Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Oh, I am so dead!"

'Stupidstupidstupid,' is all that races through Charlie's head as he runs on the city pavement, the sun having long gone down, as he heads back home as fast as goopingly possible.

'Schlatt's going to kill me for being late,' an understatement really, especially since for the last 2 weeks, he and his roommates, Schlatt and Ted, had planned and scheduled to record a video together today, only for Charlie to forget the time!

It wasn't his fault that some buddies from high school came into town and wanted to meet up with him! Well, he could have said no, but he hadn't seen them in so long! So, maybe he got a little too excited and lost track of time, but he's sure the guys will understand.

Or at least, they will if he doesn't have to wait for one more dumb traffic light to give him the go ahead, but seeing the stretch of multiple traffic lights in the distance, he can see that ain't happening soon. He just needs to make it home, the faster he's there, the less likely he'll be heckled and slandered by them in the video for his forgetfulness.

'There's got to be a faster way to get home.'

As Charlie looks around, he catches a glimpse of a passage through the buildings he walks beside.

'The alleys, of course!' He'd forgotten about the alleys! He's only used them a couple of times during broad daylight, but what difference does a little shade make, he'll be quick, seeing as his reputation is on the line!

'Couldn't hurt to try, no time like the present!'

He slips through the night. He's almost a quarter of the way there, before Charlie hears the sound of a couple of garbage cans being tumbled from one of the connected pathways. He pauses, and looks towards the entrance.

'Maybe it was an injured cat?' An unlikely thought as he hadn't heard any meowing or hissing.

His breathing starts to pick up as he continues to walk through the alleyways. He can hear more noise, only this time from behind him. That's when Charlie's light jog turns into a full on sprint, straying from his path home, as now his goal is just finding a way out of the small, dark labyrinth he's gotten himself trapped in.

He's going to get mugged, he's sure of it! 'Ted will never let me live this down if I do,' that is, if he even makes it out alive!

That's when Charlie sees light up ahead, it's a miracle! He's going to make it, and once he does, this will be a funny memory and story to look back on, he just knows it!

However, due to Charlie's panic and distraction towards the light, he didn't realize that the noise was no longer behind him.

So, as Charlie passes one more opening, the last one, so close to the city lights, a dark being crawls out of it.

Charlie stops abruptly, backpedaling, thoughts racing as he tries to turn back, but he trips.

And as he falls, he screams, one arm outwards, the other behind to either grab on to something in the air, or soften his fall.

But neither happens, as he falls, and falls, and falls.

And all goes black.

Chapter Text

Now, as energetic as Charlie was during the day, the same couldn't be said about the morning.

He was a slow riser and more inclined to stay in bed rather than get up immediately. Usually, he'd only get up to use the bathroom or close the curtains to cover the sunlight.

But, for some reason, his head was laying on something flat, damp, and scratchy, so he might make an exception.

'Aw gross, did I drool on my pillow again?'

He scrunches up his face when he registers a musty oder coming from what should be his bed. He opens his eye lids, confused.

Instead of seeing his usual laundry filled bedroom, he finds himself on the floor of a room like corridors with ugly, stained patterned walls, and fluorescent flickering lights on the ceiling.

'Where in the ever-loving glob am I?' Is all the flows through Charlie's mind as he quickly gets up and searches through his pockets for his phone.

When he pulls it out of his right side, he glances for a second at the time before he pulls up Ted's phone number.

'Come on Ted, pick it up, you should be awake by now!'

But his phone doesn't even bother ringing, as Charlie clicks call and places his phone to his ear, all he hears is high pitched statics.

He drops his phone, startled, and then picks it back up, only looking at it as he contemplates what the fuck is going on.

'I've got it!'  He's dreaming! He's gotta be, there's no other explanation! Well he could've been kidnapped, but there's nobody around that he can see and he has all his possessions on him. So dreaming it is!

'Maybe I should hit myself, just to be sure!' He lifts his right arm to punch his right leg with no hesitation, experting to feel nothing. But he does, painfully so.

'What the- no that's not right,' He does it again, a bit harder, only to feel his leg start to ache.

'No, then this- that means I'm really- okay think Charlie! What's the last thing you remember?!' He reflects on what he could, starting with meeting up with a few friends, eating at a bar and restaurant across town, noticing the time and realizing he was late to a recording with Ted and Schlatt, running home, taking the alle- the alleyways!

Oh, he should've known not to enter an alleyway at night, look where it's gotten him!

But still, none of this makes sense. He remembers running and then seeing something. He doesn't know what it was, it could've been his imagination or the lighting, but he remembers a pale, grotesque faced creature that came out of the shadows before then tripping and, essentially, ending up here.

Wherever here was.

He looks at the different eerie rooms from where he stands and puts together what he knows so far in his mind. 'Okay, I'm in some empty, connected work offices, my phone doesn't work, and nobody's around. What now?'

Well, there's nothing else to do, other than either walk, or stay put. Now, as he recalls what his mother told him as a child, then he knows that if he ever gets lost he should always stay put, so that it was easier to find him.

However, he's an adult, not a child, so as an adult, he can make his own choices and judgment based on his gut, and his gut is telling him that he if he starts walking, he'll come across a way out, or maybe, he'll come across another human being!

'Haha, come.' Is what plays in his head as he turns to his left and starts walking through the corridors of the same colored maze he's gotten himself lost in.

Chapter Text

It's only been about 5 minutes, but Charlie already feels like he wouldn't be able to find his way back to the room he started in, even if he tried.

Oh, and tried he did.

At the start, Charlie was adamant on walking in a straight line, however, this place seemed to have different plans.

He'd end up in a room that either separated from anywhere, but ahead, or was a dead end.

The rooms all looked the same, but everytime Charlie looked back from where he'd just came from, he could've swore they changed.

It was essentially endless.

'Fuck'

He could pull out his phone and try calling somebody again, but he didn't want a repeat of last time, he didn't feel like busting his eardrums anytime soon.

He decides to distracts himself by remembering how he got here again. Maybe some sort of clue as to how to get out there that he missed in the beginning? He's just grasping for straws at this point.

'Okay, so I was running late, took a shortcut through an alleyway, got chased by a pale, almost lizard eyed-'

"Holy shit, I got chased by a Mark Zuckerberg lookalike!"

Charlie winced as his voice echoed through the halls, adding on to the humming of the lights and drips of liquid falling from the ceiling.

'Alright, chased by a Mark Zuckerberg creature thingy that was speaking gibberish? At least, I think that's what the mumbling noise was coming from. Maybe some sort of language or tounge? And then, I fucking tripped over nothing, but I don't remember hitting the ground...'

He goes in circles over this consistent detail for a bit, as it's the only abnormal event leading up to him getting stuck here.

The silence doesn't help either, but his body is telling him to keep quiet, like a lingering internal fear that contributes in controlling his every move. However, that leaves him with nothing to hear, other than his own thoughts and it's driving him crazy!

"Fuck it, this is not how I wanted to spend my Friday night! Hello?!" Charlie calls out, dragging out the 'o' part for a little.

He gets nothing in return, but that doesn't discourage Charlie's new found confidence as he continues to walk with a slight pep in his step and calling out for anyone who has ears.

"Anybody out- or should I say in? Ah, it's fine, anybody out here? I seem to be lost as I am obviously not from around here, so I could really use a hand!"

He's not sure how far his echoes go, but the sound of his voice helps him imagine being in public with conversations happening all around, which comforts him slightly.

He doesn't lnow how long that'll last though, so he walks faster, moving from room to room.

Shouting out random words and letters will have to do for a now, along with a few, "Hellos?" thrown into the mix, here and there.

He wonders how Schlatt and Ted are holding up at home. They've definitely noticed his absence by now, considering he messaged them 'On my way!' as he was sprinting home, only to never show up. He can't make calls, and he hasn't received any calls from the last 6 hours if his phone's time is right.

So phones are a no go, but maybe it's a phone signal problem? If so, maybe if he can get his hands on a radio, then the radio waves might-

"Hello?"

That was not his voice.

Charlie stills his movements and calls out, "Here! I'm over here!" Holy shit, he's not alone, thank god!

"Hold on, stay where you are, I'm heading towards you." The voice is edging between soft and young to raspy and dry.

Staying doesn't mean staying silent, so Charlie makes small talk. "Alright, um, I'm Charlie! I've been wondering around here for a while, you have any idea where we are? Um...?"

"Ranboo, it's Ranboo," the voice fills in, and before Charlie can respond, he sees a hand reach out from the other side of a wall before continuing.

"And we, are in the Backrooms."

A tall, dark haired individual walks out from behind the wall. They're pale, with long, shaggy hair trailing over their shoulders. They're wearing a dual-colored mask that covers where the nose and mouth should be and blacked framed ski goggles sit over it, covering his eyes.

They also seem to be in a jacket that resembles more of raggs than clothing and what he thinks is shredded jeans. Both are colored brown with a few stains of black, green, yellow, and red splashed on.

Already put off by the person's appearance, what they said before showing themselves is what Charlie is focusing on the most.

"The Backrooms? Sounds like a name for a film or video game," Charlie nervous laughs, trying to make sense of Ranboo's short answer, "So, how far exactly is it from California? Cause I really need to get home."

Ranboo stays where they are, before walking back from where they came from, stating, "Follow me, I'll explain better once we get to a safer area, we've already made enough noise as it is," and disappears behind another wall.

Charlie rushes behind, catching up to Ranboo and walking right beside them.

"So," Charlie draggs out, "Is Ranboo a neutral, a girl, or a guy name?" A question that will definitely help him identify this potential new friend .

"Guy. What's, uh, yours?" Ranboo awkwardly sounds out. He sharply turns into another corner from his right, walking a bit faster and looking over different halls.

"Also a guy name! But, uh, why don't you just explain as we walk? Saves more time, don't you-"

"SHHH," Ranboo hastily swirls and grabs Charlie's lower part of his face, covering both his mouth and nose, before pulling them both to a walls side.

Before Charlie can even react to Ranboo's harsh grip, he hears the sound of hollow rattling and something being dragged past the room they were about to enter.

Charlie is frozen in fear as he stands pressed against the wall with Ranboo. Even if he could move, Ranboo's grip would've stopped him from running any farther than his reach.

They stay there for what feels like an hour, but was actually about a minute. The hiss of the rattles and the slosh like dragging get farther and farther away, and when the sound is barely even there, Ranboo lets go of Charlie, giving him a bit of room to breathe, before looking into the room that...thing, crossed through.

After looking right and left, Ranboo motioned his hand towards Charlie signaling for him to follow.

They proceed forward much quieter than before, with no talking, softer steps. This goes on for a while, but Charlie can only be patient for so long before the urge to question Ranboo grew strong.

"What the hell was that thing?" He whispered to his anxiety-induced companion.

Ranboo seems to either not of heard or is most likely ignoring Charlie's question, before sighing and softly giving a, "I'll tell you when we get to level 2," back.

'Level 2? What kind of video game bullshit is this?!'

He's freaking out again, he knows it, but he can't blame himself when he doesn't know what the fuck is going on! The Backrooms, dangerous monsters lurking, levels?! None of this makes sense!

'Okay Charlie, no point in dwelling on this right now, let's just follow Ranboo to his 'safe' secret hideout he's probably taking me to as quickly as possible, then I can smother Ranboo with as much questions as I want.'

Pushing his highly reasonable concerns to the side, he continues on with nothing else to say.

The longer they walk though, the more Charlie starts to notice that the rooms become less empty and more junk filled.

Finally, Ranboo stops in front of a junk piled mess. Now that wouldn't really seem ideal, if it wasn't for the vent right above the safety hazard with a latter on the side.

Before Charlie can climb on, Ranboo lifts his hand up to stop him.

"I haven't been on level 2 in quite a while, so let me go up ahead to make sure nothing crawled inside while I was away."

However, none of two really get to make a decision before the vent pops open and out comes a blond, blue-eyed kid with the most shit-eating grin Charlie's ever seen.

"Ayup dickheads! Any of you fellows go to Earth's Dream Academy?"

Chapter Text

"So, uh, how long have you been here exactly?"

After their brief introductions, (if you can even call an abrupt question an "introduction"), the three newfound strangers had crawled their way through the vents into a new room and are now sitting in a circle among each other. A room that Ranboo had claimed to be 'Level 2,' and also a room a loud, skinny kid has been holding up in for who knows how long.

Thus, Ranboo's minor interrogation is somewhat justifiable.

The blond pulls out a phone from their back pocket, takes a glance, and lets out a high-pitched whistle before answering. "Well if my phone's time is right, I'd say about a week. A week and a half, if counting the time I just wandered around for a bit when I first fell down this hell hole," they quickly retorted.

The kid's in a red and white varsity jacket with white headphones with inner red markings around their neck, a black shirt, navy blue jeans, and red-white shoes.

'Wow, well at least figuring out their favorite colors won't be hard.

And that's not even accounting for the stranger's personal belongings. When they all arrived, (more like crawled), onto 'Level 2,' there was a brown school backpack stuffed to the brim with who knows what. The zipper looked like it was about to burst, and the blue hydro flask on the side pocket also looked ready to fly along with it. It's like the younger was caring around a Doom's Day preparers luggage to high school every day.

'Or maybe not,' Charlie reconsiders, as now that he thinks about it, when the kid spoke, they seemed to be rocking an almost heavy English accent, so college might be the right term for the foreigner's accurate schooling.

And last, but certainly not least, beside the school back sat a white boombox with stickers of all kinds sticking onto it.

'Where in the flippity heck did the teen get this from, did he just find it lying around and took it along for the journey?!'

Though looking at it better now, Charlie can tell it's well loved and taken care of, so there's no way it had been in one of the piles of junk around this place, as nothing was as clean or pristine as it.

Ranboo's silent, blank response to the newcomer is all they get before Charlie decides to butt in. "Well I'm Charlie and my helpful new pal here is Ranboo, I'm a he and he's a him?" Charlie looks over towards Ranboo for confirmation, but only gets a shrug in return before continuing, "So, mind giving us something to call you by fellow glooper?"

The kid lets out an infectious laugh before commenting. "Glooper? Not sure what that is, but I don't see why not?"

The tall teen puffs out their chest lift their right hand, and points a thumb toward themself before stating, "pronouns are he because everybody looks at me, cries, and says 'I can never be him,' and the name's Tommy, Tommy Careful Danger Kraken Innit Craft!"

The hum of the lights is the only sound that can be heard between the group's silence, before Ranboo bursts out, "That cannot be your real full name," causing Charlie to start cackling to the side.

"It is too, and you can't prove otherwise, fuck-face," Tommy argues back, sticking his tongue out just to instill his point further.

Ranboo smacks his head with his right hand, dragging it down before closing his fist, leaving his index finger sticking out. "One, rude. Two, who in the world names their child with four middle names?!" Ranboo's raspy voice rises the longer he contemplates an entire family's thought process.

Huffing, Tommy retaliates with, "Well who in their right fucking mind names their child Ranboo as a first name?!"

There's a pause, before Ranboo responds with a quiet "Touché," and backs off from the short-lived yelling session.

"Anyways," Tommy continues, "can any of you two tell me where the fuck we are?"

"The Backrooms," the said two say simultaneously.

The silence returns before Tommy whistles once again with a, "Okay then, big guys."

'This awkwardness is going to kill me, quick move on to something else!'

"Well," Charlie claps, "now that we've got that out of the way, what now?"

'That literally did nothing!'

Ranboo sits up a bit straighter and gives out a quick "hold on," before standing up and walking over, with a bounce to his steps, to a wooden cabinet drawer. Pulling the drawer open, he pulls out a dark, dirt-covered notebook and three rusty, black walkie-talkies. He gently passes over a walkie-talkie to Charlie and Tommy each, then pockets the notebook.

"I found these a while back, so if we ever get separated from one another, we can use these to communicate and listen to each other," Ranboo explains, sounding almost giddy.

"Right, since our phones only seem to produce statics at moment," Charlie adds, Tommy nodding from his left. Clearly, he also must have tried to call somebody like he did and had gotten the same results.

"What? Oh right, the phones, yea," Ranboo deflates a bit with that information, before Tommy speaks up. "Radios don't work either, tried it with Clementine and it's the same whiny, bitch ass noise that comes out of the phones."

Charlie and Ranboo both look over to Tommy, Ranboo looking blank as ever, (due to his coverings), while Charlie shows an easy-to-read, confused expression, making Tommy sigh.

"Forgot, you don't know Clem, she's the one looking dripped out with the customized, big man stickers, she's sitting right next to Henry." Tommy then points out to...his boombox and backpack?

His boombox and backpack. Of course. Since he was already looking at one side of the room, Charlie decides to look towards the other side, back towards the drawer Ranboo had gotten the walkies from.

'How did I not see the drawer against the wall? And is that another hallway next to it? How did I miss both? Was I that distracted from finding another person almost immediately after finding the first?!'

Charlie needs to start noticing his surroundings more, considering the number of times he most definitely almost died in the past 24 hours because of how oblivious he's been.

Though, Tommy doesn't seem to have the same problem, as he gets up as well and walks towards the drawer, eyes set on something laid out on it.

Charlie figures since everybody is up now, he should get off the ground too, so he passes by a nervous-looking Ranboo to join Tommy in on seeing what caught his attention. Tommy whistles low as they look down at what he's discovered.

There on the drawer's flat surface were two pieces of old worn papers, one with simply a sentence, while the other had red bold stamp markings, long written information, and a picture on the bottom right corner to go along with it.

Confused, Charlie grabs the two slips of paper. "Almond water, Unknown Entity, humanoid, made of cable," he read out loud, almost mumbling.

"Hey Ranboo, wasn't this the monster we were hiding from earlier?" Charlie analyzes.

When he looks up, he realizes Tommy had opened the same drawer Ranboo had opened earlier, looking through a file he had found in said drawer as Ranboo stood a few feet back behind him.

"A bright smiling thing, the Smiler" Tommy reads out slowly, almost cautious, with a look on his face that reads recognition.

To lighten the mood, Charlie teasingly comments, "A bright smiling thing, that sounds like you Tommy!" Tommy responds quickly with a drawn-out "Awww," before glancing down at the file again and then putting it back where he found it.

"Welp boys," Tommy walks toward his boombox and backpack, before throwing 'Henry' over his back and lifting 'Clementine' up with his left hand, "I say we explore our new home," he announces, turning his body to the hallway that was beside the drawer on the left and continuing forward.

"I love the enthusiasm, but maybe we should direct that towards escaping rather than staying if you caught my drift," Charlie inputs, following behind Tommy, before stopping and turning to look at Ranboo.

"You need anything else from this room, man?" Charlie asks. Ranboo pulls out his notebook from earlier, flipping the pages for a few seconds before putting it back into his pocket, shakes his head, and then starts walking alongside Charlie to catch up with the energetic, chaotically named individual.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

"The Office! Oh, Jim!" Tommy calls out, clearly trying to make light of their current situation.

Now that Charlie's no longer panicking, he can kind of see the resemblance, as the place does give off an early 2000s workplace vibe. 'The Office' was probably the only thing the red and white draped boy could compare it to, as he clearly couldn't be any older than eighteen, perhaps even younger.

Charlie laughs, before playing along with the teen. "Dwight," Charlie draws out, "where are you?!"

"Where's Pam?!" Tommy cheers, elated by Charlie's involvement. Ranboo follows behind the two, silent to their bit, but not irritated enough to stop them.

Looking around the new room they've just entered, Tommy runs off to what Charlie thinks is the end of it. As the kid disappeared behind the room's support pillars, Charle decides to look at the markings painted onto said pillars, making note of the symbols he sees.

'Wait, these aren't just symbols, these are numbers! Number one, number four...' Charlie contemplates what this could be eluding to, before seeing what looks to be a note on the ground. Just as he walks over and picks it up, he hears Tommy announce, "Guys, I found an elevator! The buttons are different than the ones I know though, it's like a keypad, guess it's just quirky like that, innit?"

'Wait a minute,' Charlie thinks, turning back to the note in his hand, 'Maybe the numbers on the walls and this diagram is for the elevator!' Just as Charlie was going to inform the other two, a voice speaks out right behind him.

"Oh, you found my note."

Jumping, Charlie quickly turns around to find Ranboo mere inches away from him, so close he can almost touch him without much effort. Though, what he said was more intriguing than his ignorance to personal space.

"Your note?" Charlie questions, the awareness of his claim making Ranboo sheepishly curl into himself, left arm reaching to touch the back of his neck and all. "Yea, I try not to leave the safe room often, but when I do need to, I always forget the code to push into the elevator," Ranboo points towards the note, still in Charlie's grip, though a bit crumbled due to being startled from earlier.

"So I just write how to figure out what to push in and leave the note here so I remember it's for this room specifically. I didn't write the actual code though since the numbers are already on the walls and the challenge also helps with my memory sometimes." Ranboo finishes, retracting himself away from Charlie, giving him the space to process Ranboo's rambling.

During that time, Tommy seemed to have walked back to them, his giggly mood from earlier gone. "How often have you done this before?" Tommy intrudes, confusion taking a permanent placement on his face.

"Um," Ranboo hesitates, "A while," he decides to say.

Charlie winces quietly. 'Definitely more than just a while,' Charlie's certain of this thought, Tommy seeming to come to the same conclusion as his face morphs into terror for a split second, before starting to laugh nervously.

"You know I was kidding about the new home bit, right? I'm sure we'll get out of here in no time," Tommy concludes, trying to pose a hopeful look, whether it was for Ranboo or himself, Charlie couldn't tell.

Ranboo straightens up a bit, before solemnly replying with a soft, "Yea," to Tommy's false confidence. As the two look at one another, Charlie decides to try getting a little more information from the tall masked man.

"And how long have you had memory problems?" Ranboo mulls over the question for a second, before stating, "I think I've always had it."

The silence afterward is tense, the mood has shifted downward since their silly TV reference ended.

'Way to go me, should've just left it be,' Charlie glances around, seeing the numbers on the pillars of the room, before looking more closely at Ranboo's apparent note.

There are four squared spaces, with four other squares pointed towards the first, but theses ones are filled with the symbol pound. Then, the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 are below it, all in that order.

"Office note, it goes 1, 2, 3, 4," Charlie re-illiterates to the other two. Now thinking, Charlie mumbles out loud, "We hit number 1, 2, 3, 4, office," as he walks away from the elevator towads the numbered pillars.

'Okay, we need 1, 2, 3, 4, and there's a hashtag on the back of,' Charlie pauses in thought. He goes over from one side of the room to the other, focusing on the marked pillars. 'Oh wait, no hang on, there's only a hashtag on these numbers over here,' he states after confirming only the numbers he needed were the ones with a symbol on the back. Then it clicks.

"Oh, I get it! Okay, so number 1," Charlie glances from the pillar marked 1 before looking to the pillar across from it, "Is 3, number 2 is 6, so it's, 3685! Give that a shot Dwight- I mean Tommy!" Charlie fumbles.

The sudden name mix up after the serious tone in the room, made Ranboo burst out laughter, while Tommy simply chuckled before focusing back onto the keypad.

"Alright, 3265?" Tommy tries pressing said codes, before Charlie can correct him.

"That's like not even what I- okay, god," 'Maybe he's dyslexic? Best to let it be.'  "Man, I've forgotten how to count," Charlie couldn't let it be, as he didn't want Tommy to feel to self-consious of his mistake. Charlie went back to the pillars to rephrase the sequence for Tommy, before Tommy shouted out, "Use the comms!"

"Okay, I will! I want you to uh-," Charlie stutters, "Can't you just come?" Ignored by the other two, Tommy speaks into the walkie, "COPY, COPY!" All while Ranboo snickered besides the blond, and takes out his own walkie to say "Hey, guys, hows it going?"

'Oh, we're doing a bit now,' Charlie starts to smile as he reports, "Alright, alright, get those fingies ready!" "He's ready!" Ranboo confirms. Charlie glances back to the numbers before stating, "Okay, I've got some new information for you to recieve." "COPY," Tommy responds as Charlie painstakenly states each number as slow, but corhearent as possible.

Just as Charlie gives Tommy the last number, he sprints to the elevorate where the two other survivors await. The second he went through the doors, they shut behind him. He made it in the knick of time.

"Oh my god!" Charlie cried out with relief as Tommy and Ranboo celebrated around him with woops and shouts, all while patting his back in reassurence.

"What a rush!" Charlie complained, hunched over a bit, balancing his hands on his needs to catch his breath. Tommy laughed before inputting, "Well, if you hadn't made it, you'd have easily been able to take the next one and meet us up at- uh Ranboo?"

When Charlie looked up, he could see Ranboo shyly look away from the two quietly, as if guilty, before glancing back. "Uh, about that, I don't think he could've," he pulls out his little booklet, turning the pages before stopping and quoting, "Time does not function in the same manner as back home inside The Backrooms. They loop, they twist, they turn, they double back on themselves, they RELOCATE. All is fair game."

Charlie's gut drops. 'Fuck, if that's the case, then there's no way we can seperate without there being a drawback or being forever lost.'

Charlie looks towards Tommy, his eyes seemingly wide and glossed over, mouth slightly gapped as if in thought, before blinking, eyebrows narrowing, "The fuck does that mean?"

Ranboo sighs, "It means the minute we leave one area, there's no guarentee that it'll still be the same area we just came from. So if Charlie had gone after us, there's a large possibility that he'd end up at a different Level 3 than the one we are at, or he might've even have gone to a different Level all together."

With this new information up in the air, Charlie is a bit more calmer than with just the quote alone. So afe, he has deducted that as long as they were all on the same floor or 'Level,' then they should be fine to roam around based on what Ranboo and his book have claimed. So as the three misplaced wanderers stood in silence, all they could do was wait to arrive at their destination.

Finally, the elevator stopped and opened to show the room, 'Level 3,' as Ranboo called it, with all it's gloomy semi-dark atmosphere and tiny, blinding yellow ceiling lights gallor.

