The Day Before

I woke up to the sound of waves splashing around. At first I was in a daze, rubbing my eyes to take the delirious thoughts from out of my head.

“Oh no! I fell asleep!” I yelled, quickly waking me up mentally. I searched the inner tube for the paddles. I turned over and over, terrible thoughts about them dropping into the water, entering my head. If they did fall into the water, I‘d be stuck here for who knows how long. I saw Dash sitting under the real paddle, and biting the makeshift one. “Dash!” I yelled while snatching both paddles away. I started to paddle furiously, hoping I was going North.

I dropped my head in embarrassment. I can’t believe I fell asleep, my mind thought in regret. It was beginning to get hot and I had nowhere to crash for the day. As I paddled, I looked at my surroundings. Noticing, that many of the one story house’s roofs didn’t peek out from the water.

There was a sign that floated in the water, gradually making its way towards the inner tube. I turned it over with one of the paddles. Before sinking into the water, it said Dadeland Mall with an arrow pointing towards where Dadeland Mall was supposed to be. I looked up, and saw a building peeking up overhead. I paddled away, feeling the constricting of my muscles from all the paddling I had done. My grip had gone sore, but I could still see the building up ahead, and that was what motivated me to keep on paddling.

The sun was out and in full blast, making me thirst for water. I grabbed a bottle and quickly downed it. Dash cocked his head to the side and let out a whimper. I stopped paddling and brought the two oars inside the inner tube. I dug in my messenger bag for anything that could hold water. After a few minutes of sifting through, I finally found the can that I used when I was on the ledge building. I poured some water, filling it to the brim and waited for Dash to finish. Once he did, I put the can back in and started to paddle again, but I didn’t have to. Because I finally found what I was looking for.

In half-submerged block letters that arched it said “Welcome to Dadeland Mall”. I went to one of the roofs, the water overflowing into it. I noticed that it was one of the parking houses that Dadeland Mall had. Now that I thought about, Dadeland Mall only had one parking house. I dragged the pink material over the ledge, the overflowing water helping me greatly. I grabbed my messenger bag, it was twice as heavy as before, but that was because Dash was in it. I slowly walked over to the main building, a metal platform served as a bridge that connected the parking house and the mall.

I was propping myself on the metal platform when I heard running footsteps. I looked up and saw three kids. One looked like he was 10 or 11 and the other girl looked like she was 12 or 13. The other boy looked close to my age, probably 16 or 17. And his eyes were focusing on me. I gulped nervously and looked down at the bright white paint of the platform. I heard faint whispers and then the creaking of hinges and then the sound of a metal door slamming shut.

I looked up to see the boy a few feet away from me. He had a stern expression, and wore a gray long sleeved shirt and black pants. It seemed weird to me that he would wear a long sleeved shirt, when it was so hot. He was skinny and had olive toned skin. His hair went down to his chin, straight, but limp, and hung loosely just about a inch from his eyebrows. He sighed and took something from the back pocket. He inched back, getting farther and farther away from me.

Dash growled lowly and I was thankful that the boy was so far away. I looked up to see his hand in clear view, and it was gripping a gleaming black object. Now his face was expressionless, I squinted my eyes to see the object in a better view. My eyes widened and I instantly went in to panic mode. He fingered the gun’s trigger and my body shot up and went rigid, my hands were above my head as a sign of surrender.

“I-I-I’m not armed! I don’t wanna h-hurt a-anybody!” I pleaded, afraid for my life. . His face was a mask, no emotion was shown, and that scared me. He pulled the trigger again and it missed my arm by a few inches. I stood there rigid, Dash’s barking was masked by the bullet. It hit the water with splash. And I instinctively ducked down, covering my head with my arms. I heard another bullet, this one was above my head, and if I stood another couple inches it could’ve grazed me. This one also hit the water with a smack.

“Stop it!” I heard a voice yell.

I looked up and saw the girl from before, she was shaking violently. She yelled at the boy and quickly came over to me, patting the bridge. “Walk over, hurry.” she said in a voice I couldn’t comprehend.

I threw the pink inner tube and then the oars. I crawled over the bridge, hearing the water splash from underneath me. I didn’t want to drown in that water, who knew what was in there. With a shaky pull, she managed to pull me to her side, a sigh of relief exiting my lips.

