Another sleepless night of tossing and turning, another early morning. It's been a while since Kyle had a good rest, and unfortunately, today would not be the day for that. He had work in a few hours for one thing. For some odd reason, he suddenly was thinking about his dad. 'Come to think of it, I haven't checked out my dad's travel room for a while now. Not since the incident, anyway.'
It would be a lie to say that he wasn't a little curious. Just what did his dad keep stashed away in the more hidden areas of the room? He simply had to find out.
The room was upstairs, at the end of the hallway. It appeared to be a part of the wall, but Kyle discovered it by accident one day when he was a little boy. He put his hands on either side of the hidden door. 'Well, here goes nothing.' With more resistance than he remembered, the two sections of the door spun towards him from the middle, revealing a narrow opening that he could barely squeeze by. Once inside, his eyes widened as he looked around.
It was a modest room, not too large. The settled dust and lack of outside light gave it a strong, musty smell. A small bed occupied the center of the left wall, and there were several books stacked near the bed. Looking at the walls, they were covered in souvenirs and tokens of his dad's travels. Wooden tribal masks, hand-crafted statuettes, ornate paintings. All kind's of rare and neat stuff could be found in this mysterious room.
'Nothing seems different from what I remember. It's all the same, just like how it looked when he last showed it to me...right before he died.' After walking around for a bit, Kyle stepped on a part of the wooden floor that felt hollow. "What the hell?" He noticed that there was a trapdoor. Curiously, he lifted it up, which required a great amount of strength. Once he got it completely open, he saw a secret compartment. It was somewhat spacious, not enough for a person to fit inside. Something was inside, however.
"What... is this thing?" Kyle couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. It was clearly some sort of mechanical contraption, that much was certain. And what's funny is that he never knew this thing was in the room, even though it was here all this time.
Afraid to touch it at first, he slowly lifted it from the floor, realizing that it was pretty damn heavy. Taking a closer look, he noticed it had three sharp prongs attached at the front. Towards the back was a protruding column that seemed to beckon for a human hand. And, near where the index finger of that hand would reach, there was a trigger button.
Looking at the floor for some reason, Kyle then noticed a small piece of paper that was inside the trapdoor. He didn't see it until now, since the device was apparently on top of it before he picked it up. 'Hmm...interesting.' Upon reaching for the paper, he read the single word written on it, 'Atomizer'.
"Neat." Carefully, yet unsure of its operation, he lightly pressed the trigger button, just to see if it would still work after all this time. At once, the three prongs at the front sprung to life, each one releasing bright bolts of electricity, while the device was making a loud electric-like noise. The burst of energy ended up blasting the wall in front of Kyle, sending him backwards with great force.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" He let go of the button in the process and the stream cut off. Once again, everything was silent. "What... the FUCK ...was that!" Well...mostly silent, anyway.
Kyle got up and brushed himself off slowly, wincing as he looked at his hands. The device apparently had caused minor burns to both of them. 'Goddammit, I shouldn't have done that.' He studied the wall he had hit, and it seemed that it wasn't damaged that badly. Just a few small cracks and a fairly small dent. "But still...Jesus...I only pressed the button lightly. Just think...at full power..."
"Why does dad have something like this? I don't understand." Kyle picked it back up, getting used to it's weight. He figured that the best thing to do for now was to hide it. He didn't want his mom to ever know about this thing. He placed the monstrosity back inside it's secret trapdoor home, and he headed out of his dad's room, making sure the secret door was put back the way it was before.
It's Sunday morning, and Kyle had the day off. He received a phone call. He checked the phone and groaned as he answered it. "What do you want, John?"
John's tone was serious on the other line. "We never hang out anymore. What gives, man? Think you're so special with your fancy new job? Well, not today you're not. I'm off from work, so I was thinking I'd head over there and we can play some PS3 or whatever."
"Sure, that sounds good. What time did you want to come over?" Kyle suddenly heard a knock on the door.
"Uh... Now? I'm at your door." John laughed quite a bit.
Kyle groaned again and hung up. He got dressed haphazardly and opened the front door. "All right already, get inside."
"Thanks, buddy." John made himself at home on the couch in front of the TV. "Hey, did you ever get that Honorfield game you were talking about?"
"Nah, someone took the last copy, remember? Now I can't find it anywhere." Kyle picked out something else. "This is a good one." He held up the cartridge.
"...'Space Canine'? Isn't that an M64 game? I haven't played that in ages. It's an oldie but a goodie." John picked up the shuriken-like controller.
Kyle put the game in and the menu came up. "I'll take Blippy." Blippy was quite an annoying character.
"I got Preppy." John also picked an annoying character, who always suggested that the protagonist perform a specific aerial maneuver.
The game now officially started and the two boys heard this coming from the screen, "Gentlemen. This is General Popper. As part of the Bornerian Defense Force, you have been tasked with..." Blab, blah, blah!
The game went on for a little less than an hour. They got pretty far after having to restart the game a few times.
John was about to leave. However, he had to ask a question first. "So you wanna play again tomorrow?"
Suddenly, Kyle received another call; it was from Sabrina. "Hold on, John, I have to take this." Kyle went to another room.
"Hey Kyle." Sabrina was on the line, she sounded a bit different than usual. Less of a bitch, for some reason. "I was going to tell you sooner, but anyway, me and Asahi are going to the beach tomorrow and... well, maybe you could come if you want, I guess. Not that I care what you do. In fact, don't come. But you will anyway, so whatever. Just get to Asahi's house on time. We'll be leaving at 10 AM. So... yeah, whatever. Bye." She hung up abruptly.
Kyle had a twitch in his eye. 'I hate short notices, dammit. But I can't miss this. Asahi in a swimsuit...' His face contorted into a perverted smile. 'I must go at all costs!' He ran back into the living room and slid to a halt. "John, something came up, so I'm gonna have to cancel our game tomorrow. Now get out of here, I have to pack stuff."
John demanded to be in the loop. "Now hold on here! Who was that on the phone? Out with it!"
"Just a couple of girls', all right? Anyway, that's got nothing to do with you, so don't worry about it." Kyle was getting annoyed.
"Girls'...? As in, more than one? When did you become Mr. Popular? Come on, introduce me to them!" John wasn't about to give up.
"No way! They're taken. And by that, I mean they're mine. All for me, none for you, that's how it works. It's my show here, got it?" Kyle wasn't giving any ground, either.
"You son of a... What happened to bro's before ho's?" John brought up the unbreakable bro rule.
"If you're so adamant 'bout it, fine. We're going to the beach tomorrow. You can come too and I can introduce you there. Now shut up and leave!" Kyle kicked John out so he could prepare his things in peace.