Level 854

You open your eyes, your head wracked with aches and throbs as they adjust to the warm sunlight filtering in through a crystal clear window in front of you. The radiant blue sky smiles back at you through the glass, clouds daintily floating in the distance. A single gossamer strand of cobweb drifts by, sparkling in the sunlight. You find yourself propped up on a soft couch, the cushions and pillows embroidered with a strangely recognizable yellow pattern. You look around, trying to gain your bearings; you discover you are inside a house, a place that is somehow both familiar and foreign at the same time. The walls are white, empty picture frames dotting them as if placed at random. The room is devoid of furniture besides the couch you’re sitting on, and you start to feel like something is amiss.

A woman approaches you as the ringing in your head begins to fade. She has long, blonde hair and is adorned with a white dress that covers her shoulders and gracefully falls down past her knees.

"Welcome home, darling!"

You almost feel uneasy, but her smile is so radiant it simply washes your worries away. Huh, I usually pick partners with dark hair, you think.

"Are you thirsty?"

You nod because your throat feels parched, almost as if there were smoke in the air.

“Just relax, I’ll take care of it!”

The woman excitedly shuffles away into another room, and you hear the sounds of clinking glass echo through the house.

Where am I? You ask yourself, unsure if you truly want the answer. You feel like you’re forgetting something important, however, you can’t even remember the last time you felt this comfortable. The woman returns, beaming as she hands you a glass filled with clear water. She sits next to you, her auburn brown hair spilling over the back of the couch.

You can’t remember her name.

You take a sip of the water, but it tastes rancid and smokey. You spit it out, the liquid splattering onto the grey linoleum.

“Oh goodness, did you choke, Darling?”

You try to stand, a feeble attempt to clean it up, but she shoos you aside with her hand.

“Relax, please! I’ll take care of it.”

She quickly shuffles out of the room again, and the ringing in your head starts once more.

You can’t seem to remember what you've been doing for so long or how you even entered this house. Then you realize that, perhaps, you’ve been here all along with this doting person. Yes, this is your home. You relax, almost as if you haven’t relaxed in years, and the creeping exhaustion takes over. Your vision blurs as you fall into comfort, and the woman walks back in the room. Suddenly, you realize something is wrong. In the moment of your blurred vision she looks different.

Emaciated, mummified, burned, mouth agape.

The house is in tatters, the remains of a horrible fire.

You blink; the house returns to its pristine state, the woman grinning at you as she cleans up the mess you made.

You start to smell smoke.

The woman remains crouched, her smile growing as she continues wiping the floor. It's as though she has forgotten how to act human.

She stands up, her grin becoming more forced as she stares deep into your eyes.

"What's wrong, darling?"

She asks, cocking her head to the side, her expression unchanged.

And then, for a moment, you remember something. You remember the image of yellowed walls, a horrible buzzing sound, and the slosh of wet carpet underneath your feet.

You remember you're in the Backrooms.

Memories flood your mind, flashes of dullers stalking you through twisted corridors, hounds gnashing at you with yellow teeth. The feeling of danger wipes the contentment you were feeling, filling your now pounding heart with adrenaline as your realize you may be in extreme danger.

"No!"

The woman shrieks at you, clawing at her face with yellowed, rotting nails. Her skin peels from her face with each scratch, revealing horribly burned flesh.

She wails again, a shrill, unintelligible noise. Her voice begins to distort as her body twists and morphs on the floor while contorting into impossible positions. She melts into the peeling ground as the house blackens and warps around you, the walls cracking and crumbling into burned wood.

Please, don't wake up, just stay with me

Everyone always leaves me. I've always been here, alone. Won't you let me take care of you?

Don't leave me here, please, I'm begging you

It's cold here, we could turn this house into a home

We could just stay here forever, weren't you comfortable?

Everyone leaves, you're no different. You're just like the rest

Help me

SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY:

Class deadzone

Severe Fire Hazard
Carcinogenic Atmosphere
Anomalous Entity

Description

[Photo of Level 854, the back of the photo has the word "Atlas" written on it.]

Level 854 resembles a home burnt to cinders, the walls blackened and the ceiling collapsed in some places. Any sort of furniture or amenities normally found in a home are gone, presumably in the mass of burned material found on the floor. The bottom floor of the level contains active fires, and the air is thickly laden with smoke.

Upon entering this level, one will find themselves in a room resembling the interior of a house. The home appears different for each wanderer, but it always appears as a set of white rooms with certain necessities. This includes rooms such as bathrooms and kitchens. It is theorized that this is the residing entity's best guess at what a house looks like based on the rubble left behind in the original level. This is an illusion: the M.E.G has included information in the section titled "The Woman" as to how one can escape this situation.

