Into The Backrooms

Chapter 10 - The Hub

We stopped at the end of the hallway, putting the bag down and searching through it, seeing if we could find the source of the ritual

"You find the paper yet?" Jack asked me while I was digging through the bag

"Uhh not yet...wait....I think I found it...Here it is!" I said, pulling out a small slip of folded paper. I unfolded it, and on the paper was a list of instruction, all under the bolded words "THE MOUNTAIN KING RITUAL". I read the paper carefully, double checking if I understood it correctly. I folded the piece of paper and put it in my pocket, putting Dan's bag on my back.

"Well seems easy enough" I said

"Whadda we gotta do?" Reed asked

"Simple" I said "Step one: Sit down on the floor. Step two: Clap 13 times. Step 3: Say the phrase 'I mock you foolish king'. Step four: Punch the nearest wall as hard as you can one time. And Step five: Close your eyes, and for whatever reason DO NOT, open them, until you are sure you hear music" 

"And you're sure this will work?" Jack asked

"I pray that it does" I said. Sitting down on the floor, we all looked at each other one last time before starting the ritual, and once we were ready, it had started. We had all clapped the 13 claps, slowly

1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10..11..12..13

Directly after, we all said the phrase "I mock you foolish king", just loud enough for anyone in the hallway to hear. the, standing up not too fast, but not too slow, we all punched the walk closest to us, closing our eyes instantly, not moving a muscle. Five seconds later, I could begin hearing music come into my ear, classical music, and it was there that we all opened our eyes

"What is that, Beethoven?" Randy asked, seeming that he could hear the music too. I knew exactly what this song was, I had heard it before. It was Edvard Grieg's, "In The Hall of The Mountain King". I looked down the hall, and there was when I saw a skeletal humanoid, coming closer, moving to the beat of the song. We walked the other direction, as the song hadn't really picked up yet. The faster and faster the beat went, the quicker the entity moved, almost making us move in a running speed, but not running just yet. The music was slow, quiet, beginning to pick up. Moving in noticeable strikes, the music had begun to speed up, causing the creature to speed up too. The music was louder, the creature following behind, and thats where it began. The creature was running at a very fast speed, and multiple other entities had spawned in, following behind it. During the chase, near the top speed, we found ourselves being transported to other levels, the creatures not stopping for anything until they had caught us. During the last 40 seconds of the song, the music had made the entity run at its top speed, and slowing down now would result in us dying. And now, with the final strikes coming to the song, snd with the final note playing, the song was over. We had survived. The entities had vanished, and we all fell through the ground, landing on the floor of The Hub.

I landed on the floor, front first, and in immeasurable pain. I looked up and saw a bottle of Almond Water and a gun, placed perfectly in front of me. I looked around and saw other goods placed in front of the other, and they too, had noticed these treasures. We all stood up, all in pain after the 10 foot fall we had just experienced, surprisingly, not injured. I looked down and grabbed the weapon and Almond Water in front of me, the team doing the same, and looked around and saw where we were. We were in The Hub. The Hub represents an infinite dimly-lit underground road tunnel that seems to have no end. The flooring of the tunnel systems is a dry asphalt road with three sections of yellow lines. The walls are lined with large slabs of concrete, with seams in between every time a new slab is presented. Bright yellow industrial lights also line these walls, as it illuminates The Hub into this orange hue. The Hub usually twists left, right, up and down, causing the layout to be wonky in some areas. However, due to its linear path it is fairly easy to traverse.