Opening Author's Notes: I hope whoever is reading this is having a great day so far, and that everything is going well for you. I'm not gonna lie, writing these chapters is pretty exciting, so I think I'll try to make them a bit longer. Along with possibly adding more dialogue when Paul starts to interact with more inhabitants of the Backrooms.
I don't own anything except for my own OCs. Please give credit to the original creators, and or Authors.
...: These dots represent a time skip or POV change.
…..
A loud, crackling sound rang out through Level One's concrete landscape. It was so loud that even some from Base Alpha and Trader's Keep heard it. People wondered what it was. They couldn't discern which direction the loud noise came from, this made them a bit weary. The already tight security at Base Alpha was bulked up a bit, along with Trader's Keep. Places like Tom's Diner were put on temporary closure, and patrons and visitors were told to shelter in place.
…..
Unbeknownst to Paul, his unusual entrance to the second level of the Backrooms caused some caution and confusion among Level One's inhabitants.
"Ugh…" Paul groaned as he peeled his body from the floor. He pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes, a bright light in front of him assaulted them. He turned away from it, his vision finally clearing. It took him a moment to discern where he was, but his mind quickly caught up when he properly processed several noticeable things in his surroundings.
Concrete Walls, exposed rebar, and low-hanging fog.
He was in Level One!
"I actually no-clipped?!" Paul yelled out, arms in the air. He was excited that he was in Level One. That confirmed he wasn't in Kane's Backrooms, at least that was something! But there was one question he had. How exactly did he no-clip? He remembered that a couple of moments ago he was getting ready to run at the wall he found in Level Zero. And then, there was some bright...light? The next thing he knew, he was on Level One.
"Wait...did I?" Paul dug in his pocket for his phone, finger already hitting the power button before it was out of his pocket. He unlocked the home screen and took a glance at his battery percentage.
92%
At least his phone wasn't going to die anytime soon. Hopefully. The high school junior opened Google, the page for the Backrooms wiki still being open from his time doing some research on Level Zero. He quickly went to the POIs section, already suspecting the way how he no-clipped from the first Level of the Backrooms to the second.
The young man scrolled down a bit, tapping on a name that was highlighted gray. Showing that he was on that specific article previously. Spec was the title that Paul tapped on Once it loaded, he looked at the top right of his phone screen, seeing that he had a full four bars of Wi-Fi and a full five bars of service. He knew that some levels had a strong enough internet connection, but this strong of a connection in Level One? The teen pondered on it for a moment, then shook his head. He had time to be concerned about it later. He continued with what he previously had in mind, scrolling down to the bottom text of Spec's article.
"(At this point a loud, cracking sound is heard, like that of a lightning strike. The camera cuts out, but according to agent Hahn, Spec vanished. Not only this, but a burst of unstable energy spread throughout the room, nearly flipping the table.)
(Upon analysis of the recording audio and testimony from M.E.G. members nearby, it would seem that Spec forced a no-clip. The energy burst left behind is characteristic of people with extremely low touch with reality in The Backrooms, but events of this magnitude tend to occur with serious injury or even death of the subject. Considering that Spec has continued to cooperate, it would appear that this is not the case. His knowledge, claimed interactions with other notable entities, and ability to just "appear" during anomalous events are the reasons why Agent Hahn submitted a report to the M.E.G.'s POI office.)"
"Did I force a no-clip?!" Paul yelled, immediately berating himself right after. He wasn't aware if anyone was listening after all.
He quickly recomposed himself, slipping his phone into his pocket. 'Okay, okay. I need to calm down. I might've actually forced a no-clip. But did I really? Or was it something else? Let's see…I was trying to no-clip on Level Zero…but for some reason, I couldn't no-clip through the wall that easily. Then after many attempts, I was hoping to get to Level One. After I thought that I was about to run at that darkened wall again. And then I think I was enveloped…in some sort of light? Now I'm in Level One.'
The new wanderer went over everything a couple more times in his head, making sure he didn't miss a single detail. After he did, he tried to come up with other possible ideas on how he no-clipped but he couldn't. There wasn't any other conclusion Paul could think of other than him forcing a no-clip. But how? In Spec's article, he forced a no-clip voluntarily after the M.E.G. agent refused to let him leave. But an involuntarily forced no-clip? The sixteen-year-old doesn't think he's ever heard of that before.
