Lasers, gunfire, sirens, tires screeching, cartoon voices, music, sore losers crying and loud talking trying to have a conversation over it all. These are the sounds that filled the arcade and spilled out into the food court that added delightful smells into the mix. Everybody walking out of the arcade would go for a meal without question or even a decision.

“Two rand for one token,” Aubrey said, “That’s such bullshit.” All three put their money into the machine and the machine regurgitated their money’s worth of tokens into a plastic tub. They stepped out of the line and let the next group pass. “Rule number one… No tickets? No game!” Aubrey said. “We will not waste our tokens on games that will not reward us for our efforts. That’s called slavery.”

“Your idea of slavery is not getting paid for having fun?” Damien asked.

“Shhh. Shh shh shh shh.” Aubrey pressed her finger on Damien’s lips and wiggled it. “Listen here fucko. What do you call unpaid labour?”

“Exploitation?” He tried to avoid the answer she wanted.

“No. Shut up. Damien you’re so stupid sometimes. It’s called slavery.”

“Sure. Whatever, but it’s still just videogames.”

“Labour is labour.”

“You take this too seriously. You want to earn tickets to get a keychain?”

“Why the hell would you use the tickets to buy something?” Aubrey asked.

“... What were you planning on using tickets for?”

“Nothing. Just getting the most for flex’s sake. We need to beat 700.”

“Wow.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you want to get a keychain with your tickets?”

Damien shook his head and smiled.

“Exactly. Now let the games begin!” Aubrey pulled a folded piece of paper out of her bright red fanny pack. Sophia watched as she very closely analysed her yellowed map of the arcade. “Why do you need a map?” she asked.

“To minimise distractions,” Aubrey said sternly, “We must be a well-oiled machine.”

Sophia leaned to Damien. “Is this a joke?”

“I wish,” Damien said, “We do this every time. She’s really competitive.”

“Doesn’t it take the fun out of it?”

“It actually doesn’t. The map takes us through each section of the arcade and to the best games in each.”

“Like levels?”

“Ja. The competition itself turns the arcade into one giant game.”

“How about I take you two on?” Aubrey suggested.

Damien and Sophia looked at each other, to Aubrey, back at each other then back to Aubrey.

“That’s unfair, isn’t it?” Sophia asked.

“Agreed,” Aubrey said, “Unfair for you. I’m an elite at this. That’s the fun part! Think of it as a noobs versus pros gaming funny moments video.”

“Is she that good?” Sophia asked over the noise of the nearby consoles’ gunfire.

“Ja. I haven’t won a game against her. Ever. Notice how we’re going to avoid all the BRAINY GAMES!”

Aubrey led the way into the console jungle. “Can’t hear you over the sound of zombies getting shot at!”

Damien shook his head and he and Sophia followed her. “I suck at games, by the way,” Sophia said, reassuring Damien that they weren’t going to win. A kindness so he wouldn’t get his hopes up. “Me too,” Damien said.

They entered the first section of the arcade where the games were more about actual physical skill. Damien and Sophia knew where they ranked here. There was one common thing in all the games: a ball.

Kicking, rolling and throwing. Some had obstacles and some had none. Balls banged walls and chains. People yelled like the sirens that cheered for them. Seizure-inducing colours flashed and flickered all around them. Loud, competitive and sometimes mocking voices surrounded them. Nice shot! Good throw! Is that the best you got?! Wow! Incredible! Better luck next time!

“You two are going to lose!”

Damien looked at Aubrey. “You should do the voices for these games,” he said.

“Is that your comeback?”

“Your insult wasn’t good to begin with. It didn’t deserve a comeback.”

“Le gasp!” Aubrey put a hand on her own shoulder and held herself back. “He isn’t worth it Aubrey! Save your energy for the game! We’ll get them back.”

Damien laughed and shook his head. “Them?” Sophia asked, “Him!”

“You’re with the enemy!”

“You PUT ME with the enemy! Is she serious?”

“If it’s a game, then she’s serious about it,” Damien said.

“You’re going to be annihilated,” Aubrey said. She stretched her neck in every direction, stretched her shoulders and then her legs. “A bit much?” Damien asked.

“You don’t take this seriously,” Aubrey said. She never sounded more serious than when she was playing games. “Do you think this is a game!?”

“Aubrey we are literally in an arcade.”

“DO-YOU-THINK-THIS-IS-A-GAME?”

“YES-THIS-IS-LIT-ER-AL-LY-A-GAME!”

“THAT-IS-WHY-YOU-SUCK!”

