Operation Mall Madness

“Taylor, you still coming?” Megan asked as she cocked her head. “You’re not going to chicken out, right?” Amber and Kat laughed along with her in that weird way they do.

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” I wasn’t going to miss it. This chaotic crew had been the only group to befriend me my junior year. Fitting in wasn’t the only thing I wanted, it was everything and these girls were awesome.

Megan our self-appointed leader sneered at me. “Good. We’ll pick you up at 11pm and go there.”

“There” was The Borders, an abandoned mall on the other side of town, I mean the city. I still wasn’t used to being Taylor Baron, city girl.

Part of me wondered what the big deal was. I’d seen Mean Girls, Jawbreaker, and a bunch of other movies that were like this, but if the girls were going to prank me, they were definitely playing the long game. It had been too easy to get in the group last year. For girls that were supposed to be the upper echelon of Grover High they were very welcoming. 

After making it through dinner, I only tried to throw up twice, I shakily went upstairs. I grabbed every piece of black clothing I had and laid them out, even my underwear was black.

I had to wait a few hours, but around 11pm the house fell quiet and everyone was asleep. It was time for Operation Mall Madness. The girls had told me it was a tradition among the rising Seniors to go in the mall take some selfies for proof and then post them on Snapchat. That way they’d disappear after twenty-four hours, but those that knew to look would see them.

I put on my all black ensemble and even added black grease paint under my eyes. I sort of looked like a linebacker, if a linebacker was 5’6” and weighed 120 pounds. I tied my brown hair up in a tight pony and climbed out my window and down the sloped roof. The ladder I’d leaned against the house earlier was still there, thankfully. 

It creaked as I swung on to it and scampered down it like a drunken squirrel. Amber’s black SUV was across the street, running with the head lights off. I ran over, swung the back door open and jumped in. 

“Why are you dressed like that?” Kat grimaced.

I froze.

She was in a bright yellow sundress with matching heels and a new yellow Birkin handbag. Megan and Amber also had similar outfits.

“I thought we were sneaking in to a mall?” I squeaked.

“We are.” Megan turned around. “But that doesn’t mean we have to dress up like a spy. Did you not read the group text?”

Oh no. That stupid rule. I’d left my phone upstairs because there were no electronics at dinner and then I was so nervous I didn’t even check my phone. I got it out and went to my text messages. Sure, enough the girls had been coordinating killer outfits, and I had something that would have went so great with all of it.

“I’m so stupid. Sorry, y’all.”

Amber looked at me from the rear-view mirror. “It’s okay. You can take some of the pictures and jump in on the selfies. It’s completely workable.” She smiled.

Everything I’d been worried about melted away with that smile and excitement roared back into me.

“Yeah.”

We pulled up to The Borders and got of the SUV. The parking lot was barricaded and empty. Strands of tattered DO NOT CROSS tape hung from some of them. Tall lights still stood in the parking lot and the moon made their shadows stretch across the parking spaces.

The mall looked like one of those modern buildings from the 90’s. It had rectangular shapes on the outside and a big glass entryway with double doors that had a chain locked around them.

“Don’t worry. I brough something for that,” Amber whispered.

We got out and she opened the back of the SUV. There was a pair of red bolt cutters sitting in the back. She grabbed them and set them on her shoulder.

“Alright, ladies. Operation Mall Madness starts now.” Megan smiled and we all nodded and walked toward the doors.

The cracked asphalt crunched under my tennis shoes as the girls herky-jerkied their way to the doors trying not to break an ankle on the uneven ground. The bolt cutters barely fit around the chain and me and Amber wound up pushing on each handle of the cutters to get through. The chain broke with a satisfying chunk.

Megan looked around and opened the doors, motioning us inside.

It wasn’t as dark as I thought it would be. There were two levels and the glass ceiling let in enough moonlight that we could see the main walkways. The stores were dark, but I could still see mannequins in the windows dressed with the latest fashions from fifteen years ago. 

Kat was the first to speak. “Okay, can we just get on with it. This place is creepy.”

A chair slid across the floor. We all jumped and turned in the direction of the sound. Megan had pushed a chair in. She still had her hand on the back of it and grin on her face.

“Why Kat? What are you afraid of?”

“Nothing. It’s just so…big and empty,” she said looking up at the second level.

Amber wrapped her arms around herself. “Is it colder in here to you?”

Megan tilted her head. “No. It’s just your imagination. Let’s gets some pics at the carousel.” She pointed to the corner.

