As in most tales of adventure, a looming tower had drawn in the gaggle of boys now standing at its entryway with its unendurable thrall. Beyond a litter strewn and heat baked parking lot stood a great gray building. This six story monstrosity cast its shadow, blotting out the late summer sun that was otherwise working its magic, turning the floating dust into something beautiful. Atop a striking neon blue splash of water, taking the form of a crown, sat an effigy of King Toady, beckoning to all with outstretched hands. His smile was inviting, but there was something wrong in the eyes: too far apart, too askew in their bulging sockets as they stared unseeing across his kingdom. 

As they waited for a sneering, acne ridden boy to allow them safe passage across the street, Leo felt a nervous grin spread across his face. They were going to do it. They were going to make it to the top of Toady’s Tube Tower in the last dying days of summer and return to school heroes. Maybe Sarah Mitchell would notice him. With a sudden flick of the hand, they were summoned to walk. Hunter, Jeremy, and Frank flanked his sides, with Jeff and Tommy lagging behind, as the six boys crossed into the shadow of the king one last time.

“Hey dweebs, I see your mommies aren’t here to hold your hand across the street. If they’re free I might give them a call,” spat Steve, the crosswalk guard.

“Aren’t you too busy waiting for your dad to call you back? Oh, that’s right, he hasn’t talked to you since he left for cigarettes five years ago. Must be a helluva line at the gas station,” Frank retorted, right before getting rolled to the ground by a haymaker. Orange cones tipped, the large “stop” sign was flung to the side, and the fists flew. The scuffle was brief, but even Steve wasn’t stupid enough to think he could win a fight with six-to-one odds. Jeremy pulled Frank up to his feet, patting dust, and squashed bugs off his back. The group eyed their old nemesis warningly and moved on.

“Fuckin’ Steve,” Frank muttered after getting a safe distance away. “He thinks he has pretty big nuts when he’s wearing that dumb vest. How long are they going to let him keep doing that? He’s gotta be close to being old enough to drive.” All of this came out sort of mumbled as he pinched his nose to keep the blood in. 

“Don’t worry about him, Frank. After tonight we’ll be too cool to touch! I can’t wait to see the look on everyone’s face when we tell them we made it to the top,”Leo laughed. The wide grin had yet to leave his face as he swung open the main door. A waft of half burnt cheese pizza, popcorn, and something that smelled suspiciously like day old up-chuck greeted them as it always did upon entering Toady’s Tube Tower’s main floor. They made their way around a maze of big round tables, shoes sticking to occasional pop spills, as they got closer to the main attraction: the ball pit and slides. 

The pits themselves lay under an overhang of tubes, slides and domed windows supposedly climbing up five stories until you reached the fabled sixth level: King Toady’s Castle. Each level became more difficult to get up, with monkey bars being spaced wider apart or ledges built high out of reach to act as sort of a natural age barrier. Rumors of lost arcade rooms, hidden doors, and secret areas filled playground chatter for years. Any kid big, strong, and smart enough to reach the Castle would certainly be hailed as a hero. If it existed at all, that is. Proudly popping out into the ball pit on the first level were a row of different colored slides, one for each floor of the tower after the first, used as a quick exit. Some slides existed in the structure itself, allowing travel from a higher level to another below. It was a labyrinth of twists, turns, dead ends, and roundabouts which no kid had ever fully figured out.

“So,” Jeremy started breathing hard from the physical exertion of walking, “now what?” He stared out at a table they had positioned near the pits as they gathered themselves for the task at hand.

“Well, for now, nothing out of the ordinary. Each of our parents thinks that after we’re done here we’ll be spending the night at someone else’s house. As far as plans go that’s pretty straightforward. Once they give the warning call that they’ll be closing, things’ll get a little harder. We’ll want to find a place to stay out of sight until the closing check is done and they leave. Any thoughts?” Leo asked, keeping his voice low.

“Any thoughts!?” Jeff, Leo’s cousin, half yelled. “This is your plan, isn’t it, Birthday Boy?” 

“Listen, the only reason you and Tommy are even here is because I needed to make this story as convincing as possible. You know my mom would know something was up if I didn’t invite you. As far as I’m concerned, the two of you get to ride our coattails so the least you could do is help come up with a plan,” Leo mocked. 

“How about we climb up the slides and hide? If we think they’re getting close we could just run off,” Hunter suggested.

“Or how about the ball pit?” Jeremy chimed in, “We can bury ourselves.”

“Do you know what else is in that ball pit? Cuz I don’t; I don’t wanna know,” Frank said, grimacing. “Plus, how are we going to hide that big belly of yours?”

“Chill out! Let’s play bubblegum over it,” Leo suggested. “After we figure out which idea we’re going to do, we can just hang out till close. Once the crew leaves, we’ll have all night to get to the top of the tower! No little kids to trip over, no bigger kids to angel guard the pipes leading up! It’ll be a cake walk.”

