> "It hit me from out of the blue. Breaking me out of the spell I was in, Making all of my wishes come true" -Joey Scarbury, Believe It Or Not, 1981

"Police!!!" Anastasia chimed. "I love this song...every li'l thing...she does is tragic...hanging my umbrella...But its always you that ends up getting..."

"That isn't the words." Cynthia glared.

"At least I'm not a prude." Anastasia shoved her friend playfully.

The two girls had walked into Belly's Arcade of the Lloyd Center Mall. They had escaped the thundering cloudburst outside as the storm predicted on the radio finally hit Portland with nearly two inches of rain on the way. The downpour could be heard above the sounds of games like Defender, Tempest and Galaga.

"Let's play Mizz Packa Mon." Anastasia deepened her voice and made a beeline for her favorite game. She had an entire roll of quarters burning a hole in her pocket. Cynthia just came to watch. Her five dollars was spent earlier when the two girls had gone to see Clash of the Titans. They stopped at the machine named Ms. Pac-Man and Anastasia got right into it, lining up some quarters atop it. "I can't believe nobody was in line for our girl."

"There is Raymond." Cynthia was looking around for the older boy. He was playing something else instead. His high-score on Ms. Pac-Man, of 633,580, was unbeatable and he had lost interest, apparently.

"Just because he goes to Lincoln, doesn't make him smart. This is the best game ever and it will always be the best game ever. In fact, he is very stupid." Anastasia said as she played the game. "He should ask me out, but he is too stupid."

To this last comment, both girls giggled.

Cynthia soon quoted: "He's equipped with the right brains and education, but wholly out of the habit of using them."

"Clark Ashton Smith?" Anastasia guessed which one of Cynthia's Poe's quotes that one was.

"Lovecraft." Cynthia said dreamily.

"Yeah right." Anastasia rolled her eyes and lost a life. "Raymond." she said with the same dreamy tone-of-voice and pointed at the teenager behind them with her thumb.

"What?" Cynthia asked defensively.

"I heard from my dad that all your favorite authors were creepy in real-life." Anastasia teased.

"No he wasn't." Cynthia got more defensive. She decided to leave Anastasia standing there and go talk to Raymond; because her friend had upset her with that comment.

She went over to the older boy and watched him playing the new game. It was called Polybius. Cynthia recognized this as Greek for something, but wasn't sure what it meant.

"It is booked." Raymond noticed her standing there. "Go play Ms. Pac-Man. Its all yours."

Cynthia stood there, transfixed by the flashing graphics. It was like no other game she had ever seen before. Polybius was a puzzle-shooter with intense graphics and detailed animation and had beautiful theme-music and smooth game play.

Polybius was like a window to another world; where blocks were hit with a beam controlled by the player and moved or destroyed at will. Some fell slow while others fell fast, trying to assemble something that looked like a boat. But Raymond had done it and another level began. This time a castle was shown and then it flew apart into the different blocks and he began controlling the beam to assemble that object next. Some blocks didn't fit and he could blow them up. If he made a mistake the block would reappear and fall faster. Some of the unfit blocks gave out power ups or extra lives as a reward. The beam could split, with the power-ups, or become a net or move quicker across the screen. The music was surreal and ethereal and the graphics made it look intense and mature. She couldn't look away.

"What is this game?" Cynthia asked, mesmerized.

"Polybius." Raymond said simply. His usual superlicious tone was gone. He sounded charmed and attentive. Like he was saying "Jesus saves and all is forgiven."

"Its so gnarly." Cynthia agreed, echoing the reverence in her own voice.

"It is gnarly, isn't it?" Raymond was losing on level three of the game but suddenly a knight appeared on the bottom of the screen, like a cartoon character, and blocked a number of the fast falling blocks with his shield before saluting the player with his sword. Then the apparition was gone.

"Did you see that?" Raymond was amazed. "I got that power up earlier but I couldn't use it until I got here. I had to hit a block with the same edges, the rounded edges. Look, there is another one."

"For the next level?" Cynthia grasped the mechanic quickly.

