Ara Ara’s Mind

{AN: I wrote this based off of a dream I had. I do not think it is very good and I definitely don’t think I should have submitted this anywhere. But everyone has got to start somewhere. This was a stress work dream combined with some fanciful imagery that my dreams turn into. This is a fun one! Enjoy!}

You don’t see five children running down the mall corridor every day, but today would be the exception. The mall half empty, only the sound of their shoes quickly hitting the floor. Every person they pass is increasingly concerned for these kids who are flying across the mall. Why are they running? That has yet to be determined. It could be the fact that it’s past the curfew the mall has set for children and teens under eighteen and these children couldn’t be more than twelve. But, the security guards suck and only really check people if they come through an entrance. It could be that the mall is about to close and they are rushing to get outside. But, the fear that is plastered on all of their faces would say otherwise. It could, possibly, have to do with the SWAT team that has randomly, quietly just infiltrated this small-town mall. But why would they be looking for middle schoolers?

They all dip into the only store that has its gate up, the one with the big ears grabbing the tall one, the one with the short hair trying to grab the one with glasses, and the one with the missing tooth trying to push past all of them. 

“Hey, guys. I’m sorry we’re about to close.” The employee disclosed, right as all five of them landed in the shop. The employee is obviously tired but is trying their best not to be rude. “Oh! … We-uh-just had a few questions.” Elliot, the one with big ears, speaks up trying to make their presence normal. “Ok, sure. What do you wanna know?” The employee pouts, trying to subtly make it known that these kids’ presence is unwanted. “Well um,” Elliot starts, while the other four kids snoop around.

The tall one, Kennedy, stayed with Elliot while he stumbled through bad questions, trying to look not suspicious by looking around the space. The one with short hair, Stephanie now Steph, leisurely makes their way to the back of the establishment, accompanied by Taylor, the one with glasses. Taylor is checking behind himself every two seconds, scared that he and Steph would get caught. Not realizing that the bathrooms are at the back, the employee will see no issue with them crossing their peripherals. Jack, the one with a missing tooth, is trying to sneak into the room marked “Employee’s Only” directly behind the employee. 

It isn’t clear to the group why Jack has zoned in on this door, but to Jack, this is something that he had to do. A mission that he had to fulfill. A mission that could save him and his friends. He starts to go for the door, blocking out everything else. 

“Hey!” The employee shouts, moving to separate Jack from the door. “I have to see what’s in there it could help us.” He shouts back, trying to push past this tired, underpaid, employee. 

Nervous about harm coming to one of her friends, Kennedy starts stepping toward the employee, ready to protect her friends. She steps closer and closer to this employee and with every step, her eyebrows furrowed and her cheeks puff out. Elliot’s questions begin to trail off and his attention is held on to Kennedy. The air begins to shift as Kennedy produces a red glow with every step she takes. The room heats up instantly, it’s a dry heat, the kind that makes you want a glass of water. Her hair slowly grows red while her roots remain black. Red rises from her hands and creeps up to cover her neck. The redder she gets the more her face starts to contort, her eyebrows pressing together and her cheeks puffing out. The employee, who is probably eighteen, watches Kennedy, with concern on their face worried that this is some sort of supernatural tantrum that’s taking place at their job that should be closed right now. 

Even though Kennedy didn’t know a lot about this weird power she figured out she had two days ago, she felt like she was getting the hang of it. The first few times it happened it was purely accidental and caught the room on fire. After that mass destruction, she’s been trying techniques that would lessen the damage. She figured out that if she held her breath while charging up her anger it would lessen the heat, and in turn, the fire that started would be less. Although, this technique was not easy and she hadn’t fully mastered it.

“Remember to breathe, Kenny!” Elliot shouts, cupping his hand even though she isn’t that far. 

As if to rebel against this statement, Kennedy starts to lose all the red she had grown, her face relaxed from being so tight, and her body started towards the floor as she went limp. Jack forgoes his mission and darts past this young employee to protect Kennedy from hitting the ground too hard. He makes it just in time, grabbing her and going to the floor with her. He tries to not break down at the sight of his unconscious friend, trying to not spiral into blaming himself for this whole ordeal. He’s trying but the blue aura that he produces, while faint, is still escaping him. The air starts to become stale around him if anyone would have gotten close to him the air would have shortened their breath. Elliot makes his way over to the two on the floor and swiftly moves to grab Jack’s head.

“It’s ok. She’s fine. This is not on you. We have to do this. You’re ok. You’re ok.” Elliot spouts, trying to think of every comforting phrase that could apply to this situation. At his touch, Jack’s aura creeps back into his body. As Elliot spouts affirmations, the area around him begins to glow with light, as if he was holy. This light completely envelops Jack and fights with his overwhelming blue aura. Jack presses himself deeper into Elliot’s chest trying to focus on his voice rather than the thoughts that are pushing him towards an uncontrollable force.

At the back of the store, Steph and Taylor search for another exit where the team won’t be seen. Steph walked up to the first door, signaling for Taylor to get ready for whatever could be behind the door. They push the door open and Taylor cowers, just for it to be the break room. They both slump, one from relief and one from annoyance. 

