Jenny jerked awake, it was violent as if she had just had a nightmare. She however couldn’t remember what she had been dreaming of or whether she was asleep. It was as if she simply snapped into consciousness all the sudden which for anyone else would be unusual but Jenny Everywhere was not an usual person.
This however was at least a familiar place. Jenny had seen these winding halls with that distinct monotone yellow wallpaper. The humming of the fluorescent lights brought back memories of the few times she had ended up there.
These were the Backrooms, a sort of in-between dimension but in a different way from the infinite. People never came here voluntarily, you simply ended up here either through a bad shift as Jenny suspected was the case for her or clipped through reality to end up there.
She stood up and looked around, seeing no obvious signs of danger yet. Some backrooms had entities in them, others didn’t and the monotony of its endless labyrinth of stained yellow would simply drive people to a breaking point.
Jenny started to shift as she did last time she got stuck here, it was never a big deal but something was different this time. The shifting didn’t work and more worryingly she couldn’t even feel the connection to any of the other Jenny’s a feeling that was such a constant in her life that the lack of it made chills shiver down her spine.
“Okay, this is new. Why doesn’t it work this time?” she questioned out loud, really concerned.
There were rumors of monsters of all sorts in the backrooms, but Jenny tried to not think about what might be lurking in here with her too much. It was not gonna do her any favors to start getting freaked out.
Despite her being uneasy about this entire situation she wandered a bit further into the backrooms to explore. The lack of control was a constant tension in the back of her neck, this wasn’t right. She didn’t even have any of her usual gadgets with her that perhaps would be able to aid her in this situation.
The backrooms was known to most universe hoppers, but generally speaking those with the ability were able to get out of it by simply shifting. Getting stuck there was something nobody should wish upon anyone.
Hundreds, thousands or even more of endless rooms configured in random order. It was a labyrinth that had no sound structure to it, there was no end or beginning in mind. With a real labyrinth at least there was a way in and out designed by someone but the halls in the backrooms were not designed at all, they simply existed.
Walls of monoyellow were indifferent to the existence of anyone outside of it and within it. The smell was something that bothered Jenny the most. It reminded her of old houses from the 80s, cigarette smoke that had infested the wallpaper itself mixed in with mold, a putrid combination.
Click, clack, click clack
that was the only thing Jenny could hear as she walked down the halls. Her footsteps the only thing really keeping her company as she wandered. She had no idea where she was going but staying put wasn’t gonna get her anywhere.
Was another shifter going to come in here and save her? the chances of that weren’t exactly high given that shifters usually don’t end up here, the infinite is sort of meant to be a fail safe against shifting outside of reality like this.
Footsteps echoed ever so faintly which admittedly Jenny enjoyed. If it weren’t for the smell and the haunting endlessness of it, she’d like the backrooms. There was a certain comfort to them but only briefly and before you started to think about it too much.
Jenny pondered about who had created the backrooms and for what purpose. It seemed to her like such a manmade space with such a specific vibe of like, the 70s or 80s that it felt weird to be something that has just always existed. Not that she would doubt it, because she had seen weirder houses.
The walking was starting to get dull and everything looked almost the same, distinguished only by the configuration of the walls. Rooms after rooms, all looking just the same, like an endless office building.
Jenny didn’t even know how long she had been walking, just lost in thought and in the trance of the monoyellow.
“Hello there”
The voice interrupted her trance like state, which startled Jenny so much she shrieked. The bellowing yelp could be heard echoing for a good while throughout the halls before subsiding.
“I’m sorry, didn’t mean to scare you”
“Who are you?” Jenny asked, addressing the source of the voice. It was a person with grayish hair, heterochromic eyes (one sorta white the other sort of light purple) in a green winter coat with fur around their neck.
The person was sitting behind a makeshift bazaar, with all sorts of goods like water, food and gadgets laid out like it was a sunday farmer’s market.