"Yes but I haven't gotten that far. In level two it is a fisherman with a net for the rounded block from level one. Gnarly, huh?"

"So." Cynthia nodded, wide-eyed.

Raymond lost his last life and the screen went back to the title screen after showing his new high-score. It was just a list of numbers, anonymous.

"No initials input?" Cynthia frowned.

"That's the only part that's bogus. The rest of the game rules." Raymond looked at her. He was done playing and offered her his spot. Some other boys made disapproving grunts and comments. They were waiting nearby to play Polybius next after Raymond.

Raymond ceremoniously put in two quarters off of the machine where he had left them and then stepped aside for her.

"Ladies first." Cynthia was grinning as she began to play Polybius at the head of the line. She only got to the beginning of the second level on her first attempt before she too had failed to assemble the boat, as that level came to be called. She had made the word 'Polybius' of the first level but the boat level was much more difficult. In fact, on that first day, only Raymond beat the boat level and only he and Cynthia even knew that level three was a castle, as nobody else had seen his eventual defeat.

Raymond pulled his hood on and left Belly's at a quarter past five. He walked all the way home thinking about the gnarly new game Polybius. At home his step father slurred some pedantic platitudes about homework that sounded like he was congratulating his step son for failing at life, while he himself was drunk on the couch. Raymond's mother was in the kitchen making some meatloaf for dinner.

Raymond went to his room where posters of Kool & The Gang were across from REO Speedwagon. Raymond liked all of it, loved life, in general. The girls weren't his thing. He stared at guys, always wondering if there was actually something wrong with that. He had plenty of girlfriends, all the girls liked him, but he just didn't feel it for them. He kicked off his shoes and wondered if he would ever be some kind of hero. He felt like he would, someday be alright. Just not today. He put on his headphones and listened to his favorite: Ray Parker Jr.

He wished Ray was his dad instead of Mel. He hated Mel almost as much as Mel hated Raymond. Sleep overtook him and he missed the call for dinner. His dreams were of the blocks, forming into something strange. It was a field, a plane, a world and it was full of light and the important sounding and mystical game music. Cynthia and her friend Anastasia were lost and he was trying to guide them out like in a Pac-Man maze of some kind. But fell through the tiled floor and vanished into the darkness. He awoke with a strange feeling, like those kids were in some kind of trouble. He looked at the clock: three AM. He couldn't sleep, insomnia had him tossing and turning, the awful feeling gnawing at him.

The next day was Saturday and the world was soaked from the thunderstorm the day before. He trudged out in the mud puddles and arrived at Belly's as they opened. He went in and stared at Polybius. Then he put in a couple quarters and started playing.

On level four there was a pyramid and a winged snake helped him from the block he had unlocked it from in the castle. Level five was a tree but he got no help and level six was a bridge, London bridge maybe. He had played for an hour to get this far and some onlookers watched in silence as he got to level seven with just two quarters. It was a staircase and he got help from Cinderella. She carried blocks back up the steps, her animation the best sofar of the animated characters. Then she lost her glass slipper and vanished.

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

Abba was playing The Winner Takes It All and he finally lost before beating level seven. The contrast between the arcade's music and the game's music was an odd blend but the game was louder, standing in front of it. Each level had its own theme music and each was more haunting and beautiful than the last.

He only had two quarters and had played like his life depended on it. His high score of seventy thousand was twice what he had gotten the previous day and nobody else even compared. No initials on any of the scores, but everyone who was anybody at Belly's knew whose score was at the top.

He turned up his collar as a quiet applause went up as he left to go do something else with the rest of his day. He saw the girls walking by and they were alright, none of the horror he had felt.

Raymond got a Big Mac and a Coke and was eating on the outdoor pavilion after wiping up the seat with some napkins, still wet from the shower. He heard an ambulance siren and watched as Belly's had a visit. Concerned, he went over an discovered that it was one of the girls: Anastasia, she had some kind of seizure while playing Polybius. Raymond felt sick. He saw her friend Cynthia standing there crying.

"You okay?" he asked her while Kenny Rogers sang I Don't Need You like nothing had happened.

