Lost in the Backrooms

In the underbelly of reality, where the seams of existence fray and tear, lies a realm known as the Backrooms. An endless labyrinth of monotonous, yellowed wallpaper, humming fluorescent lights, and the musky scent of moist carpet, it ensnares those who slip through the cracks of the world. This is a tale of Jordan, a curious explorer of urban legends, who became ensnared in its unfathomable depths, a journey from which return seemed an elusive dream.

It began on an ordinary evening. Jordan, driven by tales of hidden places where the fabric of our world thinned, found themselves standing before an abandoned office building. Rumors whispered of it as a gateway to the Backrooms. With a mix of excitement and trepidation, Jordan pushed open the creaking door and stepped inside.

The building was decrepit, a skeleton of its former self, with peeling paint and shattered glass littering the floor. Jordan wandered its halls, camera in hand, capturing the eerie beauty of decay. Then, without warning, the floor gave way beneath their feet, and they were plummeting into darkness.

Jordan awoke to the sterile glow of fluorescent lights, the smell of old, damp carpets filling their nostrils. They were in a vast, windowless room, its walls covered in faded yellow wallpaper that seemed to pulse with a life of its own. Corridors stretched in every direction, an endless maze with no apparent beginning or end.

Panic set in as Jordan realized they were trapped in the Backrooms. They had read stories, of course, but nothing could prepare them for the reality. The air was thick with a sense of unseen watchers, and the constant buzz of the lights grated on their nerves. Jordan began to walk, choosing corridors at random, hoping to find a way out.

Days blended into each other. Jordan survived on water dripping from exposed pipes and whatever food they could find in forgotten break rooms. Sleep was fitful and filled with nightmares of being chased through the corridors by entities just out of sight.

Then, they encountered the Others. Lost souls like themselves, trapped for who knows how long. They spoke in whispers of creatures that dwelt deeper in the Backrooms, of levels beyond the mundane horror of the yellow wallpaper. Entities that hunted the lost, feeding on their fear. Jordan listened, heart pounding, as they shared tales of the Smilers, creatures with too-wide grins and eyes that burned with malice, and the No-Faces, beings of shadow that mimicked the voices of loved ones, luring the unwary into their grasp.

Determined to escape, Jordan pressed deeper into the Backrooms, guided by graffiti scrawled on the walls by previous explorers. "Follow the red," one message read, leading Jordan down a path marked by faint, crimson handprints.

The corridors grew stranger, the laws of physics bending in unsettling ways. Rooms upside down, hallways that looped back on themselves, and doors that led into vast, empty voids. Jordan's sense of time warped, days melding into nights with no discernible change in the humming lights.

Finally, Jordan stumbled upon a door unlike any other, its frame etched with symbols that seemed to writhe under their gaze. The door was ajar, leading into darkness deeper than any Jordan had encountered. A cold wind whispered from the gap, carrying voices that promised freedom and reunion with the world above.

With a deep breath, Jordan stepped through the door, into the unknown. The darkness enveloped them, a void where the concept of self began to unravel. They floated, suspended, as visions of their life played in reverse, until they stood once again at the threshold of the abandoned office building.

Jordan emerged into the world of the living, forever changed. The sun seemed too bright, the air too fresh. They had escaped the Backrooms, but at what cost? The experience had left its mark, a constant feeling of being watched, of something lurking just out of sight.

The Backrooms exist, a testament to the fragility of our reality, a place where the curious and the lost find themselves trapped in an endless nightmare.