“I have my ways. Now, come on,” she says, tugging me forward with barely contained excitement.
We walk past several clothing stores with knocked-over mannequins and piles of ransacked merchandise scattered across the floors. We pass a toy store that’s been picked clean, except for one disturbing clown doll in the window that seems to be staring directly at us with painted-on eyes.
I shiver and quicken my pace, following Aurora down a long, broken escalator that creaks under our weight.
Suddenly, I hear something unexpected cutting through the mall’s eerie silence.
“What is that? Do you hear that?” I ask, looking at her and slowing my steps.
It sounds like voices and laughter mixed with electronic beeping and shooting sounds. Maybe there’s an old movie playing somewhere in this abandoned place.
“That’s exactly where we’re headed,” Aurora says.
We pass by a dozen more empty storefronts, their security gates pulled down and covered in more colorfulgraffiti, then round a corner and approach a shop that has black reflective paper taped up over all its windows so we can’t see inside.
“Is this where we get murdered?” I tease.
Aurora pulls the door open with a flourish, waving me inside ahead of her. “After you, my lady.”
I step through the doorway, and my jaw drops.
Holy shit. It’s a fully functional arcade from several decades ago that somehow still works. Neon lights flash in every color imaginable, casting rainbow glows across the space. Classic arcade games are lit up throughout the room, and there are actually people here playing them, laughing, and having fun like there isn’t a care in the world.
I walk past a girl jumping and dancing on glowing blue-and-pink squares, following arrows on the screen above. Aurora and I can’t help but dance along with the beat, giggling as we pass.
Then I spot a guy on a motorcycle game, leaning dramatically side to side as he navigates a virtual racetrack.
“How is this even possible?” I ask.
She shrugs casually. “You know Atlas, the guy who works in the secret gardens in the Depths?”
“You mean the Enchanted Forest?” I correct her.
“Yeah, whatever it’s called. Atlas told me about this place. Apparently, he has a friend who’s an Avid with a gift for restoring and powering old electronics.”
Holy crap, that’s so cool. “So this guy basically runs a speakeasy arcade as a hobby?”
“His name’s Tuck, but I don’t see him around right now.”
I whirl around to face her. “You’ve hung out with him?”
“Maybe I have,” she says, scrunching her nose at me with a wink. “Now, what should we play?”
I guess I’ll let her keep her secrets for now, but I’m definitely grilling her about this Tuck character later.
I bite my bottom lip and spin around, eyeing all the free games. “Oh, this one!”
I grab her hand and pull her toward a zombie hunting game. We both squeeze into the booth and pull the curtain closed, encapsulating us in darkness. The seats start vibrating as the screen flickers to life, and we each grab one of the plastic guns attached to the console.
“Don’t we have enough scary stuff in real life? You had to choose the creepiest game in here,” Aurora complains, but she’s already aiming her gun at the screen and hitting start.
“What can I say? I have a thing for dead things,” I tease, shooting at a zombie that jumps directly at the screen.
“You know, for someone who deals with actual dead people, you’re terrible at shooting fake ones,” Aurora fires back as she nails a zombie right between the eyes with perfect aim.
“Keep it up and I’m going to start asking serious questions about arcade boy,” I warn her.
She laughs as she takes down another zombie. “There’s nothing to tell, really. But he does have this terribly attractive man bun.”
