The Darkness in Dominion Mall

Chapter 9

Billie and Reggie both calmly exited the room and scanned the cubicles, just to be safe. When they then gave the signal that it was clear, Renae left after them and stayed in the middle of the group, and Jill and Layne stayed in the back of the group. They walked to the door that led out into the food court. The same door that was being beaten down by the canine and that Michael did his best to hold back.

Since Billie had a free hand, he tried unlocking the door but found it hard to pull. He cursed as he tried to jerk it back. Nothing. Reggie put down his flashlights to help Billie out.

While that was going on, Layne used his lamp to observe the cubicle offices that surrounded them. The desks, aside from a thin layer of dust, were empty and appeared to be waiting for employees’ that would never return. Various pots that once had plants were now bare and dry with nothing but dirt remaining on the inside. In the distance, Layne could faintly make out what looked like the doors to a stairway, but even from his distance he could still make out large dent around them that kept them from ever opening. The damage was from the inside and not from the other side.

‘If there was drywall, we could’ve just beat our way through. That would be too easy or lucky for us I guess.’ Layne thought to himself.

With a loud pop, the door finally budged free. Reggie and Billie hastily grabbed their flashlights and shined outside to see if they could spot anything. Not only did they scan the sides and in front of the door, but above it as well to make sure there wasn’t any sort of creature above them.

“It’s clear, I think.” Reggie calmly said as he led the way.

“Damn mist.” Billie cursed.

The mist was always present before, but not nearly as thick as it was at that moment. Before, Layne could see about forty or fifty feet away with one of the flashlights. Now, he could barely see half that far.

The ash also increased its spread from the food court to around the offices outside, now. Layne could make out the ash on the ground outside the door that wasn’t there previously. He was afraid that the entire mall would soon be covered in the stuff.

It was making an already tense walk just that more anxious for him.

It wasn’t just him that felt that way. Jill had the same tense look on her face that he most likely had. Just by judging by the others’ slow and calculated walking, they were also on edge.

“What the f**k?” Reggie as he shined the light on a chair that was standing on the floor.

“What is it?” Layne asked.

“That’s the chair that I kicked down earlier. I didn’t put it back or anything.”

“Maybe one of those things put it back?”

“Nah, look.” Reggie slid a finger across the chair and left a clean streak behind. “It’s got all the ash back on it; and in the same spots too. It’s like nothing happened.”

“…...Let’s keep going.” Layne said as he began to walk on towards the store.

The entire day had been filled with very illogical occurrences. Moving mannequins’ and mannequin-like monstrosities, blocked exits that weren’t blocked earlier, rematerializing material, and things appearing and reappearing. None of it made sense. So, he didn’t try and make any more sense out of it.

They walked silently for a couple of minutes and didn’t say a word. Only their footsteps, and their subsequent echoes, provided a source of sound in the nearly silent and pitch-black environment.

The mist hung in the air and didn’t appear to be affected at all by their movements. Layne moved his arm around to try and see if that did anything, but he got no results. It was as if the mist was in its own plane of existence that couldn’t be manipulated from anything on the outside. It was more alien to him than anything he’d experienced outside of Dominion.

“Wooooooah.” Billie held up a hand to stop the group.

Layne didn’t need to ask why there were stopping. Thirty or so feet ahead of them, standing in the middle of the walkway was a mannequin with its back towards the group.

Unlike the other mannequins’ that were in the store windows, this one didn’t have on a single piece of clothing. No shirts, pants, or any other accessories appeared to be anywhere on the thing. It was practically naked except for one odd and terrifying detail. Wrapped around and tearing through every part of the mannequin was what appeared to be very old and rusty barbed wire. The wires would connect and ring out occasionally, but the mannequin’s small twitches already gave away the fact that it could move. It was hard to tell, but the mannequin appeared to be a girl.

“What the hell’s it waiting for?” Reggie asked out loud.

The mannequin stood still, aside from the occasional twitch, with its arms crossed in front of it and its legs slightly bent. It breathed heavily and sounded like air being pushed in and out of a hollow barrel.

“Should we walk around it?” Renae asked with the pistol pointed down but ready to be aimed.