"Man this is like Among Us!" Tommy exclaimed, humming the game's theme as they explored their new area. Charlie laughed as he and Ranboo stood before another drawer filled with information like at the last level.

Charlie picked up what seemed to be a bottle of liquid, presumably almond water, while Ranboo looked through the files that were placed inside the compartment.

"Huh," Ranboo muttered, taking his notebook out and looking at the contents inside it before looking at the file again. "Whatcha looking at?" Charlie interrupts, trying to peak inside the all knowing, probably psychic or prophecy telling, journal. Ranboo pauses, before slowly turning his notebook against his chest. "I'm just making sure I've already written this down, just in case," he hastly explains. Charlie gently took the file from Ranboo's hand to take a quick peak himself.

There on the page lays a new creature, "Entity number 8," Charlie spoke first, before Tommy slid between the two. "You're telling me there's more than two retched monsters in this fucked up place?!" Tommy shouted, before reading the next part over Charlie's shoulder.

"A very aggressive and dangerous, kind of like me," Tommy mocked with a wobbily smirk. Amused, Charlie read out, "Resembles a dog with humanoid traits, kind of like me, it's got something from each of us!"

Tommy then hunches, pulling his arms inward and hanging his hands out like a T-rex as starts to make a sound resembling a growing, imitating the image on the files. Ranboo pays attention to the boy, amused, as Charlie re-focuses on the page he's holding.

"Okay guys, it's intimidated by direct eye contact," he then turns to Tommy as he's the closest, Ranboo wandering somewhere behind, "So if we see it," he pauses, aiting for Tommy to quiet down. He notices, and with a soft "Sorry," Tommy sheepishly stops to listen. Charlie continues, "We need to look directly in the eyes, okay? Alright?"

Tommy nods fast, before finally taking in the information and says, "So, they're scared of Alpha males? Oh my days, wait, Ranboo are you afraid of Alpha males?" Charlie turns to Ranboo, seeing him stunned by Tommy's question. "Excuse me?" He stammers, confusion and concern easy to read off his tone.

"Y'know, because of those big ol' goggles on your face. Can't make eye contact when ya can't see eyes, so you must wear them because you're intimidated by big men like me, right?" Tommy continues, seeming to try to get a rise out of the tall trekker. "No??" Ranboo answers, lost for words that one.

Charlie laughs. Deciding to have mercy on Tommy's target for entertainment, he interjects. "I guess that's another thing the entity has from one of us, but shouldn't we move along? I'm sure we've all got places to be."

Ranboo, relieved with the subject change, takes his notebook out and jesters for the others to follow.

Chapter Text

"Can you two stop doing that?" Ranboo turns to the accessory hoarder and spectacle wearer, tone filled with annoyance. 

"Doing what?" Charlie taunts, before whistling just like he and Tommy have been doing for the last few minutes. "Yea Ranboo, all we're doing is following you, king," Tommy butts in, giving out two whistles and a pop with his lack excuse. 

Ranboo sighs, exasperated and through gritted teeth, all while the two snickered at his expense. Though, it seemed Ranboo couldn't let the conversation continue with at least a say in it, as he declared, "And it's, YOUR MAJESTY, because all kings are colonizers, and slavory is not cool. Also, it just sounds a lot better." 

'Now hold on,' Charlie and Tommy actually stop to look at each other, 'that was a bit specific, wasn't it?' After getting a quick nod from Tommy, they prepare for a round of mild interrogations before moving once more. 

"Soooo, kings are an ick, yes? What about being queen?" Charlie suggests. "Oh yes, I love me a good woman, ESPECIALLY The Queen!" Tommy inputs, guesturing wildly with his hands. Ranboo, pauses for a second in thought, before nodding to himself. "Queens are much more elegant, it'd be an honor to be one called one really," he, they, she(??), answers. 

"You can be, if you want," Charlie inquires. Ranboo hesitates, they've all stopped walking by now, as the teen and man look towards their tall, meek companion that seems to be looking intensly at the floor. Finally, Ranboo moves to face sideways, before stating, "As fortunate as that'll be, your majesty is more me? If that makes sense. Would that still be okay?" They ask, uncertain and low. 

"Absolutely!" "Nothing's more poggers!" Charlie and Tommy say simultaneously, beaming at their newly confident filled friend, as Ranboo rises up to their full height for the first time since meeting each other, with an air of glee surrounding them. 

Ranboo then clears their throat, before swiftly turning back around. "Right, well, no time to dilly-dally," they claim, speedwalking ahead. "Now wait a minute, didn't you just say that time works differently here? For all we know, we have all the time in the world! So I purpose an idea," Tommy rants, rambles even. 

Amused, Charlie goes along, "And what, my fellow squire, do you purpose we do with this profound free time?" Tommy smirked, "Well I've been thinking," and before Charlie can even blink, the kid grins, teeth full bare on display for the man to see, as he reaches out, fast as light, and twists his pack from his back to front before lifting out his half (1/3) of the walkie-talkie and exclaiming, "Fellas, I say it's about high time for code names, baybe!" 

Ranboo jumps, startled by Tommy's outburst while Charlie hollers back in agreement. Looking over their shoulder, Ranboo stares at them, most likely glaring at the boys. Charlie simply chuckles, but Tommy must either be ignoring them or is straight up oblivious, as the music hauler continues with his 'idea'. 

"Obviously, mine shall be Wife Haver! As it's totally accurate and poggers since it honors my many wives back home!" Tommy smuggly proclaims. Ranboo is now solely looking at Tommy, but Charlie decides to humor the teen. 

"Oh really? Who's your favorite out of all of them?" In a heartbeat, Tommy blurts out, "Why Lizzie of course! I deserve only the best you know, and what's better than royalty?" Before Charlie can comment, Ranboo finally shares their thoughts. 

"There's no way you're old enough to marry, and I thought the queen was in her gray era, unless there's a new one I don't know about," they question, rather concerningly. 

'Hold on a second, how old IS Tommy, and Ranboo for that matter. And what do they mean by new? It's obviously Tommy's talking about The Queen of England if the kid's accent already didn't give it away,' Charlie shrugs off his thoughts, as Tommy didn't seem to find anything off about Ranboo's questions. 

"Age is just a number for my dear Lizzie and me!" The blue eyed individual states with a over the top longing look, staring towards the ceiling with his hands together to his chest, before fully taking in the other question. "And at the good ol' age of 16, I am legally allowed to marry whoever I choose, unless my brother demands otherwise, he has permission to shoot me if I do." 

'Woah woah woah, funny joke haha, but 16?! And brother?! Wait, what was the conversation even about again? We're getting off topic,' Charlie tries to think back to the beginning of the conversation, before snapping his fingers. "Codenames! Codenames y'all!" Charlie exclaims before his train of thoughts can overflow any further. 

"Oh right! Okay, so I'll be Wife Haver, and you two can figure out a name for yourselves," Tommy finishes for him, delighted at his suggestion being taking seriously. 

'Hmm, a name, maybe I'll go by my channel name,'  he and his roommates have separate channels, but will collab often, even if they don't have a large following audience at the moment, it's still fun and is a great excuse to bother his friends for no real reason half the time. Actually, since he's not really famous, his two current companions probably won't even know what his comm name would be referring to, saving him the embarrassment, it's perfect! Just as Charlie is going to tell the others what he's decided, Ranboo tenses and then lowers to a crouching stance before whispering, "Alright guys, we have to stick together, okay?" 

'Well that's not ominous at all,' Charlie goes to reassure Ranboo, but is stopped by Tommy's abrupted response. "The air around here is really getting to me," the teen states, voice monotone and calm. Ranboo turns, possibly to reprimand him for not taking them seriously, before pausing. Then their shoulders drop and they slightly lean forward, "The air down here is wild," they finally say as a confirmation, but their volume has risen a tad bit. 

"Wait, I thought we went up," Charlie nervously chuckles, extremely confused on the sudden change in subject. 'Are they trying to make another joke or simmer down any bad vibes?'  The two don't seem to notice Charlie's predicament as they continue on about, uh air. "Air is crazy, air? I'm going to breathe that," Tommy announces, much to the amusement of Ranboo, who in turn gives their own thought, or at least tries to. "Air is absolutely-," they cut themselve's off, as they start silently gasping for air, possibly laughing? 

Well, like with everything else in Charlie's life, he decides to go along, what the heck could possibly happen? "Wow, this air sure is great, when I breathe the air really fast I get light headed. When I breathe the air really really fast," he adds on. Ranboo seems more distracted with their own ramblings, whileTommy starts to whistle, from excitement or boredom, Charlie's not too sure, but from the kid's sudden movement, Charlie's able to glance at his face for a second. 

The lighting makes it a bit hard to see the boy's features, but his eyes seem to have been glossed over once again. Though, this time he doesn't look to be in thought like before, but as though he's no longer there, autopilot like. "Guysss, we're in The Backrooms still," Tommy giggles out, as they finally enter a room filled the pathways. Ranboo goes off to the side, Tommy stands in the middle, looking up at the ceiling lights, but Charlie catches something at the corner of his eye. 

He feels like he's been doused in ice water, as he turned to face towards the shadow in the third pathway on the left. There, the glow of a pair of blank, white eyes stare back at him, a crooked smile showing in the light along with it. It immediate feeling of danger kicks out any left over goofiness he had in his system before stammering out a few uhs. 

"Uh guys?" Charlie finally calls out, looking towards his friends before looking back at the figure, terrified of what it'll do if he keeps his eyes off it for too long. "Hold on, I found a door," Ranboo response back, their mood still high from their previous conversations. "Uh guys, that can wait, just need to know, uh, what that's all about," at Charlie's worried and borderline tearful reply, Ranboo finally comes back to their sense, while Tommy shakes his head before looking towards Charlie. Said man then hurriedly points towards the creature as he slowly backs up to stand beside Tommy. 

Ranboo, jogs close enough to them to finally see the entity. "Don't look at it, don't look at it!" They repeatably yell, all while turning the other way expecting the others to be behind their very heel. "I literally already did!" Snapped out of his dread, Charlie grabs a still stunned Tommy's hand and drags the boy with him as he sprints the same way Ranboo went. 

"I looked up at it, I looked at it," Charlie explains, speratic and panicked. "Stay in the light, if it finds you in the darkness you'll die," Ranboo explains, Charlie nods to them, but notices Tommy still staring towards where the entity was hiding, his hand still in Charlie's, but the grip tight. He's sweating and his blue eyes looked shot, his breathing is cut and sharp, but stable enough. 

"Tommy? You good big man?" Charlie addresses him, never seeing the usually playful individual look so horrified before. Tommy startles, then looks to Charlie before nodding, but before Charlie can brush it off as a natural response to a dangerous being, he hears Tommy quietly say, "I felt it grab me once, before I met you two," Ranboo swiftly turns to face Tommy, before asking in disbelief, "How'd you escape?!" 

Tommy rubs the arm that's still in Charlie's hold, before explaining, "It grabbed my bloody sleeve, so I ripped my arm free before falling back with my stuff. I thought it was going to follow me, but it stayed where it was with my jacket just fuckin' hanging in the air," Charlie gently unlatches Tommy's hand from his before placing his hand on Tommy's shoulder as support. "So I thought it could only stay in one place for all eternity or some shit, so I took out my brother's old hunter's knife and flashed my phone camera torwards it to grab my jacket back, but it just disappeared," Tommy finishes, holding his boombo-, Clementine, to his chest. 

Ranboo rubs their hands over their face, breathing frantic, before breathing out, hands layed out in front of them. Then, they place their hand on Tommy's other shoulder and in a gentle voice whispers, "Well, I'm glad you're still with us." 

Tommy's face contorts, his terrified demeanor shifting into a conflicted expression, before begrudgingly nodding. "Yea, well whatever, nothing can keep big man Tommy down, so cut it out with the pussy shit, come on!" He runs out to the next room, leaving Ranboo and Charlie to process the boy's disregard. 

"Okay then," Ranboo drawls out. Charlie's sure that Tommy doesn't want to stall the journey home, so he figured that the kid just to cap his emotions in a bottle for now until then, so without further thoughts, "You heard him, let's go!" Walking with a pep to his step, Charlie meets Tommy in the other room, Ranboo not too far behind. 

"Wait, guys, a thing, a thing!" Tommy warns when the two catch up. He's weary, backing up towards Charlie, said man looking behind Tommy's shoulder to see what caught the blonde's eyes. Ranboo let's out a breathless laugh, shaking their head as if they're rolling their eyes before claiming, " No that's not a thing, it's a secret." Ranboo leads them to the 'not-thing', a rusted wire like mess of a shape that's suspended in the air. 

Before anybody can say a word, Tommy agitatedly states, "Literally a thing," before inspecting the floating object himself. "It's a capture!" Charlie proclaims, and seemingly going along with this idea, Tommy asks, "Were they filming a porn in here?" Stifling his laughter, Charlie thinks of the most censor friendly name to guest for this imagery film, "Woah, like uh, fricking Sex Penis Vagina?" His own questions causes him to break, Tommy laughing to his involvement. "Wait, the hit band, Sex Penis Vagina, they started here in The Backrooms," like a documentary, they two go off on their imaginary porn turned band, while Ranboo, disinterested on what the others were discussing about, mettled with the 'not-thing.' Charlie then looked over towards the scrap wearer, before looking down and noticing the 'not-thing's' shadow following along with it. 'Huh', "Can you turn or rotate it, maybe the shadow will create an image," Charlie asks Ranboo, thinking before speaking, but interesting enough for Ranboo's curiosity to follow through. They turn it until both the object and shadow form to show, a horse? 

"Omg, a pony! I always wanted one for Christmas!" Tommy shrieks, running up to it. He leans his face close to the horse head before whispering to it, "I'm going to name you Appendix." Charlie shakes his head with a grin before turning towards Ranboo- or at least towards where Ranboo was supposed to be. "Ranboo?" Charlie calls out, Tommy lifting his head in confusion. 

The room loops around and Charlie was practically blocking the exits, so where the fuck did they go? Charlie's about to call out again until he hears, "Why the hell is there a massive clock in here?" The two turn towards the sound of Ranboo's voice, only to be face to face with a wall with a painted door on it. 

"What?" Charlie and Tommy both say, bewildered at the apparent speaking wall. 'Oh fuck, did the wall EAT Ranboo?Like a mimic??' Before the two can panic, Ranboo repeats themselves, which in hindsight, why would a person eating wall be talking about a clock for? 

"But how are you a door- where are you?" The two speak simultaneously again, trying to find a way to reach their friend. Tommy seems to reach back to grab his bag, but is interrupted by Ranboo's head going THROUGH the wall. "Hop in boys!" They invite, before disappearing behind the wall again. 

The two stand there confused, Tommy trying to stick his hand through, while Charlie asks how they get in. "Just run in, this room is entirely dependent on your faith," Ranboo explains before getting out from the other room to demonstrate, running straight into the wall and gone just like earlier, awaiting they're arrival. Backing a good distance away from the door, Charlie gets ready to sprint, 'Okay then, here goes nothing.' He runs forward, expecting to slam into the wall, but as he goes to hit the wall, it's almost like he's falling into The Backrooms again, until he stumbles on the other side. "Woahhh!" He stabilizes himself before looking at the clock Ranboo inquired about during his disappearing act.

He turns back to the rusted like painted door on the wall, as Ranboo goes back for Tommy. When all three travelers make it through, the view the clock and the drawers they hadn't mentions. Both are a gorgeous golden brown wood, sleek and unworn, yet filled with a few specks of dust so it's not too out of place in this deserted, apocalypic office. When Ranboo opens the first compartment, there lays a VHS tape. 

Tommy seems to be more curious about the clock, face up close to it, describing it's details out loud, "The clock hands are missing, does anybody know what the frick we're supposed to do now?" Wanting to see for himself, Charlie tries to view the clock, Tommy still places up front it. 

"Hold on, Tommy move your big freaking head," lightly shoving Tommy to the side, Charlie looks at the handless clock and reaches to touch it. Swiping away some of the dust, Charlie suggests they look for clock hands to complete it. 'Maybe it'll unlock a compartment we're missing,' as he straightens up, Tommy sniffs the clock before licking the spot Charlie just cleaned. "Ewww," Ranboo cringes back, their arms distancing away from the blonde. 

"Great idea, sniff and search for the missing hands, how's it taste?" Charlie enables the teen. Tommy shakes his head, taking out a peppermint from his bag and pulling out his flask, "Not good, not mud like enough," then takes a sip. 

"Mmm," they're all at a lost before Ranboo decides they should move on. "This way," they lead, going through the wall and then to the entrance by the doorway they came from. They pass by a few shadowed areas, Tommy even saying he say another one of those smiling creatures before the room they're about to enter's light goes out. 

"Why did I hear a bulb break?" Charlie nervously asks, as Ranboo ignores him, moving along, and Tommy stays behind Charlie, unable to speak out his own concerns. As they continue to follow Ranboo, Charlie hears faint high shrieks from the hallway past the room Ranboo entered.

"I just heard- there's, there's, there's whispering, ominous whispering behind us!" Charlie rambles out in hysterics, he and Tommy catching up to the lanky, face hiding bud and closing the door to their room. Tommy must've heard something too, but too terrified out of his mind to do anything else, he decides to do what he knows best. He whistles. 

With just the sounds of Tommy's whistles, it drowns out the voices Charlie hears and in turn, whistles along in hope it'll make them go away. Now, less tense, Tommy encourages them all to whistle, Charlie does so, along with adding in some hollers. "No, don't whistle," Ranboo tries to tell them as calmingly as they can, but despite their words, the other two continue to do so. A sound is heard through the other side, "Guys, stop whistling!" They warn, desperately trying to cover Tommy's mouth and kicking towards Charlie to silence them. 

"I can't, I can't I'm like a whistle, I'm a train, I can't," still hyperventilating, Charlie hears Tommy whistle again, only to realize they weren't the only ones listening as the door bursts open.

Chapter Text

Running. 

Screaming. 

He's running and screaming. 

He's got the sense of dejà vu, but not conscious enough to understand why. 

He's alone, had he always been alone? 

The air. 

It's warm, moist, yet stale. 

He doesn't know where he's going. 

He doesn't know from his right or left, front and back, where he ran from, WHO he ran from. 

He's hurt. 

He knows he is, there's a metallic smell around him and through his blurred vision, he can see red. 

He thinks it should hurt, but it doesn't, though that might be the adrenaline. 

He hears his heart pounding, like his ribs are a cage that it's trying to break free from, rattling against it. 

He can't think. 

He can't BREATHE. 

Oh god, why can't he breathe?! 

He needs to STOP, he needs to rest. 

He can't be in the open. 

It's not safe. 

Why is it not safe? 

He ducks behind something grey and tall, before sitting down. 

He's kneeling now, gasping, just trying to BREATHE. 

He collapses, hard. Whatever air he had left is knocked out of him, before finally, he's able to gulp sweet, tangy air back into his system. 

He lays on the ground, catching his breath, and trying to take in his surroundings. 

His vision has not cleared. 

He shuts them closed and then rubs his fingers over his eyelids. 

He moves his hands away and opens his eyelids, only to see black. Had he opened his eyes? Or has he gone blind? 

Just as he's going to touch his face again when- 

"Charlie?" 

And he sees. 

He looks up from his blank monitor on his desk. He's sitting on his office chair, before spinning towards the voice. 

Ted, it's his buddy Ted! "Hey man, you good? Me and Schlatt just got the game set up and we've been texting you to come downstairs for an hour," comes out of his pal's mouth and that's right! They were supposed to record today! 

"Oh shit, must've lost track of time! It's not too late is it?" He responds. Ted shakes his head, "Nah man, though Schlatt's a bit pissy right now, so if he targets you, you've only got yourself to blame, now hurry up before he replaces you with the Pope." And with that, Ted moves away from the door and, presumably, walks back downstairs. 

Charlie swiftly gets up from his chair and practically runs down to first floor in record time. 

"Finally! Where the fuck have you been, better not have been jacking off or some shit," Schlatt complains, turning his head to face towards Charlie from the couch. "More like napping off, dude was just staring into space when I walked in," Ted contributes, before sitting down besides the rugged man. Charlie laughs them off and then takes his place between Schlatt and Ted. 

This will be the first time they play in a room together for a recording, but they've played together like this many a times off the camera, so it's semi-routine for them. "So what was the game again? Because I swear if it's Just Dance 2, I'm wiping the floors with you two," Charlie declares. "Oh, shove a sock in it, as if you'd catch me dancing for a bunch of chronic onliners for entertainment," Schlatt argues, grabbing his control roughly. "We're playing-" a familiar static sound rings out for a second, making Charlie flinch, "-by the way Charles," Ted finishes. 

What? What's going on? Eh, who cares, he'll know it when he sees it, so he just gives a thumbs up and waits for Schlatt to give them the go ahead to let them know they're rolling. 

The second Schlatt's performance voice comes out, Ted turns on the console, only to show a blank white screen. When Charlie goes to ask if the game wasn't working, Ted and Schlatt only start pressing buttons like there's something there. 

Something's wrong. 

What was he even doing before Ted came for him? Now that he thinks about it, he was panicking he thinks, afraid. Did he mess up a file on his computer? No, otherwise he would've told Ted, since it could be serious and interfere with there recordings. What else? He was hurt? Looking down at himself and sees he's wearing his outdoor clothes, but no wounds. Did he go outside? 

The world starts to fizzle out before his eyes, blurred, the static sound is back as his friends' voices fade into the background. He must've been outside, maybe that's why he had been panicking, something must've happened when he was out. But what? 

"Charlie." 

He couldn't breathe, was he out of breath? Running maybe, why was he running? He must've been running home, right? So he wouldn't miss the recording, he had to have! 

"Charlie!" 

He just, doesn't remember getting here, he doesn't remember being on the lawn, or unlocking the door, or even entering his room, unless... 

"CHARLIE!" 

He never made it home at all. 

He wakes up. 

He's greeted to the ugly mixture of the moist light, greenish brown carpet pressed against his face, and the room spins, like he just got off a fast paced ride. He's on the ground, the static sound is still there, drowning out the humming of the lights. It's coming from besides the back of his head, so he turns his head to see. His walkie-talkie faces him back, safe and undamaged from his apparent fall earlier. As he goes to grab it, loopy depth perception making the task difficult, the statics stop. Then a voice. 

"-CHARLIE CAN YOU HEAR ME?! CHARLIE!" 

Charlie quickly picks up the walkie, holding it close to his face as he presses the side button and responds back frantically, "Here, I'm here!" He confirms. He goes to get up, but sways in the action, pressing against what he now knows to be a locker, grey, and looking back, a life saving item, as it must've been what hid him from the entity encounter the group had earlier. 'Holy shit, the entity! Is everyone alright?!' 

Before he can announce his concerns, Ranboo cuts him off."Get out of that room, it's radioactive!" Well that explains his vision and the air talk from before they got separated. "That makes so much sense!" Charlie exclaims, already bolting towards a random direction, before pausing, "How do I get out?!" He asks. 

"Follow my voice! Me and Tommy are yelling out from both exits, so you'll hear the echos!" Ranboo explains, which gives reason as to why they're the only one responding back, since Tommy was probably busy trying to find him. Otherwise, it'd be odd that the first to initiate the use of them after obtaining said items wouldn't be using them now. 

Now that he's aware, his shallow breaths is extremely obvious, but he has to keep it that light if he doesn't want anymore damage to his body. Speaking of damage, he's finally able to see the gash he has on his left side hip, blood dry, but the injury now aches and spikes of pain run through his veins every time he walks, but he needs to get out of there as soon as possible. 

He walks in circles, hoping to catch a faint sound of one of the twos voices, going farther every loop he does, until finally, he hears the sound of a indistinguishable word and starts to jog towards it. 

As he sees what looks to be an exit in the distance, he yells out to alert the two of his arrival. With that, Tommy's voice finally comes through the walkie, mood having returned to playful. "Copy, it's me Wife Haver tuning in!" Laughing in relief, Charlie finally goes through the doorway, greeted by Ranboo and Tommy in return. 

"Hooo, dude, that was crazy, I thought I was back home with all those chemicals in me!" Charlie explains, mood lifted with the group's reunion. Tommy shouts out, "Like drugs can do!" Then he gives Charlie a hug, he melts into his uninjured side, seemingly tense shoulders deflating as his breathing turns a little watery, "I'm glad you're okay," he whispers, voice lowered, but pained. 

Charlie hugs him back gently, as Ranboo shakes they're head and sighs at the side. "Yea, radiation can do that. See, this is why we don't whistle, this is why we don't, alright?" They interject, voice exasperated and stern as if talking to toddlers. 

The mood sours. Tommy pulls away, face scrunched and eyebrows furrowed as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. He opens his mouth, probably to argue back, but Charlie tries to quickly de-escalates the situation. 

"Yea, we'll be sure to tune it down Ran," he negotiates, and Tommy's face lightens a bit, before Ranboo shakes their head again. "No, no more whistling period. It's too loud, and it's annoying anyways, so drop it all together," they demand. 

"Can you shut the fuck up?" Tommy states more than asks. 'Uh oh,' welp, the keyword was try, but Charlie can only do so much. Ranboo turns to Tommy, "And why should I shut up? I'm not the one announcing our presence to every creature in this damn place like you two are." They argue. 

"Can't you at least read the fucking room? Charlie almost bloody died dipshit, and the first thing you do is lecture us? Not even a 'are you okay?' are you shitting me?!" The boy screams back, eyes locked in with the tallest. "Well somebody has to remind him, this whole situation could've been avoided had you listened to me," they reasoned. "Yea, well wrong place, wrong time arsehole," Tommy relies, before turning away, huffing. 

'Well this is fucked,' okay well, if they were talking, then he can at least figure out what happened when that- thing- attacked them. "Okay, let's all calm down now, is anybody else hurt or was I just unlucky?" At the sound of his voice, both survivors turn to examine him, before noticing his wound. "Shit," Tommy mumbles under his breath, while Ranboo approaches the blood soaked man. Then they take out they're book, flip a few pages, and then turns looks to Tommy before asking, "Got any almond water?" 

