The Arcade || Lee Felix (rewritten version)

[02] - Hellevator

~ The lobby is a safe place, but a place far from happiness. It's a boring but comfortable place that can be mentally hard to leave. But in order to get somewhere in life and reach happiness, you must take the first step aboard the hellevator. The hellevator is already at the bottom, you're at the bottom. It can take you up from your hell, but it's a dangerous and risk full path to take. If you want to live your life at its fullest you must give up your comfort and take those risks. To succeed in life you must step aboard the hellevator, but be aware, danger awaits those who do, once you're on, there's no turning back ~

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Standing outside the building it felt cold and depressing. It was a tall cylinder shaped building in solid concrete. Holes in the wall where windows had most likely been earlier were covered with planks of wood.

I entered and continued forward only to come outside again, kind of. There was no roof over the center of the building, only metal poles in an almost spiderweb-like pattern, except more circular.

It was three stories high and each floor had slightly bigger space which made it go slightly like a cone inside. Holding up the floor right above were pillars in concrete that went around the whole bottom floor.

The place should have looked cold and depressing, just like it's outside, but it somehow looked cozy. The floor was just dirt, but at some places orange grass grew, giving the place a much warmer tone. A red and very old looking sofa was standing in the middle of it all and then it was just messy. A shopping cart, a big speaker, some plants boxes, an exit sign and graffiti I couldn't even read on the walls. It was so extremely messy, but I somehow still found it cozy. The light given by the sun from above was a bit on the redder tone which also made it look much warmer.

The boy headed straight for the sofa. He threw himself on it and closed his eyes.

"What even is this place?" I asked him as I looked around. "Is this like your home?" I added to my question.

"Yeah I bought this place to live here because I like the atmosphere" he said with sarcasm.

"Sorry for asking, but seriously what is this place?" I said.

"Like I said, I'm just as lost as you are" he said and seemed irritated by my presence. He didn't even open his eyes as he were talking to me.

"So am I, so am I so am I-I-I-I-I" I mumbled the lyrics to that stupid song, not realizing until afterwards that I'd gotten it stuck on my brain after the boy said he was lost as well.

He opened his eyes, only to glare at me.

"Sorry, just sorta got it stuck on my brain" I apologized "But you still seem to know the place better than I do" I said, changing the subject, since he'd obviously been here longer than me.

He sat up and didn't look too happy.

"Look, this place, it's the game" he said looking serious.

I just looked at him and blinked. What the fuck was he talking about? "And that means...?" I asked.

"Let me guess, you visited an abandoned arcade, found a game that was somehow on despite the place being shut down and having no power recourse by any means, and you decided it was a good idea to press play, and now you're here" he started talking and I couldn't help but wonder how the fuck did he know all this?

"How...?" I said but trailed off before he started talking again.

"That's how it was for all of us"

I looked at him again, not understanding anything. Hold up. All of us...?