*SFW Halloween content. Inspired by a monster design, Kid Mannequin - Maplestory (https://bbb.hidden-street.net/monst...../kid-mannequin), based on a very old dream concept of mine from 2012.

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It was a nice cool evening and I was dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and knee-long shorts, sipping my cup of hot chocolate while staring through the open window, enjoying the gentle breeze that blew every now and then. On the other side of the street where my house was, there stood an abandoned mall since the early 2000s. For years, no one knew what was inside and left it be.

Every time someone went in, they never came out. Year after year, the authorities had tried to shut it down, only resulting in “missing people” cases with each batch of officers trying to investigate the mysteries of the mall. Some who observed from the entrance of the mall during each investigation recounted that it was still cold even though the electricity had been cut for a while. They said it was chilling, both in temperature and in ambience as distant muffled cries could be heard before it was silent again.

The strange occurrences began during the Halloween season just a few days before the actual event. Many shoppers sought after the trending bunny suit that came in two colors according to gender, pink for the females and blue for the males. The costumes were made of silky materials that felt like one was being wrapped by clouds. There were even commercials featuring children wearing the bunny costumes, happily walking about collecting candy, but only sold in the particular mall. This drew more customers from all over the small county to the mall to purchase the bunny suits.

It was said that many of the mall’s store owners had received strange batches of these costumes in their Halloween delivery instead of the typical costumes they had ordered. As they had no idea what to do with the costumes, the stores sold the same designs of the bunny suits to their customers, parents, who happily purchased them for their children. Some children who tried it on immediately in the stores felt a presence watching them in the changing rooms.

On Halloween night, children who wore the bunny suits disappeared from the streets, grouping up together inside the mall and chanting some kind of devilish incantations. Concerned parents who discovered this were swiftly swarmed by the children when they entered the mall to investigate, drowned in the sea of pink and blue. Those who saw from afar reported the oddities of the mall to the authorities, who later surrounded the area in black and yellow caution tapes. Officers went in with guns and other self-defense weapons to protect themselves. Minutes ticked by, followed by hours and then days. No one had exited the mall, not even the officers. A note was pasted on the doors of the mall, reading “To residents around the vicinity of this mall, avoid entering at all costs!”

Ever since that day, no one had dared to venture into the mall and soon. Years passed and they eventually cut off electricity to the mall, leaving it as a silent ominous building in the neighborhood.
Tonight, as a fourteen-year-old, I would test my bravery in the depths of the abandoned mall to finally solve the mystery. Stuffing my backpack with a notebook, writing supplies, a small torchlight and a bottle of water, I was ready to explore the cursed abandoned mall.

It was Halloween night, a decade after the incident. Children, accompanied by parents, were in all sorts of outfits from animals to mystical creatures to superheroes. Equipped with my trusty flashlight, I stepped foot slowly into the mall. It was dimly lit under moonlight coming through skylight windows on the ceiling of the mall. The air was colder than the autumn weather outside, causing me to shiver every now and then.

Peeking at every corner from behind the pillars, nothing seemed out of the ordinary as I shone my flashlight around. As I turned a corner, I spotted the pink and blue bunny costumes I heard in the creepy tales, but the eyes of each costume on the hood had a demonic crimson glow. Inside each bunny suit was an inflatable mannequin made with likeness to children, varying in design as though those were the faces of the lost children. Only their plastic-looking faces shown within the hood, emotionless in the expression of the design. The rest of their bodies were covered in the silky fabric of the costumes. The suits had zippers on their fronts and its sleeves were longer than the mannequin hands, cloaking their hands like an oversized costume.

‘This is weird. I better get out of here!’ I thought as I turned off my flashlight in fear, heading back to the entrance as stealthily as I possibly could. I inched my way behind pillars to make sure none of them saw me. However, when I was nearing the entrance, there was already a crowd of similar inflated mannequins at the doors. Now I was cornered. The only thing I could do now is hide for the time being until they cleared, unstrapping my backpack so that my arms would not be sore. While hiding behind one of the pillars, I felt pillowy arms reach into the shirt from my back, trying to wrap my body at the front for a hug. Turning behind, there was a mannequin in a pink bunny suit, its gray soulless pupils staring at me as though it longed for me. Startled, I tried to flee but it held on to my sweatshirt, ripping it from my body and causing me to lose my flashlight in the process.

