“I liked Freddy,” said John. “He always seemed the most relatable.”
“You know, there are a lot of things about my childhood that I can’t remember, at all,” Carlton said, “but I swear I can close my eyes and see every last detail of that place. Even the gum I used to stick under the tables.”
“Gum? Yeah right, those were boogers.” Jessica took a tiny step away from Carlton.
He grinned. “I was seven, what do you want? You all picked on me back then, remember Marla wrote ‘Carlton smells like feet’ on the wall outside?”
“You did smell like feet,” Jessica laughed with a sudden outburst.
Carlton shrugged, unperturbed. “I used to try and hide when it was time to go home. I wanted to be stuck in there overnight so I could have the whole place to myself.”
“Yeah, you always kept everyone waiting,” said John, “and you always hid under the same table.”
Charlie spoke slowly, and when she did everyone turned to her, as though they had been waiting.
“Sometimes I feel like I remember every inch of it, like Carlton,” she said. “But sometimes it’s like I hardly remember it at all. It’s all in pieces. Like, I remember the carousel, and that time it got stuck. I remember drawing on the placemats. I remember little things: eating that greasy pizza, hugging Freddy in the summer, and his yellow fur getting stuck all over my clothes. But a lot of it is like pictures, like it happened to someone else.”
They were all looking at her oddly.
“Freddy was brown, right?” Jessica looked to the others for confirmation.
“I guess you really don’t remember it that well after all.” Carlton teased Charlie, and she laughed briefly.
“Right. I meant brown,” she said. Brown, Freddy was brown. Of course he was, she could see him in her mind now. But somewhere in the depths of her recall, there was a flash of something else.
Carlton launched into another story and Charlie tried to turn her attention to him, but there was something disturbing, worrisome, about that lapse in memory. It was ten years ago, it’s not like you’ve got dementia at 17, she told herself, but it was such a basic detail to have misremembered. Out of the corner of her eye she caught John looking at her, a pensive expression on his face, as though she had said something important.
“You really don’t know what happened to it?” She asked Carlton with more urgency in her voice than she intended, and he stopped talking, surprised.
“Sorry,” she said. “Sorry, I didn’t meant to interrupt you.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “But yeah—or no, I really don’t know what happened.”
“How can you not know? You live here.”
“Charlie, come on,” said John.
“It’s not like I hang around that part of town. Things are different, the town has grown.” Carlton said mildly, seeming unruffled by her outburst. “And I honestly don’t look for reasons to go around there, you know? Why would I? There isn’t any reason, not anymore.”
“We could go there,” John said suddenly, and Charlie’s heart skipped.
Carlton looked nervously at Charlie. “What? Seriously, it’s a mess. I don’t know if you can even get to it.”
Charlie found herself nodding. She felt as though she had spent the whole day weighted down by memory, seeing everything through a filter of years, and now she felt suddenly alert, her mind fully present. She wanted to go.
“Let’s do it,” she said. “Even if there’s nothing there. I want to see.” They were all silent, then John smiled with a reckless confidence.
“Yeah. Let’s do it.”
Chapter Two
Charlie pulled to a stop, feeling the soft give of dirt under her tires, and turned off the car. She got out and surveyed their surroundings. The sky was a rich, dark blue, the last trails of the sunset streaking off to the West. The parking lot was unpaved, and before them lay a sprawling monster of a building, a rising acre of glass and concrete. There were lamps in the parking lot that had never been used; and no lights shone out onto the lot. The building itself looked like an abandoned sanctuary, entombed in black trees amidst the distant roar of civilization. She looked at Jessica in the passenger seat, who was craning her neck out the window.
“Is this the right place?” Jessica asked.
Charlie shook her head slowly, not quite certain what she was seeing. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
Charlie got out of the car, and stood in silence as John and Carlton pulled up beside her.
“What is this?” John stepped out of the car cautiously and stared blankly at the monument. “Does anyone have a flashlight?” he looked at each of them.
Carlton held up his keychain, and waved around the feeble glow of a penlight for a minute.
“Great.” John muttered, walking away with resignation.
“Hold on a sec.” Charlie said, and went around to her trunk. “My aunt makes me carry around a bunch of stuff for emergencies.”
Aunt Jen, loving but severe, had taught Charlie self-reliance above almost anything else. Before she let Charlie have her old blue Honda she had insisted that Charlie know how to change a tire, check the oil, and know the basic parts of the engine. In the trunk, in a black box tucked in next to the jack, spare tire and small crowbar, she had a blanket, a heavy police issue flashlight, bottled water, granola bars, matches, and emergency flares. Charlie grabbed the flashlight; Carlton grabbed a granola bar.
Almost by silent agreement, they began to walk the building’s perimeter, Charlie holding up the light in a steady beam in front of them. The building itself looked mostly finished, but the ground was all dirt and rock, uneven and soft. Charlie shone the light on the ground, where grass had grown patchy in the dirt, inches long.
”No one has been digging for a while.” Charlie said.
