The Collector

by Z Hanny

Jennifer squirmed around before reaching for the door. “Let’s get out of here, I’ve been in this tight spot for too long,” she said. “It’s getting claustrophobic.”

  They proceeded with caution and made sure that no other shoppers saw them exiting their hiding spot. They didn’t recognize a single face among the crowd of people and the light from outside had dimmed as it had begun snowing heavily.

  “Where exactly do we go now?” Blaine asked. “There’s still a few more hours before closing.”

  “Let’s check out that top floor,” Jared said.

  “That is for sure going to get us kicked out of the store,” Jennifer said. “We already aren’t supposed to be here now that we got caught recording.”

  “Exactly,” Jared said, “we’ve got nothing to lose.”

  Jared led the way and went up the stairs cautiously, checking for security guards before stepping out onto the top floor. They reached the floor with the toys and walked a few feet to the boardgame section, where they did in fact find another staircase. It was blocked by a chain holding a sign warning, ‘Don’t enter’.

  Several people stood nearby, within eyesight and earshot, so they waited for a moment when no one seemed to be paying attention and dashed up the stairs.

  The next floor was covered with countless machines for cleaning, some clothes washing machines, and shelves full of items used to stock the shelves for all the departments on the lower levels.

  Jared took his phone out and began recording. The lights were much dimmer, so he adjusted his phone to take a better video and filmed the other two as they looked over the stuff. All of them froze when they heard people talking at the other end of the room.

  They hunched down and found good spots to hide since the voice was coming towards them.

  “I’m telling you, Gavin,” one of the voices said, “I’m leaving now, I quit.”

  At this, both Jennifer and Blaine pulled their phones from their pockets and began recording from different angles.

  “But I need you and your crew to clean the building at night,” the voice belonging to Gavin spoke. “Mr. Hite, your company is the last one in town that will do this job. We’ll offer you double - no triple - what we are paying you now. Just stay until the holiday season ends and we can find another company.”

  “You can keep your money,” Mr. Hite bit back. “My workers are having night terrors from this place.”

  “Oh, come now,” Gavin said. “It isn’t that bad.”

  “The things we’ve seen in the shadows of this building while we clean at night is enough to make any person want to run and never look back. We are done, and we are leaving now, you can send the final paychecks to our main office.”

  “Mr. Hite, please, wait,” Gavin shouted, but footsteps tromped off and down the stairs. The man sighed. “You have to be kidding me.”

  Whoever Gavin was walked off and trotted down the stairs. Slowly, the kids stepped out from their hiding spots and glanced at one another.

  “You guys all got footage of that, right?” Jared asked as he clicked through his phone.

  “Yeah. What do you think that was all about?” Jennifer asked, looking from one boy to the other. “That guy seemed pretty upset.”

  “It sounded like he was maybe the night crew for security or a janitor,” Blaine said. “This place must actually be haunted if it is giving the workers night terrors.”

  “Either way,” Jared said and continued looking at the things in the room, “it means that there are going to be fewer people here tonight and that helps us out a ton.”

  “I don’t know,” Blaine said uneasily. “I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this. Maybe we should just go home now.”

  “No way,” Jennifer protested. “You can go home, but we’re off to a great start. I thought this was going to be incredibly boring, but it’s turning out to be quite the adventure. Besides, this is great publicity and now we have a worker quitting on film.”

  Blaine glanced between Jared and Jennifer, then sighed. “Alright, let's finish this. Can we go downstairs though? This floor gives me the creeps and I’d like to walk around again before we sit in a tight area for a long time.”

  Jennifer nodded and the three of them headed toward the stairs. Jared stumbled, still looking at his phone’s screen, and paused to get himself situated. When he looked up, someone was standing in the corner of the room.

  “Uh - guys -” he started, taking a step backwards and tripping over the edge of a carpet. He barely caught himself on a pillar, and when he stood again, the person was gone.

  Jennifer and Blaine were already on the next level down and heading toward the other staircase. He jogged down the steps quickly and found them frozen at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Come on,” Jared urged, putting his hands on their backs to get them moving. He could still feel his heart pounding in his chest.

  “I thought I told you three to leave!” a voice cried out from out of the crowd of shoppers.

  “Damn!” Jen exclaimed, “I thought it was him! What’s he still doing here!?”

  She and Blaine darted down the next flight of steps and Jared followed once he caught sight of Geoff making his way through the crowd.

  “You three better get out of this building now!” the guard shouted, trying to maneuver through the oblivious groups of people.

  The trio continued down the stairs until they reached the children’s clothing.

  “Quick! Separate, hide!” Blaine hissed, ducking and disappearing into a rack of clothing.

  Jen kept going, ending up on the next floor down. She hid in the only open changing room and Jared continued down another flight of stairs where he found the same nook in which they spent their lunch.

  His heart was racing and he kept the cupboard cracked just enough so he could keep an eye out. His phone vibrated in his pocket and he checked it to see that Blaine had group texted them: Guard just went by. Heading your way.

  Jen answered quickly: I just heard him come by the fitting room. He was on a walkie-talkie I think?

