The Backrooms: Infinity

Chapter 19: The beginning of the end, Part 1

I woke up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, yawning. I realised that Kash was bo longer next to me, but talking seriously with Clair and Jay. I walked up and asked what they were talking about. "Elijah has the Skeleton Queen on his side," Kash said gravely. The Skeleton Queen was the one god we forgot about. She could manipulate dead people to come back as skeletons, as well as having an effect on people, which seems to lure them to her. We quickly ran through the list of gods, making sure we didn't miss any like we did with SQ. There were quite a couple of powerful entities, none of them reacheable. I ruled out the beast of Level 5, since I felt he would try to kill me more than try to help me. Feeling assured that we had the gods we could reach, we set off for Level 94 to plan with the two gods. While we traveled, I kept looking at Kash. Did she notice what I did last night? What will happen to us if we do escape? All my thoughts vanished, however, when we saw the state of Level 94.

It was chaos. Buildings were crumbling, if not fully destroyed already. The floor was littered with dead animations, their limbs ripped off gruesomely. The floating castle, which was King's home, was also starting to collapse. We rushed into the castle to find King and the god lying on the floor. We rushed over to check on them, and when he saw us, King muttered, "He... surprised me. I shoulda been more careful." He passed out, leaving us to deal with the situation. We assessed their injuries and found that it wasn't anything serious, just a few cuts and bruises. We looked at the destruction of Level 94 from one of the windows in the castle. No house was intact, and no one was alive out there. When King and the god woke up, they were even more determined to get Elijah Lewis.

We set off immediately for Level 36, to get more supplies and rest a while before going to battle. Clair walked up to us while we were drinking some water, and introduced us to some of her friends for the B.N.T.G. "All of them are capable people, so don't worry," Clair assured us. In total, she had 8 other people, making our total count 14, but King told us he was capable of summoning entites. King teleported us to Level 999, where we would face off against Elijah. It was pitch black, but soon my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I saw nothing except the grey ground below me, and my friends by my side.

Those with flashlights turned them on, and we started walking towards the floating island connected by a bridge. Jay walked up next to me while we walked, flashlight in hand. We walked in silence, content with each other's presence. I realised that, ever since the start, Jay had always been beside me, and also had been my first friend. I was determined to keep him safe.

We walked and walked, until we eventually needed to rest, since some of us were lagging behind. While resting, Clair approached me. "You feeling okay? You looked kinda dazed there," she asked me. I had been thinking about what we would face when we reached, what would happen after, but most of all Kash. I had to talk to her at some point. "It's nothing," I assured her. I walked to Kash and sat down. "Hey... so uh I wanted to talk about-" I began, but she cut me off by saying," Yeah, I guessed we had to talk about this at some point. You like me, right? Don't look so surprised, it's obvious you've been thinking about last night."

I was expecting something like that, but I was still surprised nonetheless. "Well... I sort of like you too," she said, which caught me off guard. "My whole life I was alone, not really having any friends except for that one party I want to, and look where it got me. When you showed up in my life, I finally felt alive when I went on that adventure with you." I smiled. Maybe there was hope for us. Before anything else happened, though, the earth rumbled and a chunk of rock came flying towards us. We dodged out of the way, and when I saw where it came from, my heart sank.

"ᕼᗴᒪᒪO, ᑕOᒪᑌᗰᗷᑌՏ ՏᕼᗩY," the beast of Level 5 said, looking at me intently. "ᖴᗩᑎᑕY ᗰᗴᗴTIᑎᘜ YOᑌ ᕼᗴᖇᗴ. ᑎOᗯ, I ՏᗩY ᘜOOᗪᗷYᗴ ᗩՏ I ᗰᑌՏT KIᒪᒪ YOᑌ."