A Brand New Goth Girl
[19]
The other side was remarkably warm, like a different season clung to the space. Late spring or early summer, not the advancing days of fall.
No smells. Not a single one. Nothing positive and nothing negative. Just a complete absence. The only presences with us seemed to be the ones we carried ourselves. My deodorant and perfume, with a slight hint of sweat from the nervousness of setting off the light in the dorm. I carried the small flashlight, aimed outward and towards the wall. Trisha walked beside me with her dancing eyes full of thoughts and a vague wooziness. Zach tended to be quite reflective, so I expected her mind to be much the same with so many different possibilities.
She eventually asked me, “Do you think this is like the Internet thing called the Backrooms? Did Connor get stuck in here?”
I really wished that I could’ve provided her with a definite answer to that question. The details of that Internet notion vaguely seeped through me. Something like games where you fall off the edge of the world. Like a simulation. Despite how many knots that word twisted my mind and soul into, it drifted in the air between us.
A simulation. Could this be a simulation? Were we something just created and imagined with the impression of real lives rather than full existences? Twisting within all the madness of the last day, I would’ve preferred goddesses come to earth than a fake existence easily rewritten on a whim. To keep nausea from floating up, I clamped down on the notion.
The hallway continued for quite a ways before branching off into divergent paths. Looking at the three options ahead of us, it was strange how none of them offered a clear preview of what lay ahead. Despite appearing clear and unobstructed, we couldn’t see past a certain point. More uncomfortable evidence leaning towards the artificial. Trisha had only eyes for her loved one, understandably. It was like she wasn’t even looking at this sanitized, bland space but rather trying to unveil traces of Riona‘s massive plume of golden hair, which I’d seen at the meeting yesterday, into a sign for where to run. If only I could do more for them.
We both resolved we couldn’t split up, but we also had no idea how we were going to search this space. The best prospect was to hug the right wall and hope. Wasn’t that how you get out of corn mazes? Trisha had a few counterexamples though.
“What if there is no exit? What if it changes every so often or because of something we do? What if the exit, or wherever we need to get, only exists on the interior side without any connections to the right-hand wall? What if it’s infinitely large?” She fretted but also shook her head.
I pressed, “We have to try.“ Looking back though, I couldn’t see where we had come from. It was as though the opening had been sealed shut at some point. We least had the flashlight and the hope that it would be able to open a passage again. That felt desperately frail though. Some supplies came with us, but we had no clue what, if anything, might be most important to bring.
From that junction, we started following on the right-hand side. It all felt exactly the same. After trudging a distance comparable to all the way across campus, I aimed the light at a random wall and said the quietest prayer before blasting the beam.
The material turned translucent with an obvious fissure. I hoped that we might see the dormitory or somewhere nearby but, instead, the view showed us a patch of open ocean under partly cloudy skies. Water started seeping through and I turned off the beam. Gradually, the opening started to flow back together. Within a few minutes, it returned to normal wall, with just a damp, seawater-covered patch on the tile floor. I had no idea what to make of that.
Eventually, this route branched out into four more, adding even more complications. If this happened again, then we might soon have an impossibly large area to feasibly search. Trisha shut her eyes but resisted the urge to lean against one of the walls. With how the light melted it away, neither of us felt much confidence in this place as a solid space, even though poking and prodding the stucco met with unwavering resistance.
We continued along the farthest right-hand branch. Despite the odds against us, we eventually arrived at something new and unexpected.
The hallway opened up into a large space with untold thousands of new hallways branching off ahead and to the sides. The space presented a new aspect to this mystery: text. Every single hallway was distinguished by a label. Most were incomprehensible strings of letters and numbers, but it didn’t take long before a few were recognizable.
“Tau Ceti… Altair… Wolf 359… Delta Pavonis. These are nearby star systems. Will they actually take us there? Is that what happened to Connor? How would she breathe…?”
I urged Trisha to breathe and do her best not to leap to sudden conclusions. Even though the names may have sounded like stars, that didn’t necessarily mean that was what they represented. The room continued for quite a while. Collected charts of names filled the walls above the doors. There were a massive number of them but, compared to the vast extremes of space, all of it still seemed suspiciously small to Trisha. I had no idea what to say about that.
