Leni woke with Lynn in her arms under a pillow fort they had made the night before. She looked out of an opening to see the store's lights had been turned back on.

"Lynn wake up" Leni said. "I think it's morning."

Lynn woke up and let out a moan. "Ugh, did we really just spend an entire night in a stinking IKEA?"

"Afraid so sis." Leni said. "I think that thing is gone."

"Hopefully, they only attack at what I assume is nighttime." Lynn said. "You know when the lights go off." Leni got out of the fort.

"Well unless we can find an exit, we may have to spend another night here." Leni said. "You just had to play football inside didn't you."

"What was that?" Lynn said.

"Uh, nothing!" Leni shrieked. "I was just saying we need to find an exit or we'll be spending another night here. That's all I said, nothing more than that."

"Yeah sure." Lynn said.

"I can't imagine how worried our parents must be." Leni said. She looked around and found a wooden chair. She picked up the chair and smashed it.

"Whoa Leni!" Lynn said with a smile. "Showing you wrathful side, I like it."

"What no." Leni said. "You wouldn't happen to have anything sharp on you would you?"

Lynn pulled a pocketknife from her pocket.

"Do you always carry this around?" Leni asked.

"You'd be surprised how often that thing has come in handy." Lynn replied.

Leni picked up a broken chair leg and started whittling it.

"Uh, don't you think you might get in trouble for doing this?" Lynn asked.

"There's a monster on the loose. I think if we explain our situation the authorities will understand." Leni said.

"Uh ok. So what are you even doing?" Lynn asked.

"Trying to make some spears so we can defend ourselves, from that monster." Leni explained.

"Wow, that's actually pretty smart." Lynn said. "But wouldn't my knife work just as well."

"I'd rather something we can use at a distance." Leni said. "I do NOT want to get near that thing. You wouldn't happen to have a marker on you, would you?"

"No why?"

"So, we can mark where we've been." Leni said. "So, we can like, find our way back her when the lights go out again."

"Wow," Lynn said in amazement. "That is perhaps the smartest thing I've ever heard you say. Who are you? And what have you done with the real Leni?"

Leni rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid Lynn. Sometimes I have some trouble comprehending things, and maybe I don't see the world the same way everyone else does. But I'm not stupid."

"Whoa I never said..." Lynn said.

"Come on Lynn," Leni said, changing the subject. "Ikea usually has those store things that sell like meatballs and stuff. I know this isn't like, a normal Ikea, but maybe we can find something to eat.

Or else I might have to resort to cannibalism." Leni joked.

"Psh, if it comes to that, we both know it would be me who's eating you." Lynn joked back.

Leni laughed, but then said. "I don't get it."

Lynn was lucky enough to find a roll of masking tape, which they used to mark their way. Sticking a piece of tape to each piece of furniture as they went.

Soon they came across a food shop. There were no employees, yet the counter was somehow full of food.

Meet balls, mac and cheese, and other Swedish food.

"How do we know this isn't like, poisoned or something?" Leni pondered.

"I don't care. I'm starving." Lynn said. She took a plate and started to pile food on it.

"Uh Lynn, I'm not sure..." Leni said.

Lynn took a bite of her mac and cheese. "Seems fine to me."

The two girls gathered some food, sat down at the nearest table, and started eating in silence.

"So... anything to say?" Lynn asked.

"Meh," Leni brushed her off.

"So, whatever happened with that Chaz guy?" Lynn asked, hoping to break the ice.

Leni looked up at her with a strange look. Her mouth was still full of food, and she glared at Lynn with one eyebrow raised. It was a look of shock, confusion, and irritation all rolled into one.

"I mean are you still into him or..." Lynn said with a nervous smile, her cheeks flush from embarrassment. "You never bring him up anymore, and there's that thing with Scott, you know from Scotland."

Leni swallowed her food. "The thing with Chaz, well..." Leni said. "It... it didn't exactly work out. He just... wasn't interested in me. Not like that at least."

"Whoa, whoa, wait." Lynn said. "He wasn't interested in you? Girl, you're like an absolute 10, and he's like... a 5, maybe a 6 at best."

"I don't wanna talk about it." Leni said.

Both finished their meals. They didn't seem to feel sick, so it would seem that they were not poisoned.

"Well, now what?" Lynn asked.

"Well now we keep exploring. We gotta find the exit somehow." Leni said.

"Hey look at that!" Lynn pointed to something that had just flown buy. It was a drone, one of those quad copters.

The two girls got up and fallowed it.

"Like, is that a drone?" Leni said.

The drone wasn't flying super-fast so the girls could keep up with it. But soon however the drone picked up speed and zoomed away from them and they lost track of it.

"Oh dang it." Lynn said, realizing they had gotten lost again.

"Looks like we need to find our way back." Leni said.

The two girls wondered around for a while.

"Hey Leni." Lynn said. "forgive me for saying so but, you seem... different."

"How so?" Leni asked.

"I don't know." Lynn said. "It's just. Ever since we got stuck here you seem more distant than usual."

"I do? Oh...Sorry." Leni said.

"No it's fine I just..." Lynn said.

The girls stopped at a grizzly sight.

"O M GHOSH!" Leni shrieked.

Lynn started to gag.

A man lay on the floor in front of them. He was dead, VERY dead. The man had been violently ripped in half. Blood and intestines littered the floor between the two halves.

"Oh no! BLAAAAHHH!!!!" Lynn couldn't hold it in anymore and she heaved up her lunch. Partly digested chunks of mac and cheese and Swedish meatballs landed on the floor with a sickening splat.

"Oh, that poor man!" Leni said.

"I guess he couldn't 'get out of the store immediately'." Lynn said

Then the lights went out.

"I think this is going to be us pretty soon." Lynn said. "We need to find another shelter fast or else."

