Chapter Text
Tord isn't sure how they end up finding themselves in these situations. Sometimes they seek it out. Like going to hell. Sometimes it seeks them out. Like the clones.
It usually ends up being a good time for all and an excuse for him to shoot something that won't get him slapped with a warrant for his arrest. Sometimes it sucks. Like the tomb.
As Tord inhaled the musty scent of water damage and peered around the corner at yet another room of ugly yellow walls and lights he decides this is not one of the fun ones. It's the fucking backrooms of all places.
The morning started out pretty average. Tord did or said something that had Tom getting snappy with him. He couldn't remember what it was now. Maybe leaving his hentai in the living room? Whatever. Point is that Tord wasn't one to back down and snapped back. Then Tom said something else. Then Tord... They were in one of their familiar verbal tennis matches, cereal sloshing on the kitchen table as Edd tries to calm them down. Matt was just checking his teeth in his hand mirror.
Tom escalated (he usually did) and lunged at Tord over the table.
"Tom! No!" Edd tried to intervene, eyes blazing, darting in the way. Instead, Tom crashed into Edd who then crashed into Tord. His chair tipped back, knocking into Matt, and then... they were noclipping like a glitchy video game through the floor.
And face down into the rankest carpet Tord had ever seen.
So... yeah. Now they were all stuck.
"Hey, I've heard of this place," Edd says looking around. "This is the backroom thingy, right? I didn't think it was real."
"Well, apparently it is," Tom says, arms folded and glaring at Tord.
"What? It's not my fault! You're the one that jumped at me, moron," Tord retorts.
"Guys this place smells worse than Tom's room," Matt says. "Can we leave?"
"According to what I've seen online we have to find the exit." Tord squints at the wall and, using a pocket knife, scratches his name into the wallpaper. "And it's just... another spot we can fall through. No guarantee we'll find it. Or if it will even take us home. You can end up right back where you started or even deeper."
"Lame," Tom says, scrubbing a hand through his brown mess of hair. "Do we just wander around waiting for the floor to give way?"
"I guess," Edd shrugs, checking his phone. "Bugger. I don't have bars. Does anyone else have service? Or a wifi password?"
"No service either," Matt says snapping a photo by an ugly stained part of the wall, flashing a peace sign and winking. "Ew. The lighting in here is terrible."
"You guys could be a little more concerned!" Tord shouts, throwing his arms up in exasperation and his accent a little thicker. Then he recalls the other things about the backrooms and lowers his voice. "Besides, there is supposed to be like... really freaky entities here."
All three of his roommates turn and look at him. Tom raises a questioning thick brow. Matt blinks owlishly. Edd just smiles, eyes nuclear green. All varying expressions of "so what?" on their faces. Hm... right. He supposes if anything there are now simply three more entities.
And a very human Tord. And his wits. For now.
"Tord..." Edd begins with a laugh.
"No need to remind me Edd," Tord sighs, pulling out a gun from the shoulder holster under his hoodie and checking the clip for bullets. "Just trying to be prepared."
"No worries!" Matt exclaims eagerly and runs over to squeeze Tord in a hug, square chin on his head while minding the copious amounts of hair gel keeping Tord's hair up. "We can protect you!"
"Exactly!" Edd says, flexing his arms comically. "No one will mess with us!"
Tom just scoffs and sticks his tongue out like the idea of protecting Tord actually tastes terrible in his mouth. Whatever. Tord squares his jaw and puts the magazine back in with a satisfying click. He can protect himself.
"Matt get off I can't walk with you hanging off me," Tord says. Matt whines but let's go as the four of them head off down the hall and through the space.
--
It's... honestly a little boring. And the buzzing of the shitty lights in his ears and overwhelming yellow is giving him a headache.
They've been walking for what feels like hours, stopping occasionally for Tord to scratch a mark in the wall to make sure they're not walking in circles. The good news is that they've yet to encounter anything at least. Surprising considering how much they've been chatting and talking out loud.
"How much longer do we have to walk?" Matt groans, plodding along. "This is boring! And I can't even check Instagram!"
"Yeah, don't you have any ideas, Commie?" Tom says, plodding along, hands in his hoodie pocket.
