Loona guided Balin to the mall using her bushy tail as a blindfold to keep it a surprise.
"C'mon, keep comin', almost there." cooed Loona. "Just listen to my voice as we walk and try not to peak through the fur."
Soon, the two rounded a bend to their destination. "Loona?" Balin asked in curiosity and concern.
"Okay, stop!" she said, making the two abruptly stop.
She slowly lifted her tail from his face, making him giggle and sneeze. After wiping his nose, he opened his eyes to see he was standing in front of one of the biggest malls he had ever seen.
"TA-DA!" sang Loona, holding a tap-dance pose. "Wanna look around?"
Balin was so excited to see this mall, that when Loona held out her paw, he immediately took it as the two then walked over together.
As they reached the entrance, there was a big sign held above the escalators saying 'Welcome to the B-Damned Mall.'
Running up those escalators, the boy went from smiling to surprised at the wondrous sight he was seeing.
The interior of this mall was of the ones people on Earth visited back in the 1980's. It did make a lick of sense considering that era was now dead.
"Wow!" gasped Balin with his smile back on his face. "This place is so cool!"
"I'm glad you love it, kiddo." Loona chuckled at the little boy's excitement.
"I always wanted to live in a big city with a mall like this. Like Canberra." he continued his happy mood. "Or that the No-Name Town was like that."
"Well now, living in Hell, here's your chance." grinned Loona standing up straight. "Go 'head, feel free to have an adventure. Just make sure to stay close."
Balin started walking around the mall and exploring all the different stores he could find, as Loona followed with some now 1980's music began playing on the speakers.
...
"RAG-DOLLSFOR HELLHOUNDS" - A Toy Store
The first store the boy looked around at was a toy company full of demonic-themed toys.
He was worried some of them would look scary or hurt them, but once he walked inside with Loona, Balin was in awe of how cool they actually looked.
- The first thing he saw a cookbook full of recipes for different causes of death. He didn't see the forced ones in case they were gruesome, but before he could, one imp kid did grab a book from the shelf and started reading a recipe on chlamydia. Thank Satan the human kid didn't see that one.
- Soon, he found another toy. A lamp the size and shape of a lighter that had actual fire as a light bulb. When the kid read that it was artificial fire on the package, he grabbed the display toy and slowly put his hand through the flame, surprisingly not burning it to a crisp.
Loona was also interested in these different kinds of toys. Even though a few demon kids bumped into her chasing each other with plushies, she still chuckled it off. She didn't know why, but it was probably the teenagers that brought out the sarcasm and pissed-off spirit in her now.
- One toy she saw was a bunch of unicorn plushies called 'UniCorpses.' While they had the rainbow manes, they had dildos for the horns, a slightly reddish colour in their white coats covered in scars. As Loona picked one up with curiosity, she pulled the string where the tail was, making it tell unicorn-related dad jokes.
"What is a horse's favourite kind of story?" asked the toy in a country-accent voice box. "A tale of WHOA!"
"Hmm, not bad for a mauled-up horse." Loona shrugged a little chuckle in her head. "Not bad at all."
"Loona! Look what I found!" Balin then called running to her.
- He showed her a little Victorian-era music box that played popular music in the form of a screaming soul. For this one, Balin turned the crank and this soul started screaming the melody to 'I Want It That Way' by the Backstreet Boy. Hearing that one made Balin break into laughter and Loona into chuckles.
"Cool find, kid." Loona then ruffled his hair. "Wanna buy anything here? I've enough money in my purse."
"No thanks, it's okay." smiled Balin. "This is my first time so I want to just look around.
"Sounds like a deal." chuckled Loona, trying to impersonate Alastor as the two laughed again, walking out of the store. "Besides, you do have enough toys for now."
...
"MADNESS & MAYHEM'S OASIS!" - Arcade
Loona then showed Balin the arcade, which had almost every arcade game in the history of video games.
This colourfully loud place made Balin beyond SO surprised that this was down here, but BEYOND excited.
"Still like what you see, Balin?" Loona grinned at him.
"Yes..." replied Balin, still speechless. "It's different to what I just imagined."
"Different how?"
"When you said there was an arcade, I thought it would have games that sinners were forced to play for eternity." he explained. "Or... if sinners died 100 years ago, they'd only be allowed to play video games that were popular 100 years ago."
"Kiddo, what makes you think...?" Loona then figured out what he meant, perking her ears up. "Ohhh, because this is Hell, isn't it?" she then spoke in a comforting tone to Balin. "Don't worry, demons here can play whatever they want, just as you can on Earth."
"Thanks, Loona."
"Don't mention it."
Soon, Balin saw his favourite arcade game, Guitar Hero, and decided to have a play. He asked Loona for some money and she gave him the amount he needed, which was around $2.
As the game started, Balin picked up the very light guitar and wrapped the strap around his shoulders. Before long, he was ready once he chose his song: "BARRACUDA" by Heart.
As he played through the entire song, easy-mode, some of the demon kids and their parents gathered around to see him kill every note, like he wasn't missing a beat.
Loona was most impressed as she grabbed out her phone and recorded the whole thing with her wagging tail picking up speed.
After the second chorus, everyone started dancing and singing the bridge in perfect harmony as the kid maintained his focus, brilliantly.
When the whole song finished, everyone clapped and cheered in thunderous applause for the kid. Some of them purposely bumped into him like he was a rockstar, making Loona punch her way through them to reach him.
