Halloween: The Mall

[qhostqrowls]

[Kail continues with Moana and Sam, attempts to check out the fountain area]

Kail laughed at Moanas words, and for once it wasn’t as raucous as usual. He didn’t want to draw too much attention to their little group. He glanced over his shoulder, noting how the agent was fussing over the odd old woman, and Casmir was still talking to the visibly upset teens.

He rolled his eyes, glancing back to the food area they were now approaching. It took him a minute to read over the signs, but his brow furrowed as he looked up at Dairy King. Wasn’t it supposed to be Queen?

“These names ain’t right, yeah? They knock-off stores or something?”

“Yeah, it’s weird. Maybe it’s a mall theme?” Moana supplied.



“I’m gonna check out the fountain real quick.” He said, and stalked off down the corridor towards the area. The first entrance had been blocked off for construction, and if there were any more barriers he wanted to see if he could haul himself up enough to look over. Or if it was those canvas-type dividers, he could always slash a hole through it.

[kilnarak]

Moana, Kail, and Sam find their path clear down the hallway. They make a right, headed past the bathrooms - the women's bathroom door is slightly ajar - and down toward the food court. They pass Valuetino's pizza and Pick Up Stix first, while across from them is a place called Dogz with a weiner dog in a bun for a mascot. Turning right again to head toward the fountain they find their way once again blocked by a shutter. "Under Renovation!" it reads, and there is a picture of a fountain on this poster, a singing mermaid with dolphins spitting water around her, and some rather... 80's looking neon geometric shapes. There appear to be people in line in Dairy King and Got Beef, but the other restaurants appear fairly empty. The door to Happy Burger is propped open and looking inside there doesn't appear to be anyone behind the counter - but the lights are bright and on and upbeat music is playing inside.

Looking in Valuetino's, Moana finds a cardboard cut out of a stereotypical 'Italian Chef' just inside the door. The interior is fairly small, all things considered, with no real seating area. There is a young man behind the register and a hint of movement past the kitchen doors behind him. The man at the register appears to be wiping down the counter. It doesn't look like anyone is interested in buying a pizza just now.

Casimir finds that the teens only seem to be growing more agitated. The girl's voice rises in a hysterical pitch: "I don't know you!" Her nails are digging into the boy's arm to the point that they have drawn blood. The boy doesn't seem at all bothered by this, although he does take a half-step toward Casimir, his stance aggressive. "What do you want!?" His eyes are wide and slightly bloodshot, his expression aggressive and ugly. He looks like he might start throwing punches. He doesn't respond at all to what Casimir is saying - it's almost as if he isn't hearing him, or is hearing and seeing something else instead of him.

Not so far away from Casimir and the teens, the older woman smiles at Stenson as he gestures for her to turn around and move back into the store. She takes one of his arms and pats it and waits for him to lead. "I'm waiting. For my son." She sounds slightly mollified. When he begins to lead her back inside, she abruptly yanks the straw out of her drink and, thumb covering one end, jabs it hard into his arm. Hard enough to bruise, a little harder and it might have drawn blood but he can feel the fabric of his sleeve give under the assault and she laughs, gleeful. "MY SON!" The black liquid in the cup spills across the floor as she drops it, thick and opaque, more viscous than cola.

[NightshadeVII]

(OOC: Sam tells Moana and Kail to call on him if there’s trouble or they need help, he then checks out Happy Burger.)

Sam listened to the other two’s conversation quietly. The signs were wrong? He never would have noticed, but now that it was pointed out, it only added to the strangeness of the place. Of course, many strange things happened in Wathais, but this seemed different.

Seeing the group splitting up, each to investigate their own thing, Samael spoke up. His voice was still hoarse, but more so a whisper now, to make sure his words would only be heard by the little group.
“Call on me if there’s any trouble, or you need help. Don’t take unnecessary risks. I’ll check that empty restaurant.”
There was something about his tone that might be odd to those used to speaking with humans, an unnatural flatness, like his vocal chords didn’t work quite right. Still, it was clear he meant what he said.

Then, with a nod, Samael headed towards the empty restaurant. Happy burger was it? Weird name.
By the looks of it, he probably wouldn’t find much, considering the store was empty of both staff and customers, but maybe there could be some other information to be gathered. Either way, he’d rather deal with an empty store than one full of people.