“Yeah, until the third level. I’ve never walked more than a few steps in before being kicked back down by some fart knocker. How far up have the rest of you gotten?” Hunter asked a bit timidly. Being the youngest of the group, he always thought it came down to the older kids being jerks and not letting anyone else up.

“Second,” Leo said flatly. Frank nodded sullenly and held up two fingers. “Same,” echoed Jeff and Tommy. In the silence that followed, they all looked to Jeremy, who had become suddenly very interested in some ants eating crumbs off the floor. 

“What?” he finally snapped, “I’ve only been on the first floor! I’m scared of heights. There, are you happy?”

“Well, we could have guessed that; it looks like you’ve never climbed a set of stairs in your life.” Frank laughed and dodged what would have been his second bloody nose of the day. “Come on guys, let’s get this over with. I’ve got tokens burning a hole in my pocket.” With that, the boys huddled in close and put a single foot each in a circle. 

Leo started their tried and tested way of settling things: “Bubble gum, bubblegum in a dish. How many pieces do you wish?” he asked Jeff, giving a slight nod toward Jeremy, and after a moment’s pause he replied, “13.” The count went around the circle twice and landed on Jeremy. “Ok, looks like we‘re going with his plan to hide in the ball pits at close. ‘Til then, we may as well enjoy ourselves; we’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

They spent the next few hours in a neon euphoria. The constant hum of arcade machines and the alluring chimes of games pulsed out the tunes of their rapidly fleeting childhoods. Allowances and birthday earnings were greedily chewed down, token by token, onto the gluttonous machines. Pizza was ordered and served, pop was guzzled, and candy earned from the ticket booth gobbled up. Leo opened presents from his friends and thanked them in kind. For a brief time, the worries that plague all children as summer ends were replaced by pixel spaceships and pill popping, ghost chomping heroes. Not a thought was given to school bullies such as Steve, or concerned with the budding interest in girls. How many days had they spent like this? No one knew for sure; the only thing certain was that they would never leave those doors again. 

Finally the call came: “Fifteen minutes ‘til close. Please gather your belongings and exit the building. We hope you had a Hoppy time at Toady’s Tube Tower,” a crackling voice announced unseen from the PA system followed by a hair raising, unnatural hiss of static before clicking off. The boys looked nervously around at each other and headed toward the pit, doing their best to act natural as they did. One mom was lingering by the side, so Frank shoved Jeremy to the floor, ripped off his shoe, and tossed it into the pit. “What did you do that for!?” Jeremy whined as he sloshed into the ball pit. “You’re getting to be as bad as fucking Steve.”

The rest went in after and started to look for the shoe, making sure to give Frank an elbow anytime they got close enough. The mom gave one parting look at the unsupervised kids messing around in the pit, decided it wasn’t her problem to deal with, and left. Frank pulled out the missing shoe with a satisfied smile, watching her go. “You’re welcome. Just the alibi we needed ‘til that nosy mom got out of our hair. We’ve only got a few minutes left so we better hide while we have a chance,” and with a practiced dive he disappeared deep into the multi-colored mass. 

The others followed suit, and wiggled and wormed their way as deep as they could. A last warning was called as overhead lights started to click off one after another, getting closer and closer to the pit until that, too, was consumed by fresh semi-darkness. Bugs, old gum, and other unmentionable horrors littered the bottom of the ball pit. Approaching footsteps could be heard over the remaining hum of the few machines left on overnight to sing their songs and maintain high scores. Hunter ended up being squished by Frank, which was fortunate because he noticed Frank’s stomach looming uncovered and was able to conceal him moments before the two closers reached the pit.

From the edge of the pit they heard a smoke worn, drawn out voice: “Uh, hey Chuck, have you checked the pits yet? Just take the mop and poke around; Vanessa wants to hang out later and I think tonight is the night.”

The crackle-voiced boy from the PA system responded in a nervous, matter of fact tone: “We’re supposed to check it pretty good, Chad. Monthly inspection is coming up an-”

“Just poke it with the fuckin’ broom stick, Sam, and get it over with,” Chad cut him off. “Imma crawl in them tubes to make sure those li’l shits ain’t hangin’ out in the top of there while you poke around.”

“Please watch your language, especially if you think there might be kids around,” Sam called out, answered by a middle finger from his partner, who was crawling up the nearest tube. With a defeated sigh, he began to poke and swirl the end of a broom stick into the ball pit. Poke. Poke. Poke. With each jab, he got slowly closer to prodding Hunter in the ribs. He raised the stick one last time and was about to bring it down when Chad slid out of a nearby slide with a loud crash. 

“Well, we’re s’posed to spray this shit down but I don’t care so let’s bounce,” he said as he began plodding through the balls toward the pit’s edge. Before Sam could form the words on his lips, Chad yelled once again, “I said let’s bounce,” and chucked a ball at Sam’s head. 

