The Backrooms: A Love Story

The Backrooms: A Love Story Part 1

I held a deep breath before starting our day for the twenty-fourth time in this maze.

"The air is as stagnant as ever."

"Yup."

Fran stretched her arms and did some light exercises, ready to travel among these confusing halls again. I followed suit, it's good to stretch every morning when you wake up. Not that we can tell it's morning without looking at the time anyway.

"I wish the food that pops up in the storage rooms has something healthy for once."

"Noodle hot cups could be healthy if you try hard enough."

"Huh? How?"

Fran looked at me, confused.

"Well, you know how there's like a packet of seaweed and stuff in these cups? I bet if you gather them all up it could be a healthy snack. Don't even need the noodles."

"You serious? Who has time for that? Is that even healthy?" said Fran incredulously.

"Better than nothing, right? In fact, we have all the time to do it anyway. You could only walk like five hours before running out of energy." I shrugged.

"Only!? Are you kidding me? Five hours is insanely long! You're lucky I'm the type who can manage that, damn musclehead!"

Fran punched me lightly in the shoulder.

I immediately replied by poking her in the armpit.

"Eeek! You! Don't get too comfy with me!"

Fran hugged herself and wobbled away feeling the cringe from my counter. She made her small stature even smaller, fleeing from me. It sure is fun to bully her.

That's true though, we'd only known each for about twenty-four days now. Fran and I were trapped in a place where the internet called it the Backrooms. If you don't know, the Backrooms are said to be a collection of places that could only be defined as the physical spaces between your starting point to your destination-- In other words, liminal spaces. Think of when you're walking from your room from the second floor to the kitchen as an example, some things in between can be considered as a liminal space. The hallway outside of your room, the stairs, that one corner of the living room that you'd see and have to pass by to get to the kitchen: Everyone has a perception of that place even if they never lived in a two storey house, that's a liminal space. This is where Fran and I are at now.

Well, actually it doesn't look like the Backrooms that I've seen on the internet at all, the lights here are bright tungsten white. The walls are concrete and unpainted. I can hear vents whirring in the distance but never been able to spot one. Pipes are running along the hallways near the ceiling. The floor is hard, cold cement. Sleeping on it never gets comfortable, so we have to use multiple blankets to make it bearable. The cold air always feel musty, despite the vents around. Also, there aren't any strange entities around like the ones described on the internet-- Something that could be hostile to us. It was only Fran and I alone, at least that's what I think...I had been lugging around a piece of wood that I broke off from the shelves in the storerooms to serve as a weapon, just in case.

As for how this started, I was in the middle of my morning run when I remembered I needed to do something in the mall. When I got there somehow I ended up here. I had been wearing my tracksuit this whole time and luckily there's a means to wash it. Though that's literally the only clothes I had on me, which meant staying naked for a couple of hours. Understandably, Fran insists on sleeping in a separate room during her laundry days but we decided to just separate ourselves using the shelves that we always find in the storeroom for privacy. Occasionally we'd run into some random electric appliances that still work, one of them was a small electric fan. Thankfully, there's a couple of outlets here once in a while that we could make use of.

"Shall we go?"

Fran packed her stuff into her tote bag, it looked like it had seen better days."Alright."

I picked up a sizeable plastic bag, filled with supplies such as the aforementioned cup noodles, some rags and clothes that we often use as a makeshift blanket, the piece of wood and some other supplies that could be useful. We didn't bother bringing the electric fans since it was actually quite common for it to spawn.

"Hup!"

The girl who is marching merrily in front of me is Fran. Fran has black hair that reaches well beyond her shoulders but she keeps it tied in a ponytail, she's wearing a white button up shirt, which I think it's her work clothes and a black skirt that goes just a little below her knees. She's also wearing my socks and that's about it. Originally she had wandered into the Backrooms in her high heels and obviously that wouldn't work out, she had ditched it before I encountered her here. I feel bad when I see her walk barefoot on these hard concrete floors but my shoe size is way too big for her, so I gave her my socks. I replaced my socks with some clothes that we found in the storeroom, it's not too bad honestly.

As for how we met, I found her the day I wandered into the Backrooms. She was calm and collected--at least for a while when I talked to her, the sense of isolation and being stuck in this unbelievable place was getting to her. Once she started talking to me the first time tears of joy started forming as she thought she'd been saved. She was here for about four days before I'd found her.

