BACKROOMS Part One
The smell of mildew was the first thing to assault Jenna’s senses. The next was an almost non-existent electrical humming. It was just loud enough to grind at her nerves. Jenna’s head throbbed and vision blurred. “Where am I?”
The last thing she remembered was going to bed after a party. She never really drank or did drugs, so she knew that her new surroundings weren’t based on that. Jenna clearly remembered getting home, changing into her pjs, and crawling into bed.
Rubbing her head, she sat up against the dirty wall. Jenna reached down to the carpet but quickly pulled her hand back. It was drenched. The smell of mold lay thick everywhere. Her clothes dripped with water from laying down for however long it had been. “Wait! My clothes!” She was now wearing blue jeans, a t-shirt, and hiking boots.
“Ok, this is getting way too weird. Who the hell dressed me?” Her voice echoed through the empty space.
Looking around didn’t help at all. There was nothing she recognized. It was a large room with several hallways branching off in different directions. Halogen lights glowed from the ceiling. Not a single piece of furniture decorated the area.
“Well, sitting here isn’t getting me anywhere.” She stood up and tried to straighten her soaked clothes. There had to be a way out or maybe someone else in here with her. “Hello?” Jenna waked to the different hallways and repeated herself. “Hello? Is anyone here?” She didn’t receive an answer.
“Guess I’ll just have to look around.” Jenna went down one hallway. It was a dead end. Mold climbed the walls like ants. Her feet sloshed in the wet carpet. Luckily her boots were waterproof.
She turned around and made it back to the large room. This time she took the opposite hallway. This one made several turns. Before she knew it, she was lost. Not that she knew where she was anyway. This had to be progress, though.
Jenna was about to turn down another hallway when she stopped dead in her tracks. Something was moving just ahead of her. She could hear a thump. Shortly after the thump was the sound of something dragging. Then another thump and a drag. Groaning caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up. Whatever it was, wasn’t anything she wanted to encounter.
As silently as she could, Jenna backtracked down the short hall she was in. It didn’t matter which way she turned. She just wanted to put distance between her and whatever that was. She now faced the end of her hall and tried to choose a direction. Groaning, a little to close, caused her to glance back. What she saw was straight out of nightmare.
The thing was low to the ground and jet black as if made from tar. Its skin rippled as one long appendage lifted and stomped down. Then it dragged the rest of its worm like body a little closer. White eyes opened and closed all over the creature’s body. They appeared sightless other than the two right up front and they had spotted her.
Jenna screamed snapping her brain back into motion. Just gazing upon this thing made her thoughts sluggish and slimy. She felt her sanity slowly trickling away. Another scream ripped out of her mouth. She jarred her body forward and to the right.
At every turn, the beast gained on her. Jenna’s breath came in short gasps as she started to run out of energy. Stopping meant certain death and that wouldn’t be an option. She had to find a way out of here. For a minute she wondered if all this was a bad dream. Maybe she should stop running and when the monster got close, she would wake up.
Distracted, Jenna fell hard to the wet ground. A sharp pain sprung from her left elbow. Blood flowed freely over the carpet and spread fast through the water. That answered that. She wasn’t dreaming.
The monster bellowed behind her. Sounds of sniffing came from it but there was no nose that could be seen. Not that she was paying much attention to its facial structure. The blood must have drove it mad because the thing quickened its pace.
Jenna shoved herself up off the ground and ran faster. The small break gave her some time to regain her breathing. She pumped her legs as hard as she could. Daring to grasp the disgusting walls to help her turn corners pulled her farther away.
She dared another look back. It just came into view when Jenna felt herself falling. She pinged back and forth along a narrow duct leading down. The only grace was that it was too narrow to flip her headfirst. It felt like the longest fall of her life. But as all things do, it ended abruptly with her hitting a rocky surface, creating even more cuts and probably bruises. That was way better than being dead.
Jenna looked up the shaft. A barely visible light could be seen at the very top. Something moved back and forth across it. She couldn’t hear the thumping of its appendage and it appeared the shaft was too small for it to follow her. With a sigh of relief, Jenna slumped against the nearest rock wall.
That is when she realized the electric humming had stopped. However, in its place was a low ritual chanting in some unrecognizable language.