Had either of them been paying more attention during the scuffle, they would have heard a small crunch and muffled whine issuing from the ball pit as Chad stepped on Tommy’s hand to lift himself out. They also would have heard the faint click of the front door’s handle popping back into position as one last guest entered the tower. After a few more minutes, the footsteps receded, the last few lights were shut off, and the two employees left as the front doors closed with one final, deafening thud. The next few tense minutes passed as the games blurted their familiar siren calls out to the darkened abyss. The boys finally emerged into the dark, pierced only by the faint glow of screens and pulsing neon signs. Above in the bramble of tubes bounced back the dull light, giving them the look of hundreds of intertwining worms.

Tommy rubbed his hand as they looked around and the hollowness of the empty building settled its weight upon them. Goosebumps rippled up Leo’s arm as he started walking around in the semi-dark. Resisting the urge to look around and play the same old games under the new lighting, Leo made his way toward his bag as the others congregated around the table. Jeremy and Hunter were given flashlights Leo had stolen from his dad’s workbox. The basketball Leo received from Hunter as a gift was stuffed in the bag before he was slinging it over his shoulders. This was all done in stony silence, as no one seemed to want to be the one to break it. 

Quietly, they made their way around the main area, double checking that things were locked up and everyone was gone. The entrance seemed somehow darker, as if the light of their flashlights wanted to slip and slide off of it. Jeff placed his hand on the bar and gave it a slow push but it felt off, almost as if he were pushing into soft moss. A light popping and crunching noise issued from behind the bar as a brown ichor oozed out down the face of the door. Jeff hopped back and held in a gasp. 

“Gross, the hell is that?” He sneered at the slime.

“Probably some old oil, I doubt they’ve ever cleaned it. But locked is locked,” said Tommy matter-of-factly.

“It’s over-used. Might be the only way out, look,” said Frank, pointing his light toward a far wall blocked with the countless tubes of the tower. “Talk about a fire code issue. The morons blocked all the exits as they built.”

“It doesn’t matter anyways. We aren’t going out. We’re going up. Right?” Hunter piped up, looking toward Leo. 

“Well,” the words feeling flat and dry as they came out of Leo’s mouth, “to the top,”

“To the top!” cheered the other five in unison, the spell seemingly broken. A fresh jolt of energy seemed to fill their hearts as the task at hand loomed before them. The first two levels would be easy enough, though a slight detour would have to be made first. Beyond that, they would be working off of rumors and hearsay. The upper levels would be more physically challenging as well, which might not be as much of a problem for Frank, Jeff, and Leo; but Hunter and Tommy were quite young yet and Jeremy was, at best, out of shape. These thoughts crossed all their minds as they slipped through the first tunnel and into the tower.

Before heading up, they decided to check the quickest way up: the fabled blue slide. They stood at the bottom in reverence. Although the slides from the first levels were covered in skid marks and wear, the blue slide was almost untouched. Many had tried, and failed, to climb up. 

“My friend said his cousin Alex tried to climb it once years ago,” said Frank as he sized up the tube. “I guess he hit the side as he climbed up; rumor is knocking could be heard all the way on the third level before he slipped back down. Still has the rug burns on his elbows and knees to prove it.” 

Without a word, Hunter swooped in and started climbing. He had pulled his shoes off and worked up a little sweat on his palms to help with traction. He could hear the others behind him as he climbed, their voices lost in the echo of his efforts. He felt like he had good momentum going as the tube’s incline reached nearly 90 degrees. Up and up he went. Soon he felt the sides getting dusty from disuse; no one had ever slid from the top. Ever. The darkness consumed him as he started to struggle to keep grip with the entrance so far below him. He could swear he felt a small breeze, almost as if the slide itself were breathing. He pressed his back up against the side and pushed as he climbed, feeling the dust collect in the neck of his shirt. It was at this moment he looked up and was rewarded with a faceful of cobwebs. He impulsively swatted them from his face and went into a free fall. His descent was quick as he bounced and spun down, being spat out in a dusty heap at the bottom. 

The boys pulled him up and dusted off dried out bug carcasses, and Jeff squished the spider responsible for Hunter’s downfall. There was an audible pop and he had to resist the urge to ralf up his lunch. “Good try, but I think you answered that question. We won’t be making it up that way.”

Defeated, they turned back and started making their way up the twists and turns leading up the tower. Overlapping ledges, padded and foul smelling, were the worst of their troubles on the first two floors. The tubes were large and had many domes for kids to look out and wave at their parents, but now they overlooked a dark abyss of empty tables. Surrounding them in intermittent patches were deep ball pits with lord knows what filling the bottom. All of this had been built for the younger clientele, and without any of them running underfoot or older kids blocking the way up, they made it to a net bridge, one of the only known entrances to the third level. The spacing made reaching to the next one difficult to begin with, then the slack of the rope made balancing even worse. Normally, a myriad of older kids would be interwoven in the ropes like spiders, waiting to push or block anyone from coming up, but not tonight. 

