In The Backrooms

Chapter 7: The Key

Twenty minutes ago.

That's when he last saw the clock.

That means we've only got ten minutes left.

Ten minutes to find the exit out of this maze.

I mentally scream and speed walk past Matt. Matt walks behind me, giving me space to process everything.

"Let's go," I order, I'm taking the lead. Now I want to make it out alive. I want to get the hell out of here, so I can punch these people, square in the face. Even though it's not half as bad as what they did to us.

"Are you okay?" asks Matt.

Am I okay?! Let's see . . . I wake up in a room with people I don't know, and find out that we're trapped. We left someone's kids behind, and only God knows what happened to them. Eight people are dead, possibly nine. I watched a kid either get squashed by a boulder, or get shredded to pieces just like the other guy. And to top it all off, I am starving that I may eat my own foot. Besides that, I'm doing great!

Instead of ranting all that was in my head,  I just simply say, "I'm okay." I say it with a small smile to make it believable, even though I know it wasn't.

"Are you?" I ask. I turn around to face him as he looks to the ground.

"Besides almost dying, I'm fine." He looks up and chuckles.

I turn around and start walking. We walk with each other in an awkward silence. I wished I knew what I could say, that way I can stop being sucked up into my own thoughts. I kick pebbles as we walk. They glide across the floor, making a tiny scraping sound. As I kick another pebble into the abyss, it makes a dim smacking sound.

I pause.

Is it a dead end?

"What?" Matt walks beside me.

"I think there's a dead end, but it's too dark to tell."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," he whispered.

Then Matt takes the lead. That way, if something dangerous were to happen, I can have a head start to run.

"You stay here." Matt walks into the abyss as I stand behind.

I heard Matt say something, but I wasn't able to understand it. "Kacey! Come here!" Matt chirped.

I walk into the abyss, but I hesitate. What if it's the creature? That's how Romana died. The creature mimicked Emma's and Emily's voices.

"Hurry up Kacey. We haven't got all day." Matt appears from the shadows. "Seriously, we've only got about seven minutes left," Matt giggled.

I walked into the abyss with Matt and entered another room. It was dark at first, until the darkness was filled with a dim light.

The light illuminates a rusted door.

"Hell yeah! We made it!" I rejoiced. Matt chuckles and goes up to the door to open it. He tugs on it, but the door stays put.

"It's locked," Matt says, through gritted teeth.

That's when the room wasn't so quiet anymore. The sound of gears filled the room. Matt and I cursed, and ran back to where we came from, until a metal door came crashing down in between us and the other side. I look around the room to find vents appearing, and gas seeking through the vents. I tug on Matts sweater and point to the vents.

"We need to find the key," Matt panics.

"What?" I stammered.

"There's a keyhole on the door knob. We need to find the key."

"But how? There's nothing here." As if on cue, the ceiling raised like an elevator and  shallow holes appeared on the wall where the exit is. Something glistened on the edge of where the ceiling should be.

"There it is. There's the key. We have to climb," I explain, as I make my way to the wall with holes.

"It's going to be dangerous. If you fall you'll split your head open," he said. He's right, it's high up. One mistake and my head will splatter on the rock-hard, pavement floor. Going up is not a problem, but coming back down is.

"It doesn't matter, I have to try," I mutter. I take my first step on the tiny hole and start climbing. It's not difficult so far. I just need to be careful about where I decide to put my feet and hands. I'm already half way up! All of the holes are close together which makes me question: what's next? Matt starts coughing and says, "Hurry, the gas is filling up the room."

"I'm almost there," I reassured him. I wasn't lying. If I stretch out my arm I can easily grab the key. I just have to get closer to it so that I don't fall. I lift up my foot to the next hole and hoist myself up. I grab the silver key and beam, "Got it!" Matt cheers as I start to head back down when I feel something pushing on my hands and feet.

The holes are closing in. I panic and almost fall. I have to make it back quick. Every hole I touch starts closing in. I'm almost to the end when the holes start closing even faster. I lose my grip and fall.

My soul leaves my body when I fall.

I try to land on my feet, which was a big mistake.

The pain spread through my feet, into my legs, and into my waist, that I couldn't stand it and I tumbled, falling onto my back.

"Kacey! Can you walk?" I hear Matt through the thick fog, but I can't see him.

I stand back onto my feet with the help of Matt.

"I'm okay." Which is another obvious lie. I'm surprised that my legs didn't give up as soon as I stood back up.

"I got it." I held up the key and walked towards the door which isn't too far away. Each step came with agony, but I made it to the door. The pain is too painful to describe.

I insert the key into the hole and twist it. I look at Matt and think, We made it. Matt takes the lead, keeping me behind him. We both enter the dark room, slowly.

   

The dark was then illuminated and a gun was pointed to my head.