The Collector

by Z Hanny

  Jared glanced back at his companions, who stood frozen on the stairs. “It was probably just kids messing around before the store closed. Not like the security guard would’ve gone the extra mile to clean things up, right?” He laughed nervously, looking unconvinced by his own words.

  Blaine found a train set that looped around the entire floor. None of them had noticed it earlier in the day. He flipped the battery pack on and pushed the little lever, causing the aluminum train to whistle and begin making its way around the room.

  As the group continued to play with random toys, the train whistled out every time it turned a corner. Blaine stood waiting for the train to return and took his phone out to film as it rounded the final corner to come back to its original starting spot.

  He gasped when the light from his phone hit the toy - a teddy bear was propped on the train, looking straight ahead.

  “Guys...this bear wasn’t on the train when I started it,” Blaine said, and the others walked over to inspect it.

  “Are you sure?” Jared asked. “It could have been placed there already when you started it and just didn’t notice. Did you take any footage of it before you turned it on?”

  “No,” Blaine answered. “But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there. You guys aren’t messing with me?”

  “You are always such a skeptic at first,” Jennifer complained, filming him. He scowled at the camera.

  “I won’t deny that we’ve seen some pretty unexplainable things in our adventures,” Jared admitted, “but I think we should question the things before we jump to blaming ghost or devils as everyone else seems to do their channels. I’d rather tell the truth than try to get more subscribers.”

  “Well, I’m ready to leave,” Blaine said, and turned off the toy train set.

  Jared held his phone up to light the area. “We can’t leave, the store has only been closed for a little while. If you really want to, you can go sleep downstairs on one of the beds.”

  “I might just do that,” Blaine said as he grabbed a plastic sword that lit up with blue and green lights. “In just a little bit.”

  Jennifer and Jared laughed. Jared picked up a foam ball which also lit up and gestured for Jennifer to run down the aisle. He threw it to her when she reached the end and she caught it. Blaine filmed the two passing the ball back and forth for a minute, but something caught his attention while the other two joked around.

  A whistle came from behind him and when he went to investigate, he found the train set on and moving again. He took a step back, calling the others over.

  “Alright, seriously, are you messing with us?” Jared asked. Blaine shook his head.

  “I definitely turned this off. I’m sure.”

  Jen was filming the train as it sped around the track. Jared found the cord and traced it back to a plug in the wall.

  “As I said earlier,” Jared unplugged it and the train stopped in its tracks. “Old electricity grid.”

  “This is the last level, isn’t it?” Blaine asked, the other two nodded in response. “Other than that creepy storage room. I don’t want to go up there, it gave me some weird vibes being in that room.”

  “There’s not really anything that exciting up there,” Jared said. “Let’s go see if we can get the virtual reality headset or a movie to start. Then we can just set up our cameras somewhere to record the building for a few hours and see if they capture anything more than teddy bear driven trains.”

  Chapter Seven

  The Virtual Reality

  The group decided that it was easier to look for a breaker than getting a generator to start. Though none of them wanted to admit it, they all knew it resided on the top floor in the storage room. They quivered looking up the last set of stairs.

  “Come on,” Jared said. “Someone record it.”

  All three of them went up the stairs slowly and used the lights on their phones to start scanning the walls of the room. It took a moment to find it, and there was more than one, but they opened them joyfully and turned on the appropriate switches to activate the television floor.

  Jennifer flipped the switch that turned on the power to the top floor, then walked over and flicked a light switch. She jumped when the light came on, pressing a hand to her chest.

  “Are you okay?” Blaine asked.

  Jen glanced at him. “Yeah. Sorry. I thought for a second one of you had come up behind me. I swear someone was right -”

  “You guys,” Jared interrupted, “turn the light off, we don’t want someone coming to get us in trouble. This has to be some sort of crime that we’re committing. Trespassing or something”

  “Let’s get off this floor,” Jennifer said shakily. “There is some weird stuff happening up here.”

  She rushed to the stairs with the others following right behind her. When they reached the stairwell, they glanced behind them to film, but nothing resided on the floor except a bunch of department store junk.

  They made their way to the electronics level and turned on a few televisions as a test, and they worked. There were no remotes lying around, so they changed the channels by using the buttons on the sides of the televisions before realizing that no cable ran through any of the sets.

  Jennifer and Jared searched around for a DVD player that would work while Blaine powered up the VR headset. The others couldn’t find any cords to attached the players to the television, so they went and sat by Blaine.

  “Do you not remember how much you hated this?” Jen asked as Blaine messed with the headset, but Jared motioned for her to be quiet.

  “We can use this for promotion.” He turned the phone so that viewers could see his face and Blaine in the background. “We’re in the middle of our challenge,” he began, “and we’ve been finding ways to entertain ourselves. Here’s Blaine checking out a virtual reality head set.”

  “There are a few games on here,” Blaine said, voice muffled. “One about skydiving, one about deep sea diving, one about a roller coaster, and one about a zombie invasion.”

  “Zombies for sure,” Jen said. “That goes perfectly for playing in a haunted department store.”