After pondering on it for a couple more minutes, Paul came to a hypothetical conclusion. He assumed he forced a no-clip. But it must've been involuntary since the only thing he was thinking at that specific moment was getting to Level One. He sighed, just another thing he'll have to be careful about now that he's in this infinite hell hole.
His eyes started filling up with tears as he thought of his family, friends, and Earth. He quickly wiped them away and pushed his feelings away. He had to be logical if he was to survive, dwelling on something he couldn't control and getting emotional about it, wasn't going to help him in the slightest. Paul took a breath, wiping off his glasses with his handkerchief. After he settled down, he finally started to take in the surrounding area.
Paul looked around at the sprawling warehouse seeing the puddles of water with no discernable source, low-hanging fog, and exposed pieces of rebar sticking out of the wall. Even though the Backrooms as a whole are pretty terrifying, Level One looked surreal. To the teen, this Level amongst many others that he's read about has a certain beauty to it. He wasn't going to lie to himself, he was feeling a bit excited that the Backrooms was real and he had the possible chance of visiting some of the Levels and interacting with some of the various characters on the Wiki Dot.
The wanderer pulled his phone out of his pocket, sliding his glasses on his face for better vision. He tapped the screen a few times to show the Level One Wiki Dot article. He scanned over the couple of paragraphs that the page contained, paying real close attention to the parts about crates with specific items appearing and the light fixtures within the Level failing and flickering at times; inconsistent intervals. When this happens, supplies are liable to vanish inexplicably, and hostile entities appear unexpectedly.
As he read more, refreshing his memory on the Level, apparently the entities rarely attack in groups and tend to avoid light and large gatherings of people.
Paul scrolled down some more, now reading the Bases, Outposts, and Communities section. Those listed were ones that Paul knew pretty well, the M.E.G, the B.N.T.G, and Tom's Diner.
'Glad I refreshed my memory. Now I need a plan. I could explore Level One more, as that leads to Level Two, crawling through random holes in the wall has a possibility of leading me to Level Nineteen. Or…I could probably scavenge some cold weapons and other things from the crates that randomly appear here. My last option would probably be to head to Base Alpha of the M.E.G, Trader's Keep of the B.N.T.G, or Tom's Diner, all while watching out for hostile entities spawning when the lights flicker…okay.' Paul rubbed his eyes and put his device back in his pocket, already thinking of what to do next.
The junior formed a plan. He was going to need to arm himself with a weapon at some point in his journey through the Backrooms, no better time to start than now. Paul could possibly try to search around and find some crates and a home that has cold weapons in it. Then head to Base Alpha, as that would be his best bet between the other two options. Once he got himself situated, he could probably head to Level Two and make his way onward through more Levels until Level Eleven.
Paul, his largest goal right now is to make it to Level Eleven, he would undoubtedly be safe there, and it had easy access to some other Levels. And from there he could maybe, just maybe…find a way out of this endless labyrinth of Levels. Now that he had a plan in mind, he chose a hallway and began searching for some crates.
…..
A couple of hours went by and thankfully Paul finally found a crate. 'Finally…hot damn I was searching for a while.' He made his way over to the crate, sitting next to the corner of a rectangular pillar of concrete. As he was walking towards it, he was silently praying that there was at least something in this crate, he really didn't want to have to look for another if the contents in this one were useless. When the teen finally reached the wooden crate, he bent down to take off the top, but he noticed something. The crate started…shaking?
Paul flinched back, quickly backpedaling away from the crate. It was shaking violently, the noise of wood meeting concrete getting louder as time went on. Paul Maryfield readied himself, he knew that from the Level One article, sometimes there were live rats in the crates that were found. But…he doesn't think that rats would cause the crate to shake that violently.
A couple more minutes went by until the crate was shaking so violently that it turned itself over…then the shaking stopped. The lid of the crate fell off when it tipped over, spilling out the contents inside. 'What the heck was that?! Why'd it just…vibrate violently like that then stop?'
Paul was still a noticeable distance away from the crate, considering what just occurred. Once it tipped over Paul saw some of what the crate was containing. Paul could only see two things, a large knife–or machete, and a backpack?
