{"sf1_id":928646,"sf2_id":null,"title":"The Decaying Mall","author":"Aux Chiens","words":672,"posted_at":"2015-11-01T02:19:00.000Z","tags":["Bligh","Dogsverse","Ghost story","creepypasta","spooky","weird"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/928646-the-decaying-mall","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/928646","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=928646\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"When did this town become a mausoleum?_________\nLuke Divers\n            It is a well-known\nfact that Crossroads Mall in Roanoke, Virginia, was for many years in an\nadvanced state of decay.             Yet for one reason\nor another, the mall still stands - there have been several plans, some of them\nquite elaborate, to revitalize the area, many of them calling for the original\nbuilding's demolition...but none of them have ever come to pass.            It is quite a shame,\na sorry thing to look at today. In its heyday in the 1970's and early 80's, the\nmall was jam-packed, the place to be on the weekends, especially Saturday\nnights. It was upscale, fashionable, and always a happy place to go.            Years went by, and\nbigger, better malls opened around Roanoke. Crossroads slowly started losing\ntenants, until today it is completely empty. You used to be able to go in, and\nsee for yourself, but much of the interior is blocked off now - you will be\nastounded by the vast emptiness - every step you make and every word you speak\nwill echo loudly.            Where once scores of\npeople did their shopping, met for lunch, and got together, there is now only\neerie silence. Over the years, the happy, upbeat feeling of the place has\ndarkened, more and more, until now many people avoid it - but can never tell\nyou exactly why.            The story would end\nhere, were it not for a very curious rumor, probably - one hopes - based on a\nrash of unexplained murders in the area in the mid-2000's, which some say was\nthe real reason for the DMV moving its location from inside the mall and thus\nsealing its doom to abandoned and empty forever.            That depends on who\nyou believe, of course - certainly the last anyone heard of this particular\nrumor was the Summer of 2008, when the eerily empty interior of the mall began\nto be closed off to the general public.            Supposedly now there\nwill be renovations - another failed plan, to be sure - and it seems this tale\ncan no longer be tested.            Perhaps.             After all, it seems\nso easy - on certain Saturday nights throughout the year, so the story goes, something\nvery strange happens.             If you go to one of\nthe entrances of this mall, it will be unlocked. Push open the door, and it\nwill give way - and you may enter.            Near a bench right\nin the entrance will be a shadowy figure, casting a shadow that obscures the\ndarkness around it.            This figure can be\nspoken to, if one calls out to it the proper words: I know your secret, and the secrets you keep.  \n            Where once there was\nshadow, there will appear a face - a radiantly pale, withered old man's face,\nwith black holes for eyes, a wide, ghastly grin that never ceases.            \"No\" he will\nrespond, \"for I know yours.\"             He will then ask a\nquestion - the question will be about your life, or rather a detail about your\nlife, something that happened many years ago. The question he poses will be one\nyou should know the answer to - but so obscure, it will be difficult to answer\nat first, if you can answer it at all.            You will be forced\nto answer - you simply won't be able to respond with \"I don't know\".            If you get the\nanswer right, the shadowy man will thrust a box into your hands, before dissolving\nback into the darkness. Open the box, and there will be a note, on which will\nbe written the name of the person you were meant to marry or fall in love with.\nOnly rarely is it the person you think it will be.            If you get the\nanswer wrong, your body will be found the morning of the following Sunday, at\nthe entrance to the mall you came in, mutilated and eviscerated so badly no one\nwill be able to identify the body."}