Chapter Nine
“Should that mean something to me?”
“I guess not. It has gotten a kind of reputation on the internet as the deadliest mall in America. It was a huge mall in the eighties and nineties, about a million square feet. Then it died a slow and agonizing death. When I was working on my first novel, me and Nisha would sneak in and practice things like avoiding security guards and picking the locks to the stores, at least the ones that still had doors. It’s a shit hole but one that no one would waste time looking around in if they had any other choices. ”
“Ah, sounds wonderful.” Val pulled out her phone and took the battery out. I gave her a quizzical look. “You never know when someone can sweet talk an Apple store employee.”
“Good point.” I brought out my phone and handed it to her. She did the same to it, pocketing the battery.
“Hey, do I get any questions for you?”
“I guess.”
“How did you fall off a building?” Well, that was not what I had expected.
I recounted my habit of taking up skills for my novels and how that ended with me hanging from a clothesline in New York.
I did not include the part about my lack of confidence.
I had already declared enough weakness for one road trip.
She seemed to enjoy the story a little bit too much.
“Don’t you dare laugh at me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Val turned to look out the passenger side window.
The rest of the drive continued quietly. I think neither of us were sure what to say. At least it was only a couple of hours of awkward silence.
When we pulled into the parking lot, I was amazed at how bad the mall looked. I had heard there was a fire there a couple of years ago, but had not realized half the roof had caved in. As I got out of the car, my stomach started to object, and I had to struggle not to retch.
“Yeah, sometimes an enhanced sense of smell sucks.” I glanced over at Val while she looked at the shopping center and saw an expression I had never seen before. It almost looked like fear, but that couldn’t be right.
“You okay?” God, that sounded weird for me to say to her.
“Yeah. The closer you get to your Totem, the more you can see through the Veil. You can start seeing the forces in the world. I hate abandoned places. There are things older than humanity that find respite there.” She kept looking at the mall for a long moment, then turned to me.
“If you and your sister get out of all of this, you might want to never look back. The water can get pretty deep.”
“Okay…” Well, color me officially freaked out. There are worse things than werewolves wanting to sink their jaws into your throat. That sucks. Even Dominique did not have a comment; that was a bad sign. Well, time to be scared shitless later. I tossed the car keys to Val.
She caught them and gave me a look.
“If we need to get out of here in a hurry, I assume you are the better choice. Dominique has not shown an interest in race car driving yet.”
“Got it.”
I then offered the gun to her. I guess I had decided to trust her.
“Keep it.”
We walked across the parking lot to the doors of the mall.
They were locked, but one had the glass shattered out of it.
I was surprised that no one had come to board it up.
I guess even the owners of the property did not care anymore.
We walked into the wasted building. The sun was just starting to go down, and there was a little light coming in from the wrecked roof.
I was surprised I was still able to make my way pretty well.
Well, snow leopards are most active at dusk and dawn, so I guess my Totem was helping out.
I took a deep breath to settle myself and immediately regretted it.
I had thought the smell was strong in the parking lot; in here, it was almost too much to stand.
It was a mix of mold, rot, and soot, but underneath was something else, something I had not smelled before but just felt wrong in every way.
We started to ease our way across the floor, a maze of shattered glass and broken concrete.
Even on the run I found it hard to believe that Nisha had chosen to hide in the mall.
She was going to need six showers and four tetanus shots after she got out of here.
She was going to get out of here. I tried to get my bearings, but nothing looked like it used to. I pointed to the east.
“I think the major anchor stores were that way. They should still be intact and would give her the most shelter.”
Val nodded.
The going was slow; the farther we got in the darker it got and there were holes and remnants of store furniture scattered everywhere. I saw a couple of vague shapes that I assumed were mannequins and refused to double check to make sure.
It took us almost forty minutes to make our way to what had once been JCPenney, and by the time I got there, I had settled into a comfortable paranoia that seemed to suffuse my being.
Dominique had stopped yelling at me about twenty minutes in, and that worried me even more.
We walked into the main entrance and went straight up the escalator.
The power had long ago been shut off, but it still allowed access to the upper levels where the furniture had been kept.
Once we reached the top, we could see a makeshift shelter had been built using remnants of old shelving and furniture that had been left behind.
It kind of looked like the old forts we used to make from the furniture in our house growing up.
“Nisha!” I called out as loud as I could. Val turned around and gave me a harsh look, but I continued. “Nisha!” After a moment, I heard a soft response.
“Sah?” Nisha emerged from the misshapen pile and hesitated a moment before running across the room and hugging me tightly. I returned the embrace, and it was a long moment before I could let her go.
“Hey, sis.”
“Hey, I guess you found my note.”
I nodded.
“Well, aren’t we just up to our ass in alligators? Who is the new chick?” Nisha nodded toward Val.
“That’s Valeria. She’s a cop, but she’s okay.”
“Gee, thanks.” Val waved at Nisha.
Nisha made a loud sniffing noise. “Oh shit, Sah; they marked you too. I am so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about me. Are you okay?”
“I am starting to understand the furry community and haven’t had anything but 7-Eleven takeout for a couple of days, but other than that, I am doing okay.” Nisha stepped back out of my arms. “I take it you got my voicemail.”
“Yeah, you owe me for like so many speeding tickets. What happened?”
