Opening Author's Notes: I hope that everyone is having a great day so far! And I'll try to update chapters more regularly. But to everyone who is reading these chapters, I just want to thank you all and I hope that you continue to enjoy them. Please leave me any criticism, as I'm constantly trying to improve my writing skills. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and have a great rest of your day.

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, POV change, or line break.

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The sounds of Paul's footsteps echoed off of the brick walls of a dark hallway, most of it being muffled by the sound of black sludge flowing through the pipes on the level. He assumed he'd been in Level Three for about half an hour now, and he had already re-read the article to refresh his memory, this level would be one of the most deadly he'd encountered thus far. Besides having a survival difficulty of class four, it has some entities he should look out for. Hounds, Facelings, Wretches, Male and Female Deathmoths, Skin-Stealers, Dullers, Smilers, Clumps, and Bursters.

So of course the teen was wary. He held his machete in a tight grip. Even though Level Three is dangerous, Paul thought that this could be his chance to stock up on lots of supplies. The article for the fourth level of the Backrooms stated that Almond Water, False Outlets, Liquid Pain, Firesalt, Royal Rations, Squirt Guns, and Bottled Lightning could all be found on this level along with knives, lighters, bolt cutters, flashlights, and other miscellaneous weapons or supplies. And since he had a Worn Sack he could get as much as he wanted, well–if he lived long enough to get the damn stuff.

The wanderer squinted his eyes. He was walking through a dark stretch of hallway, there was some light in the hallway that illuminated part of it before the hallway plunged into darkness again at the end of the light. Paul gripped his machete harder, he walked a bit slower making sure his footsteps were quieter. He could see something moving in the space of light that illuminated the dark hallway. From where he was standing the thing looked to be a small black and white mass, slowly moving from side to side. The teen immediately turned around and decided to see if he could find another way to a different part of the level. He checked behind him every few seconds to make sure that the thing that was in the illuminated part of the hallway didn't move at all.

One of the times Paul checked he saw that the mass of monochrome stopped moving. He sped up his pace, still checking to make sure he wasn't being followed. The wanderer checked once more, only to find that the thing wasn't there anymore.

'Crap.' Paul hissed, he was sprinting as fast as he could now. He could see a light flicking in the distance, it illuminated a worn metal door on the left side of the wall, if he gave it his all he could make it before whatever that thing was caught up to him. The teen sprinted faster than he ever had in his entire life, only skidding to a halt once he reached the door. Once he got in, he slammed it shut, taking a breath on shaky legs as he slid down an adjacent wall. After he caught his breath, he pushed himself up, seeing the open doorway to his left. It looked like one of the images on the Level Three Wiki Dot page, one of the entrances to the electric rooms. The room he was currently in also had a shelf across from the door that he came in. Paul walked up closer to the shelf to get a closer look at the dimly lit room. The shelf seemed to have lots of metal thermoses, along with boxes that seemed to contain lots of rectangular slabs of white gelatin, plus other various objects in different quantities. The teen immediately thanked God for the blessing that just came upon him. The shelf was absolutely stocked with a plethora of objects that were listed in the Level Three article. The wanderer took off his worn sack and unzipped it. His hands flew towards the items on the shelf with incredible haste, stuffing each item into the bag with a small pocket dimension.

After Paul finished putting nearly everything on the shelf in his bag, he tallied up a total of thirty-four bottles of Almond Water, twenty gelatin slabs of Royal Rations, seventeen bottles of Bottled Lightning, ten of them being the regular, four being the artificial variant, and three being the much more dangerous black variant. He put those in the worn sack a lot more carefully than he did the other items. Along with those items he found twenty-six differently shaped crystals of Firesalt, four Squirt Guns, and two bottles of Liquid Pain.

He took one of the thermoses of Almond Water and drank it, now he had thirty-three. The Almond water was a bit thicker than normal water, and it had a slight hint of vanilla and salt in its taste. Once he finished the thermos, he slipped it back into the pocket dimension of his worn sack. Paul zipped up his bag again and slung it over his shoulders. Deciding that he got more than what he thought he would find, he picked up his machete from the floor and walked towards the opening from the electric room, he was already starting to feel the increase in temperature.

