"Ok, we're here, so we have to be careful."

Brick, Lester, and Basil walk into the mall. Brick looks over, vigilantly, eyes sharp while Lester and Basil look at him confused.

"What do you mean that we need to be careful," Lester said looking at Brick. He then looks around the grocery store.

The inside of the mall was massive, with multiple stores, people walking around shopping. At the end of the mall was the grocery store.

"We need to be careful because if the people in this are ruthless," Brick said. "If you even get distracted by the other stores, you'll walk out of this mall with no money in your pocket." He stretches and began preparing himself to get to the grocery store.

"I fell for their tricks and lost my money many times," Brick said. "So, if we want to get our groceries, we're gonna need to be very, very, careful."

"They can't be th—" Basil starts to say before he cut off by Brick.

"You do not know the terror of this mall! For you have never lost your money to this godforsaken mall!" Brick interrupted.

"Oh...Ok," Brick said.

"Yeah...Let's get this over with," Lester said. He began to walk toward the grocery store before he was stopped by Brick.

"What?" Lester said irritated.

"Wear this and follow me." Brick said. He hands Lester and Basil two red caps and crept to the grocery store in the middle of the mall with Lester and Basil following him.

They walk through crowds, pushing through people as the other stores were telling people why they should shop in their stores.

"Here at Johnny's Restaurant, we serve the best noodles in all of Rustbrough!" Someone yells.

"Come to Sugar Road for the best treats you'll have!"

"...Legend Leather for the most fashionable, and sturdy clothing that even gold adventurers wear!"

Basil listens and sniffs the air, smelling delicious foods. However, he did not rush toward the direction of where the smell of the food comes from.

After all, he wasn't that in love with food, also, he was full.

Brick on the other hand...

Dozens of people were surrounding him trying to get him to enter their stores with enticing offers. Brick covers his ears and hurries away from them, pushing through the crowd.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Seeing this, the store people went to bother other people.

Lester grumbles as he pushes past other people causing them to get annoyed. "Why the hell are there so many people in here?" He grumbles. "There are more stores to shop in and isn't th—huh?" Lester notices something and looks around the crowd.

"Where're Basil and Brick?"

"Hmm? Where are the other?" Basil tried to look for Brick and Lester or for a hint of a red cap but couldn't see through the sea of people that were walking around.

Basil began pushing through the crowd in search of his friend.

"Damn, there's a lot more people than usual," Brick said. He then notices that Lester and Basil were being quiet far too quiet.

"Hey, guys? You there?" Brick said turning around. Lester and Basil were not behind or beside him.

"Fuck." Brick push through the crowd, jumping to get a better view. He was not able to get a hint of the two nor the red caps that he had handed to them.

After a while of pushing and jumping, he noticed that all he could were people, no stores, no walls, and no ceiling and it was quiet with no sound being made at all even with the large amount of people that were here.

"What's the fuck going?"

Lester tried asking other people if they had seen his friends but no matter what, they would answer him and would just ignore him.

After a while, Lest"er gave up and put his hand on someone's shoulder and shake them to get their attention. However, even with that, the person ignore him and tried to walk away.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me!" Lester yells. He pulls the person to face him only to back away and bump into another person who ignores him.

The person's face was stitched together, their skin was pale like that of the dead, and their eyes had no color in them.

"What the fuck?" Lester curses, he looks around to another person who also looks the same guy that he had grab expect they had a stab wound on their throat.

"I need to find the other, quickly," Lester said. "Why, I can call Peter location." He searches through his pockets for his phone. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Lester began to call Peter.

"Come on, come on...Huh?" Lester saw that the crowd of people were walking to him, holding their hands out. "Wait! What the fuck are you doing!"

They crowded him silencing him, causing him to drop his phone and were dragging him somewhere.

"Lester! Brick!" Basil was shouting out for them, but no one answers his calls. "Just where are they?" He asks scratching his head.

He then felt something bump into him. Basil turns around to see a woman walking into him, face buried into him.

"What are you doing?" Basil asks as he pushes the lady away from him. What he saw shocked him.

The woman's face was burned, skin gray, and scars covering her face. The woman groans.

Basil starts to back up and bump into something. He turns round to see a giant person who had stitches showing on his neck, his skin pale, eyes sunken, muscles, and was bigger than a truck.

The man punches Basil in the face, and then again and again until he was knock out with a broken and bloody nose. Basil slump and the man began dragging him somewhere.

Brick heard a loud smack. He turns and only saw the crowd of people moving like waves in an ocean.

He trip and fall. With a groan, Brick lifts his head as he felt like someone was staring at him. He look up to see a group of people staring down at him.

They all had pale or grey skin, dull eyes, stitches, and didn't a single noise as they look at him.

"What the fu—" Brick was unable to finish his sentence as he kicks in the face and lift up and was carried to somewhere else.

A phone on the ground was ringing before it stops as someone answered.

"Hey, Lester, what's up? Lester? Lester, are you there? Lester! Basil! Lupin! Drake! Hello! Anyone! Fuck, I'll try to find you."