Backrooms Decrypted: Memories (Level 18)

Memories, or The Backrooms Level 18, is another name for it. It has a class 1 survival difficulty rating. It has a SMALL NUMBER OF ENTITIES, is SAFE, and SECURE. Each viewer's perception of Level 18 is different, but they all agree that it is similar to a childhood memory. The age range of this childhood memory is between 2 and 5. Preschools and daycare centers are the most frequent settings it can assume. Numerous "voices" will whisper to you as you wander through Level 18. The most frequent things that these voices will whisper are your biggest regrets or mistakes, though they can whisper anything. For some wanderers, staying on Level 18 has been known to be addictive, and some actively choose to do so. A rare Entity that aids in floor navigation can be found on Level 18. This entity, which goes by the name The Plush Dino, resembles a dinosaur plush toy. 😱🐲😵

• Hey there, Explorer. Don't worry, there won't be any gung-ho survivors shooting at you here if you've recovered from the motion sickness of the previous level. We'll keep our word. And would we ever lie to you? Fortunately for you, after a sufficient amount of aimless wandering through those dank, dark corridors, you end up clipping through a vapor that smells like cotton candy and the burning dust inside a rickety old analog television to a completely new location. It smells like adolescence. As a tremendous pressure begins to compress your entire body and ends, you close your eyes. You wake up and discover that you are in a new location. Or, is it?
• Hello and welcome to Level 18, Explorer, located somewhere very ancient. Thank you for the memories as well. Once you realize it, you stop standing. On a vibrant carpet, cross-legged like a child, you are sitting. You suddenly experience deja vu when you look up to see the garish room you are sitting in. Simple pencil and crayon drawings on the wall, an alphabet garland wrapping around the ceiling-to-wall gap, and posters with information about science, animals, and halting anti-bullying messages are all examples of the room's decor. All those cramped desks and chairs, not to mention the scrawled-on blackboard you’re in the second-grade classroom. Although you have probably not actually been in this building for twenty years, you do remember Miss Taylor's class like it was yesterday.
• For once, we don't mean that it reminds us of Miss Taylor's class or that it brings back any associated memories. The Darth Vader pencil topper on Miss Taylor's front desk, which you once thought was really cool, is still there. This is Miss Taylor's classroom exactly as you remember it. If this world is based on your memories, how is this possible? Well, hold your horses a little there; I'm afraid it's not that grandiose. Level 18 is a little more metaphysical than many of the earlier levels; it is typically a very personal experience that is crafted from the important or formative memories of the person who is currently experiencing it. And for you, for some reason, it's Miss Taylor's second-grade classroom.
• What did this location mean to you, Explorer? What happened here? Why is such a seemingly unimportant location so significant? You've had enough time to take in the sights of this nostalgic room. As you've become quite accustomed to doing during your time in the backrooms, you get to your feet and get ready for a good, old-fashioned exploration. You may feel as though you naturally know how to navigate this place because you're moving around in an externalization of your own memory or, at the very least, you hope. You notice pictures of previous classes attached to the walls as you walk towards the hallway near the back of the classroom. You move a little closer to them and take in all the young kids posing for the picture in a line with the teacher.
• All of them, with the exception of Miss Taylor, have a facial defect; their features aren't completely gone, like those of a Faceling, but they're misaligned. On the faces of the kids, there are mouths, noses, and eyes dispersed all over. Your best guess is that it's because your memory is faulty; since you can't recall what these kids look like, your mind is filling in the blanks. Why did you remember these kids that you had never met? As you walk down the hallway, an unsettling feeling overtakes you. You feel as though you shouldn't be here more than in other backrooms. You almost feel like you're trespassing. Your mind is filled with images of parent-teacher nights when you were left alone to saunter through the darkened hallways of the school, feeling as though you had stumbled into a place where the universe had been slightly altered.
• However, Explorer, this place is a completely different universe and you are aware that something terrible is in store for you. The school library is at the end of the hallway. The smell of old dusty paper and the potent aroma of the librarian's coffee attack you as soon as you open the door, so you can smell it before you even see it. Over the years, you lost track of time in that library as you sank into the fantastical worlds of books. Your break from the often harsh and unforgiving reality Up until you remember the second floor, being back among all your childhood favorites makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Even as an adult, the mere thought of it makes you feel uneasy. It's amazing how things like this can influence you years later.
• The second floor of the library was actually just a glorified storage area that was connected to the library below by a rickety set of metal stairs, contrary to the rumors that were spread by the majority of the kids back then. Before you were even born, there was a prop up there—a strange, deformed human body made of paper, probably for a Halloween party or school play. However, it waits in the pitch black up there. Back then, while the others stood by and watched, the kids would challenge one another to climb the stairs. The brave ones got half way there, but none of them ever did. You recall trying it yourself. At first, you felt so brave, but as soon as you saw that dark shape—the body—waiting for you above, your resolve melted. While the other kids just looked on and laughed at you, you ran back down those stairs faster than you thought humanly possible.
• Explorer, it served as good training. Take a look at how well all that running has served you now. You are the best person to know that sometimes running is all you can manage. You make the decision to leave the library because the memories have become too much. Whatever goodwill the memories of books you've long since read might have given you is destroyed by the negative energy of the second floor. You experience that nagging sensation you sometimes have in the backrooms—that feeling that something foreign is forcing ideas into your head and that your thoughts aren't really your own.