[Pearl Dragon]

[Stenson is caught unaware by the sudden attack and chooses another approach. He lets go and instructs the woman to wait where she is, opting instead to hurry into the H&M to find either her son, or an employee, who can better help her. Perhaps someone with a working phone. He notices the very-wrong cola drink as well, and is concerned by how it looks.]

Stenson was pleased when the woman seemed to comply with his suggestion to re-enter the store, and had even taken his offered arm to allow him to guide her back towards H&M. She still hadn't given him a description of the man in question, instead simply repeating her statement of waiting for her son as they turned to walk.

However, the mood took an abrupt turn as the woman suddenly pulled the straw from her drink and brought it down like a knife towards Stenson's arm while her drink dropped to the ground with a thick splutter. It was, for the most part, a harmless assault, succeeding mostly in causing a painful bruise at worst as his shirt sleeve gave and the straw more or less glanced off rather than breaking skin. Still, it was completely unexpected and Stenson reflexively pulled his arm away from her grip and held his hands up in disarming surrender. "Hey hey, woah! I'm sorry, ma'am... Hey look, why don't you wait right here and I'll run in real quick to find your son, ok?" he said, backing away from the woman now and towards the store. Off-duty, there was only so much he could do on his own especially for someone who was mentally ill and physically unpredictable. Now was the time to at least find an employee with a working phone, or very hopefully the lost woman's son.

As he continued to back away, his eyes dropped to the cola drink now splattered across the mall floor, more concern crossing his face. That was definitely not cola, or any type of appetizing drink he'd ever seen. It's thick, opaque viscosity was...alarming at best. He wondered if perhaps that might be why she seemed unwell...  And Sam, it seemed had already made his way past Stenson and the woman, further into the mall.  

"Ok, wait here, I'll be back." He said hurriedly, turning in a hurried jog and into the store, eyes scanning for any signs of an employee. Somewhere behind and out by the front of the mall, he could hear more shouts echoing, now from others, a mixture of distress and anger. What in the world kind of day was he having...

[qhostqrowls]

[Kail suggests Sam looks for a staff entrance in Happy Burger, then investigates Dogz in search of one]

Kail scowled when the shutter came into sight. It wasn’t the fence-kind he could jump over, and he turned back with half the mind to ask Moana to use her wrench on it.

But only two of the stores seemed to be busy. Finding a back-door staff entrance would be more subtle than bashing down the shutter, and he regretfully turned and began to walk back down the corridor.

Motorcycle man was checking out the emptiest and best bet of the lot, and Kail paused at the threshold to whisper-yell at him.

“Hey, look for a staff entrance if there’s nobody back there. I’m checking out Dogz.”

The youth slunk into Dogz, hoping it’d be empty.

[luscen]

[CASMIR quietly determines that the TEENS aren’t what they appear to be, and attempts to back away, aiming to grab his backpack and follow STEN into the H&M. He is on-guard for either of the TEENS to try and attack while he’s disengaging.]

Casmir frowned, looking briefly from the boy to his girlfriend; her face was white as a sheet, her nails clawing into his arm so hard that they’d broken skin. The boy, meanwhile, was so furious that his face was turning purple and his eyes were practically popping out of his skull. And to add to the unsettling reaction, neither of them seemed to hear what he’d said, instead repeating their last words with greater intensity.

Rather than reply, the Hunter, his own expression stoic and flat, silently took a step back, wary of any actions on the part of the teens. He’d left his weapon, alongside the taser and bear mace, in the backpack a short distance behind him. And while he wasn’t eager to bring any weapons to bear, yet, he was beginning to have an idea of why they’d been given to him.

That suspicion was reaffirmed a moment later, when the old woman that Jones was talking to suddenly tried to attack him, yelling about her son. Casmir’s eyes briefly darted over to them, while still keeping the teens in his peripheral vision. The Agent seemed to take it in stride, thinking it was just her being senile, perhaps, then went into the nearby H&M. The Hunter continued to back up towards his bag, looking to grab it and follow Agent Jones, still anticipating the boy lunging at him.

[Salandis]

[OOC Moana is letting the others explore, reminding them to come back and share notes. Then she goes to the toilet, which was apparently ajar.]