The sound of my shirt tearing apart alerted the other mannequins as they began to approach me with both arms outstretched like zombies. Abandoning my backpack and the dropped flashlight, I sprinted toward any corner that did not have any of the bunny-suited mannequins, desperate to find an exit or a new hiding spot. After a bit of running around and exploring deeper into the building, I found a side of the mall where no mannequins stood and hid behind more pillars. Peering from my hiding spot, the mannequins seemed to wander off and stopped pursuing me after a couple of minutes.

‘I need some new clothes…’ I thought and sighed, trembling more than before as my upper body was fully exposed to the freezing environment. Looking around corners more cautiously this time, I spotted a clothes store called “Style for a While”, hoping that there were other shirts I could pick up to wear. However, when I entered the store, there were no shirts available but what I saw surprised me. There were more pink and blue bunny costumes neatly folded in the shelves, but none of them moved or had glowing eyes. In a corner, there was a changing room that had curtains that appeared surprisingly new, as though it had just been installed.

Picking out a blue bunny costume from a shelf, I was curious how it felt considering the multiple accounts of parents shared with me during the previous years of Trick-or-Treating. Inspecting it closely, it was some kind of thick bunny suit, stuffed at the belly, sleeves, and hood of it, while the leggings of the suit were left unstuffed. I guessed it was made this way to not impede the wearer’s walking freedom. Sewn to the leggings were integrated stuffed shoes, crafted for the wearer to walk in the suit without having to wear shoes. On top of the hood were two fur-covered ears sticking out vertically. There were two eyes and a small triangular nose with a pair of white satin incisors lined along the top of the hood’s face opening. Above the rear of the suit, there was a small puff of fur acting as a bunny tail. Unzipping the front, I reached a hand inside and it was as soft as clouds, like I have heard. I was tempted to try it on since I was topless now, the prickling cold of the mall pressuring me to do so.

Heading into one of the dimly lit changing rooms, I slit the curtains closed and took off my pants, socks and shoes, leaving me in my boxers as I placed the articles of clothing neatly in a corner of the room. Slipping my legs into the bunny suit, the interior of the costume hugged me as though I was wearing pants made of cotton candy. My feet entered their respective spaces, wiggling my toes into the comfortably stuffed integrated shoes.

“Ah…” I let out a satisfied sigh as my feet felt like heaven now and I could not wait to try on the rest of the outfit. Pulling up the costume to my waist, every inch of it that touched my bare skin gave me tingles. Reaching my arms through the thickened sleeves, I could not see my hands emerge as the sleeves were far too long. I lifted the hood of the bunny suit onto my head, sensing that something was unsettling about the bunny hood but I shrugged it off as my imagination.

One more step was left before I was fully suited. The costume was still unzipped. Struggling to get my hands out of the oversized sleeve to zip myself up, I was only pushing my sleeve-covered hands where the zipper was, unable to even touch the metallic zipper itself with the tips of my fingers. Out of the sudden, the zipper shot all the way up and I felt the hood beginning to gnaw on my head, its soft satin incisors poking against my forehead. Its eyes were now glowing and I realized it was alive as it tightened onto my body. I could not move any limb or joint and was not in control now.

Standing still for a moment, it began to jerk my chest forward as though it was choking, shifting my hips and legs as it did so, unsure what it was doing to me. After a few rigid motions, I saw something gray fly out through the hood of the costume. Those were my boxers! Now, I was naked in the costume, blushing in embarrassment as my bare body brushed against the silky fabric interior. The suit began to bring me outside the store back into the familiar atrium of the mall, but I was moved beyond the area.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked the suit controlling my body but was met with silence as it continued pressing forward. Other mannequins who sighted me gathered around me, following alongside with occasional prods of their sleeves, helping to escort me toward another corner of the mall. I was afraid to say another word in case I offended them, swarming onto my body in response like hungry locusts to a blade of grass. A few minutes passed and the bunny suit finally stopped moving in front of some sort of plushie store.

