Glitch

You breathe in the crisp evening air and enjoy the triumph of victory surrounding you. Classmates buzz excitedly, caught up in the post-game rush. Parents cheer, and the football team prances around working up the crowd. You flit around capturing memories like pokemon, with a little snap and a bright [[flash->Intro 2]].

As you watch the fanfare, you are amused by the sillyness of it all. After all, it's just a game. What is there to be so excited about? Yes, victory is nice, but by next Monday it will have faded from memory. The only scraps of evidence left behind will be tucked away safely in the memory of your [[camera->Intro 3]].

Always outside the frame, never caught in the act. That's the life of a photographer. You vaguely enjoy the separation and anonymity it gives you. You don't get lonely becuase of the constant influx of new people to meet, and you don't have to worry about expressing [[vulnerability->Intro 4]].

Why put any effort at all, when it could lead to betrayal? Control over your own life is inviting and comforting, which is why you prefer most interactions with people to be short and sweet. In a way, people are like light. Bearable in small doses like camera flashes, but overwhelming en masse like sun[[light->Intro 5]].

BZZZT The stadium lights slowly radiate their last remnants of energy, and you watch as they stop glowing, one by one. You got so caught up in your musing that you failed to recognize that everyone had left without you. That hollow amphitheater that had been bustling with life only moments before, now lay in front of you deserted, empty and [[drained->Intro 6]].

You groan getting up, as all of the fatique and stress built up over the schoolday suddenly hits. Now that that air of euphoria is gone, you no longer have any distractions. Your mind suddenly runs through a long list of crap you have to do, and you realize you have to get home. Exit the stadium by [[ramp->Ramp Exit]]? Exit the stadium by [[stairs->Stairs]]? Head over to [[locker rooms->Locker Rooms]]

You shuffle your way up the wheelchair access ramp- not trusting yourself to get up the steep stairs safely in the dark. When you finally reach the top, you sigh in discontent. You realize that you have left your backpack in the locker room. You have an essay to finish, and it's due Monday. Can't afford to leave your backpack over the weekend. Head over to [[locker rooms->Locker Rooms]]

You scramble up the stairs in a panic! You told your mom that you'd be home by 9:00pm at the latest, and it's already a half-past! In your haste, you fail to see that your shoelaces have come [[undone->Undone]].

An aglet gets caught between rubber sole and cement, causing you sprawl backwards. You instinctually brace yourself as you tumble down the stairs, battered by every step. A bright flash of shock and pain ejects your conciousness from your body and you somehow watch yourself complete that dastardly [[descent->Descent]].

As you approch the locker rooms, you realize that you are too late. The coaches have already shut them down for the night, and the doors are firmly locked. You see a faint glow in the distance, and it's coming from the main campus. [[Knock?->Knock 1]] Follow the [[light->Light]]?

You plumment towards the ground, tense and fearful of it all becoming undone. You await that final impact that will completely sever your connection to that tenderized mound of flesh. However your vision blurs, and the final impact never comes. You feel a deep yawning void in the pit of your stomach, and all sensation is eventually consumed by this vacuum of [[nothingness.->Waking up 0]]

Nothing happens. Try [[again->Knock 2]]? Follow [[light->Light]]

Nothing happens You hear a multitude of voices faintly whispering behind you, and the hair on the back of your arms and neck begins to rise. "Hello?" Try [[again->Knock 3]]? Follow [[light->Light]]?

You knock a final time, and are horrified to feel a long sinewy finger caress your spine. You slowly turn to find a horrifyingly disproportionate man standing directly behind you. Is he even human? His limbs are elongated, and his skin doesn't [[fit->Skintaker 0]] quite right.

Suddenly he screeches and clamps his branch-like fingers around your neck. As he crushes your windpipe, you terrifiedly flail -in an attempt to fight back. His reach is too long -much longer than yours- and your are helpless. As you black out you can't help but notice the stitches lining his body and face... [[...->Death 1]]

You find the source of the light eminates from the janitors storage room. Hoping to find a janitor, you peek inside. Maybe you can ask him to open the locker rooms! You enter discreetly, hoping not to startle him. You can't see anyone near the entry way of the closet, so you nervously shuffle [[deeper->Deeper]].

A sense of uneasyness builds as you venture further into the janitor's domain. Something feels eerily wrong, but you need that backpack! As you walk between the shelves, you come to a junction. "Wow I never realized how massive our storage room was!" Realizing that you run the risk of getting lost, you turn around to retrace your steps. You are alarmed to discover that every direction looks the [[same->No-Clip]].

Your vision blurs and you feel your stomach plummet. As the world drops away around you, you loose all sens of [[touch->Descent]].

