Chills, page 7
“No way of knowing. Sometimes it’s, like, fifteen minutes, and other times she’ll be out for an hour or more.”
Tyson took his cell phone from his jeans pocket and flipped it open. After staring at the screen for a moment, he shook his head and closed the phone.
“No signal,” he said.
Meg took her cell phone from her jeans pocket and checked it.
“I’ve got a signal. It’s weak. Should I call 911?”
Ashley shook her head and emphatically said, “No,” but that didn’t stop Meg from dialing the emergency number. At first, she could hear only utter silence over the phone. Totally dead. Then, very faintly, a voice said something, but she couldn’t make out what it was. She looked at her phone, confused.
“Hello?”
Turning her back on the crowd gathered at the register area, she walked across the floor toward the store window, hunched over with the phone to her ear. As she strained to hear what the voice on the other end was saying, she stared out the window at the snow, mesmerized by the swirling patterns of white, gray, and pitch black.
The voice on the phone kept talking, but it was impossible for her to make out anything.
“Hello. I’m calling from the Mystery Train at the mall,” she said. She made an effort to keep her voice calm and low, but the voice on the other end of the line subtly shifted. Through a burst of static, she heard—or thought she heard—a man say, “We don’t like it here.”
“Is this 911?” she asked. “We have a medical emergency and need an ambulance sent to the Mystery Train store at River Valley Mall.” She pronounced each word carefully, like she was speaking to a child.
She was still staring out at the storm, and as she did, she became aware of motion outside that didn’t seem to match the direction of the storm winds as they blew snow around. There were two…no, three…three blotches…black figures that seemed to be cut out of the night…hunched shapes that looked vaguely human as they shifted in and out of sight as though moving forward and backward behind the curtain of snow. There was no way to gauge how close or far away from the window they were.
Tension took hold of her and tightened like a fist in her gut. She was suddenly convinced three people were out there in the storm. It couldn’t be ambulance workers. There was no way they could have gotten here that fast.
She strained to hear what the person on the phone was saying, but his words were buried under a wash of static. The voice kept fading in and out of range like someone was fiddling with the dials on a radio.
“Hello! Can you hear me?” Meg all but shouted into the phone.
As far as she could tell, there was no change in the pitch or clarity of the other person’s voice, but then she became aware of something else…another voice—a woman’s…and then a second man’s voice. All of them spoke over each other, sounding like they were part of a crowd. It sounded like she was overhearing other people working at the switchboard, or maybe the disturbances in the air were intercutting other cell phone signals. But she also got the clear impression that all three of the voices were talking about the same thing, and they were talking to her. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated, trying to make out what they were saying, but only fragments of sentences came through.
“… without you…”
“… waiting here…”
“… too long…”
“… in the cold…”
“… should be with us…”
“… not fair…”
“… only us…”
“I’m going to hang up now and call again,” Meg said. “Can you hear me? Hello? I’m going to try my call again.”
With that, she ended the call. After counting to ten, she dialed 911, assuring herself this time that she had dialed the right number. This time, though, when she put the phone against her ear, she got nothing.
Absolute silence.
After listening to nothing for a few seconds, she ended the call and slipped her phone back into her jeans pocket.
“We’re in cell hell here,” Jared said as he walked over to her. “I think it’s the steel beams in the building or something. We never get cell phones to work from inside the store.”
Meg glanced from him to the store window, only marginally relieved when she realized that the shapes she had seen outside earlier—if they had really been there—were now gone.
“I think checking with mall security might not be a bad idea,” Kimberly said. “Ty. Come with me.”
“Yes, boss,” Tyson said, glowering at being told what to do.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Kimberly said. “I…I’m really worried about Mrs. B. That’s all.”
Tyson looked at Bessie, who was still on the floor. Her eyes were closed, now, as if she were asleep. The corners of her mouth twitched and were flecked with thick, creamy foam. After considering for a moment, he nodded and said, “Yeah. Let’s go. Jared. You wanna open the gate?”
Jared snapped a look and then reached over Ashley’s head and depressed the red button. The gate rumbled up, rising slowly as Tyson and Kimberly waited next to it. When it was less than halfway up, they both ducked under it. Once they were clear, Jared hit the button again, and the gate dropped.
Tyson flashed Jared a hostile look for no apparent reason and said, “We’ll be right back.”
Jared had already turned his attention back to Bessie and Ashley.
“So what do we do?” Phil asked with a hint of impatience in his voice as he looked from Jared to Bessie.
“We wait until help arrives,” Jared said.
“I told you. She doesn’t need help,” Ashley said, sounding angry, now, and perhaps a bit embarrassed. “This happens a lot…and she’ll be—”
“You just said it doesn’t happen very often,” Jared said, but then he realized there was no reason to bully her and smiled at her. “Sorry. I’m just… You know…I can imagine this isn’t easy for you.”
Ashley gave him a “whatever” shrug and turned her attention back to her mother.
“I suppose we ought to get back to counting, huh?” Jared finally said.
“Are you nuts?” Phil said.
