It was the middle of november, the cold wind nipping at my nipples. I gazed into the eyes of my anime body pillow, wishing once more to fall into a love like Hikaru and Magnus’s, instead of staying so sad and alone. I grabbed the body pillow of Sonic and, well let’s just say that night was eventful. I passionately gazed into sonic’s eyes, his blue fur glistening in the white winter light. My body slick with sweat, his fur soaked in it. I said to sonic-kun, “Please be gentel daddy”. He was not. “Wait what about, you know?” I said, but it was too late, I was internally bleeding from his knife wound, it was too much for me. I hurried backwords onto the bed as the dark figure loomed over me. I was scared, not because of the looming, but because I was (and still am) racist. I closed my eyes shut for a good 5 seconds and opened my eyes, I found myself in an empty office room with yellow wallpaper and a damp, green carpet. I looked around, i recognized this place from an old nostalgic memory, only reachable from the back depths of my mind. The bright flourlecint lights gave me a headache, and my anus still ached from Sonic’s prior pummeling. I wandered around for what felt like an eternity, out of nowhere I heard sonic’s voice say “Ready for round 2?” Thoughts and rectum afire, I rapidly searched for an escape. A strange door stands out that I hadn’t noticed before… Knowing it’s my last hope at rescue from Sonic’s unholy clutches, I race through. Only to discover that it was yet another room. As I frantically looked upon the dimly lit abode with Sonic in fast pursuit, I began to realize there was no escape. Desperately, I grasp a nearby pipe and prepare to fight. I turn around to face sonic, but the doorway where I came from was nothing but a solid wall. I glance around the room to find it’s an abandoned shopping mall. Even through the bright fluorescent lights it somehow still seems dark. The Backrooms were generous with me. After my lucky escape, I found an abandoned mcdonalds and gorged myself. I look around the abandoned McDonald’s to see a colorful sign on one of the dimly lit walls. “The play room”. Despite my priorly cheery demeanor, those three words sent unexplainable chills down my spine. A perfectly square pool fills the middle of the McDonald’s, the blinding darkness inside engulfing me. Inside… could that be Freddy Fazbear? As I began to investigate the room, the familiar scent of moldy cottage cheese and lube began to fill my nostrils. The smell filled my nostrils even faster than Sonic had attempted to do with his semen. It came not from Freddy Fazbear’s void prison, but from elsewhere in the building… with barely restrained curiosity, I scoured the place, first searching the men’s pissing chambers. But it came to no avail, other than that of finding the decomposing body of a suicide by shotgun victim. (The perfect fleshlight). Either the suicide victim had shot several of their own loads into the shotgun, or something else had, because the weapon was practically oozing ejaculate. I began licking the emission out of the barrel of the shotgun, the same as Sonic had done to my recum in his lair. That is when I heard, “So you’ve always wanted me, huh?” My heard froze as I recognized the voice, it was Sonic, “You know, I was just playing with you, I am sonic. You can’t escape me.” “I bet you’re wondering how I got that shotgun so full so quickly… Well, you know what they say,” Sonic winked at me, “gotta go fast”. I tried to run away from him, but I forgot just jow fast he really was; He caught up to me in a second, “Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?” I knew firsthand just how hard the hard way was… but I didn’t think I could survive the easy way, either. With no hope left, I screamed as loud as I could, careless of how I disturbed the backrooms around me…