“Noooooohohohooo.” The mannequin laughed. She turned her body towards the group and kept her feet firmly planted in the same spot. Even with all the barbed wire on her, Layne could still make out the pentagram burned onto its forehead. Through the wire, her eyes reflected back the light that was hitting them. “No thank you Master!” She said to no one in the group, but to something else in the mall. “I’m flattered that you would give me more treats, but I’m sad to say that I’ve already had my fill. I don’t mind waiting for the next batch. Let some of the runts’ have their time to eat. They could use the experience. HAHAHAHA”

The mannequin stiffly walked towards one of the struts near the store to her right. Her body cracked and rang with every slight movement in her step. She stepped onto the strut and began to walk up it, showing no signs of being affected by gravity.

“Tooooodalooooo pretties!” She laughed before vanishing into the mist and ash.

Layne looked around him in case the “runts’” she mentioned were behind them. From what he could see, there was nothing around them.

“Let’s, um…...lets go.” Reggie said awkwardly as he walked forward.

They walked on in silence. Soon, the ash began to dissipate until there wasn’t any more falling from above. The mist began to clear as well and made it easier to see farther ahead than before. What didn’t go away, to Laynes surprise, was the feeling of being stalked.

As they got closer to a walkway that connected to the other side of the second floor, Layne swore he could hear the sound of an extra pair of feet echoing with theirs. He whispered for everyone to stop and told them to listen. Nothing.

“What is it?” Renae whispered as she raised the pistol and readied herself to aim.

“I could have sworn there was something behind us.”

“I thought I heard something too.” Jill whispered. “I thought it was just my ears playing tricks on me.”

They were quiet again as they tried listening more. Nothing. Their beams caught nothing but the mist in the air and disappeared into the darkness beyond.

“Let’s keep moving but try and be as quiet as possible.” Billie whispered with a shake in his voice.

They began to cross the crossway as quietly as they could. Although he couldn’t see anything, Layne couldn’t help but still have the sensation that they were being watched and followed. His mind made up hundreds of imaginary scenarios of what could happen to them, all of them were worse than the last. He tried to get them off of his mind, but his imagination was running wild.

Layne momentarily froze as he felt a tug on his pants. His heart raced as he quickly looked down to see the bottom right side of his jeans was caught on a baluster. It had somehow been torn off the railing on the bottom but still held on at the top. Although there was now a large hole in his pants, Layne now had a weapon he could use. If he could pull it off that is.

“Are you okay Layne?” Billie asked as he turned around.

“I’m good, I’m good! Let me just get this out.” Layne said as he tried to pull the baluster free. “I need some sort of weapon.”

“Okay, but hurry.”

He pulled at the baluster and made the entire rail shake loudly with each yank. It was clear to him that the others were nervous about the noise, but they didn’t stop him. Layne figured it was because they knew he needed something to defend himself with. Otherwise, he would have to fight using his hands’.

Layne yanked at it at least five times and sent more rattles’ through the rails’. Each rattle grew louder and louder as the baluster came closer and closer to being free. Finally, on the sixth pull, he drew the baluster free from the rail. Even though the baluster was hollow and skinny, it felt better than being empty handed.

There was a seventh rattle, however, that wasn’t caused by Layne. Nor was it on the same rail that he had been pulling on. The other rattling was coming from behind them on the walkway, likely the same spot they stopped previously. Reggie shined his lights in the direction and immediately gasped.

Squatting behind the rails was a figure that was obstructed by the balusters. It held onto the balusters’ and pulled them back and forth with its arms, like it was trapped inside a cage and trying to escape. It cackled a very high and broken sounding laugh before speaking.

“HAHAHEHEHE! OH, it’s been YEEEEEAAAAARRRSSSS since the last batch of fresh faces!” The woman growled. “We’ve only been able to pick off of the ones’ that were already killed. But now? HehehehahahHAHA! NOW WE GET TO DO THE HUNTING!”

“It’s a good thing too!” A man barked from behind her. He rubbed his head and face sensually as if it were aroused by itself. Layne could just make out the same symbol on its forehead that he had seen on the other mannequins. “My skin has been feeling so icky lately. Come on boys! WE”VE GOT FRESH MEAT FOR THE PICKIN’!”

From the right of the group, Layne could hear the rhythmic and hollow sound of multiple hollow feet running. Broken yells and screams of joy broke out as the group came closer.

