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They all exit the office in a hurry, and Rosie's flashlight wavers through the dark hallway as she continues looking back at Lena to make sure she's okay.

"Stop looking at me and lead us outta here already!" Lena grumbles at Rosie, causing her to nod wearily and face the path ahead of them. "You guys don't need to rush so much, it's not like I'm dying or anything."

"Still," Craig says, "you're hurt, and you're bleeding. This place is not safe."

Preston looks over at Craig with sad eyes and utters out a soft, "I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have pressured you to bring us all in here, Craig."

"Hey, it's not just your fault," Rosie hisses from ahead. "It's my fault too," she adds whilst leading them out of the service hallway and into the mall again. The group follows Craig down the mall corridors to get back to the store.

"This is all of our faults," Lena sighs while rolling her neck and shoulder uncomfortably. "There's no need for any apologies. I walked into this as much as everyone else did. We'll just not mention it ever again, okay?"

Everyone nods in agreement, finally slowing down their pace to a calm stride. Preston chuckles. "I can't believe I did that to your arm, though."

Lena smiles and lightly punches Preston's arm. "Yeah, it's kinda funny if you really think about it," Lena adds with a smirk.

Rosie laughs, feeling calmer and relieved now that they're closer to the store and making light of the entire situation. "Yeah, it could've been worse--"

Rosie is cut short when the buzz of the intercom clicks on. Everyone pauses where they are, just around the corner from the store. Preston looks at his coworkers with furrowed eyebrows.

"Did...did the intercom just..." Preston is unable to finish his sentence while the music volume grows a bit louder - as if to specifically mock him.

"It must be...some kids or something," Lena suggests with a wobbling voice. "You know, people like us that just realized they weren't alone and decided to f҉͢u̵҉͠҉c̡͟k̷̵̀ with us..."

"Yeah," Rosie agrees, "that's gotta be it," she cuts around the corner to enter the Darcy's wing of the mall. They all follow her but stop as the flashlights on their phones flicker off, leaving them in a dark hallway. They can see the small orange glow where they broke into the mall, but everything around it is pitch black without their lights on.

Lena hits the flashlight button again, and the light comes back on. Lena lifts her phone to shine the light in the hallway, but it flickers off again. Preston and Rosie try the same thing a few times, but to no avail; they're left in the dark.

"What the f҉͢u̵҉͠҉c̡͟k̷̵̀ is going on?" Preston growls furiously.

Lena gets fed up with her phone and decides to open an app with a white background. She turns her screen brightness all the way up, flinching a bit as it nearly blinds her. She turns her phone to face the hallway, and everyone's blood runs cold when the light reveals a shadowed figure standing in a dark corner a few feet beside the Darcy's entrance.

Lena's phone glitches out, completely turning the screen right off to leave them in the dark again. She barely notices this as she continues to stand like a statue with her phone out in front of her.

"What the f҉͢u̵҉͠҉c̡͟k̷̵̀ was that?" Preston asks in a sharp and high pitched tone. Nobody moves or flinches in response. They all stare at where the thing was last seen lurking in the dark.

Preston quickly rummages through his phone, seemingly on a mission until he opens up a newly installed flashlight app that he just downloaded with the Darcy's WiFi. He tries all of the basic lights, but they flicker out before he can shine to where the shadow was standing. He suddenly puts on the "LED Dance Party" light, and bright colourful lights flicker quickly from his flashlight. He aims it at the dark hallway, and it becomes dimly lit with the quickly interchanging colours.

The shadow is no longer in the dark corner, so he aims it at the opposite corner.

The shadow is now charging at them.

Preston's phone glitches off, and Rosie shrieks in terror. Preston quickly shoves his coworkers to start moving in the opposite direction, seeing that nobody was attempting to move. They all run frantically towards the center of the mall which is the brightest spot that they can see.

Preston slips in the same spot as before, but instead of grabbing onto Lena for support again, he lets himself fall.

"Run! Go!" Preston yells from the floor as they all turn around to help him. He rolls his head and stares at what looks like a red gasoline canteen leaning against the wall beside him.

Lena's eyes widen when she sees the shadow getting closer to Preston, and Craig does the unthinkable and swings his crowbar at it. It shrieks in a high pitch and shuffles into the shadows again. Lena and Rosie help Preston up and they hurry to the heart of the mall when they hear multiple shrieks from behind getting progressively louder.

Craig runs backwards, keeping an eye on his coworkers as they all struggle to keep up with him. Craig suddenly slips and falls backwards, screaming in pain when he feels his leg muscles snap in his thigh. He falls flat in the back puddle in the center of the mall, and Preston nearly leaps to his aid as he pulls him up.

"My Leg!" Craig cries out in pain as the three younger coworkers help him up.

Lena falls on all fours to search the puddle for the crowbar that Craig dropped. She quickly picks it up, and they all shuffle towards the center of the puddle to stay in the light.

The V̴͏̴̸̡K̡͞D̴̴̴̴͢Ģ̢͜R̀Z̷̵҉̢͞ shrieks echo through the halls of the mall, and the group snap their heads around, searching for the source of each sound. They all wait until the sounds dissipate to silence, only leaving the sound of the buzzing music over the intercom.

Craig's quiet moans snap everyone from a defensive stance to start attempting to aid him as quickly as possible.

"We need to get out of here," Craig says with tears brimming his eyes.

"How're we supposed to get out fast enough? What if whatever-the-hell that-was starts chasing us again?" Rosie cries out.

"The only way out has to be through Darcy's," Preston notes while nodding towards the Darcy's wing, "but that thing and its buddies are blocking that whole part of the mall."

"What about the other boarded up exits around the mall?" Lena suggests, nodding towards the hallway that leads to one of the main mall entrances. "We've got the crowbar, so we only have to break the barricades down just enough for us to squeeze through."

"We won't have enough time," Craig sighs while rubbing his leg tenderly. "Those things might catch us."

"I think they hate light," Rosie notes while shrugging towards the Darcy's wing. "Why else would those things stop chasing us the moment we entered the light?"

"Well, we can't stay here forever," Preston states while looking up at the broken skylight. Everyone else looks up with him. "The sun will set soon since it's f҉͢u̵҉͠҉c̡͟k̷̵̀ing winter. We're doomed if we stand here much longer if this is what's keeping us alive."

"I wonder if the power still works in here," Lena wonders aloud whilst looking for the wing that took them to the service hallway. "There must be some sort of generator in the basement or something."

Everyone looks at her with light bulbs blinking above their heads. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. Maybe if we can find the backup generator, we can maybe get the lights on in here!" Preston gushes enthusiastically. "There has to be power coming to the mall if we have power at Darcy's," Preston adds.

"That service hallway," Rosie chimes in, "I saw an old sign hanging from the ceiling that has a picture of a stick figure on a staircase with an arrow pointing up on it. Maybe it was saying the hallway ends with a stairwell?"

"Yes," Craig nods his head, "I believe there are service stairwells in those employee service hallways. I'm sure they can take us downstairs."

"What if we can't find a generator, though?" Lena asks, "or a stairwell leading to the basement?" Lena's wonderings cause everyone to grow quiet.

"I suppose that's a risk we have to take," Preston states with a shrug, "It's not like we have any other choice..."

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