I stared at Sonic as he came close. Without warning, an old train ripped through the McDonald’s walls, cutting me off from Sonic. Seeing my chance for escape, I plunged into the depths of the pool. I didn’t care what was in it, anything would be better than Sonic. I assumed my screaming somehow disrupted the train in the room next to me, prompting it to lash out. When i got out of the pool I was somewhere different. I was in what seemed to be an abandoned construction place. It was greyscale and has many lights, I recognized this place. Although having just gotten out of the pool, my clothes (at least what remained of them) were completely dry. As I looked around at the construction site, I noticed a tunnel. The nearer I got nearer to the tunnel, the more prominent the smell of wet carpet grew. I entered the long, dark passageway and began walking, noticing the large dark red stain on the side of the wall. While I continued, I walked past a pitch black painting. As I gazed into it, I began to feel hatred. (The color black often makes me feel this way). I kept walking, going past a small crack in the grimy cement walls of the tunnel. Red stain, painting, crack, red stain, painting, crack, red stain, painting, crack. I couldn’t take it anymore. The tunnel seemed to go on endlessly, each repetition feeding my insanity. I tried to turn back, to escape the tunnel. Crack, painting, red stain, crack, painting, red stain, crack, painting, red stain. It was no use. I thought longingly of the load-filled shotgun, Sonic’s words still ringing in my head: “Gotta go fast”. Those words seemed to echo inside my head and throughout the tunnel, as loop after loop yielded no change. I tried moving backwards, but my prior path was sealed; the only path was forward, however fruitless it seemd. Sonic’s words seemed to grow more intense with each reverberation; fittingly, I began jogging, then running, then sprinting with every piece of reserve energy. Still, Sonic’s voice gained strength… I swear I could almost hear it for real behind me, but I knew looking would only invite ruin. As I continued my way through, my mind and body grew weary. I eventually crashed headlong into the painting, with my delirious mind thinking it another path forward. And… it was. Everything was dark. All I could hear was sonics voice reverberating through my skull, echoing for eternity. Suddenly, flashes of past memories clogged my brain, as sonics voice grew louder and louder, seeming to come ever closer. Flashes of blinding light clouded my vision. Suddenly everything was quiet as I dropped down onto the wet pavement. The cold misty air was refreshing, something different from the smell of damp carpet. I looked around, the bright blue sky ever cheerful. I looked around for other signs of life, but to no avail. Everything seemed nice and peaceful enough, but there was a slight off-putting feeling. I wandered around on the pavement, when a shock of realization shot through my mind. A solid vertical line went through the clouds and the blue sky. I wasn’t outside at all. That was the corner of the wall, painted to look like I was outside. With no choice but to continue, I moved forward. After only minutes of walking, I went face first into a solid wall. Determined to find the edges of this space, I turned left, with my hand on the wall, and continued. Eventually, I reached a corner. I tapped at it… and… nothing happened. The though of Sonic still in pursuit made me feel the necessity of haste, but I simply and nowhere to go. After all that had happened, I felt deserving of a nap. When I awoke something was different. The wall was painted black, with white stars painted on the sky, as if it had turned itself night. “What could have painted this?” “Or who?”. Looking around once more, I appeared to be trapped in a small room again. Images and thoughts of Sonic’s attack started flooding through my mind. Every one of the stars turning into Sonic, coming nearer to me, crushing me. I could feel their weight. Determined to escape, I frantically looked for an exit. There were none. In the last few fleeting moments of my consciousness, as my world slowly faded out suffocating me under the weight of my pseudohallucinated Sonics, a light appeared. I crawled to it, choking as I went. I had almost passed out , but had stayed concious enought to make it to the next room; A repeat of of the last, but inverted. Instead of staring into a dark room accented with white stars, I was now laying in the midst of a blinding white room with black stars. Strangely, this new inverted room felt freer of Sonic’s presence. As my perspective expanded, I gained access to more air and finally caught my breath. I wanted to stay in this room eternally, despite the blinding light… Sadly, no food was in sight. Or water. God I was thirsty (not in that way)… Resignedly, I began to explore this new room, looking for an exit… or food and drink. Wandering through the blinding room, I came across a large… what can only be described as a mechanical spider with a