Steve had barely managed to catch his breath when he saw her, this tiny silhouette in the middle of the corridor, standing in the open like she owned the place.
A kid. Six? Seven? Small enough that his stomach dropped straight through the floor. Because if she was real, then she was unsafe. And if she wasn't real…
He didn't let himself finish that thought.
"Hey-hey, kid!" he hissed, sprinting over before his brain could tell him he was being stupid.
The hallway behind him still felt warm, like something had just passed by. That prickling in the air hadn't settled.
He grabbed her wrist and yanked both of them behind the closest overhanging bit of wall.
"Shh! Stay low. Stay quiet." he whispered.
The girl blinked up at him, wide-eyed and messy-haired, clutching a stuffed rabbit missing one ear. She looked confused, like she hadn't even noticed she was in danger yet.
"W-Why. are they h here" she whispered back, voice tiny and trembling, but not crying. More stunned, like a kid trying really hard to seem brave.
"Yeah there's something's wandering around." Steve said. "Something that can't see you if...actually, can you just trust me for like two minutes?"
The girl nodded, "okay okay mister Im- Im quiet!"
Her whisper came out way too loud.
"Yeah."
He whispered in a lower tone.
"A little quieter than that if you could."
She slapped a hand over her mouth dramatically, eyes gigantic.
Steve sighed, a half-laugh slipping out despite himself.
God, the absurdity. Monsters, horrors beyond his comprehension, and now he was apparently babysitting.
They crouched there for a while, listening. The hall was empty, but emptiness in this place doesn't guarantee safety.
Eventually, when her shaking slowed, Steve let out a slow breath.
"You good?" he asked.
She nodded. "my hearts goin like-" She smacked her stuffed rabbit repeatedly to demonstrate.
"Babum babum BABUM."
"Yeah. Mine too." he admitted.
She squinted at him. "Grownups hearts go fast too?"
"Apparently."
She seemed deeply betrayed by this info.
Finally, Steve peeked around the corner again. Nothing. No static hiss. No wrong footsteps echoing. Just the stillness of a building long forgotten by time itself.
He lowered himself to her height. "Okay, kid. What's your name?"
"emma" She hugged her rabbit tighter. "whats yours mister?"
"I, am Steve. And we,"
He pointed to the ground, and twirled his finger in a circle, almost like marking the "danger zone"
"need to get somewhere safer than here."
Emma's face brightened as if she'd been waiting to say something.
"i know a place. i know a place where they dont cross. i mean I think they dont. i never saw them there. neverever-ever."
Steve blinked. "You… you know where a safe spot is?"
"Uh-huh." She nodded vigorously.
"Its my secret place. Its- its like a fort. Kinda. Youll see. But you gotta stay with me cause if you walk wrong you get all twisty and wrong turny and- and then the stuff goes weird."
He didn't fully understand, but she seemed weirdly certain. And he didn't exactly have a better plan.
"Alrighty then boss lead the way. But stay close, okay?"
Emma grabbed his hand before he even finished speaking. Her palm was cold and tiny. Steve squeezed back.
They moved.
-----
The walk through the mall wasn't exactly normal. And Steve was starting to realize "normal" might not a be a word that exists here.
The place looked like every dead shopping center he'd ever drifted through.
The storefronts still had old posters clinging to the glass, sun-bleached and peeling.
The floor tiles were cracked, mismatched, some bulging upward like something underneath had swollen and pushed.
The air smelled faintly of hot dust, stale popcorn, and old moldy fountain water, the classic abandoned mall bouquet.
And the escalators… dear god, the escalators.
Some still moved..somehow, groaning slowly, even though they were half-ripped apart. One step was missing entirely, leaving a dark cavity.
Emma didn't seem fazed by any of this. But she did yank Steve away from certain tiles.
"not that line." she told, pointing urgently. "that one buzzes."
Steve didn't even question it. "Yeah, sure. No buzzing tiles. Got it."
As they walked, she whispered little explanations that were probably nonsense.
but in this place, those nonsense were apparently supposed to be survival instructions.
"sometimes the lights get mad." she said, pointing at the flickering strip lights above the empty food court walkway.
"when they ache, they hum like they wanna pop. If they pop, the ceiling drips. if the ceiling drips-"
She made a full-body shudder. "bad."
Steve blinked. "The ceiling… drips what, exactly?"
She made a long drawn out gasp followed by a choking noise, like a dying soda bottle. "like fizzy goo that makes your tummy crunchy."
"Hmm, now that's quite specific no?"
"I know!" she said, weirdly proud she'd communicated it.
They passed an old escalator that was somehow going down even though both ends were broken off. Like it was looped in a infinite circle. Emma tugged him faster.
"no no no. that one tries to take you places. wrong places. i saw a man on it once and then I heard him forever after he was screaming for what was like a really long time. i can still hear him there sometimes."
Steve just looked at Emma, then the escalator, then her, then the escalator again and then proceeded to walk without uttering a single word.
"That's… very assuring /s."
