I woke up with the feeling of carpet underneath me, and I groaned as I opened my eyes.
I was still in the arcade, but it seems I was on a bench near the big crane game. Hemera was sitting next to me, stroking my back gently while Erebus was standing next to the bench, his arms crossed as he had his eyes close, seemingly pondering about something.
"Oh, you're awake Depra!" Hemera said, a hint of worry in her normally cheerful yellow eyes. I sat up, groaning as tried to get the soreness out of my body.
"How long?" I simply asked.
"Well, I didn't exactly keep track, so-!" I cut her off by turning towards Erebus.
"How long?"
He opened his eye, looking at me seriously. "Almost 4 hours."
Damnit! Hemera noticed my frustration and shook her head. "We tried to wake you, but it felt, I dunno, different this time."
I glared at the ground. It seems she may have been right in her assumption: Better, but worse at the same time. I clenched my hands so tight that I could feel the warmth of blood trickle down, and only then did I unclench, looking back at the crane game.
"You know King, it takes time for true change to take place. It'll never happen quickly, and if it does, fight back against it, since it's never true." I felt his hand on my shoulder, and I could only grit my teeth in response. "It takes time King. It just, takes time."
I sighed, nodding. He patted my shoulder before moving to the game, with Hemera following after him.
If there's one thing I truly do hate, I thought as wiped the blood off from my hands onto my sweatpants, it's that voice. I hate it so much, the voice that always proves itself right.
I got up, recomposing myself. Now's not the time for that Depra. Let's get this key and wipe the floor with this lesson. And maybe one day, prove that voice wrong.
I walked back to Erebus and Hemera, scratching my head as I looked up at the key high above.
"So, all I have to do is get this damn key?" Erebus nodded, and I looked back up at the crane game. "I'll get this damn thing first try, just you see. This thing has already caused me enough grief."
I pulled out my wallet and brought out a ten-dollar bill. I put it into the machine, and the entire thing lit up like a Christmas tree. Words flashed onto a screen at the top, basically telling me that I got one chance to win big.
The crane roared to life, and I worked to move it.
"Now remember King, precision is key here!"
"Nice pun Erebus!"
Those two were no help. I brought the crane almost all the way to the right and stopped before it could. Now, I only had about 15 seconds to get the key, so I brought the crane up as fast as I could. However…
"I see, so they casted Slow onto the crane in order to stop anyone from reaching the higher levels! Damn these pixies!"
"I don't know about pixies, but this game is clearly rigged."
Damnit, I wasn't about to give up just yet. Still moving the crane up as fast as I could, I was only able to move to the second last row up top before it suddenly stopped. I still had 2 seconds left, so they were basically just telling me to fuck off at this point.
"Now it seems they've casted Stop! Fucking pixies."
"Yeah, they've totally rigged the game."
My time ran out and I ended up with nothing.
"Aw fuck it, let's just get it over with now," I grumbled, and I yelled out the word that caused me the most grief, and two shocked faces behind me watched as all the prizes fell down to the bottom, sliding towards the hole to let me grab my prizes.
"As I expected from my partner King!" Erebus exclaimed, watching all the prizes fall onto the ground. "I should've known he would've won all the prizes with only one turn!"
"Ooh! I'll grab a bag to put all the stuff in!" Hemera exclaimed, dashing away, trying to grab something to hold all the stuff we got. Meanwhile, I just fished around in the stuff and grabbed my ultimate prize, a key. It had a demon head on the top, with it being colored a dark burgundy, almost brown color. I tossed it to Erebus, who pocketed it, and I decided to look through the other various things in it.
There was a bunch, but the most interesting things were a variety of games, an old wand, a strange insignia engraved on metal, a bottle of glitter marked "Pixie Dust, Extremely Volatile," an old book in a language I couldn't read, a mirror with runes engraved around it, toy weapons (I couldn't tell if they were real or not), and a pair of giant angel wings that you could attach to yourself, among other oddities.
Hemera came back with a large bag, and we started shoving all the items in it quickly, and once we were done, we had Erebus carry it.
He slung the bag over his shoulder and looked around, frowning. "We should leave. Pixies hate having their stuff stolen, so it would be in our best interest to leave posthaste."
I decided to play along. "Yeah, we should go. We've stolen the treasure, so there's really no need to stay here any longer."
Hemera just let out a cheery smile. "I never know exactly what you mean Erebus, but if we gotta go, then we gotta go!" She led the way, her golden yellow hair bobbing up and down as she skipped down the steps, leading us outside just as an alarm was triggered.
Erebus' eye grew wide. "Hey, we really should leave this place. I have faith in my crimson eye, but it is not yet time for me to release it, let alone on stupid pixies." Basically, he was scared, or at least that's what I'm assuming.
As we ran outside, the disco ball turned a harsh red, circling faster and faster, as if it was scanning for the intruders in the parking lot.
I don't really know why, but I had a really bad feeling that if we didn't leave, something would happen, and I didn't wanna find out what.
Hemera just started to laugh at the entire thing. "This is pretty fun, don'tcha think Depra!?"
How she's always able to keep a smile on her face is beyond me, but I couldn't agree with her this time. "Just hurry to the truck already!"
She started to skip faster, outrunning Erebus and I, and she hopped into the driver's seat and roared the engine to life. "C'mon in yah slowpokes!"
Suddenly, the ground around me was awash with red, and I could hear something screaming behind. I didn't bother listening in, since I was assuming it was bad. I hopped in the back seat, while Erebus tossed the bag into the back of the pickup and rushed into the passenger's seat.
"Lady of Warmth, commence getaway operation!"
She revved the engine and drove out back into the street the red lights tracing us until we were far enough away.
Our getaway driver started to laugh. "Oh man, if you deal with this all the time Erebus, count me in!"
"You mean nearly getting caught by the enemy? Like hell I deal with that! I fight the darkness that lurks within the city, an underground hero, not some silly phantom thief that steals treasure from palaces!"
Wow, I don't even think he realized what he said.
We continued our getaway drive in relative peace, and the first stop was my house it seemed. I hopped out the truck and sighed a breath of relief.
I'm exhausted, I thought as I started to walk towards my front door.
"Hey King!" I turned around to see Erebus waving at me. "I'll see you first thing tomorrow, yah hear!?"
I just gave him a simple wave goodbye before turning back, continuing my lone walk towards my house. I opened my front door and set my backpack down, my exhaustion at it's peak. I really did do way too much today.
I looked over in the living and glanced at the wall covering most of the kitchen and some of the dining room. Hanging there was a simple painting that I had somehow managed to get into my possession, much to my disappointment.
I yawned as I went into the kitchen, grabbing a cup of water and chugging it down. I put the cup on the counter and let out another loud yawn, making my way to my room.
I collapsed on my bed, looking at my stuffed bear. She was holding a heart covered in sequins that could change between silver and red. I always put it on silver. Her name was Snowelle Silver-Red Heart, her first name coming from the color she was, which was white.
I squeezed her tight, hoping that all the nightmares and voices wouldn't disturb for at least one night, so I could one day sleep in peace.