“Oh please, it looks like fun.” Nephala cooed as she stared into the store while Mal’s eye sparkled with unsaid desire.
“Ugh, fine.” Fran grumbled, giving a small smile “It really isn’t that big of a deal you know.” but the two of them were already off, looking at the variety of stuffed animal skins they could turn into a new toy.
This store was more active than the others with various stuffed animals being dressed and undressed on loop, skins being picked up and put down, and the giant machine in the middle of the store still throwing fluff around inside of its glass container despite the lack of power.
“Is this creature friendly to humans?” Nephala asked, holding up a skin.
“Yes, dogs are great.” Mal smiled.
“No, that’s a bear and bears in the wild can mess you up wicked bad.” Fran interjected.
Nephala looked at the black bear she held and stared at it quietly for a moment. “Oh… like how the villagers treat me, they always tell others to stay away.” Her shoulders slumped.
“Erm…” Fran licked the back of her hand then grabbed a tiger plush, “These are dangerous in the wild too, but people like them. Maybe whatever you are is dangerous to humans, and they just haven’t understood your appeal yet.”
“All animals are good animals!” Mal said, holding two different plushie skins and walking towards the filling station.
In several bins surrounding the fluff machine were various add-ons. Scented sachets, small noise machines, little bows to adorn a plush ear, or tail. Mal was already digging through them, when the other two made their way over.
“What is this?” Nephala asked.
“Little things you can add, like sounds, smells,” Mal trailed off, a promotional bandana with ‘Bifrost Terminal Traveler’ written across the front held in his hand, ”Tourist trinkets.”
“What is smell?” Neph asked as she looked over the various sachets on display.
“It’s like uh…” Fran had no clue what to say.
“It’s a sense, like vision or hearing. Many animals, humans included, have some body part, like a nose, that can pick up on chemicals in the air, and interprets those as a smell. Some things, like these little plastic bits, have a smell people find enjoyable,” Mal said, saving Fran.
Neph blinked, “Oh, I don’t have a nose so I guess I can’t smell. I would like this one though.” She grabbed a package that had an image of purple flowers on them, lavender. “It’s purple, like me. So that must mean it smells good right?”
Fran shrugged, “Good of a reason as any.” She grabbed the same while Mal debated on noises to add to his animals. He chose meows for his dog and dinosaur roars for his tiger.
A ghostly employee was perfectly content to fill their stuffed animals for them, and decisions on how to dress the bear went about the same as picking out its smell. Purples mostly with disregard to any sort of fashion cohesion. Fran supposed someone that had been on the outskirts their whole life like Neph wouldn’t have any preconceived ideas of what looks good or not.
After they finished, they walked towards the door, new toys in hand. “Hey! You have to… pay…” The assistant ghost huffed, still tossing the fluff in an attempt for the store to look open.
Fran continued onwards, “Just ignore them. It’s not like they are alive.”
Neph followed the couple out of the store and down the corridor, “They seem upset, maybe we should go check if this is okay.”
Before Fran could reply, a ghostly hand grabbed her and Mal’s shoulders, “You're going to have to come with us.”
They turned to see an older spirit dressed in a security uniform, face stern, tired, ”I saw you three leave that store without paying. We don’t tolerate shoplifters here.”
Nephala seemed confused, ”Without paying? Is that something we need to do-”
Fran glared at him, lip curled back in the beginnings of a snarl as she jerked her shoulder out of his grasp, ”Shoplifting from an abandoned store, in a building we’re trapped in? How about the kidnapping us-”
The spirit glared, wagging a finger Fran’s way like he was chastising a child, ”I don’t know about any kidnapping, but I do have eyes, and know a thief when I see one.”
Neph’s eyes took on a concerned turn, ”Oh, no, we didn’t want to cause any problems.”
Mal rolled his eye, dug in his pocket before pulling out his wallet. He held out a handful of cash that would have more than covered whatever the plush toys they’d taken were worth, ”Here, just take it, and go ‘haunt’ someone else-”
The security ghost shook his head, ”Tsk- The terminal only deals in TITAN Credits, and even if you did have the right currency it doesn’t change the fact you stole-”
“Okay, then,” Mal shrugged, shoving his money back in his pocket before grabbing Fran’s hand and turning to completely ignore the ghost, ”Be mad about it, it’s not our problem. Come on Neph-”
The spirit sighed, pulled out a radio just as spectral as he was, and turned it on with a shrill static beep, ”I’m gonna need backup here, got a couple of shoplifters making a run for it.”
They were hardly running, if anything walking fairly slowly as Neph glanced back and forth between the couple, and the security officer. She was hesitant, but ultimately followed along beside Mal and Fran.
“Did we do something wrong?”
“No,” Fran replied, ”Well, maybe, if this was a real store you are supposed to pay, but this is an abandoned building full of ghosts, I don’t think taking anything here counts.”
“And it’s hardly a worse crime than locking a bunch of people inside a building against their will,” Mal tacked on, slowing down a bit as he thought he heard something moving much further down the wing of the mall.
Fran picked up on the sound too, slowing to a stop as all three turned to look down the long, dark corridor behind them.