Before he could even put one foot through the doorway, a green shape of light appeared on the ground in front of him. Before he could back up the light faded, revealing a cat with black and white fur, as well as green eyes. Paul stumbled backward, the cat's sudden appearance surprising him. He held his machete tighter as he recalled an entity he read up upon when he was refreshing himself on Level Three.

Entity Twenty-six, or "Samantha".

She's a cat entity that can speak and possesses multiple psychic abilities such as mind-reading, clairvoyance, and teleportation, her full capabilities were unknown. She liked being fed high-quality meat and would get violent even if the wanderer in question wasn't able to do so. She can cause a lot of physical trauma due to her strong jaw and abnormally serrated teeth.

And here she was, staring up at Paul.

'Shit, I don't have any meat. I better get ready to run.' The teen thought sweat was forming on his brow. He tried to open the door to the hallway from whence he came in, but the door wouldn't budge. He tried to push and pull, but nothing was working. Paul looked back at Samantha, only to be met with a blank look.

He opened his mouth nervously to speak, only to be cut off by Samantha's calm, yet dull tone.

"Who are you?" She asked. The voice sounded exceptionally fluent, just like how Samantha's article stated, it had a bit of a high pitch to it, due to Samantha still being a runt.

Paul swallowed, his throat bobbing nervously. He took a deep breath, putting one of his hands up in a sign of surrender. "Listen, I don't want–" He was cut off again.

"-any trouble?" The runt finished. "Well, there won't be any problems if you tell me who you are. I could've gotten the answers myself already, but I can't read your mind for some reason…why is that?" Samantha pondered. She slowly got closer to the teen, confusion etched on her face. Paul stepped back, trying to get as far away from Samantha as he possibly could, he did not want to be on the receiving end of one of her bites.

After a couple of moments, the cat stopped, choosing to sit on the ground a couple of feet away from the wanderer. "Well? I'm waiting for an answer. Oh, and would you mind telling me why I feel so…calm around you? It's like being near someone who I'm good friends or companions with…" Samantha rambled, after she finished she stared at Paul, waiting for him to respond to her questions.

He decided to answer very carefully, he didn't want to reveal anything vital about himself or the information that he held. He decided to play dumb. "I'm…a human. Why–no, how CAN you talk?" The teen asked, trying to make his confusion seem as real as possible.

The black and white mass of fur narrowed her green eyes at the dark-skinned teenager. "You seem like the average wanderer, but you don't seem like one at the same time. As for how I can talk, let's get to that topic another time. Right now, I want to know who you are, not what. I've never met a wanderer who's mind I couldn't read and I couldn't use my clairvoyance on. And like I said before, even though you seem like your average wanderer, you don't FEEL like one. So, I have a proposal for you. You, tell me things about yourself to help me deduce what you are, and how you can negate my abilities, and I provide you protection on this level and so on. Oh, and some high-quality meat plus the information would be good too." Samantha finished, she stared at Paul and patiently waited for him to respond.

His mind was currently doing some mental gymnastics trying to figure out how he got himself in this situation. 'What the hell? A deal? If I give her information and of course some meat, she'll give me protection through Level Three. Damn, this is hard. I could definitely use the protection on a level with a class four survival difficulty, but the M.E.G. and B.N.T.G. have important bases stationed on this level. And I would like to stay off of any groups' radar for as long as possible. And if a group on this level catches me with a known entity such as Samatha…well, they'll probably ask to interview me or something, knowing the M.E.G. Ugh…I'll accept it, I'd rather not die this early.'

Paul took a deep breath, locking eyes with Samantha. "Ok, I accept your deal. And to respond to your previous questions. I don't know how your… "abilities" don't affect me, but as far as I'm concerned I am a human. I don't know what this "feeling" is that you're getting, but I know what I am. Whether you believe me or not is up to you. Oh, and would you happen to have a name?"

Entity Twenty-six grinned, showing off her sharp teeth. "Why yes I do. It's Samantha. And yours?" She asked in a playful tone.

"It's Paul. A pleasure to make your acquaintance Samantha. Say, can you tell me exactly what this place is?" The teen feigned confusion, gesturing to the area around him.

