Chapter 1
My name is Joseph. I'm a teenager, not terribly above average. And at the moment I was talking to my friend Gabriel, who I had only recently begun talking to about my curiosity.
"It just doesn't make any sense, it's always the same group of animals, and they are always together...I can't come up with any explanation...outside of science fiction, that is."
"Well, all fiction has elements of fact, anyway, the real question is not whats going on, but where, exactly, they are coming from," he said hastily, I looked at him oddly, and he quickly added, "well, once we find where they are coming from, we will find out whats going on, right?"
"Right..." I responded, "well, why don't we go check out the areas, there might be clues."
"Actually, I have to go somewhere today..."
"Today? Can't you get out of it?"
"No, I'm sorry, maybe some other time..."
"well, where do you have to go?"
"Hey, how about skipping the interrogation and letting me go?!" He yelled, a little too irritably.
"Yeah..." I said, "sure...go ahead." I was suspicious, so I decided to follow him. I threw on something that I figured would probably disquise me fairly well. Black Jeans and a black t-shirt and a tattered baseball cap from some bizarre band. Then I left. I stayed at a safe distance away from him, and across the street. When he entered the mall, so did I. When, to my shock, he walk through the entrance to The Gap, I followed. When he grabbed something off a shelf and head for the dressing rooms, I followed suit. When he went into a dressing room booth, I went into the one right next to it. I sat, waiting for...whatever was going to happen. I saw a reflective strip appear along the bottom of the adjoining wall between our rooms. The mirror, it swung open, then shut. I paused, then glanced under the wall. Nothing. No shoes, no feet, just a pair of jeans, dropped carelessly on the floor, not even taken off the hanger. I left my booth and went around to the one Gabe was just in. I looked around for something that would cause the mirror to open and my hand brushed one of the clips that held it to the wall. It pushed inward and out swung the mirror. Just beyond the doorway there was a stairway that descended into darkness. From out of the darkness I could hear voices. Screaming.
My name is Joseph. I'm a teenager, not terribly above average. And at the moment I was talking to my friend Gabriel, who I had only recently begun talking to about my curiosity.
"It just doesn't make any sense, it's always the same group of animals, and they are always together...I can't come up with any explanation...outside of science fiction, that is."
"Well, all fiction has elements of fact, anyway, the real question is not whats going on, but where, exactly, they are coming from," he said hastily, I looked at him oddly, and he quickly added, "well, once we find where they are coming from, we will find out whats going on, right?"
"Right..." I responded, "well, why don't we go check out the areas, there might be clues."
"Actually, I have to go somewhere today..."
"Today? Can't you get out of it?"
"No, I'm sorry, maybe some other time..."
"well, where do you have to go?"
"Hey, how about skipping the interrogation and letting me go?!" He yelled, a little too irritably.
"Yeah..." I said, "sure...go ahead." I was suspicious, so I decided to follow him. I threw on something that I figured would probably disquise me fairly well. Black Jeans and a black t-shirt and a tattered baseball cap from some bizarre band. Then I left. I stayed at a safe distance away from him, and across the street. When he entered the mall, so did I. When, to my shock, he walk through the entrance to The Gap, I followed. When he grabbed something off a shelf and head for the dressing rooms, I followed suit. When he went into a dressing room booth, I went into the one right next to it. I sat, waiting for...whatever was going to happen. I saw a reflective strip appear along the bottom of the adjoining wall between our rooms. The mirror, it swung open, then shut. I paused, then glanced under the wall. Nothing. No shoes, no feet, just a pair of jeans, dropped carelessly on the floor, not even taken off the hanger. I left my booth and went around to the one Gabe was just in. I looked around for something that would cause the mirror to open and my hand brushed one of the clips that held it to the wall. It pushed inward and out swung the mirror. Just beyond the doorway there was a stairway that descended into darkness. From out of the darkness I could hear voices. Screaming.