Chapter Text
Why did I go through that door?
I shouldn’t have gone through that door.
Yet what could I have done? I was in Level 14, the one with the haunted hospital, and the Hunter with its writhing tentacles and cruel eyes was right behind me. I ended up in a corridor with a bright, glowing window on one side and an emergency exit door on the other: the window, as I hurriedly recalled, would lead me to Level 777 and my certain demise, so I flung open the exit door and dashed through, slamming it shut behind me.
It was only when I turned around and registered an exclamation mark on the door that I realised I had made a grave mistake.
I was now in a level just as dangerous, perhaps even more so, than Level 777.
Yup, that’s me.
You’re probably wondering how I got into this situation.
My name is Michael Eague, and I’m an explorer in a branch of the Major Explorer Group’s Team Voyager based out of the Rosatin Hotel. Originally a clerk, I was eventually promoted to the Volunteer Squad of the Department of Exploration, in accordance with my survival of the thrilling journey I took with my friend Adam through a total of four different levels — one of which was believed to be inescapable. My second promotion, from volunteer to voyager, was issued quite recently, and this disaster of a mission just so happened to be my first in Team Voyager.
Adam, by the way, joined the Department of Research. He’s not a very outgoing person, and after our little adventure he told me he’d like to stay on as a clerk, until I convinced him that there were better jobs that also involved staring at a computer all day in the safety of the Rosatin Hotel.
My team had been tasked to investigate Level 173, that is, the Never-Ending River; so we took the Metro from the Neon Paradise to Level 13, intending to enter 173 from there. However, I was separated from the group under unknown circumstances and sent to Level 14, and from there the level’s only entity, the Hunter, caught my scent and began to stalk after me. And you know the rest.
So now I was in a small hospital ward bathed in red light, furnished very minimalistically, comprising only a hospital bed, bedside table, medicine cabinet and scarlet curtain at the edge of the bed. On one side of the chamber was a bolted, chained metal door rattling dangerously as if something was desperately trying to break out, while the other was plain, its only markings being the EXIT sign glowing crimson above it. Remembering the valuable information I had read up on about this level, I spent five seconds collecting bottles from both the table and the medicine cabinet — most contained a transparent fluid, some were thick and opaque; the words almond water and Liquid Pain came to my mind but I didn’t have time to contemplate them as I burst through the plain door, stuffing my newfound provisions into my satchel.
On the other side of the door was a long hospital hallway stretching on as far as the eye can see, its ceiling irregularly punctuated by EXIT signs emitting a deep red glow just like the one in the ward, and its walls lined with multiple metal doors that I knew wouldn’t lead me anywhere. The only way out of here was to reach the exit. An alarm began to blare, panicking me; I couldn’t think straight anymore… Why did I go through that door? I shouldn’t have gone through that door.
Sighing to myself, I began sprinting down the hallway. Almost two minutes into my run, I heard a deafening crash behind me, followed by a cacophony of snarls, screeches and other strange noises: the entities had broken free. I chanced a glance behind me; the door to the ward I had come from was now a speck in the distance, but I could still make out dark shapes emerging from it like a torrent of danger. Adrenaline coursed through my veins.
As I ran deeper into the level, obstacles began to manifest before me. Chairs, beds and tables blocked up the corridor, forcing me to weave around and leap over them to keep my sprint going, and smaller hurdles like boxes were strewn around everywhere too, terrible tripping hazards that I constantly had to keep my eyes open for. I reached a point in the hallway where several EXIT signs in a row had seemingly all gone out, leaving a patch of darkness underneath. Luckily I had a flashlight.
One kilometre in, almost. I paced myself. I couldn’t hear the entities behind me anymore, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. They were still near, just lurking out of my sensory range, and I knew it. The sign in front of me flickered dangerously and released a sharp, high-pitched sound. I dashed forward instinctively, narrowly avoiding tripping on an empty cart, and the sign exploded behind me in a burst of fire; and so did the next sign, and the next, and the next, but thankfully I had gotten past the first three before they did. As for the last explosion… Let’s just say I got a little burnt.
Two kilometres in, or so I supposed. Another explosion, but luckily this one occurred on the threshold of a dark patch and thus didn’t trigger any others. As my flashlight beam swept through the gloom and across the floor to make out any obstacles in my way, something leapt out of a door to my right. It was a creature of the night, its teeth bared and white, its eyes ablaze with otherworldly hunger. Smilers fear fire and light. I flashed my light at the smiler and it convulsed in pain, stunned just long enough for me to get away from it.