“My name’s Mazza, Mazza Oshkosh. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, but perhaps not so pleasurable under these circumstances”
Mazza spoke with a weird cadence to her voice which didn’t really fit their body and expression. The way they talked and sounded was that of a new jersey gangster almost, it was such a mismatch that it took a while for Jenny to register what Mazza had said. The voice was more booming than what one would expect coming out of them and sounded neither male nor female but like multiple voices overlapped, but harmoniously.
“Oh, ehm yes. I seem to be stuck here which…is unusual for me I don’t”
“Shifter, am i right?”
“Yes…how did you?”
“I know a lot of things, seen a lot of shifters come through here. You yourself need no introduction. Jenny Everywhere as I live and breath the molded air in here”
“You stuck here too?”
“Oh no, not really. I’d like to think everyone else is stuck out there”
“How…?”
“Perhaps not the time or the place to get philosophical on ya”
Jenny shifted a bit and looked at the wares on the table in front of her. Aside from water bottles, pasteries and all sorts of food there were also strange looking gadgets she had never seen before and piles of small books that seemed like they were nonsensical. “Rebooting a Universe” was on top of the pile.
“See anything ya like?”
“Ehm, what is all this. Why do you run a market stall in the backrooms? do you accept cash? So many questions”
“1) Where there is demand, a supply must be met, right? 2) I don’t accept cash. What use would I have for such a thing in here?”
“How did you make a brackets sound with your mouth?”
“Don’t worry about it, Cuz”
“If not cash what do you accept in exchange for your wares? where do you even get them? sorry if i’m being rude asking so many questions. I just really did not expect anyone in here, except maybe a monster or two”
“No monsters in here. You can have whatever you like on the table but in exchange I need you to do me a favor once you leave this place”
Jenny was starting to become uncomfortable. They? Mazza looked nice but the weird thing with their voice and now talking about deals. It was as some of her online friends would say “devil-coded” to say the least.
“Uhh…what kind of favor?”
Mazza looked at her and seemed to think about it for a minute. Their eyes rolled back into their skull exposing only pure white as they thought about it before they returned to normal, almost like they had snapped back due to a rubberband or something. It certainly freaked Jenny out.
“I want you to go to a pocket dimension called Elcarim and just observe a person there. Just write your thoughts and observations in this book”
They handed her a big book with empty pages that they dug out from a satchel that was sitting next to their chair.
“That’s it? You want me to stalk someone?”
“I wouldn’t call it stalking”
“Well, do you have something that can get me out of here?”
“Of course”
Mazza pointed to a device that was just a red button on what looked to be thick metal, encased in protective glass that could be opened on a hinge to access it.
“That is an EDDA, Exit Door Delivery Appliance. Just gotta press the button”
Jenny was about to pick it up when Mazza lightly hit her hand away
“Ah! Ah! My payment?”
“Wait you want me to do your observation things now? Not sure how I can do so stuck in here!”
“No silly. We still gotta shake on it”
Mazza reached out for a handshake.
This was so weird and uncomfortable to Jenny. She had never heard of this Mazza and the last few times she was in the Backrooms she hadn’t encountered them, not that she really stuck around long enough to explore properly.
“Who specifically do you need me to observe? And what kind of observations?”
“Her name is Lourdes Garamond. Queen of Wonderland, a country in Elcarim. As for what kind of observations, that really doesn’t matter to me. Just general observations, your thoughts on her, et cetera et cetera”
“I know i’ll regret asking but how can you even be sure I’m doing that, like you’re gonna let me out of here so what’s stopping me from just leaving to other universes”
“Thats why we gotta shake on it, cuz”
Definite devil vibes from this person. But what else were her options, just live in the backrooms. Fate had not been kind to her putting her in this position. It sounded innocent enough but Jenny had been around for a long time and knew when things smelled like old molestew.
“I guess I have no real options”
She shook Mazza’s hand which caused a sudden burning sensation on her palm. Jenny was quick to pull her hand away. Looking at her hand a mark began forming, etching itself into her flesh. A squiggly symbol with a horse shoe on top, almost looked like a simplified drawing of a whael, it was blue-ish and glowed dark green.