  As Jared slid the phone back into his pocket he cracked the door open a bit more. Geoff entered his view. The large man was looking around frantically and even asked some shoppers if they’d seen any teens running through. Everyone responded with a no. Appearing both frustrated and dejected, Geoff turned back toward the stairs.

  He’s going back up, Jared texted. Stay where you are. We’re not clear yet.

  The cupboard door opened and a guy in his mid-twenties looked in.

  “I didn’t rat you out,” the man said as Jared tried to think of some way to explain being crammed inside of a cupboard. “I know who you are. You punks probably make some good money off your channel – so cough it up or I rat you out.” He held out a hand and gestured toward Jared’s pockets.

  “Woah man, okay,” Jared said, digging awkwardly for his wallet.

  He handed the man all the cash he was carrying, and the guy had the nerve to take it with a smile, then close the small door, leaving Jared in the darkness.

  A few minutes went by before he texted Jen and Blaine. Where are you guys? Just got robbed...by a guy who knew our channel! Good or bad news?

  Are you kidding me, Jen responded. Be down in a minute. I heard the guard talking to someone else-I think he’s finally finishing up his shift, so we should be clear. New guy is some teenager, he won’t care what we get up to in here.

  Maybe we should lay low anyway? Blaine asked.

  The other two agreed. Get comfortable, Jared shot back, before trying to do so in the cramped space. How had all three of them fit in here earlier? Luckily, judging by what he could see from the cracked door, it was getting close to nightfall.

  Chapter 5

  Nightfall

  Are you guys ready to meet up yet? the text message from Jennifer read. I‘m starting to get really bored. And my leg is cramping.

  Jared peeked out of his hiding spot, noticing there were no security guards and the crowd of
shoppers seemed a little larger. We should be good to go, he replied to Jen before swinging open the cupboard door and standing up to stretch.

  “That’s a nice cabinet,” Jared said to a woman who stared at him with a twisted face. “Lots of room.”

  He wandered up the stairs, scouting through the crowd of shoppers for security guards like a soldier in war searching for an enemy.

  A voice came on over the store’s intercom system: “Thank you, shoppers for making Craig’s your Christmas destination. The store will be closing in thirty minutes. We hope you have a great evening and a happy holiday.”

  The crowd of shoppers seemed unmoved by the announcement and continued to search through the wares of the store. Jared noticed that some of the shop clerks were muttering under their breath as they walked by.

  He quickly found Jennifer and the two of them searched for Blaine in the rack of clothing they had seen him vanish into hours earlier. He wasn’t there, so they walked the entire floor before messaging him to find out what had happened to him.

  “He never messaged either of us back while we were hiding,” Jared said. “Maybe he found a new hiding spot and fell asleep?”

  “That sounds like something that Blaine would do,” Jennifer agreed as she called his cellphone. She paused, signifying that he must have picked up. Jared raised his eyebrows. “Hey, where are you? Okay, we’ll come to you.”

  “Where is he at?” Jared asked.

  “He is in the entertainment section,” Jennifer said. “He said he found a hiding spot where he could watch a few televisions. Should have known.”

  “You’re just jealous that you didn’t think of that,” Jared laughed, and walked down the stairs, still scanning the crowds for the security guard who had been warned about their presence.

  They found Blaine finishing up a movie on one of the screens. While they waited for him, Jared looked to his cell phone and realized the store was going to close in ten minutes. A lot of shoppers still remained.

  “You guys, we need to find somewhere we can hunker down for a while,” Jared said, “until the store settles down.”

  “Okay, I found a great spot. We can see the televisions from it and at least watch something while we wait,” Blaine said. “It’s over here.”

  He led them to a corner of the room with several projector boards which they could hide behind. There was plenty of room and a few places they could look out of, but they were covered very well.

  It took the shoppers a while to clear out of the store, but several employees appeared to begin cleaning as best they could. They moved quickly, seeming on edge, and they shut the lights down as the last few of them began to leave the building.

  The group could hear a conversation coming from the floor above them and watched the stairs from their spot. Darkness enveloped the room except for two of the television screens which slowly entered a sleep mode with a blank image.

  “After you’ve made a sweep through,” a woman’s voice said, “go ahead and lock up. There aren’t going to be any janitors tonight.”

  “Okay, I’ll make sure it’s taken care of.” The voice was half-hearted, and the group realized that whoever the woman was must be talking to the younger security guard. He didn’t have the same passion for the job as Geoff, clearly.

  “Also, if you see any trash can you throw it away?” the woman asked. “It would be nice for the openers.”

  The voices continued to talk, but they faded down the stairs. Jared, Jennifer, and Blaine waited for the security guard to return. After a few minutes had gone by, they heard an echo come up from the stairway – and then the sound of a lock turning.

  Jared took out his phone and began filming, then darted over to a window and glanced out. The security guard was walking to a car in the parking lot. His heart froze for a moment remembering his own car, but it was hidden amongst a few other stranded cars in the parking lot.

  The guard’s car started and drove off into the snowy fog. Jared scanned the dark room, then turned his phone towards himself. “The night is ours. Time to see if this place is worth the time.”

