by Gabi Moore
“They’ll know we’re coming just from that light,” she said to him in a low voice. So far, they had seen stonewalls and smooth floor, but nothing else. The corridor was void of any kind of mice or rats, for which Lilly was thankful.
It was also very quiet.
She had no idea what to expect when they reached the subbasement, but it shouldn’t be very long. The mall only had two basements and they’d entered on the ground floor. There was the possibility that this corridor’s length didn’t correspond to the elemental lengths, but Lilly didn’t want to think about that. She assumed the passage would be the same length from the surface to the subbasement as if they’d entered using a normal stairs. They continued their movement down to the ghoul level.
A few more minutes of travel and they were in front of a pair of doors that read “Subbasement”.
Dion took a minute to stare at it. “Pretty much sums it up. Let’s see what’s on the other side.”
Before they reached the door, it swung open to reveal the ghoul cleaners from the pharmacy. There were twelve of them this time and each one carried a club and wore mirrorshades.
Lilly shined the light from her lantern on them, but it made no difference. They stood there, patted their clubs, and stared at the two interlopers.
It was in that moment Dion realized what use the floor polisher would have against the ghouls. He clicked the choke into position and pulled the chain on it, firing up the gas engine. The floor polisher screamed into life with a roar slightly greater than a lawn mower. It was loud and the close walls and ceiling of the corridor amplified the noise.
The ghouls screamed, dropped the clubs and grabbed their ears. Some of them fled to the other side of the door, most howled in pain from the noise created by the floor polisher. The noise was so loud that it even hurt Dion’s ears. However, he let it roar; slowly walking up to the ghouls with the polisher as it created a wall of sound they couldn’t stand.
The ghouls who remained in the corridor dropped to the floor and shook their heads as they tried to silence the painful noise. With enhanced hearing, the roar of the floor polisher sent them into spasms of agony. Dion watched them howl for a few minutes, then shut the engine off.
A few of the ghouls stood up, breathing heavy. They didn’t say a word, but looked in fear at the floor polisher. Dion waited until one of them stood up and put his hand on the pull chain. The ghoul waved his hands, and hugged himself. The meaning was clear and all Dion needed to do was walk in their direction with the floor polisher. The ghouls waved their heads and vanished on the other side of the doors while bowing.
Dion stood in place with his hand on the pull chain.
“The noise,” he told Lilly. “They can’t stand the noise. Edward knew it, which is why he had the guy bring me the floor polisher. So long as I have the ability to send sound waves in and mess up their world, they’ll do what we want.”
“I don’t want to go through those doors,” Lilly said. “I hope they bring Emily back out because we just might have to do it.”
A few minutes later the ghouls returned with the bound and gagged form of Emily. They approached Dion and held her up so the light from Lilly’s headlamp shone on her. It was Emily, as far as they could tell, even with the smeared make-up, they knew it had to be her. She was unable to say a thing.
One of the ghouls pointed to the map under Dion’s arm. “I think they want to make a trade,” he said to Lilly.
“I thought you told me the ghouls can’t read and didn’t know how valuable that map is. Why would they want to trade for it?”
“Could be that they know how useful it is. Could be they found out when they kidnapped Emily.”
“I don’t trust them,” he told Lilly. “These elementals have a tendency to get the better of the trade. I want to be sure it’s her.” He gestured to the ghouls to remove the gag from her mouth.
One of the ghouls reached up and untied the rag they’d stuffed in Emily’s mouth. “Thank God you’re here,” she cried out. “I thought I would never get out of this place!”
“Who am I?” Dion asked her.
“Why you are, umh, ah….”
“Who is that?” Dion said pointing to Lilly.
“That’s um….”
Dion pulled the chain on the floor polisher motor and the machine began to howl. The ghouls dropped Emily who promptly changed into a ghoul and they all thrashed around on the floor. Dion hit the stop button on the floor polisher and the machine wound down.
“Enough of this!” he yelled at them. “Go get the real Emily or I’ll walk this thing running right into your homes!”
Gasping again, the ghouls picked themselves up from the floor and walked back through the doors.
“How did you know they would try that?” Lilly asked him after they left.
“Like I said, we’re in their domain and they like to get the better of any trade. We would have traded the map for a ghoul and they would run off. Whatever is in the map is so valuable they’ll risk the pain of the noise to get it. Let’s see what they do the next time.”
This time when they brought the figure of Emily through the doors, she was ungagged. She saw Dion and Lilly and began to blubber in tears.
“Who am I?” he asked her.
“Dion! Now get me out of here!”
“And the girl with me?”
“It’s Lilly, for God’s sake Dion get me out of this horrible place!”
Dion had Lilly walk over to the ghouls holding Emily and take her while she rested one hand on the pull chain. The moment Emily was back in their hands, he tossed them the map. The ghouls looked at it to make sure it was the right one and retreated back into the doors.
Lilly finished untying Emily who embraced her and began to cry. When she finished crying, he pulled the chain on the floor polisher and it started up again. She yelled but remained in human form. Dion killed the motor.
“I had to be sure,” he explained to her. “They tried to give us a fake Emily once, they might do it again.”