They try three more doors and with each door, they burst through Steph became more and more frustrated. They push through the last door, annoyed with the situation and trying their best not to let their green come out, knowing that it is not the right time to tap into that. Neither Steph nor Taylor expected anything to come out of opening the last door but alas it was the back door to escape the mall, but waited there was something unnatural. 

The thing’s slimy eyes poked out of the dumpster, staring deep into Taylor’s eyes. Its stiff body starts to reach for the ledge of the dumpster to climb out. Its movements are slow and cautious, only having arms and the rest of its body being one unit. Its eyes retract as its sluggish body catches up to its eyes.

Taylor froze, unable to move or hear the calling of Steph to move. Fear descends through Taylor’s body, emitting purple all around him and causing the ground to tremble and shake. Taylor’s powers are weirdly manifested. He never thought that the fear he constantly felt would have ever turned into something he could use. The first time that it happened was at school he was surrounded by his classmates who were ready to pounce. He thought he was doing it to piss his pants. His heart was beating so fast and hard that he swore he could feel it move through his feet to the ground. He didn’t think anything of the feeling, since it was something he felt so often until he saw the face of his bullies quickly change. He had quickly turned purple and with every trimmer, the environment around him did the same. Disgusted with whatever they had just witnessed the boys around him get from him, not without dodging large cracks that had grown in the asphalt.

Not wanting to bust up this space or deal with this creature, Steph opens the door, grabs Taylor, and pulls him through the door by his shirt collar. After feverishly closing the door, Steph and Taylor look into each other’s eyes trying to catch their breath. “What is going on?” Steph grumble, frustrated. “How many things are going to be after us today?” Taylor breathed, frantic. 

The teens stared, dumbfounded at the scene unfolding in front of them, but not having enough energy to care about what exactly was going on. “Look I’m going to shut down the store and leave. You can stay however long you need to.” They sigh, moving towards the “Employee’s Only” door. Just then, Kennedy wakes up. Groggy for a second and then realized what she was in the middle of doing. Unaware of the employee’s recent statement, Kennedy hops up and quickly tries to regain her red aura. This goes unnoticed by Jack, who is still trying to avoid a panic attack by forcing his forehead deep into Elliot’s chest, but Elliot sees Kennedy going for the second attempt. He wants to stop her, knowing that they should probably stop disrupting this employee’s night, but he doesn’t want to risk leaving Jack alone. Then they would have two issues on their hands. 

Kennedy, left with very little energy, tries to charge up, almost fainting with every step she took toward the employee. By the time Kennedy got close to the employee to do something, her body gave out sending her to the floor again. The eighteen-year-old looked at her as she fell to the floor, annoyed that this kid wanted to fight them so badly. They turn around, grumbling about their terrible pay, and retreat to their authorized room. 

Step and Taylor came rushing from the back as they crack the door to the room. Kennedy hazily gets up, ready to pounce on the employee, disappointed at the lack of danger. Steph and Taylor briefly try to explain what they saw, frequently talking and cutting each other off. “I don’t get it. Is it like emanate danger or not?” Kennedy asked them, annoyed. Instantly they hear a store shaking noise coming from the back. The team turned to face “Oh ok. So emanate.” Kennedy clarified, shrugging. 

After hearing the sound, they all rush to the entrance, not wanting to face whatever was trying to bust through the back door. Hearing the sound, the employee sticks their head out to see all the kids at the entrance trying to get out. “Thank you! Sorry! Maybe find another way to get out of the mall!” Elliot waves, pushing the group through the entrance of the shop. Steph and Taylor led the group down the corridor, Jack and Kennedy follow close behind with Elliot lagging in the back. The employee just watched them dumbfounded and grew confused when she saw the SWAT team run in the opposite direction that the kids ran in. 

The SWAT team is responsible for the strange creature that Steph and Taylor saw in the back. The government facility in the area has started to combine creatures together in order to make animals more adaptable to the changing environment. What the kids saw was a creation gone wrong, the creature began to grow and do things the scientists never expected it to do. The SWAT team was sent in to capture it before it harmed anyone, lucking out that the mall was almost closed. While searching the second level of the mall, one of the officers noticed kids running through the mall and tried to bring it to the attention of the other officers but they did not seem to care. The officer continued to watch the kids sprint through the mall, watching long enough to see what was chasing them.

It was just a guy to the officer, so maybe it was a parent or a straggler or a sibling, he deems the others right and goes back to searching for this forbidden creature. But to those kids, that “guy” is the cause of their distrust and protectiveness. He thinks that he is being subtle about chasing these kids, but by the way, they continue to look back at him and speed up to leave his gaze, it’s very clear that they are who he is running from. It is still something they haven’t fully processed, their teacher, the best one at the school, chasing them, just so he could use their powers to get what he wants. They push themselves to keep running to the exit, but the door is locked. Kennedy tries to break it but she’s too frantic. They’re stuck. Their teacher approaches slowly, lifting his head with a frightening, dangerous smirk.

The employee rushes to shut down the store, reeling about what had just taken place in the store. They approach the back door worried about what that kid said about finding another way to leave the mall. What was out there? Was this a prank? Could they really trust those kids? With a deep breath, the employee pushes through the back door. 

“What kind of weird dream am I living through right now?” They said to themselves, seeing the track of slime covering their car.