Jared shook his head and indicated Bessie, lying on the floor. “This don’t change the fact that we need to get the inventory done by morning.”
Meg nodded her agreement, but as she looked around at the store, she was suddenly struck by how totally isolated she felt. The hallway in the mall was dark and deserted. Tyson’s and Kimberly’s footsteps had long since faded away. The storm wrapped around the building like a heavy blanket, muffling every indication that there even was an outside world out there. And there was a sense of…something…something she couldn’t quite put a finger on, but the feeling that they were all in danger wouldn’t go away…and that danger, far from diminishing, was getting stronger steadily as the snow piled up outside.
Beneath whatever bravado Jared on anyone else might show, Meg was sure that all of them, to one degree or another, were frightened and confused by what was happening. She had expected that Jared would take over, and she was determined to do what Bessie expected of her, no matter what. She couldn’t let groundless fears get the better of her.
When Bessie let out a faint moan and started rolling her head from side to side, Jared knelt down beside Ashley.
“She coming around?”
Biting her lower lip and looking as though she was embarrassed by the incident, Ashley nodded. Seconds later, Bessie’s eyes opened, and she looked up at them with an unfocused, hundred-mile stare. Jared thought the pupils of her eyes were spastically expanding and contracting, but he couldn’t be sure. He could have been imagining that.
“Here,” he said, leaning forward and sliding an arm around Bessie, securing his hand in her right armpit. “Lemme help you up.”
Bessie looked at him as though she only partially understood. There wasn’t much space to maneuver behind the cash register, and it took some doing to get Bessie to her feet. At first, Jared thought they were going to have to carry her to the backroom, but Bessie came around faster than he expected. It wasn’t long before she was standing on her own with only minimal support. She stood there on shaky legs, blinking her eyes rapidly as she looked around as though not sure exactly where she was.
“You gave us a bit of a scare there, Mrs. B.,” Jared said good-naturedly.
Bessie said nothing as she looked at him as though dazed. Her eyelids made faint, wet clicking sounds every time she blinked.
“What the…” she finally said, but that was all. She let her breath out in a loud gasp, and by the expression on her face, Meg could tell that her aunt was beginning to put together what had happened. Bessie took a shuddering breath and shook off Jared and Ashley, trying to stand without their help, but they had to grab her when her knees started to fold up.
“Take it easy there, Mrs. B.,” Jared said. “No need to hurry. We’ll get you out back, and you can pull yourself together.”
Bessie started to say something, but then she stopped and, lowering her head, shook it from side to side like she was trying to get water out of her ears. After a few seconds of standing there with her head down, not saying a word, she sagged and, draping her arms over her daughter’s and Jared’s shoulders, let them help her down off the register platform to the sales floor.
Meg stood aside with Phil, watching with concern and amazement as Bessie, supported by Ashley and Jared, slowly made her way to the backroom.
“Jesus, what a night already, huh?” Phil said, but that was all. He had a thin smile, but Meg suspected that was to hide his own nervousness. Neither Phil nor Meg went to put some music on the CD player as they silently went back to work.
And the wind and snow blasted against the window.
~ 15 ~
Tyson’s and Kimberly’s footsteps echoed loudly in the darkened, empty hallway of the mall.
“Kinda creepy, don’t you think?” Kimberly asked, unable to mask the warble in her voice.
“You mean what happened to Mrs. B.?” Tyson said, frowning. He didn’t pause to look directly at her as they made their way to the rotunda that marked the center of the mall. They moved like thieves who had broken into the empty mall.
When they got to the central hub, Kimberly stopped in her tracks and, taking a shallow breath, looked around. The rotunda had a sunken area that was lined with benches and planters filled with artificial plants. It was about fifty feet in diameter, and from this point, the four main hallways of the mall radiated to the north, south, east, and west entrances, all of which were lost in darkness. The corridor heading south led down to the food court. The main business offices—and the mall security station—were down that way, about a hundred feet past the entrance to the food court.
“Yeah,” Kimberly said, “what happened to Mrs. B. and…and this.”
Her voice was hushed with awe, but still, it echoed under the domed skylight, which was black as night, the accumulating snow blocking out any possible light. All of the stores were dark. The gates were shuttered and locked, and display cases were pulled inside the stores. Motionless manikins stood in various poses in the clothing stores’ windows, looking like apparitions behind the glass. Out of the corner of her eye, Kimberly thought she saw some of them move when she wasn’t looking directly at them, but she knew that was her imagination.
“It is weird, here, without all the shoppers,” Tyson allowed, “but, you know, with the economy the way it is and so many stores closing, we’d better get used to it.”
Kimberly shivered again, stronger, and hugged herself.
“What’d’yah say we get a move on,” Tyson said, but she stood stock still, her shoulders hunched over and her eyes wide as she looked over her shoulder down the hallway toward the distant north entrance. There was nothing outside but a blank wall of darkness, and she shivered, thinking about the storm outside. There was no way she could see the streetlights she knew ran in parallel rows up and down the parking lot.
“It’s like…like something from the Twilight Zone or something,” she said.