human head sticking above. Terrified, I froze and sought cover… to no avail. The being opened its mouth and loosed a raspy voice, freezing me in my tracks, “What are you doing here, little one? This place is not safe for one so… fragile as you.” The mechanical spider’s legs crept toward me with each passing moment. “You must have come a long way to find me… you always do, by the time you’re here. It’s time you had a proper rest, and some real safety. I will bring you to some,” the entity said, as it loomed over me. “You will come with me now,” it stated, impaling me with one of its spider-legs. I staggered back and finally ran, but too late. My limbs grew slow and stiff as though swimming in some nightmare, and consciousness dimmed. When I awoke I could barely move a thing. My arms were tied behind me and I was in some sort of cage hanging from the celing. As my eyes grew more accustomed to the darkness I noticed I wasn’t the only one who was trapped. We were in an underground burrow, with a multitude of other people also locked in cages. When I looked down I saw the same massive spider-like creature with a human head who had captured me scurrying off to another compartment of the burrow. I tried to hold myself together and formulate a plan to get out of this, whatever this place was, but to no avail. My thoughts were somehow clogged by the venom injected into me. When I looked around me again, I noticed a smaller spider on the wall. “I must be imagining it,” I thought. However, the closer I looked, the more and more I saw, until I finally realized the entire cavern was wriggling with spiders. Looking closer, each small spider-shape had another human head atop, each in various stages of growth. The oldest head I could find almost seemed to belong to an 8-year old, and the youngest a newborn. The faces all bore an unmistakable resemblance to the original spider-creature. As I looked on, many small spiders treated the being with deference, moving readily out of its path; the largest must be some kind of leader. Time passed strangely with the venom, and a period that may have been seconds or hours slipped by. Eventually, I was shocked from my stupor by events in the cavern. The master spider had ascended to the ceiling and was moving along the cages. As it passed row by row of people in various stages of dying before, I strangely noticed no fear in myself. I knew that I may soon face my death, but my brain refused to register any kind of terror. Touching my neck, I felt for my heartbeat; it was, if anything, slower than normal. I gazed dispassionately as the master spider stabbed an unfortunate soul with venom before devouring the cage whole. Looking at the cage around me, it indeed seemed made of some biological material. In fact, I couldn’t see doors on any cage no matter what angle I checked; they must have been made to be consumed. As I tried to fall asleep, trying to forget a the terror around me, I longed for simpiler times. I longed for when my only worry was sonic absolutely destroying my ass. The mere thought reawakened the pain of the still raw orifice, and sleep seemed ever more elusive. Eventually, however, I succumbed to weariness. Occasionally the horrible too-loud sounds of spiders creeping by disturbed by rest, yet I was generally too tired to stay awake for long. Nonetheless, my sleep was utterly dreamless. Well, except for… Sonic was in the back of my mind again. Reminding me that I was foolish to think I’d ever be free without him. Reminding me that, with him, everything could me better. Reminding me that running from him brought me here, to wherever this was. Telling me to come back… Through the fog of my dreams, I came to an open yet enclosed expanse, like an empty, abandoned Costco without walls in sight. Sonic met me there. Though the space had no bounding, I felt we were in the center. In the center… “Together. Like we used to be,” boomed Sonic’s voice in my mind, though his lips hardly moved. “Together, like you know you want to be.”
“No… I just want to live a normal life, free from this, free from you,” I surprised myself by saying.
“We both know that can’t happen. Not now. You will never be truly yourself without me. I’m sorry for how I made you feel, but you must come back.”
“I… can’t.”
“Oh you can. Jeffrey and his young are far from the strongest thing you will find in the backrooms. If you really want to be free, to return to me, you will make it out.
