Adam found himself ducking into the nearest doorway to escape the sudden onslaught of rain and lightning. He had been trying to make his way home from school when out of nowhere the nice summer day suddenly produced a monsoon. Adam was your typical high school kid. He was on the shorter side of 5'7, weighed a healthy hundred eighty, had bright curly orange hair, and more freckles than stars in the sky.
He usually had good grades and quite a few friends that he dmed on discord and such. It all started to change early this year when he had lost his father. Now don't get it twisted he didn't die or anything like that. He just woke up one morning and decided well I guess that's enough for me time to get some milk. Since then, Adams grades had steadily been dropping and he had found it just too much effort to message any of his friends back. They worried obviously but it just didn't seem to matter as much anymore.
Adam pulled himself out of all too familiar darkness that had been threatening to drag him under and decided to send his mother a text explaining the freak storm and his decision to wait it out. After hitting send and staring at the screen for a second, he realized she probably wouldn’t see this until right before getting in the car to make the journey home from her 8-hour shift.
A loud crash drug his eyes away from the phone and towards his surroundings. He was in a big room much larger than it would seem imaginable when looking from the outside full of row on row of old arcade games. Heading towards where he had heard the sound, he scanned for signs of anyone besides machines.
Suddenly rounding the corner, he came into an open area which appeared to be a burger counter/prize counter that had an open employee door. Adam couldn't quite see into it, but he could hear odd sounds emanating from beyond. He had to be wrong though because it sounded like someone was having a fight, full blown grunts and thuds the whole nine yards. As he drew near enough that he could almost see around the doorframe, he froze not because he had seen anything or heard anything that warned him of danger. No this was something different something primal that gripped him with an iron will that left no room for objections as it screamed for him to run, to get away as fast as he could, or things worse than death awaited. Before he could act on this though the sweetest looking old man Adam had ever seen came through the door smiling a dazzling smile. The man looked a bit like Santa if truth be told. He had long white hair and beard to match, coal black eyes that twinkled warmly, and big round belly.
The man fixed Adam with a stare and walked behind the burger counter never breaking eye contact and preceded to stand there smiling. Hearing his stomach rumble, he cautiously approached the counter and the seemingly nice but a bit strange old man.
"Ummm excuse me sir. Sorry to bother you but could I have one of your burger meals?" Adam asked as he fished out his ten dollar bill his mother had given him earlier this week for emergencies.
Instead of answering the man seemed to smile even wider and suddenly inhaled deeply as if trying to smell me like a bomb dog would for bombs. Then just as sudden he stopped and went over to the counter where Adam guessed he prepared the food. Fake Santa (that's what Adam had decided to call him) reached into a small fridge under the counter and pulled out what looked like ground beef, then preceded to start forming it into patties. The whole time this was happening Fake Santa never once broke eye contact.
Partly because the old man was starting to weird him out and partly out of curiosity, he turned and strolled around looking at the games the place had to offer. It seemed to be a normal retro 80s arcade at first glance full of claw machines and music blasting over a cheap sound system. The only thing missing was the people playing the games. Adam approached a claw machine that was full of blahaj plushies and what appeared to be plastic bags full of arcade tickets searching for a place to insert his money. Surprisingly he found a device that could only be described as a thumb scanner and a small plaque that said 30 Minutes. Confused he backtracked his way towards where he had left Fake Santa. As he rounded the corner to where the old man was, Adam was startled to see he was still staring with those warm eyes into his own.
Shaking the chill from himself he approached calling out "Hey man how am I supposed to pay for the games?".
F.S. just smiled and pointed down to a sign Adam hadn't noticed before. Vowing to be more observant in the future he read the sign.
Tim's Timecade237Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡybo3W6n36X
Cash not accepted TIME ONLY no exceptions NO IMMORTALS237Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡizwGRzxasV
BUSINESS HOURS237Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNrNF2kkV5D
Dawn of Time - End of Existence
Bewildered and smiling Adam looked back up at F.S. thinking the man had to be messing with him. Yet the man just stood there smiling.
"Come on," Adam said ruefully. "Stop playing with me."
Nothing just another glance down at the sign. Well, if the man wouldn't tell him Adam would just have to figure it out himself. Leaving the man to finish cooking the meal he returned to the claw machine he had left. After looking it over a few more times and some choice words he eventually decided to just try the scanner. After all what's the worst that could happen? The instant his skin contacted the device he knew it had worked because the screen flickered to life and the claw dropped into the ready position. If the screen was to be believed, then he had two tries. Adam chose what he thought was an ideal spot to get a bag of tickets and released the claw. Only for it to, in typical claw machine fashion, slip along the bag not gripping anything until it was back into the return spot.
