We darted through the front doors. So swiftly I didn’t hear them close behind us. Through rows upon rows of books. Auto-biographies, science fiction, romance, history, Martha Stewart. Whatever you could think of. That’s what we ran through. Sprinting, my lungs stinging. There had to be thousands of books here. I felt so bad, deliberately breaking the rules. Breaking in. Breaking into a mall. Who does that? The doors were unlocked anyway, so it couldn’t be to bad right?  
“Isn’t Barnes and Noble great?” You called back to me.
“Purely magical!” I couldn’t catch up to you enough for you to hear what I said, otherwise you would have laughed. I know you so well.
You began to slow down, giving me a chance to run up beside you. I clutched your arm before an over exaggerated sweep of dizziness rushed through me. It was sure to come. I panted hard, my lungs cruelly rejecting the air the fresh scented mid-morning mall was offering. I gaped at the floor, my thin, smudged reflection staring back at me. Whoever cleaned this floor was getting fired.
“Let’s walk.” You said, beginning to strut off.
“Sure…” I breathed out. “Yeah, ok.” I jogged to catch up with you.
“Where to first?”
I looked around. Things looked abnormally foggy to me. I reached up to my face, felt the hard plastic that was the side of my glasses. I bit the insides of my cheeks, hard in thought. “I uh, I don’t know. Whatever you want to do?”
I looked around. The mall was ghostly and empty for a Saturday. I took my phone out of my pocket. Clicking the On button, I became quickly frustrated. My feet came to a standstill.
“What is it?” You swiveled to gaze back at me, your eyebrows furrowing.
“I don’t know.” My phone wouldn’t turn on. What was more odd, it wouldn’t let me access anything other than the login screen. The buttons wouldn’t even work. I dismissed it, thinking that I’d just fix it later. “Don’t worry about it.” I took a look around. A bright pink cotton candy machine caught my eye, and I pointed at it hastily. “Cotton candy?”
You smiled weakly, trudging over and resting your hand on my shoulder. “Sure.”
I walked to the machine and put in a five dollar bill. “Your paying for yourself.”
“Yeah yeah, I know.”

We sauntered around the mall for what seemed like hours. We went into the theaters just to see what was there. Got some coffee at a Starbucks by ourselves, no one being there to get it for us. Looked at some clothes. Pretty much normal mall stuff. And in all those hours, we didn’t see one person there. It had to be passed two o’clock by now.
“Well, we should be going.” You said. All life had been sucked out of your voice by this point. Your coat that was a vivid blue earlier, seemed grayer, dull.
“Um.” I couldn’t assemble my words. You just stood there, staring at me. “Uh… With, with my phone. Not working and now your jacket.” You looked confused now. Why weren’t you understanding all of this?
“My jacket?” You pondered the thought, peering down at it. Back at me.
“Yeah it isn’t really. Um, blue anymore.”
You shrugged. “Whatever you say.”
A feeling of general uneasiness collided with my consciousness, knocking it around my head like a whirl pool. I staggered. Frantic now, spinning around, looking for a sign to show you that this was too abnormal. Things just didn’t make sense. The walls began to flicker through different colors and designs. The mannequins waved at me.
I began to grow cold, shivers running though me. My throat drying. But you just stood there. Nausea and anger began to befriend each other as I watched your stare follow me hesitantly. Your eyes now the color of scrutiny if there was such a thing. Standing in this mall that we easily broke into where absolutely no people walked and no electronics worked whatsoever despite our twenty-first century, technology obsessed society.
Finally, after the wave had passed, I sat. Crossed my legs, and sat down on the cold floor. And you stared at me. Not a word. Nothing. It took me a moment, but the realization hit me, and when it did, it hit me hard.
I woke up this morning.
I got into my car.
This was a dream.
What happened between my house and your’s that exiled me here?