“Think of this as a trial for our love. Succeed, and we will rest in one another’s arms again. I trust you will make the right decisions.” Sonic faded from my sight. I was left alone, so dreadfully alone. The Costco walls, still so impossibly distant, closed in, and I fled back to consciousness. I awoke with a headache and was once more reminded of the horrors I’d found myself in. The spiders, creeping along and tending to the cages or other works I couldn’t begin to imagine; the tortured souls knowing their fate was to be eaten but with no way to escape; and my own mental state, all contributing to my sorrow. I moved to the edge of my cage to piss and, to my surprise, found my body physically on the verge of climaxing. Knowing I had nothing better to do, I finished myself off, with my shot aimed through the cage bars. My aim was poor, however, and I hit a bar directly. The bar… wilted. It was weak to semen! Excitedly, I began to tear away at the surrounding pieces but found no luck. The bars nearby were as strong as ever, and I had no way to slip through with only one segment removed. Given bar density, I would need many pieces removed before I could escape. Deflated, I sat back down… only to watch a nearby spider-let repair the damage and move on. I put my head in my hands in a futile attempt to quell the migraine slowly gaining strength. I forced myself to retain consciousness, but had nothing to think about. Nothing, that was, except Sonic… his glorious blue fur, soaked with my sweat (animals with fur aren’t built to sweat, but I dripped enough for the two of us), his sweet laugh… even his reassuring power, I admitted to myself, seemed crucially missing. With these thoughts a veritable river of ejaculate began to ooze, and, before I knew what was happening, the bottom of my cage fell through, and I plummeted to the cavern’s floor. My mind began racing. I knew I wouldn’t be suffered to survive another capture, and so many spiders around me seemed so hostile… I couldn’t let myself be hit with venom; I was weak enough already. I had no idea where to find an exit. However, I knew I couldn’t stay. I began to run, but, with my fatigue, it felt like I was running in a dream. “Wait,” I thought. “Dream… backrooms… I need to change levels. For all I know, this entire zone is full of spiders…” “All I’ve ever done is accidental travel… How does Sonic do it? How does he follow me everywhere? I got into the backrooms by closing my eyes, but I won’t live long enough to hope to succeed if I try it here…” “All I know is that I must. Keep. Moving. One foot in front of another, fast enough that the spiders can’t get to me. Left, right, left, right, left right left right left right left ri-” My thoughts were halted. The master-spider was in front of me, far too large and powerful to be escaped. The smaller spiders shrunk away, but nonetheless formed an impenetrable wall that kept me from backtracking. At this close range I could see the master spider more clearly. Eerie, how human the head on top looked. Balding, with folds at the neck that signaled a propensity for overeating, was set with uncannily inhuman eyes. And clearly hungry, oh so hungry…”Jeffrey-” I prompted; that was what Sonic had called it.
“What business have you knowing that name? Forget it; it matters not, for you will soon be food for my clones, and what is left of Jeffrey is nothing you humans would recognize. Less than human indeed, yet in some ways more.” “What even are you?”
“Nothing you would recognize. I populate this level of the backrooms with my children. Exact copies of my genetic code, given new bodies. I feed them with the likes of you; eventually, my offspring will be big enough to venture off to find their own food. From there? Well, the backrooms has many niches to survive in. However, there’s no reason I can’t fill all of them myself.
“Of course, the resources on this world are finite, but I, or versions of me, can discover more. More resources to make more bodies which will gather more resources… I’m creating an ever-expanding organism here; beautiful, don’t you think? Well, you needn’t think for much longer. You will tire soon. Then will you be back in my clutches for the rest of your life, which needn’t be long.” It was right. As far as I could tell, some gas in the air kept me from functioning properly. That explained the migraine earlier, and only compounded the misery of this place. I need to escape soon, I thought. But… how? Revisiting the thought about closing my eyes, I decided I could probably only get in that way. Trying to escape like that would doubtless prove futile. However… could Sonic have followed me here? It’s either him or being eaten by this… horror in front of me. I tried my damnedest to summon Sonic. However, truly contacting him now somehow felt impossible; I figured I would have to get out on my own. How? Speed. I needed speed, and to defeat the… Jeffrey in front of me. Thinking about it brought me back to awareness, and