by Z Hanny
They entered the area of the store set up with larger equipment and tools. Jennifer sighed when both Jared and Blaine hopped onto lawn mowers, one red and the other green. They laughed as they pretended to race each other.
“What is this thing?” Jennifer asked as she looked over a machine with a larger roller and pins in it.
“That’s an aerator,” Blaine said and left Jared alone with the lawn mowers. “They puncture holes in the ground. I think it makes it easier for grass to grow or something like that.”
“Strange someone would pay this much for a machine that stabs their yard,” Jennifer muttered. “What should I get my dad for Christmas?”
“Get him a hammer, hammers are always useful,” Jared said from behind, causing the other two to startle.
They walked into an aisle with hand tools hanging down either side. After searching for a moment they found a variety of hammers in different sizes and colors. Jennifer found two different ones she liked then took pictures of them with her phone. Jared hefted the heavier of the two in one hand, checking it out.
“We’ll have to come back for these tomorrow before we leave.”
Blaine and Jared glared at her before glancing at to the two men standing nearby.
She turned and walked the other direction and into the next aisle filled with power tools. Blaine pointed out the saws and then picked one up while pretending to be a serial killer from a horror movie.
“Put it down,” Jennifer said. “You’re going to get us kicked out of here before we’ve even made it an hour.”
“Not if you do it first,” Blaine replied, but set the saw down. “Let’s go see what’s on the next level.
They found the line of people waiting for the elevator and decided to take the stairs. The stairway zigzagged up to the next level, which opened to the floor with entire kitchens and bathrooms set up.
The kitchens came first and started with the most lavish, working back toward the ordinary ones. At the first bathroom set up, they immediately checked to see if the toilet worked - it didn’t.
“Too bad,” Jared said.
The shoppers that crowded this area were much older and eyed the teens, knowing that a few high schoolers probably weren’t shopping for a new backsplash.
“Do you think this place is really haunted?” Blaine asked, pulling himself up onto a counter in an enclosed area of sinks and toilets. “Are you two feeling any vibes?”
“I don’t feel anything,” Jennifer said as she played with an elaborate towel holder..
“I haven’t noticed anything odd,” Jared added. “Except your face.”
Blaine rolled his eyes as the other two laughed, walking off toward the final section of the floor that housed several slabs of marble and granite.
“How old is this place, anyway?” Blaine asked, directing his question to Jared. He was the one who did all of the digging around whenever there was a place of interest.
“Well, Craig’s has only been here for thirty years or so. But the actual building is from the early 1900s.” He dragged his hand across a large chunk of granite, making it elicit a loud squelch.
The man working at the nearby desk paused in his conversation with a young couple to stare at them. They hurried back toward the stairway and bypassed the line for the elevator again.
Chapter Three
A Run in with Security
They entered the third level and were greeted by several mannequins, many of them looking toward the trio while the others stared at other shoppers. Each one displayed a different outfit for the seasons and many wore heavy jackets.
“These things are the most realistic mannequins I’ve ever seen,” Jared said, getting in close to inspect the face of one. Blaine and Jen murmured agreements, checking out the detailing in hands and joints. Jared gestured for everyone to get together, snapping a picture with the clothed figurines.
“Some of these outfits aren’t too bad.”
“I’ll be the judge of that when we get to the women’s section,” Jennifer scoffed. “Can’t really decide based on how you two dress yourselves.”
They walked quickly through the men’s section and entered the women’s, where Jennifer looked displeased with the outfits. She told Jared to start recording and as he did she made several jokes about the clothing, pointing out how unusually real the mannequins appeared.
Jen played with the mannequins and shifted some of them into inappropriate positions. The group laughed and continued to film until a man appeared behind Jennifer. Blaine and Jared went quiet first, lowering the camera. Jen glanced over her shoulder, saw the man, and turned to face him, blushing. He wore a security badge.
“I’m going to have to ask you to stop that,” he said, crossing his arms.
Jennifer positioned the mannequin as she’d found it then looked back at the guard.
“Yes, that,” the security guard nodded, then pointed at Jared who still had the camera open on his phone, “but more importantly that. We have a strict policy against filming inside the store.”
“That’s strange,” Jared said and put his phone in his pocket with it still recording. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to a store that banned filming.”
The guard relaxed a bit, leaning against a nearby mirror. “Too many people come here and film hoping to find ghosts. Don’t let me catch you again doing that, or I’ll have to make you leave. Now, have a great day.”
The security guard walked off scanning through the groups of shoppers. Jared, Blaine, and Jennifer all glanced at one another as the man vanished among the other people. They went on quietly for a while until they reached the stairway leading to the next level.
“So... are we going to talk about that, or...?” Jared asked.
“He didn’t say that there were ghosts, just that people come her to film them,” Blaine sighed, rolling his eyes.
