Mysterious Awakening

Tucked away in a nondescript janitor’s closet within the shopping mall, a group of terrified individuals found themselves huddled together. The beams from their cellphones had cut through the darkness, revealing tense and fear-ridden faces. Among them were Mr. Calm, Master Catch, Mall Manager Li, Sister Pear, who had just rejoined the group, and others. But the one who stood out from the rest was Ethan.

Currently, Ethan’s face wears an expression of utter dread. His eyes are locked on the door before him, smeared with his own vibrant red blood. This blood, stubborn in its refusal to dry, seeped down from the door in a continuous drip, pooling at their feet.

“The ghost seems to have stopped… for now,” Ethan finally released a pent-up breath. His pale complexion was a stark contrast to his blood-stained hands.

“Are… are we safe now, Master?” Mr. Calm’s voice trembles as he poses the question.

Their original plan had been to reach the fifth floor smoothly and exit through the emergency door. But the fifth floor presented them with a new challenge: all the doors were inexplicably locked. Just as they contemplated breaking the lock, a horrifying event unfolded.

Without any warning, someone dropped dead, decapitated. Overwhelmed with fear, they abandoned the idea of breaking the lock and scattered. It was Ethan who had led them to this closet, providing a temporary refuge.

But the terror didn’t end there.

From beyond the door came the thunderous sound of pounding. Something, or someone, was desperately trying to break in. It had even succeeded in breaking the lock. This was clearly not the work of a human.

It was Ethan’s blood smeared on the door that had silenced the eerie noise.

“Our safety here is only temporary. The ghost knows where we are, and it won’t stop until it gets to us,” Ethan declared. His current predicament mirrored a previous encounter of his with another ghost, and yet, he couldn’t discern what type of spirit he was dealing with now.

“Wh-what’s next? Am I going to die?” Mall Manager Li stammered, his voice dripping with terror.

Ethan scoffed in response, “When a real ghost shows up, your so-called feng shui masters are the first to flee.” His scornful gaze fell upon Master Catch, who was now a trembling mess, his false bravado completely gone.

“Master Ethan, we can’t just sit here,” Mr. Calm pleaded, desperation creeping into his voice. “The longer we stay, the more perilous our situation becomes. We must leave this shopping mall to truly be safe. Whatever it takes, just get us out of here.”

“Silence, is this the time to worry about money?” Ethan retorted, his patience threadbare.

He too was at a loss.

The ghost plaguing this mall was far more formidable than he’d anticipated, and his strength as a ghost tamer was reaching its limit.

Amidst the collective disarray, Miles ascended calmly, his hand clutching a flashlight as he rode the elevator upwards.

“Are you not frightened?” asked River, clinging to his sleeve, her eyes darting apprehensively into every shadow, anticipating a ghost to spring forth.

“I am frightened, but does that change anything?” Miles answered coolly. “Fear doesn’t protect us from death. If anything, panic draws the ghosts closer. Your four-day toilet hideout was nothing more than luck. But luck alone isn’t enough. You have to act.”

“To sit idle is to invite death.”

Their journey to the fifth floor had been uneventful, and a quick sweep of the flashlight revealed no sign of others. The only disturbance was a decapitated head at the entrance to the emergency exit – its eyes were shut, its face drained of color, and the neck appeared torn from the body. The sight was eerily peaceful, almost like a sleeping person, save for the lack of a body.

“This one was with Master Catch,” Miles noted, a hint of unease creeping into his voice. “The ghost got to him.”

Upon seeing the head, River had to stifle a scream, following Miles’s earlier warning.

“Where’s the surveillance room?” he queried.

“Over there,” River directed.

They reached the surveillance room without delay, where they found the door ajar, a key still in the lock. The lights were on, an oddity given the presumed power outage.

“Why are the lights on?” River asked with a puzzled tone.

“It’s not an outage. Someone’s turned off the mall lights intentionally. A mall wouldn’t usually suffer a power outage. If there really was an outage, I wouldn’t be in the surveillance room,” Miles explained, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Upon entering, however, they were taken aback. Seated before the monitoring console was a security guard, rigid and unmoving. Nearby were water stains, the guard’s pants hem damp, as if he’d just returned from a restroom.

“He’s one of us,” River blurted out before seeing the photo in Miles’s hand.

The guard turned at the sound of her voice, acknowledging their presence. “Miles, what brings you here?”

“Strong.” Miles’s face instantly clouded over. He still held the photo of a security uniform found in the restroom on his phone, a uniform worn by only him and Strong in the entire mall.

“That’s good; you two know each other,” River’s tension eased slightly. Another living person equated to a bit more security. “I’m River, the company’s accountant. Nice to meet you.”

As she moved to greet Strong, Miles held her back, showing her the restroom photo. “Take a look. This was taken earlier in the restroom.”

She glanced from the photo to Strong and back again, her eyes widening as terror washed over her. She jerked her extended hand back as if zapped by an electric current, quickly ducking behind Miles.

“Stay against the wall. Don’t move,” Miles directed, nudging her toward the wall.

Almost immediately, River pressed herself against the wall, frozen in fear. She was smart enough to understand the situation.

“What’s going on with you two?” A puzzled Strong approached.

“Nothing much. There’s a ghost haunting the mall, and some people are missing. We came here to check the surveillance footage. Speaking of which, why are you here?” Miles asked, his tone casual, though he’d already pegged Strong as a possible ghost.

“A ghost? I haven’t seen any. When the power went out, I went to check the circuits. I noticed the lights in here were still on, so I came in. You two showed up shortly after,” Strong explained.

“Is that so?” Miles continued cautiously, “Have you seen anyone else here besides us?”

“No, I haven’t,” Strong shook his head.

“Alright. Can you help me pull up the old surveillance footage?” Miles requested.

“No problem, I’m good at this,” Strong confidently settled himself before the monitor.

As Strong started scrolling through the footage, Miles eyed his damp pant leg. “Did you visit the restroom earlier?”

“No, why do you ask?” Strong responded.

“Just curious,” Miles casually replied.