They would’ve attracted attention if it weren’t for the noise keeping them quiet and the flashing lights being a more interesting thing to look at. “Round one,” Aubrey said, “Basketball.” They waited for one of the groups of people flinging balls at hoops to finish their game. A siren sounded every time a ball went through the hoop and shook its chains. In between each siren, the sound of failed shots hitting walls thumped with the music. Finally, one of the groups finished their two tokens worth of a session and Aubrey was quick to place the container of tokens on its one-buttoned control panel. “Who’s first?” she asked. Damien and Sophia looked at each other. “I’ll go,” she said kindly and shyly.

Two alleys side-by-side with a skid marked wall separating them. Sophia and Aubrey stood at each other’s sides. “Let’s see how this plays out,” Aubrey said. “Hopefully in our favour,” Damien whispered to himself. Anything he says out loud is an insult to Aubrey’s pride when she’s in this mode. She put two tokens into the machine and then hovered her hand over the button, in line with the wall. She looked up at Sophia and asked, “Ready?”

“Mhm.” She nodded.

Aubrey’s hand slammed the button and she quickly got into position. A low ramp that held back four balls in each alley dropped. The black and orange balls with faded branding rolled towards them. The moment one was within reach, Sophia and Aubrey grabbed it and threw it. The first few shots were thrown and nothing other than wall-bounces were achieved, but once the first ball went in for Aubrey and was quickly followed by Sophia, the sirens started sounding.

Damien felt his heart start to race.

Oh no...

His breathing was uneasy.

Not now…

He started to get hot.

Wait- oh.

An anxious and exciting thrill confused for a demon transformation. The past week had been such an emotional mess and it kept Damien on edge. He didn’t know what might hit or when… but if just for tonight he could pretend that demons were just the constructs of traumatic delusion… It was okay. It was over. He was going to be fine.

Once Aubrey figured out the static distance of the hoops, sirens sounded with few intervals in between. Sophia’s missed shots put her 6 points behind. Sophia figured out her arc and didn’t let Aubrey’s lead grow. They both laughed, even with the pressure to win.

Damien stepped forward to be beside Sophia, far enough away for her not to slam an elbow into his chest, and he tried to motivate and cheer for her. Sophia had to hold out for ten seconds. Damien cheered into Sophia’s ear like a boxing coach.

The final siren sounded and a robotic voice saying, “Winner!” as Aubrey’s score flashed. She threw her hands up and yelled in unison with other players throughout the arcade. “Ahoo,” she growled like a gorilla and flexed her arms. The machine stuck out half their score’s worth in tickets like a tongue. Aubrey politely plucked hers from the machine and elegantly waved it in Sophia’s face.

“Your turn,” Aubrey said to Damien and tucked the tickets in her pocket. Damien smiled at her, but unlike what he used to do, it wasn’t just a respectful placeholder for his disinterest in her cockiness. Sophia stepped aside and Damien stepped forward. “Suck just a bit less than you just did and you might win,” he said. Aubrey looked at Damien in surprise. “Excuse me?” she asked.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“You heard me loud and clear.” He put two tokens into the slot and hovered his hand over the button. “You ready?”

Aubrey’s confidence hadn’t been broken, but it had been staggered. This could have been an act, but whatever it was, she never saw it coming. Damien was never the trash-talking type. She nodded, placed one foot forward and leaned into a lunge similar to the one she uses at the start of her races. Damien looked at Aubrey and kept his hand over the button. She waited for him to press it, but he just looked at her.

“I said y—”

Damien pressed the button, turned to the balls rolling towards them and smiled. Aubrey stomped deeper into the lunge once he pressed the button. They both grabbed a ball at the same time. Aubrey threw first and the ball went in as expected. Damien threw, but the ball bounced off the rim. He grimaced and hissed at that, but smiled again when he grabbed another ball. Aubrey was confident in her throw. She was the sportiest in the group and knew how to make her shots. Damien and Aubrey threw their shots in sync and this time, both went in. Damien looked at Aubrey and smiled. “Lucky shot!” she yelled at him.

“Lucky nothing,” Damien said and they each grabbed another ball. Sophia cheered for Damien, but he, like Aubrey, was immersed in their little battle. Aubrey kept ahead of him by the one point she gained at the start of the game. She was the group’s champion when it came to physical fitness and skill. Damien’s throws had improved since the last time they played. Aubrey felt that it was too sudden. Whoever was playing now wasn’t who she would’ve played against last week, nor the day before, nor Damien from a few minutes before.

One of Damien’s shots slipped off the rim again. Aubrey didn’t mock it despite her two-point lead. She didn’t show it, but she was under pressure. It really was just a game and she knew that even though she acted like this was a serious competition, but she wouldn’t let her skill be shown up by somebody’s sudden confidence boost. Aubrey barely kept her lead by the end of the game. When the final siren sounded, she threw her hands up in relief rather than triumph. Damien fell back and looked at Aubrey with a humble smirk.

Aubrey grabbed Damien by the collar and yelled, “You thought you had me, huh? Well I did too!”

