The Backrooms: Infinity

Chapter 1: Worse Than Hell

My life was hell, but even hell's better than...THIS. Okay, let me explain. I'm Columbus Shay, and my life was a living hell before I even got into the Backrooms. Dead father, mother that comes home drunk every other night, bullies at school and failing every subject make for a bad life.

That day, I was having a worse-than-usual time with teachers. "COLUMBUS! Focus on the board and NOT THE WINDOW!" My Maths teacher, Mr. Draughtly, shouted at me, waking me up from my daydream about a better life.

During lunch, no one sat with me as usual. I was more or less the stereotypical loser in my school. If I disappeared, no one would even care, much less look for me. My mother might care, but only if she wasn't having the third hangover of the night. Yeah, that was just how bad it got.

All my life I was laughed at because of my parentage and how awkward I was. I played by myself when I was younger, and never got into being social. When I was 10, my dad died and my mother has been drinking ever since. From then on, I knew no one would help me, so I tried to help myself, but ultimately failed.

After school, I was yet again harassed by Mike Oxlong, the infamous school bully. "Hey, WIMP! How's being a loser feel like?" Then, in classic bully style, started insulting my dead father and drunk mother. Out of nowhere, unlike myself usually, I retaliated with, "At least my mother came back in the last ten years." Ah, big mistake.

Mike did NOT like that. Considering he went to the gym every Friday and that he was like the teenage version of Hulk, I ran. I ran and ran, until I decided to hide in a garbage bin until he left. I didn't leave until I was absolutely sure that he left, but when I came out, however, it was night.

Sensing the long walk ahead of me, I started walking back home. My first step didn't touch the ground. It went through it. I felt myself phasing through the ground, and a shiver through my entire body. Then, I kept falling, and falling, and falling.