Chapter 5 Chapter 5

The mannequins didn't move yet.

They just stood there at the end of the hallway. Five of them lined up like they were waiting for a bus. A woman in a blue dress. A man in a suit jacket with nothing under it. A kid in a school uniform. Two more that Leo couldn't make out because the light back there was faint.

All of them were smiling. Not a real smile though. The painted and fake kind.

Leo stood in the doorway of the food court with his hand on the door frame. His fingers were wrapped around the cold metal.

Maya was next to him standing still. Her eyes were fixed on the mannequins.

Behind them, the delivery driver's leg was bouncing. Leo could hear the plastic table rattling each time.

The server was still at her table. She'd taken her hands off her face. She was looking down the hallway too. Her freckles were dark against how pale her skin had gone.

Nobody said anything.

The hallway just sat there in front of them. Red carpet. White walls. Numbered doors. Five mannequins at the end with painted smiles.

Leo turned to look at Maya. "What do we do?"

She didn't answer straight away. Her eyes moved around the walls,the ceiling, and the doors.

"We go through," she said.

"Through them?"

"Past them. The Anchor Room is at the end of this hallway. The mannequins are in the way. So we have to go past them."

"And if they move?"

She looked at him. Dead serious. "Then we run."

The delivery driver shoved his chair back and with a loud scrape. Everyone flinched.

"No," he said. "No. I'm not going near those things." He said with his voice shaking.

Maya turned to him. "Okay. Then stay."

"And what happens when the mall shifts again? The food court won't be here. You know. You know how it works."

She didn't argue. She just looked at him.

"Like I said earlier, come with us or don't," she said. "I'm going either way."

He stretched his neck to look at the mannequins with panic spreading on his face then at her. Then at Leo. His face was sweaty.

"How are you not scared?" he asked her.

Maya touched her badge. The bent clip. Her name was facing the wrong way.

"I am scared," she said. "Always been scared. But I've been here three years. Being scared doesn't stop me anymore. I have to survive. Maybe one day, I can leave here."

She walked into the hallway.

Leo went after her.

His boots were quiet on the tile then louder once they hit the carpet. The carpet was old. It was worn down the middle like it had seen a million footsteps even though nobody really walked here. Maybe not really.

Maya kept her pace slow. Careful. Her eyes forward the whole time.

Leo stayed close. He could see the back of her head. Loose hair. Her shoulders pulled up tight.

"How close do we need to get?" he said, quietly.

"Close enough to see their faces."

"I can already see them."

"Closer then."

They passed door 112. Brass numbers, dirty. It had no handle on it.

Leo glanced at it. "What's behind these?"

"Nothing good."

"Have you opened one?"

"No."

They kept walking.

The mannequins filled more of his vision now. The woman in the blue dress had a crack down her cheek. Paint chipped away. Underneath it wasn't plastic colored. It was gray. Some other thing.

The man in the suit jacket had painted eyes that somehow kept landing on Leo no matter where he stepped.

The kid was the short one. It came up to the waist of the others. Had the biggest smile out of all of them.

Leo's heartbeat was loud. He could feel it up in his throat. He wiped his hands on his jeans.

"Keep moving," Maya said. "Don't stop."

Ten feet. Eight. Five.

He could see the dust sitting on their skin. The way the light caught their eyes. How completely still they were. That kind of still feels like a held breath.

Maya stopped.

Leo stopped.

They were close enough that if Leo reached out he could touch the woman in the blue dress. He could see the crack up close now. The gray underneath the paint.

"Now what?" he said.

"We wait."

"For what?"

"For them to decide."

They just stood there smiling.

"Decide what?" Leo said.

"Whether we're worth eating."

The delivery driver's voice came from back by the entrance. "I changed my mind. Going back."

Leo turned. The guy was standing right where they'd started.

"Don't," Maya said. "The food court might already be gone."

He looked behind him. It was still there. Tables and chairs and the server sitting with her head down.

"It's still there," he said.

"For now."

He looked at the mannequins again and looked at Maya then at Leo. "I'm sorry," he said. "I just can't."

He turned and went back. Leo watched him drop into the chair across from the server. She said something. He then shook his head and put his face in his hands.

Maya touched Leo's arm. "Eyes forward."

He turned back around.

The mannequins hadn't moved. But something was different. The kid's smile. It was wider now. Just slightly. Just enough that Leo wasn't sure if he'd imagined it.

He hadn't.

"You see that?" he said.

"Yes."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we don't have long."

Maya stepped forward. Then again. She walked right between them. Woman in the blue dress on her left. Man in the suit on her right.

Leo followed.

