The Mall

It was a dark morning, I just woke up. My mom had just come into my room, as usual, and woke me up. Every school morning I get woken up by my mom. Today when I got woken up, I was not happy at all. Not because it was a Monday, but rather because it was a Sunday. My mom said to me, “Michael get out of bed. Your going to be late for school.” My head was buried in my pillows so, I couldn’t talk too clearly. I tried to say, “but mom! It’s Sunday! ” What my mother heard was, “mut mum ts runday” She paused for a moment. I thought she stopped to process what I had just said. Then she walked across my room and opened the blinds. I rolled onto my back so she could hear me better. I was way too tired to speak any louder than a whisper. I then repeated what I said before. My voice sounded very scratchy. My mother looked at me like I was crazy. She did not believe me. Almost once a week, I would make up an excuse about why I don’t want to or can’t go to school. My mom probably thought that this was one of the weeks. My mom just looked at me and said, “Oh just get out of bed and get dressed.” I started to go crazy. I told her that I really wasn’t lying and that it really was Sunday. She walked out of my room leaving the door ajar. She came back in what felt like four seconds. She was holding her phone in her hand. She looked at it and said, “oh I’m so sorry Michael, please forgive me! Go back to sleep.” I tried to fall back to sleep but it didn’t work. Usually if I wake up before 9:30 on a Sunday morning I fall back to sleep as fast as a match catching fire. This morning however, was different. I was not able to fall back to sleep. It was considered an embarrassment if you woke up earlier than 11 a.m.

I was not able to talk to any of my friends until noon. It felt like forever. Then at around 9:15 I noticed that my sister, Tori, woke up. I knew this because I heard singing coming from her room. I went upstairs to the entrance of Tori’s room and knocked on the door. The door opened. I walked inside and jumped onto her bed. Right after I did that I realized that she was laying across her floor (She was okay. My sister always lies on her floor). I told her what happened and that I was very tired. She said that I should lie down and try to take a nap. If I was able to sleep, then why on earth would I be awake? I didn’t say this to my sister because that might offend her. She said that I should just listen to music for a while and relax. After she told me this she then suggested that when my friends wake up, that I should go to the mall with them. I took her advice.

Finally it was noon. I did not feel bad calling all of my friends because I had to wait so long for it. The only one of my friends that answered the phone was Joseph. I asked him if he wanted to do something today. He said, ‘YES! I KEPT TRYING TO CALL YOU BUT YOUR PHONE WAS OFF!” I didn’t want to tell him why it was off (to hide that fact that I was awake before, what we call it “the hour”) I asked him if he wanted to go to the mall. He then said, “oh sure. I actually needed a new pair of pants. My only pair of pants I have are the ones that I got tackled in. now they have a huge hole in the knee.” I said, “perfect! Text me when you want to go.” Sure enough we were texting each other about our plans in the next few minutes. We had planned out that I will pick him up from his house at 1 p.m. He will drive back.

The time came and it was 1 p.m. My sister drove me to Joseph’s house to pick him up. She then drove us to the mall. When we arrive at the mall we said thank you to my sister and headed inside. We both wanted to do something chiller and relaxing. We headed over to the electric massage chairs and put in our money. The chair started massaging our backs as it was supposed to. Joseph and I were so relaxed that when the massage was over we put in another dollar and got another massage. After we decided we shouldn’t waste our money, we headed up to the videogame store. A new unheard of company made a new game station. It was called the Sahasha. We wanted to take a look at it. There was a rumor that the Sahasha was better than all the game stations combined. It was a virtual reality game station. What you do is you put the game helmet on your head over your eyes and you will go into a deep sleep. The point of the Sahasha is that when you go to sleep you dream that you are in the game. Your dream is supposed to be the game you’re playing. The Sahasha is completely safe and the only side effect is that you might get nightmares or it may cause headaches. When we got to the store there was an unbelievably short line to test out the Sahasha. There was only one person on line, and that was only because the owners of the store had not opened the Sahasha for public use. Joseph and I had to wait on line for only five minutes. The person in front of us was shaking. He was very nervous to play the Sahasha. He turned around and stared at us. I then said, “Good luck!” The man sat down on the chair that the store had provided. He selected the game he wanted and put on the helmet. Almost instantly the man’s head rolled over on to his shoulder. He was sleeping. Joseph and I started to laugh at the man. After three minutes the man woke up. He took off the helmet and put it down. He turned to us and said, “ITS SICK! YOU HAVE TO TRY A SHOOTING GAME!”

