Chapter 2! Backrooms!
Credit goes to Rick Riordan and owners of all fandoms or writers in all wikis I use
Universe 2: Welcome to Hell
If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms.
Percy ran down the yellow hallways, his feet pounding on the damp, old carpet. He had to get away from that Thing. He sprinted down the endless labyrinth of rooms as fast as he could.
He could only hear his heart pounding in his chest, his feet squelching on the moist carpet, and the buzzing of the lights. He could only see that cursed yellow wallpaper, appearing again and again. The lights often flickered, sometimes turning red, sometimes blue or green.
The buzzing was getting to him. Was it getting louder? It was annoying. It was torture. It was like the sound of a thousand bugs scuttling around, echoing in his brain
Where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in.
A screech echoed through the corridors behind him, the sound of rushing wind and flapping limbs coming closer and closer. A barrier of sound nearly knocked over the teen, but he kept running.
Running was all that he could do now.
Occasionally he would pass doors or stairs, but there was no way he could get through those before the Thing got him. Sometimes he passed by rooms with hundreds of cross-shaped walls, or rooms with pits that were deeper than he could see.
God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.
Percy looked back over his shoulder. He caught glimpses of a skinny, emaciated figure rushing down the halls, the entity screaming like a banshee. A horrible cacophony of dozens of voices erupted from wherever its mouth was, spurring Percy to run faster.
He wanted to scream in terror, but he couldn't. That would just waste his breath on a task that would slow him down.
A black, twig-like hand reached out, a jagged claw snagging Percy's shirt, tearing it into shreds. The sudden movement sent him sprawling, sending him straight through a wall, falling into an empty void.
Then his feet hit the ground.
Welcome to Hell.
(x)
Level 1
Percy had been stumbling around here for a week now. It was silent. No noise, except for the drip drip drip of water falling from the ceiling. Fog covered the bare ceiling of the warehouse complex, and dim fluorescent lights were the only source of light down here. Rebar poked out of the dull, gray walls.
Occasionally, the fog condensed, and formed silvery puddles of water on the floor. Percy took a sip ever once in a while, but never stayed in the same place.
The lights sometimes flickered, and sometimes shut off for hours on end. Those times, Percy had to hide, inside a crate, behind a wall, wherever he could fit. Monsters lurked on this level too, Some were tall and white, shaped like humans, but not humans. Others looked like mutated humans, contorted into the shape of a dog. Others were just shark-toothed smiles that appeared in the dark.
Percy knew to stay away.
When the lights were on, he often found supplies in crates, and now always had a week's worth of Almond Water on him at all times. It was his symbol of hope, giving him strength and stamina when he was weak. It even tasted okay too.
Another week, and he found a door to another room.
(x)
Level 37
Percy lost track of time. It was impossible to keep time in a place like this–the Backrooms–as he called it. A place behind reality. Deeper than Hell, beyond the Earth–the Frontooms. From what he knew, every level was different, and some were devoid of monsters–entities, while others were full of them.
Also, he found out he could control water. Guess fighting the octopus on Level 5 made him find that out.
The level this time was filled with water, with everything covered in white ceramic tile, like a bathroom. Except, if the bathroom was an endless expanse of rooms and hallways.
Every room was different, with some leading to lower levels, and some with stairs to higher ones. Pillars jutted out of the water at random angles and intervals, and the lighting was bad in some areas, some covered in complete darkness. Some pools had pits, and some had staircases descending deep into them.
This level also had some sort of effect on his body, relieving his stress and muscle pains. And best of all, the level was empty. Percy occasionally wondered if he should just stay, but no. He would eventually run out of food and actually drinkable water. And Almond Water. Anywhere without Almond Water was a terrible place to be.
Also, there seemed to be something that was clouding the water in some places. That water did not look good.
He left through one of the staircases in the ceiling.
(x)
Level !
Percy had enough of this shit. He was currently running through a hallway, occasionally blocked by hospital beds, shelves, or desks. Glaring red lights covered the walls, giving off a horror-movie-like vibe. And of course, a hundred entities chased him down the corridor.
Hounds gnashed their teeth, Skin-stealers ran silently, along with the faceless Facelings. Partygoers waved their bloody, tarp-covered hands, balloons trailing behind them. And Smilers just…smiled.