Something was off.
It had been quiet in here from the start, but now even the faint murmur of sales ghosts was completely absent. Nothing jumped out of the stall at their side, and the few shadowy figures Fran could make out in the proper stores stood well back away from the glass fronts as they looked out, almost like they were too nervous to get any closer. Even the original security ghost was gone, leaving a black, empty void.
Except for the sound. It was so faint at first, the scratching of something hard against the tiled floor. It echoed strangely, like the sound was having to travel through a wall before reaching them, but as it grew closer it became clear that whatever was causing it was very much in the same space they were.
Fran caught sight of it first, vision actually able to cut through the dark. It wasn’t immediately clear what it was. She could just make out a mess of limbs, made all the more confusing by the fact whatever it was was somewhat translucent. An effect seemed to fade in and out as it moved, creating an odd overlap view of the beast’s entire body, organs and all. Any details on the head were nearly impossible to make out, too muddled in layers of visual noise. But the outline of the thing’s hulking form scraping against the walls as it moved made it clear that this one wasn’t like the other spirits they’d seen.
She could just barely make out the reflection of a silver badge secured around the creature's long, serpentine neck, a little shield inlaid with the word ‘SECURITY.’
She cursed under her breath. Mal and Neph turned to follow her gaze and started to see it too as it barreled towards them. Neph seemed more intrigued than worried, taking a step forward to get a better look even as it drew closer.
“Oh, is that a dragon?”
If it was, it wasn't quite so charmingly graceful and genial as the dragons in town had been, all muscle, and scattered uneven horns, barreling forward like an enraged bull. Mal braced for a fight out of habit, but felt almost silly for it. After all, he'd walked right through several of these things. It wasn’t like it could actually hurt-
Security lunged forward in a flash, and slammed a clawed hand into Mal with enough force to send him flying clean through a nearby store’s window. Fran’s flesh twisted in a flash of cracking bone as she transformed her limbs into those of a Cat of Saturn, launching herself at the beast- only to phase right through it, claws scraping along tile as she landed on the other side. As she turned to look in confusion the creature's tail whipped to the side. She dodged, jumping up enough to avoid the brunt of the attack, but clipping a paw against spines enough to understand it was solid. She would have been hit if it were not for her quick reflexes.
How was that fair? It could choose to hit them, or be completely intangible? What a load of bullshit-
Nephala wanted to check to see if Mal and Fran were okay, but Security quickly turned its attention to her. A great head split to reveal a mouth lined in rows of jagged teeth, and she ducked into the shadows when it lunged towards her. A clack of teeth against the floor echoed through to her in a hazy clatter, indistinct through the shadow veil, and its own vaguely corporeal nature.
This wasn’t good. Whatever Security was, it was attacking them, and had likely already hurt Mal pretty badly. She didn’t think people did well getting thrown through windows. Nephala reached out, and the shadows moved with her as easily as her own limbs, spreading forward towards the creature. Even as it seemed to shift back into a ghostly state the shadows could still interact with it, intangible darkness able to redirect the intangible dragon. She made a quick motion, and a great dark hand grabbed the creature by the snout in a flash of darkness, still a struggle to hold, moving with a fluidity that was difficult to fully keep a grasp on.
A black reeking mass erupted from the shattered storefront, gliding clean through the spirit before being dragged back, as Mal stumbled out of the store. He’d thrown off his jacket, leaving him in the sleeveless shirt he wore underneath. An arm had melted, writhing sludge riddled with diseased bloodshot eyes, and grinding teeth. It recoiled back, fading gradually back into a human shape as he tried to shake out the glass shards from his person with the other. His expression read as confused more than particularly pained despite the shards in his hair, and several cuts along his pants and legs underneath.
“What the fuck?”
Nephala emerged from her shadowy hiding spot, as Fran circled around to join them, her head and torso transformed back to allow for speech while leaving her limbs as muscular paws.
“We should try to get away from it before it gets out of whatever you’re using to hold it,” She said, voice deep and rumbling.
With each whip of Security’s head, Neph’s hold loosened the slightest bit. The nearby displays shook with the force of the creature’s thrashing. It would probably be getting out sooner than later.
Mal didn’t need to be told to follow when Fran ran, though he did grab Neph’s arm as he did, dragging her along as well.
“Why couldn’t you hit it just then? It seemed to hit you just fine,” she asked, continuing to glance behind them even as she followed along well enough that Mal felt okay letting go of her.
“No idea, but it’s not good,” Fran yelled behind her as she turned a corner, eyes darting between possible escape routes.
There were options. Fighting didn’t seem like it would work, but they could run or hide. They run far enough away that Neph’s grasp on her shadowy hold snapped. As a roar echoed through the empty mall, Fran opted for hiding, ducking into a nearby clothing store. Mal and Neph followed close behind.
Fran dragged Mal along to the back, knowing he’d be functionally blind with rows of shirts, and pants largely covering what little emergency lighting there was, and Mal had started to drag Neph along as well. She’d planned to hide in a changing room, but settled for ducking into a round rack of thick jackets when the sound of an angry beast got a bit too close for comfort.