I sat down and took the man’s advice. I put on the helmet and suddenly everything in my mind went blank. I felt myself lift off the chair and I landed onto a very tough ice ground. I heard a voice in my head and it said, “welcome to Siberia. There is currently a war. You, agent Shapiro, are the last hope of victory.” The voice went away. This was the coolest dream I ever experienced. I felt a little chilly. There were very strong winds. I saw a gun on the ground. I picked it up and walked over to a frozen over lake. I walked on top on the ice. I stepped about ten feet onto it. I heard the ice crackling. I walked a little further thinking that I could not get any damage done to me. I heard someone scream across the lake. The man screamed so loud it was as if he was getting his fingers put into a blender. I remembered the voice in my head. I had to go and save the man. I started to run. My foot cracked through the ice. Then, almost instantly my entire body was submerged in the icy water. In a fraction of a second, I felt a huge icy chill go through my entire body. I was sinking. I kept sinking deeper and deeper. I could not move. It felt as if I was frozen. I closed my eyes and gave up all hope. Then I felt myself being pulled out of the water. I caught my breath. Right after I reached the surface and was above the water I felt a hot breeze flow over me. Then the voice came back. It said,”you have to be more careful agent Shapiro. You are the last hope. There are ten more men in your base. You have nine more lives. Make good use of them.” I no longer had my gun. I started to panic. I did not know where my base was. I was unarmed. I started to run. I tripped over a rock on the ground. Under it I found a knife and a gem. It pocketed the gem and kept the knife in my hand and continued to run. Then, I saw a man on the ground. He was wearing a weird flag on his chest. He had to be on the other country’s side. He was injured. I took all of his weapons and continued running. I did not know where I was running to. There was an entire abandoned community. I saw a car on the road, so went up to the car. There was someone in the car. I pulled on the door handle hoping it was unlocked. To my luck it was unlocked. The man appeared to be sleeping. I woke him up and held the knife to him. I told him to get out of the car. He was very scared so he listened to me. I made sure he was standing away from the car before I climbed in and shut the door. There was no key inside the car. I had two options. I could either ask the man for the key, which might be dangerous, or I could hotwire the car and drive to the village. The second option was much safer. I realized the sun started to set. I drove to the village and stayed in one of the houses over night.

In the morning, I woke up from the sound of loud banging on the door. I was so startled that I jumped out the window. When I stood up I looked around and saw a tunnel with the same flag I was wearing on my shirt. I walked inside hoping it was my base. When I entered the room I saw ten men sleeping wearing the flag. I went over to the men and woke them up. They were very excited to see me. Then, all of a sudden, there were loud and annoying noises that sounded as if someone was scratching a chalk board with their fingernails. I walked out of the cave and to my surprise it was a different place than the one I had entered. It looked as if I was in a giant open field. Very far away I heard people screaming. It was much hotter outside now. Then, I realized that there was a fire on the field. It was as if someone poured a thousand gallons of gas on the ground and ignited it. I saw people emerge from the fire and start walking towards me. I had to run. I knew I had to. I ran and ran. I was aching all over. I wanted this game to end now I’ve had enough of it. I was hoping for the voice to come back. Then I heard a loud booming voice echo all over. The man talking had a very deep voice. The man said, “CONTINUE?” I immediately yelled out “NO!”

I felt a sudden jolt of energy. I ripped off the helmet and stood up. I turned to Joseph and said, “That is the sickest thing I have ever seen in my entire life.” I saw a big smile starting to form over his face. I then said, “but stay away from “the war of Siberia 3”...it has a small glitch.” Joseph started laughing. I asked him what time it was. He told me 1:34 p.m. “1:34 P.M?! I SPENT TWO WHOLE DAYS LIVING IN THAT GAME! THAT IS SO COOL! I got so tired in the game. It felt so real. YOUR TRYING TO TELL ME I ONLY SPENT THREE MINUTES IN THAT GAME!” Joseph replied, “Yeah why?” I started to wonder if he was serious. I told him to have a try. Joseph looked at me very seriously. He looked somewhat scared as if he were about to walk into a house filled with ghosts. I told him there was nothing to be afraid of. “All you have to know is that when you want to quit the game, you just have to focus very hard.” Joseph nodded towards me. He picked out the game he wanted, sat down on the chair, and put on his helmet. In a little under a second Joseph’s head rolled onto to his shoulder.