The trip back to the surface took place quick. With the light of the headlamp, Lilly was able to guide them back to the main level of the mall. Soon they were on the corridor side of the door they had entered.
“Where will it take us this time?” Lilly said to them.
“Only one way to find out,” Dion said and pushed the door open.
They found themselves next to the pharmacy where the ghouls had tried to keep them from reaching. Dion stood there with the floor polisher in one hand and looked down the hallway. From what he could tell by the wall clock, they’d only been underground for a few hours.
“That’s a relief,” he said.
“A relief we’re out?” Emily asked. “I never want to go back down there again. I could hear those things shuffling all over that place. It was horrible!”
“No, it’s good we were only down there a few hours,” he told her. “Sometimes you can come up from the elemental underworld and discover years have passed.”
“Rip Van Winkle,” Lilly said.
“Exactly. If we had gone through those doors to the subbasement, years might have passed when we returned to the surface. The same rules don’t apply down there when it comes to time passage.”
“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” It was Officer Karanzen and six of his guards. “I had a complaint and it appears you’ve gone and stolen a floor polisher. Really Dion, why do you force me to do this?”
“Force you to do what?”
“Force me to take all of you down to my office; you’ll have to come with me now.”
Dion, Lilly and Emily were marched down the concourse with Karanzen and his minions surrounding them. No one wanted to look in their direction because when the security chief had someone, it usually meant they were on their way out.
The office of Officer Karanzen was located in an out-of-the-way section of the mall. It had a few rooms which could be locked from the outside, equipped with closed circuit cam
eras inside them. This was the equivalent of “cells” that a police station might have, although the mall guards had no power to make arrests like the law enforcement officers. They could make citizen’s arrests, but so could anyone else. The rooms were for special cases, people caught stealing, trying to peep inside women’s’ bathrooms and the like. Minors were held in the main office while one of the guards made a report and called their guardians.
However, all three of them - Emily, Dion and Lilly - were eighteen. They were legally adults, although still in high school. This created a bit of a problem for security. Technically, they needed to press charges or release them. Karanzen didn’t want to go to any trouble, which might get the legal affairs people involved, so he opted for another option: taking them all into his office.
He sat the three of them across from his desk while closing the door to the rest of the security office. While they sat in their chairs, he pretended to look at some report and shuffled more papers. The whole ruse was supposed to make them think he was busy doing something else and create uncertainty and fear in their minds. Dion was aware of what he did and didn’t care.
“Stealing a floor polisher,” he said to Dion. “I would’ve thought you were the type to find something a little more elaborate. Come on, at least a rack of clothes. What did you do? Have the girls distract the maintenance department?”
“We were given the polisher,” Lilly said to him.
“Really?” Karanzen returned to her. “For what? Did you plan to clean up somewhere? You don’t appear to be the charwoman type.”
“Can we just bring this nonsense to an end, Officer?” Dion said. “We all know what happened and how we had to rescue our friend. Do you really want us to go back home and tell Emily’s family how a bunch of cleaners kidnapped her and hauled her down to the subbasement? Do you want her story on the evening news?”
Karanzen sat behind his desk and glared at Dion. He picked up a pencil and tossed it at the wall. The girls jumped up as it collided.
“I look like a fool to you, son?” he yelled. “There was no kidnapping and I would just like to see you prove it.”
“I don’t have to, Officer. All we need to do is go home, tell Emily’s parents our story and the news reporters will be all over this place. Won’t that look good on TV. We both know the reason this mall was built is over the location. It’s relatively quiet, the location is good and it’s at a gateway between different parts of the universe.”
Karanzen’s face went red. Emily was afraid he’d lunge at Dion, but he stayed in place.
“It’s your job, isn’t it, Officer?” Dion said to him. “You guard the abyss which is in the center of the mall. The management knows it and wanted the mall built for reasons of their own. They seem to think people shouldn’t know what is in the middle. Well, I do. I know my parents are being held there. I want them out, but I have to visit the elemental grandmasters before I can get them out of here.”
“I want all of you out of here!” Karanzen said bringing down his fist on the table. “You have caused enough trouble for me today. I don’t need some smart-mouth kids coming inside my territory messing things up. Now get out of here before I change my mind and call the police!”
They all stood up and walked out the door.
“You stay put!” Karanzen yelled at Dion as he reached the door. “The other two can go, but I want to talk to you.”
Dion walked back inside and shut the door behind him. He returned to the chair where he’d sat.
Officer Karanzen sat back on his chair and glared at Dion. Then he began to change. His form broke up into a large cloud with eyes and teeth floating in it. Within seconds, the cloud had filled the other side of the desk and Dion could see numerous insects and flies swarming inside it. The cloud merged into a pair of eyes, which stared down at him and focused.
Dion had expected something like this. Karanzen was showing him his latest form, or as much as he could on this plane. The cloud of insects continued to buzz with all manner of wasps and bees. He saw it was made up of things that stung and bite. This was how Karanzen scared the stuffing out of troublesome kids he’d picked up inside the mall. One look at what was behind the surface of him and no one was ever the same again. Dion doubted the officer had done this too many times, but it was effective. However, Dion was aware of his true form and knew he couldn’t hurt him physically without bring down the wrath of the mall managers.
