We cover the hard truths that no one wants to acknowledge. We go into levels that others fear to tread. We are the one free press.
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Info CONTENT WARNING: Ableism, albeist slurs, child abuse, child death, genocide This page is dedicated to Inspecting Critters aka Foxfires. Without the burning hate in my heart for you that propelled me forward, I could have never have written this in 6 days. <3 /j |
A photograph of Level 240 taken before it was destroyed.
THE LAKE
Children used to play here. Their voices would mix with the soft lapping of the lake, the gentle breeze, and the dappled sunlight on the grass. For many, this was their home, their sanctuary, a safe place to grow up before they moved on into the Backrooms as adults, perhaps raising children of their own or becoming explorers. But it couldn't last.
As with everything touched by the hand of humanity, this place is now tinged with regret, sadness, and the ever-repeating refrain, "Was it worth it?"
Level 240, or "Lotka's Lake" as it was called, was generally only entered by children. Any child lost in the Backrooms could enter it by finding a pure white door with a doorframe carved with images of stick figures playing. In an otherworldly place where even the weather can mess with what is and isn't reality, there is no doubt that Lotka's Lake saved the lives of many children.
"I'm forever grateful to Lotka's Lake," says 28-year-old Katrina Silva. "Without it, I don't think I would have survived."
Katrina Silva was 8 when she no-clipped into the Backrooms. Currently, she works in a church-like building in Level 1, running a foster home and orphanage for children lost in the Backrooms. But without the influence and timely rescue from Lotka's Lake, her story would have ended the moment she fell into the Backrooms.
"It was during my baptism," she says, looking into the distance, hands in her lap. "I remember, because the last thing I saw was my father's face looking down at me, his eyes filled with encouragement and love as he dipped me backward into the water."
A sad smile spreads across Silva's face. "I knew something was wrong when the water suddenly became freezing cold."
Unfortunately for her, Katrina was one of the rare cases who did not clip into Level 0, instead arriving in Level 735. The ocean layer she had clipped to was cold and dark. She emerged from the ocean, sputtering and gasping, her white baptismal outfit hanging heavy against her small body.
"I remember thinking, 'Where's my family? Where's the church?', but all I could see was a dark beach stretching on into forever. Something brushed against my leg, and I sprinted onto the sand as fast I could stumble." Her hands fiddle with the hemming on her dress. "I…I cried for a long time after that. I wanted my parents. I was cold, and I was eight. How could I be brave?"
But her cries were the key. Her crying drew Lotka's Lake toward her, and the door to it appeared. Had the doorway not appeared before her then, Silva would have surely perished from hypothermia, drowning, or worse, to be devoured by whatever lurks within the parallel waves of Level 735.
"I remember. I blinked and then I saw a door. It was like a miracle from God, telling me to be brave, to keep going. So I wiped my nose with my arm, marched up to the door, and turned the handle." She laughs. "I thought I wandered into Eden. A couple of older kids came up to me, and I asked them, 'Is this heaven?' They shook their heads at me and just laughed. They took me to a campground, one filled with tents, and gave me a towel to dry off."
Silva's story is just one of many, but it hits common refrains from everyone who was saved by Lotka's Lake: they were in danger, a door appeared, and when they opened it, a paradise awaited them.
"Well, I wouldn't call it paradise," says Ravi Baral, 45-year-old man who lives and works on Level 520. "But it was pretty close. Or at least, close enough to paradise for a child."
He pauses in his work of taking items from the endless shelves of 520 and wipes the sweat from the back of his neck as he thinks.
"There were playgrounds everywhere. Toys of all kinds would spring up when you least expect it, though none were battery-operated. And there were always kids to play with. Lotka made sure there was always food to eat and that we were safe."
Baral sighs, a wistful look on his face. "I didn't appreciate it as a teen — what teen would — but everything was free. You didn't have to work if you didn't want. Everything was taken care by Lotka and a few of the older kids." He laughs. "I don't regret leaving the Lake when I was 18, but I really should have listened to Camille more!"
Baral is, of course, referring to Camille Northcutt, an Eternal1 17-year-old who uses her training in becoming a governess to run Lokta's Pond, a group home specifically meant to house former Eternal residents of Lotka's Lake.
The exact location of Lotka's Pond is a closely held secret. Only the caretakers and select allies know how to get there because of worries of attacks by the Unbound Explorers Coalition and other anti-entity groups. But despite the fear, Lotka's Pond is like any other orphanage in the Backrooms, with the caveat that it is comprised of entirely Eternal children.
"We've lost enough because of them," says Northcutt with a scowl on her face. There are deep shadows under her eyes though that betray the exhaustion she must feel. "I can't let the littles be hurt by them again."