The place was massive, and it took a long time to circumnavigate. It wasn’t long before the rich blue of the evening was overtaken by a blanket of scattered silver clouds and stars. The surfaces of the building were all the same smooth, beige concrete, with windows too high up on the walls to see inside.
“Did they really build this whole thing and then just leave?” Jessica said.
“Carlton,” said John, “you really don’t know anything about what happened?”
Carlton shrugged expansively.
“I told you, I knew there was construction, but I don’t know anything else.”
“Why would they do this?” John seemed almost paranoid, scouting the trees as though eyes might be looking back at him. “It just goes on and on.” He squinted, gazing along the outside wall of the building that seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance. He glanced back to the trees as if making sure they hadn’t missed a building somehow. “No, it was here.” He placed his hand on the drab concrete facing. “It’s gone.”
After a moment, he gestured to the others, and began to walk back the way they came.
Reluctantly, Charlie turned back, following the group. They kept going until they could see their cars again up ahead in the darkness.
“Sorry guys; I hoped there would at least be something familiar,” Carlton said exhaustedly, looking back to make sure they hadn’t missed anything.
“Yeah.” Charlie said. She had known it would be, but seeing that Freddy’s had been razed to the ground was still a shock. It was so paramount, sometimes, in her mind, that she wanted to get rid of it, wanted to scrub the memories, good and bad, from her head, as if they had never been. Now someone had scrubbed it from the landscape, and it felt like a violation. It should have been up to her. Right, she thought, because you had the money to buy it and preserve it, like Aunt Jen did with the house.
“Charlie?” John was saying her name, and it sounded like he was repeating it.
“Sorry,” she said. “What were you saying?”
“Do you want to go inside?” Jessica said.
Charlie was surprised they were only now considering this, but then again none of them was usu
ally prone to criminal activity. The thought was a release and she took a deep breath, speaking on exhale. “Why not.” She said, almost laughing. She hefted the flashlight. Her arms were getting tired. “Anyone else want a turn?” She waved it back and forth like a pendulum.
Carlton took it and took a moment to appreciate its weight.
“Why is this so heavy?” He said, and passing it off to John. “Here you go.”
“It’s a police flashlight,” Charlie said absently. “You can hit people with it.”
Jessica wrinkled her nose. “Your aunt really wasn’t kidding around, huh? Ever used it?”
“Not yet.” Charlie winked and made a half threatening glance at John, who returned an uncertain half-smile, unsure how to react.
The wide entrances were sealed with hammered metal doors, no doubt intended to be temporary until construction was finished. Still, it wasn’t difficult to find a way in, as many large mounds of gravel and sand scaled the walls, leading right up to the edges of the large, gaping windows.
“Not trying hard to keep people out.” John said.
“What’s anyone going to steal?” Charlie said, staring at the blank, towering walls.
They climbed the hills slowly, the gravel shifting and sliding beneath their feet as they went. Carlton reached the window first, and peered through. Jessica looked over his shoulder.
“Can we drop down?” John said.
“Yes,” said Carlton.
“No,” Jessica said at precisely the same time.
“I’ll go,” Charlie said. She felt reckless. Without looking through to see how far the fall was, she put her feet through the opening and let herself drop. She landed, knees bent, the impact rocking her, but it did not hurt. She looked up at her friends, staring down. “Oh. Hang on!” Charlie called, pulling a short stepladder from a wall nearby and setting it under the window.
“Okay,” she said. “Come on!” They dropped down one by one, and looked around them.
Inside was an atrium, or maybe it would have become a food court, with metal benches and plastic tables scattered around, some bolted to the floor. The ceiling rose up high above them, with a glass roof where they could see the stars peering down at them.
“Very post-apocalyptic.” Charlie joked, her voice echoing in the open space.
Jessica sang a brief, wordless scale, suddenly, startling them all into silence. Her voice rang out pure and clear, something beautiful in the emptiness.
“Very nice, but let’s not call too much attention to ourselves.” John said.
“Right.” Jessica said, still very happy with herself. As they walked on, Carlton swept up and took her arm.
“Your voice is amazing,” he said.
“It’s just good acoustics,” Jessica said, attempting humility but not meaning a word of it.
They walked the empty halls, peering into each of the massive cavities where a department store might have been. Some parts of the mall had been almost finished, while others were in shambles. Some hallways were littered with piles of dusty concrete bricks and stacks of wood, others were lined with glass-paneled storefronts, lights hanging in perfect rows above their heads.
“It’s like a lost city,” John said.
“Like Pompeii,” said Jessica, “just without the volcano.”
“No,” Charlie said, “there’s nothing here.” The whole place had a sterile feel to it—it was not abandoned, it had never sustained life at all.
She looked in a store window across from her, one of the few with glass, wondering what would have been displayed. She imagined mannequins, dressed in bright clothing, but when she tried to picture them all she could see was blank faces, concealing something. She suddenly felt out of place, unwelcomed by the building itself. Charlie began to feel restless, some of the luster wearing off the adventure. They had come; Freddy’s was gone, and so was the shrine she had kept in her thoughts, where she could still find Michael playing where she last saw him.
