Video City by LARRY MARISCAL
Today dad is taking me to the video store for my birthday! He said I can pick seven movies because that’s how old I am! I wanted to go to BlockBusters, but dad says it’s cheaper at this other one..I don’t like it as much as BlockBusters because the carpet smells weird. But maybe they finally cleaned it. I’m going to check the kid’s section for Hello Kitty movies, and dad said he wanted to get a scary movie. Oh and mom said to pick a family movie so I’ll look for that too. Something that the baby will like. Maybe Sesame Street??
Dad’s calling me now! I put on my birthday cone hat and my favorite blue jacket (it started raining hard) and ran to the car.
The video store is really close to our house so it’s really fast to get there. I open my door and jump onto the gravel lot.
Splash, crunch! Raindrops hit my head. plunk! plunk! plunk! and dad holds my hand as we walk over. By the front door is a red and white sign that reads ‘Video City’. Dad opens the door and we go in. Immediately my nose wrinkles. They still haven’t cleaned the carpet.
“Ok. I’m going to look at the scary movies. Go pick out what you want and come find me when you’re done.” Dad said. I give him a thumbs up and he pats my shoulder and walks away. The walls are white and a little bit dirty. The floor is covered with gray carpet that smells like chemicals. The movies are stacked on white shelves that line the walls and in rows across the store. Each movie genre has a section with a placard labeling it. I walk by the empty cashier station to ogle the bin of pickles. Each pickle is in a bag of green brine, and even bagged, I can smell the sour odor. Together it mixes with the popcorn machine and stale carpeting. I pinch my nose and squint. Nope, it still smells weird.
“Are you just gonna stand there, or you gonna buy something kid?” I jump and turn to see the video store clerk glaring at me. His name tag reads “Damien” with a cartoon skull next to it, and he also has a pin that reads “anti work”. Damien taps his black nails on the cashier counter as he waits for my answer.
“Um no not yet..where are the kid’s movies?” I ask meekly. Damien sighs and points off to the right.
“They’re over there. Now scram.” He says and gives me a final glare before picking at his nails. I say a quiet ‘thanks’ and shuffle in the direction he pointed. ‘Scary...he must shop at Hot Topic.” I shiver at the thought, Hot Topic is for scary music and scary people.
The kid’s section is in the back of Video City, in its own alcove. The ceiling is a little lower here, so adults have to duck their heads to get in, but I walk into the space easily. It’s a small room full of colorful movies. Immediately, my eye is drawn to a movie called “Inkheart” and I pick up the movie cover. It’s about bringing people out of books..I think I’ll get it. I put the cover down and pick up the plain “borrowing” case behind the cover. The next couple minutes I pick up and read the movie cover cases, pick a couple to take, and put others back on the shelf.
“Oo what’s that one?” A voice asks next to my ear. I yelp and whirl to the side to see another kid peeking over my shoulder. What is it with people sneaking up on me? The kid is wearing a red and yellow striped shirt, blue shorts, and a crumpled birthday hat. They scratch their cheek and look at me mischievously.
“What’s it ‘bout?” They point at the movie I’m holding currently.
“Oh it’s about Elmo..” The kid interrupts with a snort.
“Tch, that’s for babies!”
“It’s for my sister, and she is a baby.” I say, my face getting a little red because it’s one of my favorites.
“Sure it is.. Hey, is it your birthday too?” They ask, quickly changing topics. “Yeah, why?” I say and look at their crumpled birthday hat.
“Well I was just about to go to the party room to celebrate mine..and you can come if you want.” They shrug their shoulders and put their hands in their pockets.
“Um I don’t know who you are though.”
“Oh I’m Lenny..nice to meet you i guess.” Lenny mutters the last bit and then tilts their head. “So you wanna go with me?” Everything about Lenny twitches, settles, and then twitches again. They can’t seem to stand still.
“I dunno..we were just here to pick up movies, and I don’t think Video City even has a party room..” My voice trails off and Lenny gets into my personal bubble. Their eyes stare into mine urgently.
“They do though! Come on, I'll show you!” With that, Lenny grabs my hand and tugs me to the floor. With both of us on our knees, they crawl/drag us to the wall. What I hadn’t noticed before was the small red plastic door, just large enough to fit kids our size. ‘Oh this must be a fake door for like, decoration’ I thought, but Lenny pulled it open to reveal a dim tunnel.