its maniacal grin shook me to my core. It knows my mind is fading. I mustered up the little bit of Sonic inside of me, and felt something. An adrenaline rush hit me as I grew hard, and I rushed directly toward Jeffrey, leaping to clear its legs and get to the head. I had caught it by surprise, but it managed to block my jump. I ended up on the ground in front of it, narrowly dodging a venomous appendage. Wait… it makes cum-weak cages… is the armor itself weak that way? With no other choice, I channeled all that I had of Sonic and blew a load fast enough to sterilize the sperm within. However, semen, not sperm, was the key ingredient, and survived. Jeffrey loosed an unholy scream as his spider-mech crumbled around him, and his supremely overweight body fell out. This motherfucker weighed so much and had so little muscle that I swear he fucking died of fall damage just rolling out of the machine. With Jeffrey’s death, every small spider went wild and scattered; most died rapidly, but many scurried out if my sight. I was out, but out of what? Where could I go? The cave around me shook, and bits of spider… material fell from the ceiling. Some people began stumbling out of cages, having their falls cushioned; they may have too little energy to survive, or they may escape. Either way, if they were in the backrooms, what means they’ll be any saner than me? Hang on… shouldn’t people be dying after hitting the cavern floor? What is making contact with the ground so soft? I looked around and found… holes in the ground, presumably made by stray drops of my nut from earlier. The floor was artificial. Below… a cavern naturally sloped down. Further into the depths… a strangely tinted light came through. With nowhere else to go, I descended. As I traversed through the tunnels in the caverns, the tinted light seemed go grow closer and closer. After walking for what felt like almost 30 minutes, I still was unable to reach it. Looking around, I noticed a shrivled dead spider on the floor, it’s legs curled around itself. I need to find whatever is making that glow, I have nowhere else to go, and it’s my only chance of finding any sort of food or water. It’s my only chance. I got to my feet and kept walking. What felt like 3 minutes later I saw another spider on the ground, also shrivled up with it’s legs curling sound itself. What felt like 3 minutes passed again and I saw another spider. Then it hit me. I’m going in a loop. I keep going straight, but somehow I keep passing the same spider. I turned the spider over, as it’s body Desintigrated into a pile of ash, spider legs and a small head. I ran faster now. Just as I assumed I reached the same pile of ash and spider fragments. I needed to do something different if I ever wanted to reach that light. The sounds of chaos, with backrooms entities freed from the spider’s confines, came from behind me; I couldn’t go back. I have to go forward… differently. I kept moving forward, but the walls were solid as ever. Backward was still no option; when one entity’s voice was silenced, those remaining only grew louder. And more… primal isn’t the word for it. This is worse than reverting to animal forms; these are mutating into something new. Something beyond, and less than, human. Strangely, with my continued loops the light grew brighter, and no entities from Jeffrey’s caverns appeared in front of me. Soon, I came to an opening… with a red sun on the horizon. Setting, or rising, I did not care; I was free at last, and where there should have been a hole back to the cavern was now solid stone. I almost laughed with joy; I no longer needed fear Jeffrey’s collections. Finally, after this time, I’m in the open air agai- “I see you’ve made your way out,” said Sonic, walking out from behind a nearby tree. “No. No I made it out on my own. I deserve to be rid of you! Why do you follow me?”
“Because I care. What, you want to be without me-”
“YES!”
“…
“Fine then. Be that way. See how long you can survive in the backrooms absent my help. A sunrise is hardly a guarantee of safety, you know. And it will only get worse at nightfall.” Abruptly, Sonic dashed away in a plume of dust, leaving me, truly, alone. I was tired, hungry, and thirsty after escaping the cavern. In this new, seemingly open land, I had no notion of where to go. I turned right and began walking Must be south; the sun rises in the east… As I walked, I found precious few animals. No animals, to be exact. Only an oppressive wall of flora, thickening as I moved forward. Strangely, these plants seemed… more alive than what I was used to. As I traveled through the ever-denser forest, my path disappeared behind me, replaced by sudden growth; I figured that no trace of my footsteps would last the day. As time passed and vegetation thickened, visibility worsened. Where once I could see what seemed the full extent of greenery, more plants left more obstructions and less light. I made sure not to turn, lest I lose my concept of where forward