The darkness enveloped us, rendering our surroundings impenetrable. Belisaria's hand clutched mine tightly, a mutual understanding forming between us in the absence of words. We stayed huddled behind the kiosk, neither of us daring to speak.

Seconds felt like eternities as we waited, unsure of what lurked beyond our hiding place. I had read somewhere that as you lost one of your senses, the others amplified to compensate for it. I didn’t know how true that was, but right now my ears were picking up on every sound I could imagine, from the beat of my heart to the ventilation of the store.

My body tensed. I heard footsteps, slow and deliberate, echoing in the dark. The sound drew closer, towards us. I dug my nails into Belisaria’s hand so deep that I felt blood coming out of it. I prepared for the worst, lips trembling and sweat forming on my forehead as a figure emerged from the shadows.

I couldn’t make out their gender, the features obscured by the lack of light, but they were taller than either of us. Their direction seemed erratic, as if scanning for any remnants of life amidst the desolation.

I dared not move, not even a muscle. Fear held me captive, paralyzing me from tip to toe.

The figure came closer. It carried a firearm, cradled against its chest.

My mind raced, attempting to strategize, knowing it was only a matter of time before they saw us. My survival instinct screamed for attention, urging me to act, to flee, to do something.

A metallic clatter resounded from another section of the mall, the noise shattering the fragile silence that enveloped us. The figure's head snapped in the direction of the noise, their pace quickening as it headed toward the source of the sound.

The sudden distraction had granted us a window of opportunity, and I wasn’t gonna let it go to waste. I motioned urgently to Belisaria, indicating we should move in the opposite direction.

We crawled on all fours, trying to make as little noise as possible as we navigated the floor.

While crawling was the safest option since we had little visibility and made less noise, we also had to let each other know when to maneuver over fallen merchandise, bodies and anything else that got in the way. There was also the problem of direction. The clothes’ shop layout was disorienting in the darkness, what were once hallways I knew like the palm of my hand became unfamiliar passages and hallways stretching into what seemed like infinity. Soon, we also heard gunfire, there was no timing to it, it appeared just as suddenly as it was gone. Yet another reminder of how vulnerable we were.

Still, those problems paled in comparison to the, by far, most important one. What now?

We had no plan, we were simply headed towards where there was no danger or, most likely, it was simply less obvious.

Should we wait? Hoping that someone had called the police in the midst of the chaos, or that they had escaped and carried us on their thoughts as they informed the authorities?

Or should we make an attempt to escape? The hardest part would be to avoid anyone, or, if push came to shove, confront them. But once we were out we only had to get to my car and put as much distance as we could to get to safety.

I weighed my choices.

I knew we had only managed to get away at the kiosk due to luck, but what if we ran into another person, let alone armed, that was hostile towards us. And even if they weren't, they could still be a problem, we couldn't know if they were unstable, or if they could physically keep up with us, or if they would leave us as soon as things went sideways.

There were too many variables I couldn't control and just keeping the two of us alive was difficult enough, I rationalized.

The other option was to wait, but then we just traded one problem for another. We needed to locate somewhere we could stay safely at, ideally it should be hard to break into but if not we could barricade it ourselves. Then, once in safety, call for help.

I stopped, reaching for Belisaria. I could feel her shivering, and it took me a second to realize I was too. Time was gold, so I ran the possibilities in my head for the final time, before settling on one.

I pressed myself towards her, before whispering, “We're gonna make a run for it.”

“Okay”, she managed to say, and I could feel all the strength she mustered in order to do so.

Now that I had a goal, I felt as if my mind became clearer. I had a solid thought of where we needed to go.

Firstly, however, I needed to recognize where we were.

Our run from the mall to the kiosk had put us somewhere in the front side of the store, and after we had left the kiosk we crawled to the left. Okay, I could work with that.

I started to move again, this time to the north, Belisaria following closely behind.

My sense of direction was rewarded when I saw the center of the mall, illuminated by the moonlight through the skylight and seemingly empty of any life.

We slowly approached the open space, aiming for the cover of an advertisement while keeping our heads down. We caught our breaths once we had our backs to it. Good, we were making progress.

I ran through my plan. There were two assumptions I was making here. One was that the attackers were confined to the mall and my car hadn't been hijacked. It was our best way to make sure we left this place quickly and notify others of what was going on. Running away, while technically an option would be useless if we were caught. Which led me to my second assumption. That those of us who weren't acting like maniacs were completely outnumbered.

From the very little information I had, I pieced together that the behavior of the people who were hunting us wasn't normal. The waiter did not react with shock to his actions nor did some of the others watching, completely the opposite in fact. Even the person that we had avoided earlier at the kiosk seemed collected. I also thought back to how easily the waiter had been able to pierce the eyes of the man with his bare fingers, and the legs of the woman we saw in our escape. What were they, superhuman?

Had it not been for the circumstances I would have laughed, the more I thought, the more I theorized, the more stupid everything sounded.

Regardless, I couldn't ignore the facts. Our priority would be to avoid anyone at all costs. If and only if, we had no other choice we would fight.

Just as I got ready to move, Belisaria tugged at me. Facing her, she then tilted her head to the floor. There were shards of glass all over. I understood what she meant. She picked the biggest two, dragging them towards us with the tips of her fingers.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Wait.” I told her.

I took off my jacket, grabbing one of the shards with the sleeve, then, I started to cut through the other sleeve. The idea was to get a makeshift handle, we didn't need any injuries slowing us down.

