Lost in a mall

One day I simply got lost in a mall. I took a wrong turn and found myself in a service corridor with no way back, just like our babushkas warned us when we were kids, only they meant forests. I looked back and forth a couple of times and realised that I can no longer tell where I came from and where I was going to. All looked the same.

But wait, there was something else. A plush sheep. It was laying on the floor and it was dirty and old, having lost its actual plush aeons ago. I looked at it for a moment, wondering who lost it and in what shape was it then. Was it newer and its state deteriorated or perhaps, someone decided it's in no shape to serve another child? Or maybe a child lost it? And when I looked up, I was in this corridor. I started analysing details now: when I looked at the sheep for the first time, I looked down and to the left, which meant I came here as a I was standing now because it was still on my left. But what was before? I think I was leisurely passing stores and looked to my left, into the corridor, and I noticed the sheep, although, I didn't know it was a sheep, and I wanted to check what was that.

Having oriented myself, I abandoned the sheep where I found it and started walking in the established direction. But there was no mall in front of me, just more corridor, which turned right and then led to a fork. That didn't make any sense because I wouldn't be able to see the sheep in the first place like that. I took the right and then continued turning randomly left and right, but I couldn't get out of this maze. And what's worse, I made full circle and stumbled upon the sheep again. Unless there were more of them. Or someone was moving that one.

Suddenly, something moved in the corner of my eye. I turned around quickly, but it was quicker. A shadow. It disappeared behind the corner. I started feeling the tension of the situation, so I leaned back on a wall and started breathing slowly to calm myself down. It took me a moment, while the sheep was watching me patiently, but I regained my composure. I noticed, for instance, buzzing of the ceiling lamps which was ridiculously loud. I semi-closed my eyes to listen to the ambience sounds, but I couldn't hear anything moving around. I must have been tired and hearing things, and somehow this was comforting. As they say, you're not afraid of being be alone in the dark--you're afraid of not being alone.

When I cooled down enough, I recalled an old method of navigating mazes where you walk along the right-side only. It might take a while, but you should be able to get to the exit this way. The first turn was left, so that was a no-brainer, but the next one split in two ways. I took right and then right again and... again, and by logic, I should have returned to where I was three turns ago, but there was split into three corridors. This place was geometrically impossible. I resisted a temptation to panic and continued, albeit, more out of curiosity what would happen next. After some time, I ended up in a very long corridor. It was just as bright, so I could see the end of it, but I could also finally notice something that truly terrified me. There were no doors anywhere.

There

were

no

doors

anywhere.

Endless corridors with impossible geometry and no doors. The walls were solid, so I couldn't just kick a hole in and see through it. Just when you need one of those cardboard walls, they just ain't there.

The long corridor was a novelty, but getting to the end of it felt like taking more time than it should have, and when I finally got to the end and looked back, it did, indeed, seemed longer than when I started. I turned right and I saw the sheep laying by the left wall. No matter how I find it, it would always be from the same side. Huh. By now, I was tired and dehydrated and, somewhat more calmly than it would be perhaps expected, I came up to a conclusion that at this pace, I will die soon. I sat down on the floor and closed my eyes and that was when I realised that I am in a shadow. I opened my eyes and saw a tall slender figure standing where the sheep was a moment ago. It generally looked like a man but had a mask of a sheep on its head. The mask seemed a bit bigger than when it was a part of the plush animal, but it was the same one. Also his hands were in gloves and his feet in boots resembling the toy as well. Same for loin cloth. It was a bit creepy, but maybe due to exhaustion, I was not terrified of it. It didn't seem to be posing any danger, even if it was towering over me. It was just... standing there.

"Suzy says..." the entity muttered with a raspy voice.

I stood up slowly and asked, "What?"

And then I heard music from my left side as if muffled at first and getting more and more clear, like when emerging from under the water. I took a peek and I saw that just like a 100 metres away, there was the shopping mall again. I asked myself afterwards why didn't I just start running, but in the moment, I was captivated by the message that the sheep was trying to communicate to me. However, when I looked back at it, it became the sheep again: it looked like it jumped, but that's because the head stayed where it was, while the rest of the body "sprung back" into the plush toy's shape. Then, the stuffed animal landed softly on the floor. At this point, I didn't want to prolong it any more and I quickly grabbed the sheep and started running.

Rushing out, I bumped into someone. I wanted to apologise, but she was faster.

"I hope you're not becoming one of those hoarders, Jordan," a woman said pointing to the sheep. It was my sister, Rachel.

I looked at the sheep, ugly and old.

"It's-- Suzy. She, um, she spoke to me," I replied.

"I hope aesthetically," Rachel replied. "Or I don't know. It's hardly defensible in any form. Better let us not drag this topic any longer."

This was the person, however, who told me once to do something for music and stop singing and start dancing (I ended up doing neither), so I didn't take it too personally.