Samantha answered immediately. "Well, this is what we call the Backrooms. The current level we are on is Level Three. The Backrooms is a place that you humans would call, a space outside of reality. It's an infinite space made up of tons of different levels that vary in size, danger, and habitability. On some levels there are creatures that you humans call "entities", these are what you can find on lots of levels as well. Some of them are safe, some aren't, and some would just kill you on sight. Lastly, there are lots of different groups in this infinite space. Most of them are mainly made of humans, the largest ones that I know of are called The M.E.G., or the Major Explorer Group. Their main focus is finding an escape back to the Frontrooms, or as wanderers call it, Earth. That's a brief summary of the very unfortunate space you found yourself in Paul, but don't fret. As long as you give me some high-quality meat, and we figure out why you can negate my abilities as well as not seeming like your run-of-the-mill wanderer. And since I believe you're telling the truth about not knowing anything, I'll be your personal protector and guide for the time being. Plus the comforting feeling of friendliness and, or kinship you give off is quite relaxing. So I might just stick around."

The runt finished with a mischievous glint in her eye that Paul wasn't a fan of. Nevertheless, the teen thanked Samantha and asked her to lead the way. The cat led him into the doorway of the electrical room, passing a generator every dozen minutes or so. The teen could most definitely feel the large increase in temperature as the pair made their way past machines every so often. The wandering went on for another couple dozen minutes until they reached a staircase. The teen readied his machete, not having let it go ever since the first few minutes he arrived on Level Three.

"It's fine, I don't sense any entities near us," Samantha said, coaxing the boy to relax. The top of the stairs greeted them with a hallway blocked by white, rusted prison bars, an equally rusted bared door was in the middle. The wanderer sighed, if they turned around he had no doubt that the geometry of the level would've changed already. He didn't see Samantha looking at him with a blank face. Paul was about to turn around when he heard a loud screeching sound of metal meeting tiles. He turned around to see the door that was in the middle of the bars, pushing itself open. It was covered in a slightly green light. A few moments later the screeching stopped. The door was now open and he and Samantha could go down the previously blocked-off hallway.

The entity grinned at him, a glow in her green eyes slowly vanishing, returning them to their normal color. "You're welcome!" She beamed, Paul thanked her immediately afterward, he was surprised to see her use what he assumed to be telekinesis.

A couple turns down the dimly lit hallway led the pair to an elevator. The teen pressed the arrowed button right next to it and he heard the elevator shaft move. As both the human and entity waited for the doors to open, Paul decided to ask Samantha a question. "Hey, thanks for leading me to an elevator. But I have to ask, why not take me to this "M.E.G." that you were telling me about earlier? Wouldn't it be safer to take me to them?" He asked, not forgetting to act like he was still mostly clueless about the Backrooms.

Samatha did a gesture similar to a shrug. "One, you're welcome. Two, we had a deal. Even though you still didn't give me any meat, I'm interested to learn more about you, plus if the M.E.G. found out you were traveling with me–a documented entity in their database, do you think they would just shrug it off? And what if they figured out my abilities didn't affect you? In my opinion, you should probably keep the part about my abilities not having any effect on you a secret. And I'm speculating that if my abilities do nothing to you, then other entities might not as well. Then that'd really put a target on your back."

The junior's eyebrows rose in slight surprise. He could inquire that Samantha was intelligent, but he didn't know that she thought it through that far. And now that she mentioned it, he would also like to learn more about why her abilities don't affect him. Also, what was that about "not feeling like a normal wanderer"? If she was telling the truth about him having a feeling like that, then other entities leagues more powerful than Entity Twenty-six could pose a problem to him if they deemed him a threat.

"Damn…those are actually really good points," Paul responded. The doors to the elevator opened, revealing a relatively normal interior that looked like any normal elevator from real life. Once both of them stepped inside the elevator the teenager recalled an entity…that was an elevator. Which one was it…Eighty? Eighteen? Eighty-One. Yeah, no he remembered, Entity Eighty-One, or elevators, is an entity that is physical to an average Elevator found in the Frontrooms. They can virtually appear anywhere in the Backrooms, including "outdoor" levels, they only have a few exceptions. Due to this, they can transport wanderers, other entities, and objects throughout different levels. Hence they are considered one of the most popular and efficient ways of traveling through the Backrooms.