This slightly confused him, he knew that cold weapons could be found, amongst other items, but a backpack of all things? He shook his head, this was much better than he was expecting. After rereading some of the things that were found in the crates in the Level One article, the fact he even got a weapon and something he could carry stuff with was a blessing. Paul rushed over to the tipped-over crate, any confusion and concern were now replaced with hope and excitement. He skidded to a stop and bent down in front of the crate to hastily pick up the machete and backpack.
Once Paul made sure both items were tightly held in his grasp, he examined them. The machete–he confirmed, looked like your standard Eart–Frontrooms machete. The handle was completely black, and the sheath it was in was black as well. He pulled it off to get a better look at the blade, it looked surprisingly new, with no chips in the blade or anything. As the teen inspected the blade he noticed that near the bottom of it, it had words on it. "Tramontina"...huh. Paul didn't think he'd ever heard of that brand before, but just in case, he pulled out his phone and searched up the brand and–oh, it actually exists. Paul decided to move on to inspect the second thing he had in his hands, a backpack. The backpack looked a little worn, having some scuff marks, decoloration, and sewing patches over its green fabric.
Paul zipped open the backpack, seeing if there was anything that was inside. He felt nothing...but his whole arm went in, he didn't feel a bottom. This of course confused him, so he put the backpack on the ground so he could reach in further, he put his whole arm along with half of his head down into the bag and he saw a spacious area.
The dark-skinned teen quickly pulled himself out of the spacious bag, and as soon as he was back on his feet again, a feeling of surprise, excitement, and concern washed over Paul, these feelings were quickly put to the side as he put back on his stoic, nonchalant demeanor. He took a deep breath, calming himself. He went over everything that happened in the span of a couple of minutes so far. He found one of the supply crates on Level One, he walked up to the crate, and said crate started shaking, he backed up from it, and the crate tipped over and spilled out two things, a machete and backpack, he inspected the machete and then the backpack, and the inside of the backpack seems to be a lot bigger on the inside, comparable to that of a small gymnasium.
The fact that the crate gave Paul stuff this good was surprising, but a backpack with that much space? And it looked worn out…almost like a worn sack. After Paul finished processing the information, there was one word that kept coming to him…"Worn Sack." It only took him a couple of minutes to realize, the backpack that was sitting on the ground near his feet was an object! Well, an object on the Backrooms Wikidot website, and it was useful too!
Just like many times before, the teen took his phone out of his pocket, his finger tapping on the Google application at lightning-fast speed. In the search bar, he typed in "Backrooms worn sack" and pressed enter. Paul was greeted by text that read "Object 87". He pressed the link, and read the article.
…..
A few minutes later, Paul refreshed his memory on the object he now had in his possession. He summarized the article for himself after he finished reading it.
'It's been a while since I read the article about Object 87. I'm glad I got to read it again, it's actually one of the better and more useful objects. As the article stated, a Worn Sack is created by using a Mobile Vacuum Cleaner's debris container and a worn bag, but not too worn. To be considered "Worn" enough the bag has to have discoloration, scuff marks, tears that have been repaired through sewing or patching, or stains. The bag I have actually looks like the one that's shown on the article page, but it meets two of the requirements in order to be considered "worn". The inside of the bag is unusually large, being about seven hundred meters cubed, and the weight of the bag will always be 0.5 pounds. The storage space is about the size of a small gymnasium or extremely large conference room.'
Paul felt more informed after he self summarized the information for himself. But he was also cautious, would any of the groups on Level One be suspicious that he obtained a highly valued container on a Level as early as Level One? Or would they just brush it off? He dismissed the latter thought and went with the former. Even though the M.E.G and the B.N.T.G were generally the two best groups for safety and shelter in the Backrooms, Paul has read some articles where they've done some pretty messed up stuff. Plus, no faction or group as large as those two go without at least some form of corruption.
The teen sighed, running his fingers through his short, black hair. He'll have to figure something out, he could keep looking around for more crates and possibly have a chance of getting more objects or food. If he got anything of value he could exchange it for something to eat at Trader's Keep. Or he could go to Tom's diner and get food there. The last option he could think of was just going to Level Two and traversing the Levels until he got to Level Eleven.
After giving it some thought, Paul decided that he wanted to continue onwards towards Level Two. This seemed like the most logical conclusion to him. Even though the M.E.G base and Trader's Keep have food, he wouldn't want to draw attention to himself. He needs to come off as a normal Wanderer, and as of right now, his survival lies in the information he can access on the Wiki, through his phone. This means he needs to keep it on his person at all times and make sure that no one but him has access to it.