Three kilometres in. That smiler was just the first. From a doorway to my left, a lanky canine creature pounced at me, snapping at my ankles with its glistening fangs. Hounds are attracted to light. I switched off my flashlight and continued running, the brute on my heels, but then I swivelled and threw a bottle at one of the EXIT signs overhead. Whether it was almond water or Liquid Pain, I didn’t know and I didn’t care. The sign exploded with a violent force, disorienting the hound and scorching it soundly as I got the hell out of there.
Four kilometres in. Now entities were coming from above. A pair of massive deathmoths erupted from the ventilation ducts on the ceiling, two hard-bodied lepidopterans with striped, furry wings. Deathmoths can’t see well in bright light. I threw another bottle to the open doorway on my right, hoping they would go after it instead of me. They didn’t go after either. Perhaps I had successfully confused them.
Five kilometres in, or so I reckoned. I was halfway there. I stared absentmindedly at the EXIT sign above me as I continued running. It was glowing very brightly. Why is it glowing so brightly? Suddenly, I realised what I was witnessing, and once more dashed forward madly as the board exploded and caused yet another chain reaction. There was fire everywhere. And if that wasn’t bad enough, parts of the floor began to crack. Leaping over a chair, I watched as entire chunks of the ground collapsed into the Void, leaving but a gaping hole to nothingness behind.
Six kilometres in. My pace was slackening. I leapt over several boxes lying at strange angles on the floor, and jumped around a random stretcher that was propped up against the wall — and then I saw it. There, in the distance, at the end of the hallway, was a door as plain as the one which had taken me into this blasted level in the first place. Above it was a plate, spelling out EXIT in large crimson lettering… Was I already there? Was that ten kilometres? I slowed down even more. But as I neared the door, I noticed a bend in the corridor to its right. This damned place. I hate the Backrooms.
Seven kilometres in. I tried to make up for the time I had lost by slowing down earlier in front of the false exit, but the entities were gaining on me. Another smiler emerged from a ventilation shaft to my left, its disembodied, smiling form leering at me out of the darkness. I directed my flashlight at it and it screeched. But that was the least of my worries right now. Looking over my shoulder, I could already see the horde of entities on my tail, led by an uncanny, beige-grey figure with soulless shadows where their eyes should be: a skin-stealer.
Before I could think of what to do, however, the skin-stealer unexpectedly collapsed to the floor, lifeless. Driven into its back was a sharp wooden stake.
“Stupid shapeshifters,” I heard a gurgling, unearthly voice jeer. “Leave the body, Eu.”
And then I saw them, and my blood ran cold.
Two humanoid figures cloaked and masked in dirty, singed yellow, the cloths draped over their heads painted, or maybe ensanguined, with crude, scarlet smiling faces. They waded toward me at an alarming pace, somehow keeping in front of the innumerable smilers, hounds, clumps, deathmoths and wretches bounding along behind them. Why they were killing other entities, and why they had brought a massive wooden stake with them, I wasn’t sure, and frankly I was too frightened to try and think about it. The constant alarm of the level blared in my ears. Why did I go through that door? I shouldn’t have gone through that door.
If there was one entity in the Backrooms I was truly afraid of, it would have to be partygoers. Not smilers, not dullers, not skin-stealers. I had met with the Beast of Level 5 before, and I was less scared of even him than these infectious walking popsicles. My fear was mostly due to the fact that they kept appearing in my dreams, talking to me with whispering voices, trying to persuade me to join their party, whatever that means. I knew better than to accept an offer from one of their kind, but the dreams were really creepy nonetheless.
The partygoers were gaining on me, and they were laughing now, unnervingly, inhumanly. Panicking, I lobbed another bottle at the EXIT sign behind me. I missed. I threw another. The sign exploded, and that set off a chain explosion, and the walls began to crumble around me. A wretch, a sweaty thing with raw red skin and bloodshot eyes, lumbered at me from a door to my left; I sent a hospital cart rolling at it which knocked it clean off its feet. My sides hurt. The partygoers’ chortling echoed across the scarlet promenade. They were right behind me.
Finally, I played my Hail Mary card. Almost a month ago, I had conquered a powerful manifestation of the Akashic Field, a mental tormentor known as the Voice, temporarily granting me some of its reality warping powers. I didn’t know if these powers had already faded from me, but I had to try.
“Please,” I rasped, “Bring me to the end.”
I don’t think it entirely worked. The Voice’s power had weakened in me, and soon it would slip away completely and go back to being the torturer of all who stumbled unluckily upon Level 650. But still, the command seemed to do something. I saw a flash of blue light in the distance.
