Shadow of Death (SOD)

Chapter 61

Days passed in a blur.

Well, Asher was incapable of keeping count of the days, so he didn’t even know exactly how long he had spent with his family.

To him, it didn’t even feel like more than three days.

All he knew was that he was at his happiest.

His family were great as usual.

Since they would be moving to Vespers in less than a month and a half, Jesse had stopped going to school.

After searching for work for the past month, Jayden had decided to take a breather. He planned to resume his search once they got to Vespers.

The only person who went out regularly was Jack, who always headed off to work.

The rest were always at home.

Bickering.

Discussing.

Playing games.

And then going about their own things at different intervals.

Asher was more than comfortable.

No issues.

No problems.

This was the perfect life he had always wanted.

His heart was more than at peace.

He ate whenever he wanted, slept whenever he wanted, and woke up whenever he wanted.

The only odd thing was that he never dreamt whenever he slept.

Normally, he always had dreams almost every day or, at the very least, several times a week.

But for some reason, he hadn’t dreamt at all these past few days.

Asher didn’t know why.

But he decided not to let the issue bother him.

He shoved it to the back of his mind and, at some point along the way, even forgot about it completely.

Instead, he chose to enjoy his time with his family as much as he could.

Almost as if—

They would vanish if he didn’t spend more time with them.

Today was just like any other day.

It was Friday.

Though the day had come surprisingly fast.

One moment, it was Saturday.

And now, it was Friday?

Well, Asher ignored that.

He picked up his jacket and slipped into it before stepping outside.

His phone vibrated inside his pocket.

Pulling it out, he read the text from Rick.

{Hey bro. Where are you? Are you still coming?}

It turned out that Asher was supposed to meet up with Rick at an arcade.

Due to being cooped up in the house and wanting to spend as much time as possible with his family, Asher barely stepped outside and had even been dodging Rick’s invitations to hang out.

But he couldn’t do that forever.

So, he had accepted today’s invitation.

And now, he was ready to go meet his best friend.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out fifty bucks and stared at the money.

"Should be enough."

....

A few minutes later, a cab could be seen rolling to a stop in front of an arcade.

Asher had already paid the driver.

He wasted no time and immediately stepped out before walking into the place.

The moment he entered, he was hit by a wall of loud noises, music, and sounds coming from the different machines.

It almost overwhelmed his senses for a moment.

It took him a few seconds to shrug off the noise before he pulled out his phone and texted Rick.

"I’m here. Where are you?"

It didn’t take more than a second for a reply to pop up.

{Where are you? I will come to meet you.}

"Still at the entrance."

{Okay. Wait.}

Left with no other option, Asher decided to wait.

His foot tapped against the ground a few times as he stood there with his hands stuffed inside his pockets, casually looking around.

Different games littered the entire place.

Machines flashed with colourful lights.

Music blared from different directions.

And tons of people could be seen having the time of their lives.

From punching machines to whack-a-mole machines, dancing machines, claw machines, and countless other arcade games, there were so many activities to take part in that the entire place felt almost endless.

Everywhere Asher looked, there was something happening.

Lights flashed.

Machines beeped.

People shouted in excitement whenever they won.

A fun, appeasing tune could be heard blasting through the speakers overhead, weaving through all the other noises and somehow standing out despite the chaos surrounding it.

Asher even found himself silently whistling along to the tune.

He didn’t know why.

It simply felt familiar.

Almost as though he had known the song long before today.

Asher was a music enthusiast.

He loved songs a lot and barely did anything without some sort of music playing in the background.

Because of that, he knew practically every song that could exist, both international and local.

Yet this particular tune felt different.

He couldn’t remember where he had heard it before.

Still, he slowly nodded his head along to the rhythm, his fingers lightly tapping against his thigh.

Two minutes later, Rick could be seen appearing from somewhere within the arcade, a wide-ass smile plastered across his face.

"My bro, it’s been a while. How have you been?" he greeted as he approached the boy.

Asher raised a brow in confusion.

"Been a while? Wasn’t it just four days ago we last saw each other at the school for the last paper?"

"...."

Rick’s smile faltered for half a second.

He blinked.

Then, almost immediately, he regained himself with a small grin.

"Ah yes... my bad. That was right," he uttered as he reached his friend and stood beside him.

He then nudged Asher on the shoulder with a mocking grin.

"...Four days apart still feels like four months without you though."

Asher rolled his eyes.

"Oh, brother."

With a sigh, Asher shook his head and raised an eyebrow at the entire arcade.

"So... why am I here? Do we want to play a game? You want to challenge me? You do know that you will lose."

Rick smirked.

"Of course not. I’m not ready to challenge you yet. I called you here because of a new adventure I plan for us to embark on soon."

Asher folded his arms across his chest and leaned closer.

"Adventure? What is it?"

"...."

Rick looked around the place for a second.

His eyes moved from one person to another, seemingly making sure nobody was paying attention to their conversation.

Then he leaned closer toward Asher, getting close enough that his friend could hear whatever he was about to say without the noisy arcade drowning him out.

"I have discovered a new cemetery that’s said to be haunted at night. I’m sure this is bound to get you scared out of your wits. Wanna try?"

Asher gazed into his friend’s eyes for a few seconds before scowling.

"You won’t give up on trying to scare me, huh?"

"Until you admit that you are a normal human like us; no, I won’t. Interested?"

Asher sighed.

"You won’t stop pestering me though. And I’m also bored outta my mind here. So sure, let’s go."

Rick’s smile widened.

"Perfect. Tonight, we move."

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