Let's Go to The Mall

Now

There are things in the dark, unseen by the human world. Threats and horrors only spoke of in whispers and mentioned in the clear light of day in an effort to banish their power and render them neutered. The problem is that in the end, the unseen horrors aren’t the ones you need to fear it’s the everyday things that are the most dangerous and terrifying.

I’ve known this most of my life, and I can nail down the day I learned it, I didn’t just learn it I had it burned into my soul at the young age of thirteen. It all started as a bright and cheerful day when I arrived at the mall to meet my friends.

I had no idea what was coming next.

1992

Sally was excited. For the first-time mom was letting her go to the mall with her friends and no adult supervision. Not only that but she’d

been given permission to ride the bus to and from the mall instead of having her mother or father drive her. When she got off the bus

She never saw the white cargo van until in pulled up beside her and come to a stop.

“Excuse me Miss?” a voice said through the open driver side window of the van.

“Yes?” Sally asked surprised to have somebody talk to her as she walked down the hill from the bus stop to the mall.

The driver's door opened and the man, he was older than Sally’s father and had a missing tooth, stepped out holding a map. “Can you show me where I am on this map?”

It never occurred to Sally to not approach the man.

“Sure,” she responded moving to look at the map.

The man moved fast, the knife was out and poking the hollow of her throat before Sally knew what was happening. “Say a word or try to run and I’ll shove this blade in your brain,” the man growled. With his free hand, he opened the side door and motioned for her to get in. When she didn’t move the man grabbed her and shoved her into the dark rubbish filled interior of the vehicle and slammed the door shut.

Sally landed hard on an object she was sure was a screwdriver and let out a whine of pain.

“One yell and you die,” he said getting back in the driver's seat and putting the van in drive. They drove fro several minutes before the van came to a stop, and the man turned in the driver's seat and grinned at Sally. “Now princess we’re gonna have some fun.”

 “Please don’t hurt me,” Sally begged. The screwdriver she’d landed on poking into her back and seeming to taunt her with its ability to end this.

But could she, do it?

Could she do to this man something as horrendous as drive four inches of steel into him?

“You’re gonna love this, trust me I’m gonna make a woman out of you.” He laughed unbuckling his belt and leering at Sally as she tried to hide her exposed bra from his sight. “Don’t bother sweetie there's no point,” he laughed scooting forward his around his knees which were planted on the van's carpeted floor. The look in his eyes was a mixture of lust and a level of madness even a teenage girl who hadn't had her first kiss yet could recognize. He placed his hands on her jeans and started yanking hard trying to get them off her slender hips. Inch by inch the Guess Jeans she'd been so happy to get for her thirteenth birthday slipped down her legs revealing a pair of pink cotton panties.

Sally opened her mouth to scream but stopped. The knife was in his hand once more. She had no idea where he’d put it after getting her into the van.

“Not a fucking word or I’ll gut you like a trout,” he hissed.

Sally closed her mouth fighting and failing not to let her bottom lip quiver or tears to build up in her eyes. With each movement, the screwdriver dug painfully into her back.

He fell on her like a wild animal pawing at her exposed legs and chest. His tongue licked her cheek, and the smell of tobacco and cheap booze made Sally want to vomit/

She sobbed openly.

“I like it when they cry,” he whispered in her ear, “Beg me to let you go. I like it when they beg too.”

The words hardened something inside of Sally, and a cold certainty filled her. He was going to kill her she was sure of it. He’d kill her and leave her somewhere nobody would ever find her. She worked one hand behind her back and grasped the handle of what she now knew for sure was a screwdriver.

“You’re so sexy,” the man moaned touching Sally in places no one had ever touched her before.

The tears were replaced by cold anger. When The man reached down to push her panties down Sally struck. The screwdriver was out from behind her back and buried to the hilt in the man’s right eye before she realized she’d done it.

He collapsed onto her, and for the first time since it started Sally screamed not in fear, not in rage, but the primal scream of the warrior who’d defeated a superior foe.

Now

When I got home from the mall the story of the body in the van was all over the news. Mom asked me if I’d seen anything while I was there and I told her no. I also managed to conceal the tears in and the spots of blood my clothes from her long enough to get upstairs and change. She never even noticed those clothes disappeared from my rotation after that day. In the end, the police never came to my house, and no one ever suspected I’d killed the son of a bitch.

That was how I learned what the real monsters were… they’re us, and we’re them.

The End