“You were scared?” Damien asked. Yes, you were.

“Yes! But in the end who won? Huh? Who won?!”

She threw her arms up again and walked away and then back. Sophia put a hand on Damien’s shoulder. “Maybe we’ll be able to beat her later,” she said. He smiled at her and then looked at the score.

It was just a game. The loss meant nothing, not to most people. To Damien, it reminded him he wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t indestructible and he wasn’t almighty. Destructibility felt nice. It made him feel like a fragile teenager. It made him feel like he was there with his friends rather than stretched from the past. The past was a scarlet collage of bloody faces. Now the present, the present was full of smiles. There were some crying sore losers staining the image, but overall, Damien saw joyous faces in this colourful place and the most important were the faces of his friends. Even if they were mocking and teasing him, they mattered the most in this snapshot of the present.

Aubrey finally stopped her miniature celebration. She looked at her sketched map to find their next challenge. “You’re going to get an ass whooping tonight!” Aubrey said. I sure hope so, Damien thought, … don’t take that out of context. Sophia felt a slight indent on her sole. She looked down. Half of it peeking up at her from under her sole was a token. She lifted her foot and the token had a friend. She picked up the two tokens and looked around, but nobody seemed eager to claim it. “Maybe it comes in handy later,” Damien said. She looked at him, nodded with a smile and tucked it away.

Their journey through the arcade continued. Their battles ranged from their throws, to the speed of their dancing feet, to the speed of their fingers on buttons and joysticks. Damien and Sophia were able to claim some wins, but Aubrey gradually made the distance between their overall scores greater. It didn’t matter how hard they pushed themselves, Aubrey was too experienced. The games were fun, but at a certain point being outstanding at losing was just depressing.

After losing their last game - a retro fighting game - Damien and Sophia were indifferent to their situation. They tried to find some shred of fun in their last few games after realising that they didn’t stand a chance but Aubrey’s brutal victory celebrations found a way to tear it further. Aubrey, with her fanny pack full of tickets, led the way back to one of the ticket machines. “Where do you think we should go to eat?” Damien asked in an attempt to lighten the mood. “There’s a pizza place. There’s a gatsby place. A fish and chips place.”

Sophia looked at one of the machines as they passed it, not paying attention to any of Damien’s options. The machine looked like it had been there for some time. It was like some wise man with stories to tell that had been there since the arcade had opened, maybe even before that. It’s colours, wording and pictures were faded, but she understood how it worked.

The game, like most of the other games, was a tall box with three of its sides transparent. On the inside, a disk rotated and at its edges were holes of different sizes. Each hole had a number by it. The bigger the hole, the smaller the number. All except one had numbers - the JACKPOT. Its hole wasn’t only the smallest, but a flat plastic ring was placed onto it as well. On both sides of the jackpot were the widest holes, worth only two tickets. At the rear opaque wall, a vertical tube was attached to drop a ball into one of the holes.

The rotating disk was a bit jittery. Unlike everything else in the arcade that ran smoothly, this machine seemed to have some problems. Whoever played the game was giving some chance of success to the machine. It could run smoothly and keep itself together or it could have an episode and ruin it for the player. Sophia felt sorry for the machine at the latter thought. It couldn’t help itself.

1 token.

“Aubrey!” Sophia called. “Aubrey!” she called again over the noise. Aubrey turned around. “I challenge you,” she said and pointed at the machine. Aubrey looked at Damien. “But it’s not on the map,” she said.

“Exactly. That map of yours only takes us to all of the games you’re good at. If you were really an elite gamer, you’d be able to accept our challenge without question and beat us.”

“The only way you could beat me is if you hit the jackpot,” Aubrey said.

“Maybe I can.”

“Do you have any tokens?”

Sophia pulled out the two tokens from her pocket and held them up like a badge. Aubrey took one from her and said, “Fine.” She stepped in front of the machine and put the token in without taking a moment to figure out how the game worked. It was simple. You press a button and a ball drops. Aubrey’s lips puckered to the side as she focussed on the jackpot hole.

“Don’t go for a jackpot,” Damien said, “I’m pretty sure it’s rigged.” Aubrey nodded and looked for a new hole.

“Damien, don’t help her!”

The sudden pauses and jerks of the disk irritated her. How was she supposed to play a game that didn’t work properly? Eventually she looked at Sophia and smiled. “I almost forgot that I’m winning,” she said and pressed the button without worrying where the ball would fall. The machine spat out the tickets and Aubrey plucked the few tickets from the machine without counting.

Sophia stepped up to the machine and put her coin in. When she lightly placed her hand onto the button, the disk seemed to move consistently and without any hitches, but not easily. The machine tried it’s best to keep itself together for her, hiding its flaw. She may have been the first one in a long time to look at it without frowning at its dysfunctional disk. For that compassion, it tried to keep itself together long enough for her to win.