Paul ran his fingers through his hair, trying to recall more information about the Entity Eighty-One article. He remembered something about the elevators possibly being…sentient. Along with some other things. The teen massaged his scalp trying to remember and a few moments later, he did. Upon entering the entity, there will be between four and twenty-four buttons, each corresponding to their respective level, the elevator will either descend or ascend to said level. Plus the elevators are perfectly fluent in all languages, even dead ones. They can communicate with people via a TV screen positioned haphazardly inside of the elevator. The hat they choose to talk about heavily depends on the wanderer's mood and, or interests, due to this they are considered sentient.

He went over it a few more times before he was satisfied with all of the information that was brought back to his remembrance. Paul noticed a small screen on the wall opposite to that where the buttons were. The screen seemed to be displaying something about meats. The teen noticed something about chicken and some high-quality-looking steak

.

'Oh, Samantha must be hungry or something. She is interested in high-quality meats, since that's what her article says that's what she likes to eat.' The teen pondered in thought, suddenly he felt something sharp clamp onto his ankle.

"GAH!" Paul yelped in surprise and a bit of pain. He saw Samantha's mouth around his ankle, she had an annoyed expression on her face. She let go when he tried to shake her off. "Samantha, what the hell?!" Paul scowled, wondering why she suddenly decided to bite his ankle.

"Paul, I've been calling your name, asking you to press a button for the next FIVE minutes and you wouldn't respond!" She yelled back, her face scrunching up in annoyance.

Oh, he did do that. And she was calling his name? Was he that deep in thought about trying to remember an entity that he didn't hear her calling him? Damn, he didn't even know that he could be that deep in thought before.

"Oh…you were? Sorry, I was deep in thought, I didn't hear you. Just–just don't bite me again alright?" Paul apologized, scratching the back of his head and looking away.

Samantha sighed, "It's fine, and I'll TRY not to bite you again. I apologize for that too. Now, which level do you want to go to? I'm assuming that you've already been to Level Zero, One, and Two, and if you don't know what I'm referring to–Zero was the place you were in that had the damp carpet and yellow wallpaper. Level One is a concrete warehouse with some rebar jutting out of the walls, and that's where you most likely found that backpack and machete. And Level Two is a series of dimly lit maintenance tunnels, the level we just got off of was Three." She finished.

Paul was still wearing a mask of confusion, he had to admit that she had some good intuition about where he'd been. He looked at the buttons on the elevator again, there were only four. They read 2, 3, 4, and 5. The teen wanted to go to Level Four, but he remembered that he was the second main base of The M.E.G. was there. He knew that he could really use the almond water, so all he had to do was look at other people since that's what the level was usually filled with.

He pressed the button that read 4, the elevator shuddered before its doors closed. The teen could feel the elevator ascending as he unzipped his worn sack and pulled out the cover for his machete. He was getting tired of holding it, so he put the cover back on and stuffed it back into the small pocket dimension. Some seconds later the elevator came to a stop, the screen saying something in what Paul assumed to be Russian, before the doors opened.

What greeted him was a room that looked like an empty office building that was nearly devoid of any furniture. The boy stretched, getting any stiffness out of his muscles. He looked down and he saw Samantha doing the same, stretching like any signature cat would. "Level Four huh? Nice choice, we'll have to watch out for M.E.G. here. I don't go to Level Four often, so it isn't mentioned as one of the levels that I mainly visit on my file. Plus I'm traveling with you, and as I mentioned before, M.E.G. would probably find it interesting how a wanderer "befriended'' Entity Twenty-Six. Though, we're just acquaintances." The runt finished with a yawn.

Paul had to admit that she was right. However, the Level Four article did mention that people were scattered throughout the level, so he could at least take relief from that.

On the far side of the room, he could see two, large rectangular-like objects with a thermos bottle posted on the front of each machine. 'Those must be some of the vending machines that the article was referring to.' He took a step out of the elevator, looking around to make sure that no one else was inside the room. Samantha was already at the vending machine, lazily lying on top of it. The teen must've not seen her teleport. He made his way over to the machine, the sound of his footsteps being muffled by the gray carpet of the office.

Once he was face to face with the machine he could see that it was, of course, no different from your standard vending machine that dispensed drinks. He could see thermoses of Almond Water lining the shelves of the machine, illuminated by an interior light at the top. Paul looked to the right of the machine and saw the standard vending machine buttons to choose which specific drink he would want. Still trying to appear confused about the hellscape he was in, the teen asked Samatha what the liquid was, and of course, she responded with, "Almond Water", and told him about how he'd most likely need it when they went to Level Five.

