“The Symbol”

by Liam Walls

One day this group of friends were sitting in the basement. They were on their phone when one of the boys, Freddy, saw a post “DO NOT GO TO THIS ABANDONED MOVIE THEATER!” He told the others about what he saw.

The next day comes around and they are in the car, driving to the railroad. There are no roads going to it so they have to walk on a railroad to find the theater. Once they got to the railroad they started their trek to the theater. “Hey guys, look!” Vance (the leader of the group) said. Through a little gap in the tree line you could see a building. Unsure if it was the theater, the boys went towards it

Once they got to it they entered. It did not look like the pictures they saw online, but they thought they were in the wrong part of it. After exploring for one hour thirty minutes and not finding an exit, suspicion started to arouse. Room after room, door after door, it seemed to be unending. Finally, they found the room that was in the picture. Soon after they recognized it they saw a camera on the floor next to a phone. They wondered if it was the phone of the person that posted the pictures.

They decided to look at the pictures on the camera roll. Every photo was corrupted with a weird symbol in the middle. The symbol was almost like an addition sign with a multiplication sign overlaid on top of it. Everybody thought something was off so they decided to look for the exit. As soon as they went to turn back the door that they came from. But it was not there. Only a wall with the strange sign painted on top of it.

The boys started panicking looking for an exit. Everytime they turned around a different wall was there. Then, Greg, the biggest and strongest one of the group, suddenly disappeared. Freddy noticed that he was gone and started painicing. He crawled into a ball and layed on the floor. He then shut his eyes as tight as he could. Even with his eyes shut he could see nothing but that symbol in his head. Then everything seemed calm.

A cool breeze suddenly flowed throughout the room. Everyone looked up, even Freddy. There was a door leading straight out to the outside. With caution, they walked outside. But what they saw made their hearts sink. It was the railroad, but there were thousands of theaters. Never ending. Every building had the symbol. It seemed to never end. Then, they saw Greg. They went towards him just to find out it was a holograph. With him repeating over and over, “I am gone.” with it sounds like real parts of him pleading for help in the middle of the rotation. Then, something happened. They were all in the basement again, and everyone remembered what happened except Greg. It was like it never happened.