Ka-thump, ka-thump.

They heard the deafening sounds of heavy footsteps getting closer.

Then a sound that chilled them to their very core.

"The store is now closed, please leave immediately."

The girls shrieked in horror realizing what was coming.

The creature rounded the corner and spotted them.

"The store is now closed, please leave immediately." His voice was so calm. Like an Amazon Alexa but with a male voice.

The girls ran as fast as they could but came to a dead end in front of some floor model washing machines.

"Leni do you still have those spears?" Lynn asked.

"No, I left them back at the food place." She facepalmed. She fell to her knees. "I'M SO STUPID!!!! We're both going to die because of my stupid forgetful brain! Why do I have to be like this?"

"Leni, if this is the end. I just want to say..." Lynn said.

"The store is now closed, please leave immediately." The monster lumbered closer and closer.

Lynn found her pocketknife in her pocket. "I might be able to hold him off..."

"That thing will kill you Lynn!" Leni said.

"Again if I die, I want you to know that I'm s..." Lynn said.

Then a wooden spear flew through the air and struck the beast in the back of the head.

"The... the store.... The store is now ccllllooooooooooo....." The creature twitched for a few seconds then fell to the ground dead.

Lori and Leni looked on with shock and surprise.

"You girls alright?" came a voice from the distance.

A young man approached the two. He looked to be about Leni's age. He had short brown hair, and slim body. He wore a blue flannel shirt over a white t-shirt, and blue jeans and sneakers.

"Uh hey uh... my... my name is Tom." He introduced himself in a British accent.

"Leni." Leni said shaking Tom's hand. "And this is my sister Lynn."

"That was a sick throw dude!" Lynn said.

"Yeah, thanks." Tom said. "I just got lucky I guess."

"So... how long have you been in here?" Leni asked.

"Too long." Tom said. "I... I do have people waiting for me back home. I can't imagine how my mom must be feeling right about now. I've lost track of time a long time ago. Months years, I dunno."

"Oh M Gosh," Leni said. "That's terrible."

"Say, you didn't happen to know that guy did you?" Lynn pointed to the dead man on the ground.

"Oh no! Dave!" Tom said. "Oh, that's so sad. He had a wife and three kids in the outside world."

"Aw, those poor kids." Leni said, she held onto one of her own arms. "They'll never see their dad again, and they won't even know what happened to him."

"Unless we can all get out of here and tell them ourselves." Lynn suggested.

"Well only like three or for people have ever made it out of the infinite Ikea in... ever." Tom said. "No one knows just where the exit is. Or if it even exists. Those few people I mentioned could have just died trying to find the exit."

Leni and Lynn exchanged worried looks.

"So, that means there are more people here." Lynn said.

"Yes, tons. I can take you to our village." Tom suggested.

"First thing's first." Lynn said. Pulling the spear out of the monster. Noticing that the creature had no blood. "What the heck even is this thing?"

"We call them the staff." Tom said.

"Wait, them?" Lynn said.

"Yeah, that's not the only one." Tom said. "There are hundreds, maybe even thousands more in here. And we best get moving, fast. The dead bodies of staff just draw more staff in. We can send a group to pick up Dave's body in the morning."

The three left the area in a hurry.

...

"Leni, Lynn, I present to you the village of Returns and Exchange." Tom said. "We call it that because this seems to have been the returns and exchange part of the store. If this ever was a normal store that is."

They came up to a huge area surrounded by a wall built of broken furniture, wood, and other heavy objects. Inside was what seemed like a fully functioning town with shelters comprised of gathered up furniture and wood. Groups of people, families even filled the town bringing it to life. At the center of it all was a massive tower that was unimaginably high, yet even that failed to reach the ceiling.

"Aw, such a cute little village." Leni smiled.

"I'll introduce you to our leader." Tom said. "Her name is Lindsey-Sue Phillips. But most just call her LSP."

"Why does that feel like a reference to something?" Lynn said.

"Come on!" Tom said, walking over to a wooden platform hooked to some sort of rope-based pully system. "Time to Take you, our leader!" Tom said in his best impression of an alien voice, with his arms outstretched like a zombie.

"This doesn't seem safe." Leni said, reluctantly getting on the platform with Lynn and Tom.

Two strong men started to pull on the ropes and the platform started to rise.

They reached the top of the tower to meet a young woman in a fancy chair made to look like a throne. The woman was about in her early to mid-20s she had a purple crop top t-shirt with a yellow star in the middle, skintight leather pants, and curly hair that was died purple. And she had a feather boa around her neck.

"Oh M Ghooosssshhhh! You brought new friends here." The woman got up to meet them with glee. "Tom you're like, a total hero of the Ikeans. Hi I'm LSP. I'm sure Tom has told you all about me."

"Yeah, he just mentioned you when we got to the gates." Lynn said.

"Oh don't be so modest." LSP said. "I know he couldn't stop talking about me. I'm like all he can think about."

"Uh, not really." Tom said.

"Oh please, Tom. Every guy here has like, a huge crush on me." LSP said. "It get's a little annoying sometimes. Am I right ladies?"

"I guess, I don't know." Leni and Lynn both shrugged.

"Yeah they're all like. Oh My Gosh LSP, you're like so hot!" LSP bragged. "If I remember correctly, those were totally your first words to me, right Tom."

"Uh no, I think my first words to you were, help, help me please. Mannequins are trying to kill me." Tom replied.

...

"Well, she seemed... Nice." Leni said as the three of them rode the platform back down.

"Not the word I'd use." Lynn said.

"LSP can be a bit much at times." Tom replied. "But she does grow on you... Well not as much as she thinks she does. But she got all these people together and built this town. So it's worth at least trying to tolerate her."