The Silent Nightmare II

[Mikey]

It started as an average day, in an average town, in an average shopping mall. It turned out to be the exact oppisite.

Mikey clicked the lock on his bike and walked in the employee entrance. He saw Carl and Sue talking at the table, and Janie was lying on the couch. Probably sleeping a few hours of her shift off. She always got away with it somehow...

"Hey Mike." Carl and Sue said in unison.

"Hey guys." He said back, turning the dial on his locker. "Anything new?" He asked, pulling out his jumpsuit and putting his legs in.

"Nothin' here." Carl said.

"Well, my daughter got an A on her report card, and my son isnt doing so well in school, and my other daughter..."

"Hey, Sue, ease up. My shift starts in 20." Mikey said, cutting her off. If allowed, she could talk for hours. He zipped the suit up and walked to the clock, pulling his time card from the "OUT" rack, punching it, and setting it in the "IN" rack. The manager was a stiffler for neatness. No one complained though. It made things all that easier.

"Well, I'm off. Gotta earn that overtime." Mikey said, and grabbed the huge cart with all the cleaning supplies and tools from the corner. He wheeled it to the door and exited.

From there, he started his rounds, going from floor to floor to look for spills or messes that needed attending to. He finally found one on the second floor. A big pile of soda, it looked like. He pushed a button through his pocket and heavy metal music started to leak from his ear buds. He took out the mop and got busy.

[Slyde]

Mark was on the window-side seat of a bus going towards a certain mountain range. He was going on a mountain climbing trip together with his girlfriend; who was sitting beside him, her head leaning on his shoulders. It had been 2 hours since the bus left from his school. The bus had only 12 passengers: Mark, his girlfriend, and Mark's other mountain climbing buddies. Not once did the bus stop at any gas station or mall, for reasons unkown to Mark who was clearly feeling the call of nature. He was definitely ****ed at the driver for not stopping anywhere, but he noticed that the driver seemed a bit...odd. The driver appeared to be emotionless, but he drove with the grace of a ballet dancer.

After about 5 minutes of suffering, Mark let go a sigh of relief as the bus finally stopped at a certain mall. It was your average, typical mall which didn't have a lot of activity at the time. Mark tapped the shoulder of his lover and whispered, with a slight grin, in her right ear:

"Gotta use the bathroom honey, wanna go with me?"
"Oh shut up." Replied Millie in a playful, yet sleepy voice. She has been Mark's girlfriend for the past few years or so. They loved each other so much.
"Your loss," Mark replied with a playful smile "You want something when I get back?" he continued.
"Nah. I'm good." she replied with another smile, and she went back into her slumber.

Mark stepped off the boss, then really felt the full wrath of natures call. He ran to the nearest
directory, frantically searching for the nearest bathroom. After 10 excrutiating seconds of trying to search the bathroom, he finally found it and rushed towards it's location. he arrived at the bathroom, entered one of the stalls, and relieved himseld of his burden.

[Eric "X" Snyder]

John looked through the window of the taxi as it pulled up to the town. He sighed sorrowfully as he watched the last rays of the sun begin to set behind the horizon. The weather had called for severe thunderstorms, something which would severely impede his progress.

"Happy little town, ain't it?" The driver laughed sarcastically.

"Yeah, no sh!t," John muttered, turning to the windshield to look in front of the car. Just then, he noticed a mall and realized he was pretty hungry.

"Does that place have a restaurant?"

"Yeah, it does. Why?"

"Stop here."

The taxi driver shrugged, and pulled over. John handed him a twenty and a five; then left. The taxi pulled away as John stared at the mall.

"Here goes nothing," John muttered. He walked into the mall and looked around. It was a pretty silent place, a couple people wandering around here and there (probably locals.)

John sighed and pulled out a cigarette.

"Excuse me, sir," a guard said, waving John down. "You can't smoke in here."

John sighed, and dropped the cigarette into an ashtray like object he carried around.

"Any place to get food?"

"Well, there's a Happy Burger on the second floor," The guard replied.

"Whatever," John muttered, walking away from the guard. He didn't feel like a burger, but it was better than nothing. So, he walked to Happy Burger and sat down. He looked around to see he was the only person.

"Busy?" John muttered when a waitress (a cute little blond girl) showed up.

"Excuse me?" the waitress asked.

"Never mind," John sighed. "Just get me a beer and a cheeseburger."

The waitress nodded and walked away, leaving John there to sit alone, staring at his notes.

