"You must be the Architect."

“I’m D.H.W., or simply Hades, and yes, I have created this place after I was sent here myself. And you must be Una Malcolm, the first ever person to make peace with your inner voice and exit The White Mall.

As it is the thing that matters, I must tell you that you will be going home, even though it lies across galaxies from here. I am ready to answer your questions now, and I’m sure you have them with you along with these pretty boots.”

Una was terrified at first, but that was mostly the surprise of meeting a person for the first time in a...

“How long have I been there?”

The architect said without looking at his wristwatch:

“Twenty eight Earth hours fifty eight minutes.”

“Um... wowie. Now tell me how you got there and how you made uh... The White Mall.”

“The White Mall was named after its most frequent interior color. Which, in its turn, was inspired by the color of our lab’s walls. We were scientists exploring a newly found interdimensional rift. One day I violated the rules of safety and common sense and came too close. The rift swallowed me and sealed itself.

Then I was there. Somehow I managed to think about getting warm, and I got warm in this very space, in the middle of nothing. I thought I needed air to breathe, and then I had it. Then I questioned myself if I can create, and it turned out that I could.

What to make if you can make anything at all? Your deepest fantasies. Another, secret field of my study was psychology of women. Don’t get me wrong, men’s psychology is also very interesting, but it’s different. Minds of people of your sex thrill me more, and I created this undoubtedly twisted place only to realize... that my powers are only absolute as long as they are fueled with them. With objects of my study.

What is the worst part of alien abductions in the movies? They take the person who does not want to go. They has relatives, friends, people that depend on them. I never wanted to become a movie alien, so I decided that I’ll only take girls who passed away timelessly... before they should have.”

“That means... I died?”

“Yes, you did die. The taxi driver wanted to slip through under the red light. The truck could not stop that quick. The passenger died within a second.”

“Holy shit! I wanted nothing like this. I only wanted to visit my mother one last time!” — Una imagined her lifeless body dragged out of the car back on Earth and started crying.

“As I said, you will be going home. Alive. I have the power to send you back. The others before you, however... **It is a rather simple puzzle: put this on, find the key there, and get through once you have enough of the pieces on you.” — his speech pace slowed down for a couple seconds at this point, and as the candlelight only showed the man’s face it was hard to tell if he was aroused just by getting his mind to think about all these **** devices the ‘mall’ was stuffed with. — “But what if I took their emotions, impressions and inner desires... and gave them a voice?**”

“That’s what you did to me. The voice was trying to trap me there.”

“Your battle with the voice was going on long before you got here. You were readier than everyone before you. Those who fail the challenge stay there and feed my powers for eternity.”

“Like that hanging girl in the mask!”

“Her chances left her quickly, but it was a consequence of her own decisions. Even once deprived of any chance to leave, they can stay for unlimited time and enjoy themselves. The rest of the girls are still wandering around in the ever-growing mall, keeping me almighty in my realm. Many of them still have a chance to have another try at life on Earth, while some must stay. I see them all and I’ll keep the mall growing until it it is a solid sphere around the universe itself.” — He smiled with his white teeth. — “Who knows, perhaps it will be enough to save it from another Big Bang.”

“I don’t fucking care for your Big Bangs, why make the steel collars, why make latex corsets, why make sky-high heels? Isn’t there any other way to test how my brain works?”

Some of his face muscles eased, and his smile now looked utterly creepy.

“There won’t be until the powers that placed me there choose someone else for my job.”

As Hades burst into laughter, Una wished to unhear everything she just heard from this deeply ill-minded person. She did not want to talk to him, she just wanted to go to Mom...