"No, she fell over and she was shaking and stiff. Is she going to live? They took her to the hospital." Cynthia was trembling with fear.

"It could be epilepsy." Raymond sounded smart all-of-sudden. He tried to hug her but she frowned and stepped back.

Not knowing why, Cynthia punched his shoulder and ran away crying.

Raymond went into Belly's and looked at the game. Everyone had gone. Polybius stood there asking for another player. Under the title it read: Sinneslöschen and he wondered what this was.

He went to look it up in the phone book but found nothing there. All weekend he felt troubled by what had happened to Anastasia. Then the phone rang and his mom picked it up.

"Raymond it's for you." she said: "it's a girl." she mouthed.

"Hello." Raymond took the phone, stretching the curly cord around the corner out of the kitchen. Mel was asleep on the couch while the Bulldogs played against the Volunteers on the television.

"Its Cynthia. I am sorry I hit you. Anastasia just called me from her hospital room, she will be fine." Cynthia apologized. "My mom said you can come over for dinner if you want to. We are having spaghetti."

"I will come over." Raymond promised, forgetting to confirm where she lived; he was only mostly sure she lived in the blue house on the corner. He had already hung up as Mel stirred and looked at him.

"Gonna go fag it up?" Mel asked.

"I am gonna go have dinner at Cynthia's. Her mom is making spaghetti" Raymond defended himself and left his parents. It was dark out already when he got there. He had recalled correctly where she lived and the whole family was there to greet him.

He ate dinner with her and her folks and their dog before he managed to say goodnight. Her dad liked him even though he was too old for Cynthia. He had whispered to his wife that Raymond was a good kid.

He walked home and on the way he was startled by a vision of the winged snake from Polybius. It crawled out at him and spit a fireball like in the game.

Very frightened he ran the rest of the way home and when he got inside he ran up to his room. His heart was racing in terror at what he had seen.

On Monday he had The Alan Parsons Project's Prime Time stuck in his head. He had that song on his mind all week. Raymond often associated his experiences with different music that he liked. He avoided Belly's but strange rumors and activities kept contrasting his absence.

Other players got to level seven and beyond. He had asked his friends Joel and Cassie, who were both there when it happened, what level Dwayne Rodriguez was on when he had hit the floor. Level eight was a tree while nine was a flying saucer. Then Dwayne had simply stopped playing and walked around the arcade humming the theme from level seven. Each level had a different soundtrack, all of them very haunting and beautiful melodies that sounded like a great legend was underway. Sweet and insistent the music alone had a strange effect on the player. The images of animated characters helping the player from previous levels efforts and the rest of the gameplay made the whole experience almost like being in another world entirely.

Dwayne was dazed and walked around just humming Cinderella's theme before he fainted and fell to the floor. Joel had taken over the game but had quickly lost. A player needed to try harder with each level and it was hard to jump into a hot game without warming up. Polybius took the player on a journey into an intense and pleasurable place, like a ballroom of wondrous harmonies.

"But you got to level ten first, Dwayne had almost beat level nine." Cassie nudged her boyfriend.

"I don't remember. It all happened so fast. I just remember Dwayne and the saucer level and the tree level."

"Level five was the tree level." Raymond interjected, recalling this detail.

"That is right, after the staircase it was a volcano. A dinosaur waved its tiny little arms and then chomped the bad bricks for you." Cassie recalled.

"Was anyone else there, like Cynthia or Anastasia?" Raymond sounded concerned. He'd had more dreams of them falling like the bricks while in a weird arcade landscape from Polybius.

"I really don't remember much." Joel apologized, holding his head.

"They weren't there." Cassie confirmed.

The next day Raymond went back to Belly's with some quarters. He knew what he had to do.

He saw Dwayne sitting on a bench watching the arcade and he walked over to him before he went in.

"You okay? I heard you got really far and then had a problem."

"I don't remember anything from that day." Dwayne sounded worried. "It is all just a blank. People told me what happened but it is all...its all gone up here." he pointed to his head.

"I am gonna beat it. Somebody has got to beat that game." Raymond looked up from where he had his hand on Dwayne's shoulder.