With Leo and Frank holding the bridge taut, the others managed to get up through the hole above. Frank gave Leo a nod as he made his way up and disappeared. Leo was alone when a sudden low blast reverberated out of the speakers. It was gone as soon as it came, but it almost had a chittering quality to it. With one last glance down the way they had come, Leo scurried up the rope, aided by the reaching hands of his friends pulling him onto the third level.

“The hell was that noise?” Frank said as Leo took his first few steps. “I thought Jeremy shit his pants or something.”

“Shut up unless you want another beating, dipwad,” Jeremy shot back.

“Oh? What are you going to do, sit on me?” Frank scoffed

“Enough you two; we have a long way to go and we aren’t going to start fighting now,” Leo said, stepping in between the two. Middle fingers were exchanged but both backed down. “Now that your little pissing match is over, let’s figure out where to go from here. Hunter?” 

Hunter looked taken aback by the sudden request. “I, uh, I don’t actually know. I only made it to about where I am now before they caught me and chucked me down there,” he said, pointing to a pair of slides. One led to somewhere on the second level, while the one he had been unceremoniously tossed down went all the way to the ball pit on the first level. 

“Well, so much for that,” said Tommy, catching a glare from his cousin. “Now what?”

Without an answer, Leo chose a tube at random and started crawling. Soon it became apparent that the tubes were getting larger, almost tall enough to stand up. Dead ends were common, and loops leading back even more so. They continued to find themselves back in the entry room more times than they would like to admit. Just as they were about to give up, Tommy gave a little shout; he had found a panel of the tube that was slightly ajar. As he pushed, it swung in on unoiled hinges, issuing out a squeak that sent goosebumps rippling up everyone’s arms.

Behind the hidden door was a small room with blue padded floors. To the right was a tube big enough to step through without ducking, which seemed to lead to a large, dark room. To the left, a set of monkey bars with the bars spaced ridiculously far apart stretching out over a drop; there was no floor beneath them. In front, four tubes, the first two set at about chest height and the other two set above them. Each bent so suddenly in opposite directions, it was hard to tell where each one may lead. They closed the door with another loud creak and gathered together in the gloom.

“Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say the monkey bars are out,” said Jeff. He looked over the edge and motioned for a flashlight. Looking down, it seemed like if you gave out, you would land in one of the ball pits on the floor below. Seemed like a pretty ridiculous drop to him, and he was shocked that no one had landed on another kid in the past. His light had just happened upon something glimmering that seemed like it was moving among the balls, when his attention was taken by Jeremy yelling excitedly about something. 

“Guys, check this out! It’s freaking HUGE!” Jeremy yelled as he ran through the large tunnel on the right. Automatic lights flicked on with a sputter, casting their dull yellow light on a massive bulge rising from the floor. It seemed to be a reddish brown hill, shaped roughly like half of a football, with a black line running down the middle straight in front of them. A giant smile ran across his face as he stared at the biggest inflatable trampoline hill he had ever seen in his life. “I know we are supposed to be heading up, but I need to go on this for a bit. Consider it a prize for making it as far as we have.”

Before anyone could argue, he leaped off the small ledge and landed, quite unexpectedly, on a hard surface with a loud smack. He rolled limply off to the side and was still against the wall. In a panic, the others lowered themselves in and slid down by his side. The surface, normally bouncy, was hard and slick. Jeremy was unconscious from the impact but still breathing. Sweat started to drip as they struggled to wake him up; no one noticed as several sets of new lights popped on, each glaring an intense orange on the center of the hill. 

As the room grew hotter and hotter, the boys finally managed to get Jeremy on their shoulders and were attempting to crawl up the slope with little success. Their hands became slick with sweat and they couldn’t find traction to pull themselves up. They looked at each other desperately for answers in vain as the joy of climbing the tower slipped from their minds. Looking up, Leo was the first to notice the lights above. They had concentrated their heat onto a small circle and what was worse, that circle was moving toward them, sizzling the surface as it inched its way toward them. 

“Guys, we gotta move NOW!” He yelled as he tried to pull Jeremy up with Frank one more time. 

Tommy and Jeff got beneath, using their shoulders to boost the others up, and with some great effort, they were finally able to push Jeremy up the searing side of the hill. As Jeff was being pulled up by the others, the circle of light hit his side and his shirt started to steam as he screamed in pain. Another few seconds and his skin would have started to bubble. They all rolled onto the ledge as the light passed by where they had been moments before and clicked off, leaving only the dull yellow glow from the remaining lamps. 

“What the actual hell was that!?” , Frank roared. “We could have died!”

“I think the lights malfunctioned. Look, they’re on tracks. They must have been intended for some light show,” Tommy suggested, pointing up to a series of tracks hanging from the ceiling. 

