MANIC MONSTER DISPLACEMENT

Chapter 9 - ME & THE DEVIL

(Not like I got sick or something)

Cain decided to have a little fun today, wanting to get out and potentially spend the last few hours he had alive having a little day to himself. He didn’t exactly know what he wanted to do, and he was subconsciously worried that Rocky had gone and yapped to somebody about what he revealed previously already, but; Nobody’s said anything yet, and Cain didn’t want to waste an opportunity. He skimmed through the plaza, finding a dozen or so food outlets, clothing places, nothing that seemed all that interesting. That was, until he stumbled upon an outlet tucked in between them all. It almost seemed squished, the door and the wall above it being the only sign that this WAS an actual store, and not, like, a maintenance access building. ‘Elroy’s Arcade’. The small, dim, neon lit sign read out.

Cain had never been to an arcade before, they were a thing of the past from where he came from. Most kids nowadays spent their time in the local Sephora or something, Cain felt a little old thinking that, but there was a bit of truth to it. Besides, places like Chuck E. Cheese’s had their reputations ruined thanks to popular horror games. No wonder they did away with the animatronics. Regardless, they always sounded fun, and Cain wanted to give it a go. He pulled the door open, glancing back at the chilly, stone exterior of the mall before entering. Inside was cozy, it was a lot bigger on the inside, that was for sure. The lighting was low, and entirely composed of black light, making everything glow a bright, neon hue. The floor was covered in a soft, plush carpet with various wacky shapes, spirals, and colors, designing its surface. Giving off an old retro roller rink vibe, that was another thing Cain’s always wanted to try out. But his town never got one.

Looking around, there were a lot more people than he had anticipated, it must be one of those cool ‘hidden’ stores that kids flock to. He walked over to the counter, where a bored looking gargoyle was standing, staring off into the distance. He lifted his head when seeing Cain, going to grab a cup full of shiny, large tokens to put on the counter. Clearly used to his monotonous routine by now. Cain glanced down at a large, paper sign stuck to the display case, filled with various funny looking trinkets you could exchange for tickets. ‘$5 for a cup,’ He read, of course, going ahead and handing the gargoyle his money.

Grabbing the cup, which was a lot heavier than he had expected, Cain walked down the aisle of arcade machines. Glancing around to see if there were any he could recognize, or at least any that seemed remotely similar to any he had back at home. Cain found this one, it reminded him a lot of space invaders, and played similar enough to it, too. It was never his favorite arcade game of all time, in fact, he never really loved arcade games that much; but it was decent, and he didn’t have much else to do around here. As he was playing, racking up a pretty high score, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was burning a hole in the back of his head.

But, whenever he turned to see if anybody was there, he didn’t– Oh, nope, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Upon turning around, the like, 6th time. Cain spotted Shax, because of course his day couldn’t just STAY enjoyable. But, to Cain’s surprise, Shax just scoffed at him when they made eye contact, and bugged off. Which was odd, to say the least. Maybe he had finally gotten over his hate train? Or maybe he was still plotting some unnecessarily evil plan and wasn’t ready yet, Cain could reasonably guess either was the case. But, he DID leave him alone… So, Cain was going to continue enjoying himself, he had no reason to stop now.

A few hours had gone by without issue, the tokens, surprisingly, lasted quite awhile. With only very few machines requiring more than one. Who knew monsters were less greedy with their arcades? Cain was pleasantly surprised. He’d encountered Shax a few more times throughout the day, but again, they just crossed paths and went on their merry ways. It wasn’t until Cain went to the bathrooms, to wash his hands, that they actually started chatting. “How’d you end up here?” Shax muttered, almost without thinking. Cain, staring at the sink, and realizing he couldn’t actually wash his hands thanks to the face paint, shrugged. “I stumbled upon the sign when I was walking through the plaza,” He said, hoping that the arcade machines weren’t THAT dirty.