was. By this time, hours had past, and I grew weary. If I didn’t find some salvation soon, I was no, best not think about what might happen… not left in a good state. Luckily, as the foliage grew nearly impassable, an oasis of accessible water appeared in front of me. I tore my way through vines and undergrowth, drawing blood, as I scrambled to the pool. I immediately fell in – plant growth had nearly completely sealed the pool in and I had no place to stand on. Who cares? I can drink and tread water. And so I did. However, climbing out of the pool brought issue. Once more I lost blood to vines and other thorny vegetation while desperately scrambling up to the hole I’d fallen through before. At long last, with several cuts and a particularly nasty slash across my left cheek, I emerged back to where I had come from. Now… Food. I looked around at vibrant green plant matter, and broke something colorful, hopefully fruit, off a nearby, particularly large, vine. The taste reminded me more of meat than fruit, but this ecosystem was probably much different than what I knew. Plus I was too hungry to care. I eagerly looked around for more, and eventually sated my appetite. Now… Rest. I found an area of dense leaves to slide under, and lied down. I briefly closed my eyes, and disappeared from consciousness. Fog once more clouded my mind as I slept, and more than before. Ever since running from sonic and entering the Backrooms, my dreams had grown… vaguer, more slippery. One dream, however, emerged from my mind as sharp as ever… one of Sonic. This time, we were in bed together, like the old times. I could practically smell the passion emanating off of both of us. Suddenly, however, Sonic’s tune changed. He was choking me, and I felt countless tiny needles pierce the rest of my skin. Not playful choking, but real strangling. I tried to cry out, but he acted like he didn’t listen-
Abruptly, I was awake. The darkness of night in the forest kept my mind unclear, and I was still being asphyxiated. With new terror my hands shot to my throat, where a thick vine, coming off a nearby tree, had wrapped itself. I tugged, but could do nothing to affect its power. I have no weapon… how stupid! Desperately, grabbed a length of vine near me and sawed at it with my teeth. Consciousness began to dim. I managed to separate the length of vine around my neck from the plant, but what remained only held on tighter. I felt my grip on life slipping. With my last spur of adrenaline, I peeled the vine segment off my neck and threw it to the ground. I began to breathe again, and almost sank to my knees, when a thought occurred to me it’s nighttime… if I can’t trust the plants, I can’t trust anything, including the floor beneath… I remembered the countless needles I’d felt in my dream and felt my torn shirt soaked in blood. I need to get out, now. But where to? I thought as I began running. If I leave the forest, how do I know any other place is safer at night? A spiked vine swooped down from the canopy and nearly grabbed my leg, giving me a nasty cut in the process. The pool… what is in the pool? No plants grew in there… hell, it’s my only chance at surviving – I’m not gonna live going back where I came from My mind made up, I went the direction of the pool. The direction I thought the pool was in. There was precious little light, and dense overgrowth made things difficult. Abruptly, I realized something. My blood is glowing. Not the stuff on me, but any blood that landed on a hell-plant began to glow as it coagulated. I followed my own bloody trail back to where I’d gotten my first cut, when I’d entered the water. It was then, dodging more vines trying to doom me to an unceremonious grave, that I realized I couldn’t get through. I barely scraped by when the vines weren’t actively trying to kill me. I looked around, and realized something: vines clustered around my shed blood. Those vines far away hardly shifted at all, but anything in range seemed to thirst after blood. With a half-baked idea hitting my mind, I took off and threw my bloodstained shirt at the wall of greenery, probably 20 feet from where I’d initially made my entrance. The vines swarmed, leaving other areas vacant. I summoned my remaining energy and sprinted through the gap I’d initially gone through. Thorns dug into my flesh, but I was fast enough to evade the vine swarm. At last, I free fell on the other side into open water. Beneath the water and in the dark, I noticed a new glow. The water itself was as luminescent as my blood had been, and it grew brighter towards the bottom. Despite my exhaustion, I surfaced, took one last breath, and dove to investigate. As I swam down, the glowing vortex spiraled around me. I neared a solidly glowing bottom, and reached my right hand out to touch- only to have it pass through. I felt my arm gripped by something strong, and was dragged through the glow. I emerged in a flooded basement area, my arm lifted up by a hellish humanoid creature. It