Paul picked up the worn sack from the ground, putting the machete in the interior pocket dimension the backpack held. He looked around for a hallway–an extended one to get to Level Two. The Level One article stated that if one should wander down an extended hallway on Level One, they should appear on Level Two.
The teen still had his phone in his hand, he went back to the Level One article page and scrolled down, pressing on the button that said Level Two.
He took a quick look at the article, it should be a quick read, besides it'll just be to refresh his memory ...what the hell?
The page looked different, he scrolled down, okay–that's a lot. When the hell did the article get this big of a revision?! Paul skimmed over it, seeing that Level Two was now a lot more hazardous in its new revision. 'Dude you can't be serious…well, I guess it can't be helped. My question is if I go to Level Two, would it be like its new version, or old? I'll probably find out when I get there, I should be wary of flickering lights as well…the fact that I haven't encountered any is a real blessing. Okay…time to get to reading.'
There was a wall a dozen feet from the pillar of concrete where the crate was, Paul found a comfortable, dry spot of ground to sit down on. He leaned against the wall, constantly looking around every few seconds. He started from the beginning of the new revision of Level Two, and started reading.
…..
Paul finished reading the article, which took him about fifteen minutes, and took him another five in order to fully understand it. He even read the Sub-Level for Level Two, or, Office Space EL3A, which was an…interesting name. He got up from the cold concrete floor, stretched, and looked for any extended hallways since that would lead him to Level Two. In between reading the article, he considered trying to force a no-clip again, if that's even what he did, but he couldn't. He was thinking of what he did on Level Zero and tried to replicate it, but to no avail, so he had to go to the next level the old-fashioned way, finding the entrance.
Once he gets to Level Two, he would prefer not to be there for long, considering the entities and lack of groups there ever since Level Two's blackout. Hopefully finding a hallway won't be that hard…huh, there's one right there. Paul could've sworn that there wasn't a hallway next to the wall he was sitting against, but he was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He made sure that he had everything on his person, his phone, wallet, chapstick, and handkerchief in his pockets, glasses on his face, machete in the worn sack, and the worn sack on his back.
He stepped into the hallway, noting it looked like it stretched a very long way. He looked behind him, making sure no person or entity was at his six. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself, starting his way down the seemingly endless corridor.
…..
Slowly but surely, as Paul continued down the hallway he saw more industrial piping and machinery line the walls and ceiling. The walls themselves looked like they were made of withered or dirty concrete. He sometimes saw the occasional brick in some areas. This confirms it, he was approaching Level Two. He stopped and took off his worn sack, unzipping it and seeing if he could get his machete just in case he ran into any entities before he could find an escape. Even though the worn sack's interior was very large, he felt the handle of the machete at the bottom of the bag. He grabbed it and took off its sheath, stuffing it into the worn sack and putting it on his back again. Paul cautiously continued down the hallway. His surrounding environment looked more and more like Level Two as he went on.
White and orange hues of lights now seemed to illuminate the hallway. He heard the buzzing noise of said lights that he remembered from Level Zero, which was starting to get on his nerves. Just like the teen saw in the article, the hallway was starting to look more like a maintenance tunnel, he could see a turn up ahead, from what the article said, most turns on Level Two were at forty-five-degree angles.
Hopefully, he could find a door soon, and even better, if said door could lead to Level Three.
As he was approaching the turn, Paul gripped his machete harder and stayed close to the left wall, giving him the most distance between him and whatever might be hiding behind the turn in the maintenance tunnel. He got in a crouching position, hoping to reduce the noise of his footsteps.
From the entities that he read about in the Level Two article, he had to watch out for a lot. Windows, Smilers, Death Moths, Clumps, Jerry, Hounds, Skin-Stealers, Wretches, Nguithr'xurhs, Death Rats, Cannibal Cuisines, Wranglers, Photoshop, Growlers, and Swindle Birds.
The teen didn't care if he was being paranoid or not, the Backrooms were a dangerous place, and on the Level with this many entities…of course, he was going to be on guard twenty-four-seven. As he was rearing the tight bend in the tunnel, he gripped his machete with such force his knuckles were popping. He poked his head around the bend ever so carefully, staying in his crouched position.. Paul didn't see anything. He exhaled a shaky sigh of relief that was quickly halted when he heard a small squawk. His head was snapping around, trying to see where the sound came from, his pupils dilating into pinpricks. He looked down.
