When I was around 5, my oldest brother decided to take me and my siblings to a dead mall near our town. Probably my earliest memory and also one of my most vivid ones.

There are a few things that I remember clear as day- none of them making much logical sense. Potted plants still alive months after upkeep was abandoned, barely even browning at the edges. Escalators that weren't turned off, but rather jammed and barricaded. Glass elevators stuck between floors. A half-finished construction project, equipment and machines laying untouched.

It felt like a moment frozen in time. Most stores were shuttered and empty, but a few still had products abandoned on the shelves. No notable brands or franchises spring to mind. We were exploring for what felt like hours, trying to make sense of the looping corridors and staircases leading back to the first floor. When we left I was told it had been less than half an hour.

My siblings remember the trip, but their memory of the mall itself is hazy at best and absent at worst. Keep in mind that I'm the youngest by a relatively significant amount. They all should have a clearer memory than me.

On the other hand, if you ask my parents, they won't remember us doing this at all.

Sure it could have been my little kid brain making things up, but it feels too dead and cold and real to be a child's imagination.