This is going to be a problem. Not a problem of painful holiday shopping like it should be. People who wait until less than twenty four hours before Christmas to do all of their Christmas shopping can deal with a crowd. When you are crammed into a small boutique style clothing store with at least 100, maybe more people it seems to be a little more than slight social anxiety that worries me.
First I hear a scream that startled almost everyone. In the chaos a mother frantically turns around looking desperately calling out the name “Collin,” repeatedly. Her voice starts out sounding shrewish, but the depth of her panic increases each time she shrieks his name.
There are other screams too. Some coming from a way away, a bit softer than the initial one. People buzz around and demand an explanation from an equally confused employee. A large group of people run over to see what had happened, I however stayed where I was, glued to the foor and struggling for a natural breathing pattern. Not fifteen second later a small boy with wide eyes and wobbly legs slowly takes a small step from behind the corner. He is pale and at a loss for words. The now not screaming, but still frantic mother comes running toward him and hugs him as she scolds him for running off.
He is followed by even more people, most looking just as dazed as he, some even more. Some of the people I recognize as rushing to see what the noise is and I see some unfamiliar faces. There is a rush about them even greater than the one that surrounds the people who are standing near me. Everyone is chattering to each other and looks to be in a state of shock. Seconds afterwards there are several mall cops running in the direction of all of the commotion. They run past me and around the corner to the direction of the initial scream. I hear their shoes squeaking as they run around frantically. They soon appear again directing everyone away from the area. People will tell you that time slows down in the case of an emergency or situation that needs concentration, that didn’t happen. I just froze, physically unable to move, even when I tried. All of the times that my brain attempted to force my feet off the ground, they didn’t respond. It didn’t work.
Before I know what is really going on I am shoved into the small store by the crowd of people who manage to trample everyone in their way. It was less of a walk and more of a forced and controlled stumble. The doors were immediately locked and I scrambled around to find a corner free of many other people. My mind seemed to be processing everything painfully slowly with all of the commotion, but restored to it’s usual sharpness after I’d found a rack of scarves to hide behind. I recognized that the mother and her son were in the store with me. All three of us somewhat shared the corner with, I being the one deepest into it. Personal space really was not the most of our concerns, so there I was packed in like a sardine in a can with all of these people. A security guard managed to quiet everyone and spoke,
“We were instructed to keep all of the shoppers inside of a store until our situation is determined. There may or may not be a dangerous person in the mall’s premises, we’ll need to take necessary precautions to ensure everyone’s safety.”
The first few minutes were a blur of confusion. Everyone was asking too many questions that no one else knew the answers to. I moved out from my hiding place behind the scarves and leaned up against the wall which made it a whole lot easier to hear what everyone was saying.
"What's happening, why can't we just leave now dad?" Asked a small girl to her father.
"This is absolutely ridiculous! I have places to be and things to do. They'd better find out what's happening quick!" Exclaimed an elderly man to his wife. All of the comments swirled around my mind and soon it was hard to tell what was real and what was in my head. My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the woman.
"Excuse me miss, " she said, "Could you possibly watch my son for just a moment, I've got to call my husband and tell him, you know... about our, um... situation."
"Um, sure. Go ahead." I stuttered out, my mouth dry from lack of conversation. I didn't mind watching the kid for a couple minutes, I felt kind of sorry for him. His legs were still vibrating and his eyes were just as wide as when his mother found him earlier. His mom disappeared and he was left alone with me. I didn't need to make an effort at conversation, his collection of questions was just as large as everyone else's.
"What is my mom doing? Does it have to do with that man I saw? That was really scary, but I don't know what happened to him, I think he fainted!" He gushed.
"I don't know," I lied. No one screams when they faint. Obviously I wasn't going to tell this poor scared kid what I thought happened. I imagine being his age and witnessing something like this, I would have been horrified. Whatever this was.
I'm not too much of a conversationalist, I suppose that was evident as he didn't really carry on the conversation. His eyes shot around the store studying everyone, he looked like he was mentally scanning them or something. Eventually his eyes reached me, I was still standing fairly close to him. His squinting eyes moved from my head and dragged to my feet. His expression was blank. For a second I had wondered if he figured out what happened, or at least that the man didn't just faint. Then he moved on and looked elsewhere, interrogating a rack of sweaters.
"So, what's your name?" I asked to break the silence.
"I'm Colin," He said, turning his head back to look at me.
"Well Colin it's nice to meet you, even in these circumstances. My name is Harper." I said.
"Harper, why are we in here? Why can't we just leave? Why does my mom need to call my dad?" He spit the questions at me rapid fire, almost all at once.
