A Paradox Reality

Chapter 4: The Arcade

Previously with Elyssa:

Unfortunately for Elyssa, and fortunately for the readers of this book, her life was just about to get more complex-- and more interesting. Mother Earth gave her more gifts than telepathy... possibly much more gifts than Elyssa could handle.
***

THE ONE THING ELYSSA COULDN'T AVOID WERE ATARA'S PLEADINGS. When Atara pleads, she gets. It was no different this time.

"Come on. We'll only go got a little bit! I won't even tell anybody it's your birthday!" Atara begged, her large brown eyes nearly protruding from her head. She was referring to an arcade downtown which had a large dance floor, of which she would probably force Elyssa to dance on too.

"No," Elyssa firmly said back.

"Please?"

"Definitely not."

"It's on me!"

"Fine," Elyssa said, unable to withstand any more of Atara's whining. Atara grinned; she knew she had won.

"Come on, then." Atara tugged at Elyssa's sleeve and started skipping down the sidewalk, for they were already outside. She had no choice but to follow.

The sidewalk bordered a very jagged hill. On the opposite side of the hill was their destination: downtown. The sidewalk had a very long path, for it had to go around the hill which had a decent width. Although it would be faster to just climb over the hill, it was safer to go around. Wisely, Elyssa ignored all of Atara's wishes to take the shortcut.

After a long trek, the two friends arrived at their destination.  It was a tall building, bright and luminous from the video games inside. The people there got lost in the gaming, nearly forgetting their outside lives entirely. Some people did it for the fun of it. Some people meant to stop sooner or later but kept pushing it off. And some... Some used the almost-amnesia of gaming almost as a drug to forget their regrets. Enter the gaming world, and it's suddenly easy to do everything. Enter the gaming world and it's easy to forget everything you did wrong in the real world.

That was exactly why Elyssa hated the place so much. She believed that it was a terrible thing to have such a dull life. It would only postpone pain to a different, more miserable time.

There was also a large wooden dance floor smack-dab in the middle of the arcade. In Elyssa's mind it was possibly worse than the arcade. It wasn't that she was a bad dancer, she was quite wonderful, actually. She just hated all the attention. At least gaming was all for yourself, and nobody watched each other.

Elyssa would rather be at home reading or helping her mom with the shop than stay here for another minute. In fact, she'd rather walk the long sidewalk again, which she hated just as much as Atara did. She was about to make an escape attempt when Atara cluelessly stopped her.

"We're stocked up on soda!" Atara giddily blubbered. She had four large two-liter soda bottles tucked away under her arm. She must've gotten it while Elyssa was daydreaming. "All we need to do now is play! What game do you want to do first, Elyssa?"

"Atara! We are NOT gaming tonight! You know how addictive those things are!" Elyssa was mystified that she could say such a thing.

"Pleeeeease? Just one round of "Captain Curloads Cars!" It's a short game!"

"No."

"Please?"

"Never."

"Why not?"

"Because, that's why."

"But it's been so long since I've been able to game!"

"Too bad."

"Fine," Atara finally scoffed. "I'll play then." Elyssa knew there was no way to turn her down now.

Stepping forward to a game called, "Captain Curloads Cars", Atara slammed her hand down onto a blue, metal pad that said, "Place hand here." A feminine, robotic computer voice said, "Atara Dubro, welcome. Fee's are being placed in your bank account. Are you sure you want to continue?"

"Yes."

"Very well. Please sit down." A hologram chair appeared as the computer said this. Atara took a leap towards it and obeyed. With the new technology that engineers had created over the  past few years, the hologram held Atara's weight as if it were an actual, real chair. "Have you a basic understanding of what this game is?"

"Refresh me, please. It's been a while."

"Captain Curload's Cars are based off true events. Long ago, before Skimmers were invented, there used to be such things as "cars." Cars were slow, polluting machines that caused people harm and occasionally they lead to injuries. Engineers soon came up with new, better transporting machines called Skimmers, as you already know, which go much faster than cars, run on renewable energy, and cause little to no injuries.

"As I was saying, cars were often used like toys, and people even made a game out of them. The goal of the game was to win a race against 43 other cars. The drivers had to do 500 laps, and races often lasted for around 5 hours. Many drivers were found in the hospital in critical condition afterwards. Eventually, society banned such outrageous things as races such as these.

"In this game, we're going to pretend none of that happened.  In this game the goal is to complete 100 laps before the 42 other cars. What color would you like your car to be?" the computer finally finished.

"Mmm... I think silver would look nice," Atara said.

"Number on the car?"

"817."

"Model?"

It went on and on like this. Elyssa, growing bored of computer games, quietly escaped to the soda bar to get some water.

Crossing the dance floor was in order to reach the bar was no easy feet. Teenagers were everywhere, clustering all over the floor. It was a wonder how they could move in there, let alone dance.

The bar was crowded, too. The seats were full of teenagers on sugar high, the bar full of anything but water.

Elyssa sighed. It was useless trying to get something healthy HERE. This place was made to be unhealthy.

In her distress, she failed to notice her untied shoelace. People stomped over it, making it impossible for Elyssa to take another step.

Imagine this: Elyssa is lunging across the dance floor, trying to escape the hoard of people stomping on her shoelace. Out of nowhere, a boy comes stumbling in, and happens to crash on top of her leg.

Elyssa was in agony. Her leg was possibly broken, and a searing pain began to find its home in Elyssa's temple.

She was screaming in pain, now.  She was nearly unaware of the boy picking her up, Atara joining them, and then starting to journey home.

Unfortunately, the boy took the risk of crossing the jagged hill with Elyssa in his arms. Had he not, he would've had a brighter future. But alas, he did, and his whole life was effected because of it.

The boy began to sink down into the earth he was walking on, still with Elyssa in his arms. With a cry, Atara leaped after them, but she was too late. They were gone. Elyssa and the stranger, the boy, were gone. Atara would never see them again.

***

Yes, we already updated today. We had extra time. It seemed fitting to make another chapter.

Did we throw some of your guesses off about what will happen next? NOW how do you think they will meet?

Vote and comment if you liked this!

Thank you all!

-Twinys