The Darkness in Dominion Mall

Chapter 5

“Find something to hold these in place!” Renae said in a panicked voice as both her and Michael ripped off the sleeves of their long sleeve t-shirts. They held them in place on his chest and leg with their hands.

“Use the shoelaces! Get as many off as you can!” Billie suggested as he jumped over the counter and threw some shoes over to the side of the counter they were on.

“Are you okay Laynie?” Jill asked Layne.

Layne was only feet away from certain death and the experience made him freeze up momentarily. Only Jill’s angelic voice was powerful enough to break him from his daze. He turned to her to get his mind off of what he had just seen.

“…...Yeah.” He whispered with a weak smile.

A couple of shoes dropped onto his lap. After looking around some, mostly from some lingering paranoia, he began to untie the laces from the old leather shoes.

It was strange touching the shoes. The entire store was empty not even half an hour before they ran into it. Yet, he was touching a leather shoe that should have already rotted away by now. Were the shoes even real? Was the counter real? Was anything around them real?

“What happened? How did you get attacked?” Renae asked Jonathan.

He swallowed and made a loud, pain filled groan before speaking. “I figured that since it couldn’t move if I kept an eye on it, I would just go up to it and take its limbs and head off. Just in case the battery in my light went out, you know? I went up to the damned thing and my light began to turn into this really, really dark shade of red before it cut off completely. It jumped me, and I wrestled with it a bit before it clawed me pretty fuckin’ good.” He groaned. “I kicked it off of me and my light came on again. Then I ran back to you guys. God this f*****g hurts!”

“Don’t worry. Michael called his dad and he said that the cops will be here any minute.”

“Okay.” Jonathan rested his head back against the counter.

Layne kept untying shoes as he observed the wounds on Jonathan. The cuts were at least half an inch deep and bleeding profusely. There was a scratch mark on his left thigh, a long one beside his right abdominals, and the final one ran down from his left collar bone to the center of his chest. The ripped clothes they were using as bandages were already drenched and dripping his blood onto the floor. If he wanted to survive, Jonathan would need medical attention very soon.

“Guys?” Jonathan asked calmly.

“What is it buddy?” Michael asked back with a somewhat happy tone to mask his distress.

“I’m feeling pretty cold.”

The air was a lot cooler inside than it was outside. What it wasn’t, however, was cold. That statement made Layne lift up his Lantern to get some light on Jonathans face.

Even with his face lit up, his pale skin and dark bags underneath his eyes were extremely visible. Layne did his best to hold back his tears and so he went back to untying the laces. Things were getting worse with each passing second.

“Don’t worry big guy.” Renae said. “We’re all pretty cold right now too.”

Jonathan smiled and bean to laugh to himself.

“What? What is it Jonathan?” Renae asked with a more worried look on her face.

“You were always the worst liar out of all of us, you know that?”

“Oh hush. Let’s just get you up, tie these on you, and get out of here.” She said as both her and Michael wrapped his arms around their shoulders to lift him up. The blood loss was somewhat taking its toll as it was hard for him to stand on his own without their help.

“Where are we goin’ to go?”

“Up to the roof.” Layne said as he began to tie a lace around the top of his chest. It was hard to tell the difference from Renae and Michaels ripped clothes from Jonathans. They were all stained to the point on near indistinguishability.

“Why there?”

“It’s safe, we’ll have a view, we can warn the cops from up there if we need to, and we can jump down onto a tree if we have to and make our way down from there.”

“I didn’t even think about that.” Renae said with a small chuckle.

“Of course.” Jonathan said quietly. “Cause you’re a blonde.”

“I was almost top of our class!”

“‘Almost’ she says.”

Due to his large size, more than two strings had to be tied together in order to loop around his large upper body completely. Billie did his best to tighten the strings as tight as he could around the wounds. Once they were in place and held the cloth in place, barely but enough, they began to slowly walk out of the store and into the mall again.

They walked for a minute in complete silence. Only the occasional grunt or two from Jonathan broke through the silence. Layne figured either everyone was too scared to speak and draw something out to them, they were too focused on looking for a way out, or a combination of the two.

Billie and Reggie lead the group in the front, Michael and Renae both supported Jonathan in the middle, and Layne stayed with Jill in the back to guard their rear. He would have preferred the middle, since in most movies the people in the front and back were often the most likely to be attacked. He couldn’t be too picky since one of his friends was on the verge of death. He would gladly take the back spot to help a friend in need.

There was a small cracking sound in front of the group followed by Billie and Reggie simultaneously backing up and screaming.

