Love, Even Here

"Molly?"

Her daughter was standing in front of her. The daughter who went missing 4 years ago. The one Klo had spent years contributing to a forest search for, just to see her face again. It was all to no avail; the police found nothing but a red ribbon. The ribbon was in her purse, even after those years. Klo remembered the last time she listened to her daughter, Molly, ramble about random topics, or the last time she ever tucked her in bed… And yet, she was standing. Exactly the same as she looked before, with the exact same… face?

Klo got closer to the girl as her face twisted unnaturally to what resembled a human. That wasn't Molly, that was-

"KLO! How many times did I tell you not to slack off?!"

Of course. A hallucination. It was the second time this week, and she kept falling for it. The hallucinations made her disoriented, too. Klo reminisced about what her therapist said, or what she remembered of it. "Remember your surroundings. Remember that you're living in the present."

… And she was in her office, getting yelled at by her boss, because she dozed off for nearly 2 minutes. Great. She needed to do her job until an hour later, then she could finally go home and rest in peace.

After her shift, Klo decided to walk in the park instead of ordering a taxi. She liked the faint smell of mud, and also to think about the times when she and her daughter watched the dogs walk. Molly would make exaggerated faces of the dogs she found cutest. Klo tried to imitate a dog passing by -which looked to be a labrador- but realised she couldn't. Imitating dogs was simply not taught in school, and probably for a reason. She let out a deep breath as her surroundings warped to a school building, her daughter holding her hand. She was going to drop her off to her first day in school. She smiled as the little, shy girl crept behind her legs. It was going to be okay, she wasn't going to-

… go missing, all of a sudden? Klo woke up back to reality as she stood in front of the door of her apartment.

"Fuck. She was gone too soon. She was gone too fucking soon."

The footsteps of her shoes echoed throughout the apartment as she made her way up the stairs. It was an old apartment, so it didn't have an elevator, or lights… that worked. The apartment room itself, at the very least, was quite vast, and cheap considering it wasn't prone to collapsing on the spot.

Floor 2. She made it halfway through, even though the steep steps were hurting her ankles with every step she took, it was making her hard to breathe. Klo tried to get a grip on the handrails, as to take a quick break.

?!

The handrails broke, leading her to lose her balance, and fall over. The fall lasted longer than she expected, and by the time she was supposed to hit the floor, and possibly break her ankles as her downstairs neighbor did, she phased through the floor instead. Klo felt nothing but the cold gush of a breeze she didn't know where it came from.

And, after that moment, the life she lived, everything she knew would be overturned.

… She landed softly, even though it was on hard concrete. She could feel that the air, wherever she was, felt heavier, and warmer. She was in some sort of a cramped hallway, with pipes on each side of the walls.

Everything defied logic. Nothing made sense. She fell through the stairs, right into a steaming hot, claustrophobic hallway. Did she drink too much again? Perhaps, she explored an abandoned building and came across this place by accident in a mere second?!

… She was being irrational. She needed to find help; she could get hurt in here, and terribly if she wasn't cautious.

Klo got up using the wall right next to her as support, and looked around in hopes for a sign of life. Nothing, not even a trace of a footstep. Great. She probably must have been phased through to another dimension all of a sudden, due to how much of a fever dream this felt like.

…

She stood silently for a whole minute before pinching herself. It hurt, but probably not enough to jolt her awake from her bed. It was fine, anyway, she would probably wake up sooner, or later. Probably.

It seemed that the more she walked, the more she got lost in the basement-like maze. It didn't have an end, and it felt more like a social experiment run by a millionaire, that was probably airing on national television right now. So, where were the cameras?

Her question was answered in the same second, as she saw a figure appear out of the hallways. It looked to be a grotesque pile of flesh, shaped to be humanoid. Her expression darkened as the humanoid got slowly closer; it really didn't look friendly. What even was that? A costume? A mutated human? Her ex? Whatever it was, it didn't matter, because one thing she knew was that it came for her skin.

