Work Text:
Chance had woken up in a new dimension. A dark expanse of pale-cork rooms and hallways, with concrete floors. Old lightbulbs hung from the ceiling, flickering their hazy light. One hums eerily above each room, as if it was only put there to give the minimum amount of light the creator of this place could get away with.
He didn’t recall exploring any abandoned buildings. And if it was abandoned, it wouldn’t have power either… so then… what was this place?
It didn't make sense… It feels more like a dream. He thought to himself.
But the sting of a incompletely-healed cut told him he was very awake. And so did the damp smell of that disgusing mold on the walls. The situation itself looked like a dream - no, a nightmare is more accurate. Every sensation he felt reminded him of the reality.
Chance forced himself up, and started walking. The longer he did, the more he became convinced these hallways dragged on endlessly.
Who would allow a building of this size to have no signs or maps? Everything about it gave him an uncanny-feeling. Despite the place seemingly being abandoned, it was still receiving power, though whoever owned the place didn’t care to get that mold-problem checked out…
Lesser of his concerns was the questionable architecture. He’d already seen a few doors with pillars right in front of them, so their room couldn’t even be accessed. Maybe this was a fever-nightmare or something.
Was this some part of the Backrooms? All he knew was that the place had yellow walls, and other "levels" that looked different.
Did anyone who supposedly ended up in that place, even die to get there?...
He quickly ran out of things to question about the place, which meant nothing stopped his mind from wandering to his own murder. Each minute in that hallway felt like torture.
It felt like multiple eternities of wandering had passed. His legs felt numb, his mind became blurry.
Is this just what hell is like?… Maybe he'll see Trap here at some point, at least then he wouldn't be alone.
Was that too cruel to wish, though? Maybe he wronged iTrap somehow?… Could it be revenge? No, if he’d seen someone like him, would he forget him?
Unless he never saw him…
Or he’s that bad at telling apart noobs…
The buzzing of the lights seemed to increase in pitch, until they all sounded like ringing in his ears. By the time that happened, he had mentally become too distant to feel much of anything about it.
Maybe the dark isn’t so bad.
It didn't feel like he was in his own body anymore. Like he was watching from a distance as he moved through the space. The occasional shadow would peek from a corner, before vanishing seconds later.
He didn't react. Didn't care, even though somewhere in his unclear mind, he knew he probably should have.
Everything seemed to faded away in a blur.
He didn’t even catch it happening.
...
It was eerie how silent his mind got. Like it had been emptied of everything. Every thought, every feeling. It felt like falling asleep against your will, except you never really fell asleep?… No, it was more like his consciousness was being weighed down by something, suppressed in some way. It was… weird.
If not existing were somehow a feeling, a thing you could experience, something you’re conscious of, but also not… that probably would have been it.
…
An unknown amount of time must have passed.
…He heard a stranger speak from the darkness.
Their voice was full of concern. “Hey?… Hello? Please don't be dead.”
Something nudged him hard in the side. "Are you alive?”
They briefly paused. “…I'm not a mimick, if that's what you're worried about."
Chance still didn't move.
“You look like you're still breathing…" The speaker quietly noted to himself.
In a barely audible, and monotone way, he said to the stranger. "There's no point…"
“What?"
“It's all the same… looping… forever… so… why bother?…"
“Um… to break the cycle, I guess?"
“Is that… even possible?" He couldn't help but doubt that.
“Isn't part of living discovering things?"
"…Is it?" He asked, curious, but also confused. Like no one had thought that way in response to the question.
“I mean, if it wasn't an option, I'd probably be lying on the floor too—or maybe worse, staying still for long makes me restless.”
“Huh.” Chance felt an odd sense of familiarity with that thinking. He couldn't say where it came from, though. It felt like he was a stranger to himself. How weird.
"Sooo…" The stranger sitting next to him began. "You gonna get up and come with me? Seems like you could seriously use the company… you were probably wandering alone for a while before this."
A bit of feeling came back to his limbs… Chance slowly but shakily reached a hand up to his face, and pushed something off of it (his hat).
Light instantly assaulted his face. Making him cover his eyes with an arm.
“Agh! What the hell??"
The Stranger glanced at him, and the dim-but-disgustingly cold lightbulb. They didn't think it was that bright… Noticing a pair of shades on the floor next to the guy, they grabbed it, and the hat, and gave them to him. "Looks like you dropped both of these."
Chance took and put both of them on. The shades helped enough for him to see, at least… Aside from the strange black slime on them, blocking some of his vision. It wasn't that much though.
“Th… thank you."
The stranger helped him up, making sure he didn't fall from how shaky he was.
As he and the stranger walked, they talked. It seemed somewhat one-way with how little he added to the conversation.
The two exchanged their names.
…The first person he met in the Lockspace, (and also, the one that saved him from lying on the floor for eternity), was Elliot. Someone from a Survivors Settlement that had somehow been set up in this place.
There were a few others, which he met when Elliot brought him to some other people who had been searching for resources in the hallways. But he wouldn’t get to know them much until later-on.
He learned how the place worked, the ‘levels’ of it, and even its name from them; They called the dimension, the Lockspace. (Or the Lockrooms, some used the two interchangeably). A weird backrooms-like world controlled by The Keeper, an Anomaly that many believed to have created the place.
“It’s good you found him when you did.” A blue-haired Guest told Elliot. “He might not have lasted much longer out there…”