Percy leapt, ducked, slid, and rolled around obstacles, sliding around sharp turns in the hallway. He decided not to care about obstacles anymore, running straight through them without even slowing down an inch. Splinters burst from wooden furniture, metal beds groaned as he slammed them against the walls.
He eventually reached a door at the end of the hallway, opening it and slamming it shut. He heard pounding for a few moments, then it stopped.
He entered another level.
(x)
Level 137
Percy sat in the middle of a clearing filled with ash. For normal humans, they would've already been suffocated to death. But Percy isn't normal by any means. He had been sitting there for a good half an hour, watching the giant watching him from behind the trees.
The entity on this level was about thirteen feet tall, with large axes in his hands. Whenever Percy wasn't in one of these ash fields, this entity would run at him pretty quickly, but it was far slower than he was.
Percy decided to name him Jerry.
The demigod stood up, stretching. Time to run again. When Percy left the field of ash, he noticed that Jerry started to rage and run a bit faster.
Oh well.
He reached a blossom tree and no-clipped through it.
(x)
Level 202
Percy had been holing up in an abandoned building for a week now. The level was like Antarctica, with massive glaciers, a steady negative degree temperature, and freezing cold water. But, of course, Percy could walk through it just fine. The only reason he was still here was because he needed a bit of respite.
He walked and walked for miles. There were steep slopes and gentle, rolling hills of ice and snow. Occasionally, he would see the ocean in the distance, but didn't go there. He was here for one thing only–to find a gorge in the glaciers.
And he found one. Problem was, it was quite small. And by quite small, it was just barely enough for Percy to fit.
That wouldn't do.
Percy took a few minutes to separate the two glaciers around the gorge, pushing the massive slabs of ice apart.
He jumped through the gorge, falling and falling and falling.
(x)
Level 352
Percy wandered the large factory. It looked like something from the 1950s, mainly made of concrete. Some areas had windows in the ceiling, allowing light to pass through. He usually saw plants in these sunlit areas, but some looked a little…hungry.
He made sure to stay away from those.
The lights were all smashed, and if they weren't they sure as hell didn't work. Most of the doors were also smashed, usually with a hole ripped in them or torn off its hinges. The pipes leaked a weird sap-like liquid, which Percy decided not to drink.
Oh yeah, did he mention the plant monsters? They were about the size of a normal human, and completely covered in weird plants. Some were decomposing, but others were in good condition. And all of them decided to chase him down the hallways.
He left the factory through a door.
(x)
Level 472
Percy only had twenty-four hours to leave this place. That's what the Clocksmith said. And it seems to make sense, because everything resets in the room every twenty-four hours. Everything from the clocks on the walls to each individual plank on the floor.
Everything including him.
The old guy called the Clocksmith said that anything reset in this room was sent to a place called The Beyond. It was a place that existed even beyond the backrooms, and automatically disposed itself of its contents, leaving no trace of its existence.
Luckily, the old guy was willing to help Percy leave the room.
He walked through a grandfather clock. Weird.
(x)
Level 505
Percy walked along the wooden bridge, heading towards an island in the distance. This level was nice, and he hadn't run into any entities here.
It was basically an endless sky covered in clouds that changed colors. Wooden bridges were suspended in the air by islands, each of which had four bridges connected to it, resulting in a grid-like pattern. Each island had its own house. Percy's house?
A wooden shack.
He wasn't planning to stay here long anyway, because his one and only goal was to leave the Backrooms.
He picked up some more Almond Water, and no-clipped out of this level by slamming his head on a wall.
(x)
Level 666
Percy did [REDACTED].
(x)
Level 717
Percy walked through the Victorian-style church, sometimes walking through grand halls, and sometimes through tiny corridors. All of the hallways were arranged in a hexagonal pattern, extending to infinity. The walls were made of a dark gray stone, carved into various biblical images.
In the larger rooms, there were usually hundreds of rows of seats, and a podium where a preacher would go. There were chandeliers, but no light at all. Sometimes he heard whispers, and bells chiming, but.
Nothing was there in the darkness with him.
And that included Almond Water.
He left by bashing his head against the podium.