He passed the woman. The smell of a perfume filled his nose. An old perfume. Something a grandmother keeps on a dresser for years. It came right off her plastic skin.

He passed the man. Cigarette smoke in the fabric.

He passed the kid.

Nothing. No smell at all.

Then he was through. Maya beside him. The end of the hallway opened up and there was a door. Plain white. Regular handle.

The Anchor Room.

"Go," Maya said.

They ran.

Behind him Leo heard something. Plastic scraping against plastic.

He didn't look back.

Boots on carpet. Door coming up fast. Ten feet. Five.

He grabbed the handle and pressed it downwards to open it. It was locked.

"No." He shook it. "No no no."

Maya grabbed his arm and pulled him sideways. There was a small space in the wall Leo hadn't noticed. An alcove. Janitor's closet. She pushed the door open, shoved him in, she stepped in after, and pulled it shut.

It was dark and small. It smelled like bleach and ammonia and something sweet underneath all of it.

They both stood there breathing hard.

"What's happening?" Leo whispered.

She put a finger to her lips signaling him to keep quiet.

Then he heard footsteps. Slow and heavy. Not the way people walk. Like something dragging itself along.

The footsteps stopped right outside the door.

Leo didn't breathe.

Three knocks on the wood. Slow ones.

Then nothing.

The dragging sound continued again. It was moving away and getting quieter.

Leo let the air out of his lungs. His whole body was shaking.

Maya hadn't moved. Still staring at the door with her hand rubbing on her badge.

They stayed like that for a while. Could've been two minutes. Could've been ten. The dark made time feel wrong.

Maya finally clicked her torch light on. It was dim but brighter than before.

There was a mop in the corner, bucket, shelves with bottles and a sink. There was a stain on the wall. Dark brown. The shape of a hand. All five fingers. Palm print. Someone had pressed their hand to this wall a long time ago and just left it there.

"What is that?" Leo asked.

"Blood."

"How old?"

"Old."

He looked at it. Shouldn't have felt anything. Just a mark on a wall. But something in his chest pulled toward it. Something he couldn't explain.

"Leo." Maya's voice went careful. "Don't touch it."

He lifted his hand anyway.

"Leo."

His fingers pressed against the stain.

The closet disappeared.

Same room. Same walls. But everything was new. Full shelves. Clean sink. New bottles lined up neatly. And a boy on the floor.

Maybe fifteen. Maybe sixteen. Knees pulled to his chest and was crying hard. His face was red, eyes swollen, shoulders shaking and was hiding. He was hiding from something and he was terrified in that deep way where you forget how to breathe right.

Leo could hear it outside. The scraping sound. Getting closer.

The boy pressed his hand over his mouth. Tears kept coming.

Leo reached out. His hand went straight through the boy's shoulder like smoke.

The scraping stopped outside the door.

The boy opened his eyes. Looked right at Leo. Right through him.

"Please," he whispered. "Please don't find me."

The door swung open.

Leo never saw what came in. Everything went white.

Then he was back. Hand still on the stain. His face was wet.

He pulled away. His fingers were shaking.

Maya was staring at him.

"You were gone for five seconds," she said. "But your face…"

Leo touched his cheek. It was wet.

"I was crying," he said.

"Why?"

"I don't know."

Something rang inside his head. Not outside. Inside. Like a bell someone struck right behind his eyes.

Words appeared in his vision.

Ability Unlocked. Threshold Memory. Level One.

He stared at it.

"What's Threshold Memory?" he said out loud.

Maya's face changed. The worry didn't disappear but something else came up behind it. Something that looked like hope.

"You saw something when you touched it," she said. "Didn't you."

Not a question.

Leo nodded. "A boy. A teenager. He was hiding in here. Something was outside looking for him."

She grabbed his arm tight.

"That's an ability," she said. "A real one. Rare. You can read the memory of a place. See the echo of whoever was there before."

Leo looked back at the handprint. Five fingers. A palm.

"He was so scared," Leo said. "I wanted to help him and I couldn't even touch him."

"He probably didn't make it," Maya said. "Most of them don't."

Leo looked at her.

"That's not helpful."

"No," she said. "But it's true."

The door rattled.

Both of them went completely still.

It rattled again. Someone trying the handle.

Leo looked at Maya. She looked at the door.

The handle turned.

Leo stepped back. His heel caught the mop bucket. It went over to the floor. It was loud and it clanged in the small space.

The handle stopped.

Then something hit the door hard. The wood split. A thin line of light came through.

Maya grabbed Leo and pulled him down behind the shelves.

Another hit. The crack opened up. Leo could see the hallway through it.

The mannequins were out there. All five.

They weren't smiling anymore.