Tommy narrows his eyes at them, before twisting his pack to his front, grumbling as he zips it open, rummages around for a bit, and then pulls out a carton, practically shoving it into Ranboo's hands. They twist the cap off and crouches a little to get a better view of Charlie's side. 

"This is going to sound weird, but I have to pour this over your cuts," Ranboo explains. 'What the fuck,' it could be weirder, but they are the expert in this place, so Charlie lifts his shirt up to make the wound more visible. 

Four crooked gashes, all different sizes, are shown. If they were back home, all cuts would've needed stitches, but seeing as there are no hospitals in this deathtrap of an office, almond water will have to do. 

Ranboo tilts the carton over the cuts, the liquid warm, but refreshing, and then when at least half is used, tilts the box back up and closes it. Tommy takes it from their grip and puts it back in his back, but Ranboo pays him no mind as they just continue to stare the stretched out marks. 

"Soooo, what n-," and just like that, Charlie's injury starts to close up, new skin, darken, grow over it. 'WHAT THE FUCK!' Charlie internally freaks out, Tommy distantly agreeing externally as a pitched inhale of air comes from his direction and his eyes are wide, nearly bulged out. 'Forget about hospitals, whatever was in that water needs to be distributed everywhere!'  Still fascinated by the all powerful nut water, he nearly ignores Ranboo's words. 

"It was just you, as the entity seemed to only have it's eyes on you," they said, though drifting their sentence at the last part, and they move their posture to what to be in a trance of pondering. "Just me?" Charlie reiterates, "Was it because I was the only one running?" He questions. "No," Tommy interjects, "We all ran in different directions, and I was definitely yelling, manly mind you, as a form of intimation! So maybe it just choose between whoever was the loudest?" Tommy claims. 

"Nuh uh, because YOU were definitely louder than Charlie," Ranboo throws back at Tommy, making the boy go red in irritation, but said teen doesn't comment back. Back to the drawing board it was Charlie thought. Ranboo decided to look through their book again, before abruptly lifting their head and turning to Tommy. 

"Back with the Smiler, you said it grabbed you by the sleeve, right Tommy?" At the call back, Tommy flinches hard, face blank, before becoming irritated again, "Yea? What about it?" He defends. "Well," Ranboo stalls, "If it was trying to kill you, it would've ripped opened your flesh," the revealed horrored the other two, as Ranboo continued on, "And if you had been able to get away, then it definitely would've scarred you at the very least," they finished. 

"What are you trying to say then?!" Tommy demands, reasonably terrified of the possibility of entities kidnapping him rather than killing him like everybody else, the implications far more horrifying due to the unknown. 

"I'm saying, I can finally give an answer to a theory I've had written in my book for who knows how long. Thanks to your and my encounters," Ranboo calmingly says, taking out a pen and starts to write something down. "And what's that?" Charlie asks, hesitant, yet curious all the same. 

"That this place," Ranboo throws an arm out as a way to display the room, "is more merciful towards children rather than adults." "I'm not a child," Tommy yells back, making the ladder of the two shake they're head, before Ranboo rephrases, "Sorry, I meant minors," they finish, seemingly tired of the interactions. 

'They're encounters? As in Ranboo's too? Hold on,' "Wait," Charlie points out, "then how old are you?" He looks at Ranboo, Tommy doing the same, eyebrows lifted at the sudden realization at what the other said. 

"Uh, what year is it?" They ask, unconfident once more. "It's November 2022, duh," Tommy throws out, Ranboo giving out a small 'oh' in return. "Then I should be 17 now," they state. 

Charlie's veins freezes, scared to ask his next question, but curiosity always gets the best of him, "And uh, how long have you been here?" 

Ranboo, stays silent for a long time, their form hunched, body frozen in place. And just as Charlie was going to brush the question off, they speak. 

"I've been here since I was 13 years old."

Chapter Text

Silence engulfed the room after Ranboo's confession. 

'Fuck, no wonder they know this place's ins and outs,' Charlie glances over to Tommy. The boy's hold on his boombox is slack, his body stiff, frozen, but his face looks to be in anguish. A sense of dread hits Charlie at his next thought. 'Is that how long I'm going to be here?' 

His turmoil is interrupted by Ranboo's voice, "Let's just- let's just go," they murmur, gingerly walking ahead, as the other two stood in place. 

Tommy's the first to break out of his trance, then follows Ranboo a few paces behind. 'Well if Ranboo knows the majority of the way out, then we'll be able to cut that time by, at least half!' 

Ever the optimistic, Charlie keeps up with the two ahead, gently knocking Tommy's left shoulder lightly, earning him a nervous smile in return as they walked down a dreary hallway. "Hey," he whispers to the blond. "Hey," the teen whispers back, making space for him to squeeze through the door ahead. Entering the new small room, Tommy's eyes widening his eyes, recalling a previous conversation perhaps. His next words confirmed Charlie's theory, "Have you thought of your comm name yet?" 

As Charlie lit up, opening his mouth quickly to answer, Ranboo lifted his arm up swiftly, stopping all conversation and movement to a halt. Up ahead, an entrance to a dark room layed. They stayed still for about a minute before Charlie's patience worn thin. Taking in a breath of courage, he sped walked past Ranboo, who had noticed, as well as Tommy, Charlie too late as they missed when reaching out to grab the filmer. 

"Hello?" He spoke out, but before he can even step a foot into the room, the lights glowed a bright red. Panick consumed the trio, as all it took was a simple "RUN," from Ranboo to motivate everyone to move. 

Ranboo turned the opposite way and sprinted, repeating they last words like a mantra, while Tommy waited until Charlie caught up to start running as well. As Ranboo was the first to exit out the room, Tommy tried calling out for them to, "Wait!" But it seemed to be futile, as when Charlie made it to the exit, he heard a scream, Ranboo, and the pleas of Tommy crying out. 

There, the entity that had helped them both solve Ranboo's mismatch puzzle and add a few pieces more, floated towards the two teens at an alarming rate. "Guys, guys, guys, guys!" Was all that came out of the boom boxer's mouth before the light went out and darkness consumed the two, leaving Charlie powerless to stop it. 

Instead of following them into the void, Charlie turned to another entrance on the side, hoping the two made it out okay. 'They'll be fine! Fine! Ranboo said this place is merciful towards them, so they're good! Right? Right?!' Pausing to take in some deep breaths, a noise from above echos, distracting him from his internal spiral. 

Charlie finally turned around and saw a vent, which then started to shake, before swinging open. Out crawled a quadrupedal, pale creature, dog shaped and humanoid lookin- 'Oh my god, it's Entity 8.' Charlie sharply exhales in disbelief, before slowly shifting to hide behind the wall, separating the room from the rest of the halls. 

He waits a few minutes, hearing the entity's growls starting to lessen. Thinking he's in the clear, he starts to make his way into the other room before crying out as a pair of jaws clamp down on his left thigh. With a swift kick to the creature's skull, it releases it's grip on the gamer, giving him enough time to enter the room he now recalls to be the 'not-thing' room. 

Quickly, Charlie limps past 'Appendix' and jumps head first into the door painted wall. Crashing to the ground, he gets the wind knocked out of him, an action that seems to repeat itself over and over again here it seems, but when he hears the scratching the whimpers of the monster from the other side, he considers the pain worth it as the alternative is simply death, which is a no brainier for him to choose. 

'This place suckssss,' Charlie sighs, hopping as far from the entity as possible. Passing the desk and clock, he leans against the wall behind it, back turned to it so he can keep his eyes on the 'door,' but as he starts to slide down slowly to sit on the ground, he feels his walkie in his pocket, hindering his movement while also reminding him to check on his friends. 

Taking it out, he turns it on before pressing it close to his face. 'In TIMES like these,' he thinks, staring at the clock, 'I say we deserve a bit of humor to HAND-le our situation,' he solemnly chuckles to himself. "Hey guys, uh I've got bad new, I think we're stuck in The Backrooms." 

Nothing comes through the walkie at first, but then the statics are back, "Uh, hey, what's up guys," Ranboo greets awkwardly. Charlie greets back just as lack before the statics come back up again. "Guy's! Guys! Guys! Can you guy's hear me?!" Tommy speaks out, anxiously rambling. 

Nervous, Charlie assures Tommy, "Yea, I can hear you, can you hear me?" He asked, worried, and rightly so as Tommy seems to push his concerns to the side for something more significant. "I- I just hid in a locker and this, big spiney guy walked in past towards you," he informs, before stating, "I'm get- I'm getting back in," he stammers. 

At these words, Charlie realized he can no longer hear the creature on the other side of the wall, so with whatever courage he has left, he pops his head out of his sanctuary. Red lights blind him in return, but no monsters await him. 

Still, with Tommy's caution, he returns to his spot on the floor in silence and waits for any dangers to overlook him. Minutes pass before Tommy speaks up once again, "Guys, where are you?" Before Charlie can press the button on the side, Tommy cuts back in, "I'm in The Backrooms." With the severity of Tommy's voice and the ridiculously obvious statement that went along with it, Charlie burst into laughter, seemingly enough to break the tension through the comms as his giggles can be heard as he asks, "And Ranboo, what's your status?" 

"Uhh, not to be a buzzkill, but I've found myself in a predicament," Ranboo responds back, voice low and on edge. Not taking the hint, Tommy interferes,"Buzz as in bee? Because I got a beeboi in my life and I ain't going to let some tall fucker with the word boob in their name kill him." 

'What?' 

"What? 

"What?" 

Like a hive mind, Charlie's words, thoughts, and friend have come together as one, in unity, though unionizing may need to be pushed back for a later time. 'Well at least I ain't the only one confused,' back to the main issue on hand, Charlie radios in. "Ranboo, where are you?" 

"I'm stuck in the air duct in the hallway we separated from. I'm halfway out, but the air drifted out and ended up suctioning my lower half," they explained, voice quiet, but shakey. 

"Oh!" Tommy shouts, "I know where you are, one two, one two, I'm making my way to you Drifter!" He exclaimed. "Drifter?" Ranboo brings up, just as confused as always. "Yea, your comm name. It's what you get for venting like a wrong'un," Tommy announces. Now that Charlie's thought about it, he vaguely remembers where that hall is. So, taking a deep breath, he looks out the room once more. When it's determined to be all cleared and ankle-biting-entity-free, he starts making his way out of the wall and back into the office rooms. 

'Wait, now's my chance!' "Speaking of comm names," Charlie intrudes, "I'll go by-" 

"I SEE THE DOG," Ranboo shouts, terrified. 'Oh shit, what was it that the file said, was it noise, light, or-,' he got it. "Direct eye contact!" Charlie informs into the walkie, trying to seem calm, but anxiously speed walking towards Ranboo's location, "Look at it's eyes, it doesn't like it, it doesn't like it!" 

"I SEEN IT- I CAN'T - I CAN'T STARE AT IT, I'M STUCK FACING FOWARD, I CAN'T STARE AT IT CAUSE I'M STUCK FACING FORWARD!" A mess of stutters, repetition, and statics are all they get from Ranboo, before the line goes quiet. Then it goes back on. 

CRACK 

An ear piercing, pained scream comes through, shaking Charlie to his very core. "Ranboo!" "Ran!" In unison, the other two cry out for their lost companion. "MY BONES, MY BONES," Ranboo sobbed, "IT DRAGGED ME OUT, BUT SOMETHING'S WRONG, SOMETHING'S WRONG," another scream. 

"We're coming Ranboo, sit tight!" Charlie proclaims, now sprinting, passing room after room in hopes of hearing his injured friend. "Tommy, come in, where are you?" He calls into his comm, the possibility of crossing paths with the other boy in hopes of locationing Ranboo was too much to resist. 

"I'm in the room with the Tellie," he answers, usually loud voice is now soften with a high pitch at the end, as if unsure. "I'm uh," Charlie finally stops running to take in his surroundings, before spotting a room with tarps layed out on the floor. As he moves closer, the smell of rot hits him first before realizing where he's stumbled into. 

"I, uh, I found a bunch of corpses," he informs, as several bodies are lined in rows on the ground. The carpet is stained, the air rancid, and the tarps have splatters of bright red over them. "Okay, okay, I know where the corpse room is, I'm genuine terrif- I mean terrific, I'm fine, we're going to be fine, be there in a jiffy," after his sudden rambling, the younger then signs off, leaving Charlie to strew in his own thoughts. 

He sees another locker in a dead end hallway, and decides to crouch there for a bit to rest. His adrenaline is finally starting to simmer, leaving him exhausted and the heat radiating out of his body is starting to suffocate him. The trio are apart, one's injured, the other lost, and he's all alone. 

'Okay, let's look at the bright side, at least Ranboo's still alive, we know they'd be alive regardless, since they said this hellhole is easy on them, though, not easy enough to be left unharm he supposed. And Tommy's on his way, but he said that to Ranboo too before the entity got to them, so hopefully he's not just saying it to say it,' nodding to himself, he figured it could be worse, he gets back up, ready to bring up the mood again, for morality, (something they all desperately need right now). 

"Tommy, Ranboo, can you hear me? I'm COMMING in, I'm COMMING," he giddily throws out, moving around the room in attempt to release any nervousness out of his system. 

"Haha, cum," a delirious Ranboo answers, their moans pained and wheezy, a good sign that they hadn't blacked out from earlier. Then, unexpectedly, Tommy starts to sing. 

"Charlie can you hear me~, I'm asking where you've been~," in the melody of 'Frozen's do you want to build a snowman,' the blond continues to bell out. "I love Frozen, is that your favorite Disney movie too?" Charlie asks, as he realizes he doesn't really know the two that well, so he's going learn their ins and outs, one question at a time! 

"Nope," Tommy pops, "That goes to the greatest movie in the history of films, Up! Moana takes second best though," Tommy finishes. "Mulan, she's -," a groan, "such a girl boss," Ranboo completes, voice wavering the whole time. 

As Charlie went from corner to corner of the room, he spots a piece of parchment on the ground, bending down to retrieve it, the walkie comes alive again. "Oh come on! I'm literally back where I started, why do I keep getting lost?!" Tommy cried out, frustration made well known to the others on the line. 'So that's what happened, Tommy's just bad at directions,' Charlie sighs to himself, before hearing footsteps near the other entrance to the room. 

As Charlie pockets the note, he gets ready to bolt, but instead of seeing another life threatening creature, it's Tommy and all of his bag and boom box lugging glory. He doesn't seem to have noticed Charlie yet as he lifts the walkie to his mouth the minute he steps into the room, "I found the bodies!- Charlie?" The blond calls out. 

Creeping from behind, Charlie grabs onto both Tommy's shoulders. He jumps with a muffled shriek, before turning sharply towards Charlie. Just as it seemed like the teen was going to give him a lecture, the boy goes pale, whiter than usual at least. 

"Charlie, don't turn- Charlie turn around!" Tommy instructs, keeping his eyes towards what's behind the spectacle wearer. "Wait, so don't or do?" Charlie nervously laughs, sweat starting to show. "Turn around!" And he does. 

Entity 8 stares back, pleased as always, and when Charlie screams out in surprise the room is engulfed in glaring red lights.

Chapter Text

"Why'd you make me turn around?!" Charlie screamed, as both him and Tommy bolted into one of the cut off sections of the room. There, at the end, was one of many gray lockers that seemed to occupy the level they're stuck in. 

Reaching the locker first, Charlie stills beside it, regaining his stamina and rubbing his injured leg to sooth the burning sensation, while Tommy all, but slammed against the compartment. Even when the kid seemed stunned, he rapidly grabbed at the handle, pulling at it vigorously with his left hand. 

"It's locked!" Tommy announced, turning his whole body to face the opening. Looking up, Charlie surveys the exit. Seeing they're in the clear, he winces and goes back to trying to lessen the pain from the earlier bite he'd gotten. 

"Here," Looking up again stands Tommy holding out a carton of almond water, bag hanging from his chest and zipped open and boombox on the ground. Taking the boxed liquid, he slowly pours the contents onto his leg, making sure the droplets touch every bloody puncture on his skin. The bite wound then hastly stitches together, leaving his skin smooth and unblemished, not a mark on sight. 

With that done, Charlie gently sighs, giving back what's left to the teen besides him. "Okay, I'm good, just- keep it down now," Charlie whispers, his heart beats starting to slow and the vibrations in his eardrums lessen. 

Nodding, Tommy moves to block Charlie from the opening, almost like he's covering him before turning his head to make eye contact with the previous injured man. "Shhhh, be very quiet," he whispers back, before slowly giving a sharp grin. 

'Oh no.' 

The second Charlie's thoughts immerged, Tommy whistled and walked to the opening. Suppressing his laughter, Charlie catches up and clamps his hands over the blond's mouth, "You motherfucking," he wheezes out. In retaliation, the boy licks the filmer's hands, startling him and giving the teen the chance to escape his grasp, cackling at his despair. 

"Ew," Charlie wipes his hands on his khakis before walking out to the main room. "Alright, I think we're good," he reaffirms, towards himself or to his companion, he's unsure, but now that he has a clearer view of the rot infested room, he sees symbols on the metal plates placed above the corpses' heads. 

"Hey, that looks like something for the vents I saw earlier," turning around is Tommy overlooking Charlie's find, close in personal space as always, but his words make something click in Charlie's mind. 

Charlie awes at the information and starts to look into each plate to mesmerize the code to repeat to Tommy, but before he could even read the letterings, the red lights reappear ahead, enough of a signal to Charlie for them to run, but the roar he hears afterwards definitely triggered his fight or flight mode. 

'Oh fuck, Jesus,' Charlie quickly grabs Tommy by his free hand and books it back to the locker. Tommy screams in surprise acknowledging the lighting change and monstrous stomps behind them, then swiftly runs in turn. They make it to the dead end, but the creature had to have seen them turn, as it too had followed them there. 

Before them stood a tall, thin and seemingly wired beast with what looks to be a giant cable box as it's head sits on top. A quick glance is all the two get though before the creature charges towards them, slashing it's black rope for arms at Charlie. 

"AAHH, OH FUCK ME," Charlie shrieks as it makes impact with his left arm. It had a wip like sensation and tore his skin right open. 'Not again!' he dashes past the entity, Tommy running after him, but his body now on high alert, as far as he's aware everything is a threat, so he moves from room to room, hall to hall, before realizing he can't hear anything anymore. 

Stopping to catch his breath, his radio starts, "Come in Charlie, come in!" Tommy cried out, voice strained and wet through the waves. Hazed, he answers with a sob, "Noo," but before he can clarify, he sees a blurry red blob in the distance. 

"Charlie, Charlie I see you!" Tommy calls, then collides against Charlie. "Let me see your-" as the kid goes to grab Charlie's arm, a loud roar rattles across the halls, halting their actions. "We gotta go, we gotta go," he pulls on Charlie's clean arm, but exhaustion pulls on him, weighing the two down. 

"He got me pretty good," Charlie states solemnly as blood gushes down his left side, arm numb. Tommy doesn't seem to hear him though, as he shakes his head and hauls Charlie's good arm over him, dragging the two sluggishly into the next room. 

Putting all his energy into walking had drained Charlie, black spots dancing across his vision while Tommy helped sit him down. As he goes to close his eyes, Tommy shakes him, all while calling his name repetitively. "Charlie don't sleep, hold on, just let me- Charlie, Charlie, Charlie stay awake," as he struggled to keep his eyes open, he makes out Tommy dropping his boombox and opening his bag with one hand, the other still on his shoulder. He can barely see the carton as the teen swiftly runs the liquid down the slashes. 

Pain now dull, his vision suddenly clears and his energy seemed to have been restored as he bolts up and delight. "Mm, almond water!" He cheers, while Tommy all, but collapses in relief, shoulders now relaxed and hand rubbing against his face in a self soothing manner. Then, with whatever left of the liquid he's got, gulps it all down and throws the bottle to the side, "Refreshing, and no police to ticket me for littering here to boot." 

As soon as the words are out of his mouth, the roar is back and the lights switch red once again. "I was joking!" Tommy explained, while Charlie all demanded to, "Run!" 

They zoom into the endless halls once more, Tommy's screams and gibberish being cut off here and there to catch up with all his stuff. As they reach the next room, Tommy made his complains well known. 

"Ah, fuck, this sucks! Why do we end up going into darker hallways?!" The boy gripped his hair with one hand while his right held onto the boombox hard, knuckles near white. 'The stress is eating this loud kid alive,' Charlie sympathized, before thinking 'What better solution to the problem than a little bit of tomfoolery?' 

Clearing his throat, Charlie starts to ramble, "Why would anybody clip into The Backrooms, this sucks!" Adding on to the complaints seemed to calm the teen down a bit, before circling back to the issue at hand. 

"We need to go back into that room and figure out that code thingy," Tommy addressed, pacing back and forth. "You're right, we need to figure out the Corpse room," Charlie confirms, thinking back to the writing on the plates and the locked vent. In order to go back, they'd have to retrace their steps and possibly run back into the creature. 

Taking a deep breath, Charlie draws up the courage to head back first, mumbling 'okays,' and, 'alrights,' to himself. Exiting the room they'd occupied for the last few minutes, they run down the corridors they recognized, backtracking in the rooms they didn't. 

For light conversation, Tommy had been trying to convince Charlie that he has a bazooka in his back for the last three minutes. "-you so don't," Charlie challenges, giggling under his breath at the random indication of a teen from the UK carrying a firearm the size of him in a medium school bag. 

"I do, I do, I have a bazooka!" Tommy claimed, "My brother's from America, y'know, and- and he brought back this beast of a weapon back from Uni, just for big o' me!" The mention of his brother once more, lights his curiosity, enough to indulge in Tommy's little game. "Show me," he demands, "show me the bazooka." 

They stop walking as Tommy sheepishly admits, "I don't really, I don't- Tech wasn't allowed to bring back any firearms from his travels, he'd be unstoppable back him if he did." "Is he the one you gave permission to shoot you if you got married?" Charlie interrogates, mission 'get to know' now back on track! 

At the mention of his family, Tommy seemed to light up, "Nope, that'd be his twin, big Dubs, the bastard went with Tech for Uni too and when they'd call, I began my journey of finding my life love, my soulmate!" Tommy rambles off, "But Wimpy, went 'mememe, Tommy you're way to big and awesome to date, I must approve, otherwise marriage is off,' though he's is stingy prick, so I don't think I'll ever be allowed to date. He didn't even approve of the queen! He's a straight up bitch," the kid's rant closes, leaving a lot for the imagination. 'Okay, two brothers, both possibly Americans? How that works, I'm not sure, adoption maybe? But they live in the UK, and Tech's definitely one brother's name, but the other is confusing.' 

"Do you remember the way?" Cutting off his thoughts, Charlie examines their surroundings before saying, "I think it's this way-," as he enters the next room, the lights turn red in discouragement. Hesitant to enter, he looks from the opening. Fear consumes his as he realizes his earlier claim was right, meaning they'd have to go in. Explaining their circumstance, Tommy groans, "Where's Ranboo when we need them," he sighs. "Well," Charlie steps inside, "there's one thing I know about red, and it's a sign!" Trying to stay confident for Tommy's sake, his fake mood must've been easy to read as the teen added his own thoughts to the man's, "Yea, a sign of danger!" 

Then, as Charlie reached the entrance to the next room, inside stood the entity, who in turn ran towards them rapidly. The two scream, tripping over themselves to go back the way they came in hopes of evading the creature's grasps. 

"SHE'S GOT EYES LIKE A BLUE RICH SKY-" Tommy's screaming gibberish is cut off as the monster slashes the air ahead of him, making him run the opposite way of Charlie's direction. 'Shit, shit, shit, we'll meet up later, the thing shouldn't kill him,' Charlie continues to book it down the halls. 

The creature's roars can be heard fastly approaching, and Charlie diligently looks for somewhere, anywhere that the entity can't reach him. 'There!' his eyes focus on one of the many lockers, 'please don't be locked, please don't be locked,' he chants. Grabbing the handle, the door swiftly pops open. 'YES!' jamming himself inside, he hastly closes the locker door and waits. 

The entity speeds past, roars making the locker vibrate, but the thumps of Charlie's heart is all he can make out in his anxiety induced mind. 

As the beats of the creature's footprints become nothing, he stays. 

Even when his heart settles he stays. 

Even when the hums of the lights is the only sound left, he stays. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he climbs out of his self proclaimed safe place. He's okay, unharmed, and alone. 

So very alone. 

'I need to find Tommy and Ranboo,' is the only thing that comes to mind. He walks past the rooms he knows the monster ran into, but enters rooms he's unfamiliar with. He walks in a daze, entering and exiting halls, rooms, and even ending up back in the 'not-thing's' room. Finally, coming across the room they first ran from an encountered entity all together, the door to the room is closed, but he can hear what sounds like groans on the other side. Hoping for the best, he slowly opens the door, the hinges creaking in tune. 

There, on the floor, layed Ranboo. Their head is bent, leaning against the wall, while their body is limp and spread out. Dried blood seeped into their clothes and onto the carpet, but their chest is still moving up and down, a good sign that their at least alive. 

"Ranboo!" Charlie runs towards them, trips, and collapsed beside them, then scooting close enough to touch their shoulders. Gently shaking them, they groan again, before turning their head, "Charlie?" "Hey," Charlie softly confirms, "That position must be killing your neck, let's get you up, yea?" 

At his request, Ranboo all, but cries, before revealing, "I can't move." 'What? Like too painful to try or- no,' "Does it hurt too much? It's fine if it does, we can wait little before trying," Charlie hopes, maybe even prays that whatever's wrong with Ranboo isn't what he thinks it is. 

But Ranboo shakes their head, solidifying Charlie's worst nightmares, "I can't feel my legs, I can't - Charlie I tried, I really did, to- to get up, but- I'm sorry, fuck, I'm sorry," they sob, and as Charlie's eyes start to roam, he can see exactly where Ranboo had been attacked. A small rectangular hole on the ground is drenched in deep dark red, and the ground around it is tainted in the same liquid as well, hand like footprints of a creature on all fours, the dog, litter the area, and finally the stained carpet connecting the vent and Ranboo is smeared, the way only dragging can only do. 

