The Backrooms

chapter 1: arrival

Skylar, Gabriella and Kaleb were at the local skatepark that they frequented most days after school. The sun was just beginning to set and left an orange glow painted across their faces.

''Hey Skylar, watch this.'', Gabriella shouted down to her from the top of the ramp she was on. Kaleb and Skylar stood in anticipation as she came flying past, her hair trailing behind her. The pair clapped as they were surprised at how she didn't fall off at speeds like that. Skylar leaned over to Kaleb to whisper in his ear, ''Reckon we could do that while on the same board?''

Kaleb turned to look at her. She had the same mischievous grin on her face as usual when suggesting dangerous ideas. Kaleb rolled his eyes, ''Sure, let's try but if anything goes wrong this is entirely your fault, deal?''

''Yes, don't worry I'll take the entire blame if anything happens, which it won't.'' She picked her board up from the floor and jogged to the same ramp that Gabriella was just on a minute ago. Kaleb left his board where it was and followed Skylar up there shaking his head.

''So do you wanna get on first?'' She placed the board on the floor and looked up at Kaleb expectantly.

''Yeah okay.'' Kaleb said as he stood on the board and held out his hands for Skylar to hold onto while she positioned herself in front of him with her feet on either side of his.

''What are you two doing?'' Gabriella shouted. She had a worried look on her face. After all, she had been friends with Skylar for the past 7 years, so she knew all about these so called 'great ideas' she'd get. It was usually Gabriella helping after one of these ideas had gone wrong and she could just see this being the next but certainly not the last.

''Just wait and see, this is going to be great.'' Skylar shouted back. She turned to Kaleb, ''Are you ready?'' He looked nervous but he put on a brave face, ''As ready as I'll ever be.''

With his confirmation, Skylar took one foot off to push them and off they went down the steep ramp. The wind rushed pass them and blew their hair in their faces. The feeling was exhilarating, and she felt on top of the world. She held onto Kaleb tighter, and he squeezed her arms in return. As they got to the bottom, they hit a stone and went flying off the board. The last thing she saw before everything went black was Kaleb falling on top of her.

                                                                    .·:* *:·.

Skylar slowly blinked open her eyes. There was a pounding in her head, and she wondered how long she must've been out of it for. She heard a low buzzing coming from all around. She sat up and looked around. The first thing she noticed were the pale-yellow walls, she realised she wasn't anywhere normal but something about this place felt...familiar. This feeling made her uncomfortable, but she shook it off for now as she inspected the rest of the place. The room appeared to not be a single room but made of many. None of them were closed off and she wondered just how big this place could be. The lights flickered constantly and the bright fluorescent light coming from them was headache inducing. The next thing she noticed was the damp carpet and with that she stood up quickly.

Kaleb was laying on the floor a few metres from where she was, so she rushed over quickly to check on him. He was still breathing so she shook him awake.

''Uh god my head is killing me.'' he muttered as he opened his eyes.

''Come on Kaleb, get up. We need to get out of here.'' She reached for his hand and pulled him up as his eyes still adjusted to the harsh light.

''What do you mean? Where are we?'' he rubbed his eyes and looked around, ''What is this place?'' his voice had a hint of panic hidden in it.

''I don't know. We should look around for an exit.'' Skylar headed towards one of the other rooms which were decorated with the same wallpaper and featured the same flickering lights. Kaleb rushed behind her as to not be left.

''Make sure you don't go too far from me. This place looks easy to get lost in.'' Kaleb spoke from next to her.

''Don't worry, i won't. We should stay as close as possible because we have no idea what things could be here.''

Kaleb nodded in agreeance, and they continued walking around the place. After what seemed to be like forever Skylar stopped walking and Kaleb bumped into the back of her.

''Hey, why did you stop?'' Kaleb questioned her.

''Doesn't it feel like we are just going in circles?'' she turned to look at him, ''I feel like we're getting nowhere with this.

He hummed thoughtfully, ''I mean i guess you're right. Let's just walk a bit further and see if it takes us anywhere different.

''Okay sure, let's go this way then.'' She pointed to the left of her, and they both went walking.

Skylar noticed that the buzzing appeared to be getting louder the further they walked. The pair came to a stop in front of a wall which had some drawings and writing on. The drawing looked to be like some sort of weird stick figure that was abnormally long. Next to it was written 'Don't look at it.'

Skylar and Kaleb turned to each with the same panicked expression on their faces.

''What do they mean 'don't look at it', is there something in here'' Kaleb looked around but there was nothing there around except the vast majority of the same yellow walls. Just as Kaleb said that Skylar some black figure in her peripheral vision. She whipped her head around quickly, but the figure was gone.

''What's wrong?'' Kaleb asked as Skylar backed up to him, her eyes wide with fear.

''I saw it. It was just there but when i looked it disappeared. We need to get out of here Kaleb. We aren't alone.'' Before he could answer, she grabbed his arm and started running in the opposite direction.

''Where are we running to?'' Kaleb called out as the ran through multiple rooms.

''Anywhere. We just need to get away from it.'' She answered quickly.

After a few minutes they both stopped to catch their breath. Kaleb was bent over with his hands on his knees. His eyes picked up on something and he tapped Skylar to get her attention, ''Look over there.'', he pointed to a square hole in the floor, ''Do you think we can jump down there?'' he asked. Skylar rushed to it to inspect it. It led to somewhere, but she had no idea where as it was pitch black.

''We should try, anything is better than here. You jump first and I'll jump ten seconds after, so we don't land on each other''

Kaleb nodded and steadied himself before jumping and Skylar followed exactly ten seconds after like she said.

If only she knew how wrong she was.