"No one really knows," I said, happy that my lack of knowledge allowed me to tell the truth. Just then the mother comes back and thanks me for watching Collin. One of the security guards walked over. His face was stern and down to business. He walked straight up to Colin’s mother.
"Excuse me, we're going to need to ask you to move into the back room with your son." He said.
"We still are not clear on the current situation, but we were informed to gather all the minors in the back. I doubt it will be safe to leave for a while." He added. I wished he would censor himself around Colin, did he want the kid throw a fit?
"Of course! Thank you so much for the help." Collins mother said. I hoped the guard didn't notice me. I think I look old for my age, but I can't ever be sure.
"Hey, what about Harper?” Collin asked, "Can she come with us?" The security guard looked over at me and squinted, he looked a little surprised to see that someone was there.
"How old are you?" He asked me.
"Seventeen." I answered quickly.
"In that case you'll have to come with us in the back as well." He said.  I nodded and reluctantly followed Collin and his mother. We were lead into a rather small storage room half of half unpacked boxes.
“Do you know what’s going on?” I finally asked.
“I keep hearing all of these people talking, but what’s happening?”
“No one has really told us, all we’re supposed to do is make sure everyone stays in here.” He responds. I suspect that he probably knows, but isn’t supposed to tell anyone. I wonder what it would be like to have countless people asking me the same question over and over and having to lie every single time. He looked over at Colin empathetically before he closed the door. He definitely knew something.
It may seem like it would be pretty awkward to be in a storage room with two people you have only known to exist for ten minutes, but for the first little while it was actually quite nice. I learned that Colin’s mother is named Sophia and that she worked as a secretary part time. I learned that Colin goes to the same elementary school that I did and that he is in third grade. I told them briefly about myself too, although it was uncomfortable it passed the time. Then two girls who I suppose were probably in middle school were brought in by the same security guard. They were both biting their lips and clinging onto their phones like their lives depended on it. Before the two of them came in, it was like we had temporarily forgot about all of the chaos. They certainly reminded me of why I was locked in this room in the first place. Sophia announced that she was going to go check on if they’d made any progress and left us all to be awkward without her.
Not too long after she left the power went out. At first the lights just sort of dimmed gradually, but eventually the light was completely gone. There was a loud surprised shriek from both of the two girls, and a sort of strange snort from Colin. I stayed silent. It’s probably just some lock down tactic. Maybe they think that if someone dangerous is somewhere in the mall they’ll be confused or put off by the darkness. It was odd that no one was really saying anything, it almost felt like that moment in a movie where everyone figured out the mystery. Except I hadn’t figured out anything. I was very disoriented, confused, and I didn’t even know whether there had been a mystery to solve or if this all was a misunderstanding. I decided that I’d had enough of the darkness and pulled out my phone, sliding on the flashlight function. I moved the phone towards a corner. No one was there. I repositioned and looked towards the other corner. The two girls were huddled on the ground. I took two steps forward and then I noticed it.    Running down their backs was a trail of blood. I Jumped back and quickly moved the light away. I couldn’t scream. I wanted to scream. I couldn’t scream. I stood in that position frozen for a good thirty seconds before I even contemplated moving. I had thought that Colin and I had been the only other ones in the room. My heart pounded, I struggled to breathe easily. I was frozen, locked in my state of shock and horror. I was truly terrified. I finally drew my hand back up shining my flashlight around. Colin was in the corner obviously shaking and stunned beyond words. A second wave of shock hit me. I saw how innocent and small he looked before, asking why the man fainted. Now he was a mess, too shocked to cry or even move. I walked over to him.
“Colin.” I said
“Listen, we have to stay in the corner. I’ll shine the light in front of us so it’s not dark. It’ll be okay, your mom will come in soon.” I explain. My voice sounds rather calm for just having seen two corpses of people I’d seen alive only a few minutes before. We both squished in the corner, I was growing more and more nervous as the seconds ticked by. My hands struggled to hold the phone up right. Colin spoke,
  “Can you turn the light off? I don’t want to see anything.” He half asked half cried.
I looked over at him and nodded, “Okay, I’ll do that.” After the light was gone I managed to pull both of us closer into the corner. I tried to clear my mind, it probably would have worked at least a little more if I didn’t hear all of these noises coming from what seemed to be around the closet. Then all of the noises faded, and all of the sudden on the back portion of my neck I felt a small pain, almost like I had just been nicked with a razor. The slight disscomfort didn’t last for long, it grew more and more forceful until I realized that a blade was in fact cutting into my skin. I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t fight back, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t scream. Soon enough my mind was finally clear.