A couple of feet in front of him he saw a blue macaw parrot with blue and white feathers, it was staring at him. Paul knew who this was, he knew very well.
Jerry
The entity that could indoctrinate people to worship him just by coming into contact with them, acting like mindless zombies until they get to Jerry's respective space, Jerry's Room. Once said indoctrinated people reach his room, they'll start to worship him like a god. Paul stumbled, immediately trying to scramble back to where he came from, but he didn't do it fast enough. Before he could even properly get himself up to run, he felt a light force hit the back of his head. His eyes widened and his body froze.
The teen felt a small nibbling sensation on his scalp, but he didn't register it, he was distraught. Was this it? Not even two days into this hell hole and he had to encounter him? Why? Why?! Of all entities, he had to encounter Jerry. Now he was going to become a mindless worshiper to some damn bird!
He didn't want to. He didn't want to forsake his free will to worship some animal. He'd much, much rather worship Jesus, the one God he believed in. Paul was getting ready to cry, mentally apologizing to God for his failure. All he could do was wait to be indoctrinated and reminisce on the good times he's had in his life…with family and friends.
A few moments went by, the teen's eyes still closed…but nothing happened. Paul slowly opened his eyes, still glassy from tears. He didn't feel any different, no insane urge to worship Jerry or bow in his presence. He asked himself the question of who he served, and the response he gave himself was all he needed to hear. 'I worship the Lord Jesus Christ.'
One of his hands shot up to behind his head, grabbing the same entity that was for some reason nibbling on his hair, but Paul didn't question it. There was a squawk of surprise as the boy roughly grabbed the bird, throwing it in front of him as he turned around and ran in the direction he was planning to go initially before he ran into Jerry.
The machete he was holding was in a death grip now, nervous beads of sweat running down his face. He wiped away his tears to clear his vision as he ran as fast as he could down the maintenance tunnel. He tried to calm down a bit as he was running but he couldn't, adrenaline was flooding his veins, fueling his flight response.
Paul didn't pay any heed to the slight changes in the Level's halls that he came across. He was only focused on running. The teen's brain was working overdrive as he tried to remember the exits that were listed in the Level Two article, as well as trying to recall Jerry's article. The information from Jerry's article that he could remember was those who outrun Jerry and avoid being assimilated and will instantly be no-clipped into the ground.
As soon as the memory of said information came to Paul's mind, he fell. The same feeling that he felt when he first got to Level Zero. He only had a second to look down, his face full of despair, half of his torso was already phasing through the floor of Level Two. A moment later the rest of his body followed suit.
…..
"That Wanderer was…interesting," Jerry said, an amused look on his face. He honestly wasn't expecting a wanderer to be in the Abandoned Utility Halls, or as the Meggies call it, Level Two. The bird suspected that the boy may have been new to the Backrooms then.
The macaw wasn't surprised that the wanderer didn't look back to see that he was some ways behind. The human was so focused on running on him! He found that very amusing. But he still couldn't understand something. Why did that wanderer feel so different? He was thinking of indoctrinating the human when he first reared the corner. The shock and fear on his face were hilarious when Jerry let out a squawk. But…as soon as the macaw made contact with the wanderer's head, the bird felt…affection? Companionship? Friendship? Entity Seven couldn't really figure out the word for what he felt. But when he was perched on the human's head, he saw lots of junk in his, albeit short, but somehow dirty hair. So, the blue macaw started to preen the wanderer, carefully picking out lint and dirt from the short hair follicles.
After that, Jerry was grabbed, and thrown off the human's head shortly after. The bird got a quick look at the teen's face, namely, his expression. The wanderer must have at least known who he was to look that afraid. After watching him run for a few seconds, the bird gave chase. Flying after the human, but only being able to keep up some ways with him.
This human definitely piqued his interest, so he made the running boy no-clip to his room. Once he saw the body of the aforementioned wanderer fall through the floor, he sent out a mental demand to his followers, ordering them not to kill or harm the wanderer. Jerry just wanted to see that Wanderer again.
…..