Seeing that the vending machine took actual money, the teen pulled his machete, took off the cover, and swung it at the glass of the vending machine. The glass shattered, Samantha, who was watching Paul with half-lidded eyes, let out another yawn as she told him to hurry up. The boy's arm ached a bit, he would've used a blunt object if he had one, and he didn't have any money in his wallet. He quickly de-shelved the thermoses of Almond Water, stuffing them into his worn sack, he didn't bother counting those now added to the thirty four bottles of Almond water he had. The glass slowly started to reform itself, the shattered pieces floating up and embedding themselves back onto the glass still attached to the vending machine. Paul gave Samantha a look of surprise, she rolled her eyes in response.

The teenager got all the Almond Water off of the shelves before all the glass of the Vending machine could rebuild itself. A few seconds later the whole vending machine restocked itself, the previously taken thermoses seemingly just popping back into existence. He put the cover back on his machete and slid it into the worn sack. Paul felt a weight on the back of his head for a moment before he saw Samantha jump onto the ground. He gave her a confused look, which she ignored. She stretched again, waving to the teen to come on back to the elevator with her head.

The pair got back onto the elevator, the cat yawning. The teen should have figured she would be tired at some point, he didn't know how long she must've been up before this. Or if she even had the ability to sleep, nevertheless, Paul pressed the button on the elevator that read 5, already trying to recall prior knowledge of the level. The doors to the elevator closed and he felt the elevator going up.

The most he could remember about the level is that it was an infinite-looking hotel with the look of one from the Nineteen-Thirties. It had three main areas, the main hall, the Beverly rooms, and the Boiler rooms. Along with some entities, mainly Deathmoths, there are some others such as Hounds, Woodlins, Skin-Stealers, Watchers, Nguithr'xurh, Growlers, Deathrats, and possibly Humanoids. Along with some "special entities'', those being Entity One Hundred-eleven, The HouseKeeper, a human maid with the head of a mantis, Entity One Hundred-thirty one, The Concierge, the caretaker of the hotel who has the head of a goat and multiple eyes on his forearm, Entity One Hundred-thirty five, The Bellhopper, a humanoid figure with the head of a white-brown owl, Entity One Hundred-eighty five, The Comedian, another entity that looks like a human with the exception of having a completely black face, red eyes, a white grin, and really puffy hair.

Even out of all the entities that Paul just remembered, who were all a problem within themselves, he really wanted to avoid one entity.

Entity Eighteen, The Beast on Level 5.

The teen really wanted to avoid him, but he knew he couldn't. According to the information stated in Entity Eighteen's article, the hotel, or Level Five, was his domain. The wanderer towards the end of the article stated that the paintings, portraits, basically everything on the level is a lie. The wanderer also said that no matter how short your stay on Level Five is, The Beast on Level Five can see everything.

Paul took a deep breath as he took his worn sack off and unzipped it, getting out his machete. He stepped out of the elevator into the main hall. The walls were covered in mahogany-red and gold ornate wallpaper. The floors were covered in fancy red and gold carpet, giving into the early Twentieth century look.

"Nice call. You never know which levels are going to be dangerous, so always being ready with a weapon on hand is a good choice. I come to this level often so most of the people here know me. And don't be concerned about any of the other entities on this level–I'll explain what they are if we see any. But just stick close to me and you should be fine. We're going to get something to eat because I don't know about you but I'm a bit peckish." Samantha said, rubbing her tail on Paul's ankle.

The teen agreed with the cat, honestly feeling pretty hungry himself. He's been in the Backrooms for maybe six? Eight hours? He didn't know, he was positive that it hadn't been a day yet. Even though he started to trust Samantha a bit more, he was still cautious about all the entities on this level, so he kept out his machete just in case he ran into a Deathmoth or a hound, especially the former, Level Five hosts a large population of them.

Samantha led Paul to a different part of the Infinite Hotel, different pieces of furniture lined the living area, bookshelves against the walls. The wanderer could see a maid doing some feather dusting. The maid in question had a normal caucasian skin tone with short brown hair. The only abnormal things about her were the mandibles and eyes of a mantis that adorned her face. Entity One Hundred-eleven had no human facial features, and she was the main HouseKeeper for the hotel.