Not that smooth of a meeting to be completely honest, she was frustrated at me at first but was apologetic after collecting herself and explained our situation. I was not totally innocent either, I didn't believe that we are no longer in the real world and I thought it was some sort of a stupid prank. So I started yelling at her, then at random directions--- at my "pranksters". I didn't bring my phone with me and I had no way of calling anyone. She had her flip phone which I snatched away from. As you might imagine there wasn't any signal at all and eventually reality came down hard on me and I had started panicking, she calmed me down and we made up after that. Both of us promised we'd get each other out of here.

And one last thing, after almost a month stuck together I think I'm in love with Fran. You'd probably notice how I didn't waste opportunity teasing her earlier on, like a schoolboy trying to get his crush's attention. I just can't help it, she was so defenseless that all I could think of was how much I wanted to protect her. She's amazing too, she spent about four days alone in this labyrinth and wasn't sitting around waiting to be rescued like a damsel in distress. Fran was mapping out the area in her journal, she kept track of where she had been and tried to figure out a pattern of the place, hoping it'll lead to an exit. I'd probably wander aimlessly for days in circles if it was me.

Unfortunately for me she offhandedly mentioned about her boyfriend the first time we met. So the best thing I can do now is to get her out of this place and get her back to her beloved. Teasing once in a while is fine though, right?

"You alright? You're pretty quiet over there."

Fran gave me a glance while walking.

"I was just thinking about the first time we met."

"Oh yeah, I was thinking about it last night too. Wow, that felt like ages ago huh?"

We reminisced for a bit, not like it was that long ago. A lot of things did happen though but that is a story for another time. But long story short we're both determined and hopeful to escape the Backrooms--And yes, the Backrooms as described on the internet were said to be inescapable. That didn't mean we should not try.

After an hour of walking, Fran stopped and looked at the wall beside her.

"What's up?"

"I think someone left a message."

She pointed at some scratches on the wall. It seemed to be carved using a piece of stone or something. I suppose they didn't have any markers around. Was this from another wanderer?It's a series of arrows. Up, up, right, left, up, right... There's a bunch more of these arrows. Probably fifty or sixty of them.

"So we aren't the only ones after all. I suppose it's a direction to somewhere? An exit maybe?" I said it hopeful.

Fran kept quiet, she had her hand on her chin and seemed to be deep in thought while staring at the arrows.

"I dunno, what does down mean?" She pointed at the very last arrow.

"Couldn't be to go back right?"

"I was thinking maybe it actually meant to go down, but as far as I know we've never seen any ladders or stairs that go down. I'd assume we had been travelling on the same floor level."

"Right." I replied curtly.

"There's a lot of these arrows too. Why is it so long? Why start all the way from here? And it feels pretty ominous to ask us to go down. Kinda like descending to hell."

"R-right. You don't need to say it that way."

The thought startled me a bit. Then I continued.

"Well, the last thing I remember before I wandered here, I was walking around on the second floor. So maybe we always had been on the first floor and needed to go to the ground level to escape?

"That's true, I was on the second floor too."

"..."

Fran massaged the side of her neck and tilted her head slightly.

"..."

Silence. We both knew this felt odd, even though I already gave a perfectly good reasoning it still didn't feel right.

"What do you think?" Fran looked at me, seemingly to have decided what the best course of action is already.

"We just follow it anyway, then just decide again before going down."

"Alright." Fran agreed immediately.

Fran wrote down the arrows in her journal, she mumbled it quietly as she wrote it.

After a while, we walked according to the directions. When there's a junction, we just assume up ahead is what "up" is. The only thing that didn't make sense was down, but we'd just have to see how that goes....Eventually, after what seems to be hours of walking, we arrived to the last arrow, down.It was a staircase leading downstairs. The flight of stairs is pretty dark. Pitch black actually. But I could tell it's a short flight of stairs.

"Let me scout ahead."

I put down the plastic bag and started walking, I felt Fran pulling my tracksuit from behind.

"Hey don't stretch my tracksuit."

"W-wait! You idiot, hold on! How do you know it's safe?"

"Well I was thinking of just walking this part of the stairs, I just want to look ahead if there's more of it or if it's hallways again. I mean it's literally just ten steps or so. It's no big deal."

"I-It's more like twenty if you ask me, but nevermind. I'll follow you too, we go together! You and I promised we both get each other out of here alive right? I can't hold my end of the bargain if you disappear on me."

Her voice was shaky, I suppose her first four days actually were quite traumatizing to her. I'm glad she really cared about me though. Heh, sorry Mr. Boyfriend--Urgh what am I saying?

"Okay."

I started walking and she held onto my left arm. It's like she's pulling me down or something. I could feel her heavy breathing on each step down that we took. I tried to walk as slowly as possible--Oh, we could use her phone's light. Flip phones have those right? I did own them at one point in my life but I can't remember.

