The Arcade || Lee Felix

[24 || home]

I woke up with a pounding headache, but even after opening my eyes it didn't get much brighter. I was laying on my back in a dark room, except for a blue light that came from something above me.

I managed to stand up but my ankle still hurt. As I looked around I saw I was back in the old arcade. The place where it all started. The blue light was coming from the only game that was still on, a stray's adventure.

It really is such a lame name.

At first I couldn't believe it was finally over. I was out, back in the real world. Then I was reminded by everything that had happened. The boys were all gone. I wondered what happened to them, maybe they came directly back to their own countries, but I was especially worried about Changbin. I just hoped they'd managed to save him.

That stupid game. I hated it with all of my heart. As anger took over my mind I headed over towards the kiosk to grab something hard. A can of coke, perfect.

I launched it as hard as I could towards the game and it crushed the screen. I found a baseball bat and started hitting it as hard as I could repeatedly until the game was too destroyed to play. Nobody should ever get stuck in there again because that place was like a nightmare that wouldn't stick to only being a dream.

As I was about to leave the building I noticed yellow tape covering the exit. It didn't look too new, maybe a week old, but I knew for sure it hadn't been there when I first arrived here with my brother.

I ducked under it to get out and started walking towards the bus stop. It was dark outside but I had no idea how late it was.

But now that I was back in the real world I had a usable phone. I smiled as I remembered I could use my phone again. I was so used to not having it, and now I was happy. I picked it up and checked the time. Almost midnight.

All the texts and missed calls then caught my attention. Most of them were from my family. I unlocked it to check all the texts I'd received. Mark had sent a whole bunch of them. The first one was sent 8 days ago, so I must have been away for 8 days. Then I was pretty accurate with how long the tape had been there.

'Where did you go?'
'Seriously, where are you'
'Stop hiding it's not funny'
'I swear I'll call mom if you don't show up soon'
'It's not fun anymore'
'Yah!'

After that some time passed before his next text.

'Please tell me where you are'
'I just want you to come back home'
'Are you hurt?'
'You can talk to me'
'Please just stay alive'

There were no more texts sent from Mark after that. I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I read his messages. He didn't deserve to be this worried. I couldn't even imagine the other's families who must have been waiting for them a lot longer.

I decided to call Mark up, maybe he could pick me up so that I didn't have to take the bus. I noticed how people were staring at me. Fair enough because I looked like I'd been hit by a car and then just stood up to walk away. People on the bus would be scared of me.

I didn't even hear the first signal before someone picked up my call.

"Is it you?" I heard Mark's familiar voice say from the other side of the line.

I had to stop myself from starting to cry uncontrollably. "It's me" I answered him.

"Oh god" he said and I couldn't really read his voice. He seemed worried, but also relieved. "Are you okay, where have you been?" he then asked.

"I'm fine, can you come to pick me up?" I asked him calmly.

"I'll get going immediately, where are you?" He asked.