Paul remembered in her article that she had asked a wanderer to stop screaming, but he didn't, so she walked up to him and presumably killed him before cleaning up the body. He hopes that she isn't some sadistic human killing entity. He readied his machete.

"Hey there HouseKeeper, I hope you've been well. This wanderer and I are hungry, could you please prepare us something to eat? I'll have some of that really good steak you cook, I don't know what he wants." Samantha said in a tired tone.

Immediately after, Paul felt a slight nip on his ankle, and to none of his surprise, it was Samantha. She was giving him an annoyed look, her eyes constantly going from the machete in his hand to staring back at him. After a couple of times of her doing that the teen got the message, unzipping his worn sack and sliding the machete back into it. Samantha rolled her eyes and faced the HouseKeeper again.

The HouseKeeper stopped dusting the shelves and turned around to face the wanderer and the cat. She perked up in happiness. "Hello, Samantha dear! I'm glad to hear that you've been well, and who's this young man with you?" The HouseKeeper asked in an elegant voice.

Paul responded for himself in a cautious voice. "Hello, Miss…HouseKeeper. My name is Paul, I'm a recent acquaintance of Samantha, we've been traveling together ever since we ran into each other on Level Three."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Paul. I'm quite glad to hear that Samantha is warming up to more people. Now, what would you like to eat? Don't be shy now, the hotel has lots of ingredients so as long as you don't ask for something too outlandish, I'm sure that we'll have it." The mantis-faced woman responded.

Paul was pretty hungry. Even though some articles talk about the Backrooms stopping your body clock, he was still famished after traveling from level to level for hours on end.

"Erm….do you have steak? I'd like mine well done–also some mashed potatoes and green beans please ma'am, if you have them." The teen asked respectfully, just the thought of having that type of food made him salivate a little.

"Why of course! I'll seat you two in the dining area while I get your dishes prepared. Feel free to explore Paul, but not too far! It would be a shame if you were attacked by one of the creatures that roam the halls dear." The HouseKeeper said.

Paul sighed as the HouseKeeper led him and Samantha to a room that didn't look that much different from the Main Hall with the exception of being furnished with plenty of wooden tables and chairs, each table having a small candle sitting on top of it. HouseKeeper pulled out the chairs for the teen and Samantha, he gave her a small "thanks" before he saw her walk around the corner, out of his sight. He assumed she was going to go and cook him and Samantha's food.

Waiting for the food, Paul grabbed his phone out of his pocket and placed it on the table. He finally got to sit down in an actual chair after what was probably eight to ten hours of travel.

He relaxed into the leather cushioning, hearing it settle under his weight. He slipped off his "Just God" hoodie and placed it on his side of the table, along with taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes, they ached after being under fluorescent lighting for so long. He slid off his worn sack and set it under the table. After stretching a bit, Paul opened his phone and went to Google, taking a quick look at the battery percentage that read "89%". He supposes that makes sense since he's been checking some articles on and off ever since he was on Level One.

Paul typed in "Backrooms Wikidot" in the search bar and clicked on the link. He pressed on Level Five and scrolled down to the Entrances/Exits part of the page. He was only interested in two out of the eleven exits. Traveling deep into the boiler room to get to Level Six, or taking a dark wooden door to lead to Level Nine. He ruled out taking the exit that led to Level Forty, mainly because there was a fifty-fifty chance that if he took the revolving door on that level, it would either put him on Level Nine or Level Eleven. The teen thought it was better to just go to Level Nine and get it over with.

Even though he knew that might not be the smartest option, if he wanted to survive in the Backrooms he needed experience. And said experience came from constant exposure to the constant horrors of the infinite hellscape. Namely; entities, and Level Nine was filled with them. Sure there was a high chance of him dying, but it's the Backrooms, you could die in the blink of an eye, and if Paul wanted to find a way out he needed the experience to know how to avoid entities and how to have that sixth sense to know if a level is dangerous or not. This knowledge only came if one was experienced with dealing with entities often.

Having made his decision, Paul slid his phone back into his pocket, making sure to close Google so it wouldn't run in the background and drain his phone's battery. He softly put his head into his sweatshirt on the table, slowly drifting off, the fatigue of traveling finally getting to him.

He snapped out of his dozing when he heard the voice of the Housekeeper.

"Apologies for the wait you two! Here you are." She said, placing two plates of freshly cooked meals on the table, along with two glasses of water.

