The exit that leads back inside

You push the glass doors, and it works — cool air, a parking lot at dusk, your car somewhere in row F. You walk toward it, and somewhere between two parked cars the light changes, and you are in the west corridor again, by the fountain, facing the food court. The mall does not stop you leaving. It just does not contain a leaving.

I have come to think this is the defining property of these spaces. Malls, schools, airports, stairwells — buildings designed for movement rather than dwelling, and in the dream the movement is all that is left. Every path is a through-path, and every through-path is a loop.

Has anyone genuinely left? Made it out and stayed out — driven away, walked past the edge of the lot? If so, you may have the most important report on this whole site. Post it.