"hmm?"
They continued past empty clothing stores. The mannequins had all turned slightly toward the center of the aisle. Their plastic mouths were cracked into wide smiles.
One mannequin whispered when they walked by, a soft plastic creak like shifting joints.
Steve didn't look back.
"dont look at the mannequins." Emma mouthed without even glancing at them.
Eventually they made their way out.
Then, suddenly, she pointed excitedly. "Look!"
Steve braced for something awful.
Instead, it was a fortress.
A fortress made entirely of cereal boxes.
They were stacked between the broken metal racks of an old discount store, forming a little hut the size of a refrigerator.
The boxes were ancient, faded cheerio knockoffs, weird off brand sugar cereals with mascots that vaguely resembled animals.
One had a slogan that read "It's grrrreeeeaaa-decent." Some boxes had cartoon smiles that were too wide or had too many teeth.
But it was sturdy. Quite a surprise.
Emma sprinted to it proudly. "this is my fort!"
"You… built this?" Steve asked, genuinely impressed.
"Yeah it keeps the crunchers out."
"The....., what?"
She paused, then clicked her teeth so violently Steve flinched. "Crunchcrunchcrunch! like chewing bones but no mouths."
"That explains absolutely nothing."
"thats cause they weird."
Fair enough.
Steve knelt by the fort. Some boxes had drawings scribbled on.
a bunny, a stick figure girl, childish suns, shapes…..
....
...
..and a tall thin figure with very long limbs.....
"You're resourceful." Steve said.
Emma squinted. "re- source… full?"
"It means you make things work."
She smiled wide, right as something clanged in the distance.
Something heavy.
Metallic.
Dragging.
Steve froze.
Emma froze harder.
Then she grabbed his sleeve with both hands and tugged with all the might her small body could muster. She skidded a bit on the floor, trying desperately to pull Steve.
They scrambled into the cereal fortress. It had a tiny crawl entrance and an even tinier back exit.
Inside, it smelled like cardboard and strawberry something. It was surprisingly dark and much warmer than he expected.
Emma covered her mouth with her hands.
Her breath became quick and shallow.
The sound came closer.
SCREEAAAAKKK...
THUNK.
SCREEEEEEEEEKEEEE....
Steve's skin went ice cold.
Through a miniscule gap between two cereal boxes, he saw something pass by the storefront.
A lopsided mass of flesh dragging itself using arms that looked like they stretched on for miles.
The torso had it's ribs on the outside, like someone had flipped a human inside out. It sniffed the air in jerking motions.
Emma whispered barely audible "dont breathe loud… it hears breathing."
Steve's lungs tried to protest but he held still.
The flesh thing turned toward the aisle.
Stopped.
One long limb twitched.
Then,
A voice.
Not a normal voice.
Like a dying radio.
"E….... x… i…. t…"
Barely a whisper.
Barely human.
Steve felt his blood freeze.
The monsters were looking for the exit?
The thing shuddered once, then dragged itself away, its body scraping along the cracked tile until the sound faded completely.
Emma didn't move for a full minute, or two.
Only when her shoulders finally dropped did Steve exhale slowly.
"You okay?" he whispered.
"uh-huh." she said, though she was shaking like a leaf. "that ones mean."
"Yeah, I figured." Steve murmured.
He peeked out. Coast is clear.
Emma crawled out first. Steve followed.
They continued walking.
---
But now they were deeper into the mall, the architecture changing as they went.
The big skylights above were filled with nothing but static darkness, the moonlight or what felt like moonlight shined through small cracks in the ceiling.
The wide mall corridors tightened into narrower branches. Storefronts grew stranger.
Some gutted, some filled with dusty carnival props, one empty except for a single chair and a rope.
Emma narrated everything in her jittery kid logic way.
"that door is mean." she said, pointing at one with a bent frame. "It whispers sometimes. But not words, just… hums like a michael wave with no food."
"Micheal wave..." Steve mumbled to himself softly.
"That is weirdly specific you know." Steve says.
She nodded proudly. "i know lotsa specifics."
They walked past a shutter gate with claw marks. Past a food court table slowly sinking into the floor tile as if the ground were swallowing it.
Emma showed him a cracked fountain still bubbling with black water.
A vending machine that dispensed only broken toys with missing limbs.
A glass elevator stuck halfway between floors, constantly trembling like it wanted to scream.
And she showed him a wall covered in crayon drawings.
Frantic scribbles of a girl, a bunny, an endless hallway, and crude drawings of what seems like houses and.. churches?
"thats me." she said softly. "I drew it so I wouldnt forget where I was."
Steve felt his heart crumble.
"You're so brave Emma!" he told her.
She shook her head quickly. "no I'm not. I cry lots. I hide lots. when I cried here once the walls copied it and it wasn't my crying anymore."
"Jesus..." Steve whispered.
"but they didnt copy yours." she added. "so maybe the walls like you."
"That's.... honestly quite the terrifying thing to say, kid."
She giggled.
