Johnny emerged on the second level into one of its triangle-shaped rooms.

  This floor was entirely different from the first one, with another eccentric layout to be expected from this whimsical place. There were four open-walled rooms divided in an unusual way, with the four corners sprouting a partition so that the entire level would look like a big “X” from above.

  Each of these triangular rooms had a complex arrangement of games, forming mini-mazes with aisles and pathways lined with machines blaring a lively chorus of computerized sounds.

  With only video games to fill up the entire bewildering space, it made this second level feel even larger – yet with its slightly dimmer lighting, carpeted floor, and far less shouting and general bustle, it also felt somehow cozier.

  And at the center was the most interesting part.

  The four partitions from each corner extended inward and stopped before reaching the center to form a circular open space about 50 feet in diameter. A number of machines formed a smaller ring within this space, surrounding a central column that housed a stairwell leading up to the third level.

  Affixed to the top of this column, more than thirty feet up near the ceiling and tilted downward, was a circle of massive display screens that showed the interconnected game that the machines in the inner ring were playing.

  The games changed every time, of course – last time it had been a very realistic karate fighting game – and today it looked like a battle tank game, with all the players navigating and blasting away at each other in the 360 degree view of a dusty wasteland.

  Johnny watched the screens over the partition walls, transfixed for a bit.

  But then he realized he had taken too much time already with walking around and taking a break to eat. He set about on a mission to check the entire selection on this floor and take note of any games he hadn't seen before, occasionally stopping to drop in a token to playtest it.

  He got immersed in a medieval fantasy game and obliviously spent more tokens than he’d intended to as he escaped the first dungeon, but the graphics and the quests were just too compelling.

  Then, he was blasting away metallic skeleton robots with a plasma rifle. He tried out a rhythm dancing game with bubbly Japanese pop music. He battled another kid with teams of superheroes fighting each other (he won the first match, but the second one he lost badly).

  And then he played a really crazy game where he could drive around in a car, listening to a choice of radio stations with songs like nothing he’d ever heard before, and taking on various street missions – and he couldn’t help but drop several tokens in that game.

  Like the first level, there were no clocks here either, adding to the timeless feeling – which was usually not a problem when he had his watch on. But now, not sure what time it was, Johnny figured he should speed things up a bit and soon finished his walking tour.

  He went to the center to watch the big battle for a while, along with dozens of other kids standing around. But as usual, none of the others went to the central column to take the stairs up. This was yet another odd thing about this place, as he'd never met another kid coming down that spiral staircase, either.

  Only a handful of times had he even seen another kid up there on the third floor, and always across a room busily playing a game, and never meeting one wandering about in the corridors.

  Maybe the third level was only meant for the intrepid adventurers like him who didn't mind, or actually enjoyed, getting lost in the labyrinth while seeking out new games. Whatever. Their loss.

  He made his way to the stairwell, and passed through one of the arched open doorways. The inside of the column had a spiraling staircase made of some heavy material that looked and felt like solid stone you’d see in a castle or something.

  Walking up the stairs, Johnny cracked his knuckles to let loose some nervous energy, and felt his anticipation ramping up with what new wonders he’d find this time.

  He emerged onto the third and highest level through the center of the same stone-like floor, and stepped off the topmost stair surrounded by railing.

  Today, he found himself in a circular room formed by a ring of partition walls, serving as a central hub for corridors radiating outward to the rest of the level. In the very dim ambient light, but with neon highlights spaced along the top of the partitions, it gave the place a half-mysterious, half-cheerful mood.

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  And just as the second level had been nothing like the first, this third level was always totally different from both. The configuration was a labyrinth of some sort taking up the entire floor each time, with partitions and archways, corridors and rooms of various shapes to explore every which way. And this time, even more so.

  There were seven open archways leading out of the room. There was a letter above each one, which should have spelled “ARCADIA”, but weirdly enough, the letters were jumbled about. Johnny shrugged and went through one "A" he picked at random, between "R" and "D".

  He walked down a quiet corridor that led to a room of a dozen games, and he set about to look at the display screens to see anything particularly compelling. He took the archway out into another corridor, and so he continued on, keeping track as best he could to which way he’d been already and where he should go next.