“Oh f**k!” Reggie and Billie said in unison.

“What is it?” Michael asked them in a nervous tone.

“LOOK!” Billie pointed with his flashlight towards the ground.

Sprawled out on the ground was a half decomposing body. It was hard to tell, but it looked like a male if they were going by his clothes. His tattered jeans and faded flannel were nearly as dry and flaky as his skin. As Layne looked closer at the body, he could see an opening on its neck that wasn’t there because of the decomposition.

“He slit his throat.” Layne said out loud.

“What the fuck.” Reggie said as he tried not to throw up.

“We gotta go guys. We don’t have time to look at it.” Renae said as she walked forward with Michael and Jonathan.

The others walked together, leaving the decomposing body behind.

‘What was his story.’ Layne couldn’t help but think to himself. ‘He didn’t seem like he was being attacked. It’s almost like he killed himself. If he did, then why? Did he not find a way out? Did he even try?’

As they were walking, Layne started to notice something peculiar. There was an abundance of mannequins scattered about in the stores and in poses that were not normal. Some of them stood straight up with a c****d head and a blank expression that appeared to be smoothed onto the face and not be natural. Others’ were bent over with painfilled expressions, like they were just stabbed or shot. It didn’t scare him, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t look over his shoulder on occasion.

“Hey, Reggie!” Layne whispered loudly.

“Yeah?”

“Where are we going?”

“Upstairs to the food court.”

“Why couldn’t we have used the escalators back there from where we came in?”

“There’s a staircase near the food court that’s a little wider than the escalators. It’ll be easier to carry the big guy up on those. Plus, I don’t want to go back that way. Especially now.”

The group soon came across the fountain. Earlier, it was bone dry and filled with large cracks that kept it from holding water. Now, it was filled up to the top with water that had a dark grey tint, some kind of algae that reached for the surface as it rested below, and dust that created a small film on the top. If they somehow got stuck in the place, he hoped there were other sources of water. Layne knew he would probably die from dehydration before he could ever stomach drinking even a sip from the fountain.

A feeling took ahold of Layne and made him stop in his tracks. The hairs of the back of his neck stood up and he could feel goosebumps on his arms forming. The feeling he had branched from off from a gut feeling to an aware paranoia.

“What is it?” Jill asked which made the rest of the group stop in their tracks as they looked at Layne.

“I don’t know why I feel like this, but I think there’s something watching us. No. I know there’s something watching us.” Layne said as he looked around.

“Let’s keep moving then. I don’t want it to catch up to us.” Jonathan said weakly.

“Wait. What’s that?” Layne said as something caught his eye.

Off in the distance, maybe about half of a football field behind them, there was some sort of small red light. The light appeared to be slightly taller than Jonathan, who was nearly seven feet. He wasn’t sure if it was a trick on the eyes, but it appeared as if Layne could make out a very dark structure underneath the lights’. The structure wasn’t hard to see at all; Odd, since it was well beyond the range of their best flashlight. It was if the structure was darker than the darkness around it. Layne thought the light must have been some sort of red head lamp or lit exit sign, but his theory was proven wrong when the red light disappeared for less than half a second before coming back.

“What the f**k is that thing?” Michael whispered.

“Did it…just blink?” Jill asked as she grabbed Laynes hand. She squeezed with great intensity, so much so that it somewhat hurt his hand.

It made sense to him now. They were all looking at some sort of creature, maybe another mannequin. The red “lights” were most likely its eyes. If that were true, then the darker than dark structure was no doubt its body.

‘Anything that tall wouldn’t have any trouble getting to us. Even if it just strolled towards us.’

The creature blinked again before c*****g its head to the side, like it was waiting for something.

Layne swallowed a lump in his throat. “Let’s keep on movi-”

“JONATHAN!” Reggie yelled at the top of his lungs.

Layne turned and looked down to see Jonathan being pulled to the ground by a long, tentacle-like arm. The tentacle appeared to be individual mannequin arms that looked like they were holding onto each other with just their hands on another’s shoulder. The arms were heavily water stained and covered in algae that hung off it like long hair. The tentacles arms were a variation of blacks, greys, and even some yellows, which somehow worked to camouflage it on the already foggy floor. Once it pulled Jonathan to the ground, Layne and his friends went into fight mode.