"Fuck yeah, you rock, little worm!" one of the teens rubbed his head.
Thankfully, the rough ruffling kept his head safe in his wolf-fur hoodie.
Soon, as everyone finished their compliments, Loona grabbed a hold of Balin's hand. "Okay folks! Show's over! Get back to mind your own damn business!" she barked in a polite but still tough-as-nails tone.
Everyone immediately went back to playing the arcade games, while Balin started collecting the tickets from the game.
"Damn kid, you didn't tell me you played guitar." smiled Loona. "Where did you learn to shred like that?"
"I asked for music lessons when I was five and my dad got me some private lessons." replied Balin. "And my teacher's part of a local band himself."
"Wow. You just made my afternoon cooler more than that T-rex chase, dude." Loona then patted his back in respect, before sniffing the tickets to see how much he won. "...Looks like you've got 60 of these bad-boys. Wanna see what the prizes are?"
Just as Loona asked that, the kid then saw a demon boy a year older than him not succeeding at a game of Skeeball. He saw the wallet in his hand and that he almost ran out of pocket-money, making him sigh in sadness. Balin sighed in sorrow too seeing this and wanted to help out, so looking at the tickets then at Loona, he made a generous decision.
He gently grabbed the tickets and walked over to the demon kid by himself, nervous but brave, and presented him the tickets.
"You're that Guitar Hero hound, ain't ya?" asked the demon boy in surprise. "But, you earned those tickets fair and square."
"It's okay." replied Balin with a kind heart. "I just want you to know you're doing a good job."
The demon kid then slowly smiled at the kindness and grabbed the tickets out of his hands.
"See ya around, squirt!" he said as he snapped his fingers and ran back to his family.
He showed the tickets to his parents and then pointed back at Balin, and as the dad gave him head-pats feeling proud of him, he then looked up at the two and gave the human boy a thumbs-up and a wink.
The boy returned the two before walking back to Loona, who's eyes were watering a little.
"Loona? Are you okay?" he asked her.
"Yeah. Just... I just have deodorant in my eyes." she choked a little.
The two then started walking quickly out of the arcade while she still felt mushy.
...
"FULL MOON-LIGHT PICTURES" - A Cinema
After wiping the mascara from her eyes, Loona presented Balin to the mall's movie theatre. It was filled with neon lighting, along with a candy bar in the form of a mini-shop and a hot-food restaurant.
"So... is there anything Hellish you thought a cinema down here would have?" teased Loona.
"Um... that sinners would be forced to watch their deaths again and again for eternity!"
"Ohh, kids and their imagination." laughed Loona.
Loona then showed the boy lots of different movie deals the cinema could offer, such as 3D, recliners, first-class, one cinema for movies on streaming apps, and even a cinema featuring movies that sinners who died too soon never got the chance to see.
"Oh my gosh." the boy sounded stunned as he saw all of that.
"So, if there was a movie you wanted to see for another day, what would it be?"
"Hmm..." pondered Balin, looking at all the different movie posters until he landed his eye on one of them. "Toy Story! Have you seen it before?"
"You mean, the movies about those little plastic imps that come to life when children aren't looking?" she replied. "...No, I don't think so."
"Well then, how about that movie?" the boy smiled.
"Sure. We could find a good time to invite Tex or Via."
"What about the imps? If they're free."
Loona suddenly felt a little bit of cringe at that idea and tried to hide it. "...Sure."
"Okay, what else is there in this mall?" asked the little boy in excitement, while Loona just smirked knowing he'd love this one. "I think I know just the one."
...
Loona walked from the cinema carrying Balin in her arms, and a couple of minutes later, they arrived at two clothing stores.
One was called 'Stylish Occult' which sold all kinds of gothic merchandise, such as clothing and taxidermy from all kinds of hellish creatures.
Balin then got scared and hid into Loona's shoulders, and having seen the reason why, Loona then rubbed his back to soothe him.
"It's okay, buddy. I wasn't taking you there. I'm taking you to the clothing store next to it." she softly said to him. "We gotta get you some clothes if you're turning 8 soon. Big boys do need bigger clothes." she then tickled his tummy with his shirt still on, making him laugh.
...
Soon, Loona and Balin were having another fashion show at this clothing store.
She took him into the ladies room with her so that he couldn't get kidnapped or mugged like the other day if he waited.
After a few tries of some different clothes, he found his perfect fit. It was a blue t-shirt with pink and purple shooting stars as the design. This made Loona give him a thumbs-up with her tongue out like a normal dog again. So they grabbed this shirt and a few others that he already grew to like, before leaving the mall to call it a day.
BACK AT LOONA'S APARTMENT...
The two then walked into the apartment with their shopping bags and placed them in each of their rooms.
Balin placed his in the bedroom closet right next to where his new wide-screen TV was, almost bumping it a little.
"Oops. Sorry, new TV." giggled Balin quietly.
"Yo, little dude!" called Loona. "I'mma prep some dinner! Wanna take a shower whilst I do that?"
"Okay, Loona!" replied Balin, as he ran out of the bedroom to run himself a shower.
All of a sudden, in the closet, the TV started glitching a little bit after being bumped by the bag of clothes, buffering and whispering two words as it almost turned itself on.
"T-T-T-Trust! U-Us! Trust, u-u-us!"
But that's for another chapter.
A/N: See y'all in the next chapter.