Liminal 3: Shattered Dimensions

Reflection Of Death

Adaliya felt the floor give way as the entire space began to distort around them. The once stable ground shifted beneath her feet like the deck of a ship caught in a storm, and her stomach dropped. A nauseating spin took hold as she and Sarah were flung apart, spiraling through the air as if gravity no longer applied. The walls of the backrooms blurred, twisting and warping until nothing made sense.

"Sarah!" Adaliya screamed, her voice barely audible over the deafening roar of the room collapsing on itself. She reached out, but her fingers only brushed against empty air as Sarah was torn from her sight.

Her body slammed against what felt like cold, rough concrete, knocking the breath out of her. Gasping, Adaliya rolled onto her back, clutching her ribs, and tried to steady her spinning vision. Everything was dark now—pitch black, like a void had swallowed her whole.

"Sarah?" she called, her voice cracking in the oppressive silence. "Sarah, where are you?"

There was no answer.

She pushed herself to her knees, her entire body aching from the impact. The cold darkness pressed in on her from every angle. She could barely see her hand in front of her face. No lights. No sounds. Just the thick, suffocating darkness.

Adaliya swallowed her fear and tried to calm her racing heart. She couldn't afford to panic. Not now. Not here.

She took a deep breath, reaching out cautiously, her fingertips brushing against a smooth, stone-like surface. She was in some sort of room, but it was unlike anything she had ever experienced in the backrooms. There were no fluorescent lights humming above her, no distorted echoes of forgotten office spaces. This was different. *Alive*, almost.

Suddenly, she heard something—a faint, shuffling noise. It was distant, but it was there. She froze, her breath catching in her throat. It wasn't Sarah.

*Not again,* she thought, the familiar feeling of dread rising in her chest.

The shuffling grew louder, closer. Something—or *someone*—was moving in the darkness with her. Adaliya's muscles tensed, and she instinctively crouched low, making herself as small as possible, trying to steady her breathing. She had to figure out where she was, and fast.

"Adaliya?" a voice suddenly called out, barely a whisper. It was faint, almost like an echo, but she recognized it immediately.

"Sarah!" she whispered back, her voice trembling with relief. "Sarah, I'm here! Where are you?"

There was a pause, followed by Sarah's voice again, but this time it sounded strange—off, like she was far away, and yet too close at the same time. "I can't see you. I—I don't know where I am..."

Adaliya's heart pounded in her ears. "Stay where you are! I'll find you!"

She stood slowly, careful not to make any noise, and began to move cautiously in the direction of Sarah's voice. The ground beneath her feet was uneven, like walking on jagged rocks, and every step echoed unnervingly in the darkness.

As she moved forward, the air grew colder, more oppressive, like the room itself was trying to crush her under its weight. Her instincts screamed at her to turn back, to find a corner and hide, but she couldn't leave Sarah alone.

"Sarah!" she called again, her voice low but urgent.

No response.

A faint rustling behind her made her blood run cold. She stopped, heart thudding in her chest, and slowly turned her head. In the distance, she saw the faintest glimmer of movement—a shifting shadow, darker than the blackness around it.

It wasn't Sarah.

Something else was in here with them.

Adaliya's mind raced. The Bone Thief? No, it had to be something else—something new. The backrooms were never predictable, never the same twice.