Alex has been dead for over two decades now.
How does one keep track of over 7000 days?
She counted every single passing day since the day she died, though ultimately, she found there was no point in keeping count as time seemed to convulge and ripple into one ball of meaninglessness, a unified marble of flavorlessness in this purgatory.
And there was no way out.
That was the ultimate horror. Not the brain-eating jackal-hound, not the four-legged crawling flesh monster, not the glitching super-mystery.
The boredom. You never get used to it.
If she were alive, she would be 41 years old.
Not that anyone was counting anymore, but she knew, somehow, it was a passing feeling, just a pang in the chest, like the weight of the world just fallen on her; She would never know how her siblings grew to be, if her mom battled cancer and won, or even be there at the funeral, if the worst happened.
She sometimes pondered on why she was still here, and what role she plays here, as a ghost?
What importance does she bring, being a non-existent, non-interactive part of this stupid game, a silent witness to all the events happening, knowing all but known by none? It was cruelty, plain torture.
She walked through the neighborhood, and the residents had started their hunt already.
Must be a very interesting human, she thought. She waved to the residents, and they didn't acknowledge her presence. Unlike humans and other people from the other reality, the creatures in the void can see her.
And ignore her. The only beings who can see her at all are the anomalies. But they are rare, and most are non-verbal. All they do is stare, and roll their eyes, or whatever expendable body parts they have of them.
Whatever, she rolled her eyes and kept walking. The street was dark, with only a fluorescent lamp lighting the whole neighborhood. Despite being an infinite maze structure, you can barely see anything. She wondered how one could find an exit for her at all. You can barely see the signboards hung on each street corner.
The residents, the humanoid creatures, were still, all of them standing outside their "houses" staring at the one window of the house. She wondered what loser got stuck in there this time.
Last time she was here, one of them managed to get to the end of the street, where an exit was available. But it was too late, they saw him. And what happened to him after made her think about it for months.
Bah, how horrible. Not again, she nodded to herself and continued walking.
"Help! Please!" a cry came from inside. She tried to ignore it. What was the point of going in? They cannot see her.
But she sighed and walked back in. The creatures paid no mind to her still. Stupid, she muttered as she went into the house. Surprisingly, she cannot pass through walls or doors, like in movies. She had to open it.
"Who are you??" a scream echoed through the walls.
She was dumbfounded. He can see her??
--------------
But today, everything changed. Today was the day she might get out of here. Because the boy...he talked. To her,
"So?" he asked. His body was vibrating, while he peered through the windows every 5 seconds, as if that would make them leave.
It must be tiring to be human, she thought.
He kept looking at her, like she would fly him out of here. She couldn't process this new situation for a few seconds, and had to pause to see if this was a glitch in the void, or her new reality.
She didn't get noticed for almost a decade, for what feels like a century. She wasn't sure how to answer him. Or if she had to answer him, even. Humans, especially, cannot see her. They cannot see most of the anomalies here; Their eyes could only perceive like 30% of the horrors present here, lurking to hunt them; everything else is just instinct.
Like his guy. He was hyperventilating, wasting his limited energy, when he probably couldn't see half of the residents out there. Perhaps the leader, but she doubted anyone more.
When she opened the door and he tried to attack her, his face also turned a little pale. Like, he had an epiphany. Or he gained new consciousness.
Either way, she had to save him. He could see her, and a part of her hoped that this wasn't just a sick dream.
"You're...you're a ghost!" he shrieked. He was barely quiet. How did he get to this ground level?
After a moment of silence, he asked her how to get out of here.
Because he knew she was the only chance for now.
A moment passed, and she nodded finally, her brown hair spilling through all sides: "Ok," she muttered.
She hadn't used her voice in a long time. It had been so long since she had conversed with someone other than the trees.
Can ghosts hallucinate?
"Ok, how do I get out of here? What are those things? Do you know those things?" he asked, deliberately panicking again. It was like watching a game show or a dog. If she wasn't noticed, she would be in the corner laughing. This was the most entertaining part of being in the backrooms: the hunt!
She actually knew multiple ways of getting out of here, but Alex wasn't sure if exiting for the boy would be as easy as entering. He had blue eyes, which complemented his warm skin. If she were still alive, she would totally go out with him.
She doesn't remember how it was to be human, but she didn't know why she was desperate to be so human again.
"Exit by following the street signs," she pointed out the dark house, silhouetted by street lights which were dim and didn't overwhelm the darkness inside and outside. She can barely see him, but she knows he could.
She has never seen another entity such as herself. Jerrys, hounds, etc., she can see them all. She actually knew multiple ways of going out.
You can walk into a random field and have a good chance of going to another space, or void, or level, as they call it.
You can walk into a random house and be sent off from this void, or you can get into a tube slide in a playground, which was harder than it sounds.
"But how do I get through these things? These creatures?" he asked, still observing me with utter disbelief.
Alex thought about it for a second. "There is a way."