  Chapter Six

  A Playground in the Dark

  “Jared,” Blaine called out from his little hiding spot, “don’t you think that we should still lay low?”

  “Why?” Jared asked. “You heard that conversation too, there won’t be anyone here until morning. I’ve been checking the entire time we’ve been here, and there’s no sign of working cameras anywhere. Talk about a cheap business.”

  “The idea that it's haunted probably keeps most people away,” Blaine said. “But if you say so.”

  Blaine erupted from the hiding spot and stretched out as much as he could. Jennifer walked out behind him and stretched more carefully, rolling her eyes at his antics. Jared recorded them doing terrible impressions of yoga poses, laughing and falling over.

  “I need to eat before we do any sort of filming,” Jennifer said and ripped some of the food out of Blaine’s backpack. “Where should we start first?”

  Jared took the food that Jen offered and sat on a stack of boxes full of widescreen televisions. He ate silently while gazing around the vast room. It appeared bigger without the crowd of people swarming it like an ant farm.

  Two of the television remained on with the same screen that had been dimly lit for the past half an hour: ‘Please wait for sleep mode.’ The group finished what little food there was, pawing through Blaine’s backpack, disappointed that there wasn’t any more.

  “Well, let’s do a little sweep through,” Jared sighed. “Film the entire store, starting at the bottom and then making our way up to the top.”

  “We aren’t going back to the very top floor?” Blaine asked.

  “Well yeah, we need some good shots and to see if this place is really haunted like people claim it is,” Jared explained. He appeared to be bluffing for some reason. “We may be able to actually sleep in those beds at some point, too. I doubt we’re really expected to stay awake for the full twenty-four hours. Maybe we can keep watch? Switch out with each other?”

  “You’re already thinking about sleep?” Jennifer complained. “I told you to rest up last night! Come on, let’s get going.”

  The group walked to the stairway and descended to the first floor. Using the flashlights on their phones, they filmed and scanned out the furniture floor. Blaine and Jared jumped between the mattresses like young children, but Jennifer refused. “You’re leaving footprints,” she pointed out, and both boys dove off quickly.

  They found a generator which was out of its box for display purposes and considered moving it upstairs a few levels so that they could turn on a television and watch something after they’d filmed a bunch.

  The floor with the kitchen layouts was much darker than the bottom level since it had fewer windows and more things blocking any of the natural light.

  “Okay, this place is starting to give me weird vibes,” Jen said as she flashed her light into every dark corner they passed by.

  “The store does seem to have a different feel,” Jared said to his camera. “We should ask the store some questions.”

  “Ask the store questions?” Blaine asked, eyebrows raised.

  “You always seem to doubt me,” Jared said. Then he spun out in a wide circle. “Hello! Is anyone here?”

  Jared turned his camera so that it was filming the dark areas that Jennifer and Blaine’s lights didn’t uncover. No one answered his questions, so he shouted it out one more time and still nothing returned. He turned to face his friends, shrugging.

  “I guess I wasn’t really expecting a reply.” The trio wandered through the couch section. “What do you think would have caused the janitors to be so scared of this place that they wouldn’t take double or triple pay?” Jared turned to film the other two, who blinked in the bright light.

  “Maybe only one of the floors is haunted?” Jennifer suggested.

  “Maybe, they got sick of kids hanging out in the store past the clo
sing times,” Blaine pitched in.

  After searching the entire store, the group ascended to the next floor. Jared jumped when his light flashed onto one of the outfitted mannequins. He’d forgotten that they stood like an army on the clothing levels.

  He filmed them up close then spoke; “At least if it gets cold in here at night, we can bundle up with some of this stuff.”

  “These things are far creepier at night,” Jennifer remarked while looking over the mannequins.

  “Jen, everything is going to be creepier at night,” Blaine laughed at her. “Guys, I’m already getting bored, let's hurry this up so we can try and get to doing some fun stuff or go to bed.”

  “Just zap the fun right out of the air,” Jared said. “Well, this place does that itself, but you aren’t helping.”

  They ascended the next few stairs with nothing to find but more shadows and silence. When they came to the electronic section, they found it to be more lit up than when they’d left it. Several of the televisions were on, even though the screens were darkened in a sleep mode.

  “That’s sort of strange that those televisions are on now,” Jennifer said while all three of them got good shots of them. “Do you think someone or something turned those on?”

  “Probably not,” Jared said. “This is an old building, it probably has some electrical problems. That would be a good explanation to why people might think it is haunted. Flickering lights always seems to scare people away.”

  “Too bad the VR headset doesn’t have power to it,” Blaine groused, looking at the darkened machine he’d tried earlier. “That would be a good way to spend the night here.”

  “You don’t remember how creeped out we all were by that thing?” Jen asked.

  “Come on, let’s keep going.” Jared led the way to the next flight of stairs up.

  Jennifer and Blaine followed and when they reached the top, they found him filming an odd arrangement of teddy bears. They were set up to stare right at the stairway and sat on the edge of ledges individually where they shouldn’t have been.