I trust you, Sophia thought, Aren’t I being dramatic?

Her eyes followed the jackpot hole, timing it. Round and round and round…

She slammed the button. Flawlessly, the ball fell through the tube and into the jackpot. She threw her arms up and screamed loud enough for a bit more than her friends to hear. She turned to Damien and crushed him with a hug and he weakly hugged back. Why does this always happen to me, he thought. Aubrey goggled at the supposedly rigged machine. It seemed to look back at them with satisfaction. When Sophia finished hugging Damien, she turned back to the machine and collected the tickets that poured out of it. “I think we’ll need help carrying this,” she said. “Could your fanny pack spare some space?”

Aubrey rolled her eyes and said, “Whatever.”

“Don’t be so sore!” Sophia yelled. Damien crouched down with her and helped gather the tickets. It seemed that the machine wouldn’t stop. “Do you think this is enough to beat her?” she asked him.

“I think it’s overkill to be honest,” he said.

“We make a good team.”

“You’re the one who got us the win.”

Sophia put her hand on the machine and said, “I think he deserves some credit as well. He held it together.”

Damien looked at the machine gratefully and said, “Thank you, ancient ball-drop machine.”

______

“I can’t believe you used your tickets on that,” Aubrey said. Sophia dangled her silver rose keychain from her finger. “I like it,” Sophia replied. Aubrey looked at Damien and said, “I can’t believe you let her use your tickets on that.” Damien shrugged.

Victory bred an appetite. Sophia was able to finish her slice of gatsby this time. She was mesmerised by the shiny rose. The longer Damien looked at it, the more he was as well. It was nostalgic.

Aubrey took out her phone to check her messages and stood up. “I’m off. Dad’s here,” she said, “I’ll see you two on Monday.” They said their goodbyes and Damien and Sophia were left to themselves at the table. “How long before you have to leave?” Sophia asked.

“I told my dad that we’d be done at 5 o’clock. Probably thirty minutes.”

Sophia nodded.

The feeling he had for her was gone, that irritating familiarity, but he still wasn’t free of strange feelings. Now he was confused every time he looked at her. He didn’t know why so he had a secondary confusion for why he was confused. Sophia looked past the dangling keychain and caught Damien staring at her with a sneer. “What’s wrong?” she asked, “Are you mad that I got a keychain?” She smiled.

“Why are you alive?” he asked.

“Um… what?”

What... the hell did I just say?

Damien felt his mind reel itself back into consciousness like a gasp.

“Sorry I meant… Why are you alive?”

“Uhmm”

“I don’t mean that in a rude way. You, me, Aubrey. Everybody. Why are we here?”

“Oh. I don’t think about it much. It doesn’t bother me… It’s strange to be having existentialism now, don’t you think?”

She laughed and Damien forced one. Please don’t do this now, he thought to himself; to the demon. His eyes snapped to the shimmering silver rose and locked on. He couldn’t pull his gaze away from it. It held on like a dog’s bite. He could feel the gatsby rising up again.

How are you alive?

The thoughts had a voice of their own…

How is she alive?

a deep growl…

Why is she alive?

it roared at him…

You’re supposed to be DEAD!

Damien looked around him for the bathrooms. “I’ll be back,” he said and jumped out of his seat to walk to the bathroom. Sophia watched him for a moment and then looked back at her rose.

Damien tried to walk like he was sober, but he still caught the attention of everybody as he wobbled his way to the bathrooms. The closer he got to it, the faster he moved. He pressed through one door and through another into a cubicle. He locked the cubicle, turned and fell forward. His hands barely caught the toilet seat and his head hung halfway into the pot.

Spots of black and needlepoints of green and purple flickered in his vision. His whole body trembled like he had a fever. His tongue stuck out, but all that came was a wet, guttural heave.

Not now. Please, not now.

He splashed some toilet water on his face, wetting his top as well. His body felt like a soul in purgatory, never to be purified. The tinnitus started.

Leave me alone.

His fingertips started to tingle and his legs started to fall asleep.

Get out! Get out!

He slapped his cheeks. A sharp pain struck down the centreline of his body and a loud screech like tires echoed in his head. Everything went black. He thought that was it. He thought the demon was back and when he woke up, the mall would be the fuel for his flame and the smiling faces of the people he saw would be more bloody memories for another life to come.

He opened his eyes. He was still in the bathroom, facing down into the pot and kneeling in the spills on the ground. He didn’t know what happened in those few minutes… His heart raced and his body still trembled. He smelt like piss, but that was fine. At least he didn’t commit genocide. He used toilet paper to dry himself and wipe up his mess.

When he returned to the food court, he found that Sophia had left with a goodbye message sent to his phone. Fortunately, his father was there as well.