It was closing time.

Deep into the recess of the building, my shake parlour was bathed in synthetic light—a beacon in the darkness.

I never had any customers at that time. Even the hardiest of bros couldn't stomach drinking a protein shake that had been churning for the better part of the day.

In my early days, back when the previous barista showed me the ropes, I had drunk some leftover shake as a dare.

It was lukewarm and chunky. I never drank another shake after that.

I was mopping the floor under the ever-watching eyes of the security camera, wondering why I bothered as the floor always looked dirty anyway.

Wait!

Of course!

The security camera must have captured the all thing from before!

Wait.

No.

For all I knew, the cameras in that building had never worked. Leon was way too cheap to hire someone to "just look at screens all day", as he would have put it.

Still, it was worth a shot.

I closed up the parlour and headed to the basement. I remembered that the security guards office was somewhere there.

A mall after closing is dead silent. After what had happened today, that lack of sound really freaked me out. Too bad Leon had thrown out Nils, the "ghosthunter" I could have used the company.

I made my way down through the main plaza. Like my parlour, most of the closed shops were brightly lit up—their cold light illuminating the dark, empty concourse.

I was completely alone.

I knew I was alone because Leon didn't believe in employing night workers, cheap bastard.

I couldn't help but feel like someone was following me.

I arrived at the staircase going to the basement. I was starting to wonder if going to a creepy mall basement at night was such a good idea. As I was walking down the stairs, the light started flickering. Of fucking course.

A memory came flooding back.

My sister entering the candy shop.

The sudden darkness.

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The fear.

I pushed it all the way down to the bottom of my mind, now was not the time for flashbacks. I knew that ignoring it would only make it come back stronger, but for now, I had more important things to do than try to heal my trauma.

I turned on the flashlight on my phone and kept walking.

The basement was massive and empty. I walked faster, trying to find the door to the security guard's office.

"It's on the right, behind the row of pillars."

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

I turned around, there he was, the handsome bane of my existence—the "forbidden" ghosthunter.

"Sorry, did I scare you?"

"No." I lied. "This is employee only. What are you doing here?"

"Well, technically, I'm not allowed in the mall anymore..."

"Hold on, did Leon ban you?" That was hilarious.

"Don't laugh at me, Ben, please. This is serious. The Veil has opened, and you're in danger!"

"I thought you were in danger?"

"We're both in terrible danger!"

"So, right by the pillars?" I changed the conversation before Nils got excited again.

"Yes, it should be right there," he pointed.

We walked to the door.

"Uh. It's open," said Nils.

Great. Not spooky at all.

"After you."

He entered the office, turning the lights on.

Inside was two desks, a mini-fridge, a water fountain, some screens. Potentially CCTV screens. I decided to take a closer look.

The walls were covered with an almost alarming amount of nudie promotional mall calendars.

"That's odd," said Nils.

"What is?" I knew he was talking about the calendars.

"The woman on the calendar."

Yeah, I had noticed too.

"It's the same woman on all the picture."

I looked at the calendar closest to me.

Uh.

The calendar was from 2007. The woman looked like she in her 30's, with big hair, a pointy bra. They probably went for a retro theme that year. Well, whatever.

I looked at the screens. They were showing part of the mall. But I couldn't make out which bits.

"Ben, look over here!" Nils sounded excited.

He brandished a calendar. It was opened on the December page.

"Yeah, so?"

"Look at the date!"

2020.

"And?"

Nils sighed.

"Look at the picture?"

The same woman with the big hair.

"So what? It's the same woman."

"You don't think it's weird she hasn't changed in 13 years?"

"Nils, knowing Leon, he probably downloaded a bunch of old pictures from the same model from the internet and called it a day."

He looked like a birthday balloon deflating. The noise he made was even similar.

"Aw, you're no fun."

"Dude, I'm trying to find a tape or something that can show what happened today at the parlour, and you're kinda in the way."

"Is that why you're here?"

Really?

"Why else?! Don't you want to know what happened?"

He fidgeted.

"I know what happened, and you won't find anything on those screens."

"Nils, if something..." I wanted to say "supernatural" but held my tongue. "If something weird happened, it would have been filmed."

"Look at it this way. When your sister disappeared, was anything captured on camera?"

My blood turned cold.

"What did you say?"

"Your sister, when she disappeared..."

I started laughing.

Nils shot me a look a surprised look.

I kept laughing, louder.

"Ben, I know it's hard for you to remember all that, but when she disappeared, you were the only witness, weren't..."

"Nils."

He stopped talking.

"I'm going to punch you now."

"Oh. Oh no. I don't..."

I went to punch him.

I could see it happen in slow-motion. My fist connected with his jaw, which made his head turn. It was painful, probably more for him than for me. I'm a scrawny guy, but the punch was enough to make him fall on his ass.

"Ben!"

"I'm going to punch you again..."

"Ben! Look behind you!"

I turned.

"What the hell?"

All screens were showing static, except one.

The one pointed at the employee door to the basement.

Then this one too went to static.

I turned back to Nils, still on the floor.

"What the hell is happening?"

"Uh. This is the part we run away, I think."