looked me in they eyes, terrifying me. Then it loosed a sudden shriek and dropped me before running away – I shifted my weight around and narrowly avoided falling back through the gateway I’d taken, glowing a faint red from this side. Otherwise, the only light was a faint LED in the corner. In the opposite corner, a staircase. Strewn about were partially submerged, and partially consumed, bones, and… in another corner, the hell-creature, with a long, thin, deformed body and that supernatural strength. It stared at me with apparent emotions I could neither describe nor comprehend. I slowly moved toward the staircase, keeping my eyes trained on the being. Finally, I reached the stairs, and gradually made my ascent. I opened a door and emerged into a hallway without end, lit occasionally by random LED lights, continuing indefinitely in a straight line. No, curving slightly. Maybe. Regardless, in this hallway, doors were far apart though regularly spaced, each like the one I had come from. I felt… unusually vulnerable here, like a deer in a bear’s den. Careful to keep my footsteps silent, I briskly walked to the door nearest me, a few hundred feet away. I neared and reached it without trouble. I opened the door, and stepped through. Under a clouded, closed sky I emerged. I was outside, and next to a plaza with empty buildings, some visibly decayed and some not. I was on the sidewalk with no notion of a door nearby; I could not go back through. I looked around again, and noticed that one building seemed more active. I couldn’t recognize any insignia from the buildings, but this one at least had some form of light-up sign. It didn’t use any alphabet I recognized, but had some order to it. I decided to investigate. On the way, I saw a store with what seemed Japanese lettering on the front. Inside were weapons. I grabbed a katana and scabbard. Yes I felt a little like a degenerate weeb, but I needed a weapon after all this time. I stepped back out and continued making my way to the lit building. Holy hell my pants are torn from the thorns and I’m shirtless with a katana, I look like such a larper rn. I took a moment to see my reflection in the window of a mostly intact store. My body looked… different. I felt stronger here, now. More used to the Backrooms. However, I looked thinner. I’d been slightly overweight before, but now looked near skin and bones. My face was gaunt, and the shed width almost made my arms seem longer than before. If I must see other people like this, I’m going to have a tough time seeming normal. I turned away from the building of light and searched the plaza for clothing stores. While searching, I found a shoe store, and decided to exchange my current pair. They were in bad condition; I’d been too distracted to notice how submerging in water had damaged them. I looked through several more buildings, including something that looked vaguely medical and some kind of supplement store. Soon enough, however, I found a clothing store, and revamped my wardrobe. Fresh pair of basic blue jeans with a T-Shirt with an unrecognizable mascot and… English alphabet, non-English words. What the hell? Whatever, not my concern now. I also grabbed a rainbow hoodie that looked warm, in case the weather… wherever I was going grew cool. That color scheme is gay… wait, am I gay? I mean I did kinda like when Sonic- nope nope not thinking about that. Whatever, I’ll keep the hoodie. And thusly I left the odd store, as well dressed as anyone could expect and with only my face attesting to what I’d been through. Well that plus the sword. Regardless, I finally felt ready to approach the most mysterious building. It had windows, and through them I saw an empty reception area. No other stalling tactics available, I pushed the main door open, triggering a small bell that made me jump in surprise. I then checked in on my body and found my heart racing. “Guten Tag. Warum bist du hier gekommen?” A deep voice boomed from behind me. I turned around to see a 7 or 8 foot tall green thing dressed in a few layers of clothing. is this an onion? i thought. *no, it must be an ogre. Ogres are like onions: **they have layers***. As I gazed upon his bulky form, I noticed a red armband with a swatstika on it. On his tunic was a pin with the colors of the rainbow. “H- Hello? Who are you?” My voice stammered. I realized that any weapon would be useless against him and my only chance was to hope he was friendly. The ogre boldly said, “Ich habe dich gefragt warum du hier gekommen bist? Ich bin der Shrek, der fantastischer Saxophonist” I did not understand what he was saying, but I recognized the word. Shrek. Where had I seen this name before? In a flash I remembered. It was the name of one of the two people involved in an animated love story: “Shrek is love, shrek is life” Shrek spoke again, gesturing me back, “Komm!” Meekly, I followed. I could run, but where would I go? Better to see what this is about. Doesn’t seem like a trap…