She swiftly ran across the halls as the entity chased her; she was going in random directions in hopes that it wouldn't lead to a dead end. It was quite fast and was catching up to her. She needed to think of something, fast. She reached for her purse while running, but there was nothing in it that could stop it, let alone kill it. She eventually found a bottle that seemed to be made out of metal. Jackpot.

Just as the entity touched her shoulder, Klo struck the monster with the hard-rock bottle, and it fell. Was it Unconscious? Maybe, maybe not, but she knew that wasting any second would mean death. Klo went through the first door she could find and closed it without hesitation.

It seemed that she came across what seemed to be a warehouse, with boxes lined on shelves that contained unknown material. She wasn't curious enough to check what was in them. The warehouse looked completely different from the hallways of pipes she had just entered.

A minute after she stood still, a man appeared out of a hall in the room. He looked to be around the same age as Klo, and wore an unbuttoned black shirt, and a beige-striped t-shirt underneath.

"Oh? What do we have here?"

The man acted too calm, as if she didn't just escape from a monster.

"Did you SEE that thing?!"

"What thing?"

"The thing! It chased me for minutes, and kept trying to touch my skin! It was like-"

"You mean the skinstealers?"

"The skin what?!"

"How do you… not know about skinstealers?"

"… I'm pretty sure that there weren't SKIN stealers running around Springtown!"

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"I'm going to have to hold your hand while I say this, but you aren't in Springtown anymore. Forget what life you had back there, because there isn't going back. Welcome to the Backrooms."

It hit her like a truck. Fate randomly decided to teleport her into another dimension. Maybe it wasn't too bad after all. She could use a fresh start. Her expression blanked; she didn't feel anything at all. And maybe, that was a good thing.

"Oh."

"Oh? That's… that's not too bad."

The man shot up a confused look.

"Usually, the average person would burst into tears, but I guess that's an exception for pretty ladies like you."

"Excuse me?"

"Your hands are soft, too-"

"Let go of me, creep!"

She shouted as she let go of the man's hand.

"Right."

They both stood for a good minute in total silence because of the awkwardness of the situation, before Klo spoke again.

"… Right. Do you know where I can get help?"

"I mean, this is already the place."

"Alright…"

Klo felt that there was something off about the man; maybe it was the way he looked. She couldn't place exactly what was bothering her, anyway. The man spoke as he guided her to what she thought was a camp.

"So, you also look like you're looking for something."

"Am I?"

"You are. I can see it in your eyes. What is it?"

Good question. Klo tried to concentrate while ignoring the man who was looking at her in a strange manner. What was she looking for? Safety? Probably. Her home? It would be the last thing. What about…

Her daughter?

It made sense. It all suddenly made sense; the reason she disappeared without a trace, and never returned, the reason she didn't even give her any news.

"Do you know about… Molly?"

"Only if you promise to give me your necklace."

"I mean…"

Klo lightly cringed, but then realised he could help her tremendously. She decided to play along for a short time. She took off the small necklace with the crescent moon shape. It was from her daughter, but if that was what it took to see her again…

"Fine. Just tell me already."

"The only Molly I've ever heard of is in Level 916. I have a physical copy of the map to Level 916, hopefully that'll help."

She had no idea what any of those meant, nor did she have the energy to ask. Klo took the map without thinking.

"The guys over there will explain everything else to you. Gotta go, now."

"Right, sure… see you, then."

Klo held the map up to her face and examined it. She noticed that where she was had the label "EL3A." She had no idea what that meant. Klo ignored the advice of the man she had just met and didn't care to talk to anyone. She just wanted to find her daughter. If there were any fleeting chance for a normal life here, it'd be with Molly.

Klo followed the map, or tried to, before realising she had no idea what it meant.

… She had to approach one of the people the man told him about.

"So…"

The group of people turned their heads around to face the woman. Klo felt the whole situation was really awkward, despite being for no reason.

"I just wanted to say… uh…"

"… Yeah? Is something wrong?"

