BACKROOMS Part Four
Tendrils grasped at Jenna’s ankles and wrists. She pulled hard to free herself. Every time one would let go, two more grabbed hold. She was almost to the tunnel’s opening. Terror was the only thing driving her, but would she make it?
Both legs were now completely covered in black slimy tentacles. Something sharp pierced her flesh from each one. Jenna went to reach one arm towards the tunnel, but it quickly became trapped as well. Her other arm snapped up and out. Just her fingertips made it past the opening. A cool breeze tickled the ends. Her heart sank with despair. There was no way she would get the rest of her into the open space.
Just as the cool air licked at her fingers, the globs’ appendages twitched hard. They continued to spasm, retracting whatever teeth or claws they had grasped her with. Their convulsions vibrated Jenna’s whole body. Her teeth began to chatter. One by one, feelers snapped back to its host’s body.
Jenna nearly fell when the last one let go but seeing all the mini blobs waiting for her along the floor helped to keep her standing. They rotated slowly around her feet but didn’t touch her. The giant one behind her continued to grow.
Without hesitation, Jenna jumped over the circling creatures. Her right foot landed on the other side of the tunnel’s entrance. She tumbled the rest of the way. She lay there with her heart pound so hard inside her chest that Jenna knew it would break free at any moment. Air stung her throat as she rasped each breath through dry, cracked lips. All around her was rock. There wasn’t any carpeting or squared walls anymore. Jenna was back inside a cave.
Thumping drew her attention away from the relief she temporarily felt. Jenna sat up and looked back from where she came. The little globs were throwing themselves at the opening to her tunnel but hitting an invisible wall. Others behind them swirled in place clearly agitated. The giant one dropped to the floor, zoomed to the tunnel, and hit the same wall. Small rocks and dust flittered to the ground from the impact.
After its second attempt, it slowly backed up and disassembled into all the multitude of tiny blobs that had previously combined with it. All of them scooted back to their original spaces, settling into the motionlessness they had been before. Before Jenna’s eyes, even their color resorted back to match the walls and floor.
Seconds ticked in rhythm to Jenna’s heartbeat. As she began to realize those monsters weren’t going to come for her, she stood and slowed her breathing. Her hands still shook but that didn’t seem to be something that would change anytime soon.
Remembering the spikes or whatever they used to puncture her legs, Jenna rubbed her hand down one side of her jeans. When her hand came up bloody, she nearly fainted. Getting medical help didn’t seem like a possibility and neither did finding a way to clean each wound. All she could do was to continue on. Hopefully, the cuts were small enough to close on their own.
She turned away and slowly marched down the tunnel. It veered left and right with no rhyme or reason. Not that any of this made sense. A part of her wanted to stop, lay down and hope to die where she was. At least then it would be on her own terms, not being torn apart from creatures of nightmare.
It felt like forever, but Jenna finally came to a four-way juncture. Each choice was filled with darkness. She could only see about three feet in any direction. Continuing in the same direction seemed the logical choice. She took at step forward and stopped.
The darkness before her moved. The shadows shifted and swirled. Something long and thin stepped into the light. It stood like a human but that was the end of the similarity. Horns scraped the rocky ceiling on a head with no face. The emancipated body seemed to be made of wood with arms that stretched to the floor.
The thing just stood there, supported on tall twig like legs, with its featureless face and head slowly swaying to the left and right. Jenna stayed as still as she could. Maybe without eyes, it couldn’t see her. Maybe it responded to sound like the blobs she just survived.
Gradually turning her eyes and head to the right, she surveyed that choice. Running was definitely going to be needed but she had to be sure it was in the right area. She then turned to check the path to her left. After a minute of dissecting that region, the shadows moved again.
This time, whatever it was stayed close to the ground. More tentacles came into view, but a cylindrical head followed. These weren’t black like the blobs but a deep red and blue. More of this beast began to emerge. It walked on all fours and hunched in the back like a hyena. There was no fur covering its body, however. More tentacles writhed down the back and some kind of substance dripped off the monster’s body. It slowly took one stalking step after the next with its head down low.
That left one option. Jenna looked back to the right. Nothing seemed to be blocking her path in that direction. If there was, there would be nowhere for her to run. This might be the end. It was strange, but she felt a tinge of relief to that notion.
Human nature, of course, wouldn’t let her give up. She took off as fast as she could down the right-side tunnel.