Paul wasn't falling for long–a dozen seconds at most. He remembered another thing about Jerry's article as he was getting no-clipped. Those who managed to outrun Jerry and avoid being assimilated will instantly be no-clipped into the ground. The Entity Seven article stated that Jerry might have the ability to cause people to no-clip is still being investigated. He closed his eyes and braced for the possible impact of wherever he was getting no-clipped to.
Once he felt his body painlessly hit the floor, he opened his eyes to see a large room similar to that of a lounging area. Paul took a deep breath, calming himself. He realized he was still dead gripping the machete in his hand, he relaxed and held it at his waist, not wanting to take any chances. He methodically inspected the room. On the walls seemed to be several paintings of Jerry, one larger painting on what the teen assumed was the back wall of the room along with a wooden bird perch in front of said painting.
The dark-skinned teen saw two windows, each that had blue light coming from them that was currently illuminating the room. He peered out of them from a couple of feet away but saw nothing but blue light. Paul stopped gazing at the room and prodded at his memory to see if he could remember whatever Level this was. He remembered that it was related to Jerry. His eyes widened slightly as he mentally facepalmed. Could he not have remembered that as soon as he got no-clipped here?!
Just as many times before, Paul slipped his phone out of his pocket and went back to the home page of the Backrooms Wikidot. He quickly went to Jerry's page and clicked on the blue-highlighted text that said "Jerry's Room". After the page loaded, he looked at the picture on the right side of the article. Comparing the photo on his phone to his surroundings wasn't hard at all, it was the exact same room he was standing in. He hastily read through the article's couple of paragraphs, switching between looking at the phone and the double white doors in front of him. After he finished reading, he gripped his machete a bit harder, concern etched on his face.
There weren't any places to hide in the section of Jerry's room he was currently in. Before he could even come up with a plan he saw the white double doors that were facing him open up. Multiple people dressed in robes of blue and gold slowly poured into the room. Paul immediately backed himself up to the farthest place away from the door. There were about five people in the room with him now, they stopped a couple of feet short of the door when they entered. The teen saw Jerry perched upon the shoulder of the F.O.J member who was in the front of the group.
As Paul was cautiously eyeing the members of the F.O.J., he was starting to remember more and more information that he learned on the Wiki about Jerry. The Wiki page specifically on the F.O.J described some of the important members of the Followers. Those being Father Bluebird and Sinclair Beckett. The former being the leader of the F.O.J, often having Jerry riding on his shoulder. The former, although she wears casual clothes, is a radical devotee of Jerry and is an infamous member because of her manic personality.
Paul saw both of them in front of the group of F.O.J. members. He could tell there were about eight people in the room with him, counting both Bluebird and Beckett. After a few more seconds of staring, Sinclair spoke up. "Oh glorious Jerry! Is this the wanderer that you were referring to?" She said, wiping her mouth of the black liquid that was dripping from it.
"Yes, it is. I'm glad I no-clipped him here. The boy feels…strange. I have some feeling of kinship…or friendship when I'm near him." The bird cawed.
"What do you suggest we do with him, my lord?" Father Bluebird asked, his hooded head raising just a bit.
Paul didn't know what he was going to do. He's basically trapped and at the mercy of insane cult members and their so-called god. If the situation wasn't so tense, the teen would've scoffed. Jerry, a god? Please, there was only one God as far as Paul was concerned, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. His faith is probably what kept him going up to this point, even if it's only been about a day since he got no-clipped to the Backrooms.
Even so, the teen wasn't going to let some damn bird with a god-complex try to indoctrinate him and make him bow down to worship it. He doesn't know how he didn't get indoctrinated when Jerry flew onto his head back in Level Two, but he wasn't about to take any chances.
Jerry hummed, he seemed to be in deep thought. "I want to know more about this wanderer, the feeling I get from being near him is strange…I feel like I'm at peace. I've decided to capture the boy and I'll ask him questions myself. Try not to injure him that badly." The macaw ordered. Two people dressed in blue robes came out from behind Father Bluebird and Sinclair, both of them were holding blades of some sort.
Paul gripped his machete harder as the two F.O.J. members advanced toward him. He needed to be ready to run, fight, and do anything in order not to be captured by that…thing! "Get the Hell back!" The teen yelled, sweat forming on his brow. His threat seemed to have no effect, however, as the two people kept walking towards him. No other threats Paul yelled at them seemed to work either.