“How do you know about the Twilight Zone?” Tyson asked.
“It’s just so…like the end of the world or something,” she said, but her voice drifted off dreamily as she turned to face the north entrance as if someone in that direction had called her name or gotten her attention. Moving slowly, with short, hesitant steps, she started walking toward the distant entrance.
“Umm…Kimmy…security’s this way,” Tyson said, hiking his thumb in the direction of the food court.
Kimberly didn’t reply. She kept moving toward the front entrance as though drawn there against her will. Her feet scuffed and squeaked on the freshly polished tile floor.
“Kimberly…?”
Tyson took a few steps toward her but then stopped.
“If you’re trying to freak me out,” he said, “it’s not working.”
Still, Kimberly said nothing as she continued walking toward the front doors. Her gaze was fixed on the doors and the dense blackness beyond because she could see something beyond inside the wall of pitch-blackness. There was…something…outside the doors…in the storm… More than one thing…two…maybe three shapes. She could see them pressing up against the glass as if…
…as if…
As if there were people outside, huddled in the alcove of the mall doorway, seeking shelter from the storm.
When she was about halfway to the entrance, though, she stopped in her tracks and, turning, looked back at Tyson. She couldn’t see him very well in the dim light, but he hadn’t moved from the central rotunda as he watched her silently.
Kimberly turned to look at the entrance again. Her breath came in short, burning gulps because it wasn’t just what she thought she could see outside that was bothering her. She had this…weird feeling that she couldn’t begin to describe, much less understand. It was almost like someone was calling to her from outside, even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to hear anyone who might be outside. She experienced a sense of desperation…and panic, but that wasn’t all she was feeling. She also felt like she was being summoned down here, for some unknown reason. She cocked her head to one side and strained to listen.
When they came to her, the voices were so faint she honestly wondered if they were her own thoughts or if she was imagining hearing them.
Yes… There was more than one voice.
There were at least two—a man’s and a woman’s—but the man’s voice changed and fluctuated so much she was convinced there was more than one man talking. These people, whoever they were, didn’t seem to be talking to each other. They were calling to her…crying out to her, their voices muffled and hissing like the snow that raked across the door windows.
“Do you hear them?” she called out, turning to look back at Tyson again. He still hadn’t moved a muscle.
“Hear what?” he said. “I can hear the heating system running and—” He turned his head to one side like a dog, listening to a high-pitched whistle. “If I concentrate, I think I can hear the storm outside.”
“No,” Kimberly said, her voice snapping like a whip. “The voice…I can hear voices.”
“You sure you aren’t imagining things?” Tyson offered. His voice echoed in the hallway.
Kimberly shook her head. She wanted to continue to the entrance doors and have a look outside, just to be sure. What if some homeless people were stuck outside…or a shopper who had missed the last bus before the roads closed down until the plows got out? Maybe they had been heading home when the storm hit and they were trapped, looking for shelter and trying to keep warm.
“I…I dunno,” Kimberly said, squinting with concentration. No matter how hard she focused on the doors, she couldn’t see what was—or might be—outside.
As much as she wanted to go to the doors and it check out—even if all she saw was the raging blizzard—she couldn’t force herself to move forward. Something was holding her back.
“Kimberly,” Tyson said. “We really gotta get going.” His voice echoed weirdly in the empty hallway.
Kimberly nodded, but still, she didn’t dare move, either forward or backward. Her eyes began to burn as she strained to see if there really was someone outside.
How could she live with herself if she didn’t make sure, and then tomorrow morning, after the storm, the cops or mall security or someone found a person, maybe several people frozen to death out there, mere inches from safety and warmth?
Her body tingled with tension as she took a few steps forward. Her eyes focused on the darkness beyond the glass doors, and as she drew steadily nearer, she was sure she could hear the irregular hammer blows of the wind as it slammed like unseen fists into the side of the mall. Snow swirled in dense, crazy eddies inside the narrow shelter of the front entrance.
When she was less than twenty feet from the door, Kimberly stopped and stared. Either she had been so focused on the storm outside she hadn’t seen the glass on the door, or else what was there was so indistinct it was invisible until she got this close to it. Whatever the reason, her eyes suddenly focused on one of the doors, and she saw something there that made her heart skip a few beats.
Impossible, she thought as a chill sliced through her like a razorblade.
When Tyson called out to her again, she heard him, but she ignored him as she took a few more cautious steps closer until she could see clearly what was there.
It looked like someone standing outside had traced some letters on the glass with a frozen hand or thickly gloved fingers that looked like a child’s scrawled printing. The message had been written backwards from the outside, so Kimberly could read it clearly.
WE DON’T LIKE IT HERE
~ 16 ~
Aunt Bessie was lying on the couch in her small office, her feet on draped over the armrest and bending at the knees. Ashley had folded up her coat and wedged it under her mother’s head as a pillow. Bessie’s eyes were closed, and she was breathing shallowly, having fallen into a deep sleep. The color was beginning to come back to her face, but Meg didn’t think the dark circles under her eyes looked good.