Paul moved his sweatshirt, putting it in his lap to make room for his plate. "Thank you very much Miss HouseKeeper." The teen replied, a tone of tired politeness leaving his lips.

The Mantis face woman made a dismissing gesture with her hand. "You are very welcome Paul! My, my Samantha, you sure do have a well-respected young man as a friend." She then scurried off behind the corner, leaving Paul and Samantha to dig into their food.

Once the pair were done devouring their meals, the HouseKeeper picked up their plates and glasses and brought them back to the kitchen to be washed. She offered to take Paul and Samantha to a room where they could relax and let the food settle before they set out again. Entity Twenty-Six, beaten by the surplus of meat she consumed, immediately agreed. The teen was a bit more hesitant. He didn't want to be attacked in his sleep, or have his phone taken from him and have a large target be put on his back. But then again, he knew that having strenuous activity, especially on a full stomach, was bad. He picked up his sweatshirt and worn sack and got up from his chair.

Paul and Samantha followed the HouseKeeper to one of the many early Twentieth-Century hotel rooms. The room was a moderate size, having a bed in its corner with a nightstand next to it, and a lamp on top of it. Adjacent to them was a small wooden desk with a cushioned chair. Against the wall was a wooden bookcase that nearly reached the ceiling. An open door was on the left side of the room, the teen peered into the opened door and saw a twentieth-century bathroom that had a porcelain sink and toilet, along with a fancy-looking shower that had tiled floors and walls.

This hotel room reminds Paul of some of the bedrooms of his Nana's house whenever he, his mom, and his brother went over to visit. He thanked the HouseKeeper, she told him and Samantha goodnight and she closed the door, leaving the two to their own devices.

Paul haphazardly threw his sweatshirt on the wooden desk then slumped down on the bed, placing his worn sack on the pillow, Samantha following suit. She let out a large yawn before her eyes snapped to him.

"She isn't usually that polite, you know. Whenever a wanderer dies on this level she just cleans up their body without a second thought, and if you're being too loud she'll just kill you. It appears your ability, or whatever it is, is more potent than I thought." Samantha said, rolling her body to the foot of the bed.

Paul knew that he did read the Entity One-hundred-eleven article after all. He didn't know why the HouseKeeper was that polite to him. The teen recalled what Samantha said when they met on Level Three a couple of hours ago. She said that she felt a sense of "friendliness" or "kinship" while being around him. Along with a calming sensation?

Now that he has the time to sit down and properly process all that he's experienced so far, he tries to draw a conclusion about his "abilities" as Samantha called them. He could deduce that it made the entities he encountered thus far–or the ones that mentioned it–feel a sense of friendship or kinship, plus a calming feeling. Jerry and Samantha mentioned it, and the HouseKeeper was a bit out of character. Along with Paul doing involuntarily forced no-clips.

'So, I have a weird ability that makes entities more friendly than they usually are. For example; Jerry didn't indoctrinate me when he touched me. And Samantha even cut me a deal to figure out more information about me, and she's even helping me progress the levels. And the HouseKeeper was unusually polite to me…and I can force no-clips. Crap, I might have an even larger target on my back if these "abilities" evolve or get more versatile as I stay in the Backrooms longer. I don't want to be known by any Backrooms groups or organizations, and I definitely don't want to have a Person of Interest file in M.E.G.'s P.O.I. database. I'll just have to avoid them for as long as possible and use this ability to my advantage to possibly get out of this hellscape, but I'll have to test if it works on more than just the three entities I've met thus far.' Paul rested his head in his hands in a deep-thinking gesture.

The teen turned to look at Samantha, who was lying on her back with half-lidded eyes. "Well, I don't know what to tell you. I'm just as much in the dark as you concerning whatever ability I possess." Paul said

"Yeah…figures," Samantha sighed, yawning before looking at Paul. "Alright, after we've gotten some sleep let's freshen ourselves up and eat breakfast, and don't worry about trying to find the dining area that we ate dinner at. There's a group that runs hotel service here with the HouseKeeper. Either of them will give up room service if we ask. That includes breakfast in bed." The cat yaws again, curling herself up into a little ball at the foot of the bed.

