If I could remember.. it was roughly 12:30 pm at the time. The Papaya clothes store was closing, and all the other CO workers were gone. I remember being told to close up the store from my new boss. I being a intern at the time, it was quite surprising having that type of privilege.
I walked to the storage room in the back of the store, it wasn’t really a storage room but rather a lounge for the workers. I only went there to grab my purse, and unplug my phone, it being at 34%. The store habited a dark ambient, I being a young female at the time, I was very vulnerable, I begged my friend Todd, one of the workers to stay with me for my night shift..but he declined with rather a disturbed tone of voice, he’s always the one to leave work first. I shrugged, pulling my purse strap onto my left shoulder, brushing my long brown hair to my back, grabbing my phone and the keys to the store. As soon as I stepped an inch out of the storage room, the power turned off. I was completely frozen in the darkness. I shrugged thinking it was a minor power outage, it being common at the time since the mall usually turns off it’s power now and then to save energy. What puzzled me was, at the corner of my eye I saw lights of other stores still turned on. I started to become uneasy, because I was still being frozen into place just waiting for a killing to happen. I shrugged, heading towards the back door, rather quickly. Then I remembered that I Didn’t lock the door of the entrance. “Dammit dammit!” Raced through my mind. I didn’t want my boss to think of me as a mediocre of a employee. I began walking towards entrance of the storage room to the actual store. I looked around, my legs barely able to walk from the trembling, there were clothes everywhere, so it was easy to hide, and hard to be found . I reached the entrance. The door was already barricaded with with the metal wall/cage. I locked the glass doors, and walked back. I swear, it felt like an eternity to reach the storage room. ….. I heard footsteps, about 15 feet behind me, it was a huge store, so it echoed across the room. My heart began pounding, I began to dash towards the storage room. The footsteps began clanging to the floor, as if it was running too. I reached to storage room and closing the door, turning the lock. I heard pounding on the storage room door, but my heart was pounding harder. I walked back still facing the storage room door, yet still heading to the back door. The pounding stopped, then I realized that the dressing room hall lead to the storage room. I heard footsteps dashing away from the storage room door. I ran as fast as I could and closed the hall door that lead to the storage room. Then the pounding began but on the hall door, again, even harder this time. This making me almost wanting to cry, the door lock bouncing up and down, almost on the edge to unlock. I dashed out the back door, I would never forget the horrible unforgettable uneasy yell as I ran out of the store. I ran to my car, locked the doors and drove to another parking lot, that was still in the mall area, and dialed 911.
The police arrived about 5 minutes after the call, they searched the place top to bottom but found no one, the only thing they found was a gun, and the cash register being completely empty. I couldn’t describe his appearance.. because I never looked back, but I do know he was male because of that unsettling horrible masculine yell. My boss understood my problem and offered the day shift, I took it quicker then a whip, I will never come within a country mile that will leave me to work the night shift. I worked with Todd on the day shift now. I do wonder if he went through the same thing I did when he worked the night shift.