The cloud began to coalesce again and soon Karanzen was back to his human form. He sat back on his hands and smiled as Dion, assured he had put a bad scare into the young man.
“So you show me your true self?” Dion said to him. “What am I, some kid with a dog-eared copy of The Egyptian Book of the Dead? Seriously, officer, I would expect better from you. Can I go now?”
“Out of here!” he screamed. “Get out of my office now!”
“No problem, Officer. And don’t worry, your little secret is safe with me.” He shut the door behind him and heard books flying across the room, hitting the walls.
“I think we need to go outside,” Dion said to Lilly and Emily as they left the security offices.
“What happened in there?” Emily asked. “I can’t believe they are going to let those monsters go.”
“They will discipline the cleaners,” Dion said to her. “Don’t worry about that. He’s more afraid of you talking than anything else. The cleaners weren’t ever supposed to do what they did.”
Outside the mall they found a fountain, sat on a bench next to it and watched the water spray. It was a few minutes before Dion said anything.
“Whoever built this mall wants its location quiet,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the ghouls get fired over this. There are plenty of other earth elementals they can bring in here to do the job of taking care of this place. I’m sure there are plenty of gnomes and trolls who would be glad to move in and do the job.”
“Why do you think they wanted to trade the map?” Lilly asked. She had the pack to one side of the ground and her foot was resting on it.”
“They realized what they did after Emily was grabbed. They needed something to use to justify it and the map was the only thing they knew about. One of them figured out what it was after they ditched it. They found out we had it when we went down to the subbasement. They decided to make a trade, but tried to use a changeling instead of the real Emily.”
“I could still be down there,” she said, her body shivering. “You have no idea how scary it was down there. I never want to go anywhere near that mall again. I’m not sure if I’ll ever want to go around any mall in the future.”
“This one is different,” Dion told her. “It’s built to be the junction of several planes. I don’t know exactly why it was built here, but my parents suspected the reason.”
“You haven’t talked much about them,” Emily said. “Did they have the same powers as you do?”
“Don’t think of it as powers,” Dion told her. “Think of it as talent. Dad had Air and Fire; mother had Earth and Water. I think I might be the first in generations to have all four elements with the possibility of gaining the fifth.”
“Will we be able to get back inside?” Lilly asked him.
“Officer Karanzen didn’t threaten to keep us out, so I guess the answer is yes. We’ll still be watched. He tried to scare me inside his office, but he found out I don’t scare easy.”
“I’m scared enough,” Emily finally spoke up. “I’m going home. Lilly, you can stay here with him, but I want to get out of here. Call me later and let me know how everything turned out.”
Emily grabbed her purse and waltzed down the parking lot. In a few minutes, they saw her driving away in her car.
“Can’t say I blame her,” Lilly said. “After being kidnapped by ghouls and hauled underground. I don’t think they did anything to her, but still….”
“They didn’t because they wanted to use her as a bargaining chip. Other people captured by them weren’t so lucky
. I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to bring them here, but in retrospective, it was a dumb plan.”
They strolled across the outside of the parking lot and stopped to look at the new theater, which was placed outside the mall a few months ago. This theater had two whole screens and sported a big marquee out front with the name of two popular films. One had something to do with sharks that ate people and the other the exploits of an ambulance crew in Hollywood. Lilly didn’t think either of them looked interesting.
“You ever go to the movies?” she asked Dion, her hand slipping casually into his. Lilly felt herself grown attracted to the strange man and really wanted to help him find his parents. She didn’t really know what she was doing right now, but wanted to see it through. It was almost like being inside a made-for-TV movie. At any minute, she expected there to be a commercial break.
“Not too often,” he said, securing her hand in his. “But I never liked the smell of popcorn. Mom and dad took me a few times when I was smaller. Since they disappeared and I moved in with my aunt and uncle, I don’t get out that much. I spend most of my free time in the libraries, trying to find out who is behind the mall and what secrets it might hold.”
Lilly turned and looked back at the mall. “You really wouldn’t think it could be such a mysterious place. Looks like any other mall from the outside. But according to you, it’s the home to all kinds of elementals.”
“One of the reasons it was built was to lure and trap them,” he explained. “They might fire the ghouls from their jobs as cleaners, but they’ll still be there, just doing some work where they don’t have contact with the humans. Whoever built the mall wants the different elementals to stay put. I don’t know what they’re planning, but I’m sure they need all the power the elementals possess to make it happen.”
“What else can you do with fire elementals?” she asked him. “I like the demonstration you did this afternoon. Can you do another?”
“I guess. Hand me the lantern,” he told her.
Lilly picked it out of her bag and passed it to him. Dion took the lantern in his hand and activated the ignition switch. Soon, a small flame was burning inside the lantern. He watched it, touched the lens of the lamp with one hand, and carefully unscrewed it. As the sun’s rays began to hide behind the trees, which lined the parking lot, trees that were very new and supplied by a local nursery, he removed the lens and sat it on the ground.