"Hey, hey, it's okay, we'll - almond water, we'll get you some almond water, that should fix this yea?" Charlie comforts pleadingly, holding onto Ranboo's hands and rubbing his thumbs over them in a circular motion. 

Ranboo sniffs, calmingly themselve's enough to give an answer, "I- I can't remember, c-can you get my book, it's- um right pocket, first page- or maybe third?" Nodding at their first request, Charlie gently pulls out Ranboo's book, turning the first few pages in search for answers. 

There, on page two actually, is information on almond water. 'A naturally flavored beverage commonly found within numerous levels of the backrooms. It is the most abundant source of hydration and is a crucial item for avoiding critical dehydration while traveling' skipping a few paragraphs, stopping at only as few interesting ones, ('This shit can be found in water fountains and bodies of water too?!) he finally reaches the healing properties of it. 'When consumed, has been observed to cure minor symptoms of illness, along with minor improvements in well-being. It has been shown to completely neutralize effects inflicted by hostile entities. However, when in the events of broken bones, the fluid must be consumed more than once over a long duration of time depending on the severity of the breaks, if not, then they would have to heal naturally.' 

"Okay! You just need a LOT of almond water, like a river full amount maybe," Charlie explains, relief shown on the surface level, but deep down, he knows what Ranboo must be thinking. They're now a liability. But Charlie wasn't going to let them be, not if he can help it. Ranboo reaches for his book off of Charlie's hands to see the writing for themselves. Satisfied with the information, they nod to Charlie, 

"Yea, yea okay, do you have any right now?" Charlie shakes his head, before perking up, "I might not, but Tommy's been collecting that stuff for who knows how long, I just gotta find him, will you be alright here in the meantime?" The question alone made Charlie nervous once more, but Ranboo helped vanquish his anxiety. 

"Eh, what's another hour more, besides, playing dead seems to have worked out for me so far. No entities have bothered me since this happened, and I've seen a few around," they reassure him. With Ranboo's permission, they get up and motion towards his walkie, "Well, don't be a stranger, if you need me, don't forget to reach out." 

Ranboo stretches their arm out for a thumbs up as Charlie turns and walks further into the familiar halls.

Chapter Text

"Now, if I was Tommy, distinctively long middle name, Craft, where would I be?" Muttering to himself, Charlie walks along the corridors, mushy carpet cushioning his every step. 

One of the buzzing lights breaks up above Charlie's head, he ducks while speed walking away and he can hear his own heart hammering in his chest. 'What an absolute fever dream, this place is endless, I don't even know my rights or lefts anymore. No wonder Tommy gets lost easily,' after a while, he decided that maybe going back the way Ranboo is would make his search easier. 

Turning back, he shuffles room to room, seeing identical piss colored wallpaper with unique stains every area he passes, before reaching Ranboo's room again. They seemed to have dozed off again as they don't acknowledge his return. Giving a silent, apologetic nod, Charlie walks around them and goes back through the door he'd just found Ranboo through. 

After jogging through the one way section, he ponders. 'He can literally be anywhere!  How the hell is he going to regroup when they're both lost in the fucking Backrooms?!' He exits the hall and enters what looks to be a four way layout room. He paused to re-evaluate the situation, "Man, Mama Cicle always said, If you're ever lost, stay where you are, but I'm a big boy now, so it doesn't work for -," and with that, he looks towards the same corridors he ran through to escape the off brand 90s Tv head thingy. 

'No way, I can't be sure if the kid's parents told him to do the same thing, and he doesn't seem to be the type to listen to authority in the first place. But what if-' jogging into the traumatic four wallled in halls, he comes across a recognizable door. A door in which he had saw Tommy running to when the cabled beast blocked his way from escaping with Charlie. 

'Here we go,' Hope blossoming in his gut, he reaches out, grabs onto the door knob, then twists and pulls. Walking into the divided walled room, he goes further in, eventually making it to the other side of said room, a dead end, and still no sign of the blue eyed resourcer. Sighing, he turns to walk back out when- 

His eardrums are blasted, assaulted even, by the sound of- 'IS THAT SWEET CHILD O' MINE BY GUNS N' ROSES?!?!' There, crouched over his boombox that's set on the floor, was the missing teen himself, laughing hysterically at his expense. And oh what an infectious laugh it was, as Charlie too laughed uncontrollably the minute his shock wore off. 

Grabbing the high volumed music player, the blond got up from his corner of the room and jogged up to a now humming Charlie, syncing with the beats that was still playing out. "It's me, Jim Halpert!" Tommy announces, stretching his arms out making a show of his presence. 

"My sweet child!" Charlie reciprocated by opening his arms out as well before bringing Tommy into a quick hug and then pulling away. "Jim, I knew you were pranking me, I knew it was all a prank!" He played along, just excited to see their final part of the trio alive and seemingly well. 

The teen then stares off to the side, before exclaiming, "I'm looking directly into the camera!" Laughing, Charlie was still curious as to why Tommy stuck to the room instead of going off on his own like usual, so he decides asking wouldn't hurt, "I'm guessing your parents also told you to stay put if lost right?" Nodding with his signature smile, Tommy confirmed, "Oh yea, Dadza's a stickler for rules, which is rare for us Crafts as Mumza's the complete opposite, me and Tech take after her, of course, being an anarchist and all, and I just like a little chaos, that's why I'm her favorite!" He explains. 

'Mumza and Dadza? Anarchists?? And favorites?? Okay, I should take this one at a time,' "What's the Za in your parents names for? Is it a slang for weed like the zaza?" Jumping side to side, Tommy proudly informs his green eyed companion the actual reason, "It's part of my father's name! Phil Zamine Craft! The only man ever, but my mother, a true goddess and most badass girlboss, is higher in the hierarchy because dad's too much of a simp to be top dog!" 

"Hierarchy? But I thought your family are anarchists?" Charlie contributes, learned more about the teen by the second, and living for it. "No, that's just Techno, my wet blanket of another brother is all for democracy and the rest of us switch between those two and more, depending on the circumstance." 

"Even your 'stickler for the rules' dad?" Charlie inputs. 

"Especially him, he's a well renown traitor with Techno being his favorite and all, one moment he's saying, 'No running in the house,' and then the minute we prank him with a glitterbomb he's SPRINTING down the halls, chasing me and Wetter while Techno just watches from the couch, the audacity of him since he helped us PLAN the set up," Tommy grumbling. Shaking his head, Charlie decides now should be a good time to get back to the situation at hand, "Now what do you say we get back to work, I found our coworker to be in a real pickle at the moment." 

That peaked the boy's interest as he sets to lower his boombox's volume before inquiring Charlie's statement. "You found Ranboo? How are they doing, why aren't they with you?" He rapidly questioned, moving his head right and left before trying to see past Charlie in an attempt to locate their final companion. 

Grabbing Tommy's shoulders to still his movements, Charlie then explains, "They're incapable of moving, I'm no doctor, but I think their paralyzed from the waist down," Tommy's eyes widen, mouth agape, but before the teen can freak out, Charlie calms him down enough to finish, "BUT, they're going to be fine, we looked through their book and found that if we give them enough almond water to drink, they'll be good as new! Wouldn't even be able to tell some humanoid dog crushed his spine into oblivion!" His reassure, although morbid, was enough for the teen to understand, as he pulls his pack from his back and takes out carton, after carton, after carton of the freakishly bone healing nut juice. 

"Big man, I've got an oasis of these, Ranboo's going to be walking in no time!" Tommy beams, before putting the water back into his neverending bag. "Where to, Big C?" Pointing towards the way he came, Charlie sees Tommy increasing 'Clementine's' volume back up, before walking said direction, all while singing along to his tunes. Then the teens usual rambles start. 

"I'll keep you updated! I'm going into the Backrooms, I'm going to the Backrooms!" Laughing at Tommy's antics, Charlie quickly follows behind the ecstatic music enjoyer, before trying to lower Tommy's voice, though his actions were futile. "No one's gonna stop me! I'm in the-" 'Oh my god, he's going to fuckin' die,' Charlie shakes his head disapprovingly as Tommy ran up ahead, too far away for Charlie to hear, but the boombox's beats blasting through the corridors was enough for him to still hear and locate said teen. 

He can still hear the occasional echos of Tommy's claims before hearing Ranboo on the radio for the first time since leaving them. "Is that you guys I'm hearing?" They asked, concerned. "Yea, is Tommy's boombox really that loud?" Charlie response, wondering if maybe it was the vibrations of the music that got to Ranboo first or the actual sound. "Uh huh, I'm going to need you two to turn it down by the time you get to me. I'm gaining a headache already," they groaned out, not impressed in the slightest by they're friends actions. 

Just as Charlie was about to answer, the lights turned red and the roar of the thing in the distance came along with it. "Oh fucking Christ,dude you gotta be kidding," as he ran to the side to hide away, he can still hear Tommy's echoed singing which then into, yelling? 'Is he ARGUING with the monster??' seeing a door along the side he'd hidden in, he goes through it and sees the elevator they'd came into 'Level 3' by. 

Closing the door behind him, he quickly enters inside it, ready to hit the button to get the fuck out of there before pausing, index finger hovering over the key panel. 'Wait-, what am I doing, I'm not even hurt, what am I freaking out about?' lowering his hand away from the buttons, he backs up a bit to process what could've been his greatest mistake. 

'If I had pressed a key, I might've never seen the other two ever again, hell I might've never even made it to the right rooms, meaning I'd never go home. And even if I don't end up getting to go home, at least I'd have Ranboo and Tommy, but moving on to another floor without them? I'd be lost and alone, so very alone,' he slowly lowers himself to the ground, but before he can spiral any further, his walkie turns back on. 

Noticing the statics, he brings the comm up to speak into, "Hello?" "Charlie? How it going? I'm starting to be able to think again without all that sound going on and Tommy's almond water after he found me," Ranboo answered, a 'Hey!' can be heard in the background, most likely Tommy, as calm, yet nitpicking words from the two's earlier actions was a good indication of Ranboo's health rising. 

'Oh thank fuck, they're okay, and that should mean Ranboo will be able to start moving again!' however, as he walked out and away from the elevator's room, Charlie's mood from earlier still weighs heavily on him, the implications of what he almost did was not only abandoning the other two, but also forsaking them all has left him guilty and remorseful of ever thinking of such a thing. 

"Ranboo, none of this feels real right now, I feel like I'm dreaming," he complains, not caring of the pointed, but fair statement. "Well the Backrooms are like a dream, you've seen how it is, I feel like I've been in a coma all this time and I just can't wake up," Ranboo inputs, voice losing emotion at the very end, before speaking up again. "Anyways, Tommy's holding me up to help me walk, so he can't answer his comm for now." 

'Ah, yea the kid's probably foaming at the mouth from not being able to answer currently,' Charlie walks down several twists and turns and as he turns down a dark corner, he nearly colliding with, low and behold, Tommy and Ranboo. 

"Oh hey Charlie, how's it going?" Ranboo asks, they're body weight all, but crushing Tommy down as their tall figure simply lays over the younger. Tommy's right arm is under Ranboo's arm with his left is occupied with his boombox, now turned off, possibly for the sake of Ranboo. 

"Ah, is the almond water not enough," Charlie questions anxiously. Ranboo clumsinessly shakes their head, sort of similar to a bobblehead, before stating, "Tommy was only able to give me a pint and a half before we had to run from the entity you all lured." 

Tommy scoffs, before correcting, "That thing was already around and chased us when we'd barely even said a word to each other, you knob. It was going to come after us no matter what, so we might as well have fun with it," he argued. Ranboo sighs, before changing the matter. 

"I can at least be with you two now," they all nodded their heads at that, some more aggressively than others, before Charlie decided to address the elephant in the room. "Okay, we've been for who knows how long, and we aren't any closer to find out how to get out of here, we have to at least figure out how to move on to the next level," steam starts to cloud into the room during Charlie's declaration, but it doesn't distract the rest from the statement. "Okay, Ranboo, is there anything in that bitchless booklet of yours that can tell us what to do?" Tommy seems to have moved the idea engine running as they all start to bounce out ideas towards ideas, Ranboo reading out anything helpful all the while. 

Eventually, Ranboo sighs in defeat, before closing they book and putting it away. "Okay, none of this is helping. I don't know about you guys, but I'm genuinely exhausted from the mess we've escaped from, so I say we make camp here for now while I study the layout I have on my notes," they suggest. Now that Charlie thinks about, he has not rest since he first met Ranboo, other than the small introduction break they all had in the safe room, so he's inclined to agree. 

Tommy seems to approve with plan as well as he exhales, gently sits Ranboo against one of the room's walls, and then promptly drops into a laying position. Ranboo and Charlie chuckle at the display, before Charlie sits down besides the drowsy teens to settle in for the time being.

Chapter Text

"Man I could go for a burger right now." Charlie layed on the ground, staring up at the paneled beams on the ceiling. Ranboo, who's been sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall studying their notes, turn towards him, while Tommy, who's decided to lay on his stomach, his backpack still fused to his back and his boombox charging in an outlet nearby, made a affirming grunt in response. 

"A burger?" Ranboo commented, seemingly confused on the sudden subject. "Hooo, yea! Bread, mayo, tomato, lettuce, onions, and the juicy, succulent meat in between!" Charlie reminisced, practically salivating at the meer thought of a meal. 

Off to the side, Tommy lets out a fake sob and whine on the ground, the poor boy also wishing for something solid to consume, but Ranboo straightens up. "Oh, that's right," they've connected, "I forgot about those." 

That seemed to erase any drowsiness the blond had, as he got swiftly looked up towards the matted haired teen and sat up from the ground, a disdained, yet flabbergasted look on his face. "I thought you were American, weren't burgers MADE by your country?" 

As Tommy stared daggers at the other teen, Charlie seemed to be astro protecting into the atmosphere, for he's absolutely stunned at what he had heard come out of Ranboo. 'They forgot a burger? But- what, does- but it's a BURGER!' Ranboo scoffed, shaking they're head towards the scorched looked duo, "Well sorr-ee," they sarcastically replied, "I had better things to do, than care enough about some nationalized sandwich!" 

That's it, it's over, Ranboo has affective broke Charlie. 'It's- It's a burger, burger, me, me is now burger, I am the burger, I'm THE burger!' "I'M BURGER," said man cried out, sitting up, before collapsing into his own hands, covering his eyes in distress. "See, now look at what you've done," Tommy called out, arm stretched in Charlie's direction, "you've made the big man upset!" Moving over towards the tearful man, the blue eyed boys turns his pack to his chest, "Here Charlie, calm yourself, have some almond water." 

As he goes to pull out a carton, Ranboo interrupts, "Now, hold on, that's supposed to be for me!" Tommy paused, then lifts the liquid out and starts to juggle it around. "Mm I don't know," he teased, "I think Charlie needs it more, don't you think?" The atmosphere starts to lighten up, enough for Charlie to be brought back down to- earth? Or wherever The Backrooms is located. 

"Wait, let's talk about this yea, uh big man?" Ranboo pleads, their recovery now in the hands of a wild, unpredictable child, who's cocky smile is covered in braces that'll surely cement itself into any unexpecting victim's arm, if not negotiated kindly. "What are you willing to do for it, hmm?" The blond taunts, mildly amused with the sudden being's change. Before Ranboo can reply, Charlie sat up, before inputting himself, "Let us jam out!" Gasping, Tommy cried out with a loud "YES!" while Ranboo groaned. 

"Do you accept, my fellow traveler?" Scarily fast, Tommy had gotten up to be inches from Ranboo's face, expression delighted at the prospect of listening to his tunes once more. Ranboo signs, before resigning with a simple, "Got any earplugs?" Tommy woops, before digging out a pair and tossing both the water and plugs to the dejected goggle wearer. 

Ranboo opens the carton first and then lifts it up to- 'Are they drinking it through their mask?!' "Does that actually work?" Charlie interrupts. Taking a swig, Ranboo nods before seemingly swallowing the mouthful they were able to pour through the piece of cloth on their face. "Wait, really? Huh," Tommy comments, more impressed than disgusted based on his expression. 

They shrug, before going back to the past topic at hand, "Don't play anything sad or angry, it'll attract the monsters, trust me," they said, before putting one bud on the right side of their head, through their hair, away into the void it went. Taking they're advice, Tommy replied, "Oh, I know just the thing to play." Going over to his boombox, he takes a tape out of his bag and then inserts it in.

As the calm audio of 'Able Sisters' plays through the room, Charlie recalls never being able to tell the others what his comm name should be, so, without further ado, he announces it in one word, "Slime." 

"What?" Tommy questions, Charlie chuckles,"It's Slime, my comm name." Grinning at his reveal, Tommy nods with a snicker before asking, "And where'd you get that name from?" 

"It's from my YouTube Channel, I make videos with my roommates and some of my old high school buddies," Charlie informed. Ranboo made no indication of knowing what to make of this info, but Tommy was now looking at Charlie in awe, mouth agape and eyes shining. 

"Oh my days, you're famous! What do you play? Do you edit your own videos? How many views do you average? Is it as fun as it seems? Oh, Tubbo's going to be so jealous when I tell him I met a YouTuber!" Tommy finally stops to take in some air, but before he can continue his bombardment of questions and Charlie can respond, Ranboo perks up, "Tubbo?" 

Tommy pauses to look at the expressionless teen, "Yea, he's my best friend, bee boi, we've gone to school together since forever! Though, he majors in engineering and chemistry at the academy we're in." Ranboo hastily starts to turn to the back of their notes, their movements concentrated with determination, while Charlie prods for more information. 

"What do you major in? Comedy?" Shaking his head at Charlie's guess, he corrects him, "Film actually, though my sub is editing and photos! I'm like Spiderman!" Finally, Ranboo looks back up from their book and asks, "Did you guys ever play a block game when you two were younger-," they look back down at their book again, "Uh, Minecraft, I think?" 

Gasping, Tommy cried out, "Did we ever?! I'll have you know me and Tubs were one of the firsts to play it! Test it even, since my Dadza's the creator!" The boy's joy then turns into mildy concerned curiosity, as he tilts his head, "Why do you ask?" 

'And Tommy called ME famous, when his own FATHER, THE PHILZA MINECRAFT (how did I NOT put that together earlier?), is the creator of a multimillion dollar video game! Where are his priorities? But wait, why DID Ranboo ask those questions specifically?'  All eyes set on the towering teen, and as the pressure got to them, they finally stammered out, "Uh, do you- does 'EnderCat420' ring any bells?" 

At that, Tommy all, but stilled, eyes widened and staring at Ranboo intensely, before shouting, "OH MAH GOD- You're Tubbo's little internet friend he'd play with whenever I had piano lessons!" He pointed his finger up close to the masked kid's face, "He'd talk about you ALL the time, and then suddenly, poof! He stopped mentioning you after Christmas in year 6. I thought you two got into an argument, turns out you fell out of the face of the Earth and ended up h-," Tommy paused in his rant, breath and body shaking, before something seemed to click in his head, as he's then throwing himself roughly at Ranboo. 

With a stunted grunt, they both fell onto the side, and as Ranboo looked down at the boy to complain, they were cut off, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, oh Christ, I'm sorry," Tommy sobbed out, over and over again, in sorrow, in guilt, or remorse, Charlie wasn't sure, but it was sincere all the same. 

'Small world,' Charlie thought gravely. And really, as touching as this second hand reunion is, it was also devastating, to think what could've been with the supposed three teens, had the world not been so cruel, dreadful enough for the fabric of reality to tear itself apart, just so that they'd never truly meet one another. But jokes on whatever horrid being was in control of said universe, because their efforts were wasted as at least two of them stand here, arm in arm, reunited and proof that it had all been for not.  

Charlie doesn't know where he'd be without his two best friends, the ones back at home, waiting for him to return. Just the thought of never meeting them had never crossed his mind, but he knew for a fact, he never would've been as happy or playful as he is now, as they were the ones to push him into doing something he'd love instead of a nine to five office job like he was going to take all those years ago. 

He'd have rotten away on some desk, a monitor with texts and emails taking up his time, no banter to pounce off anybody, no random side quest to bide time, no entertainment to feed his creativity. Just another cog in a machine until he'd have an existential crisis and die feeling unfulfilled and lonely. 

Or he's just being dramatic, since it's not like he'll truly know what his future will hold, he's just cruising by, surfing the waves he's always known as life, and even if he were to fall off his board, he'll always swim back up and hop back on to glide along again until the day he finally sinks. 

Cutting his thoughts short, he tunes back as he watches Ranboo awkwardly rubbing one hand on Tommy's back, while the other brushes through his hair. Tommy's cries have simmered down by now, a few sniffles can be heard here and there, as his face is against Ranboo's chest, the dirtied grey jacket and shredded bits of what used to be a poncho not deterring him one bit. 

Finally, somebody decides to break the silence. "I've been wondering," Ranboo remarks, Tommy lifting his head up for the first time since embracing the teen to hum in encouragement, eyes shining at at the masked being's face. "Is Tubbo his actual name?" Tommy lightly smiles, laughing wetly, "Nah, his real name is Tuberculosis, but we call him 'Tubbo' for short." A squawk like laugh comes out of Charlie, Tommy bursting out in laughter along with him, as Ranboo shakes their head in false disapproval, yet chuckling with them all the same.

"I think I liked it better when I didn't know," they commented, before moving to get up. Tommy immediately removes himself from their chest to help lift them up by the arms instead. "I think we've rested enough, the sooner we escape this level, the sooner will all be able to get home," Ranboo states. Tommy nods rapidly, seemingly close to snapping his own neck with how fast his movements are, but the determination in his eyes tells it all. 

Deciding to be useful, Charlie pauses the music playing from the boombox before unplugging it's charging cord and handing them back to the blond. The steam returns, only this time it sounds like a machine is powering them. The noise is loud, and when Charlie asks about it, his voice is muffled, along with his companions' responses. Finally he can pick up a bit from Ranboo, "-an't hear anything because of the steam." 

After the tension and sorrow aura they've all had to endure because of this place, Charlie didn't see the harm of goofing off once more, "That's why I prefer Epic Games, YOU GOT A SMILE, THAT IT SEEMS TO ME-." As he skips ahead of the others, he can hear Tommy giggling and singing along, hauling Ranboo with his right arm under Ranboo's and Ranboo's left hanging over the blond's shoulder. 

Wandering from room to room, the trio bath in the soothing ambience they've created. However, as they've learned time and time again, any good mood never lasts for long in the hellish labyrinth they've fallen into, for the second they enter a new room void of halls, the lights flash red.

Chapter Text

"Red, red, red, RED!" Ranboo cried out, signaling the others to book it down the corridors. They all pick up the pace and enter the next room over. As Charlie slams the door shut, Tommy whistles high, alarming Charlie for once while Ranboo hanged off of the other teen, the earplugs from earlier seemingly doing wonders for them. 

"Why would you whistle-why would you do that?" Charlie scolds, exasperated already. "I got nervous! I need noise, it calms me plenty!" Tommy sheepishly replied, before readjusting his grip on Ranboo, bouncing in place, possibly ready to get a move on. 

Charlie sighs and Ranboo just shrugs towards him in sympathy, "In other news, I'm starting to feel my legs again, there's just a slight tingle and ache," they divert. 'Right, on the bright side, look at the bright side Charlie'. "You're actually doing a really good job at keeping up with us, with Jim from the Office's help of course, we've got quite the team here" Charlie compliments, both teens preening in appreciation. 

As the trio 'venture on, they stumble into a dark room, a body of someone who looks to be in a sickingly yellow hazmat suit, fluids poured from their side suggesting said suit being compromisedresulting in their limp and lifeless form. Being able to gloss over the 'Corpse room' was manageable, as all the bodies had been covered in tarps with no significant sign on how their deaths came to be, but actually being able to see the fatal would of a clear masked individual had truly set in stone how many people have lost their lives for something out of their control. 

'That could be us soon,' Charlie's gut dropped, unsteady, as he finally turned away from the corpse. Looking towards the other two, he can see Tommy hunching over, his face pale, the color having drained from his face, before abruptly pushing Ranboo away and turning to vomit onto the already ruined carpet below their feet. 

Ranboo, on the other hand, seemed unaffected, as they staggered against the wall to right themselfs from Tommy's earlier push, but layed their hand onto the blond's back for comfort. As Charlie was going to suggest turning back around, Ranboo decides to look more closely at their surroundings. "Hey, a file," they pointed out, as on the other, cleaner side, of the body, layed a beige file, not unlike the ones they've encountered before. 

Seeing as Ranboo could barely walk on their own, and Tommy was clearly not in a well enough state to even THINK about approaching the deceased, Charlie took it upon himself to check the folder himself. Opening it up, revealed that the next room, possibly the same one Charlie had been stuck in before, was radioactive. 

"Okay, so this is the radioactive area," Charlie warned, Ranboo nodding as they'd been the one to help Charlie out before, while Tommy groaned for him to continue. "It says, if anybody wants to enter, they'd need a 'protection suit,' otherwise the radiation could kill them. The items located in the area is also radiated. There's a door though, but it only opens if the radiation levels are low, but in order to achieve that, a 'Level D' extinguisher is required to spray radiated objects and will only decrease it by approximately 3 minutes," he finished, surprisingly satisfied with the information. 

"Okay, let's get out of this room for a minute, then we can quickly think of a plan," Charlie then hands the files to Ranboo, before taking in Tommy's earlier roll of being Ranboo's chaperone. Carrying and guiding Ranboo and Tommy out, back the way they came, is when Tommy comes to a realization. 

"So, at least one of us has to go in longer than the rest, at least enough to get the radiation levels down, innit?" The blond addresses, nervousness seemingly returning tenfolds. 

Charlie nods dispiritingly, while Ranboo is comparing their notes with the file, adding in a few scribbles here and there. Tommy whistls, before coming to his own conclusion, "Alright guys, Clementine will be my warning signal," he motions towards his boombox, "if you hear her playing for a sec, then we have a problem, but if she's on full performance, then we're doing okay, got it?" 

