Blinding lights go past me as I zoom the air, a cool breeze in the air of the pitch-black dusk of the new moon. I watch as cars seem blurred from the utter amount of speed I was achieving. I suddenly felt a bump, then two more bumps. I knew something was wrong, but I did not know what the problem was.

Kaboom! A series of colors and a colossal explosion flash before my eyes as I fly out of my cycle and get knocked unconscious when I woke up I didn’t know where I was. The place seemed familiar with an old musty tinge of mold coming from the yellowed wallpaper that surrounded the area. I fell asleep from the dreading sound of the fluorescent light bulbs buzzing.

 I woke up in the middle of the suburbs in a place I did not recognize. There were people there but they were all too afraid to talk. One of the people said “ What are you doing out here!? Do you know about the nightcrawlers!? Come inside! Obviously, you need shelter and look severely injured,” I told him how I got to this place and he seemed shocked. He talked about a place called The Backrooms and said that I was lucky to be alive. I wondered “What was this place called The Backrooms? Was it the place I originally woke up in?”.

 In the un-lit house, there was an eerie record player playing some quiet classical music. They lit a candle and lit their fireplace. I heard a noise in the other room but it sounded like a coffee grinder. The man came out with a cup of coffee in his hand while he talked to me. 

The person said,” Well, I forgot to introduce myself but my name is Peter.” At night they seemed to have working electricity because the bathroom light was able to be turned on and he had hot water and a working shower.

 Before I cleaned up my bloody body Peter handed me a towel and said “Please ignore the sounds, it is the sound screams of the Nightcrawlers. I will prepare to board up the house for tonight’s slumber. Everything in the house seemed like a fever dream, everything was really familiar like a liminal space for that matter and everything seemed to look low-quality as if life was on an old camcorder. I quickly got in the shower and washed off my nasty bloody body. The soap bottles sounded like bootleg versions of the things that I used in my house like Axe body soap was Tomahawk body soap and Dove was Swan, it didn’t make much sense, but I kept washing. It felt great to feel my wounds heal and be warm and not crusty and bloody. When I got out I dried off, and Peter gave me a nice set of clothing and some almond water for me to get better. I liked his place. He had a nice bedroom and guest bedroom, so I hopped into bed and slept and he was not kidding to ignore the screams of the Nightcrawlers. They sounded like a pterodactyl on crack, screaming in my ear all night. It honestly freaked me out; it was insane. I wonder what Peter was thinking at that moment about how he let a homeless-looking guy into his house to sleep for the night. I don’t know if the Nightcrawlers were hostile but the name just sounded hostile. I had a lot more questions in my head but I was too exhausted to even think about them.

The next morning I asked him if there are any other entities in this place and he said that this is an alternate reality that isn’t a backrooms level but you can exit to another exit by going through the giant wall ahead of the street to another level. I reached for my phone and somehow it was there even though I swapped clothes. I went on google and searched up The Backrooms somehow the results came up even though I had no wifi and towers were not in sight. But the first result was the place that I first was at they called it “Level 0” of the backrooms. I was scared by the mass amount of other people in the areas and that the other levels ahead could be even more hostile than the “Level 0” one. This whole backrooms place seemed so weird because it’s so strangely familiar but also so distant and different from every single vivid nostalgic thing ever…

The next morning I planned an escape from the place. I was going to try to “no-clip” through this and somehow make it to my world. But, something didn’t seem right. I don’t know how to travel dimensions and no-clip through this reality in a way. But, I had to in some way. So I asked Peter how to get through this place. I didn’t really expect him to know a way. He had a way. But, he said it was really dangerous to do and you have to be really lucky because you could end up in a place where you didn’t want to end up at. The way was to “ be half asleep, then bang your head against a wall for a long time,” I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. But, I still tried. The next morning I remembered how to do it. So, I banged my head against the wall over and over again until I fell. I realized my head was inside some sort of void pulling me through naturally. My whole body hurt. I could feel my body twisting and turning and my skull and face stretching. Until I felt the sensation of wind blowing on me. I opened my mouth. 

Suddenly, a burst of air went rushing down me. My lungs were going into an oxygen overhaul hyperventilating back and forth.

Then.  I saw light in a hospital bed with surgeons running back and forth. I could feel my original clothes I was wearing during the incident. Everything was clear and not low resolution. The faint beep of my heart monitor going *beep *beep* and the rapid clacking of surgeons shoes they finally found out I was conscious and let me off with a IV bag with plasma inside. When I walked out of the room. Everything was like the suburbs. I was in an empty hospital hallway though. I muttered under my breath “Shit,”. I felt dizzy going back into this place. I was scared for every step I took. I looked back trying to get to the door again but it disappeared behind me. At this point I knew I was truly screwed not knowing if I’m alone or not…

Short Story by  – therusselldynasty