“Okay, here we go,” Tyler announced as Nami handed out the flashlights. “To the north this time. Still past the food court.” With that, he walked in, finding his way past the maintenance room to the court. Looking at each other for a brief second beforehand, Zoe and Nami followed him.
Nami didn’t bother with the mask this time. After all, she seemed fine last time, and even if she wasn’t… the damage was already done? Was that how that worked? She didn’t know. But what she did know, though she wasn’t sure why, was that she was glad to be back in the mall. Tyler was right, it was the perfect place to have an adventure.
And weirdly… in some weird way, she was glad to be breathing in that air again. It was probably the nostalgia, or maybe even the residual smells of the stores or something. After all, she did have a lot of memories of Jeremy in here.
Jeremy…
No, none of that. Not now. She had to behave.
In an effort to clear her mind, Nami started marching forward at a noticeable pace, earning a “Hey! Wait up!” from Tyler. Eventually, all three were matching her pace until they came to a break in the hallway.
“I take it this is the… uh… break in the hallway?” Zoe asked, her voice a little unsteady. Tyler flashed his light in her direction to reveal that her face didn’t show fear or anything.
That was good. Tyler didn’t want to admit it, but if Zoe was afraid, the whole team would be scared shitless inside of one minute. The security guard incident proved that handily. “Yup, this is where the north end begins.”
“Why is it called the north end, anyway? Kind of seems silly to break the mall up like that,” Nami piped in.
“Oh, I have no clue what they called it. I just call it that. I just remember the mall has three ends,” Tyler answered honestly. He shrugged. “Seems like it works.”
“Hey, if it works, it works,” Zoe replied, followed by a slight laugh.
Nami jokingly pushed Zoe’s shoulder. “You’re being easy on him today,” she joked.
Zoe scoffed. “No I’m not.”
“I don’t have the jokes, you do,” Nami continued. “Just remember that I’m relying on you to keep Tyler in his place.”
“I’m standing right here,” Tyler complained, then the three pressed on.
Nami cursed at herself under her breath. She really was too boy-crazy. Here the three friends were, back at the only adventure that was so grand, they actually went back twice, and instead of enjoying the moment, she was, of course, thinking about Jeremy. As hard as she tried, she could not get him off of her mind. She should not have made that association with him the first time they came to check the place out – Nami was sure she was now fully going to associate the mall with him.
She shrugged to herself as she walked. At least the mall would be one of many adventures, and at least she’d get over Jeremy at some point and inevitably latch onto someone else – like almost all of her other crushes, Jeremy barely even knew she existed. Still, she was clearly letting him get to her a bit too easily – it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes since they arrived, and she could already feel herself getting wet, and her breathing was audible.
Luckily for her, that seemed to be the case across the board. When she listened in the dark, she didn’t just hear her own heavy breathing, but three sets of heavy breaths. The air in the north end must have been thinner or something. Probably the lack of windows or proper filtration, even if the windows at the other end were boarded up.
“Be careful,” she said aloud just for insurance. “See how there are less windows here? I think the air is thinner on this side of the mall.”
“Is it dangerous?” Tyler asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Nami replied in a small voice.
“We can handle dangerous. We’ve survived two encounters with people. One of them was in this mall!” Zoe pointed out.
“Speaking of her, do you think she’s still here?” Tyler asked.
“Tyler, could you show respect for other human beings for once in your life?” Zoe asked him. “If she is, I’m sure she wants to be left alone. Plus she was at the other end of the mall.”
“Look who’s being Captain Presumptuous!” Tyler shot back.
“That’s ‘captainness’ to you, Private.”
“I was just asking if she was here. I wasn’t planning no field trip to see her! She can hang out in her home all she wants, but today, I ain’t going with her. There’s no one I’d rather explore this mall with than you two.”
Zoe laughed sympathetically. “And there’s no one we’d rather be here with than you, Tyler,” she responded in a faux-rehearsed sing-song voice.
Smiling, Nami turned away, looking up and down the walls of the stores on the north end. She also wanted to look away because, try as she might, she thought she was still blushing from earlier. She was a heck of a blusher.
Out of nowhere, a sharp “Oh!” from Zoe made Nami compose herself quickly then swiftly turn around. Zoe was standing herself up from something. Upon seeing Nami’s concerned face, Zoe waved it off and smiled. “Just tripped over some debris. All good.”
“You need to be careful!” Nami told her. As fun as it was to hang out with these two and go on adventures, there were no serious injuries… yet… and Nami would do her best to keep it that way. She looked on the ground and, sure enough, this part of the mall was less well-kept than the other parts. She made a mental note to watch her step.
It seemed the trip also took a small toll on Zoe. Tyler and Nami could tell that from that moment on, Zoe’s normally cocky, almost smug face was clouded with some kind of distress. Nami guessed that Zoe was upset at her own carelessness or something – despite making almost none of the plans initially, Zoe was essentially the de facto leader of the group during adventures, much to Tyler’s own dismay. She needed to remain strong.
The trio walked on for a little bit longer, peering into old book stores and shoe stores, their only company the haunting hallways, the seemingly eternal darkness and the heavier breathing of the three. In Nami’s case, her thoughts were really fighting to keep her company too, but she made her best effort to shoo them away.
“Hey Tyler, check your messages,” the dry voice of Zoe pierced the darkness after a weirdly long period of silence. The two of them looked up from their investigation to look at Zoe.
“You’re right here. What for?” Tyler asked.
Zoe shrugged. “I sent you a meme. Thought you’d like it.”
“Now?!”
Zoe shrugged again. “Or don’t, check it later if you want, I don’t care dude,” she replied coolly. “Just thought you’d want to see it.”
Nami felt left out. “Do I not get to see?”
“It’s kind of… crude, I can send it to you too but I specifically thought you wouldn’t like it,” Zoe answered.
“Oh,” Nami simply replied. It was true, she was the least interested in the spicier riskier memes of the group. She smiled at Zoe’s thoughtfulness and went right back to investigating a bolted-down broken cash register, with Tyler beside her, clearly taking Zoe up on the advice to look at her meme.
“I’m amazed we even get service in here,” Zoe continued. “Isn’t this place all concrete?”