The day I met Nils is the day the world stopped making sense, again.

See, it was a regular, run-of-the-mill Monday. I was late for work. I work at a protein shake parlour at the run-down mall on Helms Street.

Yeah, I know, a scrawny guy like me making protein shakes? And who buys protein shakes at a parlour? Listen, I don't know. It's a job, and I needed the money. Truth be told, I hated working at the mall, that place had always given me the creeps. But anyway.

I was late, and I couldn't find my apron. I was looking for it under the counter when a guy just JUMPED over the counter and shouted: "Hide with me!"

He was flustered like he had just been running.

I said something along the line of "Get out of here!" but the guy just grabbed my arm and dragged me down under.

"Oi! What are you doing, get out of my booth!"

The guy just shushed me.

Actually no, he didn't just shush me, he put a hand on my face and clamped it there. It smelled like doughnut icing.

So when I said, "What are you doing?" It came out as more of a "WhmAmooDoming?"

The guy looked at me like I had grown a second head.

"Did you not see them? We have to hide!"

"SmmrWhm?"

"What?"

He removed his hand from my face.

"Oh, sorry. You were saying?"

I gasped for air. I wanted to slap the guy. But he looked genuinely terrified, and a feeling was starting to creep up on me. Like I had missed something big.

"What's happening?!"

His eyes went big, reminding me of the eyes of a cat when it sees another, bigger cat, or possibly a tiger.

"You really didn't see anything? Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, that must be really shocking for you!"

He patted my hand on the floor.

"We really must hide; they can detect movement."

For a moment, I thought about Predators. Then about Aliens.

What was out there that scared that poor bastard so much? I wanted to ask him, but he put both his hands on my face.

"They can also detect sounds. We have to be really quiet."

"WmmmTmFm?"

"Do you understand me, we can't make any sound."

I nodded. His hands left my face. I asked, "What are they?"

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"Definitely not people".

NOT PEOPLE? Holy shit, what was out there? I wanted to ask him if it was animals when I realised that I couldn't hear anything.

See, when you work in a mall, even an old decrepit mall like this one, there is usually a lot of noise. From the ambient chatter and muzak to the mechanical whirring of the escalators, it's always noisy. But right now, right at this moment, I couldn't hear anything but the sound of the guy breathing hard next to me. Like he was having a panic attack.

Then I started to hear something.

Something that sounded like footsteps on the tiled floor.

And it was coming closer.

I turned slowly to face the guy. He nodded at me as if to say. "Yep, that's it, that's the thing."

The footsteps continued to come closer and closer until the thing, whatever it was, stopped before the counter. Before my protein shake parlour's counter.

Then it spoke.

It said it wanted a protein-shake - blueberry banana - the BlueBana Hardcore Impact Shake.

Now you might say, "Wait a second Ben, there's nothing scary about a dude ordering a Hardcore Impact Shake, that's what you sell."

Yeah. But that dude's voice was...I can't describe it.

It wasn't a voice. And it wasn't a dude.

It was like the echo after a scream.

The sound that you'd think someone makes after saying their last word as they die.

The one just after they drew their last breath and their heart had stopped beating.

And you know the worse thing? I had heard that sound before, in a distant memory.

The weird guy next to me was crushing my hand in his. He was looking at me with an intense kind of look as if to say. You got this man, just keep still and keep quiet and don't shit your pants.

So I kept very, very quiet.

We heard a sigh, or rather we felt it. It was like a chilled breeze, suddenly cutting through our bones. A sigh of utter disappointment. It reminded me of my father for some reason.

Then retreating footsteps.

Whatever the fuck that was, was leaving.

The guy slowly released my hand. I had millions of questions to ask him.

I was about to say something when the music came back on.

Then the elevators started working again. Even a mixer I hadn't turned on started to whirl.

Life came back to the mall. I could hear people chatting and walking.

The guy stood up and offered me his hand.

"You must be wondering what all that was about."

I wanted to scream. So I did.

"What the FUCK was that?!"

"It's difficult to explain. Are you okay?" He looked genuinely concerned.

I wasn't okay. Some freaky monster zombie ghost thing apparently had appeared to order a Hardcore Impact Shake. How could I be okay?

"Please tell me that wasn't a zombie-ghost thing."

He smiled.

I realised there and then that the guy was actually quite handsome, and he had probably saved my life so felt pretty good towards him.

"It wasn't."

"Okay?"

"Well, not technically."

Oh. Oh No.

I didn't feel so good about him anymore.

"It was more like a vengeful spirit if that makes sense? Listen, I'd really like to make it up to you. It's my fault you got mixed-up in all this."

What was he on about? And also, vengeful spirit?

"Let's go get a coffee or something, yeah? I'll explain everything."

Uh.

Something started to ping between my two remaining brain cells.

"Haha."

He looked at me, puzzled.

"Yeah, you got me."

"Oh, it's not a prank."

"Yeah, really? So ghost-zombies are real now?"

However, I have to admit the guy was pretty gutsy to jump into my parlour and stop all the music and the escalators and the air cons. But then I remembered the voice.

I felt like throwing up.

I tried to think about it logically like Mr Spock would. He either is an incredible actor with an agreement to shut down the mall and a kind of flashmob organisation where everyone has to stay really quiet for 5 minutes.

Or there was a zombie-spectre thing roaming around.

I'm not dumb. Well, I am, but I'm not stupid.

No one has ever been invested enough in me to want to pull a prank like this. People usually ignore me and I do my best to ignore them back.

And the voice. It was not of this world, and there no way the guy could know. I never told anyone about it.

While I was giving my brain a workout, the guy looked around like Columbo trying to find clues.

So I said, "Let's have a strong drink, and you can tell me what happened".

He smiled again.

"Good. I thought you might say that, seeing that your life is now in danger."

Wait.

"What?"

He walked around the counter and looked at me.

"I mean, not just yours. Mine too."

I followed him.