Mall by Richie Tankersley Cusick

Author:Richie Tankersley Cusick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media

She fell as she tried to get out of bed.

Pulling herself across the floor, Trish managed to get the door open and propped herself in the doorway, calling for help. It didn’t take long for the nurse to respond, and with a look of shock, she helped Trish back to bed, scolding her gently.

“Why didn’t you use the call button? That’s what it’s there for. You shouldn’t have tried to get out of bed by yourself!”

“But it wasn’t there,” Trish tried to tell her, but of course it made no sense. “It wasn’t there, and someone was in my room—”

“No one was in your room.” The nurse shushed her, tucking her gently back into bed. “I’ve been out there at the desk all this time. No one’s come in or out.”

“Someone was here!” Trish insisted. “Someone was in my room. I saw him go out in the hall—”

“Okay,” the nurse said agreeably, handing Trish a glass of water, coaxing her to take a small sip. “Okay, if you say so. Tell me—what did this person look like?”

“I don’t know.” Trish shook her head miserably. “He was just a tall sort of shadow—”

“Did he talk to you?”

“Yes.”

“And what did he sound like?”

“I don’t know. He was whispering—but it was awful!”

“Ssh, it’s all right now. You’re safe here. Sometimes these medications can make us have the strangest dreams—things can seem very real—but they’re only nightmares. Look, I’ll stay here with you for a while until you get back to sleep. Would that be okay?”

Trish nodded, hating herself for being such a baby. She wished her mother would come home and take care of her. She wished she’d never even heard of the mall. She wished she’d never tried to run down that stupid escalator. She wished—

What’s happening? Everything was all jumbled up in her mind, a mass of fears and uncertainties and pain. She wanted to close her eyes and wake up in the morning to find out that everything in these last few days was only a bad dream.

The next thing she knew, she was waking up. Sunlight was streaming through the curtains, and the room was bright and calm. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she groaned as her body rebelled in a surge of pain. She’d probably be hurting for weeks—she must have bruised every inch of herself when she fell. As she groaned and tried to turn over, the door opened, and Nita’s smiling face peeked through.

“Nita! What are you doing here?”

“Making sure you’re still among the living,” her friend teased, closing the door softly behind her. “They wouldn’t let me in to see you yesterday, and I don’t think I’m really supposed to be visiting now, but I had to see you. What are you trying to do, scare us all out of our minds?”

You don’t know scared, Nita, Trish wanted to say, but she managed a wan smile instead.

“I guess there just wasn’t enough excitement in my life.” She tried to shrug, but caught her breath in pain.

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