The backrooms: Liminality

Chapter 1 - Ones Beilefs

"You know, I've always wondered what it would feel like to be proven wrong by your own beliefs"
"Hm?" She answers me while laying next to me on the bed, her soft eyes gazing back at me. "Just a thought" I reply, stroking a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. In the bleak darkness of the room I can see her faintly smile. "Just get some sleep it's late" she laughs and wraps her arms around my shoulders. "I love you Mia" even through the darkness I can see her blush, "I love you more Remi". We lay in the new apartment we bought together, silence and contentment filling the space between us. I close my eyes and wish to wake up in her embrace, feeling the warmth of her presence.

Instead I start to shiver

"Hey Remi", "Hello?", "Wake up".
Hearing those words I hope to wake up next to her again, but this isn't her voice.
Instead the words wake me up to reality, my eyes barely open and my heart races, I use one hand to push myself up. The air is thick and musky and I take a deep breath, I look up at Hannah and she looks at me with concern. "Are you alright?" She mumbles and I'm silent with confusion "Yeah I'm fine" I smile trying to hide whatever emotion that she read off my face, my eyes squint from the dust that hovers in the air. I hope she doesn't see the disappointment in my eyes, the hope that I lost many months ago. I hope, that my face is doing its best to conceal my emotions. I rub my eyes, it was too late, Hannah already noticed
"Was it that dream again?" Her voice echoes out of the silence, her eyes follow mine as they try to escape her gaze, ever since I met her it's as if she can see through me like glass "yea"
I simply respond. The words escape my mouth, as I imagine them floating away, far away from this hell that I've had to call home for longer than I hoped for.
This place, it bends the reality of the world we live in, it breaks the laws of physics and it shifts in unimaginable ways.
It's hard to believe, for me it was as well.
Home is the only place that I've known,
And to actually believe that a place like this exists is still haunting me, slowly chipping away at my beliefs, my outlook and my hope to escape. "Every night my dreams feel more real" I mumble as I lay back down and stare at the crack of light coming from the ruined metal ceiling. Trapping us in like a cage, a large expanse yet I still feel cramped in. This level is different from the many other ones we have been to, the light casts a strange hue over everything, making it feel even more surreal.
"I told you" a voice echoes from the shadows of the warehouse "setting up camp here was a mistake" his voice is domineering and sharp and a silence follows his voice that echoes around the broken warehouse. I look back at Hannah almost announcing that I'm not talking back at him again, she's sat down silently on her sleeping bag and she sighs
"Well it's the safest place we could find" she says looking back at me for support. I close my eyes and hope whatever words I manage to get out changes his mind. "The level that we came here from was far more dangerous, and the levels before that as well" my hand traces the outline of light that showers me with warmth
it seems to be our best option to stay here for now, even if Miles doesn't agree with us. The other levels were far too dangerous, and so far I haven't seen any signs of danger here. But that could change in a few seconds, I've learnt that this place is unpredictable and you should always keep your guard up. Even in what seems to be a relatively safe area, there's no guarantee how long it will stay that way. And you won't know if the next level you stumble upon will make you regret your decision to go there entirely.
"We're leaving today, we can't stay here forever" the stern look in his eyes turns us both silent and I turn back to the ruined ceiling, which looks like it will collapse on us at any moment. A single crack spreads light through the darkness, the light illuminates every speck of dust that floats around us, the particles move in weird ways, they rise up and then they fall back down like rain. "And we are running out of supplies" he adds after searching his bag for a moment, "the stuff we have left should only last us one more day".
Another wave of silence hits, "we will leave today then" i reply, because we don't have a choice.
I notice Miles struggling to stay awake "You should get some sleep before we leave" I say, his eyes are bloodshot "alright" he replies. "Wake me up in an hour" he mumbles,
"We have no track of time here dumbass" he turns over and sighs "whatever"

Another few minutes of silence pass.
I look back at Hannah while she plays with her shoe lace, "we didn't really explore this level properly did we" I say while she ties multiple knots into her shoes for some reason.
"Maybe that's for the better" she answers and looks around the warehouse once more. "It looks like it goes on for miles, we might find something", she looks at me and turns back to her shoes "we will get lost, and Miles won't know where we are". Yea she might be right for once, maybe it's better to stay close until we leave. "Alright then" curiosity gets the better of me "you see that big crack in the ceiling?" I add, and she squints her eyes through the dust
"It looks like it's collapsing?" she mutters, and I nod.
"Your gonna help me get up there"