Read Tales From The Crater Town :: Neighbors

Sammy sat on her bed, plucking idly at her purple electric guitar, her fluffy blue comforter compressing under her weight. It was two days before the start of her freshman year of high school and she had no idea what to do with herself. It was a long enough time that it would feel wasted if she did nothing, but it wasn’t long enough to start anything significant. She gazed out at the bright noon sky from her bedroom window.

A voice called from downstairs.

“Sammy, honey! Come down for lunch!”

A pot of soup sat at the center of the wooden dining table, flanked by a plate of sandwiches, cut in half diagonally. Sammy repeatedly tapped her foot while seated at the table, grabbing a couple sandwiches to put on her plate, followed by a heap of salad and too much dressing.

“I heard we’re getting new neighbors,” Sammy’s dad noted.

“The Destroia family, I think their name was.”

“I heard there’s a kid your age, Sammy.”

“She’s not a kid anymore, Simone, she can introduce herself.”

“Destroia? Haven’t we heard that name on the news before?”

Sammy chomped on a forkful of salad, getting some balsamic vinaigrette on her lips.

* * *

The repetitive clunking and buzzes of power tools grew louder as the family approached the odd house which had been vacant for fifteen years. Tens of machines skittered around the towering structure on top, sparks flying and metal moving. It smelled lightly of smoke and iron. A tall woman in a hard hat stood out on the long driveway, surveying the work. A small dome shaped machine approached her, timidly holding out some kind of dish.

“No, no! Put that over there!”

It turned away, almost looking disappointed with itself.

“You must be Dr. Destroia.”

The lanky woman jumped slightly, before turning around. Her face had a youthful quality reminiscent of the plucky sort of grad student whose optimism hadn’t yet been completely crushed by the realities of the working world. She brushed back stray strands of hair with her fingers and quickly scanned over the unfamiliar people, smiling politely.

“And you must be neighbors! Please, call me Susan,” she said, extending her hand.

“I’m Sal,” Sammy’s dad said, shaking Susan’s hand firmly. “This is my wife Simone and our daughter Sammy.”

“It’s lovely to meet you all!”

Sammy glanced at her unusual new neighbor, her attention captured by the inscrutable device around her neck and welding gloves on her hands.

“Aren’t you some kind of villain?”

“Sammy, be polite.”

“No, it’s fine! I’m a supervillain,” Susan said, before pausing. “Ex-supervillain.”

“I’m, uh… reformed.”

Susan cleared her throat, adjusting the neck of her shirt. In a sudden motion, she turned around to face her house.

“Hey, Lane!” Susan shouted. “Come be sociable and meet our neighbors!”

After a moment, out of the door trudged a boy with medium-short black hair that covered his near-black eyes and olive skin like his sister. He wore a hoodie despite the fairly warm weather. He stood, slightly hunched over next to Susan, only making eye contact for split seconds before looking away.

“This is my lil’ bro, Lane.”

“Hi.”

“He’s a bit shy.”

“Y-you don’t have to say that.”

Sammy made eye contact with the shorter boy, grinning at him. Lane smiled back slightly.

* * *

“I-if you don’t want to, we don’t really have to hang out just because my sister said we should—”

“Nah, it’s cool! I figured we could check out the lake!”

The two walked along the wooded path, the sun casting mottled patterns on the ground through the shifting leaves. An earthy scent permeated the area, and rhythmic chirping sounds punctuated the otherwise fairly quiet air. Lane had never been the outdoorsy type, but something about the scenery touched him, putting him at a strange ease. A breeze blew through Sammy’s long ears, rustling her plaid skirt.

Sammy tilted her head.

“You’ve never been to this town before?”

“Right.”

“I figured you’d be more weirded out by how me and my family look.”

Lane pushed a stray section of hair behind his ear.

“My sister told me people in this town tend to look different,” Lane said. “Besides, she’s probably weirder than your family herself.”

Sammy chuckled.

“I’ve seen those old cartoons,” she started. “Dad says they based how they look off of my great-grandfather because the animator and him were old war buddies. I don’t know if it’s true though.”

