Chapter 3: The First Encounter

A few days had passed, Bellamy heard someone knock at they're door. It's a delivery worker. "A delivery for Nicholas Dagro" said the delivery man as he was carrying a box.

"Nicholas, there's a package for you." Bellamy exclaimed. Nicholas ran down the stairs, and went to claim his package.

He turned the knob, closed the door and with both hands he bought the package upstairs.

He looked around the room for something that can help him open his unknown package. He then looked at the drawer's under their bed and at one of the drawers, there was a blade. He took it dragged it across the box, cutting it open. He unfolded it and had disposed the piece of plastic covering the contents of the box. His eyes popped, when he saw what was in the box.

It was his uniform, his face was beaming when he took it out of the box. The suit was an all dark attire. His Shirt was a grayish black, while his trousers and belt were all jet-black.

As Nicholas was filling himself with joy, he realized that the package didn't came with any accessories, so he called mary to inform her of his issue.

Mary replied and said that all accesories such as weaponry, must not leave the mall's premises. They only get a hand on their weapons when they're on shifts.

Mary then realized and she added that Nicholas gets to start next Sunday, and she ended the call.

The guards works a shift the entire week, and then gets a full week rest on the next one. Then a new crew of night guards take the other week's shift where Nicholas and the others get a rest.

Nicholas tried on his uniform to see if it fits. "It fits perfectly" said his wife while leaning on the door. Nicholas turned around, and walked towards her slowly. He touches Bellamy on the face and says, "Its going to be okay now, we're going to be okay." Nicholas said as he slowly tries to kiss Bellamy in the forehead.

Nicholas took of the uniform, and he shoved it inside the washing machine to clean it.

Nicholas and Bellamy were eating supper together when, Bellamy wanted to talk about the gender reveal.

Nicholas now opened up to this decision and he bow agrees to have a gender reveal for the baby. Bellamy's jaw dropped, "Wait, Really?!" she said. Nicholas nodded while saying his answer. Bellamy hugged Nicholas and thanked him for accepting her decision.

After supper, they've decided to rest now. They lounged over as Nicholas hugs Bellamy, He yawned and closed her eyes falling asleep.

A week has passed, It was a Sunday evening. Nicholas had put on his uniform confidently, as he is excited to work at the mall. As he ran down the stairs, he smelled a wonderful scent. It was Bellamy's cooking, they sat down on the table and ate dinner together before Nicholas will head over to work.

As they finished eating, he kissed his wife goodbye and as well as the baby in Bellamy's womb. And once more, Nicholas felt uneasy but he then again refused this absurd emotion. Nicholas proceeds to enter his car, and leaves as Bellamy waves him goodbye.

He has arrived at the mall late at night, and his shift starts in few minutes. He went to the locker room on C, this is where the night guards gather before shift. Meanwhile Locker room on building A is where early shift guards gather.

He entered the locker room and all his work partners where already there. "You're late" said a guy named Tod. Nicholas claimed that he's not tardy. "I'm not tardy, you all just came first." Nicholas said. Nicholas then added "If i was late, we wouldn't be waiting for 12 more minutes." Tod replies in silent that no one heard him. He then snickered arrogantly, and looks away.

Nicholas walks around the room, there's a piece of paper stapled on the wall. He got closer to the wall to be able to see it clearly. It was they're schedule. The Schedule said that today he's assigned to guard building B.

One of his co-workers, Daniel Freeds introduced himself to Nicholas and Joshua because he thought that they were nice people. Daniel Freeds couldn't actually speak, he's a mute. Nicholas knew sign language, which surprised Daniel and Joshua. The three of them became close friends.

Five minutes before their shift starts, they took their all their accessories and gear they need. Furthermore, they went to their preferred positions in the places their assigned to guard.

Nicholas is Located in building B, Tod Retts was in charge at the surveillance area, Joshua is on building A, Sofia Lopez is assigned to guard outside, and Daniel Freeds is on building C.

Nicholas was all alone in a dark area, the only source of light was the flashlight and the glow of the moon through the glass in the walls.

Nicholas and the others start their job. They all started walking around while Tod was watching from the cameras. Nicholas decide to start from the top floor, to the bottom. So he went up and started walking around there.

