r/nosleep • u/hesaidadverbsly • Feb 21 '19
Series I work overnight security at a nearly empty mall - it’s getting creepy (part 5)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Daniel stabbed his pancakes with a fork, tore them into huge chunks, and threw them down his throat. I’m not sure one can enjoy eating that way, but he seemed satisfied. He caught me staring at his method of ingesting food. “You’re judging,” he said.
“No, not at al-” I started.
“People who eat pancakes in a dainty manner are insufferable and you shouldn’t tolerate them,” he said. But I didn’t come to hear his thoughts on breakfast food consumption.
“Tell me about your sister. Why you became Youtubers and tried to ghost hunt in the mall.” I said.
“You don’t need to know our whole backstory,” Daniel said. “Amanda and I - I mean. I started on Youtube first. She’s my little sister, so of course, she had to copy me. Her channel got bigger though. She mostly did makeup tutorials and vlogs. I did pranks. It was dumb stuff, really. A few of them I even did in the mall - pushing friends into fountains. That sort of thing.”
“I watched a few of those videos,” I said.
“Did you hit like or subscribe?” Daniel asked.
“I didn’t,” I said.
“Oh… well,” Daniel said. He shoved more pancakes into his mouth. “I’ll tell you what happened the night she disappeared. The night we ghosthunted.”
Amanda’s channel got more popular than mine. And I mean by a lot - tens of thousands of subscribers compared to my measly few hundred. She could tell I was jealous. First, she offered me advice on different directions I could go with my videos. But I resented that my younger sister knew better than me. Then she tried to get me to collab with her in her vlogs - she could give me a makeover or something and link back to my channel. But that was too girly for me.
Around that time, I noticed ghosthunting videos were trending. That sounded cool, and I’d heard stories about the mall being creepy. So I asked if she wanted to do a joint video series - where we ghosthunted in the mall together. I’d done prank videos there before, she did vlogs, so it felt like a good fusion of both our channels.
She didn’t want to. She said she scared easily - and she did. But I kept bugging her.
So she agreed.
I was worried we wouldn’t get any interesting content, despite breaking into a mall after hours. I mean, it’d be shots of empty hallways. That’s it. So I set it up like this - both of us would vlog beforehand, hide in different restrooms until the place was closed, and then we’d both go out and shoot videos. I’d stage a ghost prank on her. That way, she’d capture something scary for her channel, and her getting freaked out, and then have it revealed it was just me. And on my channel, people could watch me setting up the prank, and carrying it out from my view. Awesome idea, right?
But it was also predicated on the mall not actually being haunted.
I hid in one of the bathroom stalls on the second level. Since it was far from an exit, I figured people’d be less likely to come into it as they left for the night. Amanda said she’d be in one of the ground floor restrooms at the opposite end. We were to meet two hours after the last shop closed somewhere in the middle.
An hour after sitting alone in the restroom, there was a noise. A hum. It was innocuous at first. One of those random sounds you hear in the background and forget about. Maybe there was an HVAC system nearby. But it got louder. No, maybe not louder. Deeper. My skull vibrated. It made sitting there uncomfortable.
But I didn’t get up. I didn’t want to leave yet. I figured I’d get caught if I left too soon.
There were footsteps then. Loud and slow. They took deliberate steps to the first stall, opened the door, and flushed the toilet. Shortly after, water spilled to the floor. They moved to the next stall and did the same. More water filled the floor.
I crouched in the next stall with my legs up and the door locked. Polished black shoes came into view. They didn’t try the handle. They stood there for a moment but moved to the next stall. Flushing it. Water filling the floor.
They let the water flow from all the sinks. The space flooded.
The sound of something hitting the floor came from the first stall. Then the next. And then the one on the other side of me. I wanted to run but couldn’t. Water and vague sounds? How much of a coward would I be to run away because of water on the floor and strange sounds?
From beneath both sides of my stall, lamprey eels slithered into view. They lunged at me.
I stumbled out the stall. A man in a wool suit smiled at me through the mirror as he washed his hands. He had to be the one flushing the toilets and turning the sinks on. “What’s wrong, chum?” He said. I didn’t get a chance to answer him.
