POV Rio
As I was on one of my usual drives, I noticed something off. I couldn't place my finger on it, but the feeling faded. So I turned around and came back, and sure enough, the feeling came back as well. I repeated this a few more times before I narrowed down where I was feeling it. I turned into a deserted alley and stored my car. Then I started walking the street. After more testing, I settled on a building. At first, I thought it could be the New York Sanctum, but I was nowhere near Bleecker Street. Instead, it was an ordinary-looking house. One so ordinary that it was constantly making me ignore it. I was only resisting because of the Harry Potter Template having resistance to Notice-Me-Not Charms. This wasn't exactly like that, but it was damn close.
The building was a two-story house made of brick with a coal chute outside. One that everyone subconsciously avoided walking over. It also seemed like they couldn't even perceive me when I got near the house. I know because I literally yelled at them, and none of them even so much as flinched. It wasn't the desensitized reaction you might expect; it was as if they couldn't even hear me. The house was seemingly in great condition. But it was also clearly empty. I walked to the front door and tried the doorknob.
'It's unlocked. Well, either I am about to walk into a horror movie set or something else is about to happen.'
I would have knocked if my instincts didn't tell me that was unwise. This had the telltale signs of a magic user's house. Except not really, as it looks like nobody lived here at all. There were also no traps or wards to detect anyone. This place just continued to confound me. I enter the house and start exploring the base floor. And what I find sort of spooks me. There was no furniture, no kitchen utensils in the kitchen, and no food in the pantry. And to top it all off, no dust. Anywhere. Not even in the air. It creeped the crap out of me.
'Where's the basement?'
I wasn't saying that because I thought it was a great idea to go down there; I thought it because I found no doors on the first floor that led to a basement. In fact, besides the front door, there were no doors on the first floor at all.
'I'm liking this less and less with each moment that passes.'
Despite my growing fears, I go upstairs to search. And the upstairs is the same. No doors. No Furniture. Nothing in the closets. But there was a toilet. In fact, the bathroom was the only thing that had anything in it, which was a lone toilet. It wasn't connected to anything. No, it was sitting in the middle of the bathroom facing the door.
'I guess you might want to assert your dominance while you poop?'
I did find where the toilet was supposed to be based on the pipes in the ground. But despite that odd find, I hadn't found anything else. That was until I noticed a strange oddity on the wall. It was at the base of the wall, and it looked a little odd because the texture was slightly off, as if it wasn't level. I squint my eyes and decide to try pressing into it.
Click
A soft click is heard, and the small indent slides away, revealing a tunnel. I look into the darkness and contemplate whether it was worth going down there.
'Pro: Possible Hidden Treasure. Cons: Might be a scary monster down there waiting to replace my eyes with buttons. Or nothing. Or some third, even more horrible option.'
After thinking about it, I shrug and start crawling into the hole while casting Lumos and preparing to Apparate the instant I see something bad. The tunnel does not make me feel any better. It reminds me far too much of Otherworld from Coraline. And that place was not a pleasant place to visit or heaven forbid live in. It takes perhaps a minute or two to get through the tunnel. The end of said tunnel was another small hatch. Which, when opened, led to what looked like a basement. The only issue was that it had no hatch to the outside, and it was pitch black. Regardless, after looking around and not sensing or seeing anything dangerous, I left the tunnel. But I left a small item in the hatchway to prevent the hatch from closing behind me.
The basement was decently large, but I tried to avoid going out of sight of the hatch. I didn't trust this place whatsoever, and I wanted a chance to flee if I needed to. But after some time, I realized that if I wanted to investigate further, I would have to leave the initial room I started in.
'This is a bad idea.'
Despite my reservations, I left the first room and wandered a bit farther away. And I almost instantly regretted that.
"Nope," I say and turn around, making a run for the hatch.
I was running because I entered a room that was the spitting image of the Backrooms. And I was not having it. Unfortunately, it was too late; the way I came from was now the Backrooms as well. So I Apparated. Only to find myself somewhere else in the Backrooms.
'D'oh!'
I was not happy. Not happy, Bob. And I had many regrets. But that was nothing to dwell on.
'Welp. Might as well just start exploring.'
I walked. And walked. And walked. Oh, and walked. And you'll never believe it, I jogged a little. But I wasn't too worried. I had months' worth of food in my inventory, and as an elf, I could stay here for centuries and not be bothered. Well, okay, I would probably go a little crazy, but I didn't see any rubber rooms with rats. That and Thanos might kill me with the Stones.
'You know that would suck. You die, only to get revived by the Avengers just to continue being stuck in the Backrooms.'
