, so I’m just gonna hire more security.

April 1st, 1964. I called a priest to bless every store, hallway, room, floor, nook, and cranny in Dominion. I didn’t know what else to do, I still don’t. Hopefully this works, and I can put all of this behind me.

August 3, 1978. It’s been awhile since my last entry, so I’ll write down everything important that’s happened up until now. The blessing worked for a few years, I think, before shoppers began seeing the dark man again. He even appeared to me in a dream as I took a nap at my desk. I know it wasn’t in my head, it was real. I just know it was. After that, I poured most of my funds’ and profits’ into building a mall in Augusta. It wasn’t cheap. I’m hoping that since most of our customers are from that area, the sudden drop in shoppers’ will cause us to lose business over a short period of time. I’ve also purposefully kept maintenance down to a bare minimum. I know people would rather go to a newer and cleaner looking place than an old and outdated one.

January 4th, 1979. Betsy, one of the accountants, told me that the mall took a very serious hit the previous quarter. She also told me that we would need to shut down some of the non-profitable stores in order to make ends meet. It’s working.

March 17th,1982. Today’s the unofficial closing of Dominion Mall. Most of the stores are gone and so are most of the employees and shoppers’. Still, I ordered everyone to evacuate. I’ve had a word or two with Graham and he has assured me that he has some plans to tear this place down and keep the location a secret. I don’t know how, but I know him well enough to know he wouldn’t lie about a task that big.”

“Graham. Wasn’t he the last mayor?” Reggie asked.

Layne hadn’t noticed that Reggie, Renae, and Billie were all listening to Jill read out loud. Then again, he was too preoccupied with listening to Jill to really look around in the first place.

“William B. Graham.” Billie said quietly but loud enough for everyone to hear. “He retired the year I move into town.”

“Wonder what he did to hide this place?” Renae said.

“I dunno. But whatever it was, it worked.” Layne sighed.

“This…...this was the last entry he wrote.” Jill said with a slightly shaky voice. “I’m in his world now. The place he calls home when he isn’t in ours. There is no light here and there’s this light fog everywhere. I’ve searched for God knows how long, but I can’t find a way out. All of the doors to the outside either won’t budge or are blocked off and none of the keys work. I’m stuck. My only source of light is starting to dim, so much so that I can barely read what I’m writing. The dark man told me what will happen to me when he kills me. I won’t let that happen. If anyone is reading this, end your life as fast as you can. Don’t let him or anything he controls do it. Even if you have to bleed to death, DO IT. There should be some rounds in the pistol when I’m done. Use it on yourself. Don’t. Die. By. His. Hands. Tell my wife that I hope she can forgive me for what I’ve unleashed.”

The room grew quiet. Only the occasional shift in someone position broke the silence. He couldn’t blame them, though, as he was couldn’t quite find the words to say either.

‘Kill myself? I can’t even imagine being killed by one of those things, could I really kill myself if I needed to? Could any of them?’

“What…” Reggie said, finally breaking the deafening silence. “What should we do?”

Renae turned the gun over in her hand and stared at it. He figured she was having the same thoughts that he had had moments ago. She put it down, shook the thought away, and began to speak.

“I don’t know about you guys, but if I’m going to die, it’ll be by trying to get out of this place.”

Billie sat up, with the paper trimmer in his hand, with a look of new found determination on his face. “What’s the plan?”

For some reason, unknown to him, everyone’s eyes shifted towards Layne. He never figured he was much of the “leader type,” especially in the situation they were in; but he knew he needed to put on a brave face for everyone’s sake.

He thought for a moment before finally speaking. “I think we should still try and find a way up to the roof. He said that every door was stuck and wouldn’t budge. He didn’t say it was impossible to make it up there, right?”

“Yeah.” Reggie grunted as he got up. “There were stair cases over in the cubicles, but the doors wouldn’t open. We won’t be going up through any of the stairs’ I think.”

“There is one way up, but I don’t think any of you will like it.” Jill said.

“What is it?” Renae asked.

“I noticed when we were coming up to the food court that there were still glass panels missing from the roof. I don’t think there was anything blocking them from the outside or inside. They looked open!”

“The ceiling’s at least thirty feet high on this floor. How are we going to climb up?” Billie asked.

Layne thought of an idea and spoke. “In the JC Penny, I remember seeing a section of full of blankets’. We could tie them together as long as we need, tie them to this piece of rebar or something, toss it up, anchor it, and climb our way out.”

It was quiet for a moment as everyone pondered the idea.

“Well.” Reggie said as he put a shoulder on Laynes shoulder. “I don’t like heights, but I sure as hell don’t like being killed by those f****d up things! I’m in.”

“Me too.” Renae said.

“I don’t know what else we could do, so I’m in.” Billie said with a slight laugh.

“Alright. Let’s go now, I guess?” Jill said as she looked at everyone.

“Yeah, I don’t wanna spend another minute in this room with that body. It’s giving me the creeps.” Reggie said as he took Renaes flashlight that she was handing out to him.

Reggie held onto Renae flashlight since she appeared to require both of her hands to use the pistol, Billie grasped onto his trimmer in his right hand and flashlight in his left, Jill did the same with her piece of rebar, and Layne simply held onto his lamp.

‘I need some sort of weapon.’ He thought to himself.

Before he could speak up, however, they were on the move.