"Hnngggh."

I took a look at her, she had her eyes shut.

"Uh, Fran?"

"Yes!?" She said in a squeaky voice.

She pressed herself even closer to my arm. Argh, stop! My heart can't take it!

"You should have told me you don't like going into dark places. Anyway, let's use your phone's light, not sure how strong it is but at least it's something."

She reached out to her pocket and turned it on. She shined the light ahead of me.

Suddenly there was a light from my peripheral vision and it's not from Fran's phone. It's like a photography flash but a bit slower than that. When I wanted to see the source of the light I noticed Fran was staring directly at the source of light, eyes wide opened.

I immediately traced her sight. An oddly tall man is standing at the end of the hallway. There's a door behind him.

He's wearing some sort of black leather poncho, black pants and shoes. None of them seems to fit his size, the pants are too short, the poncho is really long, the shoes are way too big for him despite his rather large stature. His face is obscured by a grey hood.

Fran moved towards it, I flinched and held her back.

"W-what are you doing?"

I shook her shoulders.

"Huh?"

She looked at me confused, almost like in a daze.

Then as if like she just noticed the man, she was about to scream in terror but couldn't quite voice it out.

I put her behind me and stare at the man back, this guy is perfectly still actually. Almost as if...wait.

I turned towards Fran.

"It's a mannequin. Fran, it's just a mannequin."

I held her head up to look at me with both of my hands. She looked like she was about to cry.

"Hmpf!"

She buried her face onto my chest.

"...Foh fughs sakhe." she said in a muffled voice.

I pat her head to calm her down, I'm gla-

"Hey! Don't wipe your snot on my tracksuit!"...We went back to the top and collected ourselves. Actually we went way further behind than the stairs, we felt uneasy being around the stairs and weren't sure if it's actually safe. This could be one of those strange entities. For all you know the mannequin could suddenly move and attack us when we get close, I suggested this to Fran and she shuddered at the thought. It had been a long day so we decided to go another route and find a storeroom and a toilet nearby.

We're lucky this time, the randomly spawning storeroom and toilet is right next to each other this time. Normally you'd have to walk for maybe 3-4 minutes to travel between each one. Both of us had to go together to be perfectly safe. It's a bit awkward waiting for a girl to do whatever business in the toilet while standing right in front of the door, I wonder if she felt the same way too?

After we both finished taking turns for our baths, we walked back to the storeroom next door. Fran started preparing our beds and I scour through the storeroom shelves to see if there's anything new that had spawned.

"Cup noodles, cup noodles, curry cup noodles, a piece of rag, hmm still the same things huh."I took another box out of the shelves.

"Woah, plates. Never seen this one before. Not that useful unfortunately, what do you think Fran?"

I held up plates on both of my hands up in the air.

Fran was laying down on her bed lazily while writing in her journal and looked at me, it felt like looking at a teenage girl during a sleepover or something. If you're wondering, despite her small stature Fran is actually about 28. I'm 24.

"If it's the paper or plastic kind, sure bring it. But if it's the ceramic kind I think we should leave it. It's too much weight."

"It's plastic, I'll take two I guess."

Fran nodded and focused on her journal again.

I went to the next shelf.

"Hup, okay. Hmm more noodle cups." I sat down in front of the box, feeling a bit defeated to see the same things again.

I had my chin resting on my hand and took one of the noodle cups out, studying them carefully. I haven't paid any attention to these things before. Where did all of these fully stocked boxes come from? Someone must have made it right? You can't just create matter out of thin air. Is it from the real world?

"Huuuh..."

I stopped thinking about it since it felt pointless considering how illogical this place is. I took a look at the expiration date.

November 23, 2007

"Oh crap."

Have we been eating expired food?

"F-Fran, these expiry dates are really old!"

Fran looked at me unsurprised. Held her hand on her chin thinking of what I had just exclaimed. That seems to be her favorite pose.

"If I recall correctly, all those cups had the same expiry dates right? 2007?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, they say the expiry dates are usually the period where the manufacturer can legally guarantee it'd be perfectly safe to eat. If it's just a few months after, I don't think it'd be an issue."What?

"Sure, but these are over ten years old!"

Fran froze. Something that I said seems to have taken her off guard. She stood up and walked towards me with a completely serious face.

"Can you repeat that again?"

Fran looked like she's bracing herself for my answer, she had both of her hands balled up into fists on her side. Her small shoulders completely tensed.