"It's not like I'm an expert on this place either you know, you stupid Jehova," Tord snaps, running a hand along the wall. "We just need to find a spot to fall through again but there is no way to actually know where it is."
"Well, we fell through the ceiling... so maybe we need to check the ceiling!" Before Tord can question that logic Edd is already flying up to the ceiling and banging on the shitty popcorn ceiling. He's slapping the ceiling at most yet his hand still goes through it like tissue paper. "Whups."
"We should really be a little more quiet," Tord says, brushing ceiling dust off the shoulders of his red hoodie. "You never know-"
The floor is gone. One moment Tord is on solid ground and the next he's slipping through the floor like it's air. His arms flail out but there is nothing to catch.
"Tord?!" Is all he can hear Edd and Matt shout as the lights and buzzing vanish briefly.
And then suddenly he's falling on his ass. Right back on the moldy carpet.
"Fuck!" He swears loudly, looking around. "Edd? Matt?... Jehova?"
The buzzing lights are the only answer and Tord feels a chill go up his spine. He sees his name carved into the wall. Ok no. Fuck this. He stands, gun in hand. He has another in the holster and spare clips. Never goes anywhere without them.
He just hopes they're enough.
He continues through the halls, relieved to find his other marks. Hopefully, he'll find his friends again this way. He doesn't dare call out for them like some shitty horror movie character. A sure way to get killed and Tord isn't going down to a shitty creepypasta.
Walking along, he keeps an eye on his marks and keeps an ear out for Matt's whining or Edds constant chatter.
Just gotta round the corner and... holy shit.
Tord stops cold, foot still raised and eyes wide as he makes eye contact with the thing in one of the many identical rooms. Or where the eyes might be in its strange stringy head. It's slender and lanky, made of dark tendrils in a humanoid shape.
Tord does what comes naturally.
He started blasting.
The thing screeches, howls really, as Tord unloads a clip into it and then pulls out the second and empties that. It seems to hurt but Tord quickly realizes that bullets are not enough. He turns to run then but the thing lashes out and wraps around his ankle.
"Fuck!" He swears, shooting till the chamber clicks uselessly. It hangs him upside down, more tendrils coming up to snake around his neck (and not in a sexy way) and Tord figures he's already dead so he might as well go for broke. He's got goals still. As pathetic as it might be he really doesn't want to die.
"EDD! MATT! TOM!"
For a second there is nothing. The creature doesn't seem to care about his shouting, winding tighter. Tord gasps and chokes. Then there is an ominous creak. A thud. Then a crack. And then another monster is bursting through the ugly wall.
Thankfully this one has familiar striped horns and a single giant eye socket.
Swinging its massive head it spots Tord and the creature. It roars, giant gaping maw of teeth and long purple tongue open wide. It shakes the room. It charges at the tendril creature and slashes with claws the size of a person. Tord doesn't even hit the floor.
"Hey! We found you!" Matt says cheerily holding Tord in his arms, all red eyes and pale skin. His fangs are prominent as he smiles.
"You took your damn time!" Tord shouts, wincing at the way his voice scrapes.
The entity howls again and Tom snarls back, dark and massive body curling around Tord and Matt. His tail slaps the carpet in challenge, one single eye glowing purple and glaring at the entity as if daring it to come closer. The other creature shrinks back a bit.
"I've got it!" Two green lasers fire from the hole in the wall and hit the creature with the impact of a minuscule nuclear explosion. Tord can feel the heat on his face even as Tom curls around tighter to shield him from most of it.
"Did I hit it?" Edd says, floating through the hole, eyes still simmering green with energy.
All of them glance at the smoldering crater in the carpet where the entity used to be. A piece of ceiling drops and one of the fluorescent lights pops out and hits the ground.
"I think you got it," Tord sighs, rubbing at his throat. "Matt, for the love of god put me down."
The vampire does so.
"Are you good?" Edd asks, drifting over with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, it took so long. We were practically tearing this place apart trying to find you until Tom got your scent finally."
Tom snorts derisively but noses against Tord as if checking him over. Tord glances over at the hall in the wall. Through it, he can see several more holes and a path of carved destruction. He glances back at his friends.
A vampire. A nuclear accident. And... whatever the hell Tom is.
Tord may just a be regular trigger-happy Norweigian man...
...But the backrooms might have taken the wrong group of friends.