“I’d believe it, I think.”

They continued along the path, and slowly the narrow view began to open up.

“Look, we’re here!”

Sunlight shimmered on the water’s surface, it was clear enough to see plentiful fish swimming around. Rocky little cliffs and smatterings of tall evergreen trees surrounded the lake. A lure softly plunked into the pristine water as someone sitting on the pier cast a line. The air had a refreshing quality to it.

“Pretty, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…”

“It’s a great swimming spot too! Just don’t go too far from the shore.”

“Are there currents or something?”

“Sort of? If you go too far out you might end up in this gas station the next town over.”

“Gas station?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of sketchy.”

“Huh.”

There was splashing and a ratcheting as a fish was reeled in. A bird sang a little melody from atop the trees.

“I don’t really like swimming anyway,” Lane finally said.

“Why not?”

“I dunno, I guess I don’t like being shirtless.”

“Well you don’t have to be shirtless.”

“But then I’d be walking around in a wet shirt.”

“Oh, yeah…” Sammy said, pausing in thought. “What do you like doing?”

* * *

Muffled pop music blared over the speakers, multicolored lights illuminated the space patterned carpet, only mildly obscuring the ancient splotches of hardened gum that slightly stuck to Lane’s shoes as he walked across it to the nearest light gun game. He’d been somewhere like this before, maybe a birthday party in elementary school that the whole class got invited to. He was barely tall enough to see the screen on the light gun games back then. Sammy plopped a few quarters into the machine. The level select music started playing.

“Any good at these?” asked Sammy, picking up the Second Player gun.

“Not really. I mostly play single-player stuff at home.”

They selected the first level, and watched as the helicopter carrying their characters crashed into a mysterious island. The gameplay started, Lane and Sammy blasted their way through various giant bugs with relative competency. The score was tallied up.

“You’re not bad at it.”

Lane scratched his head.

“Bonus Level Unlock!” shouted the game announcer’s compressed voice.

The screen tore for a split second, inverted bars of colors shuddered, and the screen blinked out.

“Is it broken?”

“It might be? Or maybe—”

The screen went white. A little dot appeared in the middle of the screen that slowly grew bigger and bigger, details becoming clearer and clearer. A low-poly man hunched over a computer desk.

“Who is that?”

“I think that’s a developer.”

The camera zoomed uncomfortably close to the man. The screen shuddered. The repetitive sound of the clacking keyboard emanated from the game’s speakers.

“Should we leave?”

“I don’t want to waste your quarters…”

The man’s head turned slowly towards them, the pixelated photo used as a face texture slowly becoming clear. Blood ran from his eyes.

“This is… a pretty s-sudden tone shift,” Lane noted.

“Damn. I think this is one of those haunted secret versions with the trapped soul of a worked-to-death developer. Or something.”

“Kill me!” said the man in the game.

“Yeah, let’s do something else,” Lane said shakily.

The pair walked away from the game cabinet as it zoomed in on his detailed, realistic eyes.

“Wanna stick around the arcade? We also have this game that was supposedly made as part of a secret government mind control experiment, I hear it’s pretty addicting.”

The game cabinet started screaming.

“I-I’m not really feeling it.”

* * *

Lane jumped at the feeling of the ice cold soda suddenly at his neck. Sammy giggled, dropping the can into Lane’s hands as they fumbled to get a solid grasp. The can hissed as he picked at the tab. Sammy sat next to him on the park bench and took a sip of hers.

“I’m sorry I ended up showing you all sorts of weird stuff.”

“It’s ok.”

“I tend to get kind of carried away.”

“I don’t mind it at all, I think it’s kind of cool how you know so much,” Lane said, taking a sip. “Besides, it’s better than being boring like me.”

Lane watched as tiny sparkly bubbles jumped out from inside the can.

“You’re not boring!” Sammy said a little louder than she meant to.

Lane was taken aback.

“You’re nice and kind of funny, and I wanna know more about you.”

“R-really?”

Sammy cupped her hands around his, squeezing gently.

“Yeah! Let’s be friends!”

“I… are you sure?”