This tape recorder's holding up pretty well. I reckon I'll be able to finish telling you the story up to me sitting here without it falling apart. It'll be time to go on soon, but somehow...somehow it's like I'm supposed to tell you all this first. Like there's gotta be a record, you know? Like people should know what I've been through, what's been done to me, and what I'm trying to achieve. Even if I fail. Maybe especially if I fail. They'll be back soon, even if they don't find the other one, and then we'll head out, so I'd better hurry, I guess. Now where was I?
Oh yeah, the Lakeside Mall, southeast of the amusement park, leaving the Happy Burger again...
A sign near the entrance had complementary maps and pens, so I took one of each and found that my guess had been right, that there was a hallway behind the door I'd passed by on the second floor. So instead of going on in the direction of Fred's fashions, I headed right, deeper into the service area, and found a security office. This place had a handgun, some more handgun bullets, and an employee map of the place, which I traded for my old map pretty damn quick, believe you me. The map showed a hardware store back on the first floor, and a sports goods store up on the third. A basement door was also displayed on the first floor map, but the map of the basement level had been scrawled out with a marker pen. A comment was written next to the scrawl "way out? guess again!"
Well, that didn't sound too good, but the shutters had been closed as I came up to the second floor, especially the exit shutters. I tried not to think about what that meant, but couldn't get the plain fact outta my head, someone wanted to trap me in here. Worse yet, someone wanted to trap us both in there, me and that psychotic little girl who had lead me into this mess in the first place, like some blonde will'o-the-wisp. Suddenly that old British fairystory made a lot more sense. A traveller minding his own business gets lured off the path by a malicious spirit that wants him to get into more and more trouble, with no warning and through no fault of his own. Yeah, that was me alright. Damn! The little bitch! "This mall must be the trap," I said aloud to myself "she's probably brought other guys here before, and taken them to their deaths, maybe?" I turned the map over in my hands, the stomped-on bruising aching again at the movements, and there they were, bloody fingerprints on the back of the shiny card map. The handwriting was shaky, too, like he'd been... been, I dunno, scared out of his wits? Something like that.
I pocketed the map and went to the window. Nothing but rolling fog out there, weather even Lisa wouldn't love, and she loved all sorts. Once, when we were still young together, we got caught in the rain out in a park. I was pissed that our picnic had been ruined, that her makeup would get ruined and mess up all the effort she'd made just for me, just for our day out, and ruin the day for her. But she didn't care. She laughed at the rain, like it was the most amazing thing she'd ever seen, and in that moment... you know what? In that moment it really was the most amazing thing. It fell into her dark hair and shone in the light like crystals, the wind ruffled her top and messed with her skirt, and she laughed at it, laughed because of it. So we sat there together, enjoying the weather just for it being weather, enjoying each other just because we were, you know? Not because we were anything in particular, just because we lived, a simple joy of existence. She looked up to me, sitting curled against me, the two of us sharing a blanket, she looked up and said...
"I'm always watching you!" I jerked out of my reverie at the voice, startled and shocked. It had seemed to come from everywhere at once, and at the same time, from nowhere at all. I scanned the room, saw nothing. The security monitor had its back to me, the room was empty, and the window was shut tight. What the hell? My own reflection showed me nothing, and the room was barren, a flaw in the glass looked something like a figure just on the other side of the desk. I wiped at it, just out of habit, and felt no difference in the texture. "Weird..." I muttered. The flaw shifted, making it look as though the figure had nodded. Oh shit. I turned around to face...whoever it was. Nothing. Still a barren security office, still with a switched-off monitor and a uniform locker. Nothing interesting. So what the hell was scaring me? A smudge on a window? I turned back, and saw that the flaw had moved. Now the flaw was reflected as being by the locker, a figure, female-looking, swaying from side to side, facing me. Starting to panic now, I quickly turned my head, looked over my shoulder. Still nothing. The locker door was firmly shut. Turned back to the window, I saw the flaw swaying faster, arms out to the side now, definitely a human figure, definitely female. She danced like a dervish, swaying and writhing, hips and chest pulsating, hair flying with the movement of her head. I was terrified to watch, but if I looked away she'd still be there and I wouldn't see what she was doing. Then BANG! she slammed the locker with her hips, and I heard it jump, saw it settle with my own eyes, not just the reflection. Quickly, back to the reflection, what the hell is she doing now?
BANG! again, and a third time bang. Her convulsions and pulsations were somewhere between violently sexual and insanely berserker, like she was trying to dance herself to death. And still BANG! at every chance she got. Her hips, her elbows, and now she was stepping and spinning, but still only visible in the window, still just a silhouette on a glass screen. Her hair whipped round with her movements, her hips convulsing like the throes of passion had possessed her, some insane incubus dancing in the dark, and still bang! and bang! and bang! One final crash, and she shrieked, right behind me, the sound of a thousand women's voices, all anguished, all young enough to fear and hurt, and old enough to know why, all shrieking out into the air behind me, and she rushed at me arms spread wide, hair flying out. I spun round to see her, having no more control over my body than a puppet over its own, and I saw...I saw all of them. Lisa, Kate, the women I'd slept with, the ones I'd always wanted. All in one body, all rushing towards me with such a fierce expression. They wanted to consume me, to devour me, to be possessed of me and to possess me, and against that ferocity the sun itself must surely fail. Her shrieks mixed with mine, I was sure she was gonna kill me there and then with the sheer power of her lust, and then her body hit mine, went somehow into mine, the locker door exploded outward in a gush of ruby gore, I fell to the floor and the world went black.