Mall Rats & Monsters / Season 1, Episode 3
The Reunion
EPISODE 3: THE REUNION
CHAPTER 1: FIVE YEARS LATER
August 15th, 1992.
Jessica Chen was twenty-two years old, a senior at Northwestern, and had spent five years trying to forget that the worst night of her life had ever happened.
It hadn't worked.
She still dreamed about the singing. Still checked every shadow for movement. Still carried Carlos's lighter everywhere she went, even though she didn't smoke and couldn't explain why she needed it.
But she'd built a life. Pre-law with a 3.8 GPA. An apartment in Evanston. A boyfriend named David who was sweet and normal and had never heard anything stranger than his grandmother's ghost stories.
She was going to be okay.
And then the letter arrived.
CHAPTER 2: THE INVITATION
It came to her apartment, which was strange—she'd moved three times since 1987, and hadn't told anyone from Cedar Valley her new address.
Inside was a single sheet of paper, printed on a computer—a rarity in 1992—with no return address:
"The five-year anniversary approaches. The mouth remembers. If you want answers, come to Cedar Valley. If you want to stay ignorant, burn this letter and pray it's enough.
You know who wrote this."
Brandon.
It had to be Brandon.
CHAPTER 3: THE DECISION
She should have burned the letter. Should have ignored it, stayed in Evanston, focused on her applications to law school.
But the dreams had been getting worse lately. The song louder in her sleep. The shadows more substantial.
And she needed to know.
Jessica told David she was visiting family. She packed a bag. She drove the three hours to Cedar Valley on a Saturday morning, the August sun making everything look deceptively normal.
The town had changed. New developments. New shopping centers. A new mall—smaller than the Galleria, but still. People seemed determined to forget what had happened.
She met the others at the diner on Main Street—the same diner where they'd planned their after-hours adventure five years ago.
Marcus. Derek. Tamara.
And Brandon, sitting in the corner booth, looking like he hadn't slept in months.
CHAPTER 4: THE CHANGES
"You all came." Brandon's voice was rough, like he'd been talking to himself for too long. "I wasn't sure you would."
"What's this about?" Marcus asked. He'd changed the most—taller, broader, the charm replaced by something harder. "We signed papers. We agreed not to contact each other."
"The papers said one year. It's been five."
"That's not an answer."
Brandon pulled a folder from his bag, spread its contents across the table. Newspaper clippings. Photographs. Maps marked with red circles.
"Three weeks ago, the city approved construction on a new development. Mixed residential and commercial. Right on the edge of where the Galleria used to be."
"So? They built a park there. The community center."
"That's the public area. But the development is on the adjacent lot. The lot where the creatures were thickest that night." Brandon tapped one of the maps. "They're going to dig. Deep foundation work. They start next month."
CHAPTER 5: THE EVIDENCE
"You think it'll wake them up again." Derek's voice was flat. He'd been the quietest since arriving, barely making eye contact.
"I know it will." Brandon pulled out more documents. "I've spent five years researching. The Galleria wasn't the first time that land was disturbed. In 1847, there was a silver mine. Fourteen miners went in. None came out. The company sealed it and never spoke of it again."
"That could be—"
"In 1912, they tried to build a slaughterhouse. Three workers disappeared during foundation work. The project was abandoned."
"Brandon—"
"In 1956, a highway extension was proposed that would have cut through that exact spot. The surveyor went insane. Kept talking about singing from underground. They changed the route."
He looked at each of them.
"Every time someone digs deep enough, something happens. The Galleria was just the biggest. The most successful. Because they didn't just scratch the surface—they built an entire temple on top of the mouth."
CHAPTER 6: THE DOUBT
"This is crazy," Marcus said. "We dealt with it. Carlos turned on the lights. Whatever was down there, it died."
"Did it?" Brandon asked. "Or did it just go back to sleep?"
"Same difference."
"Not even close." Brandon pulled out one final document—a photograph of a body, covered in a white sheet, clearly taken in a morgue. "This is what's left of Dr. Elena Vasquez. She was the lead archaeologist for the new development. Last week, she was found in her office, dead of what the coroner called 'acute dehydration.' Every drop of water in her body was gone."
"That doesn't mean—"
"She was holding this when they found her." Brandon showed them a photocopy of a notebook page, covered in symbols that looked both ancient and somehow familiar. "She'd been studying soil samples from the dig site. Whatever she found, it found her back."
CHAPTER 7: THE SPLIT
"I can't do this again." Tamara spoke for the first time, her voice barely above a whisper. "I've spent five years trying to be normal. I have a gallery show next month. I have a life."