Confused at the sudden idea, he simply nods, before taking in the boy's resigned mood. The blond's stance has stayed hunched over, but his eyes shift from down cast towards the floor to the entrance of the file's room. He's slightly shaking, but his face is blank all the same, and that's when Charlie figures out what he's implying. 

"You are NOT going into that room," he states, lowering Ranboo to the ground before swiftly grabbing Tommy by the shoulders, making his face the other. Tommy sputters, "Well somebody has to! Ranboo's just starting to heal, and who knows how much radiation you've inhaled from last time, so it makes sense that it has to be me!" The teen exclaimed angrily, like Charlie's the one being unreasonable, and with the way the teen put it, Charlie can understand his frustrations, because well, he had a point. 

However, Charlie could not, in good faith, let one of his fellow wanders risk their lives as young as they are, at least not alone. "How about we go in and find the extinguisher together?" He tries to persuade, but the blond shakes his head rapidly. "Then who will look out for Ran? They can't even get up on their own, what if that thing gets in here and drags them away?" Making eye contact with each other, Charlie can now see the undeniable concern and devastation on the kid's face, and that's when he knows a compromise is the only way out of this. 

"Okay! Okay, let's just figure out all the other puzzles first, then when we come back to this, we can take turns, that way we both won't be there for long and when the other gets back, we'll relay information, and Ranboo will be safe with you or me all the while!" Tommy pauses, clicking his mouth shut from the previous action of arguing back to ponder. Then his shoulders, who Charlie didn't realize had gotten so tense, lowers, as the teen hesitantly nods, but his face has fallen to relief. 

Ranboo, who'd been quiet up until this point, finally decides to interject, "We could just use the suit that's in the room, it'll smell horrible, but it should work." Silence, then, "What the fuck, Ranboob," Tommy replied, disgust and discomfort shown on his face. Ranboo scoffed and before an argument can arise, Charlie interferes, "It wouldn't actually, there's a tear were the wound is, so the radiation would seep in anyways." 

Nodding, Ranboo goes back to reading their notes, while Tommy grumbles and pulls his pack to his chest to dig around in it. Then, he pulls out an almond water carton, before chucking it right at Ranboo's head. 

They collide and with a pained 'Oof,' Ranboo is thrown back, but catches themself, with both arms behind and the carton falling besides them. "That's what you get for suggesting we disturb the dead bitch, like who does that?" The blond accuses, arms in motioning rapidly while his mouth is pulled in a scowl. 

"It was just a comment, and if we did NEED the suit, we'd have to take it off. We have to use everything at our disposal, if it's not being used, then WE use it," Ranboo argues, as they rub the side of their head that's been hit. "There's always a different way to go about it dickhead, if that guy, or girl, found one, then we can find one as well," Tommy counted, agitated at the sheer disrespect his friends were amusing. 

"Hey, hey, hey, let's all calm down now," Charlie demanded calmly, before turning to Ranboo, "I get that we have to do things we don't agree with to survive, but don't forget your morals in the process, this was somebody's loved one once, so you suddenly seeing them as just another object in the way without a second thought is really un-cool of you," then he turns to Tommy, "and Toms, I get that you're upset, but getting violent towards the other because you disagree on something isn't going to get you anywhere, we're all in this together, we shouldn't make enemies of each other, and Ranboo was just trying to look out for us, in their own stunted, fucked up way," Charlie comforts. 

The other two seem to settle with that, with a soft, "Whatever," from Ranboo as they pick up the water and a sharp, "Fuck off," from Tommy. Charlie sighs, before asking to look at the file again. Ranboo obliges, handing the folder to the green eyed man and then bringing the carton up to drink through their mask again. 

Charlie chuckles in disbelief before confirming the information he'd read aloud earlier, "Alright, we need an extinguisher, guys," he announces. "What, for the middle class? The Tories as you will," Tommy implicates as he's in the middle of helping Ranboo get up, earning a laugh out of Charlie, "Yea, we need to extinguish the middle class, that's right Jim!" 

With the three now settled, they start to walk away from the radiation area to investigate the rest of the puzzles they'd miss before. Every now and again, Tommy whistle, getting a light smack on the head by the other lean, pole like teen, but it doesn't discourage his habit any less. 

"So, you all obviously know the Great Alpha male, Tommy's full name, innit?" Tommy questions, in third person for some unknown reason. The others nod hesitantly, before the blond continues, "Well, I never got either of yours, just the firsts, but when we make it out of here, I want to be able to keep in contact, and it should be easier if we all knew each other's names." 

'Huh, the kid brings up a good point,' "Well, legally, it's Charlie Chad Cicle, but I used to go by Chadbussy in high school," Tommy laughed uncontrollably while Ranboo tilted their head in confusion. While Tommy was distracted, Charlie turns to Ranboo, "And what's your full name?" Ranboo sputters, before saying, "Ah, I'd rather not say." 

This catches Tommy's attention, "What, is your last name really embarrassing? Bet it's Boob, to match with your brand, boob boi," the teen taunts. "It's not boob, I just don't think it's necessary for you to know," they scoff, which seems to infuriate Tommy as his eyebrows furrow downward. 'Does Ranboo NOT want to stay in contact after this? I'd get their boundaries, but I thought we were all getting along well before, a few minor hiccups, sure, but nothing too serious, so what gives?' 

"Come on man, stop being a pretentious fuck and say it!" Tommy demands, bristling and at his wits end with the goggle wearer that's hanging off of him. "I'm not pretentious!" They argued, "I'll have you know that once we're out of here, the only people who'll need it will be the police, and you are not the police, so therefore you do not need to know," they finished. 

"Sounds like what a pretentious fuck would say," Tommy scoffs. 

"Why you-," 

"Alright guys, that's enough!" Charlie interrupts, before pulling Ranboo off of Tommy to be supported by him instead, "What did I tell y'all earlier? We shouldn't be at each other's throats, we're all friends here, so act like it," he sternly executes. As he moved on foward with Ranboo, he barely hears what Tommy whispers under his breath. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." 

'What the fuck, I thought they had gotten all buddy buddy since their earlier crying fest, why are they so hostile towards each other now?' 

They past by a few familiar areas, avoid a couple of entities, none of which were the wired creature, before Ranboo has them stopping. "What's wrong, do you need a break?" Charlie asks, but Ranboo shakes their head and exhales in, excitement? 

"Let me go for a second?" Charlie's eyes widen, before doing what he's told. Low and behold, Ranboo stands, alone, with the support of their own free will and strength. They then take a step, then another, and another, a slight limp from their left leg, but moving all the same, before finally bursting into cheers. "I can walk now, I can walk now!" They sung. 

The other two woop and cheer, disdained and bad blood forgotten for the moment for the celebration of what could've been a death sentence if the issue remained permanent. Well, not entirely forgotten, as Tommy decided to be a little cheeky. "Something's behind you," he softly sung to Ranboo, causing them to wip around swiftly with a loud, "Where?!" 

"Made you look, made you swear, made you show your underwear!" He laughed to himself, throwing out a few whistles, as Ranboo sighs in both irritation and relief. 'Just some good ol' nursery school taunts to get the vibes going,' Charlie thought, chuckling softly. 

The trio, now all mobile, walk through an elongated hall, before Tommy's gibberish starts back up again, "Charlie look, I'm going to be sexist!" As funny as the jokes COULD be, he figured he had to actually start being a good role model for the two teens, so instead of cooperating as usual, he thought discipline was in order. 

"That's bad, seven push ups, now," was that good enough as a punishment? Meh, there was only so much Charlie can do in a dangerous area they're in. Tommy deflates, "Awww, your just like my brothers, 'mememe Tommy stop being sexist,' and, 'bruh, your existence is dropping my reputation,' like what reputation? You work at a library Techno, and you haven't even finished writing your horror mystery novel yet, get over yourself," the boy rants, but he does crouch and gets in push up position, so a win's a win's in Charlie's book. 

Ranboo is stifling they're laughter at Tommy's predicament, white gloved hand pressed against their mask as Charlie starts counting. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, two more, come on, 6, 7, 8? 9?! Oh my god, this guy respects women! This is crazy!" Charlie exclaims as Tommy bursts into hysterical laughter, dropping to the ground at the same time. 

Just as the trio are collecting themselves once more, the room besides them glows red, and the roar of the wired monsters comes through once more. "OH MY GOD, YOU GOT TO BE FUCKING ME NOT AGAIN?!" Charlie screams, Tommy and Ranboo yelping in agreement as the three run off into the darkness.

Chapter Text

You know, Charlie's starting to think this repetitive chase of cat and mouse is getting old, and mildly exciting in the hopefully-don't-perish kind of way. Though, that might just be the adrenaline talking. 'Man, with all this running around, I'm going to be CHULKED out by the time we get out of here!' 

He can hear Tommy playing 'Sweet Child' again and he can't help, but hum along as his vision starts to blur. Maybe the kid was right, what was it he had said? Oh right, it was, "[If it's] going to come after us no matter what, we might as well have fun with it," or something along those lines. That's probably why Tommy's been antagonizing the monsters lately, or the teen's gone insane, who can say? 

"We're dead, we're dead, we're dead," Ranboo gasps repetitively, short of breath from their barely self made recovery. 'Dead's such a funny word, dead, dead, de-de-de, ed,' Charlie giggles to himself, as the three reach a dark corner with a hall to the left side and a room on the right. 

The hall is illuminated by lights, while the room is shrouded in an all too familiar shadows, as if to hide a suit adjourned body, and as Tommy runs ahead, Charlie gets a BRIGHT idea. 

"No, let's go into the radioactive room, it won't see us, the dark should protect us!" Charlie yelled up ahead, directing the unfocusing blond into diving inside what's to be their sanctuary. 

Whether the boy knew what awaited them inside the room or not, he didn't hesitate in taking Charlie's suggestion. Following close behind, the other two ran in as Tommy coward in the corner that's opposite to where the corpse layed. 

Charlie paid no mind to the teen's distress as he nearly ran past the body and into the intoxicated filled space if it wasn't for Ranboo roughly grabbing him by his jacket collar and yanking him back to their side. 'Wow, Ran's GOT to be hiding their muscles under the rags, otherwise I have NO idea where they got their strength from.' 

Once the group is crouching, Ranboo and Charlie along the wall and Tommy by the entrance they'd came from, the blond hushly warns, "Be very quiet," before crawling foward to have a peek of the outside. 

'I've heard that one before, so why try? The silence is just going to be broken again, probably by Tommy himself,' Charlie snickers, as he then softly continues his previous humming, with a few words that can remember from the original lyrics added in. 

Tommy's head clicks as he sharply turns it in Charlie's direction, before grinning and singing along, both voices low and airy as they, including a silent Ranboo, start to waddle, inching forward and out of their safe haven. 

Slowly moving into the hallway, Charlie swerves to look at the blond, stumbling as the blur in his sight is making him dizzy, and notices that Tommy seems to actually know the entire song lyrics. 

"I didn't realize it actually had lyrics, I thought it just went 'pownowwownow nowuh,'" Charlie comments, which earns him a tired and drawn out giggle from the headphone wearer. Ranboo looks back and forth between the two, swirling their head rapidly, before placing their right hand over the side of their head. 

"Hold up, somethings...off?" They claim, then pull out their notebook and quickly flipping through as many pages as they can before pausing, "Oh God," they groan, then nearly running ahead of them, limping down the corridor. "What?" Tommy replied, irritation at the edge of his tone, while Charlie hummed questionably as he watched them zoom off into the room at the end. 

Shrugging at Ranboo's sudden concerns and movements, Charlie goes back to humming the same song the blond has had on repeat for most of their journey. "Wow, I've got tunnel vision," he walked along, the lights seeming to encase the hall from above as he squints his eyes upwards. 

Tommy sings along to the man's humming, but putting his own twist by making up new lyrics, and dragging Charlie by his sleeve to keep up. Charlie chuckles, and then tunes in, "There's a beast and it screams to me," then stops to think what to sing after, though he doesn't have to think for long before Tommy's takes it upon himself to collaborate, "He reminds me of, Backroom energy," Charlie chuckles as Tommy continues, "I remember, I remember when rock was young, me and Susie-." 

As the two finally caught up to Ranboo, they see them screwing the vents on the ceiling close with a rusty old screwdriver, which helped Charlie focus back, though his attention on how REALLY tall the other teen was to even be able to reach that high. "Don't worry guys, you'll be okay I'm just closing these to make sure nothing surprises us, I'm an expert at this," Ranboo reassures them as calmly as possible. 

"Well, what was it in that book of yours that got your panties in a twist a couple minutes ago?" Tommy demands, arms crossed and waiting for their explanation. Charlie, wanting them to be all nice and huggy again, smacks Tommy on the back of his head for his foul mouth, "Aye," Tommy yelps, "I'm calling the child hotline, I'm a minor, this is abuse!" 

Shaking they're head at their antics, Ranboo finishes screwing close that last vent before leading them to a room filled with vases. Tommy picks up some almond water he finds on the ground to put in his bag, while Charlie watches Ranboo start ransacking the drawers that the vases stand on. Then with a "Aha!" They pull out a bottle that rattles, warns with a quick, "Catch!" before tossing them to Charlie. 

Charlie nearly misses, fumbling a bit with the orange capsule and then looks over at the label, "Anti-anxiety pills," he drawls out, "What's this got to do with anything?" Ranboo straighens, explaining "That's why our moods and motion blurs have been all over the place, it's our sanity that's the problem," Ranboo enlightens. 

'Huh? But I don't feel any different, I- no wait, I've been tripping over my own steps, haven't I? An-and I'm not as scared as usu- no, I'm less cautious, serious, and that would explain the sudden switch between Tommy's and Ranboo's interactions, their emotions are unstable, it all makes sense!' 

Quickly swallowing a single tablet dry, he tries to pass it back to Ranboo, but they shake their head in refusal, "I took one from my own stash in my pockets earlier, plus I can probably endure more than you two since I've been here longer." When Charlie then tries to pass them over to Tommy, his face sours, scowling at Ranboo, and then takes the bottle to only stash away. 

"I bet I can 'en-dor-er' better than you!" Tommy proclaims, pointing at Ranboo in defiance. Ranboo sighs with a low "Whatever," and turns back to digging through more drawers. Following their lead, Charlie decides to check one of the cabinets that Ranboo glossed over earlier. Opening the top drawer reveals two black little arrows, one longer than the other, almost like they're ment to be pointing somewhere or someth-, "I have clock hands! For the clock, I've got clock hands!"  

Intrigued, the other two are at Charlie's side in a second, Ranboo replying with a dismissing, "Oh, you've found the clock hands," and Tommy going, "And I have anxiety." Ranboo sighs, pinching where the bridge of their nose should be with their left hand before going, then yelling, "Eat the pills then!" And the blond screaming back, "Never!" 

At a loss on what to do, Charlie can only say one word. "Sorry," then said man proceeds to spin in a self soothing gesture. That causes the two's bickering to stop, Tommy stifling his laugh with a choked out "What," and then clearing his throat, "I didn't mean to provoke you boss man." Coming to a stop, Charlie let's out a breath, "Is it all good? We all calm now?" The two sheepishly nod, Tommy interjects to loosen the tension even more, "If only the doctor would merely spin right in front of me, it would make the world's problems all go away." 

Charlie laughs, then is reminded of the clock hands that are in his, heh, hands. "We need to find the clock from earlier, in the 'not-thing's' room I think," he informs the two, as they all start walking along, Ranboo lagging behind. "Well let's no-clip out of here then and spin ourselves into Appendix's space!" Tommy agrees. 

"Yea, well have the doctor turn us into a centrifuge to teleport there," Charlie claims, causing the blond to laugh in disbelief, "That was not a- shut up, shut up, that was not a sentence," Tommy denies, challenging the YouTuber. "Yes it was, yes it-" as Charlie tries to prove his innocence, he then cut off by Ranboo, "Hey guys, I found a foot!" At this, Charlie sticks his tongue out in disgust, while Tommy hums with a "Now you've three." 

"Are we SUPPOSED to be collecting body parts, or is that just a hobby you picked up from being here too long?" Charlie questions, earning an elbow in the stomach by the Brit. "What?" He coughed out, before realizing how insensitive that question could be taken, but the goggle wearer didn't seem to notice, or possibly just shrugged it off before explaining. 

"I noticed those plates that's above the corpses' heads could be a place marker, like it needs something heavy to possibly weigh it down, so we could use this and anything else we find as a substitute," they informed, then they take out some string and tie it around the foot with one end, and tying the other to their jeans. 

Jaws dropped at both the reasoning and the nonchalant action, ganders two different responses from the other two. "You're a genius!" "I could've thought of that." Charlie rolls his eyes at the blue eyed boy's answer before looking through more drawers that are around. 

After pulling open and digging around in what they concluded was all the cabinets, they've gain two sets of almond waters, clock hands, a foot, an eye ball, and three more bottles of Anti-anxiety pills. A fine hefty loot, if Charlie thinks so himself. 

They proceed onwards, Charlie in search for the missing hands clock, Ranboo on the look out for any loose entities (and having them run from a few), and Tommy carrying their findings with a whistle. 

Staying in the light, they decide to stay in a vacant room to assess what to do next, but like always, they get sidetracked real easily. "God, I think of got a toothache, my jaw is killing me," Tommy complains. Concerned, Charlie tries to take hold of the situation, "Smile, show me those chompers, let's see what's the matter." Ranboo takes out their flashlight in support and leans down to asks, "Show me your teeth, I think I know a thing or two about them shiners- wait I don't think that's the right word." 

Tommy's earlier mood from before looks to have smoothed over as he laughs at Ranboo's mistake with soften eyes, 'From their show in concern maybe?' and opens his mouth for the other teen to shine their light into. 

Snickering, feeling a bit mischievous perhaps, Charlie sings, "Ranboo and Tommy in the Backrooms, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," which immediately causes Ranboo to pull away and cry into the corner. 

"I would never do such a thing," they deny, voice monotone and gloomy. "Oh what, I'm not good looking enough? I'll have you know my many wives think otherwise!" Tommy fumed, his earlier soften face now sharp. Charlie laughs because appeasing to Tommy while distracting him from making anything awkward. 

"You're a very scary man, they're just intimidated, and you wouldn't want to be with somebody intimidating, do you?" Tommy ponders Charlie's words, before nodding, "You make a very good point, can't be a simp like Dadza, no matter how great he is." 

After composing themself, Ranboo looks towards one of the darkened halls, before claiming, "Okay, I think it's safe to walk in the dark now, the clock should be this way," then walking into the shadowed corridor. 

Following the expert, they eventually make it back into the 'not-thing's' room. "Appendix! Oh, how we've missed you! Clementine's been tuning for your presence and Henry's made space in his dome just for you, if only you'd stop floating and let go, we can all be one big happy family," Tommy rambled, preoccupied with the antigravity wired horse, as Ranboo goes through the door wall. 

Looking back to make sure the blond's fine, Charlie enters through as well. There stood the clock, handless, but not for long, as Charlie takes out the arrows from his pockets and inserts them through the glass of it's face. Finally put back together, Ranboo replies with a excited, "Sweet!" And starts to fiddle with the hands from the back of the clock. 

As the two try to figure out what time it should be set to, Charlie then focuses on how quiet it's suddenly gotten. The blond's insane rantings to inanimate objects seemed to have stopped, and as Charlie tried to refocus back to the task, his thoughts are interrupt by the calls of said blond. 

Turning to check on Tommy, Charlie walks out to see what the teen was up to. "Yes Tommy?" He answered, seeing the teen off to the side, the darkness seemingly to consuming him, making Charlie's earlier claims of the teen being scary more truthful. "What time," Tommy slowly draws out, "do you call this?" And as the feeling of something being wrong starts to dawn on Charlie, he- 

The sound of the Seinfeld bass line theme fills the air from the boy's boombox, releaskng the tension from Charlie's shoulders as he smiles tiredly, but before he can even say a word, the blond starts to make a strangled noise, and just like that the feeling of dread has washed over Charlie again. 

"Ranboo! Ranboo help, he's choking! Tommy's choking!" He runs around, moving from the hidden room to the main, before finally kneeling where  Tommy has now collapsed. "He's choking?!" Ranboo cried out in distress, stumbling out of the clock's room to sit beside the panicked man, and spit filled teen. 

"Help him, help him, get it out-," harshly swinging the palms of his hands against Tommy's back, nothing seems to loosen the blond's throat. "Heimlich him, heimlich him! God, I was never trained for this!" Ranboo ignores Charlie's rambles as they center themself in front of Tommy, hands shaking as he tries to reach through to Tommy. 

"Tommy, your okay, was it your spit? You weren't eating anything, right? Have you forgotten to breathe? Breathe Toms, breath!" Finally, with the combination of Charlie's frantic hits and Ranboo grounding the boy, Tommy sharply inhales, sweating falling down his face as he takes in another breath and then another, every single one treated preciously as the last. 

Then, laughter, loud, shrieking and manic laughter comes from the teen on the ground, those breathes he had taken seemingly being put to use immediately, and as Charlie gets up to cautiously start to back away, Ranboo harshly grabs Tommy by his bag, and ripping open the pack, reaching inside. Then they pull out one of the pill bottles from earlier, pop it open and grab a tablet, dropping the bottle in their haste. 

Roughly grabbing Tommy by his face, they demand, "Take the pill." Tommy, mouth still hanging from their continuous laughter, pauses, before shutting his mouth with a click and says a final, "No." Just as it looked as if Ranboo was a split second away from snapping and getting into a tumble with the other, Charlie interferes. 

"What about half?" He compromised. The two stop, before Tommy seems to consider, "Half the tablet?" 

"Yea," Charlie confirmed, before reasoning further, "since Ranboo had one earlier, you taking half would still make you 'better' than them, right?" He glances at Ranboo, pleading with his eyes for the dual toned teen to go along with it. Seeming to get the memo, Ranboo inables the idea with their own input, "I actually took two, not one, double the amount." 

Processing the other's claims, Tommy's limbs turn to jello as he replies with a soft, "Okay," much to the relief of the others. Letting go of Tommy's face, Ranboo cracks the tablet in half, handing one of the pieces to Tommy. 

'Man, glad that's done with, things could have gone a lot worse.' 

And because the universe seems to hate this rag tag team, or maybe Charlie just has really bad luck, things DO get worse as before Tommy can even place the half pill in his mouth, the eyes and mouth of Entity 3 glares back at them, the lights flickering off one by one, giving leverage to it, and before they can all truly panic, Ranboo roughly shoves their half of the pill into Tommy's mouth, gloved hand keeping it close, then drags the both of them backwards into the hidden room. 

Charlie gets one last look at the ever approaching creature, before smiling back and, with a two fingered salute, falls backwards into the clock room where the others await.

Hey y'all! Been a hot minute since I've drawn the trio. So! I've done a few facial practices and a bit of a redesign as my style has obviously changed within the past year, so I hope y'all like it! (I've posted it onto my Tumblr, if you want to see a clearer and individual cropped out ones, you can see them here as I've just figured out how to add links, Oof)

Chapter Text

Stumbling back into the clock room revealed an unconscious, curled up Tommy laying dormant on the ground while Ranboo was back to moving the clock hands from behind the drawer. 

"What, uh-," Charlie motions towards Tommy, "happened here?" Stopping with a quick, "Hm?" Ranboo looks over at Tommy before shrugging and focusing back to their task. "Consuming an Anti-anxiety pill after a long period of time will do that to you. Drains whatever energy you've got left to restore it, therefore, man's just sleeping the insanity away." 

Taking a closer look at the teen on the floor, Tommy's mouth is slightly opened, braces on display for all to see, his body limp, but his chest is rising up and down strongly with a soft snore accompanying it. He looks so at peace, that Charlie nearly glosses over the red spot on the side of the boy's forehead, like he had hit it or scratched at it. 

'Tommy must've put up a fight trying to get out of Ranboo's hold and harmed himself in the process,' Charlie shakes his head with an exasperated sigh, and tunes back to what Ranboo's doing. "So, are you just kind of spinning this clock?" Charlie chuckles. 

"Yea, I'm trying to do every single possible combination instead of actually figuring it out," the masked individual confirms. Charlie nods, "Makes sense, it'll eventually have to do something, right?" Nervous laughter with a mumbled, "Eventually have to do something, yea," is all Charlie gets from Ranboo as they stand, bodies facing one another. Tommy's forgotten boombox still plays from the other room, although muffled, the continuous sound of Seinfeld becomes their white noise as Ranboo works and Charlie inspects. 

When Ranboo moves the hands to 4:30, Charlie hears a thud from outside, "Oh, I think I heard something." Shaking their head, Ranboo states, "That's just the pipes, sometimes they get out of place and hit the walls they're in." Dejected, but not discouraged, Charlie continues on his checks. "I'll tell you when you've gotten everything on each hour," Ranboo silently nods, moving the hands much more carefully for Charlie to see. 

Putting on his best showbiz accent, Charlie begins, "Alright, keep going, next one 9, big day 9, coming up 9, coming up 9, around the circle 1-2-3-4-5-6, 9! Coming up strong, going on to 10! Can we get a 10?!" 

Soon enough, the two have gone over every number they could possibly do only for NOTHING to happen. Therefore, they've come to the conclusion that there's no way to cheat or brute force the answers. Groaning at the time they've wasted, they try to think on what to do next. 

"I think we have to find an actual combination, what numbers have we come across before?" At Charlie's question, Ranboo goes over their notes, "Uh, other than the elevator's numbers, nothing, maybe the corpse room might unlock something if we can figure out what the plates over the bodies are for." 

'Okay, so guess we have to go back out and find the corpse room again,' just as he was going to inform Ranboo of his thoughts, Charlie's foot lightly knocks against Tommy's leg. Wincing, he looks down at the blond, who's still snoring away, unaware of the group's minor predicament. 