He only had one option, to try and fight. But it was a losing battle, even if he somehow got past the two people advancing towards him, there were still six other people standing in front of his only possible exit. The only other thing that he could think of was forcing a no-clip. But Paul didn't even know if what he did in Level Zero was a forced no-clip, he just assumed it was because of its similarities to Spec's force no-clipping. The teen didn't know any other way to get out of this, so he closed his eyes and thought of Level Eleven and how much he wanted to go there. But nothing happened.
He only had a moment to be confused. A thought came quickly to Paul, maybe he had to progress the Levels in a chronological fashion. He didn't know for sure, but he needed to try, and fast.
The teen thought of how much he wanted to go to Level Three. As one of the F.O.J members was reaching for him a large crackling sound was heard as Paul vanished from where he was once standing, a large burst of unstable, ethereal energy spread throughout the room, hurdling both F.O.J members that were going to capture Paul into both Father Bluebird and Sinclair.
The two esteemed members of the Followers were knocked back into the rest of the group behind them, the wind being knocked out of them. After a few minutes, the group regained their bearings. The two blue-robed individuals that were knocked back into Bluebird and Sinclair were deemed unconscious when the latter tried to help them up. Jerry flew into the air when he got a feeling, a feeling he didn't experience often, but one he knew very well. The feeling of a forced no-clip. As soon as his followers regained their bearings after the initial output of energy from the forced no-clip spread throughout the room, Jerry re-perched himself on Father Bluebird's shoulder.
"Now I really want to know that wanderer more." The macaw said, his voice filled with a tinge of excitement.
"Was that what some would call a 'forced no-clip' lord Jerry?" Bluebird asked as he dusted off his robes.
"Why yes it was. The boy most likely ended up on the next level. Even though the output of energy from that forced no-clip was strong, I could tell that he was not experienced with using it at all or else he would've used it much earlier. Oh, how interesting." Jerry responded.
…..
Just like when Paul first got to Level One, as soon as he forcibly no-clipped to the next Level, he lost his balance and face planted onto the ground. He groaned into a gray tiled floor…wait, tiled floor? The teen pushed himself up from the dusty tiles and stood up to observe his surroundings, he grabbed his machete that was lying on the ground next to him and held it in his right hand. He saw walls that seemed to be made of dusty, brown bricks that were covered in segments of copper pipes and mechanical components. He looked up to see a metal ceiling. Behind him was a set of white, rusty prison bars that basically stopped him from going that way.
Paul ran his hand over his short, faded hair and sighed. He calmly collected himself and began walking forward down the dimly lit hallway.
"I actually made it to Level Three. Time to try and explore I guess."
…..
Closing Author's Notes: I hope the people who took the time to read this chapter are having a great day so far. And if you're confused about what caused Jerry to act like that towards Paul, or just Paul's abilities in general, allow me to explain. As I explained in the last chapter, the Backrooms affects Paul differently than it does actual in-universe humans because he's from the real world. Because of this, the inhabitants of the Backrooms get a strange feeling from Paul, that feeling being one of friendship (Hence the name of the fic) or kinship, though, this affects entities a lot more potently than regular humans. Plus, lots of Levels and Entities (Mostly the enigmatic entities) have little to no effect on Paul due to this.
Additionally, due to Paul having more "realness" than others, he can use different abilities that some POIs have, which is why he could use forcing a no-clip as his primary way to no-clip into Levels. As you can see in this chapter, he's very inexperienced with using it and as of right now, he can only use it if he thinks really hard about going to the next level. This works at semi-random intervals, and with Paul's current experience with using his force no-clip abilities, he can only go to Levels in chronological order (Like Level Three to Four).
And since lots of entities in the Backrooms usually have some relatively short articles, i'll either use some of that specific entity's qualities from other Backrooms cannon. For example, in some Backrooms cannons, Jerry can talk and he isn't just a bird, but some sort of higher being appearing as a bird. That's why I made him able to speak.
Thank you for reading, I hope that everyone has a blessed rest of their day!
Sources:
Level 1: Level 1 - The Backrooms )
Level 2: Level 2 - "Abandoned Utility Halls" - The Backrooms )
Office Space EL3A: Office Space EL3A - The Backrooms )
Level 3: Level 3 - The Backrooms )
Worn Sack: Object 87 - The Backrooms )
Jerry: Entity 7 - "Jerry" - The Backrooms )
Jerry's Room: Jerry's Room - The Backrooms )