For sale! The signs barricaded the soon to be empty stores from prying eyes. The signs littering the transparent glass, attracting prying eyes to stroke the unknowing mannequins. One store, then randomly another all had the ‘for sale’ signs, markers betraying their weakened states.
As a newcomer, Naledi made her make-shift home in one of the weakened stores. She could hide in the crowded traffic where everyone was unseen from everyone else. Her nerves constantly fought to betray her presence, but she steeled herself against the power of fear. She knew she had to be calm and be still if this was to be her home. In the corner away from prying eyes Naledi’s eyes pried each shopper as they made their way about the store, gorging on cheap prices and the envy of owning the store merchandise. She knew stores, many of them are what made the city the city.
The battle she fought minute after minute was to remain undetected and unseen. She stowed herself away, not because the shoppers or the shopkeepers could harm her, but because the mall’s witch would get rid of any interloper. This mall was the home of a city witch, one with some power to commander all these stores and attract all these shoppers. Naledi knew that power was drawn from the unbridled lust and ambition shoppers had for each other, malls were where humans came to strut. They reminded her of cocks in the village confidently strutting and threatening potential competition. She knew that with each passing minute the likely hood of her detection grew, and she also knew she had to watch carefully and learn about this mall.
The mall she was squatting in was on the edge of a small town, it had been the first collection of lights she had seen the night she landed. To Naledi this was the largest structure she ever spent a night in, it may as well have been a palace. But it was a typical small-town mall, more shopping centre than a mall, a random collection of shops trying to sell the cheapest of the cheap. Each item in each shop wore a price tag that was itself a race to zero, the cheap price hid the limited functionality and durability of the toy, tool, or piece of clothing. Cheap was king. The sale signs that draped themselves over the dirty storefront glass were an indication that the mall was not doing well financially. A mall that was financially unwell meant its keeper was also unwell. This is all she knew.