Hours had passed, all of them were wandering around tired. Tod's body was trying to fall asleep, he tries avoiding this temptation although he's tired. Sofia's legs was "killing her". Nicholas was yawning while wandering around the first floor.

Nicholas was then awaken when he noticed that the hallway leading to the comfort rooms were flickering, he tried to reach Tod's radio but it was acting all strange. So he decide to check it out. The small hallway had two door's facing each other, those door were the rest rooms. As the lights flickered, the two doors suddenly disappeared. He thought he was hallucinating as he rubbed his eyes. He then again tried to contact anyone he can with the radio, but it was all distorted.

While checking on the radio, the lights kept on flickering and as it flickered again, a door appeared. It was no ordinary door, it was made of out wood, with the shade brown and looked ancient.

No one answered the radio, so he went to check it out himself. As he got closer to the door, his breathe gets deeper.

Nicholas pointed his flashlight at the door, and slowly reached out his hand to turn the door knob. As he opened the door, it gave of a loud creak. He left the door open, and he pointed his flashlight at the room. The first thing he saw were stairs going down to where he assumed was the stairway to the basement parking lot.

He slowly rushed down the stairs, his suspicion was wrong. The stairs didn't lead to a parking lot, in fact he has no clue what was in store for him. The Ground was so dirty that there were worms and maggots spread all around. He looked at the ground while walking forward as he's still wondering where he is. While he starts to look forward, a face turned upside down and rotten was in front of him, he fell to the ground panting and shocked. He stood up while making deep breaths, the person hanging on rope at the ceiling seemed dead based on it's rotten appearance.

He then started walking forward. There was a hallway to his left, but he noticed the words on his right. He looked back at the hallway to see if there were any dead bodies, then he looked back at the wall to read the words written in blood. As he read the writing on the wall he admired the ancient bricks used to build the panel.

The words in the wall said, "They forgot about me, they all do."

Subsequently, a knife dashed at the side of Nicholas head and hit the wall. He looked backed and saw a man wearing a hoodie that was so black that it took Nicholas a moment to figure out he was there. The ghetto had a grayish mask with black highlights and and eerie smile.

The ghetto then took out another knife behind his back and decides to chase Nicholas down. Nicholas ran back upstairs, but the staircase gave up and got his foot stuck. The ghetto catches up and tries to stab Nicholas' foot. As soon as the blade nearly hit his leg, it got out. The Killer's blade was then stuck, the ghetto tries to catch his leg but Nicholas was efficient.

When Nicholas left the door, he called Tod his radio. Nicholas' radio finally works, and so Tod answered "Tod, someone is chasing me look at the bathroom at the ground floor of building B. Nicholas said as he catches his breathe. Tod looked at the his screen and went to view the camera where Nicholas asked him to.

Tod saw the door on his screen, and he said that he has never seen that. As the killer walks out of the door, the camera signal got cut off and as well as Nicholas' radio. Tod rendered the single frame that the camera was able to record of the mysterious man, and then he printed it out. Tod called their other friends to check on Nicholas situation.

Nicholas brought out his gun, and started to shoot the ghetto man. He shot two bullets while the man comes close.

The man didn't seem to get affected from the bullets. Before the man got any closer, Nicholas ran as fast as he could. The ghetto man was running and chasing him as well.

Nicholas ran up the escalator, and ran to the door separating Building B and C. All of them where given many keys for the doors and locks in the mall. But Nicholas was running out of time, the ghetto was getting closer.

Nicholas then had to think fast. Without hesitation, he shot the glass window with all his bullets. And he jumped out of the second floor to a bush, Nicholas lost his conscience.

The next thing he knew, he was at the hospital laying down at a bed. The first thing he noticed was that Bellamy was on a chair sitting while her head was down. Nicholas flinched and then, Bellamy turned his head up as she wipes a tear on her face.

Bellamy hugged him as Nicholas was wondering what's happened to him, she now had let go of him. When Nicholas tries to adjust his position with his arms, his right wrist was hurt. Nicholas looked at his arm with a hurt expression in his face, he had then realized what happened to him.

A doctor walked in the room and sighed when he saw Nicholas was awake, he then further mentioned that Nicholas had broke his wrist and that there was a small crack in one of his ribs.