“That doesn’t really matter...it’s not confirmation but the fact that a security guard even mentions it is enough to get everyone on that brainwave. Am I right?” Jen prompted.
Blaine stopped in the middle of the children’s clothing section. “Okay. But how exactly are people going to know that the security guard verifying that people come in here to look for ghosts?”
Jared slipped the phone out of his back pocket and waved it around, showing that the camera was actually still recording. “Don’t worry,” he laughed, “I’ll cut out the part where you’re clearly out of the loop about what’s going on.”
Children’s clothing occupied the third level and the mannequins gave the group further goosebumps because of their small stature. Jared scanned the crowd for another security guard, then took his phone from his pocket and filmed the child-sized figures.
The group slowly moved through the actual shoppers, who took their time looking through the different racks of little clothes.
At one point Jen and Jared realized they’d lost Blaine and had to backtrack. They found him next to a bin full of stuffed animals, eyes on his phone, fingers typing furiously.
“I just posted an announcement,” he said, glancing up at them as he continued to tap away at the keyboard. “Checked in for the three-hour mark, and everyone is pretty hyped up about us being here – I didn’t realize we had so many fans who knew about the Erickson building.”
“Or so many fans from this area!” Jen exclaimed, on her own phone now and scrolling through the comments.
Jared scanned the area for guards, but he was grinning. “We’re picking up speed, guys. There aren’t many other paranormal hunters out our way.”
“Wait a minute,” Blaine said, leaning in to show his phone to Jen and Jared. “This one says, ‘just stay away!’”
“Is the poster’s name Charlotte? That’s who messaged me last night saying the same thing - “But Blaine was already shaking his head.
“No, this is a guy. Named Dante. Young, too, he can’t be much older than us. Looks like this place is showing up on his past work history.”
“W
ait! There’s another one -” Jen was scrolling through the comments. “And.. another...” Her eyes widened.
“What’s wrong?” Jared asked.
Blaine shook his head. “I think we’re being spammed somehow. Someone is just posting the same comment over and over, and it started right after Dante’s...”
Jared frowned, taking out his own phone and going to the post. Jen and Blaine were right. Immediately after Dante’s post, someone had begun posting JUST STAY AWAY over and over. No name, no profile pic. Just the same anonymous comment taking up the screen no matter how quickly Jared scrolled.
Jen glanced up at the boys. “This is weird, right?”
“Uh...guys....” Blaine turned his phone so that the other two could see the screen. “Dante’s profile just disappeared. I mean, it’s there, but look – all of the photos are gone, his profile picture, all of his pics...it’s just a blank page now with his name.”
Jen and Jared stared at the phone, hands hanging at their sides.
“It’s probably just a prank,” Jennifer said. “Something to scare us. I bet it’s the same person. What are the odds that someone like that watches our channel?”
“There is no way,” Jared said, unwilling to believe that any of their few fans were that cruel.
“It could be any of the guys from Seriously Strange Mysteries,” Blaine chimed in. “They are the ones who challenged us. And I’m pretty sure they did it out of spite – they've been trying to get on our turf for a long time now.”
Jen nodded vigorously. “Yeah, that’s probably it! They have more IT guys - “she glanced at Jared, who made a face at her. “I didn’t say better, I said more!”
Jared shook his head, but led them out of the toy section. “Come on, let’s get past all these people and get up to the electronics.”
When they reached the elevator there was no group waiting, so they rode it up instead of the taking the stairs. It was an old contraption with multiple lights out on the ceiling and dingy brown carpet.
“Should’ve taken the stairs,” Jen muttered, eyeing the worn out buttons. The door opened to the electronics level which flashed with lights. All of the sound waves were practically visible in the air.
The televisions were set up along the walls and on stands lining the floor. It was ordered by brand, so the various sizes looked like giant puzzle pieces. All three of them went to different TVs and paused to watch whatever it was that caught their eye.
Jared watched shots of a nature show while Jennifer stared at a muscular action figure, and Blaine was absorbed in cartoon channels. When they’d gotten their fill of zoning out the trio stood back and tried comparing the screens, claiming that one looked better than the other, but the longer they looked the longer they all appeared the same.
“Look, it’s a virtual reality headset,” Blaine said and pointed to a headset plugged into a television and two controllers. “Let’s try it.”
Blaine pulled the helmet over his head and Jared handed him the controllers. A menu screen opened up and he chose the option to ‘survive’. The game started, and he stood in a field looking at a farm on a dark and windy day.
A growling sound came from behind him and he turned to see a person made of shadows. It was so realistic that he actually felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. In the game, he stepped back before turning and running towards the farmhouse. When he got inside, he turned and looked out one of the windows, but the shadow man was gone.
He searched the first floor of the house and found it empty of people or furniture. When he reached the stairs and took a step up he noticed something peeking in on him from the outside. It vanished as he went to check on it.
