Chapter Two

A quick afterwit
Don't ever forget your watch
In a game arcade

STONEWALLS DO SPEAK TOO.

The name went too well with the Physics teacher. Stony-faced, deep line for lips, permanent scowl and pewter eyes that seemed to roil with an unstated storm of anguish when you look into them. Did I also mention that Jackson Stonewall was taking us 'Rigid Body Dynamics' this whole term?

Of course, the voice went well with him too. It was low and gravelly, more sterner than Nightshade's. In fact, Nightshade's voice was friendly compared to his. Stone's voice lacked humor and patience.

"You. Are. Late," the Physics teacher said, as poetic as ever, giving the least of my problems a three-worded finish.

The brawl in the boys' room instantly died down: Claribel was halfway through smashing a dislodged toilet lid on Noire's head. With one hand, Noire was giving Nirvana a swirlie. She wasn't complaining. Pulling a long draw on her e-cigarette, Nightshade was about fumigating Noire - who was yanking her hair with his free hand. They were all stuck like that for a while until the ceramic lid Claribel held clattered to the floor, breaking on impact.

"Vandals," Stonewall hissed.

The fighters all suddenly developed keen interest in the tiled floor. Nightshade let out the vapor in her puffy cheeks, giving the small space a foggy atmosphere. I was glad to see Claribel in shock. Even the infamous Big Bad Bel had her stone wall. Jackson was her stone wall.

"Come with me, Mr. Renwick," he said to me, turned around to go, seemingly forgetting the fighters, then called over his shoulders. "Detention for all."

I giggled. I actually giggled.

As we walked towards Stonewall's class, I said a silent prayer: If I'm going to suffer, may I suffer with all my torturers.

♛♛♛♛♛

L' esprit de l'escalier.

That was the only thing I could think of.

Few minutes after school - somewhere around 2PM - as I took the route through the buzzing market, I thought about all the possible comebacks I should have told Bel, Noire and Stonewall to escape bullying and detention.

Except that I couldn't. I was never good at comebacks. They usually take me by surprise. I could think of clever, goofy and witty remarks to make but only when the time had passed and sometimes when I'm in my bedroom. Alone. Or maybe when I'm walking home with my friend. Like, right now.

"So you said you spent all day modelling a robot as your punishment for detention, Cody?" My adorkably drop-dead gorgeous friend, Morgan laughed at me.

Finally, someone called me by my full name. Yay, I'm a star. Yes, I am the one called Cody. Cody Renwick. I game a lot and I think that's all you should know about me because my life is an uppercase B.O.R.E.

"I didn't say I spent all day mimicking a robot," I replied, moving out of the way of an incoming halal cart. "I said I spent both Physics classes unmoving, maintaining being a 'rigid body' as my punishment. It wasn't even a detention."

Morgan wasn't listening. "I really have to tell my mom to bake a cake out of stones and screws for Mr Jackson. He should win the award for the best teacher with the vilest detention ideas."

"Right," I muttered, falling back to my previous lane. "He gave poor Bel a duct tape, a glue, a wrench and a nut to fix the toilet lid. That addle-brain spent the whole day inhaling the septic air in the boys' room."

"What about Noire?" Morgan waved at a man in a bloody yellow apron on the other side of the street. "Hey, Buscher."

"Noire's a charmer, you know." I sounded almost sullen. "I don't know how he did it but he did it anyway."

The Buscher man looked up from his meat-hacking task and grinned, waving his butcher's knife and determined to cut off his nearest customer's head. Morgan didn't notice.

"What did Noire do?" Morgan was curious.

"He had his way with Stonewall," I blurted. "That boy went unpunished."

Morgan snorted. "You know he always do. He's the golden boy. What about Nightshade and Nirvana?"

"Grass-cutting duties."

"Ha-ha, this is so fun."

I said nothing. It was a silent nothing pregnant with a wailing meaning. He knew.

"Aw, Cody. Don't be like that. I didn't mean standing like a faulty robot all day was fun," Morgan grinned. "Let's go to our favorite thinking spot and spend the rest of the day playing."

I was annoyed. I was supposed to argue, but a disease called video game addiction got the better of me. "Let's go slay some dragons then, Morg-Lord."

And that's exactly what we did. A little over the top as I later realized.

Just a bit overboard.

♛♛♛♛♛

We left Lotusland at twelve. Midnight!

One thing I'll tell you about gaming is that it's a flawless timekiller. Add online strategy or MMORPG to it and you'll wake up in the distant future with white beard growing at your knee level.

As we stepped out of Lotusland - the haven for every video game on Earth - it was totally dark, except for the giant neon sign overhead changing hues from pink to blue to green and on and on. The place was graveyard silent. There was no human in sight. I wondered where the gallivanting glassy-eyed guards went.

Oops, I just said gallivanting.

According to local legends, Lotusland was a haunted video arcade with time-warping powers and a notoriety for disappearing children.

"You shouldn't go there," My Grandpa would say, "No matter how tempting it looks outside. Remember the saying about books and covers."

"He's demented." I would tell Morgan at school the next day. "He's old and trying to stop us from having a great time, haha."

A video arcade with time-warping powers, I could believe. I mean, you wouldn't want to visit this game haven if you have a tight schedule. You'd end up getting carried away by the endless motley of video games. But disappearing children? Humor me, Gramps!

Maybe what my Gramps meant with disappearing was when you find yourself in a different world whilst wearing a virtual reality headset. I couldn't blame him. I blame recent gaming technologies and Lotusland.

The place featured lots of things like retro game arcades, augmented reality installations and whatnots. Believe me, that's not the big enchilada about Lotusland. The real deal was that, for kids under the age of twelve, gaming is free! Given our small sizes, Morgan and I usually get past the indifferent guards without much questioning.

"It's twelve, Morgan. It's twelve." I repeated, bringing myself back to the current reality. "It's midnight!"

"Stop freaking out." Morgan raked his hair with a hand, ruffling his rat's nest of a hair.

"I'm not freaking out." I grabbed Morgan by his chest. "Take me home. Just take me home."

"We're headed home," Morgan shrugged me off. "Stop overreacting already."

"You know I have night fear. You know I always hated the dark." I countered. "It's your fault that we're here."

"My fault? Cody?" Morgan repeated, his voice filled with incredulity. "My fault that we spent the whole day both enjoying slaying dragons made out of pixels?"

"Your fault! Y-Yes," I faltered. "You should have set an alarm or something. You are the one with the watch."

Morgan paused for three heartbeats, pressing his hand against his pocket before it dawned on him like a blanket. "Gods, my pocket watch! I left it in the arcade."

A pocket watch. If there's something my friend doesn't joke with, it's his heirloom watch. Given to him by his grandfather who inherited it from his own great-grandfather, Morgan once told me there's a myth around the watch.

He'd quote to me exactly as his grandfather had quoted to him before his demise: "Morgan, my dear boy. Your father doesn't deserve this pivotal timepiece that can change the world. Therefore, I'll give it to you instead. Keep it safe, as if your life depends on it."

I've always wonder how a mere watch can be a pivotal timepiece that can change the world. Morgan would always tell me off whenever I try to say his grandfather was sickly silly.

Back to the present, without warning, Morgan zoomed off into the empty video game hall.

"Wait up," I called after him.

Morgan didn't wait. I followed. As he picked his pocket watch from the desk he'd sat earlier, a strange scene confronted me.

Alas, I just watched Morgan vanished out of thin air followed by a strange bluish electrical crackle.

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