Chapter 49: The Truth Behind the Mall
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
In the surveillance control room filled with complex machinery, Strong remarked, “This system has the capacity to store up to a fortnight’s worth of video footage. Allow me a moment to access the recordings from the last seven days.” He maneuvered through the complicated system with deft hands to bring up the archived videos. “Why are we delving into these old recordings anyway?”
Taking a moment, Miles explained, “I’m attempting to trace the actions of certain individuals. My hope is that the footage will offer insights into their recent movements and activities.”
As they were engrossed in their discussion, Strong suddenly pointed at the monitor. “Who is this lady? I’ve never seen her as part of our staff. Moreover, the mall has been closed for several days. How did she gain access?”
Studying the screen, which now displayed a middle-aged woman dressed in a stylish dress, Miles questioned, “Don’t tell me you don’t recognize her?”
Strong looked closely, trying to dredge up any memories. “She does look somewhat familiar, but I can’t exactly place where I might have come across her,” he admitted.
Miles, too, was at a loss. Considering he had been part of this operation for a mere two days, he wasn’t familiar with the previous team’s members. “Let’s keep an eye on her actions within the mall,” he suggested.
A theory began to form in Miles’s mind. Was the woman in the video the ghost he had heard about? However, another theory was that the real ghost might be Strong. It was theorized that the ghost could morph its appearance. Still, mere theories weren’t enough for Miles; he needed tangible evidence from the surveillance recordings.
He focused intently on the screen. The woman’s actions were puzzling. She took the elevator up to the second floor but stopped at the stairwell, standing eerily still as though she were an art installation or a lifelike mannequin.
“Fast forward the footage a bit,” Miles directed.
As the footage sped up, the woman stayed immobile by the stairwell for an extended period, almost thirty minutes, before she started moving. She then made her way further into the second floor. At that point, Blush, a cashier who appeared to be working a shift, entered the frame.
Blush seemed weary and took a moment away from her station to stretch and refresh. However, she was unaware of the looming presence of the mysterious woman, who was slowly but determinedly moving towards her.
When the mysterious woman silently positioned herself directly behind the unsuspecting Blush, Miles ordered, “Slow the video down.”
Returning to its normal pace, the footage showed the unknown woman lingering threateningly behind Blush for a brief moment before suddenly grabbing Blush’s head.
To their horror, the woman effortlessly and cleanly removed Blush’s head from her body as though she was manipulating a toy with detachable parts. The scene was eerily silent, with no screams and not a drop of blood in sight. Blush’s decapitated body stood rigidly upright, a haunting reminder of the bizarre event.
Visibly rattled, Strong managed to say, “This… this has to be some sort of illusion.”
Seated at a corner, River had been discreetly observing the unfolding drama on the surveillance video. Her eyes widened in shock at the gruesome display, and she instinctively covered her mouth with her hands to suppress the scream threatening to escape.
On the screen, after the chilling act of decapitating Blush, the middle-aged stranger did something even more horrifying. She calmly removed her own head and replaced it with Blush’s, undergoing a transformation that was unsettlingly seamless. The entity that was once a stranger now wore Blush’s identity, and the transition was eerily perfect.
What was equally unsettling was how the entity, now bearing Blush’s face, nonchalantly exited the second floor. Her original lifeless body dangled from one hand, and her decapitated head was clutched in the other. The ease with which she managed to carry the body was a testament to a supernatural strength that was beyond human.
Miles’s jaw clenched, his mind racing as he tried to piece together the situation. “Five days ago is when Blush became one of them,” he theorized. The decomposed state of Blush’s severed head was now making sense. If her head had been replaced with that of the ghost’s five days earlier, it would explain its rapid decay.
“We need to continue watching. Focus on Blush,” he commanded.
Strong nodded, although his voice quivered with trepidation. “Alright.” He queued up the video feed, specifically tracking Blush’s movements.
The footage from just four days ago began to play. Blush seemed like any regular employee, performing her duties, sharing light moments, and engaging in conversations with her colleagues. The atmosphere was casual, almost mundane, until the late afternoon.
Sister Pear had suggested they try on outfits in a store on the mall’s fifth floor in a bid to entertain her group of female coworkers, including Blush. Since the mall had been mostly closed at that point, the store was deserted, leaving its collection untouched and ready for their impromptu fashion show. As Sister Pear was trying on a dress and admiring herself in the mirror, Blush’s demeanor changed.
She began to stealthily creep up behind Sister Pear, her hand eerily outstretched towards Sister Pear’s head. However, just as she was about to make contact, Sister Pear, blissfully ignorant of Blush’s intentions, turned around to chat, inadvertently preventing whatever sinister action Blush had in mind.
Though this may have saved Sister Pear momentarily, it was short-lived. The unsuspecting woman, having no clue about the unnatural occurrences around her, soon returned her focus to the mirror. Seizing this opportunity, Blush replicated the ghastly act she had herself been subjected to — she violently detached Sister Pear’s head from her shoulders.
Miles’s brows knitted in confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense,” he muttered, “If Sister Pear was decapitated, she shouldn’t have been around afterward. Only one can be the ghost – either Blush or Sister Pear, not both.”
However, the next segment of the video rendered him speechless.
With chilling precision, Blush proceeded to remove her own head once more, swapping it with Sister Pear’s. After the disturbing exchange, there was a moment of eerie stillness before both entities resumed their activities as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
An epiphany washed over Miles with alarming intensity. His pulse quickened, echoing loudly in his ears. He hadn’t grasped the full scope of what was transpiring in the mall, but the surveillance footage was shedding light on a deeper, more insidious mystery. His gaze darted across the myriad of screens, trying to piece together the puzzle of the mall’s layout.
One particular feed caught his attention. A lone figure stood adjacent to a storeroom door on the fifth floor. The camera angle only captured the person’s back, making it impossible to discern their identity.
“Zoom into that segment, and let’s see it from a different viewpoint,” Miles urgently instructed.
With adept hands, Strong promptly brought up the video feed from the suggested angle.
The timestamp indicated the footage was from just ten minutes ago. From this new vantage point, the camera revealed a tense scene: Mr. Calm, Master Catch, Sister Pear, Mall Manager Li, and a few others had apparently sought sanctuary within the storeroom, led there by Ethan.
At the same time, an unsettling sight unfolded. Individuals emerged slowly from different parts of the mall — the elevator hall, the security entrances, and multiple stores. Their movements were eerily deliberate and synchronized, like a coordinated dance, as they began to envelop Ethan’s group.
The men and women converged, forming a tight circle around the storeroom’s entrance, effectively barricading Ethan and his party inside. They maintained this ominous blockade for what felt like an eternity before an unseen trigger made them disband, retreating into the shadows and corridors of the mall.
A chilling realization crept up Miles’s spine, causing him to shudder involuntarily.
They weren’t dealing with a single supernatural entity. This was a collective, an assembly of ghostly beings or individuals under their control.
The eerie process of exchanging heads wasn’t just limited to one or two individuals. Many, if not most, in the mall had been affected or replaced.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a subtle detail he noticed on Strong. A thin, faintly red line encircled Strong’s neck, much like a sinister choker. It was a tell-tale sign.
Miles swallowed hard. Strong was not just an observer or a helper; he was one of them.