14.

Robert Ford, or Trebor as he does like to be called ... has his moment as the other four all do too.

He arrives to his room number of choice, enters and the door is locked shut behind him. This room, like every room most likely, is rather large. The lighting is extremely dim. The first thing he sees is a stall, something not unlike the stall at the carnival, the stall from the water balloon game with the exception that this stall is much smaller. It is smaller just as if it were designed for one person, not five.

Seconds pass and something is happening beyond that stall. Is there a singular water balloon game playing by all by itself? There is a balloon rising, filling up both with air and liquid. As it gets larger, he can see an imprinted face expanding upon the balloon. Eyes, nose, and a mouth on an expanding balloon the likes he has seen that once before though this one of course will be different.

The balloon's expansion quickens until it ... bursts. The liquid within sprays him and it is not water. It is something much thicker ... and coloured too. This liquid is ... blood. Hardly a couple minutes in this room and Gary is sprayed with blood. Upon discovery of what this liquid actually is, Trebor vents a squealing roar and heads right back to the entry point to the room. Of course, he can't get out in this instant. It'll be some time before he does get out if he gets out at all.

When he manages to calm from this moment, he will have to live with the thoughts that this blood quite possibly and quite likely is human blood, not animal. It cannot possibly belong to one of his friends. Surely not enough time has passed for such a thing to be set up.

Trebor has a thing for all thing's eighties related, something passed onto him from his father before things at home began to get a little ... difficult. About six months back, after parting from those friends of his on a Saturday afternoon, Trebor made his way to an old video arcade instead of heading right home. Home, especially of late, isn't the best place to be.

That arcade, however, is as good a place as any to be, well at least most of the time it is. Some of the games they have, not just the games but the machines themselves, go back as far as to the mid-eighties.

How simple things must have been back then, he wishes his home life reflected some of the simpleness that some of these games have. One joystick, two buttons and as cheap to play as they are easy. One credit could very easily offer play time of twenty to thirty minutes, longer even depending on skill level. Life, however, isn't a game and what Trebor experiences of this Saturday afternoon furthers that thought.

He entered the arcade unaware that three troublemakers, each a year or two older than he, decided to follow him in. He had only settled in to play a game of Bubble Bobble when he began to feel a little crowded. There is something about the game's theme music, it is oddly enticing, oddly comforting though comfort is not to be found on this day.

Token coin goes in, start button is pressed and the game begins. There will be no twenty to thirty-minute game time on this credit for shadow is creeping in to surround Trebor. Turning to see what or who was crowding him, it was clear to see that he was about to rightly in for it ...

Best thing to do in a situation like this is to strike first, so he does. Trebor turns and kicks the guy in the center in the groin then punches him square in the nose and is gone running before any of the three can even begin to react. Of course, the two that didn't need recovery gave chase almost right away and as it so happened Trebor was quick, he is quick. He got away so easily that he could take up a hiding position and watch those idiots fumble around looking for him.

His speed even was such that when he accidently knocked some rubbish over, giving away his location, still he had enough time to put enough distance between them and him to ensure he wouldn't be caught though the following day his luck would run out. Actually, his luck would run out upon returning home.

Dad questions him as to why he has blood on his hand. It is only a couple of specs but no matter what reasoning he may off, it wouldn't be a good enough answer for dad, so once again using that speed of his, Trebor ran to his bedroom and locked himself inside only to endure five minutes or so of dad thumping the door in, demanding answers, demanding his son to open the door and get his ...

Back in the company of his besties, what were the chances that those three fellows from the day before would so happen to come into close contact with him. Yeah, the bullies from the arcade are nearby.

When it hit as to who he is and as to who they were, there was no more than twenty-five feet between them. Not all so much of a head start though Trebor was gone and so were that trio, gone off in pursuit of Trebor before Alex could get the question out 'what was that all about?'

'Who knows?' Keith says, shrugging the incident off as if it were nothing to worry about.

'Shouldn't we, er, do something? Follow on or something? See if everything will be fine?' Alisha asks.

'He'll be fine' Keith says, reiterating his position.

'I don't know' Gary says. The five are friends after all, shouldn't they always have each other's backs even when the one in need is more than capable of, not so much as to sort things out, but get away without a scratch?

It's decided. Perhaps it is best to go ensure all is well.

Back within the darkness of the room he been locked inside of, and a sound Trebor would never expect to hear in a place like this, begins to sound out. This continuous sound is hidden somewhere within the darkness. Should Trebor make his way towards that sound or perhaps stay out of the darkness and remain right where he is? Heck, a long night lays ahead, can't really wait around for something to come to him.

Into the darkness is the decision made. That continuous sound, it is music, very familiar music and it begins to louden once the decision is made to go to it. Indeed, once a move has begun something lights up. A video game is what it is, an old arcade style video game. As it happens, the game is Bubble Bobble ...