“I am not really sure. I got that gig to do a write-up on Facade, you know, what I thought was a game. It was pretty cool, and I fell into a group at the local store that was welcoming, and I got really into it. I even wrote some new material for the game and posted it for the community to check out. The next thing I know, the moderators of the group call me out as not to be trusted. Then I start getting messages that I am just some slut journalist trying to destroy this game they love. Shortly after that, my home address was posted on social media, and I started to get worried. I heard about some of the shit they did during Gamergate, so I head to the cops, and they say they can’t do anything because it’s not in the real world. ” Nisha paused to look over at Val.
Val held up her hands. “That wasn’t me.”
“Yeah, sure. So, a couple of days later, I noticed a guy following me out to the parking lot of the gaming store. A big biker motherfucker who is not even trying to hide the fact that he is trailing me. I tried to hide and gave you a call because I did not trust the cops to believe me.” Nisha looked over at Val again.
“I guess I suck at hiding because before I know what is happening, he is on me. We struggle for a bit, and then this fuck actually bites me. I mean, who fuck bites people. The bad news for him is that I grabbed that gun you gave me for Christmas out of my purse, and I put two in his chest. He drops, and I think it’s all over except for the paperwork.
Then he gets back up. So, I emptied the clip into his knee and started running. ”
I started laughing. A moment later, Nisha joined me.
“That was funny?” Val looked at us like we had grown two heads.
I stopped laughing. “When we were growing up, we used to watch horror movies and were like…yeah, I know Jason doesn’t die, but if you blow his leg off, then you could just stroll away.”
“It worked too,” Nisha confirmed. “I mean, I didn’t stroll.
I felt like hammered shit, and the wound would not stop bleeding.
I managed to call 9-1-1 before I dropped my phone.
A couple of hours later, I woke up in the ICU, but I felt fine, just recovering from some weird dreams. I saw the biker guy talking to the head nurse.
She must not have told him anything cuz he walked off pissed.
I figured it was better for me to just take off.
So, after leaving you a note, I headed to the last place I could think anyone would want to stay at.
A couple of days later, I felt myself changing.
My senses got enhanced and the isolation really started to bother me.
It was all I could do not to run off to find some companionship.
It was about that time I started thinking that maybe there was more to this game shit than dice and miniatures. ”
“Yeah, it’s all real.” I looked over at Val, my eyes asking for support.
“Wolves tend to hang out in packs. It brings them comfort, but some leaders are really controlling,” Val continued and told Nisha all the things she had told me.
“Well, what the hell are we going to do?” Nisha had a slight panicked edge to her voice.
Val stepped close to us. “I think if I can get a meeting with the Scribe, then we might be able to figure a way to talk all the parties down without any more violence.”
“Who is the Scribe?”
“He is the history keeper of the clans. He is also the adjudicator when there is a conflict between the separate people of the Menagerie,” Nisha responded.
“I must not have gotten that far into the books. Do you really think that will work?”
“It should,” Val said. “I have never heard of the clan being this open or violent before. You two stay here. I will go see what I can do. If you have not heard back from me in a day or two, get the hell out of here.”
I turned away from Nisha to look directly at Val. “This sounds dangerous. Are you going to be okay?”
Nisha looked at me questioningly. “What are you worried about her for? She is a cop and part of all this bullshit.”
I didn’t say anything but just turned my head and looked deep into Val’s eyes. I was happy to be reunited with my sister but whatever else I felt I knew I did not want any harm coming to Val.
She shrugged and gave me a slight smile. “I’ll be fine. Besides, I have eight more to go.”
“Eight? You will have to tell me that story when you get back.”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“Promise, no more hiding things.”
Val took off down the escalator and I turned around to find Nisha staring at me, a disapproving look in her eyes.
“What’s up with the cop?”
“What do you mean?”
Nisha adopted a cutesy smile. “Promise? Promise!”
“It’s complicated.”
“Really? Do tell. Have you seen them naked?”
“This is what you want to focus on right now?”
“That was not a no… OMG, you have seen them naked.”
I turned back around.
“Oh, now you have to tell me all the dirty details. I have been sitting around here for days with no contact except the cockroaches and the convenience store attendant.”
I sat down defeated and spent the next thirty minutes bringing Nisha up to speed about what I had figured out about me and Val. She was just about to ask for more details about my waterfall encounter when we heard a creaking from the escalator. I jumped up to my feet.
“What happened? Did you forget your car keys?” I approached the escalator, hoping to meet Val before Nisha could run up.
Then I stopped dead in my tracks as a huge man with a red mohawk came over the top.
He had Val thrown over his left shoulder, unconscious or dead; I could not tell.
Dominique started screaming in my head to run but I was frozen to the spot.
“Haven’t you two just been all kinds of headaches?
” He was flanked by, perhaps, two dozen other bikers.
“I’m Lycos, and you are coming with me. Don’t run, I can find you anywhere in the city with this.
” He held up his right hand and I could just barely see that he had a handful of hair.
Without thinking, my hand went up to the small bald spot on my scalp.
I turned and ran.
He addressed his followers. “Take them to the pit.”
I got about a half dozen steps before his followers caught me from behind. I was thrown to the ground, then blows rained down on me until I lost consciousness.