I didn’t like it. For some reason it reminded me of my grandparents’ big house in the country. There’d been too many rooms. The doll room had been especially creepy. All the porcelain dolls with their fake curls and glass eyes that followed you around the room. I shivered. I was suddenly very thankful that mannequins didn’t have eyes.

We followed Megan, the three of us huddled together watched our leader march right into the moonlit mall without a fear in the world.

There wasn’t nearly as much dust as I thought there’d be. Some of the stores were still stocked with clothes. They were folded on tables and hanging on racks like relics in a fashion tomb. 

Megan made it to the carousel first. She jumped up on the platform, grabbed one of the poles and kicked her leg up in the air as she leaned her head back.

I took that as my queue and snapped a picture with my phone. The fake shutter sound echoed through the mall. Megan changed poses and I took another photo.

The girls started smiling as each pose got more and more outlandish. They finally went over to her. I snapped pictures of the three of them and then of Amber and Kat, Kat and Megan, and finally Megan and Amber, before I got in and took a few selfies. They draped over me and smiled.

By the end we were laughing and barely able to keep it together. I opened up the camera roll to check the pictures, but stopped.

I screwed up my face.

That couldn’t be right.

“What is it?” Amber asked as she grabbed the phone. Her mouth fell open a little.

Kat and Megan crowded over to look and Megan slowly covered her mouth.

In every picture we’d taken the girls had been replaced with mannequins.

But that wasn’t right. I hadn’t done anything to the pictures. 

“Taylor that filter is crazy.” Kat was trying to edit the photos but the phone was changing them. “How do you take it off?”

“I don’t know.” My voice trembled. “I didn’t put a filter on it.”

“Ha, ha, Taylor. You got us.” Megan smiled, but there wasn’t any warmth in it.

“No, no. I mean it. I didn’t do anything.” I was swiping through the photos. Even the selfies were mannequins. 

“That’s not funny.” Amber’s voice was getting higher. 

“I know. I know.” I tried editing them, but nothing worked.

A tapping sound came from somewhere.

“What was that?” Kat looked around, but there was nothing to see. The tapping mixed with scraping and bumping.

“We have to go.” I couldn’t hold it in anymore. “We have to get out of here.”

Even Megan agreed. We walked back the way we came, but our footsteps halted when we turned the corner.

All the mannequins were lined up outside the shops. There arms were in all kinds of poses. Some had stands and othesr had legs. Some had heads while others didn’t. 

“Were they like that before?” Amber’s voice shook.

I shook my head.

“No,” Megan said gravely. Her breathing was getting more rapid and she was clutching my arm.

“Should we-” Kat pointed over her shoulder.

We all turned to go back the other way, but the other way wasn’t there. There was a black wall of nothing behind us.

It was like a black sheet had been pulled down and we couldn’t push through it. There was only one direction to go.

“We need to run.” Megan said, “Stay together and let’s make a run for it.” She took off her heels, then Amber and Kat followed suit.

The double doors were right there maybe one-hundred feet in front of us.

“On the count of three.” Megan’s voice was loud. “One, two, three!”

We broke for it. I ran harder and harder while trying not to look at the mannequins, but a splash of color caught my eye.

I turned to see one of them had a K-pop Demon Hunters shirt on, but that couldn’t be right.

“Urgh.”

We fell into a heap twenty feet from the door. Kat’s ankle was bleeding. I looked back. There was a hand in the middle of the floor. It was perfectly still and held a pair of scissors, stained with blood.

“Move, move.” Amber yelled she was picking up Kat and dragging her.

I saw Megan’s leg quietly disappear behind the mannequins. My chin quivered. The mannequins were wearing newer clothing, but some of them had realistic looking features too. Lips that looked too soft, eyes that reflected too much light, and hair that was too well maintained. 

I didn’t hear the other girls scream, but when I looked back to the double doors, they were gone. There was only a blood smear on the ground leading behind the mannequins.

I wanted to run, but the doors were so far away. They’d been closer before but now it was like I was back at the start or maybe the doors were stretching away from me.

I looked back at the line of mannequins and one of them had Kat’s yellow sundress and her bag. I didn’t want to look further, but her eyes were in its face. 

Then my body stiffened and everything went white.

Now I’m waiting here for my chance to live again. The whispers say I have to wait my turn. That one day, I’ll have a body again. I don’t mind. It’s easy standing here, waiting for someone to come in. 

Now who’s stupid for wearing tennis shoes?