“T-thanks.” I said after a few deep breaths.

She nodded her head and picked herself up, motioning for me to follow. I hesitated a little, looking around frantically for the boy with the bullet. “He’s not here.” she murmured, before walking over to the door.

I quickly grabbed my bag and was on her heels. She knocked on the door, three times, then five, then seven times. All had a very different beat. After a few seconds the door made the same creaky sound it made before when I saw her go through. She went through and after a few muttered whispers I was let in. The boy that looked like he was ten or eleven years old looked at me curiously. I walked along ahead, trying really hard not to make eye contact.

We went down a long flight of stairs before making our way to the store, Macy’s. We walked along bare mannequins and strewn clothing. There was dim lighting and most of the places and corners were pitch black. We went out of that store and continued our way until we got to the Food Court. The mall looked like a dull sort of blue color, and most of the furniture used for resting were gone. Most of the stores had gated protection in front of them, others looked like they were broken into.

Everything was silent and all I could hear was our footsteps. The girl was quiet, the boy was quiet, and I was begging to God that Dash wouldn’t bark throughout the whole way. I flinched every time I heard something creak or groan, thinking there was someone in the shadows. To keep my mind off of my newly-found fear and paranoia, my thoughts went to the buidling itself. I was deeply curious as to how the building wasn’t deep under the water by now. Everything was dry and intact, well, mostly anyway. But I just shrugged it off, keeping it in the back of my head for future references.

When we finally got to the Food Court, there were three other kids, the boy that held the gun and tried to kill me was one of them. Then there was a girl with red hair, her bangs were held by clips to keep them out of her face. She wore a tang top with cargo shorts, her expression, worried. The other boy had blond hair, and bright blue eyes, he had on a Polo shirt with cargo shorts as well, he didn’t look at all affected, a smirk on his face.

The boy with the gun didn’t even acknowledge my presence, he just looked the other way, his face in the direction of Johnny Rockets, but that still didn’t keep me from shrinking away. My hands shook and wrung them together so it didn’t look weird.

The girl with the red hair turned her head slightly and when she caught sight of the little girl she instantly smiled.

“Ruth!” she yelled, her voice bouncing of the walls. She bent down on one knee and spread her arms out, awaiting a hug from the girl. Ruth threw herself into her arms and hugged her back. There was awkward tension in the air after that, I could tell neither of the boys were glad I was here.

After a while, Ruth pointed her finger at me. “This is…”

“Violet.” I called back, after she took too long of a pause.

She nodded her head and then the red-headed girl nodded her head. After the red-head stalked her way to Gun Boy’s direction, Ruth walked over to me, a bright smile on her face.

“Sorry, I thought I had gotten your name.” she said with an embarrassed smile, “My name’s Ruth, the girl I was just talking to is Charlotte. She pointed to the boy with the blond hair, "that’s Benji, over there,” she pointed to the boy that looked like he was ten years old, “That’s Cove.” she took a pause then, which I was grateful for, because for a second I thought I misplaced names with different faces. “That one, him, he’s Elliot, but we call him Eli, even though his name isn’t Elijah or something like that.” She looked down at her hands, “Eli can be…ruthless,” she laughed at this, but I really didn’t find anything funny about it, “He means well, though. You’ll see.” she finished with a wave.

I nodded my head, still not daring to look in his direction, but when I accidentally glanced over, I noticed that Charlotte and him were gone.

“Cove, let’s go find something for you to wear!” Ruth called out, her hands acting as a megaphone. “Meanwhile, you can stay with Benji.” she said in a whisper, quickly walking away with Cove.

“W-wait!” I called out, but they just kept on walking.

I turned around slowly, gripping the strap of my bag. Benji was sitting on one of the food court tables, drinking something out of a Styrofoam cup. I begrudgingly made my way over to him, pulling out a chair for me to sit on. It made a screeching sound and I saw Benji’s lips twitch, he momentarily stopped drinking whatever he was drinking and looked up at me, his gaze cool.

“Yo.” he said, his gaze still on me.

“H-hi.” I squeaked out, before looking back down at my bag.

I didn’t like this at all.