A tiny, real laugh.
Then she pointed down the dim hallway ahead.
"wer close to the Spot." she said. "the cereal fort hides us… but this Spot keeps us."
Steve squeezed her hand gently.
"Then let's get there." he said.
And they kept walking.
Two lost souls, one little and one grown, pushing deeper into madness together.
Because neither wanted to face it alone.
-----
The hallway ahead looked…a tad bit different to say the least.
Not safer. Just different.
The air felt heavier but ...calmer?
Emma slowed, then squeezed his hand and pulled. "here" she whispered.
"What's here?"
"that line"
Steve squinted as the world…seemed to shift.
The cracked concrete floor softened into beige carpet, the kind that looked from a motel built centuries ago.
The once vine choked walls warped into stained wallpaper, yellowed like old and british teeth. Overhead, the lights dimmed into a sickly, almost-dead fluorescent hum.
But the real shift wasn't visual.
It was felt.
When Emma stepped forward, it was like some massive, invisible gear deep inside the mall finally aligned. The air tightened. The whole building's gravity, its attention, tilted away from them.
She crossed an unseen boundary.
Turned back. Waited, bunny limp in her arms.
He hesitated only a second before stepping after her.
Steve felt the pressure dissolve behind him, like they had stepped through a membrane only monsters obeyed.
The suffocating presence of the mall eased.. a bit.
Not vanished. Just pushed back.
Emma watched him carefully. "do you feel it mister? the… that feeling?"
Steve nodded. "Yeah. I feel it."
"then we should be safe." she whispered. "i think."
They walked a little further into the new space, and the walls subtly changed around them. Warped. Shifted. Grew into something that felt familiar.
The corridor widened into a room.
And contrary to popular belief, the "safe" room didn't look all that safe.
When Steve stepped fully inside, the world changed from abandoned mall rot to an uncanny imitation of life.
Warm-ish yellow carpet stretched out to every corner, worn in the middle like countless feet had paced in circles. It smelled faintly of dust and that old home smell.
Almost like a place designed by someone who had seen a real room once and then tried to recreate it from memory.
The walls were the same nauseous pastel yellow, patterned with cheap looking wallpaper. The lights overhead were long fluorescent bars that hummed a steady buzz.
Emma exhaled sharply the second they entered, and dropped her shoulders.
That alone told him this place truly was different. Not kind, just bound by rules neither of them seemed to understand.
Emma layed down on the floor and rolled over. She took out an old discoloured plastic cup and started a playdate with her bunny.
Steve scanned the open room. Empty corners. No furniture. Just some toys that Emma probably brought in.
Nothing to write home about.
Well, Except for the window.
A single window on the far wall, opposite of the doorway.
Barricaded half-assedly with boards. Crooked, splintering and chipped in some areas.
Something had tried very hard to get through that window.
"Emma." he murmured, "who put that up?"
She swung her bunny by its remaining ear. "Dunno, mister. Was already like that."
Steve approached. The temperature dropped with each step and he touched one of the boards-
Tick....
He froze.
Tock....
Tick....
Tock....
Tick....
The slow heartbeat of a grandfather clock.
It was coming from behind the barricade, inside the window.
Not muffled. Close. Way too close, like the clock's brass face was pressed right against the other side of the glass.
A chill went down his spine.
"Emma…" His voice was a whisper. "Do you know anything about this?"
She didn't even look up. "Dunno. Sometimes it does that. Sometimes it rings real loud too."
"Rings?"
"Yeah! Like—" She threw her arms up dramatically, "DOOOONG. Super loud. Makes the lights scared."
"The lights… get scared?"
"They go on and off." She pointed to the humming fluorescent bars.
"After the ding, they hide a bit. Then stuff shows up somewhere else. Food sometimes. Or… bad stuff"
Steve stared at the barricaded window.
Tick…
Tock...
Tick…
"You think it's warning us?" he asked.
Emma shrugged. "Maybe. Like a timer. Like tag. When it dings, you have to hide or run or both."
Great. An alarm clock that telegraphed monsters.
"Well, no use in worrying, we'll cross that bridge when we get there I guess." Steve says before sitting beside her, keeping one eye on the ticking window because, honestly, how could he not?
"bridge..."
Emma mutters under her breath.
For a moment… silence.
Then Emma spoke, tiny and afraid
"mister… are you gonna leave me?"
His chest tightened.
"whatttt, No. I'm not leaving you."
He said while patting her.
"You promise?" Her eyes sparkled.
"I promise. We're sticking together."
Emma leaned against him, small and trembling, but calmer now. "Okay." she whispered. "Then maybe together we can get out."
Steve sighed, staring at the humming lights.
"Yeah." he said. "Just maybe."
Hope wasn't easy here. But it was real enough.
Emma closed her eyes, clutching her bunny to her chest.
Steve kept his eyes on the window.
The ticking continued — slow, steady, inevitable.
Tick..
Tock..
Tick.
Like time,
or something pretending to be time,
counting down.
**End**