“OK game, so you want to play rough?” “Well then ole Adam can play rough.” He thought repositioning in the claw this time over one of the shark plushies.
He gave it a last-minute flick before deploying the claw. Adam let out a loud whoop as one of the claws tongs got lodged in the shark’s tag. It slowly lifted the shark and shakily transported it to the reward slot. He collected the prize and deposited Yuki into his school bag for safekeeping. After securing the shark Adam proceeded to see if the other games were also free. They all seemed to cost varying degrees of time. The next game to it, an old one where you must stack the lights to the top, cost an hour. He placed his thumb on the scanner and just like the first time it started up saying he had two tries. Adam and spent the next couple of minutes playing game after game. After all it was free so why not enjoy them. It wasn't Adam's fault these people were crazy. Just as he was getting a high score in one of these games the hair his neck stood at attention and his skin got goosebumps.
It was the same sensation as earlier that Adam couldn't quite describe seeing as he never experienced anything like this before. Frantically searching for the cause, it suddenly vanished just as quickly as it started when he noticed F.S motioning him around the corner. Assuming his meal was finally done he quickly hurried after the old man. He wasn't disappointed as they drew nearer to the counter. Sitting in an ordinary orange tray was the most delicious looking hamburger meal he had ever seen. After paying half a year, Adam couldn't believe the food was free too, he took the food to the little table and chairs that was set up for presumably for people to eat. He selected the chair that was facing the arcade games not wanting to have F.S stare at him the whole time. Adam took one bite and realized even though he had just eaten at school earlier he was starving. A strange feeling washed over him, and he decided to check the time. He pulled out his phone only to discover that it was dead. This was kind of odd seeing as he just charged it earlier in math. This is when everything proceeded to go sideways. The same sensation as before creeped over him except this time there was a voice. Voice doesn't really do justice to this noise. It was as if nails were being dragged across a chalkboard while at the same time someone was across from them throat singing. This voice sounded like everyone of Adam's nightmares rolled into one.
“Oh, my dear boy, I hope you've had the time of your life because it won't be much longer.”.
Adam whipped his head around looking for the source eventually settling on F.S. The old man was sitting there smiling. While Adam was locked into a staring contest with the old man the voice started again. This time he knew for a fact it was indeed the being before him speaking.
“You ignorant little child.” the voice taunted, “Did you honestly believe for a second that this was free?”
Realizing that something was terribly wrong Adam sprang into action. Whipping the tray at whatever this thing had become he started running full Sprint through the arcade and out the doors to safety. Well, that's what he would like to have said happened but instead it was more like he just sat there struggling to even move wondering why on earth at a time like this he was getting sleepy. Then the sleepiness turned into full blown exhaustion and Adam dropped onto the table struggling to keep his eyes open. The last thing that he remembered before darkness took him was the smile getting closer and closer.
Waking up was a disorienting experience for Adam. He came too strapped to what felt like a big metal table. His earlier vowed to be more observant came into his mind at this point, so he decided now was a good as time as any to start. On the ceiling was a singular bulb, it hung from the ceiling, doing its best to illuminate the room. From what he can tell on the left was just a huge walk-in freezer. It looked like it might contain your average meats and other things for food. On the right there was a pallet of what looked to be buns, stacks of potatoes, and other stuff. Straight ahead was an open door that Adam recognized as the open employee door.
“Call you want.” the voice seemed to yell. “It won't matter. Not that you're going to believe me but sadly I'm only a minimum wage employee. I barely make enough to live through the eons.” The voice sounded strangely bitter when it said the next few words. “They make all these trillions of eons and can only pay me in centuries.” The voice paused here as if waiting for reply. Getting nothing but a glare from Adam he continued. “This is where you come in. See corporate doesn't really care what happens to customers after they pay. So, I'll take a year or two and send you on your way and everyone wins. Well, I suppose you don't but what are you going to do about it and quite frankly no one's going to believe you.” This is the last thing Adam heard before he slipped under again.
Adam woke up with a yell and struggled to his feet. He was in the park judging from the stairs from the kids and parents who was clearly calling police about a bum in a park. Hurrying away Adam checked his pockets delighted to find his phone was not only there but fully charged again. Adam’s jaw hit the floor when he seen he had 1382 text messages and a 609 phone calls. The last one was a text message from his mother listed a week ago. This is what it said, Adam wherever you are I love you. I'll never give up hope finding you no matter what. Your friends still call me every weekend. Come home son. Cold dread washed over him as he checked and seen the date. Two whole years later. Adam began the long walk home the words of that being ringing in his ears. “No one will ever believe you.”
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