Paul looked back at the desk that was next to the bed he and Samantha were on. He noticed some sort of lump under his sweatshirt. He pushed himself up from the bed and lifted the aforementioned piece of clothing. The teen moved it to the other side of the desk. The lump that was under the sweatshirt was….a landline?

Besides the landline was a small piece of paper that was taped to the desk. There were numbers written on the paper in a sequence that looked like that of a phone number.

There were words written above the numbers that read "ROOM SERVICE". Even though Paul was a modern teenager, he knew the basics of how to use a landline, it was pretty straightforward. The teen stretched slightly, walking over to the bathroom.

He walked through the doorway, flicking on the antique-looking light switch. The bathroom was illuminated in a bland yellow light. Paul stared into the mirror, looking at his tired face. He let out a sigh, releasing some of the stress he's been through recently. He turns on the water in the sink, cupping both his hands under it and collecting some to wash his face with. After he cleaned his face, he wiped off the excess water with his arm. The boy looked at the mirror, seeing bags forming under his eyes from tiredness.

Paul noticed that he didn't really feel dirty, even though he'd been traveling for a little over a day. He didn't feel sticky from the sweat that accumulated on him, he didn't feel musty either. This pushed him to get to Level Eleven even more, he needed a shower and some toiletries.

The reason he wasn't going to wash up here was mainly because he didn't have a change of clothes, or toiletries. Plus he'd rather not be on this Level any longer due to Entity Eighteen's influence.

The tired teenager walked out of the bathroom, hitting the light switch off on his way out. He could hear Samantha's light snoring as he reentered into the bedroom. As he quietly made his way back to the bed, careful not to wake the snoring cat, he quietly took off his boots and put them on the ground at the foot of the bed. He also made sure that his phone was snug in his pocket, he definitely didn't want that to get stolen. Paul gently pulled back the comforter on the bed, careful not to wake Samantha.

Once he successfully got himself under the covers without waking his feline acquaintance, he let his eyelids slowly droop down, feeling himself sink into the soft mattress. He shifted into a better position, rolling over to his side.

Paul tried to pull up the comforter as gently as possible, but when he reached for it he felt…nothing. In fact, what he was lying about felt different, it felt like leather. The teen's eyes snapped open in an instant, confusion etched on his face. He sat up and looked below himself. He was not on the hotel bed anymore.

The wanderer was sitting on a long leather couch, and around him looked to be an antique office space with various furniture one would in said office in the nineteen-thirties. His heart almost leaped out of his throat when he heard a voice.

"Ah, you're here! I'm glad I was able to catch you before you went to bed young man! It is a pleasure to meet you face to face. I would've done so earlier, but I was conducting business at that time." The unknown voice belonged to a figure dressed in a nice black suit, white undershirt, and black tie.

Paul should've tried to run as soon as he saw its head. In front of him, the teenager could see the head of a gray squid, glowing slightly blue. The head of Entity Eighteen

Crap.

He knew he should've left the level a lot sooner when he knew who was on it.

Paul somehow got teleported into the office of The Beast of Level Five.

…..

Closing Author's Notes:

Sup guys, I hope you all are still enjoying the story. I have lots of fun writing these chapters. I'm still trying to make a well-structured plot that makes the story well-structured enough to read, but loose enough to be funny and have lots of fluff in it. I tried to make the Paul and Samantha dynamic flow as best I could, but I'm still a beginner at writing, so please, leave your thoughts in the comments if you want. Please support all of the original authors of everything I have used in the story that aren't my OCs. I hope whoever is reading this has a great rest of their day!

Sources:

Level 4: Level 4 - The Backrooms ( )

Level 5: Level 5 - The Backrooms ( )

The Housekeeper - Entity 111: Entity 111 - "The Housekeeper" - The Backrooms ( )

The Beast of Level 5: Entity 18 - "The Beast of Level 5" - The Backrooms ( )

Almond Water: Object 1 - The Backrooms ( )

False Outlets: Object 5 - "Candy" - The Backrooms ( )

Liquid Pain: Mortality Shards - The Backrooms ( )

Firesalt: Object 15 - "Firesalt" - The Backrooms ( )

Royal Rations: Object 16 - "Royal Rations" - The Backrooms ( )

Squirt Guns: Object 19 - "Squirt Gun" - The Backrooms ( )

Bottled Lightning: Object 42 - The Backrooms ( )

All grammar and other corrections were made by using Grammarly.