A spark of hope ignited in me. I pushed forward, the blaring of the alarm and the guffawing of the jovials ringing in my ears, the blue light shining brighter and brighter all the time. Eventually, I was close enough to make out the source of the glow. It was, yet again, a door. A wave of relief washed over me.
I hadn’t reached the exit.
But I had reached the oasis.
With a final burst of courage, I held my breath, closed my eyes, and threw myself headfirst into the blue door.
I opened my eyes. I was in a thinner, shorter hallway now, still seemingly part of a hospital but washed in soothing blue light rather than the deep crimson of the previous corridor. The alarm had stopped its thundering, and I could no longer hear the snarling and scuffling of a thousand monsters behind me. For the first time in what seemed like forever, everything was quiet, and I could think again.
If you come across a blue space in Level !, congratulations! You’re in the safe zone. Entities will not enter here.
That’s right… I was in a safe zone. What a fortunate individual I am: of all confirmed records of this level, only about 6% of them mention this area… Or, perhaps, it wasn’t luck.
I sighed heavily and looked around me. As with the previous hallway, doors and ventilation shafts lined the walls, but I knew that these wouldn’t simply be terminals for entities to leap out at me. Pushing open one of the doors, I stepped gingerly into the room beyond; it was an azure hospital ward, including a bed with neatly folded sheets on top of it, a bedside shelf holding up several bottles, and a frosted window. I was pretty sure the window was, you know, a normal window, but I stayed well away from it nonetheless.
Sitting on the bed to rest my legs, I took some time to look through the provisions in my satchel. I had several bottles of almond water; a singular vial of liquid pain, probably from the first ward; two tightly sealed canisters of food; a phial wherein a crumbly, crystalline substance smouldering with a fiery glow was contained; and the flashlight I had been using earlier. The bottles on the shelf were mostly filled with a faintly blue liquid, undoubtedly almond water as well; I quickly put them into my satchel.
Afterwards, I stretched out on the hospital bed and, almost immediately, fell into a deep sleep.
“What the hell? What’s this door doing here?”
“Have you tried clipping through it?”
“Yes, I’ve tried clipping through it! Do you think I’m stupid, Eu?”
“Well… kinda? Here, let me try…”
I was dreaming of partygoers again. Except this time, they weren’t staring at me with crudely drawn faces in the eerily decorated halls that were their home turf, but clawing at a glowing blue door at the end of a scarlet hallway. The two jovials were right outside the safe zone, trying intently to get in. However, the door didn’t seem to be budging.
“This— stupid— door—” gurgled the first partygoer, who seemed to be female, as she rammed her shoulder against it.
“Entities coming for us, Euphoria,” the other, who seemed to be male, warned, eyeing the stampede of rapidly approaching cryptids moving toward them. He was, by his voice, the partygoer who had spoken earlier after impaling the skin-stealer.
“I’ve got an AED, hang on…” The first jovial twiddled with, I kid you not, an automated external defibrillator, before throwing it into the midst of the horde. It administered what seemed like an extremely high-voltage shock — although I’m no electrician, so I wouldn’t know — triggering the formation of an actual, visible bolt of electricity that arced through the crowd and also detonated the EXIT sign right above them. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the floor also proceeded to disintegrate underneath all of them, sending the host of entities plunging into the Void.
“Yikes,” rasped the second partygoer, looking over the jagged ledge and into the abyss, “Glad we didn’t fall down there.”
“Yes, but now we’re stuck here,” pointed out Euphoria, “This is all your fault! I should throw you into the Void right now.”
“My fault? You’re the one who just blew the whole place up!”
“... Oh yeah.”
“So, what exactly are we supposed to do now?” asked the second jovial, “Should we climb onto the roof or something? Maybe we can skip the door.”
“But how do you expect us to climb up there? I don’t think clipping works here, Bacchus…”
“Good point…” replied Bacchus. “Well, let’s just wait here. Either the door’s a portal and he won’t be coming out, in which case the big man’ll eventually come for us… Or the door leads to a safe room, and he’ll have to come out at some point… then we can take him away.”
“But the safe room could have a door on the other side too…” burbled Euphoria, “But in that case what happens’ll be the same as in the first case you said… Fine then, we’ll wait.” Euphoria shook the door violently again, but it showed no signs of letting up.
Bacchus sighed. “Good girl.”
“Bacchus, I’m hungry.”
“Please no. Euphoria, NO.”