While the mannequins opened the swinging doors slowly, the costume walked me inside past many shelves filled with pink and blue bunny-themed plushies into the backrooms of the store. To my astonishment, the room inside appeared bigger than it looked from the outside. It was lit by small lamps along the walls and there were some empty beds made of materials similar to the suit. Giant bunny plushies were moving about, neatly arranging the pillows and blankets for each bed. As I was brought to one of the beds, the costume laid me down on my back while a bunny plushie tucked me in the blankets. I was unable to push the blanket off as the suit restrained my limbs.

“Why are you making me go to bed? What are you doing to me?”

“Sleep well, so that tomorrow, you’ll turn into something beautiful,” a bunny plushie around my size hopped onto my blanket-covered chest and pinched my cheeks gently. “However, you have three choices – you could turn into an inflatable mannequin, mindless drones like the ones you have seen outside, or, we could convert your body into precious cotton to create more bunny suits. As for the last choice, you could transform into one of us, retaining your memories as a plushie, but this option is reserved to those worthy of it. You’ll be a mannequin tomorrow. Good night!”

“Wait! No! I don’t wanna be a manneq-” My words were cut off by a plush ball stuffed into my mouth, too big to spit out. “MMPH! MMM!”

“Too bad. And, good night!” The bunny plushie caressed my face with a wicked grin, leaving me alone in the room as others followed, turning off the lights in the room to encourage me to sleep. Glancing around the room, there were no cameras or any plushies to watch me and I was alone. I had an idea, a naughty one. While I could not move any part of my body, it did not have control over my bladder. I wet the inside of the suit, causing the costume to struggle about as it absorbed everything with its stuffed front. It was like the liquid was causing it pain, similarly to how the Wicked Witch of the West reacted violently to water.

Once my bladder had been emptied, the bunny suit’s thrashing movement ceased and settled down. That was when I felt the satiny incisors of the hood loosen its grip on my forehead. In fact, it had loosened everywhere inside the costume and I was back in control. Trying to get the plush ball out of my mouth, my sleeves were unable to get any traction on it, and I gave up eventually. I still could breathe through my nose despite the ball muting me. Moving to a nearby mirror, the eyes of the hood did not glow and the suit was back to being inanimate as it should be. I was completely free from any mind control.

Dashing out of the backrooms, many of the bunny plushies’ eyes lighted up as red dots in the darkness, hopping off their shelves and pursuing me like a blanket of plushies. Bursting through the doors of the plushie store, it alerted the surrounding bunny-suited mannequins. I sprinted as fast as I could through the mall towards the exit, but I discovered something while doing so. These integrated cotton-stuffed shoes were not meant for running, significantly slowing me down and exhausting every bit of stamina the more I ran.

I could see the entrance right in front of me, freedom was a few steps away. Just before I made it to the entrance, I collided into a big bunny mascot, a lavender-purple one. It appeared like a giant plushie but had the typical shape of a mascot. In a split second, it hugged me and I was unable to run away, lifting me up a few feet above the ground with my legs thrashing about below. “MMPH!” I tried to scream but was then reminded of the plush ball trapped in my mouth. The bunny squeezed me harder, pushing my face against its fuzzy belly, pressing onto my nose which was the last place of my body that could take in air. I struggled to breathe and I was suffocating, passing out in the thick plushie embrace of the bunny.

When I regained consciousness again, I was inside some kind of giant blue fuzzy fabric. As I explored the mysterious cottony environment, I realized that my hands had turned into blue stubby plush paws. Inspecting my new body, I was now a small blue bunny plushie with a pair of furry ears and a fur puff as a tail. Squeezing on my belly and various limbs, I confirmed that all my bones and organic parts were replace with cotton stuffing. Wiggling myself out of the fabric, I discovered I had shrunk as what I perceived as a giant pile of blue fabric was actually the bunny suit I was stuck in. Looking up at the dark skies through the glass skylight, it was still night. Before me was the purple bunny mascot, moving to my side after noticing I was looking about.