Outside of the farmhouse stood hundreds of the shadow people in the dried-out fields. They moved erratically, too quickly to be human, and Blaine snatched the helmet off of his head, panting. He shook himself and handed the helmet to Jared.
“That is too real for me,” he said. “It is pretty cool though.”
Jared removed the helmet after only a minute of the game. Blaine was pretty sure he hadn’t even gotten the chance to look outside. “I really don’t like that either,” he confessed shakily.
That caught Jennifer’s attention. “Okay, I have to see what you two are talking about,” she said. “Let’s see what all of the fuss is about.” She put the helmet on with a smirk, but when she removed it soon after she wasn’t smiling. She actually visibly shivered and put the headset back on its stand, glancing at the boys. “Still not a fan of video games.”
Jared and Blaine didn’t say anything, too weirded out to ridicule her. There was something all too realistic about the game that put them all in a strange mood.
The group moved into the computer section and each of them used the limited internet that the laptops had for test-driving purposes. Jared found one with a great editing program on it and took a picture of the price tag so that he could look into it later.
They spent some time looking through movies and music albums before making their way up another flight of stairs.
The final level of the building was the toy section, which seemed like an entirely different store. All three of them paused when they stepped out into the main entrance.
Talking dolls and singing teddy bears lined the walls along with board games, card sets, and all sorts of sports equipment. Jared took out his camera and recorded the other two as they played through the songs programmed into the stuffed animals.
“Jared,” Jennifer said. “Don’t”
“We still need footage for the challenge,” Jared said, “or this is sort of a waste of time. We need to prove that we’ve been here the whole time.” He turned the camera to get a shot of the clock on the wall, which showed that they’d been in the store for six hours now.
“Hey!” the group turned to see the same security guard that they’d encountered before walking towards them. “I told you not to let me catch you doing that again.”
They looked at each other for an answer, but before they could do anything the security guard stood before them. Jared put his phone away while it was still recording.
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave the store,” the guard said. “I’ll escort you all to the door. Let’s go.”
They were ushered to the stairway and led down the stairs. On the next floor down the elevator was available, so they took it down to the ground level.
“You all should have listened to me,” the security guard said as he was walking them towards the front door. He shook his head, opening his mouth – but b efore he could say anything further, a voice interrupted on his walkie-talkie.
“Geoff, there’s someone trying to shoplift on level three. Older, white male in a baseball cap.”
He pointed the children towards the door, raising his eyebrows, then turned and proceeded back to the stairway. The group walked towards the exit but detoured and went quickly back into an aisle full of shoppers. They waited there for a moment, pretending to look at the tools on the racks.
They searched around to see if any other security guards were nearby and saw that it was clear.
“We never made it to the top level, and we’ve been here for six hours,” Blaine said. “I knew this was a stupid idea.”
“Top level?” Jennifer asked. “I think that was the top, there’s no other sections to the store.” She gestured toward a map nearby. “Look - toys were the last stop, and that’s where we were before Geoff snagged us.”
Blaine shook his head. “I saw another stairway,” he insisted. “Near the boardgames.”
“It’s probably only for employees to go up there,” Jared said. “A way to get up on the roof or something. We need to find somewhere to lay low for a while so that guard doesn’t find us again. His shift should be over soon if he’s working a normal eight hours.”
“Let’s go up to the kitchen level, I noticed a lot of nice hiding spots up there when we were walking through it,” Jennifer suggested, and she weaved through the
people and made her way towards the stairs.
They ascended the stairs and could hear the voice of the security guard arguing with another. As they hid behind a shower curtain, Geoff walked past escorting an older man in a baseball cap.
“You have tried this stunt three times this week, Ricky,” the security guard said. “When are you going to learn to either stop or rob us more efficiently?”
The old man mumbled as they disappeared down the stairs. Jared, Jennifer, and Blaine remained quiet while hidden inside the shower until a much older woman pulled the curtain back and laughed in shock, a hand to her chest.
They got out and walked away, but shortly noticed one of the kitchens tucked in the corner with a large cabinet. All three crawled inside while nobody was looking and made themselves comfortable for a moment.
“What is this even supposed to be?” Jennifer asked, taking out her phone to light up the large area. “Who needs this much space in their kitchen?”
Blaine shrugged and began handing out some snacks. They all quietly ate and snapped a few quick pictures of their hiding spot. Jared positioned himself so that he could peek out through the barely-open door and see if anyone was coming.
“Well, we are in this for the long haul,” Blaine said, phone held up and recording their dark faces on the screen. “Wish us luck.”
Chapter 4
The Top Floor
The group spent several hours in the hiding spot while they played games on their phones or read through random articles found on social media. The hope was that when they emerged, the security guard who caught them earlier would have changed shifts with another.
“Everyone, hold your breath for a moment,” Jennifer said, and Blaine and Jared did so. She tapped her cell and the light outlined her wide eyes. “It sounded like a fourth person was in here breathing.”
The others remained silent.