Moana backed out of the resturant, unsettled. It was all surface, and she suddenly had no doubt that if there was food back there it would not be remotely normal, probably not actually edible.

The guy with the motorcycle helmet had followed them, and spoke in a flat but sensible manner. He walked ahead into the Happy Burger restaurant. Kail called after him, saying he was heading to Dogg. Moana thought back to something she had seen on the way past.

“You go on ahead,” she said. “We should meet back up here in five or so and see what we’ve all found, compare notes. I’m going to the little girls room.”

Moana turned back to the bathrooms, now moving with caution. The door had been ajar, so she cautiously opened it, ready to spring back as needed.

[kilnarak]

The teens glare at Casimir as he moves away, but do not move to follow him or repeat their lines again. As he moves further from them, they gradually seem to reset. The girl slowly releases the boy's arm, blinking a few times, and the boy relaxes. After a few moments the two turn to each other as if nothing had happened and resume laughing and walking toward the exit. The doors slide open, the fog slides in, and the pair move out; the doors slide closed and the pair quickly vanish in the fog.

The old woman accosting Stenson is not so easily dissuaded. As he pushes away from her, telling her to wait here, she shrieks what sounds like it might be "SON!" or perhaps just a primal scream, and she lunges after him. His hurried jog into the store gets him out of her trajectory, however, and her next swipe with the straw only strikes air. As Casimir approaches, her attention seems to shift to him - she did not 'reset' like the teens did when he withdrew, and worse it doesn't seem as if Sten will be her only target. Black ichor bubbles on her lips as she wheels on the Hunter, preparing to attack him next.

Continuing into the store, Stenson is unable to locate an employee. There are a few people seemingly browsing the clothing, but none of them pay him any attention, or seem to be at all aware of the scene just outside the doors. There are no employees behind the registers, and none of the people browsing seem to be wearing name-tags. Sten does find a note propped up at one of the registers: "Be back soon! Gone to the back to restock!"

-

Kail finds Dogz to be empty as he hoped, there isn't even anyone at the register. There is a smell of cooking meat coming from the kitchen area behind the counter, but he can see no signs of movement in the circular window of the kitchen door.

As she steps into the women's bathroom, Moana can hear the harsh humming of the fluorescent lights, washing the beige colored room in cool white light. She finds that someone has dropped or left their purse just inside the doorway, and that this is what held the door open. A quick glance inside finds it contains an empty wallet, a smashed phone, and a key-ring with no keys on it. There is however a small combination LED flashlight-laser pointer on the ring. The bathroom has a clean, sterile look - too clean, probably, for a mall bathroom. The stalls are all empty. The only thing that isn't clean is the mirror over the sinks. There is a set of concentric circles drawn on it in red lipstick, and beneath it written in the same red are the words:

"It cannot be seen. Cannot be felt. Cannot be heard. Cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after. Ends life. Kills laughter."

Elsewhere, Samael finds Happy Burger to be as empty inside as it appeared from outside. The lights are bright, the music playing over the speakers is almost pleasant, lacking the occasional bursts of static from the music in the main walkways of the mall. There is no one behind the counter and no one seated in any of the tables. The interior is very clean. Each table is sat with a box of napkins, containers of mustard and ketchup, and a box with little packets of salt and pepper. The mascot of Happy Burger appears to be a smiling pink rabbit - while he wasn't on the signage outside, inside there are a few posters of him on the walls, and on the menu hung over the counter. Investigating behind the counter, Sam finds that here is one area that isn't clean - a trail of blood spatters leads from behind the counter into the kitchen, and following it further, it leads through the kitchen to a door in the back. There is a single bloody handprint on the wall beside the door - perhaps the one who had left it had leaned there to pull the door open.

[qhostqrowls]

[Kail enters the kitchen and looks for a staff entrance, entering to look inside if there is one and it’s unlocked]

Kail, finding the store empty, shoved the kitchen door open. He glanced around the kitchen, trying to ignore the smell of cooking meat. Human food was always so processed, it barely tasted like meat anyway, he told himself, walking further inside.

And, almost disturbingly, his insatiable hunger had faded to nothing. It would have been a relief if it hadn’t been for how uncanny the entire situation was.

He looked for a staff entrance, planning to check if it was unlocked before regrouping, as Moana has suggested. He kept his hands inside of his hoodie pocket, his stance relaxed and casual even as his fingers tightened around the hunting knife.

