Help Needed

Chapter Twenty: Predawn Challenge

"Just a minute." He set Bonnie down and pressed "play". The thing didn't ask for a coin.

The princess on the arcade cabinet appeared in a very dimly lit castle room with a few doors around it. A chest with a heart in it sat in the top corner. Gregory navigated around the place, finding some doors locked and others open. A few braziers were lit, but others were dark. Her lantern lit them. Floating, round blobs with a set of white teeth and eyes and round goopy spikes erupting from their heads floated around one place. When he got near one, it immediately latched onto her head as if trying to suck out her brain. He decided not to get near any others, not with his health that low. Why did he just have four hearts? At one point he walked down a long, walled-off carpet with a golden chest at the end. Yeah, that's a trap. A small golden key sat within. The trap activated when he left and a swarm of the black blobs–this time with more pronounced rabbit ears and goopy bipedal bodies, swarmed. They all swarmed to one side so he could go around the other. The graveyard puzzle with a whole bunch of broken gravestones with braziers that needed to be lit in a certain order was a little difficult, especially as some gravestones showed no golden dots to indicate which number they were. A golden chest was at the top of this bit of the map, though. After the gravestone puzzle was a broken room with a burning, glitchy purple chest with an even stranger burning, purple glitchy key. The door with the purple lock opened into a long, unbroken corridor. Two paths blocked by stones led away to the door. But he couldn't go there. He could only go forward... until the hallway led up into a room with an unlit brazier, which he immediately lit, a gate now barring him from leaving. An amalgamation of the goops, only in a giant form with blazing purple eyes, rose up before him. The game glitched worse and worse. Tentacles spread over the room, and it went dark, leaving only the glowing purple eyes and dots.

The game ended.

Gregory... didn't know why, but the feeling was back. This didn't belong here. Now, it no longer needed to be here.

He picked up Bonnie. I felt it again. Did you see that?

"Yeah, creepy. But it's just a game, Gregory."

No, there's something more. Something different.

Beep! [Little guy? You there?]

"Huh? Yeah I'm still here. That game turned off, just like the Balloon World arcade did. I think there's something weird going on with these games."

Beep! [Better reason to hurry on back, then! We ought to get back to the Raceway and see Roxy.]

"Okay. I'll be right there." Gregory started to leave, but decided to check the bathroom attached to the back room first. A pair of yellow shoes with red tips sat there. Blue lightning bolts took up the sides. He squeaked in victory. Shoes!

He set Bonnie down, sat down on the first toilet, and pulled off his old ratty footwear in favor of the new ones. These ones were a little tighter on the sides of his feet, but not in the way that they were too small. He'd just gotten so used to the soles of his old shoes being worn to nothing that having soles and structure was going to need a few moments of adjustment. But who cares? He had new shoes! Ones that weren't ratty and used! Unfortunately, these ones were laced and not Velcro, but that was fine. He tied them again and then hopped to his feet. He shifted his feet and walked in a small circle. Way better than his old shoes! Okay, he was done. New shoes acquired. Time to leave.

At the end of the hall leading to Roxy Raceway was a round and glowing pillar and racing items. Another duffle bag sat on the ground. They had to stop to allow the shutters on their right to open.

As soon as they passed the threshold into pale red and black checkerboard tile, Roxy's voice said, "Hey. I'm Roxanne Wolf. If you're looking for high-speed motor mayhem, Roxy Raceway is the place to be. Sign up today and be a winner! No one likes a loser."