Haunteds

Chapter 6

We rushed inside to the arcade room. Everyone was buzzing with excitement.

"Whooaaa..."

"This is awesome!"

"But we don't have our wallets with us," Demi asked Major Coleman. "How are we going to play?"

While Major Coleman explained to him that all the games were rigged with infinite credits, I looked around. The place was like, well, an arcade, but with more stuff.  There were the usual games. A House of the Dead 4 horror, shooting game. A Initial D racing game. And a basketball game with a high score of 135 points. That won't be hard to beat.

Caprice and Harmony were checking out the Dance Revolution game that's in the center of the room. Unlike the old, Dance Dance Revolution game that uses a dance pad, this one is played with motion-sensor cameras.

There were a dozen desktop computers arranged in a way that users would be sitting across each other. I'm guessing the set up is to prevent cheating during team games—maybe previous haunteds complained about it before.

On the other side of the room, there were flat-screen televisions attached to the wall, connected to a couple of Playstation 4 so at least four people can play at a time.

"Why not get PS5s? I asked Major Coleman.

"Put in a request," Major Coleman said. "And we'll make it happen."

"Why do you have that?" Indigo asked Major Coleman, her finger pointed at the Japanese photo booth, Purikura. "We're all going to be headless, right?"

"Last year's haunteds were... adventurous." Major Coleman said.

"They want photos of their selves without their heads? For what? Souvenirs?" Indigo said. " Weirdos."

"Sounds fun, actually," Kent said. "Wanna take one?"

Indigo scowled. "Pass."

I scanned the arcade again. At the far back, there was another room.

"Hey, want to check that out?" I asked Cana, pointing to the room.

Her lips curled up to the sides. "Sure."

Peering through the large windows, I could see that, inside, it was a karaoke room. There was just one karaoke machine. A sofa set was arranged in a U with a glass table in the middle. 

"I wish they had individual rooms instead," Cana said.

"Why? Are you shy? You shouldn't be. I've heard you sing with your friends all the time. Your voice doesn't suck."

She stared at me in disbelief. "Was that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Um...Yeah. What's that face for?"

She sighed, shaking her head. "No wonder you never had a girlfriend."

"Wha—" I gasped.  It was so unexpected that my brain just froze. Why bring that up, all of a sudden. There literally was nothing leading up to that. And how did she know? I mean, it's not really a secret but I don't broadcast my love life to everyone in class either.

"Listen!" Major Coleman shouted. He had to otherwise he wouldn't get our attention. And good timing too because I really don't have a clever comeback. "You can come back later anytime you want but for now, let's move on with the tour."

I thought there was another door connecting this room to the movie theater but instead, we filed out of the room, back to the visitor's lounge.

We entered the last exciting room on the first floor, the movie theater. The screen was just an empty wall on one side of the room. On the opposite side, there was a movie projector mounted on its stand; a laptop was connected to it. In between were two rows of seats, each row have six single-seat grey couches complete with armrest and cup holders. A square-shaped air conditioner was installed into the ceiling above. Compared to the previous three, this room is pretty small.