The woman let out an animalistic, and yet human sounding, growl as she charged towards them. She jumped onto the rails and leapt at them. Grabbing onto the railing in front of Layne, the ravenous woman began to try and climb up. He could tell she was mad with rage.

“RUN! RUN! RUN!” Reggie yelled. He didn’t need to yell out the command as they all already began to sprint away instinctively at the same time.

Layne stayed in the back and tried to keep his eye on the two mannequins behind him. They ran as if they were heavily intoxicated or severely wounded as they couldn’t run properly. Although, that did not mean that the mannequins were slow or lagging behind. They were actually slowly catching up to Layne and the others; And they knew it.

“They think they can run from us! How naïve! Poor kids! HAHAHA” The man giggled.

The footsteps from both behind the group and to their left grew louder and louder. The longer they ran, the faster to footsteps quickened. Layne felt as if both his time, and the time of his friends’, was about to come to an end.

As they rounded the corner, Layne could make out the entrance of the JC Penny from their flashlights. Billie was already inside the store and to the farthest side of the entrance, pulling at something by himself.

‘What are you doing Billie?’ Layne thought to himself. ‘You should be running and not…wait. Oh!’

“Somebody get the other side!” Billie yelled as he pulled one end of the gate towards the middle. Jill came behind him and helped him pull the gate.

Layne stopped at the edge of the entrance and pulled on the gate. Whether it was rust or just years of being static, the gate wanted to remain in its position. A few good pulls and he finally freed it. As he was nearing the middle, he noticed it.

Billie was having trouble with his gate sliding.

Layne rushed over and pulled at the bottom. When that seemed to do some, but not enough, even Reggie ran over and managed to pull the gate with one hand.

“Hurry guys!” Renae said loudly with her gun raised, ready to fire. Since there was a limited number of bullets for her to use, Layne figured she would only shoot in case of an emergency.

The three of them soon pulled the two gates together and quickly latched them together just in time

However, the gates barely helped.

The woman’s arm slid through one of the many openings of the gate. Her hand firmly grabbed Billies throat and held him in place.

Billie squirmed, gasped for air, and tried his best to break free by either hitting her arm or trying to pry her fingers’ free, but it did next to nothing. It was like a cat playing with a mouse. No matter how hard the mouse fought back or tried to escape, the cat would simply be too much for it to handle.

Now that she was only a few feet away, Layne could make out the creature better in the lamps light. She was most definitely a mannequin like the others before her. The smooth and plaster-looking arm gave it away. What made her, and the other followers’, different was the patches of skin that covered most of their body with complete randomness. He knew by looking at the different colors and tones that it had to be human skin. Layne wasn’t completely sure, but it looked as if patches of human skin were sewn into the mannequin at random, as if it had moments to choose where to place it. The skin varied from dried and decayed to almost fresh looking with blood still covering them. Aside from the occasional twitch, it moved its arm and body quite fluidly as she held onto Billies neck.

“Let him go!” Reggie yelled as he tried to pull the woman’s hand away from Billies neck.

She chuckled to herself and stared Billie down with her abnormally blue eyes. Her pupils reflected back the light that hit them, but they didn’t glow. The sclera was heavily bloodshot, just like Jerry and most likely the barbed wired mannequin from before. Together, her eyes were both mesmerizing and haunting to look at.

Layne picked up the trimmer from the ground and hit the woman’s arm with the edge of the blade. He hit her with more force than he needed to, yet, it appeared to not phase her at all. Even though the hits seemed to sink into the mannequins arm a few inches, the wound would almost instantly heal itself to its original state.

“f**k!” Layne grunted.

The woman cackled at his realization.

“Oh, my dear, what a wonderful catch you got! I’m so proud of you!” The man squealed with joy.

The other mannequins’ that followed hollered and yelled like ecstatic apes after catching a meal. Their faces were a messy concoction of skin and facial features from different people and various races. They reminded Layne of Frankenstein’s monster, a creature with a sorted combination of body parts to look like a human.

“Thanks, my love! I had my eye on this one since I first laid my eyes on it! I can’t wait to have a brand-new nose, this ones gotten so old!” The woman boasted as she casually ripped her nose off, tearing the stitches off as she did, and tossed it aside. “And yours would look MAAAAAAARVELOUS on me!”