[NightshadeVII]

(OOC: Sam doesn’t like the look of the blood. He removes the length of chain from his backpack and follows the trail of blood, trying the door in the back to check what’s behind it. All the while he keeps his “eyes” open for other signs of struggle.)

The other two had made sensible suggestions, scout the area, regroup, compare notes. It was good that they seemed just as eager as him to get out of here.

The establishment, Happy Burger, was the kind of place he would offer to take the young supernaturals he sometimes worked with for cases or looked after as witnesses. It would have been perfect in its illusion of the mundane, if it wasn’t for the streak of blood trailing into the kitchen, bright red against the linoleum. The blood reflected in his mirror-visored helmet as he tilted his head. That definitely didn’t belong in a mall, he knew that much. As he followed the trail of blood to the kitchen door, he walked more carefully, making sure not to make too much noise. Thankfully, the kitchen seemed empty.

Before he proceeded, Samael removed the length of chain from his backpack, noting its weight. It wasn’t ideal as a weapon, but could do in a pinch considering it was at least somewhat similar to the heavy spine-studded whip he usually favoured. And if it came to it, a motorcycle helmet could do some damage as well, if used correctly.

Now a little more prepared, he pushed open the door to the kitchen and followed the trail of blood. He let his gaze wander, scanning the kitchen, looking for anything that could be interesting. The blood itself only grew more disconcerting, considering the amount, could the victim even still be alive?

Finally reaching the back door, Samael tried to see if it could be pushed open and what was behind it, before regrouping like suggested. His body tensed, preparing to fight if need be.

[Pearl Dragon]

[Stenson doesn't like how not a single customer is reacting to the screaming going on just behind him. He sees the note by the registers and looks for a back storeroom door of any sort. He will head to the first thing he sees resembling one, and will enter to look for either an employee or phone.]

The moment Stenson had begun to jog into the H&M, he could hear the old woman screaming behind him. She had escalated into a frenzy, and he would now need to be quick. He was pretty sure he heard her lunging at him too when he'd turned, probably another attempt with her straw. Inside however, he once again felt the extremely odd sensation that nothing about this place was normal. Even with the woman screeching behind him, the few meandering customers in the store very clearly in earshot of the entire scene were completely oblivious to the situation. Usually at least one or two bystanders would turn, look, approach, or even just flinch at the sudden screaming of another person. Not to mention, in a rather quiet empty mall. But....as he looked from customer to customer, not even one person even twitched at the sudden explosion of noise occurring just outside of the store.

The other worrisome detail was the complete lack of staff or employee within the store. He saw no one with a nametag or uniform, and the register area was void of any workers either. He slowed as he reached the counters and noticed a propped note with "Be back soon! Gone to the back to restock!" scrawled across it. Ok, in the back, that was his next stop. From here, Stenson glanced hurriedly around for any sort of back storeroom or staff doors, and would immediately head for them the moment he saw them. Even if there were no employees, there had to be a phone.

[luscen]

[CASMIR thinks briefly on why the TEENS acted the way that they did. Upon being noticed by the OLD WOMAN, he attempts to force her to reset by reminding her that she's "waiting for her son."]

Casmir watched as the teens seemed to settle down upon his quiet withdraw. Then, blinking, they went back to their carefree selves and stepped out into the fog. He spared a moment's pity for them, only to give way to puzzled bemusement a moment later; It seemed almost as though they'd been conditioned to give a specific response when approached. Agitation, disorientation, hostility... signs of mental tampering, at the very least. Perhaps a vampire or a mage of some sort was responsible for this? But why the mall? And why was it so empty, if that was the case? If whoever was responsible for this was after victims, surely it'd try and draw more people here?

More pertinently, why weren't any of the ones with backpacks showing signs of this manipulation?

The Hunter was violently pulled from his thoughts when the old woman Jones had extricated himself from turned on him, eyes wild and teeth bared, rivulets of black dripping down her chin. Apparently, she wasn't shaken from her agitation the same way the teens had been, and was now looking to take her rancor out on him. 

