Outlast - More Than Just Survival

What the hell Brian POV

My eyes pinned to the window at the top of the mall roof. I sat on a bench outside the store in the middle of the mall, watching the rain come down. The concourse filled with people going to different stores. The rain from where I sat looked as if it would hit me, and I imagined the window wasn't there and the rain was streaming down my body. I snap out of my daydream, hearing my name called. I look at my friend delightedly holding up a pink sweater and lift my hand in a thumbs-up motion. She waves me over, and I reluctantly get up to meet her. As I enter the store, it smells of perfume and new clothes. She smiles at me and grabs my hand.

"You didn't have to come shopping with me. I mean, I enjoy your company, but I know this is torture for you."

I think back to my body language when going into a store for women and thinking how I looked like the husband buying his wife new clothing. Discomfort and nervousness plagued my body.

"No, I am good!" I try to perk up my voice. Lyra smirks and gives me a knowing look. "We can go to a gaming store afterward." I laugh."Oh, so I can torture you? No, it's ok. Your boy toy dumped you, and I am here to spend time doing things you need to do.". "Boy Toy, huh?". "Yes, he wasn't a real man. A real man wouldn't have strung you on a long while he was trying to get with another girl." The warmth in her eyes gleamed, and something I didn't understand was behind them.

Her eyes moved to mine, and she started to speak. "I want to tell y---." Suddenly stopping hearing a scream piercing the mall. "What was that?". I looked around the entrance corner. The glass surrounding the front entrance and leading into the concourse. I moved quickly towards the bench, where I sat minutes ago, and looked towards the people. They were still moving some stopping to look over the edge to the first floor to see what was going on. Some shrug to the people they were walking with and continued to walk. Her expression was one of hesitation and even fear as I turned back to Lyra. Deep within me a feeling of protection whirred there. My stomach pitted, and I moved back to her. "I don't see anything, probably some kids playing a joke." Just as I finished the sentence, another scream came. My head swirled towards the entrance. This scream was closer. Placing myself in front of Lyra and the entrance. I move slower this time to the front and see a sea of people moving. As I move towards the bench to peak over where everyone is looking, I see two people fighting and blood everywhere. The gruesome display of people just watching had me start towards the escalator to stop the two, but I stopped to look back at Lyra. Stay here, I mouthed, and she nodded her head in agreement. I couldn't tell if someone had been stabbed, but with that much blood, someone was in serious harm. The people who were just standing and watching and letting someone die had me stirring in my emotions. I had been an EMT before my daught----. I shook the thought away, knowing I needed my full head in the game to be able to remember everything from years ago. I moved quickly around the people. I glanced over the side again and saw more blood pooling. It stopped me in my tracks. I focused on the fight as it seemed too slow. One of the people, the younger boy, lay still on the ground as the other one continued to lay into them. Security breached the circle, and I saw them dive towards the one older boy on top of the younger boy. When the full view of the younger boy was revealed, my stomach lurched, and my morning meal threatened to come back up to visit me again. I heaved to try to hold it down. The younger boy was nothing but meat. You could make out pieces of his face that had been ripped from his very skull. I could see the holes where the nose and the eyes were. There was no saving this boy. There was nothing left to save. The smell of blood reached my nose, and it was almost unbearable. Swallowing quickly and repeatedly, I pulled my eyes from the carnage and looked towards the plant in front of me, hoping not to hurl my breakfast into it. Poor plants wouldn't know what was coming. I clasped onto the side railing.

I don't remember ever being so squeamish before my only biological daughter was born, but after she had passed my life and everything in, it changed. My wife and I got a nasty divorce, my stepchildren had turned against me, and I lost everything I had once worked so hard to get. It took me years to get over the pain and the hurt of everything. I had started a whole new life five years later. I had new friends, a new job, a degree in computer science, I talked to my step kids sometimes, but they live a life without me most of the time. As the memories of everything rushed back into my head. Death haunts me again, as the mangled boy, lay on the floor in the middle of the mall. His small frame puts him no older than ten-years-old. What kind of hate lingers in the heart of someone that can do that to this young boy. I force myself to look over the rail again to lock eyes with the killer. Maybe the need to see the killer is like trying to see my daughter's killer. The hatred stirs under my skin, threatening to climb out and take revenge as I come to the realization that this older boy was probably a relative. This boy could have been a brother or maybe even a young uncle. The killer looks no older than seventeen years old. He was his guardian none the less and he killed him. I am playing everything out in my head. The boy couldn't have been here alone, so the mom let them go to the mall for spring break. The boy must have upset him and the older one. The killer lost his cool.