"We all have lives," Brandon said.
"Then why do you want us to risk them?"
"Because if I'm right—if the construction opens that mouth again—it won't just be a mall this time. It'll be the whole town. The whole county. Maybe more."
"You don't know that."
"No. But I've studied every account I could find of what's down there. The Potawatomi stories. The colonial records. The mining company documents." Brandon's eyes were intense, almost feverish. "Whatever's in that place, it's been growing. Every time it feeds, it gets stronger. Every time it's sealed, it waits. And it's been waiting since 1987."
The table fell silent.
CHAPTER 8: THE PLAN
"What do you want us to do?" Jessica asked finally.
"Stop the construction. Or at least delay it long enough to find another way."
"How?"
"I don't know yet. That's why I need help. Five perspectives. Five people who know what's really at stake."
Marcus shook his head. "I can't be involved in sabotage. I'm about to graduate police academy. One arrest and my career is over."
"Then don't sabotage. Investigate. Use your training. Find out who approved this project and why."
"Derek?"
Derek looked up, expression haunted. "I see them every night. The creatures. In my dreams. Sometimes when I'm awake." He laughed, bitter and hollow. "I'm already involved whether I want to be or not."
"Tamara?"
"My art," she said slowly. "Ever since that night, it's been different. Darker. I paint things I don't remember seeing. Things that can't exist." She paused. "Maybe there's a connection. Maybe I've been trying to tell myself something."
They all looked at Jessica.
"I came here for answers," she said. "I'm not leaving without them."
CHAPTER 9: THE WARNING
They stayed in Cedar Valley for the weekend.
Brandon had rented a house on the outskirts of town—paid in cash, no names, completely off the grid. He'd covered the walls with research: newspaper clippings, photos, maps, timelines spanning two hundred years.
"You've been obsessed," Jessica said, studying the evidence.
"Someone has to be."
"For five years?"
"What else was I supposed to do? Forget? Pretend it never happened?" Brandon's laugh was sharp. "I tried. Believe me. But every time I closed my eyes, I heard the singing. Every time I walked past a construction site, I wondered if they'd dig deep enough. Every time I saw news about Cedar Valley, I checked to see if the deaths had started again."
"That's not healthy."
"No. But it might be necessary."
CHAPTER 10: THE SITE
On Sunday morning, they drove to the construction site.
The park where the Galleria had stood was peaceful—green grass, playground equipment, a memorial plaque that mentioned "the 1987 incident" without any details. But next to it, separated by a chain-link fence, was a lot marked for development.
"Foxwood Commons," Jessica read from the sign. "Luxury Condominiums. Breaking Ground September 1992."
"Two weeks," Brandon said.
They stood at the fence, staring at the empty lot. It looked normal. Unremarkable. Just dirt and weeds, waiting for progress.
But Jessica could feel something.
A vibration, almost too subtle to notice. A pressure in her ears, like descending in an airplane. A sense that something was watching from beneath the surface.
"It knows we're here," she said quietly.
"Yes."
"How do we stop it?"
"I'm still working on that." Brandon handed her a sheaf of papers. "But this is everything I've found about the original sealing. The Potawatomi ritual that kept the mouth closed for centuries. If we can figure out how they did it..."
"We might be able to do it again."
"Or at least keep it contained until we find a permanent solution."
CHAPTER 11: THE DEPARTURE
They left Cedar Valley that evening.
Brandon gave each of them assignments. Marcus would investigate the development company. Derek would research the construction crews, looking for any signs of unusual incidents. Tamara would document her visions, try to find patterns in what she'd been painting. Jessica would study the historical records, track down any remaining Potawatomi knowledge about sealing rituals.
"We have two weeks," Brandon said. "After that, the digging starts. And once it starts..."
He didn't need to finish.
They exchanged contact information—phone numbers, addresses, ways to reach each other quickly. They agreed to meet again before the construction began.
And then they scattered, back to their separate lives, carrying the weight of knowledge they couldn't share with anyone else.
CHAPTER 12: THE RETURN
Jessica drove back to Evanston in the dark.
She thought about David, waiting for her at the apartment, probably worried about why she'd seemed so distant lately. She thought about law school applications and career plans and the normal future she'd been building.
She thought about the singing, and the creatures, and the wrong stars.
And she thought about Carlos, walking into the darkness to save people he barely knew.
When she got home, David was asleep on the couch. She kissed his forehead, went to the bedroom, and pulled out the lighter.
She flicked it open, watched the flame dance.
"Light the way home," she whispered.
Then she opened her laptop and began to research.
Two weeks.
They had two weeks to prevent the end of the world.
End of Episode 3