AN: Here's a two-shot inspired by the dead malls near my home.
As thriving as the Royal Woods Mall was when Leni was sixteen, it was nothing compared to how it was a decade prior. Back then, during what might be called the mall's golden age, the shopping center was like it's own city. Thousands of people could be seen everyday rushing from store to store and sale to sale, and no matter how spacious the building was it was nearly impossible to walk without bumping into somebody else. This was especially frightening to the average child, wading through a sea of legs with unfamiliar faces glaring down.
Not for Leni though. Even when she was just a little girl Leni loved the place, with its hectic atmosphere and sights and sounds and smells. The perfume that wafted from the entrances of department stores, the sunlight that bounced off the shining surfaces of the walls and railings, and the bubbly pop music and sales announcements that sounded over the loudspeakers, struggling to be heard over the noise of the shouting crowd. Leni adored it all.
Less in love with the place were her parents. Trips to the mall for them always devolved into exercises in wrangling their many children.
There was a summer day where they sat at a table in the food court, their legs exhausted from hours of walking and their arms tired from carrying around bags of merchandise, most of which contained dolls for their daughters, who ate and played blissfully unaware of their parents' tiredness. Luan and Luna waved around cheap plastic toys, included with the kiddie meals their father bought for them, while Lori admonished them, putting on a show of being the responsible one of the bunch. Rita was struggling to hold Lynn in her arms as the girl tried to reach for the table and climb on top. Barely a toddler and already desperate to prove her strength.
Leni only sat still, cheerfully popping french fries into her mouth, admiring the dresses of any of the pretty women that passed by. Even then she knew one day she'd like to make such beautiful clothing herself. Many a notebook back at her house were filled with crude drawings made in crayon of extravagant designs. Someday, she dreamed, the mall mannequins would model outfits of her designs.
Her daydream was interrupted by a soft chirping down on the floor a few feet away. Turning her head she saw a small bird flittering about on the tile. Instantly Leni was enraptured, picturing herself an animated princess like those in her favorite films, the kind where the animals all talked and the birds were always whistling a happy song.
Grabbing a handful of fries, she snuck under the table and crawled on her hands and knees closer to the bird, and though they're usually skittish creatures that are easily spooked this one didn't fly off, even when Leni was only a couple of feet away.
"Hello little birdie!" she said cheerfully, "are you hungry?" She tossed it a french fry, and after regarding it for a moment as it landed on the floor the bird grabbed the treat in its beak and flew away. Leni followed its motions with eyes full of wonder, but when she looked up she saw her father staring down at her with a stern expression. Instantly the magic the little girl felt in her heart was drained, replaced with a slight sense of shame at the thought that she was about to get a scolding.
The scolding, though light, did come as Lynn Sr reached down and helped his daughter up. "Don't crawl on the floor, sweetie. It's dirty. And you shouldn't feed the birds either. They're vermin."
"What's vermin mean?"
"It means they might make you sick."
She cast her eyes downward and kicked sadly at the ground. "I'm sorry daddy."
"It's okay, Leni. Come on. Finish your lunch, then we have to go home."
"Can't we look around a little more?"
"Maybe another day, sweetie."
Eleven years later, there was nothing left.
It started small. At first, Leni only noticed that a few stores were offering fantastic sales up to 80% off (she wasn't usually good with numbers, but even she knew that was a lot), sales she happily took advantage of without realizing at the time that most of those shops were trying to sell off all their merchandise before going out of business. They called these liquidation sales, an odd name as far as Leni was concerned, as all the clothes she bought were perfectly dry. Then Crowley's closed, and it was all downhill from there.
It always vexed her why the department store was called an "anchor store." After all, they didn't sell any anchors. It was only after it was gone that she realized what the title implied. Not long after, other, smaller stores started closing, only a few at first, but it didn't take much time before more and more followed suit. Like lifeboats tethered to a freighter at sea, they needed a sturdy mooring to prevent them from drifting away. Now nothing remained open but an off-track betting office and a food court with half the vendors missing. During the lunch rush men and women in business attire could be seen seated at tables feasting on low quality food in between their work. Aside from them, the mall was usually empty most days of customers except for the elderly mall-walkers that paced around, hugging their turns with such intensity it was like they were training for marathons. All the swarms of shoppers were gone.
Gone as well were the birds, long ago taken care of by mall management after multiple complaints. Pest control dealt with them with secret traps and poison, though the ever optimistic Leni always believed they merely migrated south one winter and liked their new home so much they never bothered with returning.
The kiddie train her baby sister once rode so happily now stood dead on its tracks, gone the way of the real railroad.