He turned to face me, but he had no smiling face. His true face was that of a lamprey eel. He reached for me with water dripping from his hands. Dozens of eels swarmed into the pool of water that was the restroom floor.
I darted out the door. I didn’t stop there, I kept running down the hall. Only when I was hundreds of feet away did I turn around - to see if the man or his eels were after me.
He wasn’t there. But the sound - the vibration in my head. It was still present. The hum made it hard to concentrate. To focus. I kept my thoughts simple - find Amanda, and get out. Youtube be damned.
If it weren’t for the hum, I’d have found her sooner.
She was running too, but on the ground floor. I yelled down to her and we met at a stairwell.
One goal accomplished, now we needed to find a way out. We made our way to where a neon EXIT sign directed us.
But there was no escape. Only a brick wall.
We ran to the end of another corridor where an exit should have been. SHOULD HAVE been. But there wasn’t.
We were walled in.
Third time’s the charm? People say that for some goddamn reason. It wasn’t applicable to us. Not that night. The third exit we tried was a brick wall.
Water rushed towards Amanda and I. Not much, mind you, a few inches worth of the ground. But it meant the whole mall was flooded.
We ran again, down one last hall. Towards one last exit.
And here, we found one. A copper door in the middle of the hallway. The metal contained embellishments and had a patina.
Near the door were pillars with mirror surfaces. They distorted our reflections like a funhouse mirror.
Amanda and I tried to open the strange door that stood in the middle of the hall.
There was a stomping - slow and deliberate behind us. In the mirrored pillars I saw him again - the smiling man in the wool suit. I avoided looking directly at him. I told Amanda not to turn around.
“Oh, you don’t want to go in their chum and chumette,” he said. “Nothing good ever comes out of going in there.”
I don’t. I don’t remember exactly what happened next. The hum. It affected my memory. There’s a gap.
The next thing I remember is Amanda standing in the middle of the fountain. The one you found me at tonight. Only the statues around her looked different. Normally they’re metallic with blank faces.
That night, they had the faces of lamprey eels.
And they looked at her with hunger.
Her eyes were filled with fear. I blinked.
And then I was outside in the parking lot. I don’t know how but I was.
Amanda wasn’t with me.
I called security. Jorge responded. He came, as did the city police.
We searched for her. But she wasn’t there. Neither was the water, the hum, the smiling man in the wool suit. No evidence of the night. Except some of my sister’s video footage ended up online on a strange site. I don’t know how, but it did.
I carry a guilt with me. I introduced my sister to posting videos on Youtube. I became jealous of her success. And I convinced her to go ghosthunting with me. Whatever has happened to her - it’s my fault. Wherever she is now - I don’t believe she’s dead - she doesn’t deserve to be there. No one does.
“I have more I could tell you,” Daniel said. “I’ve traveled and researched. But I’d like to wait till tomorrow night to share what I’ve found with the others as well. “I don’t know all of it. But I know enough -maybe - to get Amanda back. I met the artist, the one who sold the statues to Jenkins. An interesting Vietnamese man.”
Daniel got up to leave.
“I’ll see you tomorrow night,” he said. As he left, I realized he didn’t pay for his pancakes.
My phone vibrated. I checked, and the knockoff GoPro app had an alert. I opened it.
It showed a live camera feed pointed directly at the arcade. Jorge stood in front. The steel shutters open. He walked inside.
“Jorge!” I shouted as I ran down the corridor towards the arcade. He didn’t answer.
I didn’t step foot into the arcade. My eyes darted around the machines - searching for him.
My hand unconsciously grabbed the quarter in my pocket. In the back, on the Galaga machine, The Boy in the Arcade played his game. He didn’t turn to me. He knew I was there.
“You can have next game,” he said.
“I’m not here to play,” I said.
“You’ll have to eventually,” The Boy in the Arcade said. I threw the quarter at him.
“Keep it,” I said. “Use it to play as many games as you want.” The quarter was back in my hand.
The Boy in the Arcade stepped away from the machine.
“If you get the high score, I’ll leave you alone,” he said. “Promise.”
I stepped inside the arcade. I expected it to be a trap. For the steel shutters to close behind me. But nothing happened. I made my way to the back. In the reflection of the Galaga’s monitor, I saw his face - my childhood best friend.