“What the fuck is that?”
“A way for me to keep track of you, so you fulfill your payment. Once I deem you have repaid your debt to me, it will go away, no worries”
Jenny really wanted to curse and yell at Mazza but being this helpless there really was nothing to rationally do except go along with it. Once out she was definitely going to research this Mazza person more to see what the hell she had signed up for.
Jenny simply huffed, holding her left hand that was still in pain from the scorching.
Mazza put their hands in their pockets and smiled at Jenny.
“Cheer up cousin, I truly mean you no harm. Nor do I wish ill on the Queen. I’m simply curious about her. I can’t leave the backrooms so therefore I’m sending you”
“Wait, you can’t leave the backrooms, but you have the EDDA thingamajigs”
“Physically I can leave but I don’t think it would be wise for me. Now, you can have the button and be on your way. The door will lead you to Elcarim”
Jenny was endlessly curious about Mazza. Who was this strange person and what was that sign she had been marked with. They seemed friendly or at least, not hostile yet were so weird in their mannerisms. On the outside they just looked like a young femme presenting person, probably in their late 20s, early 30s. Earrings suggested maybe a punk rock fan.
She looked at the button and picked it up, this time without having her hand slapped. Jenny pondered about if this was truly such a good idea or if she should’ve perhaps just waited for a friend to come looking for her here.
“Are you the devil?”
“Perish the thought cousin, I’m a humble merchant. There was demand for food, drinks and exits in the backrooms, not a huge demand but consistent enough so I set up shop here”
“Wait, if even shifters cant leave, how did you get in here and where did you get this food?” Jenny had so many questions. What was the true purpose of the mark? What was Mazza? why were they calling her cuz or cousin. It made her head spin trying to think about it too much.
“You ask a lot of questions cuz”
Jenny wanted to hit them or something, the feeling of uneasiness just kept building. She both really wanted to just take the button and leave but also punch them. Technically they hadn’t done anything wrong but it was just an impulse she had right now.
“Go on cuz”
Jenny pressed the button and the whole thing started to melt into a silvery goo which flowed onto the floor. While at first she thought this was a trick of some kind the goo started to form a metal door in the middle of the room they were in. It stood there not propped up by any wall. Above it was an exit sign that was suspended in the air.
She looked briefly at Mazza who was still just sitting behind the table. They were taking a sip of something out of a mug that said “Realm Spirits” on it.
Pushing the metal door open revealed not the Backrooms but a wide outdoors, a forest in fact. She walked outside only for the door to vanish behind her. She was finally outside of the Backrooms.
Her shifting ability had returned, so she could easily go home. With that book in hand she however decided to investigate who this Lourdes person was and perhaps try to figure out what was so special about them that Mazza just wanted her general thoughts on it written in a book.
Continuing to walk through the forest, she was just glad to be out of the backrooms. The amount of time passed was unknown to her, was it a day, week, months? she had wandered so long before meeting Mazza that it was hard to tell or keep track of. Perhaps time didn’t exist in the backrooms.
She wasn’t that far from the capital of Wonderland, Moria, only took a bit of a brisk walk. She noticed a few cats running around, like anthropomorphized cats but they didn’t give her any trouble or perhaps just didn’t notice her. Some of them didn’t even look like animals and more like, old cartoons. This realm was strange, but she didn’t have time to observe or investigate, she had to get to this Lourdes person and finish this so she could just get home.
As she walked she looked at the book that Mazza had given her, a large leatherbound book. It was filled with empty pages that seemed like they hadn’t seen light in a long time.
“What a strange book” she said, looking at the cover. “Huh…Realm Spirits Guidebook, that’s a strange na
FDOS restarting…
Destroying “rlmsprts.fdf”…
Action failed…
Skipping…
Checkpoint “14-03-2033” found…
Expelling JE-009…
Loading…
Jenny woke up in her bed, it was in one of the homes she had on Earth to just have a temporary dwelling someplace, nothing fancy. She stood up and got dressed, trying to prepare herself for a new day. Coffee usually helped.
