[A/N: if you don't know 'the backrooms' please copy/paste this link for reference before reading knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-backrooms 😁
Also it's kinda dark and creepy so don't say I didn't warn you 🥲]
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It feels like we've been trapped here for eternity.
Our legs had crumbled beneath us from exhaustion long ago, abandoning the futile search for an exit, or at least some sort of a break from the insidious monotony of endless L-shaped rooms, bleeding into one another under the greasy, flickering buzz of the fluorescent lights overhead.
We lie defeated, clinging close together in attempt to preserve the last shred of sanity we share between us, propped up in this corner that's no different than the thousands we'd already walked around. My eyes refuse to close and I stare blankly at the mildew-peeling, impossible-to-date wall coverings that shroud the endless walls in patchy, water-stained, yellowing paper. The damp, rotting carpet underneath my outstretched legs seeps it's ichor into my jeans, but I don't care anymore.
My eyes shift blearily to where Tweek lays curled up against me, head resting heavily on my legs, quietly whimpering and stirring listlessly in his fitful sleep. I watch his features twitch and contort in increasingly agitated expressions of terror, the grimy surroundings only adding to the gaunt sallowness his face has taken on since we've been in here. A bead of sweat, or maybe a tear, streaks it's way down his cheek, and I absently wipe at my own face. My hoodie sleeve is absolutely filthy. The same mildew that's consuming the carpet and walls is eating away at my own clothes.
It's as if this place is slowly digesting us.
Suddenly, Tweek heaves in a gasping, shuddering breath that shatters through the monotonous buzz of fluorescents above, and he shoots up to his feet.
"RUN," He pleads hysterically, his sunken, red-rimmed eyes wide in frantic terror
"ITS COMING," he chokes out in delirious fear as he yanks me up by the arm. Before I could manage to ask what is coming, I heard it. A soft wheezing sigh that blends in and out of the incessant buzzing, followed by barely-distinguishable muffled thumps as, whatever this thing is, creeps closer to us. Tweek is running full sprint, dragging me behind him with a vice grip on my wrist.
"DON'T LOOK AT IT!!!" He screams back at at me, just as my head begins turning to glance behind us.
The tone of his voice immediately snaps my gaze forward again, but not before I catch a glimpse of long, spindly limbs, eagerly palpating their way around the closest corner behind us. My blood freezes in my veins.
We run.
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. . . and run . . .
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. . . and keep running . . .
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I count the corners, solemnly keeping a mental tally of each one to keep from descending into complete madness, but Tweek is getting more and more unhinged. Somehow running faster and faster, his fingers dig painfully into my wrist, and his head swivels in all directions as he hurtles us, ever forward, in blind panic.
I strain my ears to try and catch that faint, breathy wheezing, but it's no use over our loud panting.
Tweek starts to make these unsettling whimpering sounds inbetween breaths, like a noise you'd hear in the dead of night, and count your blessings that there's four solid walls between you and whatever nightmare-creature uttered such a sound.
The hair on my arms prickles upright all the way up to the back of my neck, and I'm about to call out to him when he stumbles over his own feet, crashing down onto the noxious carpet and pulling me with him.
He lays still for a moment, and in the stillness I strain my ears once more for the sound of that thing. Softer than before, but still there. Still gaining on us.
Silent sobs shake Tweek's gaunt frame as he lays curled up on the carpet next to me.
"Tweek... Tweek, come on, get up, we need to keep going," I say, ears still listening closely, trying to gauge how much time we have before it's upon us.
"Tweek, get up," I tug on his arm, but only manage to get him halfway up.
"We're never gonna get out... are we..." he wails softly, red-rimmed eyes boring into mine from darkened, sunken sockets.
"..." I can't think of what to say.
"...I don't want to live like this anymore." He says flatly, all the remaining light from his eyes gone, leaving them empty and dead, blending into the rotting background behind him as though he belongs here now. A cold shiver runs through me, filling me with dread. Only a single thought runs though my mind.
Don't leave me here alone, Tweek.
"Just leave me here." He says, slipping a little further into the decor, and away from me.
The faint wheezing somewhere behind me is noticeably closer now.
"NO! I'm not fucking leaving you!" I shout, kneeling down with him, and griping his shoulders, shaking him in panic.
