The Arcade || Lee Felix (rewritten version)

[01] - Hand sanitazer and coke

I saw Jaehwan had finally decided to enter but he was nervously looking around as if he though there would be some sort of security waiting to catch him.

"I wonder why the place has been left untouched" I said out loud, because I really didn't understand. Usually when business shut down, they empty the place. Seems like they'd been in a rush to close down.

"You do know there have been stories about this place right?" Jaehwan said and was getting closer to me.

"So" I said and shrugged before picking up a can of coke, wiped the dust away from it with my shirt, I even wiped it with some disinfectant hand sanitizer, just in case, before I opened it up.

"So things have happened here, guess that's why they never moved out, wait are you seriously drinking that?" Jaehwan asked and looked at me as if I was a freak when I put it to my mouth.

"It doesn't expire before the next year" I said and looked back at him. "I did actually check" I added, because I did. It's not expired and not opened. I even wiped it in case there was any dust or bacteria on it. It was perfectly fine to drink, so why not? I can't let them all go to waste.

I took a sip, it was tasty, like always, although there was a hint of alcohol to the taste after wiping it clean with hand sanitizer.

At least it was one of those good hand sanitizers, those that makes you smell your own hands an extra time afterwards.

My brother looked back at me with a glare before starting to tell me the reason they shut down. "A boy disappeared about a year ago when he visited the arcade at night, a couple months later his body was found. He was dead but there were no signs of what could have killed him. The case is still a mystery to this day, since then 8 more guys have vanished after visiting this place and none of them have returned" he explained.

"So let's explore this place" I said and started walking into the maze of arcade machines.

"Seriously? Were you even listening to me?" Jaehwan asked and didn't seem too thrilled about my suggestion.

"Listening but gives zero fucks, those 8 guys are at least still alive am I right?" I said jokingly, intentionally trying to scare him even more.

Jaehwan didn't look happy.

"Just chill, what's gonna happen?" I asked him. "Nobody's here except us, it's not like arcade games are dangerous" I said and disappeared into a long corridor with games on both sides.

Some machines looked really cool, others just lame, but sadly the power was off so I couldn't test them.

I turned around a corner and something caught my attention. Bright lights coming from something in the middle of the row.

I walked closer and saw it was a game that was actually on. The light came from the screen which showed a kind of cool backdrop with two moons coming together, one white and one red. In a cool, kind of handwritten looking font 'Adventure of the strays' was written and underneath a button that said 'play' in the same font.

I guessed it wasn't any revolutionary game and the lame title was definitely a turn off, but it was the only one on, I just had to try it.

Back then I didn't even have the brain to wonder how a machine in a room with no electricity could be on and working.

I pressed start, waiting for something to happen a split second. The next second things happened. Not what someone would've expect though.

The light seemed to be getting brighter and brighter, and at the same time it grew to become bigger and bigger. The light continued to grow, completely eating me up. Everything was bright and I couldn't see shit, well except for the white mass surrounding me.