Simco Road

"Why shouldn't you?"

"Well, I mean...I figured this was one of those employees-only areas, you know." Nick replied. "All I was trying to do was hit the restroom."

"But you've seen other people down here, haven't you." The woman said. Like the other staff, she did not seem to have a name tag.

"Yeah, a couple people." He replied.

"And you've seen, other things."

Nick perked up.

"Yes." He replied. "You mean, this place is haunted. I know. So, what do you know about that? What the fuck is going on? Sorry for swearing but..."

"Follow me, and let me explain." She said.

Nick followed the woman, around a corner and back down the same dingy hallway he almost recognized when he first stepped down here. The stairs are right around that next bend, I could just bail now...he thought, but his curiosity was piqued and he really wanted to know what she had to say. She led him into the locker room/restroom area where he had first encountered the shadow people.

She sat across from him on one of the benches.

"Those shadowy things you have seen are like us. And like you. Because like you, they've been here a very long time, yet perhaps no time at all."

Puzzled by this riddle, Nick asked "How long have YOU been here?"

"How long have you?" she replied.

"Uh...an hour, two, actually I'm not sure, come to think of it." Again, images flashed through his head. Of intense pleasure, then of crashing steel and glass, pain, and sudden darkness. He suddenly thought of Mandy. She was still upstairs, at least, he thought.

"I don't know either. None of us know. Eternity, or no time at all. Time does not exist here." She replied.

"What does that mean? Oh you mean, the clocks? Yeah I know...You can lose a ton of money here before you figure out what time it is. That's why you guys have no clocks here, right?"

"No." She said, gravely.

"You can lose a lot more than money by gambling." She went on. "People take risks all the time beyond simply pulling a lever of a slot machine. And sometimes those risks, the stakes are a lot higher than just a few lost coins."

"You mean, like, risks, with life?"

"Yes." She said. "You don't even remember how you got here, do you. But you will. You will remember. Because the only thing you have now is one silver token. Your last coin, your last gamble. You tested your luck to come here, now test it to leave. Luck is all you have left now."

"Yeah, you're right... All I got is this one token." (How did she know this? He wondered.) "Is this a special token? Like, worth more than one spin?"

He took it out of his pocket and showed it to her.

"Yes. It is special. It is just one spin, but it is worth far more than you can imagine, so use it well. You've been given a chance that few others in your position ever get, but only luck can save you now. On this floor, there is one slot machine. It's not like the ones upstairs, as you would suspect. Take a left down the hall, third door on the right, and you will see it, in the back of the room."

"Thanks...ma'am, whoever you are?"

"Just call me the manager." She replied.

And with that, the woman seemed to de-materialize, fade into transparency, then disappear, like a ghost. Too alarmed to realize what happened, Nick stood up- just as a shadow glided into the room, like a wisp of black smoke. It looked more insubstantial than the ones in the hall he had seen earlier, but Nick could see its malevolent eyes and claws as it twirled and writhed into the dingy basement room.

Nick cried out in alarm, but the room was silent. Nobody could hear him. As the shadowy mass drifted near him, he screamed out, and fled the room.

In a panic, he ran down the hall, not even remembering in which direction the stairs to the main floor lay. He was hopelessly lost down here, in this haunted, endless dreary maze of concrete cellar rooms. He was nearly in a blind panic, when he remembered the manager's last advice- third door on the right. He did not even stop to look over his shoulder as he counted the doors- a set of double doors, another steel door that was partially ajar, and a third single door. He pushed it open.

It was a bare, windowless room, almost pitch dark. Nick fumbled for a light switch and found one. The room was empty except for one slot machine standing at the back. The thing was painted a matte black, with none of the flashing lights or other gaudy graphics of your typical slot machine. It was like someone had spray painted the entire thing over with black enamel. Only when Nick examined it, he realized that was not the case; it was simply made of jet black wood, with the only décor being the three-bar display and the handle. And one coin slot.

Nick dropped his one remaining silver token into the machine and pulled the lever. The wheels spun, rolling like car tires. Images of skulls, the Grim Reaper, fire and daggers and death flashed by on the display. A car, skidding across a desert road. The same car, overturned, the smell of beer and gasoline, and mutilated bodies burning in the wreckage. Smoke whirled and twisted, from the machine. The shadow people were almost on him now. He could almost hear them scratching, feel their icy cold claws upon him, as they began to drift into the room. When the first bar stopped, a peculiar symbol of a cross with a loop on the top displayed. Then the second one stopped on the same peculiar looped cross symbol. Then the third bar stopped moving. He remembered nothing else.

--4--

Mandy was sitting at the bar. She was out of tokens, and out of money, and out of soda. Sober or no, she was starting to feel weak, drunk, and, well, shadowy. A peculiar coldness began to envelop her body. The room seemed to turn grey.

Suddenly the bartender smiled at her, a big toothy grin.

"Last call." He said.

"What's last call? Are you guys closing? Wait, what's happening to me?" She cried, alarmed.

"That is up to you. But for now, please accept this complementary token. On the house. The final choice will be yours."

The bartender handed her a silver dollar.

--5--

Wess was down to his last token. He plunked it into the machine, pulled the handle and...

...Suddenly he realized he had to take a leak, and Nick and Mandy were just about to hit the road. Better go take care of business now while he had a chance. It's a long drive to this Grandview place, he thought.

Sitting in the driver's seat of the Altima, Nick was getting impatient. He had wanted to be on the road and out of here at least 15 minutes ago. "Wait... hold on, I gotta take a piss. Where are my cigarettes!" Wess was saying.

"FUCK. Okay, but hurry up, fucksackner!" Nick replied.

He looked over at Mandy. She looked so deliciously naughty in that tiny little red miniskirt. He wanted nothing more than to have a little private time with her right then and there, to take her in the warm, fragrant spring air...because by the end of the night he might be too drunk to really enjoy it, or at least, certainly far more drunk than he was now. Which reminds me, he thought...reminds me of what? Of something; a faint dark shadowy figure in his mind seemed to flicker for a second.

"Hey Mandy?" He said.

"Huh, wassup?" She replied.

"Uh... would you do me a favor?"

Mandy smiled. "Maybe if you do ME a favor."

"Sure, okay... but would you mind... I mean... would you mind driving us? I've already had like five of these." Nick said, tossing his now empty beer can into the back seat. "Don't want the cops to roll on me, you know."

"Alright. Sure. I'll drive! Move on over hot shot!" Nick exited the car and hopped over to the passenger side. Reaching into her pocket to finger her lucky silver dollar- for good luck- Mandy slid over into the driver seat.