[Reaper]

Jack yawned a bit as she climbed off her bike. Making sure the kickstand was down, she then locked her helmet onto the side. Twirling her keys around, before pocketing them. She headed off toward the mall. She kept her gloves on, mostly because it looked pretty cool with her outfit. Not to mention she was just there to stretch her legs before she got on the bike again. It was to hassling to take off and put on her gloves all the time. Opening the door to the mall she felt the gust of wind from the over head machine used to keep the bugs out. Though granted they where more there to mess up people's hair more than anything else.

Shaking her head slightly as she walked into the mall. It seemed pretty barren even for a week day. Not to mention so late in the day. Shrugging her shoulders she began her exploits out threw the mall. Wanting to stretch her legs enough before she was stuck on another several hour drive before she stopped again.

[Mikey]

(Eric, for reference, we arnt in Silent Hill. We are in another town, fairly close to Silent Hill. I'd say 80 or so miles away, give or take.)

Mikey finished the mopping and tossed the mop back into the cart. He looked around the floor, and noticed it was very bare. There were only about ten people on this floor. Usually, on a slow day, they had 50 or more people. It was a bit weird, but Mikey just shrugged it off. It just meant there was less crap for him to clean up later.

He continued his rounds, but found nothing else for him to do. The mall was completly clean.

"Da*m..." He said, his eyebrows arched. Usually, he was busy throughout the day, cleaning something and then moving to another mess that appered seemingly by itself. Not today, however. He figured he could just leave the cart and go browse the place. His uncle had wanted him to go to the game shop and grab something that came out. He didnt remember the name, but he remembered the cover. Some guy in a white machine suit or something.

He took the escalater back up the the second floor and walked into the game shop. It looked fairly empty, except for the guy who ran the counter and someone checking out the shelves.

"Hey Craig." Mikey said with a wave, and the man at the counter held up his hand, not looking up from the magazine he was reading. Mikey slowly began to scan the shelves, looking for the picture he had seen in the magazine.

-------------------------

The waitress returned fairly quickly with the plate and a bottle of Coors. She popped it upen with a small bottle opener from her pocket and said "There ya go" in a very peppy manner. She leaned on the counter in front of John and looked at him.

"So, whatcha doin?" She asked, having nothing to do as far as work went.

[Reaper]

Jack looked up as far as one of the workers from the mall went. Sighing a bit as she scanned the shelves . . . looking for what she really didn't care. She had just come across it in her walk around the mall. She always liked video games, it was a way to escape the harsh realities of the real world. Though granted ever since she had started college she couldn't afford it. Her dojo was just providing enough money to house, feed, and pay for collage. Sighing heavily again as she picked up a game and read the back. This trip alone was going to set her behind on bills. She could always up the payment for the dojo's students, but then again she liked seeing them learn. And upping the payments would end up costing her a lot of students. "Maybe a second job," she mumbled under her breath. "Yeah right." A second job would mean longer in school, yeah it would give her more money. But it would also take a lot of her time up, and it would end up being a lose lose situation.

[Slyde]

After what seemed to be about 10 minutes of relieving himself, Mark finished his business in the Men's restroom and walked towards the room's exit. After stepping outside the restroom, Mark instantly saw, from a slightly far distance, a good-looking woman walking around. She looked a bit tomboyish, but Mark didn't mind. He stared at her for a few seconds, admiring her, then images of Millie flashed in his head. Mark slapped his head a few times and whispered to himself: "Get a grip Mark!"

Mark then started to walk back to the bus, getting a slight glimpse of the woman he just saw. As he reached for the exit door handles, Mark noticed that the environment seemed...calmer. He shrugged at the fact and went straight to his seat on the bus. He kissed his girlfriend on the cheek to greet her, started to sit down on his sit. The moment his body hit the cushion, Mark suddenly felt an urge to eat something. Thinking that getting supplies from his backpack, which was in the bus' "cargo hold", would consume too much time and limited resources, he decided to buy some food in the mall instead. Before trying to buy the food, he sincerely asked Millie, who was now awake but slightly sleepy:
"You hungry?"
"Well...I'd like something to eat..." replied Millie
"I'll go get something then. Wait here." Mark replied, kissing Millie's forehead slightly. He then proceeded to leave the bus, but not before asking the bus driver:
"Hey, could you wait for me? I forgot to get something in the mall. It'll only take a few minutes."

The driver sat there, and said nothing. Mark shrugged and then walked towards the mall. He used the directory again to search for the nearest food joint, which was a Happy Burger establishment. Mark went towards Happy Burger and entered the establishment. He sat down in one of the open tables and waited for service. He noticed a particularly "tough" looking man sitting about 2 tables in front of him.