  “Alright,” Blaine said. “If I have bad zombie dreams though, it is your fault.” Blaine thrashed around for a moment, then removed the helmet from his head, “That is a lot scarier and more realistic than I thought it would be. I died already.”

  He put the set down and lounged by Jen and Jared. “You know what’s weird? I didn’t see the game we played earlier on it...you know, the one with the house, and all of the people standing outside?”

  Jen glanced at him, standing. “That is weird,” she said. “Let me check it out.” She played a little bit longer than Blaine, but then removed the gear. "I didn't make it either. Definitely underestimated how hard these games are!”

  Jared pulled the helmet over his head next and took hold of the controllers. The screen loaded up and he found himself standing inside of a bedroom in disarray and smashed in windows. It was raining hard outside and the sound of the water pelting the house filled his ears.

  Thunder blared in the distance and the lights flickered. A groan came from downstairs in the house. Jared looked around and found a baseball bat in the corner of the room. Grabbing the bat, he left the room with his weapon held high.

  He checked each corner to make sure that something wasn’t waiting in surprise for him. A set of stairs led him down and he noticed the first zombie standing in the doorway, but it hadn’t noticed him yet, so he snuck up on the creature and hit it across the head.

  He then peeked through the partially open door - hundreds of zombies were walking the street in the rain. None of them noticed him, so instead of slipping out the door, as he assumed the other two did, he went to the back door of the house.

  The backyard appeared clear, so he crept out carefully and went to the fence. The neighbor's backyard also appeared to be clear. Jared jumped the fence and searched around for a moment. He did this for a while, jumping fences, then searching for
a moment before jumping another.

  One zombie noticed him but he hit it over the head quickly, then peered over the fence. He gasped when he saw the department store across the street.

  “Wow, this place really invested some money into this virtual reality,” Jared said.

  It took a moment for him to catch Jennifer’s response and it came from a distance, “Sorry, Jared, we were looking for a DVD player again. What did you say?”

  “There is a virtual department store exactly like this one in the game,” Jared said and turned in time to hit a zombie coming up behind him.

  “That is crazy,” Blaine said, his voice was distant as well. “Go inside, check it out.”

  Jared turned his attention back to the virtual department store and jumped the final fence. He bolted across a road and glanced up the side of the building. Everything about the store was incredibly accurate, down to the crumbling bricks.

  It appeared that a light had been turned on for the top floor.

  The main entrance opened at his touch and he walked into the familiar first floor of Craig’s. It was almost identical, from what he could remember. He tiptoed through the floor, reminding himself that it was still a zombie survival game, and walked up the stairs.

  “You guys, this is the exact same store in the game,” Jared said. “This is really weird.”

  “Are you sure it’s the same store?” Blaine asked, his voice closer this time. “It could just be a general department store, they do all look the same.”

  “No, I swear,” Jared said. “This is the exact same store in the game, the lights are off, and everything is in the exact same place.” He recognized the furniture they’d seen on the way in, having discussed getting some things for college.

  Jared walked up the virtual staircase which led to the electronics floor and glanced around. He had a weird sense of déjà vu, knowing that in real life he was on this very same floor. Following his memory, he walked to where the virtual reality game would be set up. He froze when he saw himself with the VR equipment on and behind him, two zombies leaning in to bite into his flesh.

  He threw the equipment off his head and spun around. Jennifer and Blaine stood behind him staring at the helmet with their mouths open. It had broken from the fall. Jared panted, trying to draw in deeper breaths to calm down.

  “Jared, you broke it,” Blaine accused. “It couldn’t have been that bad.”

  Jared was shaking his head. “I saw myself,” he said. “I was standing right here, and right where you two are there were two zombies, both of them ready to devour me.”

  “Are you sure?” Jennifer asked and put the broken headset up on its stand.

  “I promise,” Jared insisted. “I’m so sure that...that I think I actually want to get out of here.”

  Blaine and Jennifer stared at him.

  “Wait, really?” Blaine asked, snapping out of it as Jared began to grab his things and turn toward the stairs. “It’s just a game, Jared, you’re probably just psyching yourself out.”

  “No, that wasn’t just a game,” Jared said. “Follow me. Quick. Come on!”

  Blaine and Jennifer followed him up the stairs and he pointed over to the staircase that led up to the top floor. A light had been turned on.

  “Who turned that light on?” Blaine asked, looking to the other two.

  Jennifer shook her head, glancing at Jared.

  “I didn’t either,” he confirmed, “but I knew that light was on because in the game when I approached the building, I saw it was on. I’m out of here.” He slung his bag over his shoulder, gave Jen and Blaine a meaningful look, and headed for the stairs.

  Chapter Eight

  Broken Footage

  “Come on, Jared,” Jennifer begged as they followed him down the final flight of stairs. “You’ve been the one helping me convince Blaine to stay. This place is clearly haunted, so we can probably get some really good footage here. It will help our channel grow.”

  “I actually agree with Jen right now,” Blaine said, sounding surprised at himself.