Layne leapt onto the tentacle, used his body to try to hold it down, and loosen the hands grip. With its hand wrapped firmly around Jonathans ankle, Layne found it hard to pry it open with his finger. While he was doing that, Michael and Renae continued to hold onto Jonathans arms and keep him from being dragged into the murky fountain. Reggie, Billie, and Jill were either kicking or hitting the arm to try and do some sort of damage to it. Jonathan himself was even trying his best to kick it off of him.

Jonathan began to scream as the hand tightened its grip more and more. Layne was afraid it would break his ankle if it continued. He wasn’t the only one to notice as Jill told Billie and Reggie to stop and take a look at the hand. With nothing else to do, Renae ordered them to help them.

“HELP US PULL HIM AWAY FROM THAT THING!” She commanded the others’.

The rest of the group, including Layne, listened to Renae and got into positions’ around Jonathan and hoisted him up. They were managing to pull him away from the fountain with only a little bit of struggle. Layne was surprised that all six of them could pick up someone as big as Jonathan and pull him from such a strong monster. They were making a lot of progress, when their plan came tumbling down.

Four more tentacles suddenly exploded out from the fountain and rained water down on the group. One of the tentacles grabbed onto Jonathans free ankle, to which he tried to resist by pulling away from. It was hard for him to do in his weakened state, however.

The second tentacle knocked Billie and Renae away into the darkness beyond the lanterns. The third knocked Jill and Reggie away, but Layne heard a distinct popping sound that reverberated in his ears.

“GUYS! GUYS ARE YALL OKAY!” Layne yelled at his fallen friends.

He received very light and aching groans instead of an answer. All four of them had the wind knocked out of them and they had trouble breathing and trying to get on their feet. Layne wanted to help them up, especially Jill, but Jonathan and Michael needed his help the most at that moment.

Michael and Layne tried to pull him back by his arms, but the strength of just one of the tentacles was greater than the two of theirs.

“DON’T GIVE UP! WE WON’T LEAVE YOU JONATHAN!” Michael grunted.

The fourth and final tentacle slowly slithered its way in the air towards Michael with a closed hand. Once it stopped moving, the hand lifted up and opened its fingers. It extended its wrist and fingers too far back to not still be movable. Imbedded on the inside of the palm, staring right back at them, was a functional and somewhat human looking eye.

The red eye had a sclera, iris, and pupil. However, all of these seemed to produce a varying shade of red light similar to the creature they saw moments before. The pupil was the brightest, followed by the sclera, and the iris being the dimmest of the three. This red eye was open wide and staring directly at Michael.

“Oh f**k!” Michael exhaled loudly.

The hand began to make a rhythmic clicking noise that was akin to something an insect would produce. It began to move towards Michael at a steady pace and increased the clicking with every inch it took. Michael succumbed to his instincts and began to crawl away in terror. He tried holding onto Jonathans hand as much as he could until, eventually, he was forced to let go of his friend. He crawled away a few feet.

Only Layne was left.

The tentacle turned its attention towards Layne, not letting him leave its sights.

Layne pulled with all of his might, but it was accomplishing next to nothing. He pulled so hard that he ended up slipping and falling onto his back. Jonathan crashed on top of him and nearly crushed Layne, but he couldn’t let go no matter how hurt he was. As Jonathan rested on top of him, Layne used the bend in his arms to hook under his friend’s armpits to help have a better hold on his friend.

Layne could feel his foot get caught in a small hole on the floor as they were being dragged towards the fountain. He wedged his heel into it and momentarily stopped the two from moving. The hand appeared to not like that.

The hand, still clicking, squinted its eye and began to click faster as it approached his face. Layne could hear the faintest scream behind the clicks that was somehow both quiet and deafeningly loud.

“PULL PULL PULL!” Michael screamed, finding his courage again, as he came up behind Layne and pulled on Jonathan.

The tentacles clicking noise began to click so fast that it sounded like a motorcycles engine. It suddenly sailed up into the air and dove down, ramming itself into Jonathans stomach.

He let out a small scream and coughed up blood. Jonathan, too weak from the blood he had lost already, barely resisted the tentacles movements in his stomach. His face was as white as it could possibly get and the bags under his eyes were as dark as the inside of the mall.

Another tentacle pierced his thigh, as a third punctured the right side of his rib cage. There was barely any blood coming out of the new wounds, and his screams became quieter and quieter.

Jonathan leaned his head back and looked into Laynes eyes. They were emotionless and drenched with tears.

“Laaaynnne.” He whispered in a weakly drawn out rough voice.

For some unknown reason, an old memory he had forgotten about popped up into his head. A memory from his Sophomore year, of Jonathan and Trevor.