“We have to crawl through here to get to the party room.” Lenny announced and quickly scurried into the tunnel. I sat there just peering in through the doorway. The plastic door wasn’t hinged onto the wall and the knob didn’t turn, you just pulled it open..why wasn’t there a knob on the inside..?
“You coming? Or are you chicken?” Lenny’s voice crowed from the tunnel. I huffed and began crawling through the tunnel. ‘This party room better be cool, or I’m gonna beat Lenny up’ I thought. The tunnel’s floor was covered with shredded confetti and dust bunnies. Soon my hands were grimey from the dust. It led into a room with a doorway on every wall. Lenny stood by the tunnel exit picking their nose idly.
“Oh you finally made it! Thought you got too scared or somethin’.” They flicked a booger off their finger and grinned. I squinted at the spot they flicked the booger to. “This is a pretty lame party room, Lenny.” Instead of the grin dropping from their face, Lenny’s grin widened.
“We still have to walk a bit. This is an ex-cloo-sive place after all,” They motioned towards the door directly in front of the tunnel exit, “Follow me.”
Lenny walked through the door and I followed a couple steps behind. We continued in this way for a while. Every so often, Lenny would look back to make sure I was still following. They’d also brag about our destination.
“Oh man you’re so lucky I’m taking you to the party room. There’s cake, ice cream, and balloons everywhere! And there’s party games of course,” They turned back with a grin, “I can’t be beat when it comes to games.”
The journey seemed to go on forever! After the first room, all the doors lead into rooms that looked exactly the same; beige walls with doorways (but no doors) and beige linoleum flooring. The only thing that changed was each successive room became dirtier and dirtier. We went straight, right, left, left, straight, straight again, right, left and then I lost track. So many different directions and no party room in sight! ‘At this point Lenny has to be pulling my leg, the creep.’
“Lenny we’ve been walking forever, when are we getting to the party room? I think you’re just lying about it.” I said after the 20th room. Lenny stopped walking, balled their fists, and turned to me. I took a couple steps back. Why were they so mad?
“Look here pal.” They stepped so they were an arms length away, “I go outta my way to invite a sap like you to the coolest party room, on my birthday no less, just for you to call me a liar!” They punctuate each point with a jab to my shoulder. Their face is as red as a lobster's. I raise my hands in defense.
“I’m not calling you anything! We’ve just been walking for so long it doesn’t seem like we’re going anywhere.” I said. Lenny crossed their arms.
“We’re just a couple rooms away, but I don’t think you even deserve to come with!” Lenny huffs and walks to a corner. I roll my eyes. What a drama queen! I would’ve just gone back, but the rooms were a maze to me.. and Lenny had really sold me on the party room, I had to see it!
So I took a deep breath and walked over to Lenny. They still had their back to me and I could hear sniffling. Were they crying? Oh boy.
“Hey Lenny I’m sorry for questioning the party room. I really wanna see it, can you show me please?” For a minute we stood there awkwardly as Lenny hurriedly scrubbed their face from tears. They turned to me with red eyes.
“Why should I? You don’t trust me..” They sniffed and looked down.
“I do trust you! Look, how about we put this behind us and eat a stupid amount of ice cream?” I hold out a hand and give my best smile. Lenny looks at my hand then at my smile and slowly smiles back.
“Yeah ok.” They say and shake my hand.
“Cool.” There’s an awkward pause and then Lenny walks into the next room with me behind them. I feel a little bad for making them cry, but it’s still weird they got so mad at me. The room we walk into is more party ish. There’s streamers on the wall and a couple balloons corralled in the corners. It’s like there was a party here, but a very long time ago. The streamers are tattered and the balloons are shriveled. A faint breeze picks up and scatters dust on our shoes. Lenny stops in the center of the room and turns to me with their hands clasped together.
“O-kay buddy, the next room we go into is the party room. You excited?” I nod my head slowly, ‘I hope it isn’t like this one’.
“Good! Now there’s only two rules before we go in: don’t leave until the party’s done, and..have fun! Ok let’s go!!” Lenny cheers and then runs into the party room. From the outside I can hear music playing..something familiar, but I can’t remember what it’s from. A rainbow of lights stain the doorway and glitter shimmers on the floor. I started to walk to the party room slowly, fingers crossed it wasn’t dirty and sad like this room. We finally made it after all this time. A bit of excitement spread to me. Maybe it was just like Lenny described it.
Just as I’m about to walk in, I look to my right. This room was just like the others with a doorway on all sides, and I’m looking into another doorway. It’s different, darker on the inside and there’s someone there reaching out to me, but they were too far away and I had already stepped into the party room. They looked..scared. Oh well..it doesn’t really matter anymore because..we’re..