It was a tight squeeze to not have someone sticking out, one made mercifully doable when Neph sunk into the nearby shadow.
Fran tried to still the jackets they’d just pushed through as the clack of claws echoed out from the doorway. There was a huff, the snort of an annoyed animal, and then the gentle rustle of clothes as Security stepped into the store. For the first time in her life she almost wished there was some obnoxious shopping music playing over the speakers as her own hushed breaths, her own racing heartbeat sounded unbearably loud in the silence that fell over the store.
Mal pulled her in just the slightest bit when the silence was cut by yet another clack of claws as it moved closer.
Neph, shifting through the shadows to get a better look, had the thought that the monster chasing them couldn’t actually see all that well in here. It craned its winding neck at awkward angles, seemed to lean in and squint as it searched behind the counter, slithered to check between racks of clothes.
Unfortunately the darkness that was helping hide them also made it very obvious when one of the few bits of light from the front of the store reflected off a fallen shard of glass.
Mal had been shedding small bits of broken window. The dragon caught on to the faint glimmers on the floor as it leaned in close, started tracing any faint reflection it caught sight of.
As Security drew closer, Nephala contemplated what their options really were. It didn’t seem that Mal or Fran could touch it, but Security clearly wished to harm them. She didn’t particularly want them to die.
Security continued its slow crawl forward until it was interrupted by the feel of something brushing against its tail. The dragon spun, turned to look behind it, and found nothing but the quiet emptiness of the mall. It paused, watched for a long moment, tried to hear if possibly one of the criminals it was chasing had somehow slipped out behind it, but it heard no footsteps, saw no evidence of any movement.
It moved back to scan the floor again, only to immediately feel that same odd brush against its scales. This time it turned fully, knocking over several racks of shirts as it did so. It caught the faintest flicker of a shadow, fading into the dark corners of the store, and stalked closer. There was nothing in the corner by the time it was able to crane its head over to look, but it then caught another flicker of movement just outside the store’s entrance.
Security let out a huff, now solidly annoyed, and chased the shadows slowly moving across the stalls lined up and down the corridor. The sound of ghostly footfalls slowly faded down the hall, distorted clacking of claws growing fainter and fainter until silence fell over them completely. Fran and Mal were in no real hurry to get up and check, deciding to give it a minute before moving.
They both jumped when a shadowy face with cheerfully upturned glowing eyes suddenly burst out from between the coats.
“I think it’s gone,” Neph said cheerfully, “I led it back away, and then it just kinda walked through a wall. I tried to follow it but then I was stopped by the same force that stopped me from exiting.”
Fran blinked, slowly got up to check, and found no sign of Security when she peered over the clothes.
“Uh, thanks,” Fran mumbled as she crawled out of their hiding spot.
“No problem! Oh, you might want to be careful though,” she turned to Mal, ”I think it was following the little bits of window that were falling off you.”
Mal stumbled out of the clothing rack, looking down at himself annoyed. He was pretty sure he just needed to change clothes at this point. He contemplated taking something from the store they were in, glanced over the racks of furry jackets, sequinned crop tops, and tiny shorts that absolutely weren’t suited for the weather outside. He decided against it.
Fran, however, seemed to have no issue with the clothing options provided in the store. With her prior outfit now lost somewhere in the mall due to her quick transformation, she was now pulling something blue and glittery over her head to wear. “Holy shit, thanks Neph. That thing was definitely some Eldritch creature.”
Before Neph could reply, the overhead lights turned on, then the store signs, and finally various displays and speakers. Ghosts flooded the walkways and stores, giving off a cyan glow as music and light seemingly returned all at once.
There was a yelp of pain from behind them, and when they turned to look Neph had vanished, her shopping fallen to the floor.
“Nephala?” Mal called, looking around the area.
Fran grabbed the stuffed bear she’d dropped, and brought it to her transformed nose. While Cats of Saturn didn't have the best sense of smell in comparison to other creatures, it was still much better than a human’s. She closed her eyes and inhaled, lavender filled her nostrils and not much else. Odd. Getting on her hands and knees, Fran sniffed the floor. Still nothing, at least nothing different from the dust and Mal.
“I don't see her anywhere.” Mal said, walking back over.
“Weird, maybe the ghosts scared her? Or the music?” Fran said, standing back up.
“It is overstimulating,” Mal said, “She hid herself fast, any ideas?”
Fran shook her head, “There's not a trace of her…”
Mal frowned, looking over the activity around him. Definitely some sort of hologram system was happening here, why else would the ‘ghosts’ only show up when the lights turned on? “Maybe she was just an actor of some sort.”
“Actors would have a smell.” Fran frowned, opening her bag and putting Nephala's shopping inside. “Just another mystery I guess.”
Fran paused, “I hope the lights didn't kill her. She was obnoxious but, I dunno. Could have made a decent ally.”
Before leaving the mall Fran tucked the black bear in a secluded corner near the now running water fountain where they had first met Nephala, and placed a note in its shirt. Fran had no clue if Nephala could read or even if she'd come back for the toy, but there was a chance and Fran didn't need a teddy bear taking up bag space.