"I'm not your son, baba," the blonde growled, raising his arms. He wasn't too far back from the backpack, now; the taser was inside, though he was somewhat hesitant to use it on the old bag in front of him. Then again, he wasn't exactly eager to have her try stabbing him with her straw, either. "Aren't you supposed to be waiting for your son?" he asked, stressing the phrase to see whether or not that might snap her out of it.

[Salandis]

[Moana heads back to Dogz, and is weirded out some by some oddities in the mall layout]

Moana mouthed the words out and frowned. Whatever “it” was, she sure hoped to not run into it here.

The laser pointer joined the lighter and trinket in her pocket, and after another quick look to ensure there were no other exits she left the bathroom. She looked for a moment at the hall and walls – it looked like a lot more blank wall between bathroom and Torrid than could be accounted for by the bathroom alone. For that matter, opposite was also a blank wall, and H&M hadn’t looked all that deep from the outside.

But exploring more alone at this moment could be unwise. She moved back towards Dogz, being the closer of the other sites under investigation.  Eschewing finesse she hauled the wench out of the backpack and kept it ready to hand, newly keeping an eye out for unusual spaces.

[kilnarak]

Kail moves into the kitchen of Dogz. It's small and not especially clean. The source of the scent becomes apparent as he moves in - there is a bloody animal corpse laid across the oven, skinned but otherwise whole. It looks like it might have been a dog, or something like a dog - it's not especially big, but it's teeth look somewhat like a dog's. As he moves past it, he catches sight of something black, about rat-sized but with a shiny carapace, skittering across the floor. It disappears under one of the counters before it can really be examined. When Kail tries the door at the back, he finds it to be locked.

Moana joins him soon after he finds the locked door. While there had been a single, small high window in the women's bathroom, letting a bit of natural light in toward the back wall, that only seemed to lead back outside into the fog and would be a tight squeeze to fit through. Besides, why go out a window when the sliding doors worked fine? There had been a staff door beside the women's restroom, and on her way to regroup with Kail in Dogz, she would notice a back door into Valuetino's that seems to lead into the pizza-place's kitchen.

Next door, in Happy Burger, Samael follows the blood trail through the kitchen to the staff door in the back. When he tries the door, he finds that it opens to a white walled hallway behind a few of the shops. Looking up and down the hall he can see more doors that presumably lead into the back of other shops and restaurants. There is also a service elevator and and a door labeled "Stairs" just past it. Across from the elevator there is a poster on the wall, but unlike the rest of the mall, the lights are out here and it is difficult to make out what it is from where he stands, in the dark. When the door opens he also spies movement - a number of rat-sized black things scurrying across the floor into a few holes bored low into the walls. The mall seems to have some sort of pest problem.

-

It doesn't take long for Stenson to find the door in the back of Hollister. The door wasn't locked and it opened easily when he tried it, leading him into a white-walled L shaped hallway, lined with doors. Given the locations of some of them, he could surmise that they lead into other stores and the restaurants of the food-court. The one in the middle looked like it might be a storeroom of some sort, shared by this group of businesses.

Not so far away in the hall, Casimir confronts the old woman. His words don't seem to assuage her - whatever has triggered her aggression, it seems there is no turning her back from it now. "I AM WAITING. FOR MY SON." She repeats the words again in answer to him, ichor streaming down her chin. Her voice is hoarser and lower now, after her shrieks. She lunges at him, trying to stab him with the straw, and grabbing at his arms when her swipe misses. He can feel her fingers digging in against his sleeve. Her grip is hard, but for the moment his garments seem to be protecting him from it.

[Pearl Dragon]

[Stenson will head to the middle storeroom (hopefully) door to his left and attempt to enter to look for employees.]



The door was an immediate find as Stenson scanned the H&M back wall near the registers and wasted no time moving to them to head inside where he was greeted with an incredibly simply white-walled hallway. With how visually busy most product-ridden malls were, this one included with all its stores and colorful advertisements, the change of scenery was enough to give Stenson a slight pause. He looked up and down, seeing the back hall turn in an L shape and he could only guess it connected with the other businesses nearby. The center-most door to his left seemed promising, and he quickly moved to it, hoping for whatever storeroom the employees might be in. His heart was now racing in time with his hurried pace as he heard more screeching from somewhere outside of the store. If he couldn't find an employee soon, he saw no other option than to head back and find some way to restrain the woman for hers and others' safety, especially if she was now acting out physically.