BRAVE READERS ONLY
BRAVE READERS ONLY
READ A SHRIEK PREVIEW OF nostalgic nightmare
CHAPTER 1…IF YOU DARE!
"i closed my eyes and stomped my cleats into the pitcher’s mound.”
This next play was crucial. My team, the Slammers, were up by one run in the final inning for the championship title against our arch rivals, the Tigers. Bases were loaded with two outs.
Come on Zelda! I told myself. All you need to do is whip a heater straight over the base and into the catcher’s mitt. If I didn’t strike this batter out, it meant the game. It meant going home without the glory. We had to win! We had to show those snooty Tigers we were the best!
The crowd held its breath. Everything hinged on this moment.
Eyes closed, lost in a zone of zen, I released a fireball of a pitch. It blazed towards the home plate. I waited for either the sound of a cracking bat or the thump of the catcher’s mitt extinguishing the flames. I waited for either the crowd’s disappointed groans of a defeat or the overwhelming roar of a Championship win. I waited and…
“Ow!!!”
I was instantly thrust back to the reality of my backyard to find my brother on the ground, clutching at his side.
“You hit me Zelda! What the heck?”
“Why’d you walk in front of my pitch? You knew I was practicing out here.”
“I didn’t mean to! I was walking around the yard playing the Switch when your ball hit me!”
“Mario, what have Mom and Dad told you before about that? You need to sit when you play. You get so lost in your games, you might as well shut your eyes and walk around blind.” I sighed and strolled over to inspect Mario’s injury. There was a purplish mark where the ball hit his side beneath his right armpit. I gently touched it. Mario winced.
“It’s sore,” he whined.
“Well yeah, a heater is going to do that to you. Come on,” I helped him up and walked him over to the picnic table on the other side of the yard. “You need to sit and relax. It will hurt for a bit but you’ll be okay.”
“Thanks a lot, princess,” Mario sarcastically replied.
I narrowed my eyes towards him. “Oh, go shove a mushroom in your face. It’s not my fault you walked into my pitch. Sit down and shut up so I can finish practicing.”
Mario loved calling me princess because he knew how much it drove me crazy. Why did our parents have to name us after their favorite video game characters? I suppose my name does fit, seeing as I share the same golden hair and blue eyes as the princess of Hyrule. But that doesn’t make it any less annoying. Mario is two years younger but practically my twin. We share the same hair and eye color and he’s skinny as a rail, so he doesn’t quite match the pudgy plumber he was named for.
I resumed my position, picking up another softball to pitch at the practice net. My team was undefeated this season. I wanted to keep it that way. I wanted that Championship trophy.
Mario was back on his game, face inches from the screen, his fingers mashing away at the buttons. His pain appeared to be gone. Or maybe the game helped him ignore it. Either way, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
Sure, I enjoyed all the modern technologies as much as the next kid, but I much preferred being outside. I’d rather be playing softball, or going for a hike. Mario on the other hand? Kid can’t go two seconds without a screen in front of his face. It’s like oxygen to him.
I conjured up the championship match once more. It wouldn’t be long until our parents were home and I wanted to get as much practice in as I could before dinner time.
I imagined myself back on the mound. I rolled the ball between my hand and my glove and glared at the batter stepping up to the plate. I steadied myself. I focused on fire and flames. I thought of burning the competition, of winning in a blaze of glory. I wound up, ready to release the pitch when something disrupted my concentration.
It was my phone ringing on the picnic table where I’d left it. Oh well, it can go to voicemail. I’ve got a Championship game to win!
“Uh, princess, your phone?” Mario said. “Come answer it. The ringtone is distracting me from my game!”
“So what?” I shot back. “I’m trying to practice here!”
The phone stopped ringing for a moment, then started up again. An annoyed grunt escaped Mario’s mouth.
“Zelda! What if it’s Link wanting to rescue you? Answer. Your. Phone!”
I huffed and dropped the softball onto the grass before strolling over to grab my phone. I eyed Mario with disdain as I picked up the ringing phone from the table. “Happy now? Go disappear down a pipe, you fungus lover.”
I looked at the screen. It was Aunt Stacey calling. That was weird. Why would she randomly be calling on a Wednesday afternoon? Why was she calling me and not my mom or dad?
“Hello?” I answered.
“Zelda honey,” Aunt Stacey said, “I…I’m sorry, I don’t know how to say this…”
“What?”
“I was just notified by the police that your parents were in a car accident. I’m going to come pick you and Mario up and bring you guys to the hospital.”
I nearly dropped my phone. An accident? The world around me seemed to shrivel up and disappear. The trees in the yard lost their color. The ground beneath me crumbled away like a newly formed mouth, ready to swallow me whole. I didn’t know how to respond. Words escaped me. I managed a frail “okay” and hung up.
Mario noticed the change in my face. “What’s going on, Zelda? Link turned you down?”
I didn’t answer immediately. Too many thoughts swirled in my head. How bad was the accident? Why did this have to happen to Mom and Dad? Were they going to die? Were they already… dead?
“Zelda! I was only joking! Zelda! Is everything okay? Talk to me!”
“Mom… and Dad…” I finally answered. “They… were in an accident.”
nostalgic nightmare releases 2/8/25! order now if you’re brave enough!
enjoy a shriek preview of in the mall of madness chapter 1!
