A lot of people may say that the “No Trespassing” signs all over the once-flourishing La Fiesta Mall can easily lure them to explore the place, a temptation which I and a buddy failed to resist.
I could not stop the goose bumps that started to crawl from my nape when I paused to look at the dilapidated building. I am not superstitious but I could not shake off the feeling that someone was observing us from one of the rooms. My first scare started when we were under the huge tower and my buddy set the camera to take a self-portrait. I hurried over to where she placed the camera. Peering on the monitor, I saw her captured on screen, saw the flash and heard the shutter click. When I checked to review the photo, no one was in the frame. Only the empty bench surrounded with the thick shrubs. We did it again and the same thing happened. The hairs on my arms stood up because it felt like something was warning us not to go in but stubborn as we both are, we shrugged it off as a misadjustment of the camera settings and went our separate ways clicking away and taking pictures of anything that caught our interest.
I ventured into the second floor of the main building, my footsteps and the clicks of the shutter echoing into the empty rooms and hallways. Shadows seemed to leap from the rooms and I was trying to be brave as I hurried over to a former restaurant.
I slowly picked my way over the shattered glass in the rooms and hallways, stopping every few seconds to snap photos when I decided to go down.
Navigating the circular hallway to find the stairs, I came upon another hallway and aimed my camera in that direction, wanting to capture the lovely contrast of the shadows cast by a small window in the dark hallway. Holding my breath, I was about to press the shutter when lo and behold, a human figure materialized in my lens. Catching my breath, I moved the lens away from my eyes and saw no one. When I peered into the viewfinder again to snap a photo, the figure was there again. Scared beyond my wits, I willed my feet to run but they remained rooted to the spot. I stared in helpless terror and closed my eyes hoping it was just my imagination but a horrified gasp escaped my lips when I opened my eyes and saw a man a few feet away from me. He was real and he was coming toward me, obviously another trespasser like me. He apologized for “scaring” me and we went our separate ways. Reuniting with my buddy, we explored the rest of the buildings, this time together.
The dilapidated state of the building could not disguise the fact of how it once pulsed with life and color. My buddy, who was among the first employees at one of the designer stores when La Fiesta Mall first opened, recalled how the place teemed with people and throbbed with life every day.
La Fiesta Mall is just another mute testimony of the island’s economic misfortunes, and each piece of rusty steel, cement slabs as well as the gaping rooms and the hallways contain their own stories of a prosperous past long gone.