She looks off into the distance, bouncing an Eternal toddler named Thomas on her leg to keep him quiet.
"If they had just left us alone," she says, her voice cracking, "they wouldn't struggle so much."
She wipes her eyes and takes a shuddering breath. "It's just hard, explaining why their bellies ache sometimes. Or why they can't leave the Pond. I can't watch all of them."
Moved by her tears, Thomas hugs Northcutt, just like any other human toddler would, and kisses her cheek. But Northcutt is right. Eternal children have it harder in the Backrooms. They will never grow up. They will never understand death or starvation in a way that can be easily processed. They will never be self-sufficient enough to survive on their own. They will forever need caretakers to watch them, to keep them safe, and to love them.
Northcutt wasn't the only Eternal teen in Lotka's Lake. Nor were the Eternal teens the only ones who took care of the younger children. But at any time, there could have been 100-200 Eternal children, toddlers, and babies. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to care for all of these children and the 50-100 regular human children effectively. So how was the Lake able to do so?
It was all due to Lotka.
LOTKA
Lotka was the center of Lake, literally and metaphorically. From interviews and recollections, children within the level could never get lost, for Lotka towered over every tree and could be used as a landmark.
A drawing of Lotka overlooking the lake, drawn by former resident Rosie.
"Lotka wasn't scary," says former resident Alyssa Sparks, an Eternal 8-year-old. "They were big. And awesome. They let me climb on their back once!"
Despite the fact that Lotka was over 438 meters tall, no child needed to worry about being hurt by Lotka or in their domain. From all accounts, Lotka was gentle and soft with children. Though their body was pitch black and their eyes burned an almost celestial white, their body had the feeling of "a teddy bear," and Lotka frequently gave hugs to children who needed them.
"I've met some entities in my time, and Lotka was alright," says Spec, known independent explorer and documentarian of the Backrooms. "They even offered to let me stay once." He smirks, though there is a bit of pain in his eyes. "Means I'm 'special.'"
Perhaps this was the main reason for the conflict that arose. For all their supposed kindness and gentleness, Lotka only allowed children or those with child-like countenances to stay within the Lake. While it is possible to eke out a living in the Backrooms today, there is no doubt that some resentment toward a non-human entity festered because of the denial of a safe haven. Many adults tried to force Lotka to allow them to stay, but they all failed.
"Lotka didn't tolerate unruly guests," says Northcutt. "They would wave their arm, and a hole would open up beneath whoever was making a ruckus. I asked where Lotka sent them, and they would reply with, 'Somewhere safe, but away from here.'"
This was apparently true. Most people who were kicked out of the Lake ended up in Level 11 or Level 4, near an outpost. They were disgruntled, but ultimately, unharmed.
"People think that Lotka hated adults, but that wasn't true," says Northcutt, with a roll of her eyes. "Lotka welcomed adults, especially those who wanted to pick up their children who had gotten lost or who wanted to adopt. Some just wanted to help how they could, and helped me create lesson plans so I could teach the younger kids. Adults just couldn't stay forever. Well— not unless they needed to."
There were exceptions to this child's paradise. Lotka housed around 15-20 adults with intellectual disabilities who didn't have anyone to care for them. Lotka took them in, provided a safe area for them to be, and most importantly, a community and the ability to be independent.
"I used to take my brother to the Lake for a couple days or so," says courier Grayson Hopkins. "I would have to take long journeys, and he has some specialized needs that my neighbors couldn't help with. Plus, he likes to wander and Level 11 is not a great place to wander alone. Lotka was kind enough to let him stay, and even offered to let him stay forever. But my brother would only stay if I was dead. He didn't want to be apart, and neither did I."
Hopkins sniffs and wipes away a tear before saying, "It was like a big sleepover for him and his friends. Lotka took care of them all."
So what happened? What caused humans to turn on Lotka?
RUMBLINGS OF A STORM
"Well, I think it's the underlying xenophobia that most humans can struggle to overcome once they enter the Backrooms," says Leo Castellos, curator of Level 222. "Interestingly, most humans get over most forms of bigotry toward other humans, but only because now there are other, more dangerous things to worry about."
There also was an underlying fear of why Lotka specifically was drawn to children.
"Well, of course I'm grateful that Lotka saved my kid," says Josef Evans, single parent of three. "But even though I proved that she was my kid, Lotka was reluctant to give her back. I'm not a bad parent! I looked away for a second, and Lacey had just wandered off. But it makes you wonder, what Lotka even wanted with them."
There are many theories. Some suggest that Lotka was a being that fed on happiness, as they did their best to make sure everyone in their level was content. Others suggest that Lotka was grooming the children for something sinister. And some suggest that Lotka was impossibly old and was just trying to be kind to those who needed it most.