Most of her siblings stopped going. To them, a mall without shops was as useless as a cicada's shredded husk, its only purpose to be forgotten about, an attitude that struck Leni as almost cruel in its disloyalty. Lincoln especially was even grateful for its dire state. He always hated going to the mall, and even though he missed the arcade that used to be on the first floor he wasn't too broken up about losing it, seeing as there were multiple other ways for him to play video games.
Only Leni and Lucy still liked going there, both for different reasons.
There was a winter day where they walked along bundled in their coats, passing by empty storefronts, footsteps echoing. Metal gates covered every abandoned entrance, each one dark inside and empty. The whole mall was now a zoo with nothing but empty exhibits. Absurdly, as she passed them by Leni thought to herself that they'd make good bird cages.
"This is so sad," Leni said. "It's completely dead."
For Lucy, the deader the better. "I actually prefer it like this. It shambles along, zombie-like, like a vampire stuck its teeth in this place and went sluuuuuuurp." A disgusting image, punctuated with Lucy's sound effect, flashed through Leni's mind and she couldn't help but shudder slightly. Lucy had a way of inspiring such reactions. "You know," she added offhand, "I saw a movie once about zombies taking over a mall. It was pretty cool."
The thought terrified Leni, and as they walked the next few moments in silence her overactive imagination pictured masses of rotting bodies limping through the building, riding the escalators, and trying on hideous clothes in all the dressing rooms. To take her mind off the vision, she started craning her neck around to admire the architecture. Without any crowds, it was easier to appreciate certain details. For example, just how massive the mall was. Two floors covering upwards of two million square feet, with almost three hundred retailers. Now housing next to nothing.
She always thought the building was beautiful, especially the ceiling that consisted of hundreds of panels of skylights. Glass squares that sloped upwards at an angle. From the outside, they resembled crystal pyramids jutting from the roof. The sunlight that beamed down through the glass reflected off the store windows and white tiles that made up the walls. It was nearly blinding it was so bright, but she supposed there needed to be plenty of sun for all the palm trees and pots of vibrant green ivy planted decoratively around the mall to grow healthy.
They walked awhile, no real destination in mind, when Leni spotted something ahead and ran to an empty retailer. To the untrained eye, it was indistinguishable from any of the other dead shops on either side. But to someone like Leni, who had walked through the place countless times at the height of its popularity and memorized the layout, it was Gadzooks.
Not even a year ago Leni could have walked in and be greeted by rows of the latest fashion trends. Her closet still burst with clothes from there. Now, not only had this location closed, but the entire chain across the country died out as well. Though the sign had been taken down, a faded imprint of its name remained above the entrance, barely perceptible. It would take years for the label scar to vanish completely. Unless of course the whole building was demolished before too long.
She stood in front of the glass, right hand forming a visor above her eyes so she could look in without seeing her reflection. Lucy joined her, though unsure of why they stopped.
"What are we looking at?" she asked.
"This used to be one of my favorite stores," Leni said. Face still pressed against the window, she used her free hand to point out what used to be the various sections of the shop. "They'd hang the dresses over there, along the right wall. And over on that table they had sweaters, some of the cutest I'd ever seen." With a slight blush blooming on her cheeks, she looked down at her sister. "This was where I met Chaz and gave him that love letter. I wanted to get a part time job here so we could spend more time together, but then he was laid off."
Returning her gaze to the window, she made out the shape of a lone figure in the back corner, covered by shadows.
Leni gasped, worried. "Oh my gosh! I think somebody's trapped in there!"
"It's just a mannequin," Lucy said.
Upon closer inspection it was obvious. Straining her eyes, she looked harder and could make out a plastic body, unclothed, its features clearly feminine though its face was blank. "What's it still doing in there?" Leni asked, sounding strangely worried. "Doesn't it know the store's closed? Should we get a security guard to help it out?"
Lucy just looked up at her sister, her expression as blank and unreadable as ever. After a moment she sighed. "I'm sure it feels right at home. This mall belongs to the mannequins now. "
"Well, I guess it's good that somebody still gets to enjoy it." She finally stepped away from the window, and the two of them continued their stroll. "So," Leni asked, "like, what do you want to do?" Not that there was much they could do. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of the mall's one remaining business. "We could bet on a few horse races!" she suggested, trying to sound excited, not knowing it was illegal for her to gamble.
"Actually, I'd just like to sit somewhere and read a little." She pulled out a black book of poetry from within the folds of her clothes and held it aloft. "This is a great place to think."
"Oh. Okay."