Young Writers Society

Télos would have given a smile at what Bo said, but he still didn't have the lips to give it with. He hoped he'd be back in his own body soon - he hated how limited he was right now. It wasn't even like he could change his form, either. He had tried doing that in the changing room to make things more convenient, and he hadn't been able to change it all.

"Thanks," he said. He looked back towards the kids' section. "We should probably head back to Aquarius and Bobby."

Bo gave Telos a thumbs' up.

"Alright!" he said, before turning and walking back to the kid's section. It wasn't too hard to find them - they were the only mannequins that moved and talked.

Bobby didn't answer. This was all too much. Too strange. It felt like some kind of scene, all wrong in every little way.

When the others came back, he found himself inching away from them, looking away from them.

He wanted to go home.

Bo looked down at Aquarius and Bobby and gave them a thumbs' up. Maybe that was too much, but he felt like he had to overcompensate for not having a face.

"Hoodies. Very nice," he said, glancing back at Telos. "So, we should probably look around. Hopefully, we'll find someone or something that'll explain what's going on so we can go back home."

Bobby would have bitten his lip if he had one. He didn't want to go home. He didn't want to stay here. He didn't know what he wanted.

He gave a small nod, just to show he'd heard.

"Do you...Do any of you know this place?" he asked sheepishly.

Télos shook his head; Aquarius did the same a second later.

"I've never been here before," Télos said. He didn't add that he had never even been to a place like this one before - shops on Earth were different than shops on Minecraftia.

Aquarius gave a little nod in agreement.

A second later, Télos was over by the door - picking out into the dark, unfamiliar hallway beyond the store.

"It looks we're alone," he said, pointing in the direction of what lay beyond the shop. "...Are we in some kind of palace? I haven't ever seen a place like this before."

"...I think we're in a mall," Aquarius quietly said.

The word sounded familiar - Lex must have mentioned it once. But even though Télos wasn't entirely what a mall was, he wasn't going to ask. He just settled for giving a nod.

"Oh, yeah, we're in a mall," Bo agreed. "It's a big building with a bunch of stores and shops inside. You know - consumerism!"

Bobby shifted, a feeling of unease crawling up his spine with spider-like legs tipped in sharp claws.

The urge to get out of here, out of sight, pulled at his anxious muscles which only seemed to exist in phantom form beneath the plastic of...

He shuddered.

"That makes sense," Télos said. When no one objected to Bo's idea of checking out the rest of the mall, he finally emerged from the store. The halls of the mall looked just as empty and dark as they had when he had first glanced around.

A second later, he heard little footsteps behind him. He turned to see Aquarius had followed him out - his brother was currently looking around the mall, too.

"Let's go!" Bo gave an inviting wave to Bobby as he followed out after Telos and Aquarius. Better to stick together!

Once the group left the first store, it didn't take long for Télos to see a store he was interested in. Like the rest of the mall, it was eerily dark. It also had a plethora of weird things in it - strange masks, fake cobwebs and clothes that didn't really match the style of the store they had just been in.

But what really caught his eye was a rack of wigs towards the back of the shop. He couldn't see all of them from the window, but it was enough to pique his interest.

"We should go in here," Télos said, raising a hand and pointing at it. Without giving anyone a chance to reply, he rushed inside - grabbing onto Aquarius's hand and dragging him along with him. Aquarius just gave a little yelp in surprise, but didn't really seem to object to it.

They got about five feet in before Télos skid to a halt.

There was a skeleton hanging from the ceiling, its eyes lifeless.

If he had eyes, they would have widened in horror.

"There's-there's a skeleton," Télos managed to get out. He took a step back, pulling his little brother close to his leg.

Bobby hardly glanced up at the plastic skeleton as he hesitantly followed the group. The headless guy seemed to be the most friendly of them, and without meaning to, Bobby found himself drifting closer to him than the others.

They were in a Halloween store, of course there was a skeleton. "It's not real," he said quietly, cringing as he said it as though expecting to be yelled at, or hit.

"Yeah," Bo echoed as he followed into the Halloween store beside Bobby. "There's no need to worry. It's just made of plastic or something. It's not a real skeleton!" Not unlike themselves.

"There will probably be a bunch of stuff like that in this store. It's a Halloween store and the whole point of Halloween is to be spooky and scary, but it's all fake and gimmicky."

Télos let out a quiet sigh of relief; Aquarius followed suit a second later. Bo and Bobby didn't seem to understand the reason for the worry, but it was alright - in retrospect, Télos was pretty sure skeletons weren't alive on Earth, so it was a good thing they didn't know the real reason.

Feeling pretty good about his ability to hide where Aquarius and him were from, Télos marched on over to the wig rack. He wanted to find a long black one, but it was hard. Most of the long wigs were in strange, bright colors. Not the black he was so desperately missing.

Aquarius, meanwhile, lingered behind. Télos had been too busy staring at the skeleton to notice, but Aquarius had seen how Bobby cringed when he spoke. He shifted a little closer to him. Aquarius knew exactly why he'd be like that; he needed to say something to Télos later so Télos didn't accidentally scare him.

"Are you okay?" he quietly asked Bobby.

Bobby flinched. "I'm fine," he said, too quickly. He wanted the people to go away, he wanted to go home. To dig out his ratty old sketchbook and calm down. This was too much. All of it. It was too much for him.