It all started to crumble when Lotka became angry for the first time.
"Yeah I remember that day…," says Northcutt. "I've been around for… a long time. Lotka could get impatient, yes, but never angry."
She sighs and rubs her temples.
"We got two newcomers, Rosie and Juniper, and they were skinny. Now children being malnourished isn't necessarily a cause for concern. Food is hard to find, but these two… they were skeletal."
Severe malnutrition is difficult to care for, even in the Frontrooms. It requires interventions at multiple levels, hospitals stays, and expertise knowledge of the body's systems to ensure a safe recovery. In the Backrooms, Almond Water be given as a stopgap, but even then, medical attention is still required.
"Lotka was so worried, especially because the sight of them scared the both of them. They submerged themselves in the lake, only their eyes peeking out," says Northcutt. "I had to leave the Level to find a doctor of some kind."
Northcutt eventually returned with a doctor from Level 1, though the sight of an adult man sent Rosie and Juniper into an almost catatonic state. Though they would do as he asked during his initial examination, they didn't speak and avoided looking him in the eyes. Eventually, Northcutt and the doctor concluded that it was his gender that was causing them to act this way, and left to find another doctor.
"It was clear from my examination that Rosie and Juniper had suffered from some sort of abuse before being abandoned by their parent," said Alannah England, the doctor who finished the examination. "Not only were they malnourished, but there were old bruises on their arms that weren't healing. I couldn't be sure, but I think one of their fingers was broken and didn't heal properly."
Normally, orphaned and abandoned children are sent to a foster home or orphanage on a safe level. The intent is to either reunite them with their parents, find a family to care for them or care for them until they are old enough to go out on their own. However, England thought it would be best to have them stay in the Lake.
"Lotka's Lake was stable, safe, and had plenty of food and other children to play with," says England. "I got permission from Lotka to stay and supervise [the children's] care, and while they were reluctant, they understood it was the best for everyone."
Rosie and Juniper's recovery took months, but slowly, the two came out of their shell. They began to play with the other children and became attached to England, helping her take care of the other residents and including her in their games sometimes.
Due to the positive influence England had on the residents of the Lake (and the tantrums Rosie and Juniper would throw whenever England and Lotka mentioned England leaving) had Lotka reconsidering their stance of only letting the "innocent" stay.
"It was just supposed to be a trial period," says Northcutt. "But the rumor exploded out of proportion and we had almost a hundred adults suddenly swarming the lake."
One of these adults, Paul Neal, was the father of Rosie and Juniper.
"It was almost immediate, the reaction the children had to him," said England. "Rosie froze, and Juniper stood in front of their sister, legs shaking, but determined to protect her."
Neal also froze up when he saw the children he had abandoned. He attempted to hide in the crowd of adults, but he could not hide from Lotka's eyes.
"Lotka told him to leave," says England. "I didn't catch what he said — I was taking care of some of the adult refugees — but he must have done something because Lotka suddenly roared at him."
England pauses, a hitch in her voice.
"It was… something," says England. "The sky turned black, and Lotka changed. Their body split apart as they roared at [Neal]. They whipped an arm on top of [Neal] and — well, I looked away."
The confrontation didn't last long. Perhaps only 10 seconds or so. But at the end of it, Paul Neal was dead, and all the adult refugees were frozen in fear.
"The sky and Lotka returned to normal," says England. "But Lotka looked tired. They waved their arms, and all the adults except myself were gone. They told me to take care of Juniper and Rosie before they slipped under the lake, and stayed there for a long time."
It took a long time to calm Juniper and Rosie down. While most other residents were elsewhere in the Lake, they had followed England to the group of adult refugees. As a result, they were the only two to witness Lotka killing their father.
"I'm not a psychiatrist, but I thought it would be good for them to draw out their feelings," says England with a sigh. "I never expected their drawing to go… well, viral."
THE UEC MOVES IN
Meanwhile, outside of the Lake, humans were uneasy. One of their own, though he had been a despicable man, had been murdered, by an entity. This was of course, the norm. Many died at the hands of entities every day, but this man had been seeking sanctuary. This entity was caring for children. There was a truce of sorts, an uneasy one, but now the scales had been tipped.
And with that, came whispers.
"I did hear the rumors going around," says Silva. "About how Lotka was keeping children hostage, drinking their blood, awful things like that, but I didn't think it was different from what had always been said. But I guess this time… people were more scared."
Perhaps the rumors and fear would have died down had the pictures drawn by Rosie and Juniper not been leaked.
"I had sent them off to a child psychologist on Eleven," says England. "But the courier I hired must have opened the package."
The drawing of Lotka confronting Paul Neal, drawn by Rosie.