"Oh Wife Haver, this is what happens when you have a wife" Charlie solemnly sighs, eyes downcast, while Ranboo looked towards their third member as well. "Oh how we miss you," Ranboo shakes their head, then commenting, "Let me take some of your pills." Charlie gives Ranboo a judging look as they ransack Tommy's bag, "What? It's not like he'll need all of them, he wouldn't have even taken one if it wasn't for us making him," Ranboo defends, then pockets said bottles and zips up teen's pack. 

They're comment alone wasn't enough to brush off their action, but Charlie let it slide for now, "So, what- who's going to stay here with Tommy while the other finds the Corpse room? I don't think either of us can carry him like we did with your beanpole limbs" Ranboo perks up at the sudden subject change, before running their hands through their hair in a sheepish manner. 

"I mean, he'll be fine if we leave him here, it's practically the safest space on this level as far as we've seen. Plus, he's got his comm on him to find us later," jerking back at Ranboo's suggestion, Charlie shook his head so fast, he might've given himself whiplash. 

"We can't know that for sure! And Tommy's terrible at directions, that's something we DO know, there's no way he won't get lost the minute he exits this room!" Charlie argues, making Ranboo shrink in before straightening back up. "Well if we wait for him, he'll just cause another ruckus and attract trouble, and if one of us waits for him, the one out there," they motion to the door wall, "-can get hurt, or ,god forbid, die! It's two or none, what's it gonna be?" 

'Fuck, an ultimatum,' Charlie gulps, sweat running down his brow, 'if it had been Ranboo in Tommy's place, the blond would've REFUSED to leave the other's side, but Ranboo DOES have a point on the kid causing trouble. He's stubborn, loud, and aggressive, maybe that's why they don't know feel the same way Tommy does for them.' 

Sighing, he comes to terms with what he's about to decide, 'I mean, Ranboo has been here longer, so they must know what they're doing, hopefully Tommy won't take being alone TOO hard.' 

"Alright, but we'll leave his boombox running for him, big man would love to wake up to his jams," Ranboo nods, unnoticeably tense shoulders now relaxed as they comment, "As long as it's lowered a bit, it shouldn't do anything too major." Leaving the clock room, one companion less, they surround the still going boombox to look at the settings. 

Finally, Charlie turned the button on the side of the white boxed music machine like a wheel to smother the noise a tad bit, before the two were on their way towards the exit. "God, everything's become less funny since he's fallen asleep," Charlie states, a single tear runs down his cheek, as they both wonder down the halls. "Just, no one laughs at my jokes anymore, he was my live studio audience, y'know?" Leaning against Ranboo in a false motion a damsel in distress, Charlie looks up at his silent friend to deem their reaction. 

Ranboo slightly rolls their head, perhaps their eyes if Charlie could even see them, before huffing, "No, no more laughs, it's business time." Closing vents with Ranboo's screwdriver along the way, the two jog deeper into the halls, turning corners and ending up in dead ENDS, then backtracking into more rooms, but no corpse room. 

Groaning, Charlie comments on the few things he does find. "A vent, another vent, a shitty stain on the ground, some fucking dead peop- Dead people?" Taking a few steps back, and low and behold, the corpse room has been found. Ranboo comes from behind Charlie with a, "Neat," and walks on in, closing one of the few vents for extra measures. 

"Alright, let me breathe for a second, all that moving is pushing my newly fixed organs," taking a few breaths in, Charlie starts to make exaggerated breathing sounds in mockery. "Hey, wait, don't do that, that is not funny," the teen nags, Charlie laughs, "I'm just getting the CO2 you're giving out." Groaning, Ranboo turns away and walks in the direction of the locker in the dead end area of the room, while Charlie remembers seeing a piece of paper by the vent on the floor near the entrance back when he and Tommy were on the run. 

Picking up the note, he realizes it's in the same handwriting as the one for the elevator, which means-, "Hey Ranboo, I found another one of your notes!" He gets an affirmative moan back, before skimming what little information there is. 

'It's about missing people, found with some anomalies, VHS Tape for more information,' well that's simple enough. "Okay, we need to look for a VHS Tape for more info, I think we have A Tape, right?" He questions for confirmation, only to get nothing in response. Deciding to just go to Ranboo, Charlie walks along the wall, keeping his distance from the bodies that lay still and unresponsive, before hearing what's sounds like music (?) in the background. 

Just as he's about to look into it, Ranboo's voice interrupts, "-a hammer, I found a hammer!" Walking into the dead end space, Charlie sees Ranboo besides the a jar locker, inside sits the said hammer, and cartons after cartons of almond water. "Woah, nice! We can break those vases we found earlier to see what's inside, like a kinder egg!" Taking the hammer into his hand, and pockets a few cartons with the other, he thinks back to the familiar sound from earlier. 

"Also, I don't mean to alarm you, but I did hear what I believe was the opening cords to 'Gangster's Paradise,'" Charlie warns. "So that's what that was," Ranboo reflects, before the one, the only-, "Hey!" The two turn their heads towards the exit and there stood Tommy, boombox in hand, and headphones hanging and hood covering the boy's luscious locks. 

"TOMMY!" Charlie runs up to the blond and holds out his hand, "Dab me up!" Chuckling, Tommy smacks the others hand in good fun, before turning up the volume of his boombox. "Check it, while y'all were busy, I got into the street life! Come on, ah, I'm in the Backrooms, not feeling too good, I'm in the Backrooms, where I shouldn't be stood, I'm in the Backrooms and I'm wearing a hood, I'm in the Backrooms and I wanna go home." 

He takes in a breath as the other two chuckle and bob their heads along, "Like word, swerve, murd, clurd, these are all things- I ran out of rhymes guys, there's nothing to rhyme with down here," the teen admits then turns off the music. Cackling at the blond's own interruption, Charlie give in his own inputs, "There are so many thing- okay, wait, hold up, the street lifers don't stop, why'd you stop?" 

Seeming to ponder the older's words, a wired grin forms on Tommy's face, before replaying the beats once again. "There's bodies, shawty bodies, in my hotties," 

"Ooh!" Charlie engages, letting the teen take the lead as they move around. 

"They getting on my nerves, I am not a perve," Tommy breaks at his own words and Charlie giggles out a "What?" At the out of pocket wording before the teen continues, "I'm in the Backrooms, I don't eat shrooms, I could do shrooms, I can tune them, that is completely different to doing them, yuh." 

Charlie then turns back to look at Ranboo, who's inspecting one of the bodies near by and perhaps tuning the other two out, but then focuses back to the music enthusiast. 

"We living most our time, living in the Backroom Paradise, I barely go outside, living in the Backroom Paradise," Ranboo finally seems to remember what the other two were doing as they add in a few, "Yuh!" With Charlie. 

"I'm very scared of lights, living in the Backroom Paradise-," 

"Almond water!" 

"-I don't know what to do, living in the Backroom Paradise." 

"Take your normal pills!" 

"So I opened up the bottle and I chugged those pills! I, feel, seriously, ill!" Tommy then erupts in a fit of coughs, playing into the new and improved lyrics, or at least that's what it seemed until the teen was back on the ground gasping for air and slightly smacking the boombox's sound off. 

As Charlie went to help Tommy, Ranboo starts to run around them, moving from one side to the other, chanting, "There's something in the walls, there's something in the walls, there's something in the walls, there's some-," and as Charlie listens to his surroundings, he hears the thumps Ranboo's concerned about right above them. 

Seemingly aware, Tommy, in a strained voice starts to beg towards whatever is preying on them from the ceiling, all while Ranboo circles them like shark the smell blood in the water, with the same warnings vomiting out of them over and over again. In a nervous, and definitely not breaking down state, Charlie makes the best of the circumstance and improviss, "Nice, yea, there's something in the walls, there's something in the walls, there's something in the walls, and it's coming for us all!" 

Tommy, now setting down, starts spinning, "Why isn't this working, get me doctor, I'm not feeling better!" Before anybody else can say anything, a giant SLAM rings through the room, make the three all stop what they're doing. The silence eats up the trio as the minutes pass by, before finally, whatever was stalking above patters away and into perhaps an unlocked vent located in one of the many rooms on this level. 

A sigh of relief fills the now danger free area, as the two who weren't already on the ground, collapse on their knees and huddle around in the corner Tommy preoccupies. Just as quietness was starting to become awkward, Tommy breaks the silence. 

"Why did you two leave me and Clementine?" Charlie winces, while Ranboo crosses their arms. "You were safer there than if we were to take you with us. Your weight would've dragged us behind and into the claws of whatever monstrosity found us first, would you have wanted that?" Ranboo prods, looking to start something. 

'Now hold on, that's not what they told m-,' Tommy's face scrunches up, brows furrowed and teeth gritted in a snarl, "Oh, shove off your stupid high horse Ranboob." 

The teen in question huffs, "I'll get off when you stop being a CHILD," they demand. "I am NOT a child!" Tommy barks out, unapologetic rage clear on his face, "That's an adult where I'm from, you self centered prick!" 

"Where the ever loving God are you even from, I don't know any place known for it's entitled and annoying spawns!" 'Wait, I can use this!' Before Tommy could retort, Charlie chips in, "Yea, wait, where ARE you from? Somewhere in England, right?" 

Tommy's bristled tone switches to more of a moody acceptance, looking down as he replies "Yea, Nottinghamshire. Though I wasn't born there, neither were my brothers or parents, but it's filled with open spaces and small to local areas, and trees, so many trees, me and Tubs used to stop and climb as many as we could on the way home from school, but I fell and broke my collar bone once, and was banded ever since." 

Then the blond looks up to face Charlie, "Where do you film and shit?" Laughing at the boy's uno reverse of the situation, he obliges, "California, San Diego, me and my roommates actually planned on getting a place in Los Angeles with a couple others, but it didn't work out." Whistling, Tommy then asks, "How'd your ass come from all the way over there to here?" 

Thinking back to their first introductions, Charlie's now realized that none of them had explained to the others how they all landed in this survivalist escape room. So, with a deep sigh, Charlie decides to be the one to get the ball rolling. 

"I met up with some high school friends at a local place for some food and drinks, but I forgot I was going to make a video with Ted and Schlatt, those are my roommates by the way," taking in the O shaped mouths of the blond and the blank stare of the taller, he figured that detail was enough for them. "Anywho, I left early and was running down streets to get home on time, and I thought, 'hey, you know what's a great time saver? Going through the alleyways!'" Now's Tommy's turn to wince at another of Charlie's poor decision making while Ranboo listened on, enraptured by Charlie's tale. 

"So I'm sprinting through, having a grand ol' time, before I kid you not, a Mark Zuckerberg lookalike was chasing me down!" Tommy bursts out laughing, while Ranboo seems to hesitantly laugh in a confusing manner, Charlie continues none the less, "So now I'm not just running for my social life, but for my ACTUAL life, and just as I thought I lost him, BAM, his pale, molting lizard eyed face is suddenly in front of me and nearly touched me too! Then I was falling back, but instead of falling on the ground like I thought I would, I just kept on falling, and suddenly there was darkness. Next thing I opened my eyes to, is this nightmare of a place." 

After finishing, Charlie looks over to Tommy, "So, how'd you end up here? You fall in too?" Tommy's casual smile closes into a tight one instead, but his eyes soften and he seems to ponder for a second before slightly opening his mouth to answer. "Now, the great Tommy Craft, needs his beauty sleep like the Blade, but my Dadza thought otherwise. Mumza was already on her way to work, she's an art teacher, and Dadza said he had something to tell us all before I went off to school." Nodding along to the blond's blabbering, Charlie can tell he's prolonging his side, possibly to show up Charlie's (?), or maybe because of something more conflicting. 

"So, as the big man that I am, I got out of bed and got dressed to impress the ladies, before heading downstairs into the dining room. And my brothers were already there, which was weird since one of them was ment to be working at the small music shop at the end of town and the other's usually dead asleep until the afternoon on his days off, so whatever the news were the bastards were in on it," Tommy grumbles, making the other two snicker at his expense. 

"So there I am, sitting on the BEST seat in the room while the others surrounded me in their little, splintered chipped chairs, before telling me that WE'RE MOVING CITIES!" He throws his hands out, the anger very much present on the youngers face, but surprisingly, his face falls into a solemn look. 

"And, well I'm not proud of this, but I was so upset, because how was I supposed to continue my studies, buy the rest of the album collections at the music shop Wimbler works at, or see TUBBO! So we got into a fight, they all said some things, I said some things, and then walked out and started heading for school. I was texting Tubbo that I was going to crash at his place after school today, but then I think I hit a rock or some shit as I was stumbling forward into darkness? BUT, like that BADASS I am, I caught my footing and didn't fall! However when I looked back up, I was just, here." 

Focusing on the teens expression, he thinks he figured out what the stalling was all about. 'Shame, he was ashamed.' Suddenly, the teen straightens his posture, plasters on a wide smile, and looks over to Ranboo, "And what about you Ran, how'd you end up here?" 

Being put on the spot, Ranboo's earlier irritation is now forgotten as they stammer for a second before succumbing to the peer pressure of their friends' stares, "Well, even though I have memory problems, I've read my diary entries so many times, I can almost remember it all." Taking out their notebook, they open it onto a page that's a quarter way through, before continuing. 

"I was always a very sickly child. I can't remember what I was sick with, and my notes never say, but I practically lived in the hospital and whenever I did go outside, I had to wear a mask and be covered head to toe in clothes since I was always cold." The duo besides them, seemingly pressed against once another, stay silent as this is the most they've gotten of the other's past so far. 

"My Dad was an accountant, but after I got sick, he started making masks on the side. First he started with paper plate animals, then cloth with markered in drawings, and then he wanted to make actual Halloween mask that could also be used for medical purposes. Anyways, my 13th birthday rolled around, and we had gotten the okay from the hospital to let me celebrate it outside, so we went to a indoor park with a arcade and stage, and Dad had planned a HUGE party there, so while we waited for the guests to arrive he sent me away to the play area to have fun." 

"Were you wearing one of the masks he made?" Charlie asks, getting a shaking head in return, "I think that was going to be my birthday present, but I had been wearing a regular surgical mask that was provided by the doctors. So I was going down the slides and tumbling through the obstacles, when I saw there was a ball pit with a diving board. So I climb to the very top with the ropes connected to the pit and boarded, and jumped. And I fell into the pit and went through to the bottom, only the bottom was taking a really long time to reach, it was like it was endless. The balls were no longer there, but there was no light from above for me to swim to, it was just nothing." 

Leaning their back against the wall, they sigh, "I think I must've fallen asleep from how long I was waiting for something to happen, because when I woke up, I was in a pink littered room, which I later found out was Level 974. That's it." As the trio take in each other's stories, Charlie decides their self pitying had gone on enough. 

"Tommy, why don't you hit us with the beat again, I want to see if we can make a Backrooms song with all three of us together." Giddy, the teen obliges to Charlie's demand with a calm smile and starts the beats back up.

Art I made SPECIFICALLY for this chapter, enjoy!!

Chapter Text

"You start Charlie, I'll adlib!" Tommy encourages, bopping his head as the three begin to stand. 

"Okay, okay! Spent a couple hours, in the Backroom, walking around, just waiting for our doom! I walk around the corner, 'til I see a door, I walk inside, fall on the floor, and I pass out again, like I'd been dosed, what I would give to just eat some toast, but all I have is almonds, all of my almonds turn to water, and now I drink nuts!" 

"Ohhhhh!!" The excited screams from the teens makes Charlie laugh in kind. "Okay, Ranboo's turn," Tommy decides, putting the other on the spot. "Yea, go Ranboo, go!" Charlie agrees, the two ganging up on their lanky companion. 

"Uh, alright, alright," they stammer, holding their hands together in a self soothing motion, with a soft, "okay."  Tired of the stalling, Tommy decides to count down for the other, "1, 2,-," 

"1, 2, 3, 4!" Charlie cuts in, while Tommy finishes with, "-Wakawaka!" 

"All in the Backrooms is just almond water, it's been about 5 years since I've seen my father-," Charlie and Tommy bark out in shock and laughter, "No way you spent all that time stalling just to think of that one line," Charlie chuckles out exasperated. Ranboo giggles to themself before clearing their throat to continue. 

"-Charlie got captured by a PNG-," 

"Wakawaka word!" 

"-he kinda looked a little freaky-," 

"Smiley!" 

"-when he ran through the streets, all he could see were these sick beats!" 

"WOAH!!" 

"It didn't make sense, I admit it, I may sometimes be a little dense, but now we're in the Backrooms and I don't know, where in the hell we're supposed to go!" 

"OH-" "YEAH!" Tommy and Charlie scream out, before Tommy turns to Charlie, "Now it's back to your homeboy, you ready?" Then he walks a bit forward with his back turned to the others for dramatic suspense. 

"Yea, alright, hit it off, hit it off!" With Charlie's go ahead and Ranboo's affirmative grunt, Tommy give one last glance towards the two before looking forward once more. 

"Yea, uh, uh, yea I've seen the lights, I feel the frights, but at the end of the day-," pausing, the glossy look in the blonde teen's eyes return, seemingly staring into space as the music plays out to occupy the silence. 

Chuckling nervous, Charlie tries to bring the kid back down to earth(?) with a bewildered, "Yes?" Though, that doesn't seem to do anything, so Ranboo throws in a halfhearted "Yea?" for good measure. That seems to knock Tommy back to consciousness as he slowly turns to the last person that spoke out, and with his blank and stoic face, he opens his razored enforced mouth, and asks, "Ranboo, you do know the way out, yea? That line was just a joke, yes?" 

'Huh, I didn't even process the lyrics they said after the father comment, but surely it was for the laughs, like dark humor!' 

"Oh, uh- I was actually referring to when I was younger and first fell in here, since, y'know, I hadn't made my notes, or even found, a book by then, and joking about Charlie's arrival here kind of stirred up some old feels," they explained, playing with their hands once again. 

Music now turned off, Tommy approaches even closer to the two, skepticism very clear on the boy's face as he comments, "And who were the we in the line then? It couldn't be us if you were thinking of back then, instead of now, so who's we?" 

"Now hold on, let's not take this too seriously, we're having a goof and gaff, weren't we? None of these "lyrics" are supposed to mean anything Toms, we're just saying stuff to say stuff, right?" Looking towards Ranboo for back up, all he gets from them is a simple shake of their head as they scratch the back of their head. 

"Actually, Tommy's right. The we was actually the first group of survivors that I'd found," they confessed, as they start to gingerly take their booklet out of it's hiding place. 'The first? How many people have they lost in this fucked up Office rip off? Fuck, I can't imagine how awful Ranboo's felt after every single one,' Charlie's sentiment is not shared, however, as Tommy's face stays in it's suspicious state. 

"When had you found them, and where are they now?" Tommy questions bluntly, tone just barely on the edge of harsh. Flipping the pages of their journal, Ranboo clears their throat to answer, "About a year after falling, I'd been able to escape the pink room before running into a group of three, um Crumb, Sneeg, and Aimsey. All of them were barely adults, though I think Sneeg had been the oldest? But uh, Crumb got separated as we were moving floors and we never reunited with them again, then we stumbled onto Level 11-," Charlie interrupts, "There's 11 levels?!" 

Chuckling nervously, they admit, "There's a lot more than that, the most I've gotten to is 999, but uh, we only need to go through 4 levels correctly to escape, any mishap and it'll be nearly impossible to redo the order all over again." 

"What happened on level 11?" Getting the topic back on track, Tommy seems to have a desperate need for answers, almost as if he had been in a drunken or foggy state all this time and had finally sobered up. Sighing, Ranboo proceeds, "We found a camp outpost filled with other survivors and information gathers, which is where I got my book from," wiggling said journal in hand, they continue. 

"We spent some time getting to know the hundreds of people there, learned a lot about this place from little tid bits from their stories and discoveries, before Aimsey finally decided we had enough knowledge to move on forward, but Sneeg disagreed and refused to come with us to find the exit, so we left. I've only encountered Level 11 three times during the last few years I've been here and I had reunited with him once on the third visit. He'd been doing well and was now part of the community, was even starting a family." Ranboo's voice had flown over into a gentle, somber tone, making the atmosphere a tad peaceful, before Tommy broke the silence, "And Aimsey?" 

At that, Ranboo paused, before letting out a shuddering breath, "We had made it to Level 4 when the Unknown Entity ambushed us. I had been able to wiggle out of it's grasp, but Aimsey, it tore-," turning their head, they wince, "she couldn't, and she told me to run, but I still heard it silence whatever words she had left for me as I went through a glowing door of the room's ventilation area." With a shakey breath, they closed their book before covered their masked face up with their hands. 

"I thought I had gotten lucky at the time, that it was a coincidence that I was still alive, but then with the minor theory, that couldn't be farther from the truth," with a deep sigh, they lower their hands as they mumbled, "We ended up on Level 4 from Level 36, so it wouldn't have mattered if we completed the puzzles anyways, we would've had to started all over again, so her death was for nothing." 

Placing his hand on the grieving teen, Charlie comforts them the best he can, "It wasn't for nothing, your escaped helped you figure out your theory later on, and if she hadn't guided you there, then you probably wouldn't have figured out there's a certain order you have to go through to escape." Sniffing, Ranboo looks up at the older, waiting for some sort of sign that Charlie hasn't got the slightest clue to. 

"What I'm getting at it, is she's still helping you, even when she's not here, she told you to run, so that you may live on with the knowledge you have now to someday achieve what she couldn't. Freedom. So don't kick yourself for the actions of the past, and continue on, if not for yourself, then for those that have been lost to time." Nodding at the others words, Ranboo looks back at their book, "You're right. I just wish they were all still here with me. Thanks Charlie." 

Giving a brief hug to the taller, Charlie sneaks a quick glance towards Tommy, only to see the blond taking a step back with what looks like nervousness, or maybe even fear, in his eyes, before noticing Charlie's stare. Giving a crooked smile in return, Charlie slots it to the back of his mind to interrogate the kid later. 

Letting go of Ranboo, Charlie turns fully to Tommy and asks, "Oh Jim, you wouldn't have happened to have vent, would you?" At the sudden shift, Tommy bursts out in laughter, nervousness forgot as he giggles out, "Okay guys, man do I love the Office." 

"I love the office guys," Ranboo, suddenly a lot better than a couple minutes ago, agrees with a plagiarized statement from Tommy. "Oh my god, the Office, Among Us episode crossover was phenomenal, they should've made more of those," laughing at Charlie's claim, the trio all unspokenly start to walk to the exit of the corpse room, as their previous task of finding the vase room had seemingly slipped from their minds during the duration of their 'Corner Time,' but was now back with a fury. 

"I loved the part when they figured out who stole the pencil sharpener, voted them out pronto!" Tommy played along, whistling with a, "BUM BUM BUM BUM, BUD A BUM," to the mix. Ranboo, who seemed to have sensitive hearing since he's known them, doesn't even flinch, which confuses Charlie until he remembers the ear buds Tommy lended them earlier. 

' They must have slipped them back on earlier, those plugs must do wonders.' 

"I loved when Dwight asked who put his task in jello," skipping into the next room, Charlie decides to look into the loot he's collected over his time wondering and trying to solve puzzles. 

'Okay, so I've got my walkie, a VHS Tape, a hammer, an eye, Anti-anxiety pills, a left foot, and a few cartons of almond water that I'd snagged from Tommy, nothing too weird, now we just have to find the vase room and go looting again.' 

"Okay guys, we need to brea -," just as Charlie was going to voice his internal plan, the lights flash red, causing him to made a muffled squeal with his mouth snapping shut and his lips pressed tight as he jumps in place. 

The last thing Charlie takes in fully is Ranboo's continuous shouts of the raged induce color and the roar of the Entity that's haunted them, some longer than the others, all from the very start.

Chapter Text

'This is NOT pogges champes!' 

Running from the opposite direction they were headin', Charlie follows after Ranboo into the cut off hallway, Tommy seemingly not far behind as Charlie can hear the boy's screams and the bass theme from Seinfeld playing close by. 

Solidifying himself between the wall and the left side of the locker at the end, Charlie crouches down, arms out, each hand is pressed against the surface of the old, stained walls and the grey metal of said locker, his back leaning heavily onto said walls as to prepare himself in the case he has to get back up and escape. 

Breathing heavily, Charlie notices Ranboo do much of the same on the right side of the locker, however, their attempts are futile as Tommy sprints towards them and, in his haste to slow down, trips on the carpet and essentially barrels head first into the open locker, causing the worn-out metal to bang and rattle, the sound echoing and attracting the monster to their location as it too sprints towards them. 

With not enough time to process the absolute insanity of everything, Charlie can only think to pull his left arm out to cover his face before the creature lunges at him, swiping it's wired claws across his outer forearm, breaking his skin wide open. 

'Fuck, not again,' pain flashes for merely a moment before dulling, warmth rushes down arm like a waterfall as he quickly staggering to his feet. Charlie then jogs against the wall, holding his injury close to his chest as he starts to sway, feeling a thousand miles away from the situation. He looks up to stare into the bleeding lights, the same tone as the his bleeding wound, "Red is bad, that means he is mad." 

Slowing to a walk, Charlie continues onward, all sound becoming muffled and toneless, yet he's sure the music is still playing, and the others are screaming, and the monster is clearly, most definitely right behind him- yet, he just can't seem to focus on them right now. 

'Am I disassociating again? Ha, well that's not good-,' he can feel his heart beating repeatingly, and the sweat on his brows, and the grit of his teeth as he all, but collapses off his feet and lays among the corpses as if he was one of them, as if he had always BEEN one of them, and as he goes to close his eyes, he's harshly brought back to reality when he feels something cold drenched onto him and before he can even react, his vision is blinded by what he believes is rusted cloth, maybe a moldy tarp(?), as the stench is horrendous and inflames his nostrils. 

Along with the covering came a, unexpected weight, holding his body down, restricting his already stunted and sluggish movements, as well as his injured arm. As he his hisses at the pain, he hears a swift "shh" from above, before the weight abruptly disappears. 