Despite my environment, I didn't see anything spooky. Well, there was a spooky, scary skeleton. But they just started dancing to a song. Part of me wasn't certain if I was hallucinating. But I felt it would be rude to interrupt their dance.
Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap
"Great show," I cheer.
The skeletons give a little bow.
"How long have you guys been practising?" I ask.
"What year is it?" the skeleton asks.
"2007, almost 2008," I answer.
"Oh, then around 3000 years?" the skeleton says with some uncertainty.
"Huh, well, that explains the skills. Do you perhaps know how to get out of here?" I ask.
"Oh, go that way for 5 minutes, then take 3 lefts, no matter how close to each other they are, and you will find the exit," the skeleton helpfully responds.
"Thanks, are y'all gonna stay here?" I ask.
"Yeah, we still got another couple thousand years on our contract," the skeleton responds.
"Oh, well, okay. I wish you the best of luck," I say while waving goodbye.
"What a nice fellow," I hear one of the skeletons say when I am a good way away.
I walked where they told me to go, and sure enough, there was a wooden door that, when opened, led to a dark set of stairs going down. I cast Lumos and started walking. The stairs were pretty short, ending in a normal-looking basement. It was empty save for a single item. An open safe. I walked over to the safe and saw there were a few things inside. A folder with various documents in it, an unlabeled pill bottle, and a small silver locket. As I reach for the items, a static crackle makes me pause and look around warily.
"Testing Testing. Can you hear me?" says a magical hologram that appears from behind the safe.
"Uh, yes?" I answer.
"Don't bother answering that. This is just a recording," the voice says with a smile that makes me annoyed.
'Then why did you ask?'
"Now, if you are watching this, I guess that means the spells I placed on this house have worn off. Which means you are current in its cage. I'm sorry, but I couldn't contain it forever, so a sacrifice was needed," the voice says in a sad tone.
I started to sweat bullets as I felt a presence in the room behind me. Every instinct of mine was screaming not to look behind me.
"If it hasn't eaten you yet, then... That's because I was just messing with you," the voice says with a wide smile.
My eye twitches, and I grit my teeth.
'I hate him.'
"Or was I?" he says with a serious voice.
That feeling comes back, and before I can finally turn around, the voice speaks up again.
"Nah, I'm just messing with you. Just a prank, bro. Is that how you kids say it in the future? I'm not fully certain, as I'm using the Time Stone to get a vague idea of when this conversation might happen. Oddly enough, I know I can't see when exactly this will happen or who will find this place, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that this property is now yours. The folder contains all the needed papers to register this property, and as soon as you leave your parents' basement, the spell related to this property will break. And don't worry about the name. I don't name the basement, I just built this place and... Huh, yeah, I guess I did name it that, eh, probably accurate," the voice says.
I disliked this man greatly, and I deeply wished to punch him in the face.
"Anyway, don't worry about the maze I left for you. The dimension will separate from this building and Earth as a whole, and you will likely never see it again. Once you enter it, you can't re-enter it. And I know what you're thinking, what about Dave the Skeleton? Well, depending on how many people died and joined his band, he'll be fine. I signed a contract until 5000 AD or CE or whatever you simpletons use to measure time," the voice subtly jabs at me.
I was thinking about just leaving, but I decided to wait for now.
"Now, as for the other items. The first is a pill bottle containing Panacea. I stole it a while back from Panacea; she was so angry, as I think she said it was the best batch she had ever made. They can cure anything aside from the Anti-Life Disease, which, if you're from the timeline when that guy released it. That's rough, buddy. But not my problem. Just pray to whatever god you can think of to sacrifice themselves to seal it again. But don't hold your breath. Most died back in the War in Heaven. So I guess what I'm saying is that it's suck to be you," the voice says smugly.
I narrow my eyes and ignore the insults and focus on the actually interesting details.
"The second item is a silver locket. Honestly, it's a failed invention of mine. I tried to create an improved version of the Panacea, but all the useless thing can do is repair physical damage and diseases over a long period of time. I mean, even a simple cold takes 8 hours of constant exposure to the healing light when you open it. Since it was a failure, I was going to destroy it, but I felt that would be a waste, so I left it here for you to do with it what you like. Now what else? Oh, yeah, the pills are 64 in total, and don't bother trying to recreate them. Even I couldn't, and I am awesome and much cooler than you'll ever be," the voice says arrogantly.
Mocking aside, the locket was quite useful.
"And I think I was supposed to warn you about something? Now what was it... OH! Yeah, I did actually leave a guardian. So have fun with a metric sh*t ton of bees!" the voice says before vanishing, and I started hearing a very loud buzzing noise.
I quickly store everything and look behind me to see that the walls were covered in bees, and they looked really angry. I try to Apparate, but that fails, and I switch to casting a shield spell.