But then I was suddenly being dragged away, and the vision of the hallway was becoming further, and further away… Everything went black…
I woke up.
Things seemed to be getting worse for me.
What did it mean? Then we can take him away, the male partygoer had said. What did that mean? Why did they want to take me away? And to where? I don’t want to be taken away by partygoers!
I contemplated this whilst eating some canned tuna from my leather satchel, and dabbed some almond water on my burn wounds. Now that I thought about it… Was that dream real? Was it a real vision I’d had of those partygoers trying to enter the safe zone, or was it just, well, a nightmare? In the Frontrooms, I would’ve invalidated the former instantly, but back here many strange things can happen. Hey, if ropes can be prophetic and radios can initiate seances, why shouldn’t dreams be able to act as crystal balls?
Should I tell someone about this worrying vision, then? Most definitely I would tell Adam about it. In fact, I had wanted to tell him about my dreams for a while before our journey there and back again, but obviously I could sense he was preoccupied with his whole thraldom thing, so I never did. As someone who had been enslaved by a cosmic archdemon, I didn’t doubt that he would believe me. But who else would? I didn’t really know if dreams bent by the Akashic Field to show real happenings were commonplace in the Backrooms. Well, I’d have time to consider that later. For now, I finished the tuna, put the empty can back into my satchel and exited the ward.
It was time to say farewell, sadly, to the oasis of Level !. Taking a deep breath, I walked to the end of the hallway, absorbing the calming azure light for the last time, and put my hand on the handle of the door. This one had no fancy EXIT sign above it. It wasn’t an exit door, it was an entryway back into the torment that was the red hallway. And that was okay, because it wasn’t pretending otherwise.
“Goodbye,” I said softly, and then I turned the handle and stepped through.
Suddenly, I was back in the hallway bathed in scarlet, alarm ringing at maximum volume, furniture and other trinkets scattered everywhere in an untidy fashion. I just had time to begin running as I registered the unnaturally bright EXIT sign above me, glowing so intensely it looked almost pink, when the plate exploded in an impressive conflagration. The heat seared my back.
I heard the sound of a door crashing open behind me, and that chilling, subhuman voice I had perceived in my dream called, “Eu, door’s down!”
I pushed myself to run faster, though my legs felt like they might die at any moment.
Nine kilometres. It should be around nine kilometres by now, right? I could see the end of the hallway in the distance. I could see the plain door. The EXIT sign in bold crimson lettering. I was almost there…
And then I saw that the hallway turned left from there. It was, yet again, a false exit.
Luckily, I had noticed the falsehood early, and didn’t slow down. Rounding the bend, I simply continued running as fast as my legs could carry me, as the thumping footsteps of the partygoers echoed behind me. I was almost at the end by now. I could do this. I could best Level !.
As the sounds of the partygoers died down behind me, I paced myself. I knew they were still there, just out of my audible range, but I couldn’t simply keep running at full steam. Everything was looking good. None of the signs overhead were flickering, or glowing any brighter than was normal; there were no cracks on the walls, or the ceiling, or the floor. I approached a patch of darkness and retrieved my flashlight again.
The torchbeam swept through the darkness, illuminating a massive desk obscuring the entire width of the hallway. I weaved around a first-aid kit on the floor and vaulted over the looming obstacle — and then something raw and wet hit me in the face. I stumbled and aimed my flashlight at my assailer, being met with a scrunched-up, red-faced fiend. Good. The Wretched Cycle isn’t contagious. The wretch struck me again, this time in the chest, and I fell back in pain while fumbling in my leather sack for something to use. Finally, I managed to pull out my vial of Liquid Pain — how lucky that it didn’t break in the fall — which I hurled at the brute’s face.
Rolling sideways, I didn’t wait for the wretch’s reaction as I picked myself up and began to run again, though this time at a considerably slower pace. A howl of agony split the air, and I chanced a glance behind me to find the wretch clutching its head in pain, but also the two jovials approaching just behind it at a rapid pace, their yellowed, mould-ridden cloaks flapping around their ankles. Dear Lord… they were almost on me…
I could see the exit ahead of me, and this time it was the real one. A featureless, metal door with that all-too-familiar word emblazoned above it in blood-red, shining glyphs.
The partygoers were right behind me. They were cackling deliriously, knowing their prey was almost within their filthy grasp.
The door was right in front of me.
Ten metres.
Five metres.
Two metres.
One metre.
I was there. I spun around as I crashed through the exit door, casting one last triumphant glance at the two bloodstained, cloaked figures before they disappeared forever.
This time, I had gotten the last laugh.