He went into Belly's where Mark and Sean where shoving each other and about to come to blows. They were fighting over who's turn it was to play Polybius and the crowd was urging them to fight or not fight. There was confusion.

Then a kid named Eglantine with her pigtails pointed and shouted:

"Look, Raymond, everybody!"

He walked through the parting crowd as Styx's Too Much Time On My Hands started playing. He walked between the two boys who were glad they were done fighting over who was next to play. He got to the machine and started it up with his quarters. The crowd was watching as Raymond started to play Polybius.

It felt like the game had waited for him. Its music drowned out the music playing in the arcade and it felt like something very epic and important was happening.

"Raymond, be careful!" it was Anastasia.

"You got this, man!" Joel encouraged him.

Level by level he played. The first level he spelled out 'Polybius' and then on level two he built the boat. Brick by brick he put together the castle and the pyramid and then on the tree level he got help from a druid nobody had ever seen before. He threw lightning bolts that flashed across the screen and in one instant all the fast-falling blocks slowed and the bad blocks exploded, many of them with extra lives and other goodies. The crowd cheered.

The bridge level had a Queen's Guard show up and stare at all the blocks, slowing them. He winked and shot just one block with an extra life. Cinderella helped on the staircase of level seven and then level eight started, the volcano. Here Raymond lost a couple lives but he got past it. The flying saucer was next and he beat it as well, although it was a hard level and he got no help from any aliens showing up. Everyone had guessed an alien would be the character helper on level nine but hardly anyone had gotten this far and nobody had seen it.

Then level ten started and it was a meditating elephant headed statue of a god of some kind. The helper was a multi-armed monkey with a crown, that caught blocks and hurled them three-dimensionally, as though towards the player, where they detonated in flashes of light and gave up all sorts of new power-ups.

When the sunken ship level started, Raymond had so many power-ups still going that he breezed through it and didn't get the next helper. He might have needed it because level twelve was the moon and it kept changing phases making it very challenging as the puzzle on the screen changed as he assembled it. He lost all but one of his remaining lives.

Then another level began and to everyone watching it seemed to be the last. It was a ruined skyscraper with fiery skies behind it. An angel arrived to help and deflected enough blocks to save the day. Raymond seemed to have beaten the game. It started again at the first level of Polybius but no blocks fell. Instead the game prompted for his name and the blocks he could use the beam on had letters for him to assemble his name with.

Raymond entered his name, all seven letters and not just his initials, but his whole first name. Then the screen went black. He turned around with sweat beaded across his forehead and he looked pale.

Everyone was staring at him in awe as he staggered out the door and outside where it was growing dark. He kept walking and disappeared down the street, heading home presumably.

He was in class the next morning when he was next seen again, but he stared absently out the window. He felt weird, knowing he had beaten Polybius and that it was still sitting there at Belly's with its screen all dark. Nothing the owner could do would turn it back on. It was dead, the game was dead. He'd won, but he couldn't remember it.

Except in his dreams and even in his daydreams. It was there all around him as he sat there. All the world was Polybius and nothing else mattered. Everyone was in awe of him at first, but began to leave him alone as he became withdrawn and unresponsive.

Time marched by and he somehow kept up with school but felt nothing, noticed nothing. Only Polybius was with him as he sat alone.

Senior year was when Anastasia became a freshman at Lincoln and was seen with him everywhere he went. She spoke for him and told people he was just feeling quiet, that was all.

One day he felt somewhat lucid and noticed she was sitting there on the bench with him outside of Belly's Arcade.

"Is it still in there?" he asked his constant companion.

"They came and took it away, these guys in black suits and sunglasses." she informed him of the fate of Polybius.

"You've gotten older." he noted Anastasia there.

"So have you, your hair turned gray." she said matter-of-factly.

"What are we doing here?" he asked slowly.

"We walk here every day and sit here. I sit with you and make sure you are alright." she told him carefully.

"Why?" he wondered.

Anastasia hadn't heard this many words from him all year since she started high school and her eyes watered with tears of relief and she said:

"To thank you. Everyone else leaves you alone here, but I remember falling, and you caught me. So...so thank you..."