“Seemed to be coming right at us, and why was it so hot?” Leo said shakily as he looked down at the seared line on the floor’s surface. 

“Stage lights are hot. I was in a fall play last year and I thought I was going to melt, but this is ridiculous,” Jeff said, pointing toward the scorched spot on his shirt. 

Suddenly the overhead lights went out. The boys scrambled for their flashlights, but noticed an unearthly glow coming from the top of the hill. Written across its surface in a huge, glow-in-the-dark scrawl was the word, “Scorch.” The boys fled and pulled Jeremy back into the small room. The lights flicked on and off in the jump room two or three times before going out for the last time as the deep noise rumbled from the speakers once again. This time, it had some sort of crackle that followed, but seemed to be cut off as suddenly as it began. Jeremy woke with a groan from his unconsciousness as the sound echoed through the empty tunnels.

They sat quietly until the sound of silence seemed to crawl right at them from behind the closed panel. Scared, but determined to go on, Leo stood up and began to study the tunnels. The bottom left seemed to be a trick slide that led to one of the lower levels, and he swore he could hear the sound of small breaking sticks coming from down below. The bottom right curved up and to the left, and after hefting himself up and crawling in, he found that it led to the top left tunnel opening. It was just a matter of swinging himself over to the top right tunnel, and he was shocked to see a set of actual stairs after a yard or so of tunnel. 

“Guys, I think we can get to level four from here. Let’s get going; I don’t want to waste time,” Leo called down. In reality, he wanted to get away from that horrible room. Something about the shape of the hill bothered him; it reminded him of something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. That, coupled with the noise coming from the stereos, was more than enough for him to want to shake a leg and get moving. Hunter bypassed the tunnel completely and just crawled up the bottom tube as if it were a ladder. Tommy and Jeff got boosts up and used the tunnel as Leo had. Jeremy took some prodding to go, but after Frank threatened to pound him if he didn’t get a move on, he made his way up. With the help of the others, he was able to swing over, and ended up toppling them all into a pile. Frank showed up just as they were untangling themselves.

“I’ll go first,” said Hunter as he clicked on his flashlight and ran it up the carpeted stairs. Something loomed up above just out of view of the light, but he walked on with a passable air of confidence. The others followed behind until at last they all reached the top and found themselves looking at a small forest of bumper pads sticking out of the ground before them. It blocked their view after the first row, and it was anyone’s guess as to how long it went on.

“Stick close; we’ll keep the wall to our right. I don’t want to spend all night looking for someone who gets turned around in here,” Leo said, stepping into the countless rows of bumper pads, and made his way down the hall. They were jostled by the pads, which sprung back up, swaying sporadically and inevitably smacking into someone as they followed. Tommy ended up on the ground from the impact on more than one occasion as Frank blundered in front of him, sending the bumpers back with reckless abandon. It wasn’t long until they were purposely flinging the bumpers into each other and racing their way along. Just as Jeremy was about to send Jeff into the next town, a long, loud creaking noise cut through the air and stopped them dead in their tracks. Someone had opened the panel behind them.

Panic setting in, they all ran as fast as they could, praying for the end of the bumper forest. After what seemed like a millennium of running, they sprawled out into a long hallway which stretched out ahead of them into the semi-dark. Outdated movie posters lined the wall with small, faint lights illuminating them from below, casting a dull glow down the length of the hallway. Familiar bleeps and buzzes could be heard from the turn at the end of the hallway. They stopped for a moment to catch their breath and take in the new surroundings. After spending so much time in the pipes down below, they had never imagined finding actual rooms and halls in the upper levels. 

“I think we should wait a minute, just to see if we imagined it,” said Frank shakily as he stared back across the bumper pads. As if in response, a ripple among the bumpers could be seen slowly making its way toward them. Bump. Wiggle. Bump. Wiggle. Something orange wobbled an inch or so above the bumpers as whatever it was marched steadily onward. 

“On second thought, fuck waiting.” With that, Frank turned on his heel and started running once again down the hall. With a look back, the others followed suit and found themselves running once again. Movie posters whipped by, and soon the sound of beeping grew steadily louder and louder. 

Jeff made his way to the front and screamed in terror as he rounded the corner of the hall. His light had caught the face of a leering clown just as he turned. The others came barreling in behind him, and despite the terror, couldn’t help but laugh. They had found one of the fabled arcade rooms. Poor Jeff had managed to almost run into a claw game with the face of a giant clown laughing over the prison of stuffed prizes like some sort of evil warden. It was all black light and neon. The walls had airbrushed planets and aliens blasting off lasers for some forgotten war. The carpet was filled with stars and spaceships all also aglow, albeit a little dimmer from years of sticky shoes wearing it down. All the machines cheeped and blipped their little songs and cast a dull light throughout the room. 

