Missing
Horror Story by Glenn Matchett
Samantha Hemmings just wanted a pair of shoes to wear. Surely since she was in the area, the West Edmonton Mall would surely have what she wanted. Considering this was the supposed largest mall in the world where everything from shirts to an elephant was available for purchase, that shoes weren’t too much to ask.
As part of a girls trip to Canada, Samantha and her friends wanted to go to a local club. Meet some people, drink and dance the night away. Leave and go home when you want and make sure you don’t fall on your ass if you can help it.
Samantha just needed a better pair of shoes. Off to the mall she went but when she made the suggestion to her friends to join her they looked like she’d asked them to chop off a limb. ‘If we want to go to a stupid mall, we could do that at home’ her bestie Frankie commented without barely glancing up from her phone. At the time Samantha felt like countering, no, no you don’t understand this isn’t just a mall, it is the BIGGEST mall.
She knew it was a lame argument and since she got her stubbornness from her mother, Samantha kept it to herself and went to the mall to get her damn shoes. Like she had presumed, the mall had an abundance of choices, but none she cared for. She lost track of the time hunting for something that appealed to her.
Desperate from a break from the mundane marathon of shoe shopping alone, Samantha decided to venture inside a store in the mall that caught her eye. All black from the outside with a similar interior, no sign or indication of what was inside. Likely a shop of catnip for would be goth emo kids Samantha figured but her curiosity got the better of her and she stepped inside.
A week later, Samantha’s friends were still searching for her. Family, friends and volunteers had made their way to the mall which had changed from attraction to potential crime scene. Staff in the various stores Samantha had been to were able to recognize her so she was definitely present at the mall. Security footage showed a very annoyed looking Samantha walking through the mall in her search for the perfect fit for her evening.
For reasons no one could quite explain, the footage glitched and the last few hours of the day seemingly were gone. Backups were also blank and it seemed one moment, Samantha was in the mall and the next moment…gone. Her mother stood clutching a poster with Samantha’s face on it outside where the dark store had been, but instead it was replaced by a record store that had been in the mall for over a decade.
Samantha Hemmings was never seen again.