She was meant to meet her friend Octobriana later that day but for the time being she had nothing going on so Jenny just sat down by her computer and looked at funny memes. When she was about to get up and make herself breakfast she figured she’d look at her emails first.
There was a new email, upon opening it there was a blinding light that started to eminate from the laptop, it hurt Jenny’s eyes causing her to look a way for a bit but the light was unusual in the sense it behaved way more like a glowing gel or something and it engulfed her.
Before Jenny could even begin to wonder what was going on it went away. However she wasn’t in her humble abode anymore, the laptop and coffee were gone.
Adjusting her eyes after that painful irritation with that light thing she noticed she was in a familiar location. The monoyellow wallpaper and winding pathways were familiar enough to her to recognize instantly. She was in the backrooms.
“Huh, it’s been a while” she said, looking around. This wasn’t a big deal as she was a shifter so the Backrooms posed no issue to her. It was a sort of garbage can for the universe or something to that effect at least.
Jenny tried to shift, but found herself to be unable to. Nothing worked, not even her awareness of the other Jennies seemed to work, it was just herself up there in her noggin. This began to freak her out a bit as this was unlike what had happened in her last visit to the Backrooms.
From behind one of the walls stepped out a femme looking person with grey-green hair and a complexion that was only a tad lighter than her own. Their eyes were heterochromic but the colors looked very dull and faded.
“Welcome back cousin. Guess that didn’t work, should’ve figured there’d be a failsafe but it never hurts to try”
Their voice was strange, it was like a few voices that overlapped and they spoke with a new jersey accent although Jenny couldn’t really pin down what era it would be.
“Excuse me, who are you?”
“My name’s Mazza, Mazza Oshkosh. We’ve met already the failsafe probably just messed with your memories a bit. Look at your left hand”
She did as she was told, if only to satiate her own curiosity. A glowing mark started to appear, it looked like a very runic depiction of a whale and some squiggly lines, at least that’s how it appeared to her. As she looked upon it, memories started to invade her mind about how she had been stuck in the Backrooms before and yes, had indeed met Mazza and gotten out through a deal of some sorts.
“Wow, what the heck”
“I guess I’ll have to find another favor for you to do for me. Don’t want people to start expecting getting things from my wonderful market for free, yes yes.”
“What the hell happened?”
“That book I gave you was from another world and Elcarim doesn’t really like things to be brought into its domain with certain properties. The mainframe forbids it. It’s a long story, I won’t bore you. But about that favor that you still owe me”
“There was probably a better way of contacting me than to kidnap me with light gel”
Mazza chuckled.
“Yeah probably. Now since that first thing wasn’t gonna work, I think what I’ll have you do is just restock and organize some inventory in the back, no pun intended”
“In the back?”
“Yes, I have a stock room for my market you visited earlier and I have some boxes of stuff that need sorted.”
“Could’ve started with that idea first”
“I had to at least try my thing first. I got plans”
“What kind of plans?”
” ████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ”
“Not sure how you’re making those sounds with your mouth, but I think I get what you mean. Although something tells me you might be just lying to make me less likely to meddle”
“Censorspeak, it’s important to know when you need to discuss things that are not meant for certain eyes. Also, trust me or not it doesn’t matter. Now about the stockroom?”
“I…you make less and less sense the more I talk to you. Whatever, I guess I can help you out there and then I’ll be able to get back home?”
“Scout’s honor Cousin, scout’s honor!”
Notes
The logo was made by myself as was the drawing of the simplified Jenny which I put into a creative commons picture of the backrooms I found on wikipedia. The symbol that appears later was also done by me.
The sprite of Mazza was commissioned and drawn by Daniel (@igioogo)
The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed.
Octobriana is an open source character made in the 70s to spread the “spirit of the October Revolution”
The Backrooms were created by an anonymous poster on 4chan and are in the public domain
Mazza & Lourdes Garamond are original creations.