We eventually turned around to follow the other edge, leaving the stars behind. Not much else of interest appeared along the other paths. Eventually, we tested the light on another random wall. This time, we were over land, but it was wildly unfamiliar. It was reminiscent of the Serengeti with a herd of water buffaloes. I had no idea if that appraisal was accurate or if it was even anywhere on our planet or another place that looked similar.
Once that fissure sealed up again, with just some of the grass spilling over, Trisha squeezed her chin and asked me to shine the light on the opposite wall. Bizarrely, this new opening was back over the water but not far from a sandy beach. It didn’t make any sense to me, but Trisha kept rubbing her chin in curiosity.
Next, she asked me to move down a little, but this time, “Think about the college.” I did so and projected the beam. To my shock, the opening appeared not too far from the entrance to Cressman University. In the distance, I could see the morning stragglers giving way to the early lunchtime seekers. Heaven only knew what this sudden fissure looked like on the other end. It also took longer to seal back up than the previous ones.
Trisha smiled and postulated, “I wonder if we’ve been walking pointlessly all this time. This could be more like a treadmill. We just turn around and decide…who…”
We were no longer alone.
Standing down the hallway was a young woman in nondescript, comfortable clothes. She was about my size for height and pretty close to Rhea for everything else. Her skin tone was a shade darker than mine. It was hard to place her ethnically, but my hunch was somewhere in the Mediterranean. She also seemed younger than us, but it was challenging to judge, especially with freshmen.
The girl raised a hand and greeted us hesitantly. I looked to Trisha for some sign of recognition that this might be the benefactor she saw. The lack of glasses pushed me away from the notion, but that could’ve just been a Superman scheme. I relaxed slightly when Trisha gave me a shake of her head.
She introduced herself as Nadia Miray Baris, emphasizing, “Just trying to figure things out. I’m not from around here.” I kept my guard up, but it was nice to see something resembling a friendly face in a place like this.
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Nadia mentioned running into others from the University and trying to help them as well. Trisha perked up when she mentioned that there was a blonde, but none of the other details matched Connor. I was curious about how she made it to this place and what she thought it might be. Her answer involved vague mentions of other realms coexisting alongside our own and even vaguer mentions of technology, followed by shrugs.
The three of us stuck together, and she pointed out a particular route through this complex. It didn’t feel any different. Same anonymous corridors copy and pasted to form an endless template. My feet throbbed ever so slightly. and Trisha stretched hers.
I was just about to put more questions to Nadia when we turned the corner and found an active rip in the wall. Standing just past the threshold were another trio of girls.
The one in front looked bitterly miserable. Trisha paused and narrowed her eyes. That one seemed familiar to her. Neither of us recognized the other two. One of them seemed to be the aforementioned blonde. She stood slightly taller than any of us with glasses, a blue top, and jeans. Beside her, holding a strange flashlight, was a dark-haired girl with strangely vibrant eyes and a childlike presence behind her attempted stern expression. She seemed so scared, yet resilient. My flashlight rose protectively, even though I had no idea where to aim it. Tense tangles of words crossed the air between us.
The most interesting thing to me was that this Nadia character appeared to be recognized by the blonde. She avoided calling out, but her expression said plenty. Once things settled down, we got names. The blonde was Anthony Moretti, the last guy from the game. I expected he hadn't escaped all this either, but it was fascinating to see how different he appeared now while still being somewhat recognizable.
She had short, bright, feathered blonde hair that was fluffy around her head. It was the kind of look I expected, vaguely like a rocker girl, but with the complexity that these transformations brought in acceptance and hesitancy. Everything girly about her appeared to be at the edge of chafing against her ego. But I also detected an ease that drew her attention to the darker-haired girl at her side. That one I was still trying to figure out. They restrained the other glasses girl right at the front like a hostage.
Sharpened snippets of our words crossed over one another even though I recognized Anthony. It took a surprising amount of time to learn that the disgusted girl in front of us was, in fact… The benefactor. Every lofty notion and every idealistic glimmer dropped into the dark. No goddess presence. No shining smile. Just some girl who I wouldn’t have given more than a quick glance, even in another life. Her words were acid bitter while reciting notes evocative of everything slipped into her messages. I didn’t foresee myself jumping her, but still found my fists clenched beside her neck while pointing my flashlight at her head.
