“You think that’s what happened to the merman?”Blake asked.
Celeste shrugged.“If he’s a pygmalion, then that should be the case.”
“But is there something else it could be?”Blake asked.“Like a demon or…?”
Celeste simply smiled.“Well, there’s one way to check.”
4
Monday, August 1
(Thirty Minutes Before)
It was one in the morning.
In one hand, Blake gripped the keys to the arcade for dear life, and in the other he held his cellphone.Anxiety coursed through him as he paced outside the doors to the castle arcade, watching for signs of life inside.He’d called his manager Lovepreet several times to make sure this was okay, since her uncle owned the park, as well as several other Water Zones throughout the state.The last thing he needed was to be arrested for trespassing.The owner was a notorious jackass about the strict set of rules he imposed upon his employees.
“My sister and I practically used to live there growing up,” Lovepreet had assured him.“I let people in all the time to grab stuff they left in the staff room.Just be sure to shut off the alarm like you usually do in the mornings and reset it before you leave.”
“And it’s okay if I go into the water park?”Blake triple-checked.
“Yeah, once you disable the main alarm it’ll turn off all the sensors in the park, too,” Lovepreet told him.“I hope you find your Hydro Flask, B—those things are so darn expensive.Not to be a jerk, but if you left it in the park and nobody brought it to the lost and found, someone probably snatched it.”
“It’s fine, thanks for lending me a hand,” Blake told her.“Have a good one.”
What he hadn’t told Lovepreet was that he’d be bringing Celeste along with him, but he assumed it was okay.After all, Blake didn’t know what kind of insane polyamorous nonsense his friends got up to in the staff lounge after closing, but it was probably a lot more illegal than what he was doing at that moment.
Blake’s head twitched to the entrance of the parking lot as he heard tires crunch over the loose grit of the asphalt.An aging white Camry decorated with a myriad of holographic cryptid stickers rolled into the lot, parking under one of the buzzing streetlights.The car throbbed with the bass of a hyperpop song which was cut off before Celeste stepped out of the driver’s seat.
“Ew, you work here?”were the first words out of their mouth.“Why?Don’t you have a degree?A determined racoon could do this job.”
“Youknewthat I work here.”Blake scowled over at them as they crossed the parking lot to the front of the castle.“I need the money—and it’s a lot harder of a job than it looks!Most minimum-wage jobs are.”
“Hard?Tch,” Celeste made a great show of flipping their icy blonde hair.“Try doing psychic warfare with your cousins over changing the TV channel.”
“I—” Blake had no idea how literal Celeste was being, but a talking waterpark decoration was enough weirdness for one day.He didn’t have the mental fortitude to handle psychic battle cousins on top of everything else.
“The hell are you doing getting on my case?”Blake growled in place of granting Celeste’s insane statement any further thought.“Didn’t you use to come here?”
“Yeah, when I wassix,” Celeste scoffed.“It was a lot nicer back then.”
Blake had to agree—Water Zone had seen better days back when it had first opened sometime in the aughts as Slide Palace.These days the facilities were safe (…probably), but the structures on the golf course and the castle itself needed a little tender love and care.However, in Blake’s opinion, the only things that required immediate attention were the tacky, peeling murals inside the birthday rooms… and the Laffin Sal animatronic.Thatthing needed to be destroyed for the good of humanity.
Blake switched on his phone’s flashlight and headed for the castle doors, Celeste following along behind him.After fussing with the aging locks, he stepped inside, approaching the wailing alarm on the side of the staircase and disarming it.
It was always weird being inside the near-silent arcade.Without the cacophony of the cabs and screaming children charging up and down the aisles, everything was wrong.The only sound in the building came from the distant demo gameplay from the metroidvania platformer in the back that no one knew how to shut off properly—it was somehow worse than if it had been completely quiet.Blake guided Celeste through the heart of the arcade and to the back doors that led to the waterpark.
“This place is disgusting,” Celeste complained, folding their arms over their chest with aversion.“How do you not come down with pink eye every other week?”
“You should see the guy that has to clean the ballpit,” Blake joked.Celeste laughed as they rounded the prize counter.“I’ll let you know that thing gets shat in on abi-weeklybasis.”
Celeste retched performatively as Blake unlocked the doors.They stepped out into the balmy summer night, the air heavy with the content croaks of the frogs that lived in the mini golf ponds.Some of the work lights in the water park were still on to help deter vandals.
“So why do you think the pygmalion decided to show himself to me now?”Blake asked Celeste as the two strolled along the dark silhouettes of the water slides.
Celeste shrugged, “Hard to say—maybe he didn’t have anything to say before.Maybe yesterday you were in the right state of mind to hear him.”
Blake frowned.“What do you mean by that?”
