This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/MemeoroniPizza on 2025-09-15 17:35:41+00:00.
Hello again! I'm sitting bored as all hell in my living room, perks of not having any house pets, and a night job, so I thought I might as well share some of the stranger things that have happened on the first shift. First, though, I need to mention the notebook. Brandon had mentioned after my 'orientation' that there was something that could be useful on the underside of the desk in the guard office. Well, I found it.
There was a large leatherbound notebook and a map of the mall. The map was covered in small notes and was divided into different sections, beyond what the map might have been printed with. Looking in the notebook really made me really rethink taking this job.
The notebook was covered in a barely comprehensible scrawl. In several different writing styles, I'd guess that several people had written in it. One of the sections described what had happened in the food court with Brandon. It said that to make 'the disturbance' stop, one had to make a PB&J and leave it in the fridge. I remembered that when Brandon came out of one of the little stations, there was peanut butter on his sleeve.
Another section warned about the ventilation system, that something, or many somethings, lived there. And that the only way to get them away was to route hot air through the vents. Simply put, it was a monster manual. At first I thought it was the mad ravings of past guards, or maybe even a prank set up by Brandon, but nope, I got my proof real quick.
I was siting in the office when I saw something on one of the monitors. A human shape sitting behind one of the desks in one of the department stores. Something about the form felt wrong, I wasn't sure what it was at the time, but it was hitting my brain right in the uncanny valley. I had just taken my antidepressants, so I wasn't gonna try and fight the fact I had to get up.
As I walked down the stairs to the first floor, all I could hear was the sound of my footsteps. It sounded eerie. I'd hear echoes of my footsteps at least a couple seconds after I moved. It sounded like someone was always behind me. When I reached the department store I had seen movement in, I froze. Nothing was there. Not behind the counters, not anywhere. I checked behind the racks of shoes, the shelves full of shirts and pairs of pants, even in the round hangers where the suits and dresses were.
As I was coming out of the department store, I heard a footstep echo. I was on carpet. The footstep had come from directly above me. where a railing overlooking the lobby of this section was. Goosebumps ran up and down my arms, my brain screaming at me as I slowly craned my neck, my heart in my throat, my blood pumping ice cold through my veins even as my fingers went numb from fear.
Something was staring at me. It was leaning over the railing, impossibly far out. It's limbs were wrong, too long and shriveled like the skin of a raisin, it's face was something I couldn't describe, like the thing was happy, enraged and fearful all at the same time, the different expressions being worn at the same time twisting the flesh into something barely human. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out. I stood stock still. My mind racing as we both stared at each other.
Brandon's voice was whispering in my ear, "Some things you wanna see, others you don't" was this something I didn't wanna see? Or something I did? I couldn't tell, the only thing I could say for sure was that it wasn't gonna move if I kept my eyes on it. As I moved out from under it, I could feel it's eyes following me, I could see that it's eyes were alight with hunger and a twisted joy, but it made no move. I slowly walked toward the stairs, listening to my instincts as they told me to not blink, to not break eye contact, to do anything except look away.
As I made my way up the stairs, I saw more of it's body, impossibly tall, with wrong proportions, like someone took a picture and disfigured it in photoshop. It was blocking the way to the guard office, so I'd have to go around. Backing up further, I started up the stairs to the third level, if I can just get around it, then I can get to the office. I was well on third level before I was forced to break eye contact with the thing. The moment I did I broke into a run for the nearest set of stairs to the guard office. The whole time I ran I could hear the thing's footsteps echo my own.
As I ran I occasionally looked back, every time I did I'd see the thing standing stock still, like it was in a freeze frame, it stared me down with those haunting eyes, the joy all gone, now it's eyes were aflame with hunger and hate. It wailed as it chased me down the hallway, the scream of a puma, the scream of metal on metal, setting my teeth chattering and my feet pounding the ground harder as I tried to run faster.
When I reached the stairs I launched myself down and into the guard office, slamming the door shut. The moment I did the sounds disappeared. Like the creature had never been there in the first place.
I collapsed in a heap of sobs and tears. The adrenaline from the chase all gone. "Oh my God! The Hell was that thing?" I crawled to the leather sofa, using it to help me stand up. My legs were still shaking from the exertion and fear. I stumbled over to the desk, staring into the monitors like they held the answers, switching between the cameras to see if that thing was still out there. I didn't find the thing that chased me, but what I did find was another figure.
This one was shorter, slimmer, almost like a young girl. This one moved jerkily, like a machine. It moved around the fourth floor. The cameras didn't have audio, but I could tell it was making noise. This one's face was heavily disfigured too, It's eyes were pinpricks, with most of the face and head being taken up by a huge mouth. The thick jaw bone was moving up and down, the lips moving in words I couldn't decipher.
I flopped down onto the sofa. This can't be happening. How is it happening? What are these things? are there more of them? Why would Brandon send me in here without any help? Looking back on what happened by the elevator at orientation. I couldn't believe I didn't just say "Nope, get me the Hell away from this." I needed the job, but not that much, right? I sat for a bit and tried to calm down. My heart slowly crept back down my throat, and my pulse calmed, though remained faster than normal. My brain stopped screaming, instead settling into a worried babble of anxiety and depression.
Standing up, I snatched the book from the desk and flipped through it. The scrawl on the pages, several different people, all raving about monsters and ghosts. If I spent time, I could probably decipher it.
My phone went off in my pocket. Four A.M. The end of my shift. I stared for a second before scrambling to the monitors, pulling up the feed of the front door. Brandon said he'd be here to check things out after my first shift. I flipped to the feed coming from the main lobby and saw the girl from before. "How-?" I stared as she stuffed her body into a narrow space between the walls, pulling a tile along with her.
After flipping through the cameras on the most direct route to the main lobby, I took the chance and ran as fast as I could down the hallway. I ran into him as he was walking up the stairs of the third floor. Anger and fury burned through me, hotter than the black silence of depression. "Brandon!" I shrieked at him, he looked up at me with a slightly surprised expression "What in the ever living fu-!" "Do not take that tone with me." His voice was quiet as ever, as grating as ever, but it grounded me somehow. "I take it you saw something tonight?" I nodded violently, clenching my hands so I didn't throttle him, "Yeah, and I'd like to know why you didn't warn me."
"I thought what happened by the elevator was enough of a warning for you." He sighed heavily, the air dragging through his nostrils making his nose piglike. He looked at the notebook in my hand and stared me in the eyes again, that feeling of him staring into my soul coming back. "You better keep that book well, it might just save your Goddamn life." I stared right back at him, unwilling to back down.
He pulled a small notepad out of his back pocket and started writing, "Well, you're still alive, so that's a successful inspection. You're cleared. You'll be working Monday through Friday, thirty dollars an hour as a starting salary, off major holidays, no overtime pay. Try not to break anything, it's a pain fixing wires, pipes, and vents with all the things hiding in the walls, and try not to die. I Don't wanna have to clean up your blood."
I was so stunned by the casualness of what he said that I wasn't even angry, I just said "OK" and left. It was only as I was driving home that I realized I couldn't walk away from this. The pay was just too damn good, and forty-five hour weeks sounded tiring, but I could do it. If that dingy book I had in my backseat could keep me safe, I was gonna treat that thing like a bible.
I'll get right on that. Check out !gnome@lemmit.online!
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