This image of Lotka, drawn by a child, spread across Backnet. Soon everyone had an opinion of what had happened, what should have happened, and if Rosie and Juniper were scarred forever by what they saw. No one thought to ask their opinion, being only children, and so whispers turned to fear, turned to hate, turned to rage.
And then these rumors reached the ears of the Unbound Explorers Coalition.
"It was odd. We started to get more requests for adoptions," says Northcutt. "At first, we didn't think much of it. Actually we were happy. Children were finding their homes."
"It wasn't all at once. It was over the course of months, almost a year," says England. "People would request if they could adopt a child or two, and they always had good recommendations."
"Of course, it was a multi-month operation," says Stefan Francisco, a former UEC general who did not wish to be identified. "We needed to make sure that the pure humans would be safe."
The UEC may be considered an extremist group, but they do have connections across the Backrooms. They had access to sympathetic leaders, scientists, doctors, and regular people who could forge documents and move children across the Backrooms to UEC-friendly settlements.
"All the while, we were researching Lotka, looking for weaknesses. We interviewed the kids we got, asked about it," He smirks, leaning forward. "We discovered that Lotka was a being of positive emotions, sustaining itself through parasitism, leeching off our kids. So we needed to take care of it."
"That scum never saw it coming," says Francisco. "We waited until it was just Eternal kids and retards, and then we pumped the level full of Rixa gas."
Created from the tears of a gargantuan Wretch, the Rixa gas quickly changed the non-Eternals into Wretches. The Eternal children didn't change as quickly, though the Rixa gas was still caustic and caused deep burns to appear in their skin. Some of their skin did slough off, leaving their bodies in a half-human, half-Wretched state.
The newly born Wretches did not waste time indulging in their new instincts. They used the chaos to hunt the younger Eternal children, slaughtering many of them.
"I wasn't there," says England, her voice bitter. "I had been called to Level 11 to talk with a child psychologist for Rosie and Juniper. I told them I was going to be right back. I told them I—"
Rosie and Juniper did not survive the Rixa gas.
"I-I remember Lotka rising out of the lake, watching all this happening, and weeping and shaking and shrinking," says Northcutt, her voice on the verge of cracking. "The last thing they said to me, the last thing I heard from them was 'Do what I cannot.'"
Lotka sent the surviving Eternal children to Level 4, in Base Omega.
But the UEC were successful in killing Lotka. Level Keys that resonated with the level no longer resonated at the correct frequency, emitting a dull thud when hit. Doors presumably didn't appear in front of children in danger anymore, leaving many children dead on arrival.
"I was on a job when I found out my brother was— was killed," says Hopkins. "He was so excited to see Lotka and his friends again. But the UEC? They didn't care. They saw him as expendable, just because he didn't fit their idea of a 'pure' human."
HOW WE MOVE ON
Were humans justified in how they acted? Was the destruction of the lake worth it? Time will judge us. But for now, the residents of the Pond move on with their lives, holding onto each other, and the UEC remains steadfast in their belief that what they did was right.
Those who supported the UEC openly are pariahs, but there are many more who lurk in the shadows, ready to rise again if the UEC calls upon them.
Perhaps, we should learn to resist our fear, to open our minds to the other denizens of the Backrooms. Or perhaps we should isolate ourselves, prevent us from causing any harm to other sentient beings, regardless of how much we fear them.
But Lotka's Lake will remain a blight on our history here.
CONTENT WARNING: Ableism, albeist slurs, child abuse, child death, genocide
This page is dedicated to Inspecting Critters aka Foxfires. Without the burning hate in my heart for you that propelled me forward, I could have never have written this in 6 days. <3 /j
But I hope you enjoy it. I couldn't really justify putting Lotka in a separate page, so if staff could please archive both if this page stays, that would be great.
I like the tone of the entries sounding like a documentary
Great rewrite!
+1
Thank youuuu
Absolutely clears the original, very immersive format too
Thanks! I'm glad the format worked
way better than the original article, imo
Owie that was sad :(
I kinda like the subtext of extremist groups using children as a means to push their bigoted ideologies and then, in doing so, cause harm to kids. Wonder where I've heard that before IRL? Totally not America or in the UK, no, no…..
Way better than the original page, too! I like it.
sum notes
Anyway really great, have an upvote +1
Eyy.. i just typed a loada garrbagge
I fixed the things you pointed out, but thank you for a long and detailed review :3
+1
blue you're evil
Tee hee :3
zero notes, just love. thanks for crushing my heart. going to go cry now. i do like the documentation, and the drawings are so very charming.
Hehehehehehe
Thank you for reading :D
that was rly good im rly tired
You promised you'd take me there again some day… but you never did.
And once again humans have proved they are the most evil entities in the backrooms.