  With only a handful of tokens left, he had to be judicious with what he played.

  None of the games here were the popular titles, and most were somewhat similar to those found on the second floor, though oftentimes weirder or in a different language which made things difficult to understand. But occasionally, something truly unique or totally futuristic would stand out.

  After wandering the rooms a bit, and this time not seeing or hearing a wisp of anyone else about, he found a game machine with a whole array of buttons and switches to command a futuristic mech, similar in concept to the battle game below, but far more complicated.

  Then he went inside another room that was the game itself, far beyond the definition of a typical arcade game: he put on a special helmet which allowed him to see creatures and objects as if they were in the room with him, and he walked around the room in various landscapes, searching for plants and cute little critters to collect.

  He found another gameroom, this one not as big, but instead of needing a helmet, this game actually projected holograms into the air in front of you. With a given time limit and an outline of an object, he had to assemble various holographic items and figure out geometric puzzles – all of which he could somehow move around in the air! It was a lot like his collection of assembling blocks at home, and he spent his last token trying to solve a particularly interesting object.

  Then, out of tokens, he was reluctantly making his way back to the hub, when he passed a room with an arcade machine in the shape of a vehicle and he immediately had to investigate further. It was about the size of a hatchback and had the look and livery of a star-cruising fighter jet. Instead of a display screen inside, the entire wall in front of it showed the game.

  Johnny blinked. Was the prompt asking him to press “Play”? Hey, score! He had a free game!

  He slid into the seat inside and immediately felt immersed: a dizzying experience almost as if he were fighting other starships for real while navigating the constellations of deep space. The graphics were absolutely incredible, projecting distant galaxies and nebulas and planets like a super-advanced planetarium.

  The otherworldly spell flickered in the back of his brain again – this time without the annoying sinus issue, and now on a far more welcome occasion. It was strange that he’d feel this again so soon, as he’d never had it occur twice in one day before. But much like the tingles on his brain when he listened to music, he enjoyed the weird perspective it gave as he played the game, until the effect passed through just as abruptly as the first time.

  All too soon, his final chance for the mission evaporated with his vehicle when he failed to dodge a missile. And just like that his game ended.

  Grudgingly, and wishing that he had an extra token to keep playing, he climbed out of the cockpit, took a lingering look back at the cool design of the starfighter, and then headed back to the stairwell to make his sad way home.

  He walked through the rooms and corridors, replaying the memorable moments from all his recent games, when he reached a corridor that he’d passed through previously, leading straight to the hub.

  He could see the stairwell room ahead, but something seemed a bit off. He stood for a moment looking that way, and then off to the right – and then, for an astonishing third time today – he felt the cold tinglings of the otherworldly spell blossom outward from the back of his head again, then settle softly like background music.

  He zoned out for a moment, then slowly realized he was looking at an open archway that hadn’t been there before.

  He was certain this had been a solid wall when he passed earlier. But now looking at the passageway going into another place, he wondered if somehow, someone had opened a hidden door here in the meantime?

  A crazy thought occurred to him and he grinned. Maybe it's a portal to another dimension, he half-joked, and imagined how awesome it’d be if that were the case, like so many of the portal fantasy books he'd read.

  He laughed to himself the more he thought about it. But seeing the arched passageway leading into the murkiness and the hint of a room far ahead, he thought, Why not explore?

  Another pulse tickled along the surface of his brain, and he shivered with delight.

  He looked around at the corridor he was in and back at the room with the stairs leading down, and he didn’t feel keen on going home just yet.

  The corridor, the entire level, felt suddenly very quiet.

  He turned toward the archway and the mysteries that lurked beyond. The energy in his mind surged to a crescendo, radiating out from the base of his brain and now throughout his entire body; his mind felt cozy beyond possibility, as he stood for a long moment, immersed in a feeling of power.

  He made up his mind.

  And then, on a typical school day like any other, without another look back – energized by his limitless ability to explore and to imagine, and attired in the t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers of a true 80s hero, with whatever forgotten scraps were in his pockets –

  Johnny stepped through the portal.