The Underground Shopping Mall

It was fucking pouring. And I didn't have an umbrella.

"Aw, shit."

I'd been standing under the lip of my office building for a good while now. The bus stop was ten minutes away. If I ran for it, I'd get soaked — but one look at the sky said that waiting this out meant waiting until dawn.

Across the street, I spotted the entrance to an underground shopping arcade. One of those that ran all the way down to the subway station, if I remembered right. I bolted across the road.

"Agh, shit!"

The moment I descended the stairs, the drumming of the rain fell away behind me. I felt like I might actually live.

The underground mall was bigger than I'd expected. Clothing stores, phone shops, snack bars, cosmetics shops. It being late, apparently, every last shutter was pulled down. No people around, either.

I went looking for a directory sign.

Left.

"Oh."

I followed it. Walked a long stretch, rounded a corner — and there was the sign again.

Left again.

About five minutes further on, a red signboard appeared. It was the snack bar from before.

"......"

What the hell.

I looked back. The corridor ran long and straight behind me. I was sure I'd come from this direction. I pulled out my phone and opened the map app.

A blue dot popped up a few seconds later. On the far side of the underground mall.

"Ugh, the map's pulling this crap again."

I refreshed. This time it planted the dot in the middle of the road outside the building.

"Shit."

I turned the phone off. Fine — just go the opposite way, then. I doubled back the way I'd come. Straight. Right. One flight of stairs. Straight again. Ten minutes later, the red snack bar.

"......What."

It was the exact same place. Even the menu stuck beside the shutter was identical.

And now that I'd looked, of course I was hungry. I'd order in some tteokbokki when I got home.

I tore my eyes off the menu and looked around again, half wondering if I'd just done a full lap of the place like a complete idiot. This time, I put the snack bar at my back and walked straight ahead.

A long walk later, a smear of red bloomed up ahead.

"No way......"

My steps slowed.

"Oh, fuck no."

The same snack bar.

I swept my gaze around. Not a single soul in sight.

"Hey!"

I shouted. No answer. Instead, from somewhere far down the corridor behind me—

Clank.

The snack bar's shutter had risen, a palm's width off the ground.

"......"

Had it been like that before? The inside was pitch black. I started toward it, then stopped, half convinced something was about to come flying out at me.

Clank.

The shutter next door rose too.

Clank. And the one after that. Clank. Clank.

The shutters lining both sides of the corridor began rising one after another. No lights came on. There was nothing to be seen inside any of them.

"What the fuck."

I picked up the pace. Clank. Clank. The sound kept following at my back. Then a fluorescent tube overhead died. Click. Another one. Click. The darkness was swallowing the corridor from behind me.

"Oh, this is so fucked, for real."

I ran. Ahead hung a green EXIT sign — and beneath it, a fire door.

"There we go."

I sprinted up and slammed the handle down. Clank. It didn't open.

"Hey."

I forced the handle down with everything I had. Clank.

"Open."

It wouldn't. I kicked it.

BAM! The sound went echoing down the corridor. And in that instant—

KUGOOM.

The floor heaved once. I staggered back from the door.

"Huh?"

Again. KUGOOM. The tremor rolled up through the soles of my feet. An earthquake? The ceiling was swaying. No — to be exact, the ceiling itself sagged down and swelled back up. Like something breathing.

"......Shit."

The walls were moving too. Seams of tile split apart and pressed themselves shut. One pillar slowly bowed, then straightened back to true. I stared at it, dazed.

"Ah, shit — now even the building's throwing a fucking fit."

Something began tearing overhead. SHREEEECH. I looked up.

The center of the ceiling had split clean open, and out of the wound emerged a single gigantic eye. Its pitch-black pupil rolled around slowly, then settled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on me.

"Wow, holy shit."

The eye blinked once.

An automated announcement echoed through the space.

I glared up at the ceiling. "Found what, exactly?"

"Says who?"

The floor began to tilt.

"Uh—?"

I grabbed the wall. Every shutter in the corridor shot up at once. GRRRRRRRRK!

There were no shops behind them. There were teeth — long, yellowed fangs packed dense into the inner walls on both sides.

"AAAAAH, SHIT!"

The floor pitched steeper, and the far end of the corridor yawned wide open. Below it, a black pit.

I slid. My hand clawed for the first thing it could catch — an advertising panel. RRRRIP. It tore loose.

"SHIT!"

I slid again. A fire cabinet handle. Snap. Off it came.

"Ah—!"

Down. Further down. Behind me, the teeth began swinging shut. BAM. BAM. BAM.

"You crazy motherfucker, hold on just a second—!"

My hand groped along the wall and closed around a red box. I hammered the button jutting out of its center.

BWEEEEEEEEEE!

An alarm shrieked through the corridor, shrill enough to split my eardrums.

"What the—"

Water came crashing down from the ceiling. SHWAAAAAAAH!

"Ah, SHIT!"

It drenched me from the head down. The great eye overhead blinked like mad.

Two broadcasts, layered over each other. The shutters climbed and crashed back down, the teeth moving with them. Then the entire corridor wrenched violently, all at once.

"What error?!"

Every emergency door blew open at once.

They slammed shut again.

And flew open again.

"Just pick ONE, you piece of shit!"

The floor shook like it was having a seizure. I hung off the wall, swearing my head off.

"FUCK!"

"Spit me back OUT!"

"Oh, for fuck's—"

And in that instant, the floor flipped over entirely.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

My body went sailing through empty air — then smashed into something. BAM!

"Oof!"

I rolled for a long, long way. Rain came down on my face.

"......"

I opened my eyes slowly. I was lying at the edge of the road. Where the underground mall's entrance should have been stood a bare concrete wall.

"What the hell."

I pressed a palm against it. Solid. I knocked. Knock knock. And then, faintly, I heard it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— from deep inside, from very, very far away. THOOOOM. Something was wailing.

I took my hand away. "...Fucking lunatic."

I checked my phone. Perfectly intact. It had been just over forty minutes since I'd clocked out of work. Water was dripping off my clothes in beads — I'd gone in there to escape the rain, and now the sprinklers had soaked me down to my underwear.

"Ha."

I looked up at the sky. Still raining.

"Should've just walked through it."

I headed for the bus stop without looking back. I just wanted to go home.

That night, a post hit the featured board of the Anomaly Minor Gallery.

One new thread went up.

Two hours later, the Anomaly Minor Gallery was nothing but talk of the Underground Shopping Mall.

And then, one more post appeared.

The author was UndergroundMall▣.