Bristol doesn't know or remember how she ended up falling. One second she was following Kronshtadt's lead over the edges of the 'grid' of pits in the floor, the next thing she knew, her foot was stepping on literally nothing. And Bristol was sure that the floor in front of her was solid.

A splash. Bristol finds herself landing face down in water. The fall merely lasted a few seconds so she hadn't fallen very far. Her suit is apparently still intact – any breach would have sent off alarm bells in her comms headset, which as if on cue, crackled to life.

"Bristol! Come in! Bristol, do you copy?" It's Kronshtadt. What a relief to hear her voice.

"Kron…? Yeah I'm good."

Bristol pauses, taking in her surroundings. The familiar sight of pale yellow wallpaper and beige carpeting was no more, replaced with pearlescent white tiles from floor to ceiling – a 'pool room' of sorts. The water's depth is up to that of her shins, tinted a rather cartoony blue-green. Gone was the maddening hum-buzz of old fluoroscent lights too, replaced with the muffled rippling of water stirred about by wind, though any form of wind is practically nonexistent in the Backrooms.

The whole area reminds Bristol of swimming pools from old movies from the 60's and the 70's with the Roman-esque architecture and the tiles.

"Are you injured?"

"No. I might have bruised something but otherwise, I'm okay."

Bristol can hear a very audible sigh of relief from the other end of the line. Her camera is still rolling though what the output was going to look like, she had no idea. Nothing she can do about it now. That would be Kronshtadt and the rest of ALSEC's problem when she got out of this so-called 'poolroom'

"Okay, good. Can you describe your surroundings?"

"It's uhh… different. Architecture is entirely different. I'm standing in knee deep water, everything's tiled from floor to ceiling. Opening is in the ceiling. Can't reach it."

The hole in the ceiling that Bristol fell through is at least thrice her height. No way she can reach it, even if she jumped at full strength.

"Nope. It's too high. Uhh… any chance you can get me a tether?"

"We can't reach you with the one we have. Newport News and Worcester are on the way with a…" Bristol doesn't hear the rest of Kronshtadt's words. She hears something else, faint in the background. Like... a person. She can't make it out – the voice is too distorted to make out clearly. Something's not right. Had another person fallen into this part of the Backrooms too?

"Kron I heard something."

"What-? Can't hear anything up here."

"No… Kron, I really think I'm not alone. I think there's someone else down here."

"Bristol that makes no sense… Are you sure it's not my background chatter you're picking up?"

Already, Bristol can imagine Kronshtadt and the team shooting nervous looks at each other. Bristol's already walking. The unknown voice she's hearing seems to be getting louder, though heavily distorted by the echo effects of the water.

She can make out the words 'Hello', 'Help' and what sounded like 'Can anyone hear me?' Desperate, almost pleading.

"Kron, it's definitely a person yelling…"

"What- A person?!"

"Yeah."

Bristol presses on, down the 'hallway' she's in, if it could even be called one. She could have been walking for meters, or even a kilometer but there's no way to tell. The hallway reminds her of a Roman catacomb, that somehow was repurposed into this odd subterranean pool. Bristol's surroundings widen, then open up into a bigger 'gallery' of sorts, split by walls with rounded corners.

Pillars with staircases winding up them dot the pool. Bristol finds it tempting to follow one up, but she knows better. This part of the Backroom is literal uncharted territory. To give into that curiosity and get lost as a result would be a virtual death sentence. There would be no way Kronshtadt or Drake would be able to find Bristol if she took a wrong turn and suffered the consequences.

There's more staircases leading down from ledges – into sinkholes, spiralling deep down into some sort of watery abyss. Bristol doesn't have to think twice about avoiding those, her focus solely fixated on following the source of that mystery voice.

"Bristol, you need to stay where you are. Newport News and Worcester are gonna be there with the tether any minute now. We'll pull you back up then assess the situation from there."

Bristol pauses before she can even reply. She can hear it more clearly now –"Can anybody hear me?"

"What if Yuubari was right about the Null Zones?"

"Even if that's the case, it's not worth the risk. You need to get out then I'll lead a team in."

Bristol doesn't reply after. The yelling is getting louder, which means she is getting close to the source. The fact that the only other sounds audible were her own splashing in the pool water and the crackling of her comms, somehow made the whole thing feel even more unsettling than it already is.

"Hello?" Bristol calls out, hoping to get the attention of that unfortunate soul trapped down there with her.

"Bristol, what the hell are you doing?" Kronshtadt hisses.

"I'm trying to find them. I know how to get back."

And then an exasperated sigh from the other side of the line. "Fine. Keep me posted."

Bristol keeps moving. The 'gallery' ended in a wall, though at the waterline there was an opening, not unlike a culvert which led into a tunnel. Just high enough for Bristol to walk through without having to bow her head. At the end of that tunnel, was yet another 'gallery', which was closer to that of a municipal pool. This pool was bisected by a ledge. Rays of sunlight seep in, from some sort of skylight.

And on the far end of the ledge, near what looked to be a doorway without a door, Bristol spots signs of life – flattened cardboard boxes, clearly used as makeshift mattresses. A lantern, not unlike her own that she left behind at the Threshold's control room before the debacle that was today's exploration mission. (Though if she managed to recover the person that was trapped down here, that would make up for it.)

"Kron, there's definitely someone down here. And they've been living here for a while."

"Living… down… there?"

Her own reply is cut off by the yelling. Bristol goes through the doorway. The yelling is getting louder and clearer (though there's something about it that felt off.). Bristol turns the corner. She hears someone mumbling, almost indistinct. They're sobbing in between. It's definitely not background chatter from Kronshtadt's end.

"Hello?" Bristol calls out. "Can you hear me? I'm here to-" And then she freezes. She sees a humanoid figure after turning the corner. They're standing upright. There's something very off about this person… almost too tall for any human.

Bristol squints, trepidation turning to fear and panic within milliseconds.

"That's not a person…"

Looking closer at it, the 'person' was actually some sort of creature. From that distance, it looked like a bunch of inky-black tentacles or vines haphazardly wrapped around a wire skeleton.

"Repeat, please? What the hell is it?"

"That's not a person!"

Whatever that 'thing' was, it definitely sensed Bristol's fear. It starts shaking, almost convulsing as if it's going through the motions of a grand-mal seizure. And then the creature lets out the most bloodcurdling, inhuman wail – a cross between a distorted elephant's trumpeting and a banshee's own scream.

"Kron… THAT'S NOT A PERSON!"

Bristol abruptly turns tail as her instincts kick in, screaming at her to run and keep running.

"Bristol? Bristol, come in! What do you see? Hey! Bristol come in!"