  “You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d seen what I saw in that game,” Jared insisted as he neared the main entrance of the building. “You two can stay here and we can just say that I bailed because of how scary it was. We can exploit my leaving.”

  He pushed on the door, but it was locked, so he glanced around for another possible exit. He searched the entire floor and found another door, but that too was locked when he tried to push it open.

  “We might be stuck in here after all,” Jennifer murmured. The boys looked concerned as she took her phone out to record them. “Come on you two, or are you both too afraid to see what walks the halls at night?”

  “Come on, Jen,” Jared said. “I’m sure I can find an exit or a window that opens around here. Like I said – you guys stay. I’m out.”

  “Or maybe, we should go find out who turned on the light on the top level,” Jennifer wheedled, and chuckled like a mad doctor before tapping the screen to stop the video. “I’ll stay here by myself, but if I do, it goes up on my own channel.”

  “Hey, I wasn’t planning on leaving - “Blaine began to argue, but Jared interrupted him.

  “Alright, let's set up two of the cameras and we can carry one around for filming. At this point, we’re going to have to attach them to the battery packs.” He looked back and forth between his two friends. “I’ll stay. But this is the last time we do something like this.”

  Jennifer and Blaine both grinned and began looking for a good place to set up the phones to record. Jared explained that they’d have to check the phones regularly and that they might have to download all the footage to his tablet which he’d slipped into Blaine’s pack at some point.

  They decided to put one phone on the first level of the store. There was no question that the other had to go on the top level. After setting up the first phone with a battery pack and positioning it so that it could see the entire level, they recorded themselves going up the stairs to investigate the top level.

  On the toy level, they turned to the last stairwell and found the light off. The three of them looked dumbfounded.

  “Okay...that’s pretty weird,” Jennifer said. “Maybe there’s someone still here and we missed it? Maybe the lights are on a timer?”

  “We didn’t get any footage of the light actually being on, did we?” Blaine asked, and the other two shook their heads. “So far we’ve missed some good footage then. Even if we narrate this part, it won’t be as creepy – a lot of people won’t believe that the light was on up there.”

  “We’ll get more, Blaine,” Jennifer said, placing her hand on his shoulder. “This place is turning out to be pretty strange and we’ve got a good part of the night to go. Let’s go up there.”

  They walked the dark stairs together with their flashlights searching in all directions. When they reached the floor, Jared called out, asking if anyone was there. There was no response.

  Jared reluctantly stepped into the area. He got distracted quickly by finding a great spot to set up the equipment. Jen and Blaine stood nearby, shoulder to shoulder, scanning the room. As soon as the battery pack was set up, they headed for the stairs.

  At the toy floor the group paused to look back up. The air was heavy with uncertainty.

  “We could have missed something,” Blaine insisted, continuing the conversation from earlier. “There could have been another guard, or an overnight worker.”

  Jared glanced at his friend briefly before sighing. “I think the best explanation is just the possibility of power surges. You’ve got to remember, even though Craig’s has only been here for thirty years, the building itself is from way earlier. I doubt it’s been maintained well if they haven’t even installed real video cameras.”

  “Could that have something to do with what you saw in the VR headset?” Jennifer asked. “The power creating some kind of glitch in the system...”

  “No, I can’t explain that at all,” Jared said, sh
aking his head. “That was the strangest thing that I have ever seen, video game or not.”

  The three were silent for a moment, each contemplating the strange events they’d experienced so far.

  “Well, what do we do now?” Blaine asked as he started to play with a yo-yo. “We should have brought a Ouija board or something, that would have made this trip more interesting.”

  “We don’t need to make the trip more interesting,” Jennifer said. “This place is strange enough as it is.”

  All three jumped when a banging sound resonated up the stairs. They waited for a moment before agreeing to go investigate as a group. The electronics floor appeared normal as well as both floors containing clothing.

  When they reached the level with kitchen displays, they all stopped to glance at one another. This floor felt much colder than the others. Somewhere a cupboard door closed, the sound echoing in the dark.

  The group directed their lights toward the sound and slowly approached. It sounded out again, causing them to hesitate. Jared recorded the entire time. They searched for some time, but they found nothing.

  “Something is messing with us?” Blaine asked. “What else would cause-”

  Blaine was cut off by a crashing sound coming from the floor above. They ran up the stairs and stood at the top, gazing around slowly.

  “Just imagine,” Jennifer said, “we’re here doing this on the night that the store gets robbed.”

  Neither Jared nor Blaine thought her comment very funny and they were shocked when they found the phone with the battery pack on the ground. The camera lens on the phone was face down.

  “Alright, let’s set that up in a better spot,” Jared said, chocking it up to poor placement. He began looking around.

  “I don’t think that was from bad positioning,” Jennifer argued. “My phone isn’t broken is it?”

  Blaine shook his head after inspecting it, then Jared took the phone and battery pack. He opened the video file and fast forwarded to the moment that the phone fell. All three of them leaned in to watch, but nothing unusual showed up on the camera. The phone appeared to fall from its spot on its own accord.