Two pool tables sat guard in the middle of the room, and though the balls were locked away ‘til you paid, the queues were laying in easy access marked with nicks and dings from years of misuse. Today would be another one of those days as the boys armed themselves and tentatively looked around the corner. Though a ways off, the slow, methodical march of the unknown bobbed its way through the bumpers–closer and closer. Hunter, Leo, and Frank stood up front and gave each other a nod as they edged down the hall.

“Hey, nimrod!” Frank bellowed, scaring the living hell out of the other two,  “we’re armed to the teeth and we’ll beat the snot outta you if you step foot past those bumpers!” He elbowed Leo in the ribs.

“Y-yeah!” Leo said, stepping forward and shaking his pool cue, “not a single toe!”

Hunter remained silent but nodded vigorously at the other two. The movement continued regardless, as the orange tip bobbed back and forth over the bumpers like a fin of a shark. Closer and closer it came. 10 rows. 7 rows. 5. The boys readied themselves, palms sweating over the lacquered wood suddenly feeling quite useless in their hands. The boys tensed as the bumpers in the third row bobbed and became far too still, as if whatever it was was readying itself to pounce. A small flicker of red and white metal could be seen poking from around the side then, in a flurry of noise, whatever it was ran back through the bumpers until it was out of sight.

“What. The. Hell,” Hunter mumbled under his breath.

“I don’t know, but someone should keep watch while we figure out how to get up,” Leo said, his eyes still locked on the dark hall of bumpers.

“Get up? Get up where? This is it, man. This is the fifth floor; there are no more levels!” Frank spat, wiggling his pool cue toward Leo.

“But there is one more level. Toady’s Castle on the sixth floor! There must be some way up! That’s why we’re doing this!” Leo yelled.

“Oh, don’t give me that bullshit. That’s a fairy tale from the older kids to nab tokens from the younger kids coming up. They just sit here and play games on our dime while we keep climbing up. This is it, man; this is all there is,” Frank said, vaguely pointing toward the hidden arcade.

“That’s not true,” Hunter said stoutly.

“Oh, don’t back him up, Hunt,” Frank groaned.

“There’s one more slide,” Hunter continued, ignoring Frank. “Every floor has one and there are six on the bottom. There must be one more floor.”

“Anyways, it’s not like we’re going to be going back that way anytime soon,” Leo said looking toward the bumpers. “Whatever it is’ll be found by the openers, and by that time we’ll be heroes in Toady’s Castle.” 

“Fine, waste your time. I’m going to wait out here for our friend to return. If you hear yelling, make sure you hustle,” and with that Frank slumped down cross-legged and watched the bumpers.

With a shrug, Leo and Hunter returned to the others. They must have figured the coast was clear, as they were all belly up to one arcade cabinet or another racking up points with their few remaining tokens. A darkened window overlooked the mess of tubes below, a high vantage point to see all those beneath on a normal day. Leo wondered how many times someone had watched as he and his friends struggled down below.

An inflated alien hung limply, pointing a laser gun toward a game titled “The Broken Brick,” swaying with some unseen breeze. To the side was a skee ball labeled “Bug Buster” that seemed in need of some love. Hunter dug around in his pockets and was surprised to find he had several tokens remaining. He wandered over to “Bug Blaster,” slid in two of his remaining tokens, and waited for the familiar rolling sound of the balls clattering into place. Above, the high score board sprung to life and, judging by the score, someone had most likely stood above the slot and simply dropped them in. He disregarded this impassable goal and grabbed the first ball, gaining 10 points after its short roll down the lane and up the bump. He could hear the buzzes and blips from his friends playing the other games, and for a moment he forgot any looming threats. As he sent more balls hurtling toward their final destination, he thought of how far they had come. Even if they didn’t make it one more step, he would be proud. 

Next to him, Leo had taken his place at “The Broken Brick,” just as Hunter before him; the high score lit up on the screen. The scores held all the traditional names: A.S.S., D.I.K., F.A.T., and so on, but above all the others T.D.Y.; King Toady sat high on his throne. As the little brick breaker trudged across the screen, an idea hit Leo, and he looked behind the arcade machine. Sure enough, it was a brick wall, and on a closer look you could see the grout missing from some of them making a rough door shaped pattern. He had found the way up.

“Guys! Guys! This is it!” He hollered and pointed toward the wall. Leo jumped, shaken from his daydream, and dropped his penultimate ball on the ground. The others gathered around to see what all the fuss was about. “Look, I think there is a hidden door behind the machine! I bet we can move this and get through!”

They all gathered around and tried pushing and pulling, tipping and spinning the machine but to no avail. It was locked down tight. They pondered for quite some time, frustrated by how close they were. Leo put in another token with a broad smile on his face; he knew what they had to do. They had to beat the high score. They had to beat King Toady himself. There was a considerable gap between the top score and second place, but he had to try. Everyone turned out their pockets and piled up the last of their tokens, betting it all on this one last shot. The machine greedily gobbled up the first few tokens as he got into the swing of things, but soon he was climbing up the ranks. 

