The acrid stench of cigarette smoke and terrible body odor woke Sarah from her nightmare. She stood up so fast that the chair beneath her fell over and sharp pain stabbed into her brain, threatening to put her back down again. She scrunched up her brows and kept her eyes closed until the pain subsided enough to allow her mind to focus on her current situation.
When she was able to open her eyes, they immediately grew wide and her body trembled. There were a half dozen monitors in front of her capturing several angles of an indoor mall and every camera had a mannequin staring at the camera in various model clothing from sports wear to swimsuits. Their pale white bodies and lifeless eyes seemed to stare right through the cameras and into her very soul.
Sarah tore her sight away from the cameras and looked down at herself and her surroundings. The room was less than a hundred square feet, a claustrophobic’s nightmare, and had a wall of lockers on her right side while the left side had a short shelf with a coffee machine blacker than the coffee. A dark blue, form fitting security guard uniform with a baton hung at her waist donned her lithe body. She lamented the lack of a pistol or taser, even though she had never touched one previously. The movies always made it look so easy and even if she couldn’t use it, a ranged weapon always brought a modicum of comfort.
Returning her attention to the closed-circuit cameras, she noticed that none of the mannequins were within view now. Sarah felt cold sweat running down her back as she tried to calm her nerves. This had to be some weird prank that her friends set her up on. What was the name of that old TV show about being pranked again? Scare Tactics? That must be it, she rationalized in her mind and encouraged herself, she must be on a Scare Tactics revival. Thinking as much, she calmed down slightly and scanned the room once more for the hidden cameras and actors’ hiding spots.
Finding nothing out of place, Sarah decided to leave this room and figure out where she was first. Then she would start planning her revenge on her bratty girlfriends for setting her up. She also recalled the Morpheus Labs company, the doctor and the letter for a job. Were all of those pranks as well? She hadn’t even heard of the company before so how had it leased an entire building to itself? It must be an elaborate prank setup by Gail, that rich bitch was the only one with more money than common sense. She even rented out an old west town last year to play some ghost story drama with everyone for her 20th birthday. Reasoning it all out, Sarah’s nerves calmed down significantly.
Sarah exited the room into a long hallway with the stereotypical flickering lights and a resolved smile formed on her lips. Since she believed this whole thing was a mere prank, then she would play along and act spooked. She walked along the hallway with a fearful countenance with her hand resting on the telescopic baton hanging on her waist. When nothing happened by the time she reached the T-bone junction that directed customers back to the inner mall going left or the restrooms on the right, she let out the breath she was holding in. She was convinced now that it was all a prank setup by her annoying but lovable girlfriends. She opened her mouth to call out to them when she noticed a porcelain doll standing by itself under an umbrella in the corridor leading to the restrooms.
Squinting her eyes slightly, she noticed the doll had painted fingernails, a white silk dress, and neon blue lipstick with black hair. The doll had an unnerving smile plastered on her face and long lashes that blinked at her. Wait, did the eyes just blink? Sarah wasn’t sure at first and she blinked her eyes before focusing harder on the doll and then she saw it again. The doll really blinked at her and its small thin arm slid upward and began to wave at her. Then it took a step forward in its bright red heels.
Before it could take a second step, Sarah bolted down the other side towards the mall lobby. She didn’t dare turn back to the security room and the flickering lights of the empty hallway. The lobby at least was fully lit up due to the high sunroof windows with their slight tint for insulation. Rushing into the lobby, Sarah’s face went white when she saw all of the missing mannequins standing on the opposite side and staring at her. She turned 90 degrees and kept running, almost twisting her ankle, in a desperate bid to escape this frightful prank.
The click-clack of heels echoed behind her as the porcelain doll left the hallway and watched Sarah run past several stores before ducking inside one. The doll’s lips curved up ever so slightly as her body rose in the air, picked up by an adult female mannequin and held in one arm. The other mannequins moved with stiff limbs that held limited range due to poorly built joints or a lack of them entirely. Adults, children and even a few dogs gathered behind the doll as they shuffled, walked, or limped to the store where Sarah was last seen.
Sarah felt like she was dying when she turned into the first store that didn’t have clothing on display or missing mannequins. Her lungs burned and all thoughts of pranks were thrown out the window. If this was really a prank, then it was going too far, someone should have jumped out by now. She could feel the cold sweat drenching her back from fear and the trembling in her hands wasn’t going to recede anytime soon. She looked around and found herself in a sporting goods store that catered to outdoor gear primarily.
Turning quickly, she ran to the side and slammed her palm on the metal shutter operator and prayed for the sound of the motor to resound in her ears. Luckily, it came on immediately and the metal shutters slowly fell down, closing the store’s interior from the outside of the mall lobby. She thanked her mother’s insistence on working a retail job to understand how expensive her clothes were and how frivolous Gail’s spending was whenever they went shopping together. Few stores would use metal shutters lately, but the ones that were guaranteed to use them were sporting goods stores. There were simply too many potential weapons to have a simple glass door with a lock to bar potential troublemakers, even if the store owner was lax about security, the insurance companies would insist on more effective measures. The metal shutter was the bare minimum for an insurance company since the sporting goods store and its insurance company could be held liable for damages caused by stolen goods due to poor security.
Sarah closed her eyes as she leaned against the wall with the shutter button. Her nose wrinkled slightly at the smell of her own body odor. She prided herself on a clean, sweet smell and almost laughed at how shallow she was being for being disgusted by sweat when there were creepy mannequins and a walking doll just on the other side of a thin metal sheet. A thin metal sheet that was suddenly beginning to shake back and forth as if someone or something was pushing against it.
