Chapter 29: Level Zero
One by one, creatures began to peel themselves out of the walls.
The wallpaper bulged first, seams splitting like old skin. Then they came, sliding out of the yellow with soft, wet sounds. Pride glimmered in Dax's eyes as he watched them, though his face showed nothing at all.
He walked through the hallways at an unhurried pace, fluorescent tubes buzzing overhead like a swarm of tired insects. The entities reacted at once. They parted before him, forming a path as though guided by instinct, the damp carpet whispering under feet that were clawed, bare, or boneless.
He studied them as he passed. Skin-stealers, and the many other denizens of the Backrooms, each answering him in its own grotesque way. Some smiled back, faces stretching wider than faces should. Others clutched their heads and screamed, sobbing and convulsing as though his presence alone were unbearable.
Eerie. And yet familiar.