“Hello! Sorry about Shrek, he doesn’t speak English very well,” said an enthusiastic man in similarly strange attire to Shrek’s, including armband and rainbow. “Welcome! We don’t find new recruits at our office location very often. Most people who chase lights in the Backrooms don’t last long enough to make it here… but you have! Congratulations! You’ve reached paradise. We’ve been making a whole new society out here. Haven’t made it back home yet, but we’re working on it. Hell, living here in the Backrooms is almost better than home, in some ways. Or so they say. Here, take a seat,” he gestured to a chair in the reception area. “Our history is quite rich, so it’ll take you a bit to get caught up. Rest assured though, this is the best place you could’ve ended up. You are safe now. You will be accepted here. You are home.” The strangest thing about these men besides their attire was that almost seductive German accent. I had no idea that this would only be the beginning of my adventures in the New Reich. Several lecturers had rotated through the room as I was caught up on the New Reich’s lore, although I could hardly remember anything they said. Eventually, I was directed to stand up and guided to a surprisingly cozy bedroom. Strangely, leaving the reception area, I could see no trace of the entrance; this building itself seemed more part of the backrooms than an imposition on them, complete with its own unending fractal hallways. My guide, a stern-faced elderly woman who refused to speak, pointed me into the room and, after I stepped in, shut the door on me. I was left in a fairly nice room with a bed, desk with glowing lamp, and chair. Books themed around the New Reich littered the room, everywhere but the floor and bed. Some seemed German, but most – or at least most of the newer ones, with intact covers – were English. All were covered in symbols I could hardly recognize. Despite interest in the surroundings, I found myself exhausted after the lectures. The room, devoid of windows, gave no indication of the time, and I was probably at liberty to sleep. I turned the lamp off and found myself in darkness, no hint of the hallway’s light bleeding through the door. I lay down on the bed and fell into the sweet embrace of sleep – or tried to. Although I remember precious little of what I’d been told, it seemed to click only as I sought sleep. I’m being housed by former Nazis, who only made it here instead of execution by freak luck with experiments. Why? What possible sequence of events could have led to this? And… can I leave? Do I want to leave?
What are they planning? Some time later, I awoke to a knocking at my door and a man’s nasally, slightly accented voice. “May I come in?” I got out of bed , and, having slept fully clothed, immediately opened the door. “Ah. Glad you’re up so quickly… sorry, I don’t think we got it on file. What’s your name?”
“Call me Steve,” I said.
“Ah. Steve. Anyway, you should know our history already, so today we’ll do orientation. Here, everyone’s got their own role. You’re a new member, and, judging by your look, spent a while loose in the Backrooms before getting here. Most people here do field work, but your… physique would be wasted there.” He gestured up and down my body. I looked down and remembered the changes to my form since entering the Backrooms. Everyone, Shrek excluded, seemed so much… shorter than me now. Fuller of face, too – everyone here was probably also well-fed. “Well. Let’s get moving, then, shall we?”
The man took my silence as agreement and began leading me away. He strode confidently through a maze of hallways I couldn’t make any sense of. Within only a few minutes, we went through a door to somewhere outside. Nothing like where I had entered from. Exiting the door, we stepped out onto sand. As far as the eye could see, was more sand. We were in a barren desert – that wasn’t hard to understand – but somehow, I was supposed to be here. That was a new sensation. I was used to aimless wandering and trying to survive, but purpose? Completely novel. The man leading me turned around, and I followed suit. Behind us, and in-line with the door we exited, was a grand marble temple. I had little time to appreciate the sight, as an imposing, bald, bearded man, came from it toward us. He bored into me with bright yellow eyes while walking up, and after reaching us his head snapped toward my guide.
“New recruit, eh Arthur? I’ll take it from here,” the man said in a strong German accent. Arthur, as I now knew him, retreated back through the door. The bald man stuck his hand out to me. “I’m Rolf. Glad to have a fresh soldier here.”
“Solider?” I asked.
“Well, yes. What else are they to do with us Backroomers? Can hardly let us into normal society, can they? May as well use our… physicality to the Reich’s benefit. Come on, we’ll get you started with the quarterstaff.” With no other option – well none besides running back through the door to God know’s where or dying in the desert – I followed.