“Show Kastramelz that we aren’t runts’! Rip his nose off, then his throat. Haha HEHAHA!” One of the followers’ cackled. Its voice was too masculine sounding to be a female, but also too feminine to be a male.

“With pleasure!”

Laynes heart sank as the woman slowly reached through the gate with her other hand and headed towards Billie. Jill tried to push it away but showed no signs of slowing the mannequin’s movements. She remained silent until she reached Billies nose and proceeded to make a joke.

“GOT YOUR NOSE!” She cackled maniacally.

As the woman stopped laughing and was about to pull, something slid through between Layne and Billie and nearly outside the gate. It was an arm. When he looked to his right, he saw that it belonged to Renae. When he looked to his left, he saw the gun pointed at the head of the woman.

A small, yet loud, pop went off. Layne and the others fell back onto the ground as the mannequin let go of their friend and retreated back, screaming madly.

She stammered backwards, and the other mannequins’ ran to her side to see what the matter was. They sounded like they were quietly trying to comfort the crying woman but were getting nowhere. As she straightened back up, the woman tore something out from her head. It was too hard to make out what, but her annoyed cries answered his questions.

“My eye….” She choked quietly. “Do you know how long it took me to find the perfect pair of blue eyes….DO YOU YOU GOD DAMNED b***h?! THIS WAS MY FAVORITE PAIR, AND YOU RUINED THEM! Now I’ll have to find another one to match it.”

Layne was breathless. Not only did a shot to the head not seem to hurt this thing, but it was more upset and annoyed that one of its eyes was ruined than a bullet being lodged inside of it. What sort of monsters were these? Could they even be killed?

“Come on guys, let’s just leave.” Jill said as she tried to help Layne up.

The man let out a very long and exaggerated gasp of shock. He crashed into the gate as he looked directly at Jill, his dead eyes reflected back every ray of light like a black cat.

“Your eyyyyes! They’re….” The man shook the gate as if searching for the right word. “PERFECT!”

Jill was frozen as she stared back at the man. Not even when Layne tried to get in front of her, did either of them break eye contact. She finally broke it when the woman spoke.

“Yes. I want them.” She whispered loudly before crashing into the gate, trying to break through and yelling. “I WANT THEM! I WANT THEM, NOOOOOOW!”

She stopped moving, as well as the other mannequins’ that were trying to break through. They had a mixed look of both surprise and pain, like someone had stabbed them in the back.

“COME TO ME AT ONCE.” The familiar hollow voice hissed angrily.

The mannequins began to sink into the floor. They screamed and begged for mercy at the unknown entity. Their “Master”, as they referred to him, wasn’t showing them any. After a few seconds, their heads and waving arms vanished into the concrete. It was dead silent once again.

Aside from a very light tapping.

Layne followed the tapping noise and could see the dark figure with red eyes from before. The eyes were far enough away to be both visible but hard to see at the same time. It appeared to be observing them like a visitor at a zoo would observe an animal in its enclosure.

Layne had had enough. He stopped in front of the gate and yelled at the top of his lungs.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US!?”

Just like his friends, the being remained silent. It blinked slowly. Observantly.

The tapping ceased.

Suddenly, the being appeared to sail forward at an unimaginable speed. It only took it seconds to reach the gate from the other side of the mall and stop mere inches away from Layne.

He fell back in shock. Layne crawled backwards until Billie and Reggie stopped him and helped him to his feet.

The being was nearly impossible to make out, as it was darker than any black he had ever seen. He could only make out the bright pair of red eyes on it. It appeared to be looking at them, but it was impossible to tell without any kind of pupils or iris’s to give it away. The one thing Layne could tell was that it had a humanoid body and some sort of spikes protruding from its head, most likely horns.

It was quiet, observant, before finally speaking to Layne and the others’.

“YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS’ ARE………DIFFERENT. NOT LIKE THE OTHERS’ THAT HAVE COME BEFORE. SUCH A SHAME. A SHAME YOU ALL HAD TO BE HUMAN.” It said in a loud but quiet voice before vanishing back into the mist.

It grew quiet once again before Billie started slowly walking away. No one, not even Layne said anything as they soon followed behind him. He wasn’t sure if anyone wanted to speak about what just happened, let alone himself.

‘I just want to get the hell out of here.’