Chapter 2: Horror Games
"Boobs boobs boobs boobs,"
Lea sighed and rolled her eyes at the tall brunette currently hugging her breasts and bouncing them as she watched the zombies on the screen. As her friend sang on to her new bouncy breasts, Lea shot down the horde to clear the way to the fire-embossed door.
"You're cute," Lea said. She pushed start, opening the inventory on the screen. It took too long to find the red key she needed. Perhaps dark backgrounds weren't the best formatting for inventory screens.
"Correction," crowed her friend. "I is sexy! Two months of scrounging plastic bottles and the old man's beer was totally worth it. It's like I got a freaking boob job!"
Lea smiled, though had become preoccupied with the game as the fire-embossed door opened to an uncomfortably calm room. The light from the moon brought an old portrait over the mantle into stark relief, and the dark eyes seemed to follow her as she moved her character about the couch.
Sky must have sensed the oncoming horror, for she began to bounce her boobs faster.
"Protect me, my blessed jiggly friends," she murmured. "Evil is at hand."
"For real, I won't be offended if you want me to play a different game," said Lea.
"Naw, I'm not—HOLY SHIT WAS THAT!"
"It's just a crow, there isn't even any creepy music playing or anything."
Lea maneuvered her character about the room, examining the coffee table between the two settees and the bookshelf. As the camera turned, another painting came into view, situated between two mirrors.
"Again with the mirrors," muttered Sky. "Reminds me of that 'Hollows' game where you—"
An eyeless, howling face smacked against one of the mirrors. Boob bouncing ceased and Sky screamed bloody murder. Lea slammed the trigger. A deluge of bullets peppered the glass.
After a good thirty seconds of screams, Lea's bedroom door slammed open and Lea's fair-haired mother appeared, rage in her wide eyes and teeth.
"Sky Martinez!"
"It's gonna kill meeeee!"
"I thought I told you no more scary video games?" Her bulging eyes shot to her daughter. "TURN IT OFF!"
Lea jabbed pause mid-lead spray. "Yeah, Mom?"
Mother narrowed her eyes and slapped a hand to her waist. "Off. Now."
"Alright! Alright! Sorry, I didn't think she'd…sorry Mom."
With a few more child-frying glares and coerced promises from the teen girls that they'd keep the screaming to a 'not at all,' she finally left, her slippers tapping down the stairs as she went.
Lea gave Sky a look.
Sky hunched her shoulders to her ears. "I'm sorry! I thought I had it this time!"
Lea sighed and hung forward over her knees. "It's my fault. I thought you were caught up enough in your new bra to, you know…whatever."
"I thought I was too." Sky gave her breasts a tentative prod. "Lordie, they're like perfect globes of jello goodness."
"Try not to fawn over your breasts while you're on your date with Tyler, yeah?"
"Pfft. I won't have room to. That guy's eyes will be taking it all up."
Lea wrinkled her nose but grinned nonetheless. "Didn't think you'd be the type to give a guy invitation to be shallow."
"Since I have no interest in keeping the dude," she puffed out her chest. It conceded to one humble bounce.
"And you're still going with him why…?" Lea didn't mention that this could qualify as acting a bit, well, slutty.
"Cuz I ain't get no romanc'n and I want something to puff myself up with the next time Jacob starts singing his 'Like a Man' song to Madonna's Virgin crap. Besides, should prove interesting. Free food's always good."
"Hazzah to free food." Lea pulled over her case of video games and fingered through the titles. She passed over the horrors with only a twinge of regret and finally settled on an old multi-player RPG she hadn't touched in months. She showed it to Sky for her opinion but got a shaggy shake of her head.
"My legs are getting all stuffy. Why don't we go get a milkshake or something?"
Lea glanced at the clock. "It's almost ten."
"And Micky D's is open twenty-four seven and I still got eight dollars left over from the boobie fund. Come on, your mom won't mind."
Lea didn't know if it was necessarily a good thing that her mom didn't care what they did as long as they
were quiet about it, but since McDonalds was only three blocks away, it wasn't like Lea had much to worry about. Still…
But, inevitably, ice cream won out and she pushed her video games back beneath her little TV.
"You're buying."
They left Lea's mom a shout on where they were going (not expecting a reply back) and headed off into the night. Slow traffic buzzed by, throwing the shadows of dead lamp posts onto the brick buildings they passed. A pizza place across the street that had been there since the dawn of time watched them with one lone light glowing from its windows. A used book store didn't look at all, too cramped between two apartment buildings for emergency lights.
Once the two had obtained their milkshakes (Sky, chocolate, and Lea, strawberry), they headed back through the orange-lit night. Lea looked up at where the stars would be. Another car passed, throwing their shadows in passing: Lea's short and Sky's a bit taller. Strawberry coated the roof of her mouth. The air was warm, just right for ice cream.
It was one of those summer nights. The kind she knew she'd drift back to when she needed to remember what peace felt like. Even the smell of old trash and fumes added to the pre-made nostalgia.
"What's that?"
Sky's forced calm sent a cold shiver up Lea's spine. She dropped her head, following Sky's finger to a dark, short alley they were passing, mostly filled by a dumpster.
Something, or someone, hunched in the darkness.