Trevor Selby. He was a Junior that was twice the size of Jonathan and had an ego that was just as big. The giant had spent the entire week of practice doing most of his tackling with Jonathan. Trevors definition of tackling involved more slamming, name-calling, and cussing than was allowed by the coaches; If they even cared, that is.

Layne and Reggie should have gotten used to the sound of the impacts that Jonathan was receiving on a daily basis. After all, they were present for every day of tryouts due to Jonathans car being worked on for engine problems. Still, it didn’t matter if it was the first or final tackle of the day, the two essentially gave the same response each and every time.

“OH, s**t!” They both winced from the bleachers.

Jonathan slowly got up from the ground with a slight limp in his step. His white and silver practice jersey was now covered with grass stains.

“I think Jonathan might be a masochist.” Reggie said as he took a sip from his coke.

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t think anyone could take that much punishment without getting off to it.”

Layne nodded his head and leaned back in the bleacher to crack his stiff back. “Can’t say you’re wrong. AH!”

“You good?”

“Yeah.” Layne said as he leaned forward. “This is why I don’t go to games. No back rests to lean on.”

“Maybe if you worked out some, you wouldn’t hurt so much.”

“Was that a joke?”

“No, I was being serious……. skinny fuck.”

“Like you work out.”

“What are you talkin’ about? I work out all the time. How else did I get these bad boys? Can’t go three feet without having to fight off the ladies.” Reggie lifted his arms and squeezed his nonexistent muscles.

“Where are these ‘ladies’ at, exactly?”

“I knocked ‘em all out. I mean, how else am I supposed enjoy watching Jonathan get his ass handed to him if I’m up to my chin in estrogen?”

Coach Rodrick blew his whistle and told all of the players to huddle around him. He gave a long and heart felt speech that appeared to inspire everyone around him. Too bad for Layne since he was too far away to hear any of it. Once he finished, he dismissed all of the players to the locker rooms.

The walk to Laynes van was both long and scorching. It was still august and the summer heat that mixed with the Georgia humidity was still in full swing. Shade did nothing to help cool anything off. The only time it was cool outside was when the sun wasn’t shining overhead. It was still hours away from the sunset and there was no way to lessen their burden.

Sitting in the van was like being in an oven. The seats, seatbelts, and air were burning like a fire was going off around them. Layne didn’t know why they were in the car to begin with. Sure, it was cooler with the windows down, but they barely helped any. It might have been because that was the only place for them to lean back into a seat and relax for a few minutes.

“f**k man.” Reggie exhaled. Layne could see in the rearview mirror how sweaty both of them were. Reggie especially, with literal drops of sweat falling from his chin like it was raining outside. “You need to get a new car that doesn’t waste so much gas. I don’t think I can take another day of this!”

“I wish I could dude. Maybe after college, if I’m not too broke, I can get one. Besides, I’m used to the heat already.” Layne exhaled ad wiped some sweat away from his mouth.

“Bull. Shit.” Reggie said through exaggerated breathes.

“No, it’s true. I could live in this heat. Who need cool air? It’s for the weak.”

“Physically or mentally weak? I don’t care which, if it means getting cold air, I’ll be the weakest man alive.”

“Good news. You already are.”

Reggie waved his hand at Layne, unable to come up with a comeback.

The gym doors opened up. The players flew out to their cars or rides home in little groups. Most of them appeared to be talking about how they thought they did, some talked about which of the cheerleaders’ seemed the easiest to hook up with, and a few talked about how awesome their cars were. Not among any of them however, was Jonathan.

Jonathan came out a couple minutes after everyone else. He walked with a slight limp and had an ice pack wrapped around his left knee. His head was hung low slightly as if he was upset about something, but he lifted it up and smiled as soon as he noticed Layne and Reggie staring.

“You think he’s okay?” Layne asked as he turned the van on.

“Maybe. You know him, always hiding his emotions when he’s upset about something.”

Jonathan got into the minivan and caused it to lean slightly to the right. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Layne turned the van on and turned the AC up to full blast, letting the cool air bathe over everyone. Jonathan let out a relaxed sigh.

A large white truck stopped in front of the van. In the driver’s seat was Trevor Selby, with a couple of his friends in the other seats’. Their music and bass were too loud to really distinguish the type of genre it was. He turned it down and yelled at Jonathan.

“HOPE YOU HAD FUN BIG BOY! YOURE MY NEW PRACTICE DUMMY BECAUSE THE OTHER ONES JUST DON’T FEEL RIGHT! AHAHAHA!” Trevor yelled obnoxiously as he peeled out of the now nearly empty parking lot.