Exploring this level can be extremely dangerous, and it is highly advised wanderers exit the level as soon as possible. The level itself is small, approximately 200,000 square feet, and is completely covered in debris, making it hard to traverse. The glass windows of the level are reportedly indestructible, and cannot be used as exits. The rooms of the home form a rectangular shape and the level is separated into three floors.

Floor 3

The top floor and where explorers enter the level. This floor is the safest, as there is little to no smoke and it doesn't have fires to contend with. The walls are scored with marks of burning and charring, though wanderers can occasionally make sense of the yellow wallpaper tattered beneath it all. There are two bathrooms, but the toilets and sinks produce water tainted with rancid slime. Half-burnt toys and pillows can be found in some of the bedrooms, leaving some explorers to believe that some of the rooms are children's bedrooms. Picture frames dot the walls of the top floor. While most are burned or damaged, some still contain pictures. Many of the photos are landscapes, and some of images that resemble a family. The people are mostly scratched out of these photos, so their identities cannot be determined.

Floor 2

The second floor, or the middle floor, is inundated with smoke from floor one. The debris found all over this floor is burnt beyond recognition, and there are chunks of melted metal strewn everywhere. Due to the smoke, visibility is extremely low. Wanderers should procure a method to filter out the smoke as they explore this floor of the level as the smoke can be so thick that it becomes lethal. The walls themselves appear to resemble the top floor, however they are much more damaged. Nothing remains on the walls, and any picture frames or the like are presumably a part of the floor debris. This floor contains the remains of what seems to be a game room because there are burnt pieces of pool cues and the charred shape of a pool table in the center of the room. There is also a large room with enormous windows filled with burned insulation and chairs. This is considered to be a sitting room, and there are reports that the level's entity enjoys flitting about this particular space.

Floor 1

The third and bottom floor is the most dangerous. There are active fires as well as smoke, and a person could burn to death in an instant. The fires travel counterclockwise, so wanderers should follow the path of the fires as they crawl through the floor. It is unknown why the fires travel in this pattern. Explorers have reported that the fires enter the level through the fireplace and it is theorized that they simply follow the path which contains the most wood. The M.E.G. has reported that the wood on the bottom floor doesn't ever completely incinerate, so the flames are merely following the line of flammable materials. There is a barely recognizable kitchen and living room on this floor, both burned to rubble by the constant fires. There is also what appears to be the remains of a home gym, complete with melted weights and parts of workout equipment. Finding the front door is paramount, and once it has been located explorers should immediately exit the level.

The Woman

[Photo of The Woman, enraged]

A manipulative, anomalous entity referred to as "The Woman" inhabits Level 854. Its name comes from its appearance; a feminine figure with ghastly, burnt skin. The entity will wrap unwary wanderers in vivid hallucinations, attempting to trick them into staying with it in Level 854. The entity will change its appearance at will and try to say anything it can to fool unsuspecting travelers, specifically targeting those with a weak constitution or those that were caught unaware. During the entity's illusion, it will take on the form it thinks will best convince you to stay. This could be a lover or a family member, and can change its form at will to try to continue the ruse. There have been several reports that wanderers have experienced symptoms of sleep-paralysis during the illusion.

There have been three reported methods of escape:

● Realizing one is being manipulated and psychologically forcing the entity out of their mind.

● Confuse the entity enough that it can no longer maintain its trick.

● Successfully attacking the entity during the illusion (not recommended).

The entity itself is physically unable to fight. Once one has broken out of the dream, The Woman will immediately escape by no-clipping away from their victim. Outside of the illusion, the entity becomes mostly docile. Some explorers have stated that it has actually reappeared and offered them advice. Insulting and or attempting to attack the entity, however, is incredibly dangerous. If The Woman becomes angry, it can ignite the level around it and stalk the perpetrator. The flames can be lethal, so it is recommended that wanderers do not attempt to antagonize the entity and simply try to exit the level.

It is entirely unknown how the entity came to be or how it appeared in Level 854. Those who have attempted communicating with it have either been rebuked or driven it to anger. Either it is too angry that its illusion was broken to respond or it gives non-answers and starts trying to hinder the wanderer. Many factors have led to speculation as to the origins of the entity. Explorers have noted certain things, such as how the entity can manipulate the level and how it can produce its own flames. Because of this, it has been theorized that The Woman is in fact a conscious manifestation of Level 854 itself. This theory also explains why the entity can't leave the level despite having the ability to no-clip freely.