"I can't believe this! They're trying to kill this town!"
Sam groaned and stopped recording the video she was taking on her phone. She'd been working on a reel for her Tiktok series about life in a small town. As an aspiring director, Sam figured what better way to hone her craft than to document the mundanity of her existence in Plainfield. But her dad's outburst had ruined the whole thing.
Sam looked up and watched her dad slam the door of their general store then storm up to the front register. He smacked something down onto the counter. It looked like a lawn sign. Sam’s mom, who’d been ducked down behind the register sorting through some boxes, jumped in surprise.
"You messed up my video dad!" Sam said.
“This is far more important than some Tick Tack video,” her dad rebutted.
"It's Tiktok," Sam muttered, knowing it was useless trying to correct him.
"Well, what is it dear? What's got you all worked up?" Sam's mom asked.
"This!" Sam's dad yelled, slapping his hands down on the sign.
"And this is?" Sam's mom eyed the sign on the counter and then her husband as she awaited his explanation.
"It's a mall, Linda. They're building a mall right here in Plainfield!"
"A mall?"
A mall? Sam smiled thoughtfully.
She had lived in Plainfield her whole life. Plainfield, the most boring town in the whole United States. It was all right there in the name, as if a field wasn’t boring enough, they decided to add plain to the front of it.
Plainfield was suffocatingly small. Sam’s parents ran Lowe’s General Store and they lived above it on the second floor. There was one school which Sam had attended since she was in kindergarten. Beyond that was the downtown strip, a collection of aged brick buildings that housed the bank, the post office, two restaurants and a handful of shops. At the heart of the strip was the local church and town hall. There were no traffic lights in town. Traffic, Sam often joked, might be a little too exciting for Plainfield. The only real thrill in town was the large expanse of woods behind the school but after twelve long years, even that had lost its luster.
There was no crime in Plainfield. No one locked their doors and everyone knew everyone else's business. So little happened in town Sam was surprised it even existed on a map. Her parents called Plainfield the "last great American town", a comment she rolled her eyes at every time.
Plainfield felt like a trap, like a heavy anchor wrapped around her legs. She knew what would happen if she didn't leave after high school graduation. It was her worst fear: she would become her parents, a permanent fixture of Plainfield. Though Sam admired her parents and their devotion to the town and its ways, she craved more.
Her parents didn't even use cellphones! They didn't find them necessary. It fit the Plainfield way of simple living. According to Sam's dad, the landline was more reliable and everything they needed was right there in town. Sam had begged her parents for a cellphone and though it had felt like some sort of betrayal, eventually they gave in. Until Sam graduated, it was her only link to the world beyond the confines of Plainfield.
Movies helped fill the void for Sam. That was her escape, her comfort. She couldn’t wait to leave for New York or some other big city and attend film school. She desperately wanted to be in a place with a vibrant culture, a place that appreciated art, a place where new things were always happening. Sam couldn’t remember the last new thing to come to Plainfield. It was like the town was against anything hip or modern.
But a mall? Now that was exciting. Finally, something new! Something to add a little spice to vanilla Plainfield.
"This is going to destroy us," Sam's dad seethed.
"Whoa, whoa, slow down a second," Sam's mom urged. "Where did this sign come from?"
Sam sauntered over to the counter, curious as to what the sign said exactly.
“It was on our property. Someone placed it out front by the parking lot entrance. It’s like they are threatening me,” Sam’s dad said.
Sam looked at the sign on the counter. It read: COMING SOON! THE PLAINFIELD MALL. HUNDREDS OF SHOPS, DINING AND ENTERTAINMENT. Below the large text, at the bottom of the sign was the slogan: Live to shop, shop to live.
That’s a bit of a weird slogan, Sam thought. Shop to live? What was that supposed to mean?
“James,” Sam’s mom said. “No one is threatening you. Just take a deep breath before you jump to conclusions. We don't have all the information."
"Information!?" Sam's dad huffed. "Linda, it's all right there on the sign. Someone placed this on our property. How could it not be a threat?"
"James..."
"No Linda, this isn't right! I'm marching down to town hall this instant to give them a piece of my mind. They think they can just put up a mall that no one asked for? What happened to a sense of community, huh? What about the small businesses that are the lifeblood of this place? I won't stand for it!"
As quickly as he had burst in, Sam's dad fled back out with a fiery fury. Sam's mom sighed and looked over at her daughter.
"Will dad be okay?"
"Eventually," her mom replied, then added, "I hope."
"So is it true? They're building a mall right here in Plainfield?"
"From the looks of it," Sam's mom said, her eyes scanning over the sign. "It's just so strange."
"What's strange?"
“Well,” her mom hesitated as though she was about to tell Sam something she shouldn’t. "None of this was mentioned at the last town meeting. I mean, a project like this is a big deal and I know lots of people would have opinions on it. But the selectmen said nothing. Not one peep. And now...it's just...happening?"
Sam’s parents always went to the monthly town meetings. Most of the townspeople did. It was how things were decided and how Plainfield was able to remain the way it was. That’s what the townspeople wanted. To preserve the small-town charm, to keep things local. Sam remembered years ago when Dollar General wanted to open a store in Plainfield and the idea was torn apart at the town meeting. So why all of a sudden was a mall going in without town approval?