I stepped off the train onto the platform and hastily made my way to the empty mall, it was 9:00pm after all. It should've been shutting in 30 minutes. Not tonight though, tonight was gunna be nothing like I'd planned.

I came to a fountain shortly after a few swift steps from the station. Something glistening in the water caught my eye, I wondered over to it to see what it was. A key loop, it lied there rusted and beaten in the water. Immediately I grabbed it, "What a curious thing to find in a fountain…" I thought to myself. Swiftly I threw it into my bag and carried on my journey, unawares of what I was getting into. I walked past a few stores, all of them with their shutters closed. This didn't surprise me, it was late they should've been shutting around now anyway. Who cares if it's a late, I just hoped that the store I was going for wasn't shut.

I walked past a few more stores until I came to a kiosk with a map of the mall. I took it and located the gun store. I ventured there, in a world of my own, not taking notice of the bloodied walls and shut up shops. As I walked into the store, something emitted a ear piercing screech. It clearly wasn't human, and it was too surreal for a machine. It made the hairs raise on my neck.

I rounded the corner to where the pistols were kept and in the middle of the aisle was a horrible, distorted, mangled lump of flesh on the floor. It smelled putrid and made a horrible wheezing noise as it breathed. The thing, started to stand up in a shaky, but determined way. It looked over to me, I couldn't move. I didn't even realise it was moving toward me until it lent backwards and started spraying a thick, black 'oil' at me. Hastily I grabbed a gun next to me and loaded it with the bullets, scattered on the floor from some kind of previous struggle. I quickly moved out of the way of the black ooze as it hurtled through the air at me and unloaded the round of bullets into the creature's chest. It wailed in pain as it was flung backwards through the air onto the hard, unforgiving concrete floor. It landed with a thump and a crack of bones. Shaking on the floor it spat a strange liquid out of its wounds and gushed the black ooze onto the floor. Finally the movement ceased… I fell to the floor to shocked to realise what had just happened.

Half an hour past before I could start to comprehend what that was, a monster. Most definitely, I had no idea where it'd come from. But it was there, lying in front of me, stone cold dead. I struggled to my feet, and clasped the pistol in my hand. Still dazed I walked to the register and put my credit card on the desk, not realising that there was no cashier. I said "I'd like these shells too." And picked them up and put them in my bag. Leaving my card, I staggered out the shop and grabbed the keys from my bag, I ran as fast as I could through the now dark mall, to the janitors office. I knew I'd find a torch in there to light my way out of here.

Just as I had predicted, the janitors office had a torch. I turned to exit, gripping the handle, I realised it had locked itself.. "How?!" I thought to myself, "How can this be locked?" I grabbed the key loop and tried to open the door with the keys, nothing. "What the hell!" I tried breaking the door down by kicking it, but still to no avail. I immediately looked around the office for an alternative way out. "The ventilation shaft!" I thought to myself. Quickly, I scrambled up to it to see if I could break it open. Success! I chucked the cover to the floor and hoisted myself inside. I crawled and crawled, until I came to the end of the metal tunnel. With a firm punch, I broke the covering and dropped down onto the streets floor.

I got up to see a piece of graffiti on the wall opposite from me. I couldn't make out from the distance I was at, what it said, with this thick fog surrounding me. I ambled over to it with a slight limb and was astonished and confused to read "You! You filthy, pathetic, no good, snivelling, waste of flesh! Why'd you do this?!" Taken aback by it, I walked off down the alley into the street. I looked to the right and saw a library; "This place will have to do" I thought to myself. As I entered the library I saw the place in tatters, books strewn across the floor with pages ripped out, tables flipped, lights smashed, windows shattered….It was clearly not the safest of places. But still I persisted in walking in and sitting down to think things through.

Eventually I found a chair, which was usable; I sat down and started to think to myself about what was going on. This clearly wasn't normal and what the hell was that thing I'd seen only an hour ago! Before I could make any sense out of it, I heard a shrieking and rustling up in the rafters. My radio started to crackle eerily at me and I thought it wise to make my way in to the back room quickly. Upon entering it, I discovered a red notepad on the floor with bits of pages sticking out of it. I picked it up and flicked to the first page, it read "The only people in here, who survive, are those who are truly alive." This confused me greatly, what a profound riddle to write on the first page of a notepad, I looked through a few other pages and came across a note saying, "The code to the basement door is written on the back of 4 Shakespeare books." I put the note pad in my bag and turned around to re-enter the destroyed library. I sprinted to the famous novels section to avoid being attacked by whatever was scuttling above in the rafters. Upon arrival, I saw 4 books on the floor, quickly I snatched at them and made my hasty escape to the back room once again.