[Eric "X" Snyder]

(Modified my post to omit Silent Hill)

John grabbed the Coors and stared at it.

"Would've preferred Corona," John muttered to himself before raising it to his lips. As the beer fell into his mouth, the waitress leaned on the table.

"So, whatcha doin?"

John looked at her over his beer. He sighed and set it back down on the table, wiping his lips on his sleeve.

"Just passing through," John replied, giving the waitress a once over.

"Where you headed?" the waitress asked curiously, taking across from John.

John looked at her; then looked around the restaurant. Unfortunately, no one was around for her to serve, so he felt obliged to answer.

"Silent Hill...I'm lookin' for a friend."

"Ooo," the waitress exclaimed, shivering mockingly. "That place gives me the creeps. It's always so dreary over there. I wonder why you're friend would be there."

"So do I," John muttered, staring at his beer. Just then, another customer entered. The waitress looked up and sighed.

"I'll be back," she said, somewhat downcast, and rushed off to serve the man.

John took a bite of his burger; then grabbed the napkin holder and held it up. He pretended to check his beard, but, in reality, was staring at the man behind him.

"Religious guy, huh?" John muttered, seeing the cross around the man's neck. Besides that, the man wasn't too interesting to look at, so John set the napkin down and went back to drinking his beer. By this time, he had lost his appetite and pushed it to the edge of the table. Instead, he just drank from his bottle and lit up the cigarette he was unable to smoke before.

[therisingstar]

Great. Another person smoking.

Evangeline’s shift was almost over. In a way, she was glad – she was sick of Happy Burger, the place was crowded with screaming kids and lonely adults. The guy smoking at the moment – with the thick features of an Italian – passed for the “lonely adult” section.

“They just never learn, do they?” she whispered to herself walking up to him. Her years as a stripper had summoned a certain type of confidence to her when situations arose – this was one of those situations.

“Sir, smoking is not allowed,” she said as she approached the man. He looked up at her through dark, lush eyes – trying to play up some “macho man” stereotype into himself. “Sir, I said smoking is not allowed, neither is alcohol.” When he didn’t respond once again (the guy was obviously an addict), Evangeline swung the bottle out of his grasp, chucking it into the bin.

“Hey—get me a burger, b*tch!” a young teenager called out from a table nearby.

Evangeline turned around to shoot him a cold look and went back to the man. “Look—cigarette out,” she repeated in her most patient voice. Without turning to look if he had turned it out, she went to the man at the next table.

He was a simple, average looking guy with a cross around his neck. Evangeline flashed him a brief, curt smile – etiquette at Happy Burger – before asking him, “what would you like, sir?”

[Mikey]

(Hey rising. Your a waitress there, right? Thats ok, but the only two people are Eric and Sly in the restraunt. Besides the other NPC waitress that served Eric a beer, if you havent taken on her persona. Sly didnt say anything like that in his post, as he is the teenager with the cross Eric is refering to. I'll go ahead and fix it up in this post.)

Mikey looked around the shelves and wasnt finding the game. He had circled the store at least twice.

"Come on, how hard is it to find a freakin guy in a freakin white suit..." He muttered, and finally gave up.

"Hey Craig, I need some help man." He said without looking over his shoulder. Usually, Craig would be up and over to the customer when they asked for help.

"I'm looking for a game with a guy in a white suit on the cover, and I'm having no lu..." Mikey cut off his words when he looked over his shoulder to see if Craig was coming. Not only was he not coming, he wasnt even sitting at the counter anymore.

"Craig?" He said, turning his head slightly and walking over to the counter. He peeked over, but Craig was no where to be found. "Craig?" He said again, walking behind the counter. Nothing. "Craig, they fire people for this kind of sh*t. You cant leave the desk like that." He said loudly, and walked to the door behind the counter.

"Man, if your playing a joke, it aint funny..." He said, and opened the door. The very small back room was empty. Boxes lined the walls, and the only thing in the back was a jacket and a few personal things. Most likley belonging to Craig or anyone else who worked in the game shop.

"What the fu*k..." Mikey muttered, and walked into the room. He looked around. No windows to climb out of. He tested the boxes and each pushed solidly against the wall. Nowhere to go. Mikey exited the room and looked around the store. The woman who had been looking around was still there.

"Hey, did you see the guy behind the counter, like, walk out of here when I wasnt looking?" He asked, still convinced that Craig had either left his post, as Mikey himself had, or was playing some stupid joke.

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"Jeez, Eva, lighten up." The blonde muttered, and walked to the back room.