"I mean...These cup noodles are like thirteen or fourteen years old right? I'm surprised we didn't get sick yet. M-maybe these really do hold up to decades, ahaha...". I nervously answered while trying to downplay the age of these noodle cups, I didn't mean to make her feel bad about eating expired food.

"The last time I checked, it was 2008. Just after New Year's. "

Fran said it bluntly.

"Wha-"

Before I could finish my question, I realised what this meant. One day in the Backrooms doesn't mean one day had passed in the real world. I looked at Fran and it seemed like she had arrived at the same idea.

"What year was it when you entered?" Fran is still holding her gaze on me.

"..."

"...2022. Around New Year's too." That was the year I remember right before I wandered into the Backrooms.

Fran held her fists so tightly that it's shaking.

"...I see." Fran walked back to her bed. Sat down and started writing again. Her face was completely blank.

After a while, I left the box of cup noodles on the ground and walked towards my bed that Fran had prepared for me. I leaned against the cold hard wall trying to process what this meant for me.

It's obvious, I am probably missing in the real world for decades now. If four days here is equivalent to fourteen years in the real world. That means...eighty four years. I have been missing for eighty-four years in the real world now. Fran would be missing for ninety eight years.I feel numb. It doesn't feel real to me. My family, my friends. They'd be dead by now and no one's waiting at home. The same probably goes to Fran too, we have no one and nowhere to go back to even if we managed to escape this place. I looked at Fran in the corner of the room.It seems like she has finished writing in her journal, she's staring at nothing while leaning against the wall. Her hands are laying down on her sides as if her soul had left her body. It's like when a child abandoned her doll at the playground-- Waiting in vain for her owner to pick her up again.I wanted to say something but I couldn't. Both of us needed to process this.Fran laid down, seemingly ready to sleep. Did she already get over it that fast? How can you sleep knowing that you're basically dead to the world? Feeling my frustration growing towards Fran, I stopped the thought. She's staying strong--Fran sees herself as someone that I can depend on, she is four years older than me after all.

"Fran, I'll turn off the lights."

Usually we just turn off all the lights except for one in the room. It'd be pitch black otherwise.

"..."

I laid down on my bed, thinking about the people in the real world. Society would have significantly advanced by now if we didn't bomb ourselves. If we go back from 2022, fifty years ago was 1972: A wildly different era, the world would seem alien to us if we were able to escape to the 22nd century......It has been about twenty minutes since we had this realisation. I have been laying down, staring at the ceiling.

"Hey."

I looked up, Fran is standing next to my bed. Her face barely illuminated by the one light bulb from the other side of the room. But I can tell she was crying while I was processing it all.Wordlessly she joined me in my bed, I didn't resist the idea. I'm not sure if she had perfume on her the whole time but she had a nice scent, despite wearing the same clothes everyday for almost a month. Somehow, she managed to keep her white shirt clean. If she were to go back to the real world people probably couldn't tell she had been trapped in a labyrinth the whole time.She had her back towards me, but her body was shaking. She's probably just holding back her cry.

"Fran..."

I touched her shoulder, basically saying it's okay to cry.

Fran turned around with her eyes red, sniffling.

I couldn't take it, I embraced her. I held her tight in my arms. Fran did the same.

She cried, I did too.

I patted her head quietly, there's nothing I can say to calm her down. This is all I can do, nothing I can say is going to make her feel better. I just need to be here for her and I have a feeling she went over to my bed to do the same.

We were alone, not just in this world but the real world too. Quietly, I listened to Fran's cries of anguish....Fran and I are now both staring at the ceiling, her hand clinging to mine. Sweat had started forming between our palms--I have lost the sense of time on how long we had been like this."We have to escape, I want to see it. I want to see with my own eyes."

Fran is back to her calm and collected self.

"Yes."

I didn't hesitate to agree. That's the only thing we can do. I'm glad Fran is here, she seems to be the leader type who knows what to do in the face of tragedy. I can't imagine doing all of this on my own.

"I'm glad you're here. I can't imagine doing this all on my own." said Fran."I was literally thinking the same thing."

Fran smiled warmly, she turned her gaze towards me and touched my cheek lovingly."What happened to not getting too comfy?"

Fran froze and took her hand off my cheek, "embarrassed" was written all over her face. Her eyes darted here and there except at me. She bit her lip nervously trying to say something. Crap, why did I say that?

"Uh, um." Fran couldn't think of anything to say, which made the situation a bit awkward.I chuckled, actually that was worth it for this cute reaction. This time it's my turn, I touched her cheek and felt the warmth of her small oval face--My hand looked like a giant's in comparison to her face.

