literature

~HOMETOWN~(Chapter 3)

Deviation Actions

River-Acheron's avatar
Published:
348 Views

Literature Text

~HOMETOWN~

(Chapter 3)


Lakeside Amusement Park was old. It was built to attract tourists to Silent Hill in 1921, after the Little Baroness incident of 1918 scared a sizable chunk of the town off.
It worked. Silent Hill saw a huge influx of tourists in the 1920's, when East Coast amusement parks were in vogue. There's even stories that that the Asters and Vanderbilts paid a visit to Lakeside Amusements right before the Great Depression. Back then, the amusement park was little more than a Ferris wheel, a lakeside boardwalk, and cheap carnival games, but that was enough to ensure that Silent Hill would be placed on the map forever. Of course, Lakeside Amusements has since grown into a large amusement park, and takes up the majority of the Silent Hill's Resort District. Complete with a roller coaster, souvenir shops, a teacup ride, a carousel, and countless other attractions; Lakeside Amusement Park has kept up with the times fairly well. (There's even talk of a future water park on the north bank of Toluca Lake).
And, of course...the amusement park is the home of the extremely popular, Lakeside Arcade, which was opened about a month after I moved here, replacing the abandoned Borley's Haunted Mansion, which Matt told me closed four years ago after an elderly woman went in and apparently never came out.


"I remember when it was on the news. Bertha..whatever. Like seven eyewitnesses saw this old bag go in, but she never came out and just vanished off the face of the Earth."
"Dude, your fucking shitting me."
"I shit you not, Donnie. Whatever though. In Silent Hill, disappearances aren't like a huge thing, ya know?"
"So I've been told. What's with this place anyway?"
"Who knows. I guess all small towns have their secrets. But...I'm just telling you this because you new here. I know your like, a street smart Chicago city-boy, but seriously man...be careful here."
"Um...okay?"



So, after that incident, they closed up Borely's Haunted Mansion and let it rot for four years. Me, Jon, Matt, and and Jeff were at Lakeside Arcade the day it opened, eleven months ago. The arcade had this huge grand opening. Free arcade games all day, popcorn, taffy, that kinda thing. After a while, it became our little hang-out. When Andrew moved here nine months ago, it quickly became "our place", as he called it. We even made a silly, half-serious pact that we would never enter without the other one being there.

As I ran up Nathan Avenue, I reflected on the first time Andrew and I went there together on the day we met. 'Wack-a-Mole', I thought, fondly. That silly little game became special to us, because it was the first game we played together. Every weekend when Andrew and I hung out at Lakeside Arcade, we would never fail to play Wack-a-Mole first, it was out special game, and inside joke...all in one.
So on I ran. My lungs hurt like crazy, and my legs were so tired. I still had a long way to go, but pure resolve kept me going as I stayed on Nathan Avenue, wrapping around the massive Toluca Lake.
"Andrew...please...please be okay", I wailed and huffed, "If something happened to you...I..I don't know what I'd do."
After running for what felt like an eternity, I finally reached the big blue gates of Lakeside Amusement Park and went inside, running past the Swing Rocket, and the Fortune House. With the haunting fog making everything all hazy, and the large white flakes floating down lazily and slowly, Lakeside Amusements seemed beyond creepy. Add to the fact, that for the first time I was totally alone here. 'I never would have thought of this place as creepy!', I thought, as I ran past the Sweet Factory Candy and Souvenir Store, then past the Mountain Coaster which stood silent and still, like a ghostly sentinel keeping watch over the whole amusement park.

When Lakeside Arcade came into view, my jaw utterly dropped.

"No! This is impossible!", I screamed at the top of my lungs. It was at this moment (above all other unexplainable moments that came before), that I knew in my heart that reality had utterly broken down for me. "Fuck! God-fucking-dammit! Andrew! Where are you?", I screamed and cried at the same time as I stared at what was left of Lakeside Arcade.
While the rest of the amusement park looked as normal as ever (aside from the snow, fog, and lack of people), the arcade was condemned. Not just boarded up, but it had at least 25 years of neglect and abandonment thrust upon it. The roof was caved in, in some spots, there were time-rotted boards covering all the windows and door, and the paint on the facade of the arcade was peeling horribly, exposing rotting framework. 'This...this place looks like it's been condemned for decades, I marveled, with confusion, fright, and sorrow. 'But I was just here with Andrew two Saturdays ago! The place was perfect! We played Wack-a-Mole, Skee-ball, and Dance Dance Revolution! The place was fucking fine'
I didn't understand this at all. There was no physical way that the building could have..."I gotta go in", I decided, thinking back to Andrew's mysterious message on my mirror.
'Was it even Andrew who left me that?', I wondered to myself. It really didn't matter, though. I'm supposed to go in there. That much I knew for a fact.
'You know you have to, Donnie', said that voice in the back of my mind that was me/not me. 'Your afraid. I know. But you know you must. It's the only way. The only way you'll....' I pushed my strange thought out of my head as I stepped into the dilapidated building. Luckily, the wood planks covering the door were so weather-worn, and the nails completely rusted, that I tore the rotten wood away with minimal effort. The glass door which Andrew and I entered and exited so many times was smashed open. I took a deep breath and stepped though, determined to find my Andrew.