I ripped the sleeve off once I was done, giving it to Belisaria. She did the same procedure and gave me the other sleeve once done.

Armored up, we continued our way through the hallway, this time headed towards the main entrance. Our heads constantly turning, scanning the surroundings, ready to flee at any moment.

Can you feel it?

Both of us froze. That was the voice of a man, but something was off about it.

You're no longer in control, I'm the one who tells you so.

Not a voice, voices. Was that a song?

How do you like the roles reversed? Is it fun to be lion and not sheep?

The melody sounded familiar. But from this distance I couldn't be certain.

Come on baby, let loose, you know you want a bite of the forbidden fruit.

The lyrics were wrong, but…I could… I could get closer to check.

Take a leap and don't look back. Who's to say you've gotta stop?

Just a little closer.

Today the world is yours.

Yes it is.

So go ahead and make it so.

Ye-

A wave of pain spread over my stomach, strong enough that I thought I would vomit, just as I dropped to the floor.

I brought my hand to the place of injury, instinct taking over for a moment. Then I glanced at the direction where the hit had come from.

Belisaria was towering over me, blood pouring from her cheek, trembling- no, shaking.

I tried to ask what had happened, but was promptly shut up by Belisaria branding her shard of glass at me, not taking her eyes off me even once, and I recognized something in them. Fear.

I tried again. Ignoring the pain and raising my hands in surrender.

“I- what, what happened?” I pathetically managed to ask.

Her expression morphed, giving entry to another emotion I recognized. Confusion.

“You went straight for my face,” she pointed with a shaky finger to her cheek. “Almost lost my eye. Barely managed to dodge you.”

Did… did I do that? I had no memory of doing so.

“You didn't even hesitated”

“I- I'm sorry for that. I didn't want to do that. I don't know why I did that. But, can- can I stand?” I pleaded.

She took a few steps back, shard still pointed my way. There was no negative, though, so I slowly got on my feet.

“Look. We were walking in the hallway, when this song started playing, right?”

She nodded slightly.

“And then- and then, I just- I don't know, followed it. Because I recognized it, but the lyrics weren't exactly right and I.” I stopped myself, because what I was about to say next didn't even make sense to me. “I needed to check out why the lyrics were wrong.”

If my words had any effect on her she did an incredible job of not showing it.

I just stood there, anything else that I was concerned about before delegated to second place. Even as a thought formed in the back of my mind that we needed to keep moving, too much time wasted already.

Two words were enough for her to have my undivided attention.

“Turn around.”

I did as she said, not exactly knowing what to expect until I faced it.

It was the Glenn Pole billboard. The one that had all the little kids amazed, but it was stuck on the projection of the band, as they kept playing over and over. The same lyrics I had just heard coming out once more.

My head started to pound.

I wasn't myself. I wanted to ask my parents why couldn't they just stay together, I wanted to go back to my old job and tell any and all entitled customers to fuck off. I demanded it.

All those feelings were too hard to convey in words I knew. But actions were so much simpler. If I could just give as much hurt as I had, if I could-

This time it was my face that suffered the damage. Small mercies.

I blinked, returning to reality. Belisaria's expression still showed some fear, but it was obscured by concern.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

I didn't have any time to answer. Not that I thought I could have anyways.

From the left side of the hallway emerged a squadron of uniformed people. At first I thought they were the security of the mall, brainwashed and ready to fire at us, so I got ready to run.

Then I heard one of them shout, “Freeze!”

Both of us did, which, in retrospective, was idiotic. For all we knew, they could have just shot us the moment we heeded the order.

They surrounded us, ordering us to put our hands on the back of our heads and get on our knees. I felt a tug on my hands as I was restrained. A moment later, one member came forward, a lamp in one hand and a little book in another.

“Show me.” He directed at the book. He had a deep, growly voice. If I had to guess I'd put him around his forties.

From the corner of my eye, I saw some sort of symbol being drawn in it. He repeated the same process with Belisaria, giving his teammates a nod once he was done.

“That makes it, what, ten?”, another member asked.

“Eleven. Get them out of here, we still have to sweep the rest of the floor.” The older member said.

“Sir?” a female voice asked. “I think we found it”

The older member turned around, the soldier who had just spoken signaled to the billboard.

“That?”

“Yes, it just tried to take over. I'm surprised these two are still in one piece”.

There was more barking of orders after that. Five of them were to stay with us while the rest pushed through.

Our escorts made a circle around us, telling us to keep our heads down as we moved. I didn't know whether to be relieved or afraid. I knew they weren't police, after having seen the older soldier use that book on us, but they didn't seem to be hostile towards us.

We kept walking for what seemed like an eternity, until we finally reached the outside. The sky looked to me more beautiful than ever in its all-encompassing sight.

It was only when we reached an all-white van that the formation broke.

We were told to enter. Inside, there were another five people. All of them older than us. Three men, two women. I had never seen them in my life before, but I doubted I would forget them now.

Once we got finally seated one of the soldiers told us to hold still for a moment before closing the door.

One, two, three and more seconds passed as we waited for something, anything, to happen.

At last, the door opened. But the sight before us was wrong. For starters, the outside was white, fully bright in complete contrast to the scenery from a moment ago.

The other, perhaps even stranger vision was the woman standing right in front of us, fully dressed in a business suit.

“My name is Sharon Thomas.” She stated.

“And I'm here to help you.”