Don't leave me here alone, Tweek.
"Well do it together," I say, my voice comes out steady and resolute, and I realize that there was always a way out of here all along.
His eyes find me again, swimming back up to the surface and overflowing with tears that streak down his grimy cheeks as he comes back to me.
He clutches at my arms, eyes widening in panic as we both hear the slithering sounds of limbs dragging across peeling wallpaper. The dread that automatically fills me to the brim is soothed by the promise of this nightmare finally being over, and warmth seeps into my chest for the first time in eternity as I gaze fondly at Tweek's face, so grateful that I didn't suffer this horror alone. His shaky features contort in fear, eyes screwed tightly shut, fingers clutching my shoulders, I can't let him go in terror like this.
"Hey, just look at me," I say softly, lightly gripping his chin. His eyes open and I smile tenderly at him, pouring all of my gratitude through our last shared gaze.
I viscerally feel that thing creeping closer, and I know Tweek is just as acutely aware as his fingers dig harder into my shoulders.
I force myself to ignore my body screaming at me to run, and instead, I distract my adrenaline-soaked muscles by shakily crushing Tweek against me and kissing him goodbye.
My eyes open to blue sky and sunlight. Birdsong twinkles in the wide open air, and a breeze gently caresses my sweat-plastered forehead.
I feel my body go limp with relief, collapsing in on myself the same moment as Tweek starts screaming and wailing, clawing desperately at the ice beneath us as if he's trying to bury himself.
I succumb to the same hysteria a moment later.
The snow is cold on my ichor-soaked legs and I've never been more grateful to be cold.
But as we look around at the once familiar scenery, an insidious realization creeps into my body, taking up residence, cold and heavy in the middle of my chest, and I know that it's right.
I don't belong here anymore.
We had been missing for three months.
Despite being back, we lost a part of ourselves in that place... and now, the only thing that's real to me anymore is Tweek.
We cling together as if the air I breathe is less important than feeling Tweek pressed close, reminding me that I'm still alive.
We'd been spending every millisecond since we got back, always together, alternating who's house we live at, and creeping-out everyone who came close enough to see the haunting fear in the backs of our eyes, fear that we'd be sucked back into hell at any moment.
Thankfully, the people around us seem to understand that something unspeakable happened to us in those three months we were gone, and they don't try to pry or come between us, and besides the occasional visits from various medical professionals and law officials, they leave us mostly alone, grateful at least, that we came back to them at all.
But it's no use.
This place doesn't feel like home anymore.
The gaping chasm that separates us from everyone else only gets wider as they realize we aren't they same people they knew.
We huddle together in the semi-darkness of the permanent blanket fort in my room.
We find more comfort in the dark.
It was never dark there, and so we can't go back if we just stay close together in the dark.
"When you kissed me, why did we escape..?" Tweek murmurs aloud quietly, deep in thought.
"...why are you thinking about that now?" I ask him gently, dislodging him from his thought spiral. He looks up at me, not saying anything for a moment.
"I want to do it again, but not if it sends us back." He says, shifting his gaze away timidly.
"I think, ...when I kissed you, we escaped because we stopped thinking about that place in that moment... all I could think was that I was glad that it was over and that I wouldn't be there anymore... and then we weren't there anymore... I don't know. I think about it a lot though," I tell him.
"I think about it a lot too." Tweek says quietly.
"You could have left me there, but you didn't." Tweek continues. I chuckle at the irony.
"It was you who almost left me," I tell him.
"...I'm sorry..." Tweek whispers after a moment, his voice choking back bitter tears.
"Don't be, Tweek." I soothe, shuffling closer and pulling him tighter against me.
"We'd probably still be there, running away from that thing if you didn't stop," I tell him. He lifts his head from where it's nestled into my chest to look up at me.
"Do you think we could kiss.. again? And it would be okay?" He asks, eyes shining up at me plaintively.
"We can do whatever you want, Tweek. As long as you never ever leave me alone," I tell him, cupping his cheek and pressing a kiss onto his chewed up lips.
[A/N: (again lol)
This is definitely a weird one and I've been not posting it for a long time because idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I hope you're not traumatized or something 🥲
Or maybe you loved it and want more weird shit like this? 👀]