Upon re-entry I flicked on my torch and scanned the covers and spines of all the 4 books, the covers had numbers written on them. I aligned them in different orders and tried different codes on the basement doors lock, finally it cracked open. I flung the door to the basement open and hurried down the stairs into the ever growing darkness that engulfed me. I reached the bottom of the stairs after what seemed like an eternity and rested against the wall. Shortly after I heard some light footsteps coming down the corridor towards me. I was delighted to notice that my radio was not crackling, I was safe….for now. A small figure of a teenaged girl stepped into the beam of light from my torch. I beckoned to her "Get out of here, it's dangerous." She looked at me with a harsh glaze and said "Shut up, you vile fiend. It is you who is the dangerous one!" Appauled, I denied the statement when such terrible things were lurking around; she seemed to shrug it off and said "Sameal only brings the worst of the worst here. And what you did to her was truly awful." Suddenly I stood bolt right up and said "Who the hell are you talking about!?" She replied "Mary-Beth Duranndel!" I was infuriated at this remark and retorted "I'd never hurt Mary! She is my girlfriend, I'd never put a finger on her!" The girl spat back at me "Denial is the worst sin a man can commit." After this the girl hurried off into the dark abyss of the hall way.

I was left shocked by what she had said, "Nothing in this world makes sense anymore! Am I even in the same realm of existence anymore?" I thought as I leaned back against the wall. In during my ensuing rage, I hadn't noticed the faint crackling of my radio, warning me against the beast approaching. All of a sudden, "Shuaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh", I raised my pistol. Bang, bang, bang! The thing fell to the ground with a thud. I staggered in fear up to the pulsating lump of meat lying in its bile and blood. I kicked it and stepped back suddenly, just encase it was still alive, nothing. I slumped back against the wall to calm my nerves. Suddenly I heard the faint crackle of my radio emitting static. In the distance I hear dull thumps of heavy feet and the shrill, harsh scratching of metal on metal. I looked to the corner of the hallway in terror…

I scrambled to my feet in running motion until eventually I got to a door. All the time the shrill ear piercing, scratching noise edged closer along the corridor. I fumbled with the door handle only to realise it was locked. I turned around, readying myself, reloading my pistol. Closer and closer the screeching and thumping got, darkness surrounding me I only had the noises to register the origin of this terror.

Frantically, I fired bullets in to the pitch black hallway, hearing them deflect off of something metal. I knew my unseen assailant was close. All of a sudden a large, looming figure stood over me with its great knife raised in the air about to strike….I black out.

Groggily, I opened my eyes and sat up in a hazy state. I heard the faint sounds of a jukebox in the background playing The Gallery by Muse. As I strained to stand up I remembered what happened sometime earlier that day. Then it dawned on me, "How long was I out? A few hours, minutes, days? How did I end up in this diner?" I ran to the door to get some air only to be blinded by the first glimpse of daylight I'd seen in a long time. There was a thick fog covering the town and a heavy blanket of snow carpeting the ground.

I walked slowly in a kind of awe about the light I was relieved greatly to be out of that hell hole of a place. As I made my way through the fog smothered town, it slowly dawned on me that it was completely deserted.

After an hour or so walking, I came to the edge of a lake. In the dock there was a paddle boat. I decided my best choice to get out of here would be the boat. "All the roads are blocked off anyway", I thought to myself. So I stepped in to the creaky boat and started to row. I didn't row in any particular direction it was too foggy to tell where I was going anyway. As I rowed and rowed, I started to think of a reason for why all this was happening to me? Eventually I got to the shore of some island and ambled up and into the graveyard in front of me. Something odd struck me here, none of the tombstones were marked, I carried on walking until I came across one that was marked. It read "Here lays the remains of beloved Mary-Beth Duranndel, slaughtered by her boyfriend. May she rest in piece while his soul burns in the depths of hell."

I fell to my knees, everything made sense now. The graffiti, the riddle, the things that girl said. I was a cold blooded murder, I must have blanked it all out after I did it. That's why I was brought here, to suffer and pay for my sins. Not to escape and live a happy life. I can't believe it, why would I have done such a thing? Wait a second, that girl, she said something about Sameal bringing me here. She said he only brings the "worst of the worst" here. Oh god….What I have I done? I can't go on living this way.

I took the pistol from my belt, pulled the slide back far enough to cock the pistol, I raised it to my chin, the hammer clicked back with a sudden jerk and flicked forward at a phenomenal speed, which sent the bullet hurtling up the barrel and releasing it into the soft, pulpy flesh of my neck. Ripping apart my tongue, the roof of my mouth, the tender flesh of my brain and out through the hard shell of my skull with bit's of brain and other organs attached to it's head. Whoompf, I hit the floor with a solid slam.

I got what I deserved…