Layne eyed the truck until it disappeared over a turn in the road. As Layne waited a moment before eventually driving on, he looked over at his friend. Jonathan was expressionless. Layne knew that whenever he got like that, he was either really upset about something or too tired to show any sign of life.

“You good man?” Reggie asked from the backseat.

“Yeah. He’s just an asshole. You know? He somehow gets all the girls he wants, gets a brand-new truck, has no sportsmanship, and yet he treats everyone like s**t. Why is it that the most spoiled are also the most horrible?” Jonathan said with an exhale. “Sorry. I’m just a little heated right now.

“Don’t worry about him dude. Guys like him have reached their peak in popularity now, so it’s all downhill from here. When all of us are multi-millionaires, he’ll be sucking some trucker off in the back of a gas station for snickers bar. He’s probably getting all of his hole resized now to get ready for the abuse.”

Both Jonathan and Layne laughed hard. So hard that Layne had to correct himself after he somewhat swerved towards the side of the road. Imagining Trevor Selby get what he deserves was what they needed to lighten the mood.

A cellphone call from Jonathan made him calm down some from laughing. He answered the phone with a little bit of intrigue in his voice.

“Hello?........Yes sir it is………oh okay, great!........I’m with a friend right now, I’ll see if we can swing on by right now……. You too sir. Goodbye.” He hung up his phone. “MY CARS FIXED BITCHES!” He yelled with joy.

“You know what that means.” Layne said as he popped in his cd of The Isley Brothers and played the final song, Shout. One of Jonathans favorites.

“WeeehheeEEeeeelllll. You know you make me wanna.” Jonathan sang.

“SHOUT!” Both Layne and Reggie shouted.

“Kick my heels up and.”

“SHOUT!”

“Throw my hands up and.”

“SHOUT!”

“Throw my head back and.”

“SHOUT!”

They sang the song for the most part as they drove down the road. It was simple things like singing along to songs with his friends’ that Layne loved the most. Especially if it was with songs he liked.

Ahead on the side of the road, Layne could see a cop car with its flashing lights’ on. Ahead of the car was a large white truck. Trevor Selby’s large white truck. The cop was already talking to them when they were about to drive by. Jonathan rolled down his window and yelled something at the top of his voice.

“ENJOY THE TICKET DADDYS BOY!” he yelled with his middle finger sticking out of the window.

Layne laughed as he drove towards the mechanic.

He thought about how weird everything was. How dreamlike it felt. Suddenly, Layne realized what was happening to him.

‘Why am I remembering this right now?!’ Layne thought to himself before being brought back to the mall.

The final tentacle pierced through Jonathans chest and into his heart, but he didn’t react to it at all. Jonathan died seconds’ before it punctured his chest. He still stared at Layne with his lifeless eyes. Bones crunched as the hand grabbed ahold of something and pulled the body into the water.

Layne and Michael let go of their friend and watched as his large body sank into the knee-deep water. The grey water turned dark red for a moment. Almost instantly, the blood dissipated and turned the water back to its original murky grey state.

“JONATHAN!” Renae yelled as she stumbled her way into the fountain. Her impact with the water sent waves around and over the sides onto the concrete floor. She splashed around, trying to find Jonathans body.

Michael jumped in and easily pulled her away. He kept telling her that “he was gone” and “there was nothing they could do,” but she was barely listening as she continued to try and run back to the fountain. When he finally got her out, she cried in his arms so deeply and loudly that it shook Layne to his core. He never heard Renae cry until that very moment, and it was heartbreaking.

Layne looked over to see Jill on her side, unconscious. He crawled over to her and tried waking her. She had a small cut on her forehead and some slight bruising around it, but none of it appeared to be too serious. He lightly shook her to wake her up. When she finally woke up, Jill asked a barrage of questions.

“What happened?”

“You got-” Layne said with a choked voice. He regained his composure again and spoke. “You and the others got hit by that thing and it knocked you out.”

“What’s on your face?”

Layne rubbed his face and could see blood on his left hand. Since he didn’t receive a cut on him, the blood was foreign to him.

“Where’s Jonathan?” She said in a confused tone as she looked around, but almost immediately got her answer as she put the pieces together.

Layne pulled her up and hugged her. He didn’t want her to see him crying. As they both began to cry on each other’s shoulders, Layne felt nothing but helplessness and a sense of failure.

‘I should have done more. He needed my help, and I failed him.’ He thought to himself as the image of Jonathans eyes were branded into his memory.