If Lakeside Arcade looked dilapidated from the outside, the inside looked downright horrific. The front counter was in shambles, and the metal cash register was rusted, tainted and stained coins were littered all over what was left of the counter and onto the torn-up floor (which was also covered with skee-balls, dirt, debris, and numerous unidentifiable stains that were not present two weeks ago). The walls were all rotted out, with the only light source coming from holes and cracks in the foundation, and the caved-in roof.
I slowly (and carefully) walked past the counter, and back where the coin-op arcade games are. All the familiar games were still there; DrumMania, House of the Dead, Time Crisis, and of course the classic Pac-Man game. However, screens were busted out. The wooden casings were disintegrating with rot, and some of the arcade games were toppled over on the disgusting floor. Each game also had what looked like 25 years of neglect on it. It really made zero sense.
It was also deathly quiet, which - in itself - was disconcerting. I've never been in here without noise.  The only audible sound was my sneakered feet crunching on the broken glass and debris that littered the floor beneath me.

"An...Andy?", I meekly called out. "Are...are you here?", already knowing he most certainly was not. "What the Hell am I doing here?" I wondered out loud.

*CRASH!*

As I walked past a row of 'Robbie the Rabbit's Hawaiian Vacation' token-dispensing slot machines, a huge rectangular florescent light fixture came crashing down from the ceiling. I dove into a ball and rolled, as the fixture missed me by mere inches.
"Holy...*huff*...fucking shit!", I exclaimed. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes again, but I forced them back as I slowly got up, wiping the dust off my
clothes. The light fixture lay on the ground, smashed. "It looks like it rusted right off it's hinges", I said as I examined it.
As I lit up a cigarette, I looked around the ruined arcade. "This place...it's almost like it's rotting off the face of the Earth right in front of me", I pondered.
My thoughts then wandered back to Borley's Haunted Mansion, which took up this very spot I now stand on. I thought about the woman who went in and never came out. "What if this spot is...cursed or something?" (Maybe Borley's Haunted Mansion was really haunted!), "built on some Indian burial ground?", I wondered. "Or maybe this is New England's own personal Bermuda Triangle?"
Before I could ponder further, though, I finally laid eyes on the Wack-a-Mole machine. and my jaw dropped.
Among this ruined, dilapidated building, the Wack-a-Mole machine looked as pristine and normal as always! The destruction, rot, and neglect of my surroundings made the Wack-a-Mole machine look like a memory, by contrast. Like...it didn't belong in this ruined and tainted environment. It belonged to that other place...that other time...when life was normal. Before...

Before...
Before...

"Is this what I'm supposed to see!?", I screamed out but to no one in particular. I walked up to it slowly. I couldn't even begin to wonder why this game didn't disintegrate like everything else. The contrast of the game against it's surroundings almost made it seem like the game was beckoning me closer to it.
I ran my finger tips over it's smooth, cold surface as I openly cried out, "Andrew...where ARE you!?" As I sobbed, I began to wonder, 'What if I lost him forever? I think I would go utterly insane!'
I stamped out my cigarette and screamed, "ANDREW! WHERE ARE YOU! COME BACK TO ME!"

Just then, to my horror, the entire arcade woke-up.

Bells, whistles, and buzzers sounded, breaking the silence, Calliope music blasted out from the 'Play Until You Win' claw game, and the slot machines belted out Robbie the Rabbit's electronic giggle (A sound I heard countless times in here, everytime some matches three carrots on the slots), but this time the pink rabbit's giggle sounded maniacal and sadistic. I knew it was mocking me.
Sweat instantly ran cold off my forehead, and at that moment, I finally understood what it meant to be both scared stiff and frozen in terror. I couldn't move.
Suddenly -and worst of all- the Wack-a-Mole machine came alive as well, as I heard it start up. My eyes were frozen on it, in terror, as I watched the plastic moles. Their (once-cute) faces twisted demonically, shot out of the holes frantically and forcefully like little pistons. Each time, blood oozed out of the holes. The red digital numerical panel that would keep track of score kept flashing '000'...'000'...'000'
I was close to passing out. My knees were locked hard and I was hyperventilating.
"No...please...stop...", I stammered almost breathlessly.
The Calliope music played faster. Robbie's laugh getting darker. The mole's faces looking more and more evil every time they appeared from their bloody holes.
"NOOO!", I screamed, as something inside me snapped. "FUCK THIS SHIT!"
I regained control of my body and I darted away like a bat out of Hell. As I ran, I looked back. The Wack-a-Mole machine was now as rusted and worn with age as the rest of the arcade was. The plastic moles were gone, as well as the blood. As I turned forward and ran out the front door, I realized that all the twisted sounds of the arcade had stopped (Aside from just one slot machine. Robbie the Rabbit's lone evil giggle, mocking me in a slow tempo).

I bolted past the Mountain Coaster, the teacup ride, and the Swing Rocket. I flew past the Lakeside Bar & Grill, the ticket booth, and out the blue gates - leaving Lakeside Amusement Park behind me. I ran to Nathan Avenue to begin my trek from the Resort District all the way back to South Vale. Never so afraid in my entire life.


"Let's make this our game, D.C.! To commemorate our two weeks together as boyfriends!"
"Sure, since I always kick your ass in it anyway. haha. Just kidding, Andrew. I'd LOVE to! Actually, this whole arcade makes me think about ya, you know."
"I know, right? Gosh...I mean...we met here, you asked me out here, and we hang here every weekend. It's sooo cool that we have our own..I dunno...special game in our own special place."
"Andrew...your by far the sweetest guy I ever met. I swear, this arcade would just be so ugly without you around..."



(End Chapter 3)
© 2013 - 2024 River-Acheron
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In