Raven Garcia

Write a creative story responding to the prompt: “If someone were to step into your soul right now, what’s the story?” It can be fiction or nonfiction.

Dead Malls

It’s the sound of distant broken 2000s pop music that leads him here, the abandoned shopping mall just outside his town. There weren't enough people to keep the mall of its size running as the town’s population was small and there wasn’t another one for miles. It was a mess as he found himself stepping over food wrappers from the food court and rubble from the walls and ceiling that were falling apart. Despite the grotesque surrounds the dead mall had a calming aura. Though if no one was working in the mall anymore then who was playing the distorted music? Once he realizes this the music stops playing. You could hear a pin drop in the pure silence. He feels like he is being watched. He hurries to leave the building. Once outside he runs backwards to keep it in his gaze, afraid to turn his back on it.

He then wakes up with start, chest heaving. He decides to take his bike for a ride today outside of town. He pulls into a familiar parking lot but that’s all there is to it. There is no mall...the mall is dead.