(This story didn't do well for me on the creepypasta subreddit so I am putting it here in case someone else will appreciate it. I don't write often, but when I do, I post it somewhere.)
There is something to be said about liminal spaces. Places that serve as a transition area. A pathway through a break in the woods, a hallway, a corridor in the hospital, the backrooms. They were a very viral and famous but unbeknownst to its own whereabouts place that no one has ever found. Atleast, never found and lived to tell about it. Questions arise as to whether it is real. After all, there is footage of this never ending screensaver theme of endless office space in the shape of a labyrinth everywhere.
But I was only twenty-two years old at the time. I remember it so vivid. The color was a yellowish beige. I never was able to pinpoint whether there existed cubicles but with no evidence of its location, I was SOL for finding it.
I took a nap one night in a bus station, before my long ride home. When I awoke, I found a bright pink sticky note on my shoulder with coordinates. Someone is definitely stalking me, or trying to trick me. I crumpled up the paper and called it a day.
The next morning, I had to take another long bus ride to go buy a winter coat as my old one had a broken zipper. I have sleep apnea, so I ended up falling asleep at the bus station again. This time when I awoke, the note was blue with coordinates.
I googled them and found an old but sturdy abandoned warehouse. This is bogus I said to myself.
When I arrived, there was nothing around it but parking lots. I decided to take a drive. The air was thin and the cold, nippy weather added to the chills that came up my spine as I opened the unlocked doors.
There they were. The backrooms. I couldn't believe I would ever find the setting to that viral video.
I took a few pictures and decided to go, but there seemed to be something--an urge to stay. It was like the rooms were calling me home like I belonged here. I didn't know what to make of it so I turned back and closed the warehouse. For now.
The next day, I was freaking out because I left a lantern at the warehouse. I intended to retrieve it so, I returned. But when I opened the doors to the warehouse all I saw was an open main room and a bunch of factory equipment.
Was I going nuts!?!?
There was absolutely nothing in this warehouse like how I saw it yesterday. It was as if I was losing my mind. I scaled the perimeter of the warehouse to ensure I was at the same door as before. It was. The backrooms --they were gone!!!
I returned home and decided to return my coat at the sotre. I ended up taking another nap at the station hoping for a note with coordinates to return but there was nothing.
I was scrolling on Instagram and shooting the shit when a restricted number called me.
"Come to Walnut and 34th Street." Bring a blowtorch.
Was I going to do some welding? I asked myself. I bought some supplies at the local hardware store and headed out.
I stood at that corner for over an hour. Someone was definitely messing with me. Before I could turn to go home, a guy in a plaid shirt and overalls approached me.
"You look like you could use an explanation."
He smiled like the proud dad I never had. He had a stalky build and a scruffy beard.
"What are we doing here!?"
"I need help breaking open a door. Get in" he motioned to his pickup. It was a nineties Ford pickup. It looked as if this guy might be on to something but where were we going?
We pulled up at yet a different warehouse almost equal in size and he began blowtorching the locked chains on the door. The links clanked as the chains fell to the ground eventually.
"Let's go" We entered and what do you know, it was the backrooms.
"How did they move!? I went to the coordinates you gave me and they were there but gone the next day. What gives?"
He tilted his head? "What do you mean? Coordinates?"
"So, your telling me, you never left notes telling me where to find my white whale, the backrooms. Are you telling me there is another person stalking me!?!"
"Oh, that's just it. I got a note with coordinates too. I figured it was the liminal backrooms location I always needed to find. I lost someone in there the last time I went and I am going back to get her."
I was just puzzled at the game they were playing with us.
The old man led us deep into the never ending maze that the Internet was so famous for.
The old man began to murmur, "I have to save her before the creature gets her?"
"Creature!?"
"Yes, you see the backrooms is home to a creature that draws people in. Those sticky notes come from its aura. It draws people in and it feeds. I never saw it but Bernadette and I were both drawn to it. We, too, were hellbent on finding the backrooms. The creature senses those who seek the backrooms and gives direction to those with none. We find our white whale but the creature gets another piece of prey. Many have fallen and not escaedb it. Rumor has it there is actually an end to the maze that it is."
Before I could speak I heard a faint echo of a cry.
"That must be her"
"Beware, it might be the creatures lure"
We followed for a good twenty minutes and I could swear we are lost in here.
"Don't worry there is an end to this madness" the old man reassured.
I felt a long tentacle come out of the dark spot where there was less light. It wrapped itself around the old man's leg.
"Save yourself" the old man screamed as he was violently dragged and slammed into walls as he left my presence.
I turned around but I was lost.
The time was ticking and the backrooms were soon to reset and we would be part of it forever. The old man told me on the car ride that once the backrooms reset every hour or so, if anyone is lost inside, they become part of the wonder.
"Bernadette!!!, Frederick!!!! Is anyone there!?!?!?"
I took a crowbar out of my bag to use as a weapon. He said to me that the creature couldn't be killed but not if I have something to do with it.
I noticed a long tendril seep out of the shadows in the dim part of one of the cubicles.
So, I said to myself. It can only live in the darkness. Well, what if I put on a light. I flipped on a switch but nothing lit up. Of fucking course, it can't be that easy.
I pulled a lantern out of my bag and turned it on. The tentacle like appendages retreated and faded away.
I ran through every turn lighting up my path and as I did, I came across a few other survivors including Bernadette. But, sadly we couldn't find the old man.
Bernadette led us to a pocket in the backrooms where there was too much light for the creature to survive. I told them all to wait there an I set out to find Frederick.
"Frederick!?!?"
"Frederick!?!?"
I spent the next ten minutes fritzing through the place lighting up as I went. And at a dead end I saw him engulfed in the creatures viney snare.
Frederick use your flash light. Frederick tried to reach in his pocket but he was too tangled up.
"Just go without me."
I put down my lamp and began to pull him out. We both toppled over and then Frederick got up and ran away. I tried to get up but I had a sprained ankle.
So much for being a hero. He just saved himself!
The vines crept up my leg. It feels like I am getting absorbed. I felt my humanity deminish as I slowly became one with the monster.
I was somehow still conscious. I could breathe clearly for the first time, no asthma. My back no longer hurt and my leg wasn't sprained.
I had one problem, though. I was hungry and I felt the need to feed.