Arcade style carpeting, dark blue with shapes and squiggles, stretched over the entire room. Two long tables on each side of the room (which was a rectangle) were heaped with pizza and wings and ice cream sandwiches and..plastic plates and cutlery, sparkling tablecloth, noisemakers, and party hats. The walls were covered with colorful drawings and twisting streamers. Bunches of blue, silver, and white balloons were in three of the room’s corners. The corner not occupied by balloons was heaped with presents wrapped in sparkling paper and cellophane. Oh man, it was shiny. Across from the door was a huge movie screen that was showing a wii game. And spinning above us was a disco ball that shot lazers! It was..it was..
“- awesome! This is awesome Lenny!” Lenny had been standing off to the side, jumped at my outburst and started giggling.
“I told you so! Now c’mon let’ play a game!” Then we ran around the room, playing the wii and games we made up with the balloons, taking breaks to shove food in our mouths, screaming to see who could be the loudest (it was Lenny), and partying as hard as we could! After an intense game of tag, we were laying on the floor. I was sipping a sunny d when I noticed the animatronic buried underneath the presents. I didn’t even notice it when we came in because it blended in perfectly. It’s left eye had reflected one of the disco’s lazers. Now I could see its left arm laying limp at its side and the rest, including the face, was covered by presents. It must’ve been as big as the pile, which went all the way to the ceiling.
“Hey Lenny.”
“What’s up?”
“D’you see something underneath the presents?” For a second, Lenny freezes then shrugs.
“Nope I don’t see anything, hey let’s boot up the wii again.” Lenny jumped up and raced over to the wii. I sat up and stared at the animatronic. I don’t like them. Every time we go to Chuck E Cheese, when Chuck E walks around off stage, I have to hide behind dad..wait. Dad is still waiting for me. I was supposed to go find him when I was done..when I was..
I had completely forgotten what I was doing before the party room, and that scared me more than the thing under the gifts, more than the way it was moving and the gifts clattered around it. I scrambled to get to my feet, but couldn’t get the footing, so I crawled as far as I could from the pile and animatronic. My hands pressed into the floor and I felt a wet patch in the carpet. I looked at my hands and saw a red stain that smelled like metal.
“Huh.” Something tugged at my brain, but the red..metal, why does it smell? And all of the food flooded my nose. The pizza became greasy and gross, wings stung my throat with acid, and the cake was too sweet, it glued my mouth shut. Why couldn’t I breathe? Because..because the floor was red and stunk of old metal, so so much metal..everything that was shiny became dull, the colors washed away, all the magic gone.. There was magic? I can’t..I can’t..no party. I’m dying? Maybe.. I don’t like it. And coming closer..beneath the matted fur..black glass eyes, it hides under its skin..dragging, clawing closer..
I’m choking on my own spit and start to crawl to the door. Behind me is a buzzing noise getting louder and louder..Lenny is screaming now, begging me not to leave before the party is over, or else it’ll be mad. But I can’t be here anymore..so I crawl and crawl, hearing the buzz get as loud as an airplane. Once my hands get off the carpet and touch linoleum, I pull myself up and run into the maze of rooms. I don’t think twice about where I’m going, I just run as fast as I can and duck into room after room..behind me the buzzing is loud, getting closer. It must be the animatronic chasing me, but I don’t look behind me to check. If I did, I might not have made it. The only thing I can do is run, until my foot slides on a stray streamer and I crack my head on the floor. The buzzing grows to an all time high, and black strings whip across my eyes before it all goes dark.
Someone shakes me awake..they’re worried and feeling my head. I’m confused and sit there quietly. They call someone.. And soon red and blue lights fill my eyes. Someone hugs me and cries. It goes dark again.
I don’t know what happened. Mom and dad took me out of school for a bit and I watch a lot of Scooby Doo. Video City closed. Maybe it has to do with me, but no one tells me anything. They ask me if I’m okay, but I’m not. One day we drove by Video City on accident.. Mom doesn’t like seeing it, but we were in a hurry.
Mom says to not look at it, but I can’t help it. Red and green paint is peeling, the sign is off, and the windows are boarded up. We’re driving fast, only it seems much slower..The screen door is broken, but I can see Lenny staring out at me from the darkness. And they look mad.
This page has paths:
- CREATIVE WORKS: FICTION & PROSE University of Alaska Anchorage Department of English