"I-I don't mind it." said Fran coolly, seemingly able to compose herself back.

After a while we both decided it's time to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be the twenty-fifth day. Another three and a half years will pass....Somehow I managed to doze off, but was woken up feeling unsettled because of what we discovered last night. I can't tell how long I was asleep but it was probably just a light one, the lights aren't on yet. Usually Fran would have woken up first, she always seemed more disciplined than me.

"Huh?"

Fran wasn't there.

"Fran?"

I stood up immediately, she's not here.I went to check the toilet next door, no one.I stood still to hear if I could hear her footsteps...Nothing!

"Fran!"

No answers.

Hurriedly I went back into the storeroom and looked at her belongings. It's all still there. Her journal, her torn up tote bag. Exactly where she put it last night. Just last night she said she wants to leave this place together, she even swore not to break the promise we had. I may only know her for almost a month but I know she isn't suicidal. My only conclusion is she is not doing this on purpose, something made her leave. I would have woken up if there was a struggle--she was literally next to me.

I paced around the room, thinking.

Then I stood still and realised, I took the wooden stick and ran out to my destination.

The mannequin!

When we were at the stairs, Fran looked directly at the light when it flashed. I was looking at her at the time so I had missed it. She was acting strange for a moment yesterday when she saw it, it must have been some sort of a hypnosis device!

I ran even faster, almost tripping at one point. Please be safe Fran.

I reached the stairs and there she was. Slowly walking towards the stairs, just in time.

"Fran!"

She didn't reply.

I pulled her away and shook her shoulders.

"Fran! Wake up! Fran!"She's still in a daze, looking directly at the stairs and didn't seem to notice I'm here.

I slapped her.

She stood still, her eyes blinking as if she had woken up.

"Wha-What are you doing!?" She moved away from me and touched her cheek. "I'm sorry, but look at where we are."

"Huh? What..."

She looked around and was about to ask me what had happened but stopped.There was a sound, someone is walking up the stairs.

Fran had a shocked expression and immediately pulled my hand and yelled, "Run!".

I glanced back and saw the mannequin is moving now. Why? Why did it decide to move now!? As we were running, I could hear the unpleasant sounds of the mannequin chasing after us. The way it's running is as if it never ran before. But it didn't stop it from being so fast.

"Where to!?"

"The storeroom! We lock ourselves in!"

When we arrived Fran locked the door behind us and I pushed as many shelves as I could towards the door.

"Haaa...haaa"

"Huuh..."

We were both out of breath.

"So what happened?" Sweat started forming on her white shirt, a few strands of hair in front of the face.

I explained to her the situation.

"Hypnotised?"

"Well that's my own conclusion, but it sure does look like it."

Fran put her hand on her chin, her trademark pose.

"I didn't remember anything at all, the last thing I could remember is sleeping on your bed."Fran continued after a short pause.

"I did have a dream though, that we'd walk and travel towards the stairs the next day."

"You thought I was with you?"

"Yes, I would never travel without you."

Silence, Fran was about to be attacked by this strange moving mannequin. I can't imagine what would happen if I didn't wake up in time.

Suddenly a loud bang is at the door.

It startled Fran, I held tightly on the wooden stick I've been bringing around.

"What do we do now?"

"That thing is breaking the door. We don't have much of a choice, we have to fight it." said Fran.The door is wooden, I can already hear some cracking on the other side. The mannequin is persistent and I still can't explain why it decided to attack us now, but let's think about that later.

I tore off another piece of wood from the shelves and gave it to Fran.

Fran then glared at the door, determined to get out of this no matter what.

I have no experience in fighting so I'm not sure if we are going to survive this. Fran doesn't seem like much of a fighter either.

"Fran."

"Yeah?" Fran had already readied her weapon towards the door.

The hole in the door has gotten bigger.

"I think I love you."

"Huh? You think?" Fran had a confused reaction, slightly tilting her head."Wait, that's what you're concerned about?"

Fran gave me a smirk.

"You either love or you don't, which one is it?"

This twenty eight year old brat suddenly had to act so cool.

"I love you, okay!? I just wanted to get it off my chest!"

Fran smiled wryly, is that a rejection?

I can see the mannequin wildly clawing away at the door, any time now.

"Well, then I guess we have to beat this guy up first before I can say anything, right?"

I nodded. A surge of willpower flowed inside of me.

Fran smiled and nodded back, she gave the door a serious look and I followed suit.

The mannequin had trampled over the shelves without any care and stood right in front of us.

We both prepare for our first battle in the Backrooms. - FIN