The key in her pocket weighed heavily against her side screaming at her, making it blatantly aware to her. In the heat, the cool metal was foreign against her skin as she pulled it out to examine the fashioned hunk of metal. The city flashed past like a movie reel as she stroked the rigs, slowly faded into abandonment.
The AC constantly pushed on the obdurately dense air, making the heat swirl around their faces. While the black leather seats of the expensive car seared further into her skin, the man sitting next to her in the driver's seat cleared his throat, somewhat successfully cutting through the thick atmosphere.
"You know, I was always surprised that your father never sold this place." Edward Dillinger said with a small laugh on his lips. He glanced at his unresponsive passenger. His laugh morphed into a nervous laugh, at least, more nervous than it already was. He quickly cut it off. "I guess it must've been a very special place."
"It is."
He nodded slightly, "Of course."
They drove a ways until he felt in inclined to fill up some of the overwhelming silence.
He stole a glance at her before looking back at the road. The car started to drift to the right over the double yellow line. "You know, you don't have to do this now. It will still be there when you're done mourning." A quick flick of the wheel brought the car back on course and reminded Dillinger of how distracted he can get.
"No." she said, "I need to do this now." Hard gaze fixed in concentration on the window, not seeing past the glass. "I mean, it's not like I can sit around moping forever."
He fought the urge to take his eyes from the road to look at her expression. "Is that what you think you've been doing?"
"According to my therapist."
"Really?"
"Paraphrased, she used more words." She put the key back in her pocket. "Like, a lot more words."
They came to a stop outside a building. "Here we are."
She opened the door with a soft click as she stepped out of the car. "I have money, I don't know how long I'll been here but I'll take a cab back to your place when I'm done, K?" She turned her gaze to the arcade, taking the key out of her skirt pocket as she made her way to the front door.
"Ada."
She turned back to him, "Hm."
"Take all the time you need, but please, don't bring it back with you. It will be hard but you just need to try."
"I know."
"And remember," he took of his glasses and started cleaning them with his shirt. "You always had a home with us."
She smiled, the most genuine one in a while. "I know."
The plastic coated games made various pathways.
The dust in the air clung to the inside of her throat. She let out a violent sneeze.
Out of all the machines, only one stood out above the rest. Letters were hoisted upon the wall that read TRON.
Once in front of the game, she paused. It was weird to think that the origin of half her ancestry was behind that door, if you could even call it that.
Pushing aside the console the door was waiting. Once the mangy thing was pried open, she stepped inside to find herself in a familiar short, narrow corridor that smelled of must. At the end was a stair case.
Pulling out her flashlight, she traipsed down the hall and made her way down the stairs. The heat rose up around her. She welcomed the change with relief.
Once at the bottom, she swung the door open and stepped into the dinky room. She turned the lights on.
Gone were the days of dust and cobwebs. Her father had made a point to take care of the room each time he came. It was the only progress he ever makes while in this room.
After a long, reminiscent pause, she swooped into the leather spiny chair placed in front of the over-sized iPad.
Out here, the computer didn't show any trace of the grid. It didn't even show any evidence of a deletion. It was a mystery that had plagued she parents for years. They took that burden to the death bed. Each one had made a point of begging her to figure out what happened to it before they died.
She flipped a few black strands of hair behind her ears and cracked her knuckles. "Well, Dad. I guess it's time to really see what's left of the grid. That is, if anything is left." It is very possible that she could end up in some kind of digital space limbo.
She typed in the code, looked around one last time and pressed enter. There was a sharp whine coming from behind. She didn't look back.
She closed her eyes and smiled, "see you on the flip side."
Pahahaha, its been like what, a year?
Anyway, here's a skimpy chapter. I would've liked to post something longer but this is what I've got. Hopefully we can get to something a little more interesting then this, but this chapter is still important, I think.
Good news is that I have at least 12 more chapter written already. You can thank Nano Wrimo for that. I guess the bad news is that I don't really know where this story is going anymore. I think the description says something about Doctor Who, well that might change. If I officially cut it from the story I'll take it off the description. So, basically a lot of editing in the future for me, yay.
Oh, and Oblitus Angeli, I honestly don't know when Danny will come into this story because (1) I'm rethinking some of the stuff I've written and (2) I think I need to introduce some more aspects of the story first. But the answer is soon, given that I don't take another year before I update again, hahahahaha, I'm crying on the inside.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
-Squat