As Leo ducked and weaved in response to the game, Hunter slipped back to the Skee Ball machine, his last ball still sitting in the slot. He picked it up without looking, and went to drop it in one of the 100 point holes. Behind him, the others cheered for Leo, who was evidently making some progress. Hunter was about to drop the ball into the slot when he noticed the writing etched on it: “SPLATTER.” It seemed fresh. Almost as a reaction, Frank suddenly started yelling from down the hall that something was coming. 

“Oh, COME ON!” Leo yelled as Jeremy bumped him to run toward Frank.

“Grab the pool cues!” Hunter yelled at the others as he charged into the hall. Leo stayed behind to man the machine and take a last shot at the top score. 

Frank was standing, pool cue held like a spear, as the orange tip bobbed its way forward again, this time with much more speed and intent. A “thump, thump” could be heard as whatever it was hit aside the bumpers while it marched closer. For a few moments, the blips and furious button smashing was all that could be heard from the other room. Jeff inched closer to the bumpers, pool cue at the ready. He bopped the bumper right in front of him and narrowly avoided a red and white “whoosh” that slashed before his face. Stumbling backward toward the others, he looked in horror as a familiar face stepped from the bumpers.

Fucking Steve.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Frank roared, but all Steve did was smile back at him. His bulging eyes seemed to look far beyond them. 

Steve took two uneasy, lurching steps forward as he pulled the metal stop sign pole he carried and rested over his shoulder. His safety vest looked almost as though it had been chewed through by moths, and he had a giant, orange road cone placed on his head like a hat. Something skittered toward his ear as he tipped his “hat” and made an exaggerated, sweeping bow. “I’m the mother fucking Crosswalk King and you all are going to be PUNISHED!” he bellowed as he swung the stop sign at them and charged.

Tommy bolted like a rabbit. He could hear the others yelling behind him as he tore straight through the bumpers toward whatever was as far away from the fight as he could manage. Jeremy followed suit, but even in his desperation, he was unable to keep up with Tommy, and soon his run slowed to a painful jog. The sounds faded behind Tommy as he ran down the staircase to the set of tubes they had crawled up. He slid down the tube and fell in a clump out the end. He laid there, momentarily breathless until he heard approaching footsteps and heavy breathing. He groaned as he pushed himself up and saw his escape, the trick slide that led down to the ball pit. Jeremy arrived just in time to see Tommy launch himself down the slide and out of sight. 

A moment later, something that sounded akin to crunching leaves could be heard down the tube followed by a high pitched, terrified scream. “BUGS, BUGS!” Tommy screamed as Jeremy flopped himself down to try and pull Tommy up. Tommy’s screams began to sound choked out by the time Jeremy reached the edge of the slide. Looking down, he saw Tommy, hand outstretched in a silent scream as thousands of bugs clogged his mouth and were chewing away at his flesh. The slide itself was packed with the crawling mass, and Tommy was already more than waist deep and quickly being pulled farther and farther in. Jeremy turned and ran as Tommy was dragged down into the deep, still hoping his friend would be there to pull him out. 

Jeremy crawled into the tunnel and up the stairs. He puked mid-run as he reached the top step before he finally came to a stop, heaving and sobbing. He lay on his side, waiting for both the crunching at the bottom of the steps and the yelling beyond the bumpers to stop. 

Back at the fight, Frank managed to parry Steve’s swing but was shoved down. Steve lifted the sign again to bring it down on Frank, who rolled away as the sign chopped into the carpet. As Frank got to his feet, he saw Jeff rush by and kick Steve in the ribs. If it hurt, Steve didn’t show it, and he slowly stood to full height again. He brought up the stop sign, missing Jeff’s face by an inch and backing him off toward the wall. Terrified, Jeff brought his pool cue up to block the next swing but was too late. The sign sunk deep into his arm, sticking into the bone. Jeff hollered as Steve ripped it from its place with a squelch. The other boys stood frozen in horror as Jeff fell to the ground, snapping his arm at the point of impact. He tried to block himself as Steve brought the sign down over and over again. 

Chop, chop, chop, till Jeff’s face was nothing but slop.

The Crosswalk King heaved with effort and sweat until he was satisfied the job was done. He turned toward the other two and step by step lurched toward them, dragging the sign behind him and leaving a small trail of blood, hair, and brain. The boys’ feet found themselves again as they ran toward the arcade. Leo didn’t even turn as they ran in screaming and threw themselves behind the pool table. Steve entered when a dusty “hisssssss” croaked from the wall. Steve turned briefly to see the brick wall moving back in on itself as a chiptune song played over hidden speakers, “da-ta-da-taaaaaaaa”! The last thing the Crosswalk King felt before falling into death was a sharp pang of pain shooting up through his throat and into the base of his skull. Unseen, a large centipede wiggled its way out of Steve’s ear. As Hunter slid the broken pool cue out of Steve’s throat, he swore he heard him say, “Stoooooop.”

