Enter the Shadows: Book One of the RTS Series (First Full Draft)

Chapter Nineteen

Leala

The guilt from what Leala had done to Arthur still weighed heavily on her shoulders. Even though she knew that it was the right choice, it didn't do anything to ease her mind.

In some ways, she thought that trying to have the "best day of the summer" was insensitive, especially given that it was only a day since Arthur's passing. But at the same time, she had a feeling that Arthur wouldn't want them to stand around mourning forever, and above all remembered how much he wanted them to be careful about what they were getting into.

"Hey, you know that arcade in downtown?" Robin spoke up, pulling Leala from her thoughts.

"Huh? Which one?"

"The one called Shabam." Robin laughed a little, trying to lighten the mood as much as he could.

"Yeah, I remember Shabam."

"Why not go there? I haven't been to that place in a year, you?"

"No, I haven't been there in a while."

"Well, why don't we go there first?"

Leala smiled. "Okay. You want to eat over there if we get hungry? The food isn't too bad."

"Might as well." Robin put his phone back into his jacket pocket. "Alright, shall we?"

"Sure..."

It was a quick transit ride to that part of town. The Shabam building was large and decorated with bright paint and colorful posters advertising the different activities. It was more expensive for a full pass, but Leala and Robin both decided that arcade access and maybe a laser tag game later would be just fine.

Robin offered to pay for both of their passes once they reached the entrance. Leala fumbled for her own wallet in retaliation.

"Don't worry about it," he reassured her, "it's my treat."

Leala smiled nervously. "At least let my pay for lunch, okay?"
"Alright." Robin nodded, and took out the money needed for the passes, thanking the cashier when they handed over the swipe cards and the wristbands.

"What game did you want to try first?" Leala asked, looking over the arcade area; the place wasn't extremely busy, but it was crowded enough that Leala had to raise her voice slightly just to be heard over the noise.

Robin thought for a moment before walking over to a game that Leala had never really noticed on her previous trips to this place. "How about this one? I used to play this all the time with my sister, and it's still pretty good. There's a two player option, so we could be a team."

Leala nodded and walked over to the system. "Alright, I'll give it a try."

Robin swiped his card on the machine and Leala followed on the player two side, reading the title of the game on the top of the machine; Starbound.

"What's this one about then?"

"It's like one of the Mario games mixed with a bullet-hell, shoot-em-up game. You can play with two people, and basically you have to get from Point A to Point B while dodging enemy attacks, and also while shooting enemies. You can get a lot of points for a prize from this game, but it's really difficult, but I've played this a few times to know how to beat it. See?" He pointed to the screen, where there was a list of high score players, and to the seventh spot. The name there was "MRK". Robin laughed a bit looking at it. "That was the high score Mindy and I got last year. Looks like a few people have already beaten our score, it was fourth place a year ago."

"That's you?" Leala was impressed.

"Mostly Mindy, but I helped a bit."

Leala smiled a bit. "Alright, let's give it a try."