John stopped suddenly, turning off the flashlight as carefully as he could. He put a finger to his lips, motioning silence. He gestured back the way they had come. In the distance, they saw a small light, bobbing in the darkness like a ship in the fog.
“Someone else is here,” he hissed.
“A night guard maybe?” Carlton whispered.
“Why would an abandoned building need a guard?” Charlie wondered.
“Kids probably come here to party,” Carlton said, and grinned. “I would have come here to party too if I’d known about it, or if I partied.”
“Okay, well, let’s backtrack, slowly.” John said. “Jessica…” John started, and made a “zip-it” motion across his lips.
They continued down the hallway, this time with only the dimmer light of Carlton’s keychain.
“Wait.” Jessica stopped with a whisper, looking intently at the walls surrounding them. “Something’s not right,”
“Yeah, no giant pretzels. I know.” Carlton seemed sincere. Jessica waved a hand at him impatiently.
“No, something isn’t right about the architecture.” She took several steps back, trying to see the whole of it.
“Something is definitely not right,” she repeated. “It’s bigger on the outside.”
“Bigger on the outside?” Charlie repeated, sounding puzzled.
“I mean there’s a big difference between where the inside wall is and where the outside wall is. Look.” Jessica ran along a length of wall between where two stores would have been.
“There would have been a store here and a store there.” John pointed to the obvious, not understanding the problem.
“But there’s something in the middle!” Jessica exclaimed, beating her hands against an empty portion of the wall. “This part juts out into the parking lot like the stores on each side, but there’s no way into it.”
“You’re right,” Charlie started walking toward Jessica, studying the walls. “There should be another entrance here.”
“And,” Jessica dropped her voice so that only Charlie could hear her. “About the same size as Freddy’s, don’t you think?” Charlie’s eyes widened and she took a quick step back from Jessica. “What are you two whispering about?” Carlton stepped closer.
“We’re talking about you.” Jessica said sharply, and they walked into one of the vacant department stores that seemed to sandwich the sealed space. “Come on,” she said, “Let’s take a look.” They started combing the wall as a group, clustered around the tiny light.
Charlie was not sure what to hope for. Aunt Jen had warned her about coming back. She didn’t encourage Charlie to skip the memorial, not directly, but she wasn’t pleased that she was returning to Hurricane.
Just be careful, she had said. Some things, some memories, are best left undisturbed.
Is that why you kept Dad’s house? Charlie thought now. Is that why you kept paying for it, left it untouched, like some kind of shrine, but never visiting?
“Hey” John was gesturing wildly, running inside to catch up to the rest of them. “Hide!” The light was out in the hall again bobbing up and down, and it was coming closer. Charlie glanced around. They were already too deep inside the massive store to get out in time and there seemed to be nowhere to hide.
“Here, here!” Jessica whispered. There was a break in the wall beside a rig of scaffolding, and they hurried into it, squeezing past stacks of open boxes and sheets of plastic hanging from the ceiling.
They made their way down what appeared to be a makeshift hallway, just on the other side of the department store wall. It was really more like an alley; it was incongruous with the rest of the mall, not shiny and new but dank and musty. One wall was made of the same concrete as the outside of the building, though it was rough and unfinished, and the other was exposed brick, faded and smoothed with age, the mortar crumbling, leaving chinks and holes. Heavy wooden shelves of cleaning equipment stood against the wall, listing to the side, their boards sinking under the weight of old paint cans and
mysterious buckets. Something was dripping from uncovered pipes overhead, leaving puddles that they all stepped carefully around. A mouse scuttled by, almost running over Carlton’s foot. Carlton made a strangled sound, hand over his mouth.
They crouched down behind one of the wooden shelving units, pressing up against the wall. Charlie doused the light, and waited.
Charlie took shallow breaths, perfectly still, watching and wishing she had picked a better position to freeze into. After a few minutes her legs started to feel numb under her, and Carlton was so close that she could smell the light, pleasant scent of his shampoo. “That’s nice.” She whispered.
“Thanks,” Carlton said, knowing immediately what she was referring to. “It comes in Ocean Breeze and Tropical Paradise. I prefer Ocean Breeze, but it dries the scalp.”
“Hush!” John hissed.
Charlie wasn’t sure why she was so worried. It was just a night guard, and at the worst they would be asked to leave, maybe yelled at a little. She had an overblown aversion to getting in trouble.
The bobbing light came closer. Charlie was suddenly acutely aware of her body, holding every muscle motionless. Suddenly she could make out a thin figure leaning in from the great room outside. He shone his light in a long beam down the hallway, sweeping it up and down the walls. He’s got us, Charlie thought, but inexplicably, he turned and went, apparently satisfied.
They waited another few minutes, but there was nothing. He was gone. They all moved slowly out of their crouched positions, stretching limbs that had gone to sleep. Carlton shook one foot vigorously until he could stand on it. Charlie looked down at Jessica who was still hunched over, as if frozen in time.
Five Nights at Freddy's_The Silver Eyes Page 3