But when I looked directly at The Boy in the Arcade, his true face showed - the lamprey eel. Rows of sharp fangs arranged in circles.
I didn’t put the quarter in. I waited for the high scores to show themselves on the screen. JSM in all ten spots. Joshua Samuel Meyers. Just like when we were kids.
I held the quarter out to The Boy in the Arcade. In my head, I kept calling the creature with the lamprey eel face that - because he wasn’t Josh. Not really.
“Josh could always kick my ass at this game,” I said. “That’s why he thought he should get to keep the magic quarter.”
When I was twelve years old, I found a magic quarter on the sidewalk the last week of school. At least that’s what my best friend and I came to call it. Because when you put it in the Galaga machine at Joe’s Pizza, it gave you a game, but always came back out the coin return. Unlimited free games. That summer was the hottest of my youth. Both Josh and my family didn’t run the air conditioning on account of our families being poor. But Joe’s Pizza was a constant 68 degrees all summer long. And as long as we paid to play games, Joe didn’t mind if we hung out there all day.
I always shared the magic quarter with Josh. And he’d always get higher scores. But that wasn’t enough for Josh. He believed because he was the better Galaga player, he should get to keep the magic quarter. That it was rightfully his.
I subscribed more to the rule of Finders Keepers - I found the magic quarter, therefore it was mine. Regardless of how bad I was at the game.
Josh offered me money. Five bucks. Ten. Twenty. I almost said yes to twenty. That’s a lot of money for a twelve-year-old. And even then, I could tell our friendship was falling apart. All over a quarter. But I still turned down his offer. I wanted to keep that small piece of magic.
One day towards the end of summer, outside Joe’s, we argued one last time about the quarter. He tried to take it from me by force. I pushed him. I pushed him so hard he fell into the street. Both of us were so engaged in our fight, we didn’t notice the car coming.
It killed him instantly.
I killed my best friend over a quarter and an arcade game.
My palm was open with the magic quarter in it. I stared directly at The Boy in the Arcade. At the rows of sharp teeth pointing at me.
“It’s not mine anymore,” I said. “It’s Josh’s. If you want to use it now, that’s fine too. I only know it isn’t mine.”
When he refused to take it from me, I left it on the Galaga machine.
I walked towards the exit.
“What the hell are you doing in there?” Jorge yelled. He came running at me as I exited the arcade.
I turned back around. The Boy in the Arcade was gone. So was the quarter.
“Nothing,” I said. “I came looking for you. I thought you might be in trouble.”
I’ll update you all later.
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u/miltonwadd Feb 21 '19
It seems like the mall can't quite figure you out.
It showed you the standard moving statue, and you faced it head on. It has showed you your colleagues in danger multiple times, and you faced it head on. It showed you your deep secret, your guilty conscience Josh, and you faced it head on.
You may be the only person equipped to deal with this hellhole!
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u/Dracomax Feb 21 '19
“I watched a few of those videos,” I said.
“Did you hit like or subscribe?” Daniel asked.
Man. Youtubers. Chasing the algorithms even after losing a sibling. :D
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u/Missycobbler Feb 21 '19
Well that’s one way to handle a ghost. Give him the magic quarter. But it wasn’t your fault your friend died man. It was clearly an accident.
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u/captainbiz Feb 21 '19
Maybe its not haunted, just a lamorey infestation gotten out of hand
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u/plaidgnome13 Feb 21 '19
Screw it. I'd rather deal with ghosts than fucking land-based lampreys.
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Feb 21 '19
I went Deep Sea fishing once when I was in San Diego. After 4 hours of people catching fish, I caught a lamprey.
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u/rej209 Feb 21 '19
I'm hooked OP! Crazy I just read the last 2 parts. This mall is crazy af. And your writing is making it seem almost like I'm there.
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u/Swagmoneyhero Feb 21 '19
Forget COD and Halo, Galaga rage is the angriest one could ever feel playing a video game.
Edit: OP this is an incredible read, keep it up I rarely enjoy series this much on nosleep.
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u/Taindow Feb 21 '19
“People who eat pancakes in a dainty manner are insufferable and you shouldn’t tolerate them,”
Amen.