"Ya, I said I want a burger, bi*ch! You deaf?!" The rude teenager said. As soon as Evangaline turned her gaze from him, however, he seemed to dissapere. No one had heard him say anything else, and they hadnt heard him get up and leave. But, no matter who heard what, he was gone.

[Slyde]

Mark was sitting in his chair, still waiting for service, when out of nowhere (Or so Mark thought) a cute woman, almost as tall as he was, gave him a smile and asked:

“What would you like, sir?”

Mark looked at her for a few seconds, which is his immediate reaction when seeing good-looking women, then snapped back to reality. It's Mark's tactic to visualize Millie in his mind when he sees women, so as to maintain his loyalty to her. He had already viewed the menu a while back, and so he replied:

"I'll have 2 burgers for take out please."

He smiled again at the woman and then glanced at his watch. It had been a few minutes after he had left the bus. Hopefully he won't be left behind, seeing as he was the one who planned the trek anyway. So he sat back on his chair and relaxed, closing his eyes and waited.

[therisingstar]

(Urk! Sorry…)

“Jeez, Eva, lighten up?” Evangeline complained as she entered the kitchen. “What do you mean by that anyway?” she turned around to look for her fellow blonde waitress, who was turned away from her. When she didn’t reply, Evangeline sighed, “I guess I was being a bit… tense…” she muttered.

She had been feeling twitchy all day – in fact from everything that had happened so far, things were turning out badly. She had burned over ten meat patties and fried way too many French fries to burning point. The entire shopping centre seemed to be set in some nocturnal moment; there was barely any motion, movement, etc. – strange for a mall.

Grabbing the two burgers from the silver tray nearby, Eva walked back into the opening – she was glad to find the teenager gone. The only two people left were the older, cigarette-smoking man and the young guy behind him, sprawled over his chair. “Here are your burgers,” she said, smiling, handing them over to him.

“So, where are you headed?” Evangeline asked him, slightly curious. “You’re in this relaxed, holiday mood,” she explained when he looked at her with a tint of surprise. “Sorry, was I over-assuming?”

Noticing the other man turning around as if listening-in to their conversation, Evangeline took luck on the moment and spoke to him as well, “sorry I told you off about the smoking…it isn’t allowed, still, but… uh, I don’t know,” she smiled, “I’ve been in this weird, anxious mood all day.”

[Reaper]

Jack looked up as the man from earlier addressed her. She shook her head as she put the game back on the shelf. "Sorry can't help you there," she said lightly as she moved to another game. "Wasn't really paying attention. Maybe he had to run to the rest room real quick," she said as she set the game down. Walking toward the exit of the game store she paused as she looked around. "Okay why is it so dead. Even for a weak day these places aren't this dead," she said as she eyed the other stories realizing that she didn't even see the employees of the stories in side of them. Pausing for a moment as she looked back to the janitor. She sighed a bit as she looked back around the mall.

[Snake]

Joe was feeling tense. The death of his girlfriend was still recent to him, he could picture it in his head. He didn't want to, but he did. He had wandered into this mall looking for a place to eat, finally he found a happy burger. He took a seat on his own, not wanting to draw attention to himself. So rather than ask for a waittress he just sat.

After a few seconds he pulled out the photo, the photo that held the one thing he had held dear in life, the thing that had died. The photo was still stained with tears from earlier. He put it back incase he cried again.

[Mikey]

"That I cant answer..." Mikey said. He walked to the exit and looked around. He squinted a bit, and did a double take of the entire floor.

"Wait, where is everyone? Seriously, there were like 15 people here a minute ago." Mikey said, genuinly confused. Sure, a slow day was odd, but not that odd. 15 people who all vanished in the span of a few minutes, as well as a man who seemed to vanish into thin air, was odd. Mikey looked back to the store and tilted his head. The store was set up with racks on the walls, and several bins in the middle. There were only two walkways along the wall's, and a small one between the two large bins. There was no way Craig could have left without either of them knowing.

"Ok, this is fu*ked up..." Mikey said, and walked out into the main lobby of the second floor. He looked over the banister and down to the ground floor. It too was totally bare. And again, it had had something like 20 people on it not 15 minutes ago. He thought of calling out for anyone to answer him, but decided against it. If it had just been a normal thing, everyone just leaving for no real reason, he'd look like a jacka*s.

But, it was looking like everyone leaving for no real reason wasnt the situation.

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The blonde waitress was a bit miffed by what Evangaline had said, and going off on a guy who had just lit a cigarette. She walked into the back of the restraunt and did something. If anyone bothered to check, they would find she was gone. Everyone in the mall was gone, save for the few people there in the Happy Burger and second floor.