(x)
Level 847
Percy knew trying to get a car was a bad idea. But he did it anyway. But he did not expect for it to try to kill him on sight. And for a bunch of different cars to try to kill him too. But he killed them.
Weird as hell. Who knew an AI uprising would happen in the Backrooms too?
Luckily, he found a base surrounded by a bunch of cars, with a ton of supplies in it. So he waltzed in, killed all the cars, raided the base, and left.
And he set it on fire of course. What if it was a respawn point?
He was then no-clipped out of the level from being hit by a car.
(x)
Level 999
Percy did [REDACTED].
(x)
Level 1000
Percy opened the door on Level 999 leading to what he believed would be the last level. He breathed in , then out. And he stepped through. And back to the monotonous yellow wallpaper. The noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz. The stink of old moist carpet.
No.
No.
NO.
He couldn't be here again. It was impossible. He couldn't be back where he started. He tried going back through the door, but it disappeared behind him. Like his hope. Like his emotions. Only one thing was left: his anger.
Anger at the level that started his journey. Anger at every level he passed through. Anger at the Hell below Hell, the reality behind reality. Anger at the Backrooms.
In his rage, Percy didn't notice the floor shaking, the walls crumbling, and lights flickering, the carpet tearing. His vision was red, and his brain felt like it was tearing apart.
What the hell was all that work for?
What was happening?
Why…was he mad?
Percy began to laugh.
And something laughed with him. A black, faceless entity appeared in front of him, cackling.
Percy reached out, and grabbed it by the face. It continued cackling as its face was crushed, its entrails dripping from between Percy's fingers.
Then Percy left through a door.
Two years later:
The demigods heard the piercing call of a hunting horn from the woods.
Everyone froze. For a moment, no one moved.
"No," Dr. Thorn said. "It cannot be–"
An arrow cut him off, the streak of silver piercing his shoulder. The manticore howled in agony.
"Curse you!" Dr Thorn shot his spikes back at the woods, only for them to get intercepted by silver arrows, all of which pierced his skin.
A dozen girls advanced from the woods, all of them wearing silver parkas and jeans, and carrying bows. They surrounded the manticore.
"The Hunters!" Annabeth cried.
"Oh, wonderful," Thalia muttered under her breath.
One of the older archers stepped forward, her bow drawn. She had a silver circlet on her head, like a princess. "Permission to kill, my lady?"
Dr. Thorn growled. "This is not fair! Direct interference is against the Ancient Laws!"
"Not so," a younger girl said. Her expression was stern as she stared down the monster with piercing silver eyes. "The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked back at the older girl. "Zoe, permission granted."
The manticore snarled. "If I cannot have them alive, then I shall have them dead!"
He lunged at Thalia, who was shielding Bianca and Nico.
"No!" Annabeth shouted, running towards the manticore.
"Get back, half-blood!" Zoe shouted. "Get out of the line of fire!"
Annabeth leaped…and missed, as the manticore was stopped by a hand around its throat. Everyone looked at the newcomer in shock.
The new person held Dr. Thorn by the neck, leaving him to kick his feet and try to escape from his grip. The manticore's slashes only tore through his shirt, leaving unblemished skin beneath.
"I wonder…will you last longer than the others?" He began to squeeze, and the manticore seized up, then became limp and turned into golden dust that dispersed in the wind. The mysterious man shook his head in disappointment. "Greek entities always die so fast." He tilted his head, glowing yellow eyes looking at the group assembled in front of him. "What about you? How long will you last?"
The Hunters regained their composure, aiming at him. "Who are you?" Zoe asked, drawing a bow of her own.
"Calm down, I was just joking!" Percy smiled, his sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight. He trembled for a few seconds, then burst out laughing. Not a normal one, but the laughter of one who belonged in a mental asylum. "Ha! You should see the look on your faces!"
"I won't repeat myself–" Zoe was stopped by Artemis. "M-My lady? Why are you stopping us?"
Artemis pointed behind Percy "There was a helicopter right there. And I reckon this man was the one who made it disappear. He is dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Percy hummed. "You could say that. Because…" he spread his arms. "I am a god. Welcome the god of the reality behind reality! The god of the Hell below Hell! I am Perseus!"
Yay.
- spectre646