ALLEN'S POINT [Editing]

[ 03:00:00 ]

-VIII-

-03:00:00-

The lights went out.

"Seriously!?" a gamer on the other side named Brian commented.

"Yep!" Marvin said as if to give him a reply. "For real. And no Boinkies nor Toinkies this time pal."

In just a second or two, after the sudden darkness, the symphony of noises had fallen into a chorus of dismay and frustration in fortissimo. It was then followed by a hideous uproar of complaints with the second voices of vulgar and obscene words by the screamos and operatic bastardizers. As Marvin freed his head from the clutches of the headphones—turned mufflers—the place had been in pandemonium. He remained seated and faithfully waited for the generators to bring back the Time Condensing Chamber to life. As he waited he entertained himself with the voices he heard in the dark. It was like listening to a radio drama where the characters always inform the listener before doing an action as if asking their consent whether it was a nice idea to do it or just a Boinkie-Toinkie. The only difference, however, was that the conversations of the unknown characters were entangled and overlapping. All nonsense. No directors.

Deep in the darkness, the gamers continued their noises in a riot with increasing ferocity. Marvin, this time, smiled as he closed his eyes and revisited the Iliad in his imagination. It has become so vivid that he felt a little excited with just the thought of joining either the Trojans or the Spartans as they were in the middle of the war only that they were in Azeroth as their milieu. The hallucination was supported by the voices and noises in the dark. In a few minutes, there came an undertone of heavy moans coming from the farthest right corner—which Marvin could only imagine the location in the darkness. Unlike the slightly muffled quality of the noises from the other side, the moan was clear and sharp in his ears. The image of the Trojan War that took place in the World of Warcraft had been instantly replaced by the image of the Shark-fin-haired guy who was shuffling his dick.

What the hell? Masturbating in a public place? Really?! Marvin disgustingly thought. He tried to eradicate involuntary thought but it just got strange. Sharkboy had literally transformed into a creature having a human body with a real shark head. It reminded him of Egyptian gods. "Yep! Think about the Egyptian gods," he absent-mindedly said as he opened his eyes. He became glad as his thoughts were averted into the images of the gods and goddesses.

Minutes passed by but the lights didn't come back on. The other guy behind him remained silent since the lights went out. The noises on the other side subsided into murmurous conversations with brief and occasional laughter and jargon. But the ebbing moan remained audible. It made Marvin a little sick for a moment. Marvin closed his eyes and opened them back. He did it three times. When his eyes couldn't recognize a single silhouette of what was supposed to be in front of him, he was finally convinced that it was pitch black. His eyes had supposedly adjusted to the darkness, but no. He quickly stood up shortly after a piece of classical music played—Danse Macabre—and sat back on the chair.

For real. And no Boinkies nor Toinkies this time pal, he thought.

The clamor on the other side turned into a disoriented—with rude notes—crescendo. The chaotic noise in the background music sounded menacing as the screams and shouts burst on the other side followed by some thud, thud, thud, and a brief pause before a deafening BANG! It was so loud that Marvin was startled from the seat. The thudding sound continued in the background of disoriented shouts.

Another loud bang came succeeded by a crashing sound. In a fraction of a second, he covered his ears absent-mindedly. The sounds entering his ears were automatically processed by his brain and associated with the image of punches, bones—broken, fractured bones—accompanying the fraternity riot. In a minute, the Allen's Point café was in a cacophony rising into a climactic raucous and turmoil in the dead of the night.

Marvin was struck with confusion. A hot droplet of fluid fell on the left side of his forehead and crawled down to the side of his cheek. He moved his right hand to touch it and felt the slimy fluid upon his fingers.

"What the hell—?"

Wwwrrrriiiiieeeeeccckkkk!!

An ear-splitting shrill screech had burst forth and overpowered the other noises. The entire place vibrated. Marvin trembled with his heart beating in vivace.

Then the lights went back with extreme effulgence. He quickly stood up. For his unprepared eyes, the light was blinding but at least it had illuminated the place and whatever there was hidden in it.