Taking the demand into consideration, Charlie stills and stays quiet on the ground, anxiously awaiting whatever may come. Now aware of his surroundings, he realizes the music has stopped, his friends screams are gone, and the monster's roars and dragging are distant, so he deduces it to be why he must remain in his position. 

Finally, when the sounds of the creature had faded and given with an extra 5 minutes, just to be sure, he bends his good arm and lifts himself up. The cloth that had been covering not only his vision, but his whole body, falls off from his movements giving him a view of the aftermath of the attack. 

The lights are back to it's iridescent yellow glow, but the hall at the end is stained in red from one side, no doubt his, and the locker looks to be beaten from hell back, nearly folded onto itself from the amount of dents left on it's interior. Looking down at himself, his clothes are soaked in what should've be water, if it wasn't for the fact that regular water didn't exist here, so possibly almond water. 

Then, he notices the tarp that had hidden him during his repeating out of world experience. It wasn't mold or rust that was coated onto it, but old, dark blood stains, exactly like the tarps that covered several of the corpses he layed with. Disgusted, he kicks the covering away and crawls away from it before looking up. 

There, in the very corner they had been goofing around in not even an hour ago, sat Tommy. The kid is looking away from him, hunched over with his head between his legs and in a fetal position with his arms folded tightly over himself. 

"Tommy?" Gasping at the sound of Charlie's voice, the boy looks up before hurrying to untangle himself. "Charlie! You're okay!" His face is red and his eyelids are a bit swollen, but other than that, he seems to have been unscathed by the beast. Rushing the his side, Tommy's eyes shine before tears start to swell up. 

"I'm sorry, I- I-," Tommy's face crumbles as he starts to curl in on himself once again. "Hey, hey, it's okay, nothing can get The Chulk down, yea?" Shaking his head at Charlie's dismissal, Tommy blubbers, "It's not! It's not because my dumbass sold us out! And- and you got hurt AGAIN, even though I was the one who made a racket! And I thought you were dead-!" 

"Tommy," 

"Because the monster was there, it was there and nearly CRUSHED you, so I turned Clementine up all the way up, so that it would be distracted, and it worked! It started screaming and then Ranboo started screaming and they tried tugging Clem away and I let them, because you were RIGHT THERE-," 

"Tommy!" 

"-in the open, bleeding! And surely the telephone wire motherfucker would've targeted you again if it saw you, and you were STILL bleeding out, so I splashed the fucking nut juice on you and uncover somebody to cover you while Ranboo ran, then I- oh god, I disrespected somebody's body, and you-," 

"Tommy, stop!" Grabbing the blond by the arms, the teen takes a well needed deep breath, tears falling silently as he makes eye contact with the shorter man, "That's it, breathe Tommy, we're okay, I'm sure Ranboo is too, they're crafty and definitely has a map for this place in their notes, so they're fine." Now that Charlie semi-knows what happened, he's aware of the slashes on his arm no longer burning in pain and the wound has nearly closed all the way, but a slight ache is still there, 'I think Ranboo mentioned almond water being more effective when drunken, so that's probably why it's still there.' 

Sniffing, Tommy nods at Charlie's reassurance, wiping his tears with the back of his hand, "If only Techno was here, we'd be out of this damn place by now, he's a certified mastermind when it comes to answers and directions, they call him the Human GPS, y'know?" The kid chuckles softly at his own comment, eyes warming as he continues. 

"And my fellow crime boy, he'd say the most calming things during the most dire scenarios, he's always been good with words, he'd have to be since he's a songwriter, he's the one who gave me Clem, actually. Buys me CDs and tapes from the shop whenever he found one he'd think I like, and Dadza, he's a powerhouse when it comes to resources, a material grinder might I say, "always be prepared Tommy" he'd say, even though he can find whatever he needs out fucking of thin air, probably out his ass I'm sure." 

Tommy's body is no longer shaking and his eyes have dried up, but Charlie let's him continue, as the boy probably needed to air out his love and grievances into the air. "And Mumza, oh, she'd have rain hell on all these fuckers attacking us, she's just got massive balls like that! She had all the staff at school coward at her feet when they tried to suspend me for taking Clementine to school, now I can have her anywhere, anytime, as long as I can carry her, that's the deal! I'm her favorite, of course," laughing, Tommy's voice tappers off before stating, "I miss them, I just want to go home." 

Shoving his shoulder against the blond's, Charlie gets his attention, "I'm sure they do too, and you will go home, as a matter a fact, time probably hasn't even moved for them yet, remember, Ranboo said time works differently here, so maybe it works differently in the real world too! Who knows, maybe by the time we get out of here, they wouldn't even have time to miss you because only, like, an hour has passed for them! So chin up king, we've got vases to break, puzzles to solve, and beasts to dupe!" 

Getting up, the spectacular user lifts up his arm to extend towards the blue eyed boy, "So are you ready to get this shit on the rode?" Taking the older's hand, Tommy smirks, "I don't know, does Sweet Child O' Mine go, POWNOWWOWNOW NOWUH?" 

Laughing at the absurdity, Charlie commits, "You know it does! Come on, we've got vases to find, homes to be, and a friend in need!" 

Chapter Text

Now, Charlie's little football locker speech was sweet and all, but everything he said was a LOT easier said than done, as not even a second after the duo stood up, the lights at the end of the hall lit back to red and the roar of the Entity shook the room. 

That, my friends, was enough of a signal for the boys to run their separate ways once again. 'I guess the guy isn't WIRED to appreciate a good moment,' skidding over the damp carpet, he can't help, but hum in panic to the tune Tommy's recurring song. "POWNOWWOWNOW NOWUH!" The creature slashes towards Charlie, but misses by the lense of his glasses as he circles around the beast in a taunting manner. 

'I'm getting real sick and tired of this constant game of cat and mouse, is there a way to turn off this thing? Rebooting it like a WiFi router would be pretty cool, might even be able to connect ourselves back home,' another slash from ahead makes him backtrack and start circling the other way, 'who am I kidding, I can't even figure out how to edit certain scenes without Ted's help, nother less reprogram a biotech enigma.' 

Seeing a blur of red and gold at the corner of his eyes, he realizes Tommy hasn't even left the room yet, waiting for him perhaps? Frozen in absolute terror? Not important at the moment, what is though is getting the both of them out safely. Before he can start heading in Tommy's direction, the monster blocks his path again, crouching forward to roar, it's screen, that's usually pitch black, glitches for a second. 

Tangled limbs stretched out to grab him, "Help, help, help! This is reminding me of childhood memories!" As Charlie turns back to the end of the room, he glances at the blond teen, whose face changes instantaneously from unadulterated fear, to a hardened soldier like anger. "AYE," taking his jacket off, Tommy grips each sleeve in one hand before throwing himself at the creature from behind! 

The air he got from his jump was enough for his jacket to be thrown over the Entity's head as the boy all, but harshly pulls the monster back, using his jacket to leverage on it's thin wire like neck, his weight to lean away from it's mess of cords, and straightened legs on the tar colored beast's back to unbalanced it. As the creature struggled to get the red and white varsity off it's cords, it left enough of an opening for Charlie to squeeze on by. 

Once jogging a good distance away, Charlie then hollers and jumps in place, egging on the teen's feral advance on the monster. "Stop em, stop em, yeah! Fuck him up, fuck him up!" With Charlie's encouragement, Tommy starts going ballistic on the thing, screaming his head off as he repetitively stomping on it's form while clinging on, pulling and jerking the Entity side to side, and even biting a few chunks off it's interior, though it mustn't taste very good if by the way the boy's face had scrunched up to spit it's pieces out were anything to go by. 

"WE WERE JUST WALKIN' HERE, I'M WALKING HERE, YA HEAR ME," while the beast screeches at the blond's rants, Charlie couldn't help, but laugh, 'Oh, how the turns have tabled!' "Get him, get him, teach him a lesson!" Though, as much fun as roughing up and cussing out the beast was, Tommy seemed to be slowing down, which meant it was about the NY time to hightail it out of there before that thing can get it's mojo back! 

Signaling with his hands towards the exit, Charlie makes sure the teen gets the memo before heading to the doorway himself, his chants of, "Go, go, go, go," just barely loud enough to be heard. He hears the blond jump off the Entity with a curse, before the pitter patters of footsteps follow close, not too far behind for him to worry. 

The Entity screeches after them, it's footsteps echoing through the halls, although it's fight with Tommy must've drained it's juice enough to slow it down, as soon, the two are far enough ahead to only hear it's last roar mix in with the hums of the light. The sound of Tommy gasping for air has become apparent with no additional noises to drown it out. 

Taking pity on the younger teen, Charlie waves for them to stop, so they can catch they're breaths. As Charlie stands in place, Tommy basically flops down besides him, laying on his chest and stomach with his face pressed down on the ground facing Charlie, enough of an angle to see the other man. 

"Jesus Christ," The blond gasps out, "I can't believe I just did that." Neither could Charlie, but the determination on the teens actions out weighed the bizarreness of the kids sudden switch in behavior. None the less, Charlie was impressed, "You popped off, man! I didn't know you had it in you. What was the motive? Finally had enough of the shmuk, or just for KICKS?" Giggling at his own jokes, the kid lifts his head up and proudly smirks at the green eyed man, smugness basically radiating off his braced teeth, though bits of gunk and tiny tar like tubes that are stuck between them decrease the pretentiousness of it. 

"Well, I am the GREAT Tommy, innit? Can't try to strangle my friend right in front of me without getting a chunk taken out of you! Nothing can stop me! I'm invincible I tell ya, guess Winfred was right about toughening me up, all that roughhousing came in handy for once!" Bouncing back up, Tommy then turns back towards the direction they came from, "You hear that dickhead! Invincible!" 

Before Charlie can tell Tommy to quiet down, the lights switch back to red, only no beast comes barreling foward with a roar. Charlie almost dismissed it to be a false alarm, but Tommy saw otherwise. "Charlie look, it's just standing there, menacingly, it's giving us real dirty looks." Moving to be in Tommy's world view, there the Unknown Entity stood, true to the blond's words. 

'Great, we just lost this sucker, guess I'm the real sucker here for believing it'd stay away longer,' he sighs as he shakes his nervousness away. "Okay, maybe if we stay really quie-," Tommy suddenly shoves Charlie back, interrupting the slimer's suggestion. 

"AYE DICKHEAD! What are you looking at!? Back off!" And singing the words to 'What's going on,' at the top of his lungs, the blond charges at the creature with the confidence of a general ready for battle. Finally, the beast roars, and out of Charlie's line of sight, he hears the distant war cries of the boy respond back. 

Dazed and vision blurring once again, Charlie makes the conclusion he should've thought about a while ago. 'The Anxiety Pills have worn off! Fuck, I should've known with Tommy's emotional outburst and recklessness, hell the atmosphere here is probably his liquid of courage when dealing with the monster, but without the drugs!' Now aware of their sanity's decline, he makes the hard decision to get Tommy to re-medicate later and find a place to take a pill himself. 

Readjusting his stance, he starts to jog the other way of the fight, passing by a locker in the corner and eventually stumbles his way back to door that lead to the dreaded elevator. Entering the room, Charlie knows better now to stay away from the elevator entirely to cease temptation, so he chills in the hall and shaking takes out his orange childproof capsule. 

Once he swallows a pill, dry mind you, Charlie ponders his next moves. 'Okay, one at a time, gotta find Ranboo, fix Tommy's sanity, and-', "Fuck, where's the vase room?" There had been so much going on that they've diverted from their main goal, but with too many tasks to do, can you really blame them? 'That's what we need, we need the vase room, then we'll work from there,' taking a deep breath, he throws the door ajar and steps forth his uncertain destination. 

He walks by the desk with the folders, zig zags through darkened corridors, and even happens upon one of Tommy's shoes. Tying the laces to his belt line, he sneaks on forward, quiet in case he hears any of his fellow survivors. Just as he was about to say 'fuck it,' and move on quickly, he hears the hinges of a metal door squeak open in one of the halls he ran by earlier. Backpedaling to where he'd been separated from Tommy, the lights flicker above as there Ranboo is, peaking their head out of the locker he'd seen before in his haste to saturate his sanity. 

Grinning with relief, Charlie jogs over, waving, "A little Drifter! Hello there!" Slightly startled, Ranboo puts a hand over their heart before opening the locker door a bit wider. "Hello!" They respond coily, "How are you?" Hissing, Charlie sheepishly confesses, "Well I- no longer good, I'm having a bad day already, me and Tommy got a tiny, little smiggy problem with our sanity at the moment, I'm good now, but Tommy should still be roaming around and terrorizing the locals if you catch my DRIFT." 

Silence encompasses the room, before Ranboo's quick, "What?" has him nodding, "Yup, turns out loony Tommy is quite fighty, maybe feral even, anyways now that I've found you, we can go find Tommy to fix his sanity too, THEN we can finally find the vase room and wreck it for puzzle pieces!" 

Proud of his outspoken plan for the duo, Charlie nearly misses the hesitant shake of the other's head. "Yea, uh, you go ahead, I'mma just be, y'know, here, where it's safe," and not giving Charlie a minute to protest, they shut the locker door with an audible click from the outside. Grabbing the handle, Charlie pulls to argue only for it to be locked. 

Groaning at Ranboo's cowardness, Charlie gives in, "Alright, I'll just bring Tommy to you. Getting that boy to medicate is a two man job, after all." Walking away from shaggy haired individual's hiding spot, Charlie goes on the look out for the youngest of the group, and if he happens across the vase room while doing so, he'll gladly break as many vases as he can without the others, 'more fun for me and less time wasted!' 

Fortunately for the teens, instead of vases, Charlie finds Tommy, or well, more like Charlie heard Tommy coming before being tackles by the fiery, crazed blond. Hitting the ground the duo laugh and greet one another, congratulating each other on their survival. Despite the boy's claims of being "invincible," there's blood and scratches running down his arms and face, his varsity is tied around his waist, the sleeves no longer white, but instead tainted yellow and pink, watered down blood from the looks of it. 

He looks rough, yet the satisfied smile on his face tells a different story. "Aw man, you should've seen it, I had that thing by the balls! And it was afraid! Of me! As it should be, big man Tommy Innit should be feared by all and loved by women!" Sniffing and wiping away the blood running down his nose with his right arm, Tommy continued to rant on and on about his about chase and cat fight with the Entity. 

Laughing at the boy's antics and hand movement, Charlie leads them to where Ranboo resides. 'If what Tommy's saying is true, then maybe fighting the monsters head on is the way to go! Hopefully the kid doesn't stop feeling this courageous after taking a pill, for somebody who's nearly stick and bones, he seems to be able to throw a punch when he needs to!'

Finally, the duo make it to Ranboo's locker, mood high and sanity soon to be restored, things are looking up! 

Only, when Charlie knocks on the metal screen to get Ranboo's attention, the blond's ramblings stop the minute the other teen shimmies out of their enclosure. 

"Ranboo?" Both Charlie and Ranboo look towards Tommy, who's seemingly starring holes onto Ranboo's hands, face neutral and blank. 

"Yes?" Ranboo laughs out nervously, wiping their hands up and down their legs in discomfort, before pulling them behind their back. 

The blond's eyes swiftly look up, like he's looking into the other's soul, "Where's Clementine?" 

'Huh? Wait, yea that's right- I forgot they had Tommy's boombox, it's fine though, it's probably in the locker,' now looking directly into Ranboo's face as well, Ranboo starts to stutter. "Well, see, about that..." 

'Uh oh.' 

And those words alone were enough for Tommy to explode, "What the FUCK did you do to her you bastard?! Where is she, you AMNESIAC FUCK?! Did you leave her in a ditch somewhere to be forgotten, because that's what I'm going to do to you in a sec-" and as Tommy goes to fling himself onto them, Charlie snatches the blond by the waist, pull them slightly away from Ranboo. 

Despite nearly getting decked in the face, Ranboo just scoffs at Tommy's outburst, "So what if I did, not like she'd be any use anymore." That stops Tommy's struggle to get Charlie to drop him as he focuses back to Ranboo's claim, "What did you just say to me?! What the FUCK is that supposed to mean?!?" 

'Shit, what did they do, what do I do?!' well, continuing to hold Tommy was at least a guaranteed action as the way this conversation was going, somebody's going to be just a splatter of blood after this, and as much survival instincts Ranboo's got in their bones, he doesn't think they're the one who's going to be walking away unscathed. 

"It means the fucking Entity damaged it! Knocked it out with it claws and slammed it on the ground. I had to leave it behind to get away, I don't even remember where I was, but from what I heard, the whirring of it's music fizzed out, okay?!" Ranboo confessed. The stupid fluorescent lights that seemed to buzz forever while the light beat down on the trio's bodies. Nothing was said for a long while. 

"Liar." 

Startled, Charlie keeps his arms wrapped around Tommy to keep him still, but it doesn't stop him from spilling his thoughts out for the older two to hear. 

"Liar. You're a fucking LIAR, Ranboob. I KNOW you hated her, DESPISED her, like the wrongun' you are. You broke her on purpose, then left her to die, just like you did with Aimsey!" 

'Low fucking blow Tommy,' "Okay, that's enough," Charlie then harshly drags Tommy, leaving Ranboo where they stood, frozen in, shock? Anger? Either way, the two shouldn't be in the same room right now. 

"A WRONGUN' I TELL YOU, YOU HEAR ME RANBOO, A FUCKIN' WRONGUN'," the blond blabbers on, uncaring of the others emotions. Finally, when the two are a couple rooms away from their lanky third, Charlie let's go to roughly grab Tommy by the shoulders, now faced to faced with the raging teen. 

"What is your fucking deal?!" Charlie shouts, which shocks the boy into the present. "Charlie they broke and lost Clementine! You know how much they hate music, or, oh god forbid fucking whistling! And- and you KNOW how much Clem matters to me! And they didn't even care! They didn't -," 

"It was an accident Tommy," Charlie corrects, which just causes the other to violently shake his head, "No- Charlie you're not listening! Somethings seriously wrong man, it's just- I don't think-," as Tommy's face starts to crumple, Charlie tries to ease his temper. 

"Yea I know, your sanity's low again, shouldn't have just give you half, but you were pretty out of it, so-," suddenly, thin jagged, pale fingers are gripping his shoulders, as Tommy seemingly returns the favor. "NO CHARLIE, LISTEN TO ME! This whole, 'amnesiac with all the knowledge at their disposal' thing they've got going doesn't make any sense! This isn't a fucking video game, there's no tutorial, and one doesn't just know everything single thing there is here, yet not ONCE in the supposed five years they've been here did they make it out!" 

"Charlie, I don't think they're telling us everything, or something! Fuck, do they even know the way, or they lying about that too?! Hell, is anything they've told us even true! The supposed 'Anxiety Pills' sound like absolute BULLSHIT and I woke up with a bump on my head AFTER I took half, I swear Ranboo caused it! Something's not right, Charles, we got to go! Leave that bitch behind, we know enough, so let's just GO!" 

The grip on his shoulders had started to hurt within half of the blond's rant, he's watching the boy breath rapidly, and as he looks into Tommy's eyes, they're clouded, unseeing. 'Well the pills aren't bogus, that's for certain.' Shushing the teen, Charlie let's go of the other to help pry the fingers off him gently. 

"Hey, hey, it's okay, breath, yea that's it, let me get you some water, yea?" Slowly coaxing the teen back down to Earth, he slowly zips open the teen's bag and opens a carton. Before he brings it into view though, he quickly slips in one of the pills he had stuffed in his jacket's pocket into the carton, in case something like the last time happened again with Tommy. And, well, yea it happened again he could say. 

After swishing it around, he eventually pulled it into Tommy's line of sight and before he can encourage the teen to take it, Tommy roughly snatched it from the man's hands and drunk it ravishingly. Once done, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "So? What do you say, just me and you, Tommy Danger and The Chulk, Backroom explorers and escapists! Hmm?" 

Chuckling lightly, Charlie simply shakes a no, "Tommy, I get it, you're scared and you just lost something that reminds you of home, but Ranboo's been with us, with ME, from the start and sure, maybe some things don't add up, what this place in general doesn't add up! I wouldn't be surprised if we WERE in a video game, which would definitely make Ranboo our guide! And I get that they're private, but no matter what their hiding, it's not to purposely harm us, otherwise they would've left us for dead long ago, nother less save our asses when they can. So I trust them, and you don't have to trust them, but you trust me right? So trust that I know we're in good hands, how's that sound?" 

The milky look in Tommy's eyes have lessened and his mouth is agapped in awe, before guiltily stammering out, "Yea, Yea! Sorry Charlie, guess my brothers' usual rants have rubbed off on me." 

Throwing his head back in laughter, Charlie's interest is once again peaked. "They say shit like this often?" Nodding at Charlie's amusement, Tommy supplies, "Ho yea, monologues are their favorite past times Big C!" 

Hand on the boy's back, Charlie leads them back to their black and white themed partner. The two teens give each other soft sorrys and a quick hug to one another, before Charlie decides it was about time they 'set up camp' and actually sleep. 

Thanks to Tommy's earlier manic episode, it seemed to scare any entity in the vicinity away for the time being. As they layed in separate spaces on the carpet, it seemed that Charlie was the last one to be conscious, though as he started to drift off, he thought he heard the shuffling of somebody's clothes, like they were getting up, after a few minutes, he peeked his eyes open a sliver, seeing Tommy crouched on the ground with his phone out, seeing the wall of the room on the boy's screen. 

"Tommy?" Charlie whispered, making Tommy swiftly, most likely painfully, turn his head towards him. "Hey, Big C, just uh, taking some pictures of the room, so I don't get lost. Gotta take a leak and I can't do that in the same room we sleep, y'know?" He whispers back. 

'Right, Tommy and directions do not go well, navigation sure ain't his strong suit like his brother, the Homosapien Navigator or something, I don't know, I'm too tired for this,' humming at Tommy's explanation, he goes back to closing his eyes and says, "Okay, careful, be back soon." 

He gets a hum back before going under, not aware of their lose until it was too late, as when the two older ones of the group awoke a few hours later, all there was left for them were a substantial amount of supplies of almond water, pills, and even a med kit that must've been brought from the outside world, and at the top of all that was a note that was torn out from a clean white lined notebook with the words, 'I'm sorry,' chicken scratched across the page. 

Tommy was gone.

Chapter Text

"Can you fucking believe that guy? The nerve of him!" 

The now duo walk side by side in the dim corridors of this nightmare fueled hellhole, though not quietly as Charlie starts ranting and going off on their previous companion's actions. 

"After all we'd been through together, the good times in the Among Us Office special, the hilarious yet annoying repeating plays of Sweet Child, and the hundreds near death experiences we covered each other for, wasted. All because he was off his rockers for far too long," rubbing his head in frustration, Charlie groans and glances over at Ranboo. 

They've been quiet ever since Charlie woke them up with his frantic search for the blond teen, getting them to aid a bit before giving up and moving along. Not expecting a word to come out of them anytime soon, Charlie sighs in defeat. 

"Fuck, I know that's not fair of me, he didn't mean too, but I just- why did he- it doesn't matter anymore, I just hope he's okay. He really wanted to go home and if he left this level, there's no way he'd be able to for who knows how long," admitting solemnly, Charlie shakes his head and looks down at the ground ahead. 

"Maybe," lifting his head up in surprise, Charlie gives his full attention to what Ranboo has to say, "it's for the best." Charlie did not expect that answer as he silently watches them lower their head in shame, winding their hands together anxiously, "We weren't really getting anywhere and the noises he made attracted way too much attention. Besides, from what you said earlier, he seems to be able to handle himself and the Entities quite fine without us, so he might even beat us to the exit." 

After hesitantly laughing at their own words, it slowly pitters off into a wet, heartfelt wimper as Ranboo stops in their tracks to bury their hands in their face. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault. I provoked him like usual when I should've been sympathetic," moving to be closer, Charlie rubbs his hand against Ranboo's back in circular motion, shushing him gently to get them to calm down. 

"I didn't mean to lose it, I panicked, I swear, that thing just- I lost them, I know, I'm sorry, I didn't know what- how could I hav- I'm sorry Aim-," 'Oh no you don't,' pulling Ranboo into a hug, Charlie successfully cuts them off. 

"It wasn't your fault, you didn't know what would happen, we all know that. Things got heated and were just said in the moment, but it doesn't justify or make what he said right. You're fine, it's okay, he made his decision and we have to make our own, there's nothing we can do, but keep going." 

Sniffing at the older's words, Ranboo slowly nods their head in acceptance, before hugging Charlie back, "Thanks Charlie, I just wished he stuck around, it was nice having somebody who could make anything funny and make us laugh at nothing like he did, especially somebody around my age. No offense." 

Laughing their comment off, Charlie pulls away from their hug, "None taken, now, about the vase room.." walking a bit further, the lights then switch to the beast alarm. 

'Shit,' bracing for the Entity's arrival, Charlie realizes it's roar is nowhere to be heard and so takes to initiate to hide. Ranboo, who'd long disappeared the minute the lights changed, whispers out from wherever they're hiding to direct Charlie to their old hiding spot. "The right Charlie, the right." 

Seeing the metal sanctuary, Charlie hops on in and locks it. Looking through the peep holes, he waits for something to happen. After a while,he hears quiet footsteps approaching before getting jump scared by Ranboo's masked face. 

"All clea- are you okay?" Opening the locker, Charlie stumbles out with a wheeze, "Yea man, ya just scared the shit out of me, your a pretty good ambush predator when you prowl like that." Rubbing the back of their neck sheepishly, Ranboo shugs in response. 

Back to the matter at hand, the vase room! Turning a right into one of the halls, Charlie is suddenly hauled back, "Not that way! That's where I saw the monster passing by, it's creeping around looking for us." 

Panicked once again, Charlie let's Ranboo lead the other direction, "Hang on, I have shit depth perception and object permanence," Charlie then wiggles his glasses to further justify his claims. 

Sighing, Ranboo looks back to make sure the other's following before facing forward, "No object permanence in the Backrooms is a liability and depth perception is a dangerous combination, so stick with me closely." 