“Ah, you’re awake. As you can see, you’re now one of us plushies after proving your intelligence by making it this far.”

“What do you want to do to me now?” I questioned with a squeaky voice, somehow tasting the bland flavor and texture of cotton in my new stuffed mouth as I spoke.

“For now, you’ll just watch and grow. Soon, you’ll be helping to put other suited humans into bed to transform them.”

As it carried me up in its arms and cradled me like a baby, I was brought back to the backroom of the plushie store, placed on top of a hidden shelf where I had the full view of all the beds and bunny plushies moving around the beds. Beside me, there were other small bunny plushies in blue and pink hues, similarly watching the room below as though they were watching a stage play.

“Caught ya too, huh?” A pink one remarked. I sighed dispiritedly as I nodded. “Don’t worry! You’ll get used to your forever life as a living plushie. For now, we’re just seen as young plushies to the bunny plushies’ eyes, learning the ways of how other plushies transform the humans into our plush-kind."

“Just observe through the night and you’ll see!” Another plushie, a blue one, mentioned. “After a few months, they would bring you off this shelf and stuff you with magical cotton, making you grow up instantly into one of the plushie helpers, so we get to meet new bunny plushies every now and then.”

Watching silently from above, another bunny suit, now a pink one, brought in a female victim within its cottony confines. However, as for the female, she was not restrained in movement or muted as she hugged and nuzzled a bunny plushie casually, uttering a gentle “good night” before she went under the covers of the blankets on her own.

In a few minutes, a blue bunny-suited male came in and muffled screams were heard, but not loud enough to wake the female in bed. I guessed that there was a plushie ball already stuffed in his mouth. Forced onto the bed like me previously, I could see his face shift, trying to escape the confines of the blankets and suit. A few minutes passed and he had exhausted all his stamina, dozing off with sweat soaking some parts of the hood.

The bunny plushies came back and surrounded the unconscious male first to deal with him, being an unpleasant individual to be captured. One of them put a paw on his nose, forcing him to wake up before lifting its paw away in the next few seconds. He breathed heavily through his nose to fight for the air to return to his lungs. As he resumed struggling in bed, another bunny pressed a plastic mask against his face, making him squirm more within the blankets. In the next moment, his flailing body was motionless as the plastic mask invaded his body through his face and transformed his insides into air. Stepping off the bed, his face now had an artificial plastic shine like the mannequins I seen earlier, his expressions turned dull and emotionless. His arms stretched in front of him, moving like a zombie out of the backroom as another drone to capture humans.

As the bunny plushies returned to the female, they brought in some kind of plushie staff with a pink stuffed heart at its tip. A bunny plushie tapped it gently on her cheeks, leaving a pink furry patch of fabric in its wake. The furry fabric spread around her face, her nose turning into a small darker pink triangle and her mouth extending a little with plushie incisors growing out from her upper lips. Her ears vanished and popped out from the top of her head as the hood loosened, pulling itself behind her head to reveal a bunny plushie face. Her plushie body began to shrink and the bunny costume was becoming too big for her. One of the bunny plushies lifted her up from the empty bunny suit and placed her beside me. The empty bunny suit was taken by the plushies, and reused for another future victim to wear.

Gazing at the new pink bunny plushie, I approached her carefully when she roused.

“Hello?” She asked, still slightly fuzzy in her thoughts after freshly transforming into a plushie. “Where am I? What’s happening?”

“You’re one of us bunny plushies now, trapped in this mall, but we get to live forever without any worry.”

Hugging me as she could not find any words to utter, I could feel the warmth of a human even though she was a plushie. I hugged her back in reassurance as we embraced our new lives as living plushies of the abandoned mall, wondering how many more souls would get trapped here along with us.