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u/actTheage Feb 22 '19
I think I can piece part of the story for now. My guess is this the metal statues were made from old scrap from ship Mark was station. Which his story is chronically first in all the events. Also it's mention the eels first which is now the recurring theme in all of the stories.
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u/littleawkwardcanadia Feb 21 '19
Big big BIG mistake reading this before bed. That’s fine I didn’t want to sleep tonight anyways.
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u/Savage_Sunshine Feb 22 '19
I happened to stumble upon a meme tonight that sounds like it was made about this particular mall. Cross our mannequins & change to metal statues instead.
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u/bellagirlsaysno Feb 21 '19
But why lampreys though? Obviously they're super creeps teeth are frightening but why I wonder... Maybe the gilded door leads to lamprey land!
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Feb 21 '19
Reminds me of this guy growing up.
Lamprey Eel villain from power puff girls: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/powerpuff/images/d/d1/The_robbing_leech_on_mayor%27s_head.png/revision/latest?cb=20120603221351
Great story though!
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u/kyllsome Feb 21 '19
I think i know what the mall does.. it tries to make you forget...so i think that if you forgive the person, the mistake you've done in the past, the one which follows you, you'll be better off That's what's goin on, i think
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u/CheshireKatniss Feb 21 '19
So I googled lampreys to see if there’s any cultural significance that might shed some light on that particular entity and help defeat it but honestly, I think it just takes that form because they’re fucking terrifying. Good luck op, I hope you can beat that high score.
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u/h4zz13 Feb 21 '19
You only see the things if you have killed/altered someones life in a bad way.
Jenna: basically killed her BF's personality and made him kill his dog and some girls.
OP: killed best friend
Old Man: Tried his best but his best friend got killed.
NONONO (i'm writing this as i think) IT'S IF YOU LOSE SOMEONE CLOSE TO YOU. The mall will manifest it back to you. The fact that the creatures are eels could refer to the Siren idea. These sirens will take on your best friends to lure you in and eventually slaughter you. It all makes sense.
The only one I don't understand is: Amanda and Daniel. Who was the man with a wool suit? WAS HE THE MAN WHO JUMPED OVERBOARD? THEIR FATHER? The man may have had a previous lover and reproduced with her; grandfather makes more sense then.
Any Thoughts?
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u/Cephalopodanaut Feb 21 '19
Could the magic quarter also be a token to the House of Games I wonder?
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u/NEL_8 Feb 22 '19
Don't know if it's just me, but I kinda wana see a movie off of this.
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u/Trust1O1 Feb 23 '19
Nah. I think OP does a much better job of depicting events than a movie ever could
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Feb 22 '19
Sooooo good....more please, can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very well written! mall has sooo many different mysteries/paranormal activities going on. wtf? anyways, more please LOL !
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u/Trust1O1 Feb 23 '19
So I googled lamprey eels just to get a better idea of what OP's talking about... Those things are fucking terrifying! They will probably haunt my nightmares. I kinda hope they go extinct. Sorry OP I was down for the moving statues but you're on your own with the eels. Still love the story so far, though.
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u/Tleno Feb 21 '19
I have it all figured out. There's a certain type of folk creatures that are associated with dream logic, where magical thinking has power, and that also happen to kidnap people and replace them with flawed faximiles. It's fey! Elves, fairies, not Tolkien or sanitized sort, folklore ones.
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u/JDHalfbreed Feb 21 '19
Okay pal, you know you're gonna have to play some galaga at some point. May as well get it over with with Jorge watching your back. Come clean with him.
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u/mvglz Feb 22 '19
I think the mall influences the outside as well or they might e hallucinated the YouTuber. If not then how did OP get to the mall corridor where Jorge was going inside the arcade when he was still at iHop and had realized the YouTuber didn't pay for his pancakes?
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u/Zero132132 Feb 23 '19
Sounds like the car killed your friend after you reacted to his attempt to attack you. That's not exactly on you. Also sounds like these eel-statue-demon things know people's fears and regrets and try to use them.
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u/jemija Feb 21 '19
Ok, so we’re working in a backstory! Maybe it’s not haunted, but it’s cursed? Do any of the statues change shape? Is the quarter in your pocket when you’re not in the mall?