Double-click this passage to edit it.

First you feel a tingling sensation in your [[fingers.->Waking up 2]]

Then you feel it in your [[toes->Waking up 3]].

Miniscule pins and needles travel up and down your limbs as you regain conciousness. You can feel crunchy carpet pressing against the side of your face, and your joins creak as you struggle to sit up. "Where am I?" You flex your fingers experiementally, and [[look->Backrooms 1]] around.

"Have I been kidnapped?" The room is bare, and its walls are covered in a faded, [[peeling->Peel]], mustard yellow wallpaper. The ceiling is paneled with decaying tiles, and the floor is covered by a sea of crusty carpetting. There is a faint odor of mildew in the air. But the worst part is the constant drone of flourescent light strips. Its maddening! There are two openings from the room, one to your [[right->Right 1]] and one [[straight->Straight 1]] ahead.

You peel back a sheet of wallpaper, and discover a small piece of [[paper->Paper]] tucked into the wall. You watch fasinated as the wallpaper slowly begins to mend itself.

The paper says: "If you see a hound, do beware They come at you with long hair Scrabbling, crawling, on all fours They cannot be stopped by any door If they bark and growl, they may bite I would not advise you to stay and fight Worst of all! Do not run The best defense, is to look at one Keep eye-contact, maintain that stare Hopefully you give IT a scare" [[Back->Backrooms 1]]

[[...->Waking up 1]]

Your joints crackle as you stand upright. You turn towards your right and start walking. The carpet crunches inaudibly under your feet. You [[look->look]] around. This room is slightly bigger that the last, but just as empty. From what you can tell, you are trapped in an endless [[labyrinth->Labyrinth]] of decaying rooms. "What the hell is this place?" Convinced that you had been kidnapped you check your pockets for a [[phone->Phone 0]], and to your surprise, you still have it.

The room is practically identical to the last one. The room is bare, and its walls are covered in a faded, peeling, mustard yellow wallpaper. The ceiling is paneled with decaying tiles, and the floor is covered by a sea of crusty carpetting. There is a faint odor of mildew in the air. But the worst part is the constant drone of flourescent light strips.

Your joints crackle as you stand upright. You start walking forward. The carpet crunches inaudibly under your feet. This room is a dead end; there are no openings aside from the one you just came through. However, there is a damp box of matches, and a water bottle tucked in the corner next to a makeshift bedroll made from carpetting. "Does someone [[live->Knock 3]] here?"

You attempt to make a few calls. [[911->Voicemail]] [[Home->Voicemail]]

Straight to voicemail. [[Back->Phone 1]]

"Huh strange." Although your call won't go through you do appear to have an internet connection. The name of the wifi network is "The Backrooms". I wonder if this means you have acess to the [[internet->Internet]]?

You open up google and to your surprise, it works! You quickly run a search describing the rooms you are in and stumble onto reddit. You find a subreddit called [[The Backrooms->The Backrooms]].

He drags you into the darkness and proceeds to expertly fillet your body. He peels the skin right off of your flesh and begins to put it on, discarding the old one in the process. He feasts on your remains, and your body is never found. Your face appears on missing posters all over town. Eventually (like everything else) you fade from memory, and you become just another lost soul. [[Groundhog day?->Intro 1]]

[[you->Move 1]]https://www.reddit.com/r/backrooms/wiki/posting-guidelines "If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the backrooms, where its nothing but the stink of moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endles background noise of flourescent lights at maximim hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby. Because it sure as hell has heard you."

You realize that you are not the first person to end up in this place, and that the subreddit full of valuable knowledge. It's full of guides and recordings of people's advice on how to escape. Feeling better with this new advantage you embark on a quest to [[escape->End 1]].

A few months later... The guide becomes your bible, and you are able to survive because of the wisdom it provides. The days are endless, and you have adapted to foraging for resources. You've had a few dangerous encounters with entities that live in this zone, but for the most part you're alone. You've been able to avoid them for the most part, using your camera's flash as a deterrent- they dont like bright [[light->End 2]].

You start to feel nauseous from lack of water and sleep. The last couple of days have been rough on you, so you decide to recover and take a quick nap. As you drift off to sleep you feel a familiar and strange shifting sensation. You feel a deep yawning void in the pit of your stomach, and all sensation is eventually consumed by this vacuum of [[nothingness.->Wakingup0]]

You awake facedown in the middle of the football field. "Have the last few months been a dream?" You brush yourself off, dazed, and start walking home. The End

You decide that you aren't getting any help just sitting around, so warily stand up and start walking.[[walking->End 1]]