'This is like getting nagged at by my mother,' as they enter a room, Charlie briefly inspects a drawers contents, which is just filled with almond water and pills, while Ranboo continues on to another corridor. Being a few feet behind, Charlie realizes he recognizes his surroundings. 

"Hang on, I feel like this is where the vases were, isn't this the vase place?" looking into each dark corner, Charlie almost doesn't hear Ranboo's response. "Not here, not here, that's a different place," turning back and walking towards the lanky teen, Charlie sees them expecting their journal before shutting it closed and stuffing it back in it's position. 

'I should ask to see what's in their book later, for now though-,' looking up at Ranboo, Charlie demands, "Take me to the vase!" Stifling their laughter at Charlie's serious like order, they comply, "Okay! I will take you to the vases." 

"Take me to th- now why would you say it like that?" Ignoring Charlie's annoyed confusion, Ranboo sprints ahead giggling. "Wait!" Running after them, Charlie nearly losses sight of the raggly dressed survivor, but makes due the best he can. Noticing Charlie's delay, Ranboo pauses for Charlie to catch up. 

"Charlie, you good?" The teen asks, concern in their voice, "Sorry, I haven't really been doing my cardio okay, been busy living my non-athletic life before dropping into here," Charlie excuses. 

Nodding, Ranboo walks forward, "Yea, I think I was like that before too, in the beginning, being a previously sick, bedridden kid did me no favors once I landed in this trashed hellscape, though that year in the Kitty's House gave me a head start to develop some muscles to my lungs at least." 

"The Kitty's House?" Charlie remembers Ranboo mentioning being stuck in a room for a year, but they didn't specify the name until now. "Yea, Level 974 technically, think I called it the pink room earlier. It had a couple of rooms, bathrooms, and even a food filled kitchen, though, it just had sugary sweets in it, and as enjoyable as that was, you can only eat slimy marshmallows for so long," stopping, Ranboo takes out their booklet and turns a few pages. 

"Oh," peaking Charlie's interest, he walks behind Ranboo and takes a swift look at Ranboo's notes. There, on the top right corner of the page their on, is a drawing of a dark tall figure, like a shadow, with the words 'KITTY' written on the left of it and information below it. "Woah," startled by how close Charlie was, Ranboo turns around and shuts their book with a click. "Sorry, just got curious," Charlie admitted, before changing the subject, "was that the room's Entity?" 

Sighing at Charlie's confessed, Ranboo nods, "Yea, it didn't talk, or make noise really, but it's name was in glittery pink all over the place, so I just called it that. It was like Slender Man, but dark and with no clothes. It never really did anything, just watched." 

"Kind of sounds like you had a warden," Charlie points out, "so, how did you escape?" Pressing their journal to their chest, Ranboo stalls, "Um, well, there wasn't any doors that lead to the outdoors, and the 'windows' were just drawings of landscapes, so you couldn't open them." 

"And then what?" Giving the most pleading look to the other, Ranboo relents, opening their book to read out, "Well, when I first arrived, I only had the clothes on my back and nothing else, so I couldn't dig my way out with a possession, so I just thrived there so a long while and figured I'd make friends with the only thing around." 

As they walk on, Ranboo continues, "However, it never seemed interested with what I had to say, what it did do though, is every time I saw it watching me, it was always focused on my feet, and well, I had these light green socks with the Minecraft Creeper on them, so I figured maybe if I gave it to them, then it'd be my friend, and so, I took them off and gave it to them, but when I pulled away, I felt drowsy all of a sudden, and I must've passed out because the next thing I knew, I was waking up in an entirely different room with short pink socks on." 

Blinking at Ranboo's story, Charlie can't help, but think how lucky the teen had been to have their first Backrooms experience be mild and harm free, but considering they were only 13 to 14 at the time, it seems justifiable to push his comment away as it'd be inconsiderate to diminish the panick and confusion they must've of gone through, even if they were safe at the time. So instead, he comments, "Wow, a sovereign! Did you keep them?" 

Laughing, Ranboo shakes their head, "Only for a while, I had to outgrow them at some point, but they got the job done at the time." They enter a nearly lit hall before hearing a distant, high pitched screech, spooking the two to turn back somewhere more light based. 

"Did you hear that? I heard a scary scream and I don't think it's one for enthusiasm," pushing the gamer's comment off, Ranboo starts looking into different rooms individually. "I could've sworn the vases were here, where are they?" Groaning, Charlie starts his own investigation, "I don't know man, I just want to get back to them, I've been holding onto this hammer foreverrrrr." 

As the duo move from room to room, their efforts seem futile, "Hmmm, yea I don't know where the vases are, my map doesn't have the words 'VASE ROOM' written on it, just the level layout." Just as Ranboo finished speak, a series of tuds are heard from above, causing the two to hover together as Ranboo warns, "There's something in the walls!" on repeat. 

"Alright, alright!" Getting behind the taller, Charlie takes out the hammer that's attached to his hip and stands in a crouching position as they both back up and exit into a different room. 

Quickly taking out their screwdriver, Ranboo closes the vents in their occupied room before giving the okay. Moving further into the room in search of the vases, they stumble upon the 'not-thing' room, or 'Appendix's chambers' as Tommy would've called it. The reminder of the blond dampens Charlie's mood for a second, before taking a deep breath and pushing the thought away. So what if they're missing their third member, they'll be fine, he's probably out terrorizing more Entities, maybe he found a new group to entertain and be endeared by. 

Or maybe an Entity got the better of him and he's perishing alone, never to go back to what he wanted most, to be back home. 

'NO, no, none of that, he's fine, we're FINE, we just need to find the stupid vase room and we'll be all dandy.' The longer the ragtag team goes from finding their target, the more frantic and impatient they get, as they run around in what seemingly seems to be in circles and they cry out to one another in despair. 

"WHERE. ARE. THE. VASES!" banging his head against the wall with each word, Charlie can hear Ranboo flipping through pages of their book and muttering repeatingly to themself. "Where's the vases, I don't know where the vases are," then, like a complete switch was flipped, Ranboo lifts their head up, back straight as they yell, "I know where the vases are!" 

Practically skipping, they run ahead as Charlie sputters in place before running after them. "They're over here!" Ranboo, with their high stamina and lightning speed sprint make it there first, but Charlie's not too far behind as when he finally catches up, low and behold, there's the one thing the light brunette's been looking for. 

The Vase Room.

Chapter Text

"LET'S GET TO SMASHING!" 

Lifting up his hammer, Charlie goes to strike the closest vase down before a gloved hand grabs his wrist last minute. "Wait!" Ranboo warns, "That's gonna make noise, noise attracts things, remember? So we gotta do this quick." His impatience getting the best of him, Charlie rolls his eyes and lightly shakes Ranboo's hands off. 

"Yea? Well noise makes boys!" And with that, Charlie impulsively swings and breaks a gorgeously white, marbled vase, shattering it into several pieces on the drawer it sat on. 

Taking the taller's advice though, he quickly moves on to the next, laughing all the while Ranboo looks through each broken pottery's cabinets and contents. The act of breaking something so beautifully out of place in this desolate horror house feels so right, especially when the remaining pieces look right at home. From pretty and delicate, to blemished and deadly. 

Running around and breaking each pot he finds, Charlie looks back towards Ranboo with a question in mind. "So, uh, what exactly are we looking for again?" Sighing with a disappointing shake of their head, Ranboo fishes out their book, "There should be a key in one of these vases, along with I believe to be a visual or audible clue as to where to proceed." 

Nodding, Charlie continues on forward, "Alright, so keep breaking these vases, got it. I mean, I was going to anyways with or without a reward as it's kind of fun! The world is my rage room!" As the teen lifts their hand to respond, the sound of thumps from above causes the duo to stop in their tracks. 

"I heard something-," just as Charlie smashed another vase, he saw a four legged humanoid creature call out of the vents in the other room to his right. 'Entity 8. Well fuck,' looking over to Ranboo, they too seemed to have seen the creature as they swiftly turn and book it out of their room and into the one on Charlie's left. 

'Think Charlie, think! What to do, what's it's weakness, because it's certainly not sound, uhh- wait, eye contact!' backing up to be in full view of both his companion and enemy, Charlie starts shouting. "Look at it, look at it, look at it!" 

Watching Charlie stare right into the monster's face, Ranboo finally gets the memo. "Just look at it, just look at it?! Okay, I'm looking, I'm looking!" Stepping out of the other room to slowly get closer to Charlie, Ranboo's mask faces towards the Entity. 

The Entity stops moving, it's red sunken eyes glaring holes into both survivors' lenses and it's ragged breathing begins to decrease in volume. Taking this as a good sign, Charlie takes the initiative to start moving closer in a crouch stance. "Aw, look at you, you cute little, little pup-," 

Not liking the hammer wielder's coos and baby talk, the creature charges at the stammering man, throwing him off balance with a scream and scaring the teen into retreating without the other. "Ahhhh- it didn't work, it didn't work!" Scrambling to his feet, Charlie follows after Ranboo in an attempt to stick close while also throwing off the monster as it stays on their tails. 

After the entity is a distance, Charlie sees two more vases, so he diverts from Ranboo's trail in order to complete what they came for. 'I'll catch up to them later, the noise will probably attract that thing too so they'll be okay. Oh please have a key inside, one of you's gotta have it.' 

Quickly breaking one, the shatter echos down the corridors and the thumps and pounds of footsteps start to get louder. Running to the second, he clumsy knocks against it's drawer in his haste and knocks it to the ground, the growls and harsh breaths of the monster is in perimeter. Not having the time to put it back in place, Charlie lifts his hammer above his head with both hands and smashes it into shards. 

And there, in between all the shimmering and jagged porcelain, was a small key. His radio comes to life, as he hears the static from his pocket and the shrill shriek of the mask wearer, "Charlie run and find somewhere to hide!" Crouching down, Charlie rushes into action, being mindfull of the sharp pieces of pottery, his hand is just a few inches away from it before he's thrown foward, body and tied up items slamming down away from his main prize. 

Looking back, stands the creature before him as it lunges once again. Feeling the pin like needles of it's teeth on his foot, Charlie screams as he uses the other to kick at the thing's face. It yelps when his foot collides with it's nose and loosens it's jaw enough for Charlie to shimmy his foot out of his shoe. 

The pull on both sides has the creature thrown back when he finally does succeed in pulling his foot out. Using the stunned hound to his advantage, Charlie gets up with a hiss and runs off into another room. 'Ah shit, I literally found it, it was right there! I saw the key, and now I've got to back for it AND my shoe, what else can go wrong?' 

And like the universe was listening to the man's woes, he fucking trips on his shoe lace and falls head first onto a vases cabinet. 'Oh, that,' is the last thing he thinks before his vision goes white. 

'No no no, wait, don't tell me I'm blind now, FUCK,' as he gets to his knees, he can feel the lashes on his cheeks every time he blinks. 'Well, at least I know I'm awake,' getting to his feet, he reaches his arms out to lay his hands on the walls. Stabilizing himself upright, he tries squeezing his eyes shut and then opening them as wide as he can to see if his vision would return, but alas, it stayed stark white, like the blinding lights of a hospital. 

'If I don't fix this, I'm as good as dead. Fuck, did I get brain damage or injury my nerves? Wait, injury, what fixes-,' "Almond water!" Quickly feeling every item he has tied to his slacks, Charlie finally feels the desired carton and unties it from his person. Taking big gulps of the substance, he can feel an itch behind his eyes and on his bleeding feet, before finally seeing the discoloration of the dank, yellow lit room he's in. 

'Thank god, I never thought I'd be this happy in ever seeing piss colored walls and mushy, stained carpets!' sighing in relief, Charlie decides that through out his entire dilemma, it must've been enough time for the Entity to have moved on, so, with hesitant courage, he quietly retraces his steps. 

Truthfully, he had been surprised to see ha hadn't been followed, though he soon figured out why that is as he looks over the corner. There, in the middle of the room, was the dog mixed creature as it paced around where he last left it. 

'Why the fuck is it still here?' looking at it's surroundings, Charlie not only sees the key still in it's position, but his shoe by it as well, while the creature lingers with them, almost like it's protecting them. 'You've got to be kidding me. Alright, y'know what, let's do this, I'm going the Ranboo route!' 

Taking a deep breath, Charlie runs in, narrowly missing the creature as it snaps at him as he swiftly grabs his shoe and the key, though not without getting a few cuts from the shards around it, and sprints out. The monster growls at his escape, but Charlie heeds no mind to it as he takes out his radio. 

"It's literally camping! Ranboo, why didn't you mention Entities getting attached to things!" Silence on the other's side makes Charlie worry as he runs back to where he had his accident. Putting his (damp) shoe back on, Charlie sticks to the shadows, as he starts to sneak into a newer section before radio-ing in again. 

"Ranboo, are you there?" As he waits for a response, the thumps of the dog is back, and just when Charlie was going to sneak back to the shadows, the radio came to life. "I'm aLiVe," and yet what should've been the calming reassurance of his friend was anything, but as the static and the growls from the entity sounded so alike, Charlie almost thought he imagined Ranboo's response. 

Moving away of the creature's view, Charlie goes to confirm his presence, before Ranboo tunes in again, "It's back, it's back! I'm going back to my hiding spot, I'm going back." Looking around for any sign of the other, Charlie answers back. "I know, I know, I know, I saw it and I'm trying to figure out where you are." 

Running through the halls, per usual, Charlie gives up on finding the teen and focuses on finding his own hiding spot, and yet, ironically, and like a big o' fuck you from this place, the first locker he tries opening stays locked with a whispered, "Charlie?" coming from it. 

'Of fucking course they're in there, shit,' 

turning back, he sees the entity enters the room, running towards him. Running away, Charlie sees another locker nearby, and so like his life depends on it (it did), he rushes to it, arms out as he swings it's door open and slams it shut on the monster's face. 

The tilt of his metal paradise and the cry of the monster outside indicated it hadn't stopped in time and ended up hitting the locker head on, making Charlie hysterically chuckle from inside. Feeling the need to confirm his escape, Charlie yells out in hopes of Ranboo hearing him. 

"Okay, he literally saw me go in, but maybe he won't know, like object permanence with babies!" He almost thinks the other was too far away, but in the distance he hears a faint, "Okay," and feels relief overflow him, "Ranboo, I think we're in a bad sitch right now!" 

After a moment, Ranboo voices otherwise, "I think we're okay! It could be worse y'know, it could break into either of our spots, but it's fine, it's probably gone by now!" Groaning at the teens words, he argues back, "Okay, why don't you go out then?!" Hearing a low huff, Ranboo seems to take the challenge with an annoyed, "Alright fine, I will!" 

The sound of metal hinges echoes out, before a sickening crunch rings out and the teen's screams fill the room. "IT'S GOT MY LEG, IT'S GOT ME, OH NO, LET GO, LET-" the teen's words become distant, as they're possibly dragged away and Charlie's powerless to stop it from happening as he stands in his gray containment until Ranboo's voice can no longer be heard. 

Charlie's now alone once again.

Chapter Text

Okay, let me just say, the last chapter was NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LEFT ON A CLIFFHANGER TTATT.

The next chapter was LITERALLY going to start off with:

"Or, at least, he WAS alone again, until after a minute of Charlie being in total despair, his walkie sprung to life. First with static, then with Ranboo’s small, "Charlie?" That just about brought said man to tears."

But yea, I can't believe I'm actually announcing this, but after going over my own thoughts and feelings on this fic for over a year, I thought it'd be best to finally make a verdict and decide on the future of this fic, which is to say, there will be none.

So y'all are wondering: What happened? And the answer is, a lot and not much. See, I believe on the last chapter, I mentioned starting a new job back to back from my old one, and lemme tell ya, I was DEADSET TIRED the first week, however, as I got used to it, I had made a schedule for myself to make time for my fic and art. So then, where's the end product? Nonexistent. Eaten away by burnout and lack of motivation.

See, I'm not sure if it was obvious, but I was straight up STRUGGLING to write more after having Tommy go off on his own, for, and I hate to say this, he's the only one I genuinely enjoy (content wise), so his character was quite literally my driving point of writing this fic, despite not even being the MAIN character. 

Speaking of the main character, at the time I had actually been watching less and less of Slimecicle's work, and am currently NOT a fan of his AT ALL now. This is mostly due to some questionable actions on his part, mostly how intermingled he is with Ai games/content, which, I don't see anybody talking about at all?? Which is crazy considering how when Tommy posted ONE video interacting with Ai, he IMMEDIATELY got canceled and harassed about it, (thankfully he took it down and apologized with an explanation, otherwise I would've also started questioning his content as a whole too, but for now he's the GOAT.)

And now, for the last (and least) character here, I have to say: I wasn't even a Ranboo fan and, generally, HATED their character, both in their content and mine, with a burning passion. I had only EVER seen one of their vids, and it was of them making a cake during their early years, and their character in lore pissed me off so badly with how heavily pushed they were into the others narratives and their ideology, I think I'd genuinely have an aneurism talking about all my problems with it. However, with them being both in the video this fic was based off of AND constantly being in the other two's other content, they quite literally had to be in this, so I worked with what I got and improvised the best I could.

NOW, you guys get to know details and the 3 endings I had in store for this:

- Charlie is on late to work (recording) and takes a shortcut that leads to him falling into the Backrooms

- He meets Ranboo, who helps him navigate through the first floor until they come across a vent

- In the vent, they find Tommy, a 16 year old who's been alone for about 2 weeks with a broken up phone, a charger, headphones and a boom box?  (A speaker, an mp3 player, or a walkman were also options, but they weren't loud enough)

- Charlie has 2 good friends/roommates waiting for him back home (Ted and Schlatt)

-Tommy has 2 older brothers, one is a music shop owner and the other is a novelist/author (Wilbur and Techno), a dad who's a game developer, and a mom that's an art teacher (Phil and Kristen)

- Ranboo mentions their father once, they've been stuck in the Backrooms for 5 years

- This information doesn't sit right with Tommy, as Ranboo knows the place like the back of their hands and yet has 'supposedly' not been able to escape for the last 5 years, so either they're lying about knowing the way out, or they're not telling them something. Something important.

- Tommy confines his suspicions to Charlie and tries to get them to ditch Ranboo, but Charlie disagrees, as they was the first person he found out of the 2 and had saved Charlie from dying on multiple occasions, therefore he trusts them

- Tommy leaves the two while they're sleeping, carrying on separately to the exit 

- Charlie and Ranboo almost die several times 

- When new information on the last entity is found, Ranboo becomes paranoid and skittish 

- second to last puzzle, Ranboo and Charlie get lost, so Ranboo advices Charlie to leave things behind as a mark to find the exit, insistent that they won't be needed

- the last room, Level 4, looks to be a party room, with clothed tables, confetti, and balloons all around

- When they get to the wire pad (the key to the exit), Charlie realizes they did need those things, Ranboo says, "Oh [they] know," and when Charlie asks why they told him to leave them behind is when they show their true form, a faceless entity, and they don't want Charlie to leave; it's their birthday and they don't want to be alone again 

- Ranboo was once human, but had sustained an injury from the Entity that killed Aimsey; the wound caught a virus from Level 4's air, a virus that changes one's body and humanity into one of the entities that inhabits the Backrooms

- when Ranboo reawaken, they gained the ability to call forth the same entity that had attacked them, and with this, gave them the idea/purpose of luring survivors into being with them for company, but the minute they got too close to the exit, or tried to leave their side, Ranboo would either command the entity to kill said survivors or do it themselves 

- when asked about the other survivors they'd come across, Ranboo admits to their falls (Billzo's arrival and betrayal leading to his death, Freddie getting caught in the crossfire of another group of survivors due to Ranboo’s actions, and even the downfall of an entire survivor civilization which is when they breifly reunited with Sneeg before putting him down when he refused to go back with them and overran the camp with entities)

- when asked if they had anything to due with Tommy’s disappearance, they admit to the kid's departure to being an oversight, but plans to go after him when all this is said and done, thus Charlie must choose; stay in the backrooms forever, or die

The Good Ending:

- Charlie refuses to stay, so Ranboo aims to injure him and turn into something new like they did, and if that didn't work, they'd just kill him to spare them both the pain

- Tommy comes in and saves Charlie at the last second, stabbing Ranboo in the back with Techno's hunting knife and blasting music at top volume into Ranboo's ears with a "FOUND HER, BITCH!", and booking it to safety with Charlie

- Tommy admits to taking photos of what was inside Ranboo’s book and going back to the elevator, getting the brilliant idea of putting the same passcode in again, which had only closed the elevator doors for a minute and reopened to the same level, but time clearly had passed and all the puzzles had been completed

- he had found and picked up the items Charlie dropped along the way, subsequently leading him straight to the other 2; the pictures he got from Ranboo's books clarifies the items' significance

- giving the items to Charlie, Tommy runs off to distract Ranboo and the entity, which was enough time for him to unlock the passage open

- alerting Tommy to the exit, they're moments away from freedom when, Ranboo screeches out for them to wait; Charlie does which causes Tommy to stubbornly do so as well

- they beg for them to stay, that they had no idea what would happen to them on the other side, that they might end up high above Earth's surface or suffocate underground, that they'd possibly die, and wouldn't it be better staying where they know they'd be safe for certain then most likely dying just because they want to go back?

- Charlie is devastated for Ranboo, for they really were just a kid who had everything taken from them and now holds on to whatever people and situation they're in, and he wants them to come with the 2, to escape too, but based on their form, it wouldn't be possible, nor would they get to live the life they deserved or wanted, too much time has passes, blood spilt, on their hands, for anything possibly normal

- Tommy grabs Charlie's hand, taking his hesitation for uncertainty, but Charlie squeezes it back in reassurance and hold on tight before shaking his head towards Ranboo’s demands

- defeated and dejected, they ask for one last thing, for them to tell their father what happened, that his child, Ranboo Bethany Beloved, loved him

- the duo agree and together, jump into the abyss; they end up in falling into the Atlantic ocean by Charleston, South Carolina, good news, were luckily rescued by a cruised ship nearby, bad news, they're on the other side of the country, that country being AMERICA 

- the two are reunited with their loved ones and FaceTime each other weekly, Charlie's YT channel practically skyrockets since he was nearly a cold case, and Tommy’s family decided to not move, as the the kid's disappearance caused them to mentally hold on to anything related to him, his school, friends, hangout spots, and their home as a whole, plus displacing an already displaced teen AGAIN was not something anybody wished to do

-Charlie finally finds Ranboo’s father, a now costume shop owner, and tell him EVERYTHING that happened, adding enough details about the teen for the old man to cry and thank them

The Neutral Ending:

- while distracting Ranboo and the entity, Tommy gets injured and trapped by the 2, so when Charlie opens the exit, Tommy is unable to escape 

-using the blond as hostage, Ranboo tries to offer again for him to stay, but Tommy uses enough strength to throw his boom box at Charlie and cry out for him to go, to escape, and tell his family and Tubbo, the Great Tommyinnit Never Dies

- Charlie jumps as Ranboo screams and Tommy laughs

- he reunites with his friends, but has them go on a trip with him, boom box in hand

- Nottingham, he knocks on a red door of a green house in a lush neighborhood, and when it opens, tells the family there his tales, the boom box and the boy's choiced words enough to crush them; Charlie is giving a place there to stay, as they don't plan on going anywhere soon, or ever again, and he finally learns all the habitats names (Phil, Kristin, Techno, and Wilbur)

The Bad Ending:

- while held hostage, Tommy is doing everything in his power to escape, biting, scratching screaming, while Ranboo makes Charlie decide

- Charlie agrees to stay, slowly moving towards the group, but Tommy must've jabbed at the creature too hard, kicked one too many times, screeched out too high, for without Ranboo’s permission, it snaps Tommy’s neck, silencing and stilling the boy for the first and final time

- Charlie screams for Tommy and runs forward, as Ranboo moves behind Charlie and tackles him down apologizing over and over again, and yet, commands the entity to let go of the body and incapacitate Charlie 

- his legs are nearly severed, and as he lays there bleeding out, he can faintly hear the cracking of bones, his vision blurs to red and his breathing turns harsh, heavy, animalistic 

- A pair of roommates have been posting and asking around for their missing friend, the police are no help and claimed to have nothing, and the news only showed his photo for a day before moving on

- In another country, a family had reported their son, brother, missing after failing to attend school and not even his best friend had heard or gotten a hold of him, the police mark him down as a runaway first due to their earlier argument, but after 3 days, he's listed as missing, possibly abducted on the family's insistence 

- a best friend of 2 kids that have disappeared from his life does his own investigating, staying out late, asking locals for clues, and sharing on media for help; eventually he gets sent a link that seems to always change no matter if he's staring at it or not, when he clicks it, he's shown an image of a pale fave, eyes glossy and wide, teeth shaped oddly, and face gaunt and thin

- the boy gets up from his chair, but trips and causes the chair to wheel to the side as he falls back, and falls, and falls, and falls into pitch black darkness 

- when he can feel, see, and hear again, it's to a stained, mushy carpeted room with old yellow wallpaper and the humming of high florescent lights; an somewhere the boy can't sense, awaits a no faced creature with an ache in they're soul

Little details/tidbits about the gang:

* Tommy carries around a ion audio boombox deluxe

* Ranboo and the entities are sensitive to sound, even whistles, so Tommy playing his boombox around them is like nails to a chalkboard 

* Phones and Radios (maybe) do not work in the Backrooms, but there is electricity, so the outlets on the walls work

*Tommy has a backpack with practically everything at his disposal

* Ranboo is an Entity #9: a Faceling, they don't have ANY facial expressions, everything they've done so far (eating, drinking, ect.) had been faked

* Ranboo has memory problems AFTER being turned into an entity, not from their previous illness, their notebook is filled with written information on where everything is (rooms, monsters, ect.) from time spent in the backrooms

And that's about it folks, it was fun while it lasted, but this won't be the end, I'm planning on writing new (TommyInnit themed) works soon, and y'all can look through my current drawings on my social! Without further ado, I'll see or READ, y'all around, Thank You!