Disappointment spread over her face as she claimed I was her favorite, her first, and an inspiration. I felt sick. Anthony apparently ran across her as like a haunting in a relative’s house. She confessed to using these passageways to keep an eye on her creations and likely pass messages. I puzzled at the fact that the opening between this place and home still remained open. Nadia hinted that certain areas, like the school and dorm affected by “strange events” left boundaries thinner than normal. Anthony appeared intensely skeptical of everything Nadia was saying, and I wasn’t far behind. Her friend with the flashlight wobbled, as though woozy.
It wasn’t too long before we got an explanation from Anthony about what her deal was.
“This is my guitar. This is my daughter… Parsley. Something’s wrong with her, and I don’t know what to do to help.” Zach came over and did her best to support her. This Parsley smiled with calm, cheerful energy despite how hard she struggled to keep her eyes open. The rest of us could’ve vanished. Anthony only had eyes for this girl, eyes full of overwhelming concern and trembling love. In a quiet moment, the flashlight with twisted colors slipped from her fingers. The ‘benefactor’ gave a sudden, harsh whistle.
Before the flashlight hit the tile ground, it shot up and dashed into her hands as though she had it on an invisible yo-yo string. A serrated smile carved its way into her features.
“That’s better. All this is mine. I found it! I blessed you with fates and feelings you never could’ve imagined! The dawn of a new world spread under a glorious light. No one will stand in my way now. All will be transformed by the truth. But first… you need to forget about…”
No more mind bullshit. I lifted the white flashlight and aimed it right at her head. Truth. Before she could react or counter, I clicked the button. Nadia edged to the side, out of its way, even though she had plenty of clearance. When the light made contact, anyone listening in would have thought that I burned her with steaming water or a laser. The screams somehow echoed despite the surreal qualities of this space. This benefactor now wore a different face and body. A boyish one.
If you just listened to him, you might be reasonable in assuming I had somehow torn off a fragile, protective mask adorning a phantom of the opera. The mournful howls almost earned sympathy from me. Fumbling with the swirling-color flashlight in her hands, she turned it around on herself. Though she struggled to even stand, Parsley narrowed a look at the flashlight. Her fingers shifted, and a strange, translucent glow like gold and sky blue jellyfish shifted from her like ocean waves in the air. Something on the flashlight shifted, almost imperceptibly, as it was triggered.
A moment later, a beam of brilliant pink light enveloped the ‘benefactor’. When she released the switch on the device, it was like someone else was blinking, compared to just moments ago.
“…uh. Hello? What am I doing here? Who are you all? Why does it look like we’re in a warehouse?” Even the intonation of her words had a different quality. The presence behind her eyes retained nothing of the manic, bitter person from before. She quietly introduced herself as Beverly Marsh and wavered with uncertainty about anything more than that. I guessed that the benefactor was gone, erased and rewritten with this girl. I felt melancholy amidst relief. No one deserves erasure.
She eagerly gave up the flashlight in her hands and looked around at us with nervous, hesitant hope. Since the opening remained, Anthony offered to take her back while cradling her daughter. All three of them slowly went back through the fissure. Nadia examined the flashlight and fiddled with a few things before sealing the rift with a blue light. Just the three of us again.
I stretched out my hand to accept the flashlight, even though I wasn’t sure what I would do with it. Nadia passed it to me without a word of complaint or concern. Such a strange little object in the grand scheme of things.
Without preamble, Zach gave several quick blanks and relayed things she had just recalled, originally passed along from ‘benefactor’ Beverly. A young man at the mall discovers a pop-up shop marked with magical implications. Nadia corroborated what she could. The implication was clear.
“Someone put this flashlight in the path of our lives. Someone is behind everything that’s happened. And I’m willing to bet they’re around here. Watching everything.”
*Click*
A cue, perfectly on time. Prepared for us. I heard the sharp, clear noise of a door opening. Mere feet away, right in our line of sight, a black door stood in stark opposition to all the blank, light colors surrounding us. It was open a crack. An invitation that I doubt we could’ve refused.