Leo looked back at the others with an almost manic smile. “I did it! I beat the high score. We can make it to Toady’s Tower.” He took one unsteady step toward the door. Then another. His feet puffed up little plumes of dust and brushed away the dried up corpses of bugs. Before him was a tall staircase covered in neon clad carpet plastered with planets and stars. As he put his foot on the first step, a black light turned on above him, sending everything else into a wild glow. 

Frank and Hunter stood momentarily in stunned silence. It was Hunter who broke out first: “What the hell do you mean, we can make it? Jeff is dead, we have no idea where Tommy or Jeremy are, and I just killed Steve, but you want to keep going!? You’ve lost your mind.” He started to weep. Leo stopped on the second step and looked back, his face suddenly sullen. 

“ I…” he stuttered, “I have to. We have to. This is it; this is what we came all this way for. Nothing will matter if we don’t make it to the top! When we get to school this year, people will finally notice us. We won’t be losers or dorks. We will be heroes…right…?” He dropped off in thought as he looked once again back up the stairs. He slumped down on the step and hid his face deep in his hands. His back started to shake as wave after wave of sobs hit. Jeremy entered a few minutes later; he didn’t say anything but he didn’t need to. His face said it all. They added Tommy to the list of the dead.

After a few minutes, Frank started forward suddenly. All eyes were on him as he marched toward the door and pushed his way past Leo on the steps. “Where are you going?” Hunter called after him.

“Up. I’m going to be the first kid to reach Toady’s Castle. I don’t give a rat’s ass if the rest of you follow me or not, but I’m not going back a loser!” Frank yelled without looking back. Black lights popped on overhead every five steps or so as he ascended the tower.

Leo rose first and wordlessly started walking up the steps. Soon after, Jeremy and Hunter followed suit. The march up seemed longer than it should have. What should have felt like a triumph was instead weighing on them oppressively. Each step that would have brought them closer to being the coolest kids at school was now one step farther away from the consequences of their decisions that night. After what felt like a lifetime, they saw a door that was made to look like the entrance to a castle with the words, “King Toady’s Castle” cutting through the black light in a green, neon glow. Frank must have made it to the door and opened it, because all the others could see of him at that moment was his silhouette before he stepped through and vanished from sight. 

Leo was nearly at the door himself when he heard a heavy, wet “smack” followed by what sounded like branches breaking. He ran the last few steps and stopped in his tracks by the horror sitting before him. There in the middle of what looked like a giant throne room was a titanic toad with its skull broken outwards like a crown. Its eyes were milky and rolled back, set too far apart, and its sides were split open with strings of entrails hanging out, mashed upon the floor. Millions of flies and bugs filled the air and scuttled along the walls almost obscuring the words “Splatter,” “Squish,” “Scorch,” and the like smeared onto the walls in some unknown, brackish slime. 

Staring up at the toad, he saw Frank’s limp, broken arm slide into its mouth with a slurp. The milky eyes, one noticeably bulging out more than the other, found a way to fixate themselves upon Leo. 

Then a voice of many seemed to speak into his mind. The words buzzed, clattered, and croaked: “Alas, I am the Great King Toady seated upon my throne of rot. You have proven yourself worthy to enter the kingdom within me.” The floor shook as Toady took one slimy, broken step forward.

“Wh-what?” Leo managed to mutter, transfixed by the beast’s eyes and the ceaseless droning of winged insects in the air. “What are you?”

“I am the cruelty of children, born from uncaring malice, formed from every scorched ant, splattered bug, or squashed toad. Heedless to the pain and suffering you cause, you kill us by the thousands for idle entertainment. So many of you scuttle and crawl beneath me now in darkened tunnels, unknowingly cultivating the resources needed to form such a thing as myself. I am King Toady of the Tower; you will now join my kingdom.” 

A sickly pink tongue shot out past Leo and caught Hunter, who had just reached the door, and pulled him toward Toady. The sound of his spine snapping from the sudden tug was quickly drowned out by his body splattering on the far wall on impact. Jeremy turned to run, but Toady launched himself in a rotten heap and smashed him under a webbed foot. When Toady stepped aside to turn again toward Leo, all that remained of Jeremy was a red smear, resembling the monstrous Toad himself. 

The exit was blocked, but just beyond King Toady, Leo could see a blue hole in the ground; it was the fabled blue slide. He ran as fast as his legs would go and leaped toward the slide, but he never got the chance to land. Leo felt the wind being knocked out of him as a wet mass hit him midair. He hung for a millisecond above the slide, peering down into the darkness that would have been his salvation. Instead, he lurched back toward the abyss of Toady’s open maw. He saw the world darken around him, then finally go black.

He had reached the top of Toady’s Tower and no one would ever know.