She immediately felt weirded out. The situation itself felt too awkward for her, for some reason.

"No… nevermind. Sorry to bother."

She had to do this herself.

Klo tried to follow the pathway that the map chose, and walked for a near five minutes, before bumping into a wall.

"OW."

… Right. The map was fake. How funny. She gave her necklace to a random man for nothing. The last trace of her daughter, besides the ribbon still in her purse. She was completely on her own this time, though she wondered if the "Level 916" was even a real place. Every second spent standing around was a waste, but she couldn't help but fall asleep…

…

Klo woke up, covered to the brim with sweat and tears. She was in her beige, worn-down apartment bedrooms again. She got up, made her bed, and went to the kitchen, where she made her breakfast. It smelled like nothing but air when she cracked the eggs, but it was fine. Molly was standing beside her, with a quite bored expression.

"Mommy."

"Yes, sweetheart?"

The air was completely still. It wasn't supposed to be, as the window next to her was open; the air was usually really windy where she lived. It also wasn't supposed to be… this hot.

"You're not supposed to be here."

This was unusual. Klo smiled at the little girl; she was her daughter after all.

"Follow me."

"Oh? Why?"

"Please. I don't want you to starve."

"I'm not starving, silly!"

She felt sweat creeping up her face, and her stomach ached. Maybe she was starving.

She decided to follow her daughter, as everything around her started to erode. The hallways twisted, revealing no end. It kept going on. The apartment wasn't this big. This couldn't be real. This was obviously not real.

She jolted awake and found herself standing. She was sleepwalking this whole time, and…

She stood upon a familiar set of wooden doors with a broken doorknob. Perhaps, this was the "Level 916" the man talked about?

Klo remembered these doors perfectly. They were the basement doors from the part of the church that disappeared.

Klo's heart raced as she swung open the doors and ran up the staircase looking for Molly, but in her haste, she bumped into someone.

Klo looked around for whom she bumped into, and sputtered apologies.

Then, Klo saw her.

"Is this what love at first sight is like?" she wondered.

In front of Klo was a stunning, beautiful woman with long, flowing hair, wearing a white cloak and with stunning green eyes, contrasting her dark auburn hair and tanned skin.

"But wasn't I straight?" she wondered for a second.

But Klo didn't care anymore, because she was perfect.

"Hot."

"Excuse me? …Are you okay? My name's Doctor July, I-"

"I- I- I meant I felt hot!"

Klo was actually feverish, now that she thought about it. The face of July wasn't exactly helping her either.

Then, Klo remembered her mission. Molly was supposed to be here.

---

Klo stared as wisps of smoke took the appearance of her daughter.

"M-Mommy?"

Klo could barely speak.

_{"Molly? is that you?"}

"MOMMY!"

Klo started to cry as she ran up to her daughter to hug her, just to phase through her. Molly cried too as she tried her best to become corporeal in order to hug her mom.

Dr. July walked over and hugged Klo.

"I know that look. The look of a mother who can't hug their daughter…"

"She's… a ghost…"

"She's still here. And she still loves you."

"You've taken good care of Molly, haven't you?"

Klo, in a spark of extreme emotion, hugged July.

Dr. July, surprised, let out a small squeak. Klo immediately felt embarrassed; she should not have done that, especially to a person she just met. But she couldn't help it. She couldn't help but feel the joy of getting her daughter back, the only person she ever cared about in her life.

But she could feel as arms wrapped around her waist. Dr. July hugged back.

"I haven't felt like that before…"

"Sorry about that, I- I don't know what came over me! I just…"

"It's fine. I actually… enjoyed it."

They both laughed, before being sharply interrupted by an explosion.

"Mommy! July! I did it!"

Molly ran over and hugged the two.

"I can hug both my mommies now!"

"Group Hug!"

…

Klo woke up, her arms tucked around July's waist. She was still sleeping. She looked around and saw the faint outline of her daughter, which disappeared after a few seconds. At last, she found Molly, and July by her side.

For the first time, she was thankful this was real.