ENTITY NO. 63
THREAT LEVEL
3
Habitat:
Levels where entities and wanderers are abundant.
Aggression: 2/5
Attacks to hunt
Intellect: 3/5
Problem solving ability
Danger: 4/5
Life-threatening
Predatory Doors, or by their scientific name Aenigmatica ostium, are a species of tertiary predacious entities disguising themselves as exit doors in the Backrooms, with the door being the shell of the true creature. Predatory Doors are relatively uncommon throughout the Backrooms; their ideal habitat is in an area where humans and entities are abundant, albeit they are mostly found in levels that are some sort of edifice. Despite their similarity to Windows, both entities are unrelated to each other.
Predatory Doors are thought to be intelligent creatures, comparable to a crow or a 7-year-old human child. Their appearance as an ordinary door is speculated to be an adaptation that lures or fools any prey into approaching the Predatory Door. Because they spend most of their time in darkness, they are blind, but their exceptional sense of hearing, vibration, and smell all make up for the entity's lack of vision; they are able to tell how many entities are in their proximity based on the vibration of their footsteps alone. Furthermore, Predatory Doors have incredible strength, observed to rip apart common entities such as Hounds, Skin-Stealers, and accidentally squeeze wanderers to death with their tentacles.
Predatory Doors are typically solitary, although it is not hard to find multiple of them near each other or in a group. Either way, they are highly cooperative with each other in various matters, such as letting each other know if there is food nearby or planning when to attack their prey. The "room" behind the Predatory Door is a place created by the entity itself to store food and waste temporarily, similar to a burrow. Moreover, multiple Predatory Doors near each other in an enclosed space may be connected under one hidden network of burrows, where they communicate, share food, reproduce and aid starving Predatory Doors by supplying them with more food. These are referred to as a colony of Predatory Doors, which are thought to have been constructed by their ancestors before their species' abilities succumbed to evolution.
Because they are in frequent demand for food, Predatory Doors will use the opportunity to catch prey whenever hungry. Unlike some entities, Predatory Doors do not physically or physiologically torture or torment their victim and will waste no time gathering food. Predatory Doors seem to prefer humans, likely because of their abundance, but they will have no problem consuming most other entities of the Backrooms as well.
If there are entities within the door's proximity, the Predatory Door will wait until they are distracted with something or they try to open the Predatory Door itself to snatch them. Unless there are multiple of its kind nearby, a Predatory Door will typically not attack a large group, thought to be over 8 individuals[1]. It is presumed that they know if their prey is distracted if they suddenly stop making noise or any vibration, namely footsteps. Predatory Doors cannot see, meaning they differentiate their target by its taste, smell, sound(s), movement and texture.
Since they are stuck in place, they have come up with rather creative strategies to bring prey to them, usually fooling the ill-fated victim. The most obvious of which is a bright neon green exit sign that appears above them. Despite the exit sign being in plain sight, many[2] fall right for the trap. There are 3 ways of using the exit signs to distinguish the Predatory Door from regular doors: firstly, the exit signs do not contain a figure and only the doorframe—the reason for this is unclear[3]; second, the exit sign is always located above the Predatory Door, and not as a separate sign that points to the door; lastly, a Predatory Door with the exit sign may appear out of place in a corridor, especially if (any) other exit signs in the hallway do not point to the Predatory Door(s) and instead to a different exit door at the end of the corridor.
Predatory Doors are capable of mimicking the voices of any creature that vocally communicate, tricking the creature into thinking their comrade is trapped behind the door. For humans, Predatory Doors may mimic specific phrases that call for help. Besides that, Predatory Doors can also imitate violent knocking, albeit no vibration on the door itself. Nevertheless, Predatory Doors cannot communicate with other entities, and most notably have no understanding of human language. This means the phrases Predatory Doors might use could be a jumbled mix of words ranging from various other languages, which can help to identify if the "person" trapped is an auditory illusion.
No matter what method they use, once the perfect opportunity to get the victim emerges, the entity will reveal themselves and use its tentacles to grab the victim and pull them right into their "room" and shut their door. Once secured, the entity will wrap the victim with its tentacles for a brief period to check if it moves or makes a sound; if it does not, the Predatory Door will lose interest on it and will throw it away; if it does move or make a sound, the entity will feast on it, discarding inedible parts in the process. The entity liquifies any waste and leaks it out in long intervals as to not reveal themselves.
Although they hunt to satisfy their hunger, Predatory Doors can be aggravated into attacking something if they are being noisy, as this easily irritates them because of their sensitive hearing. They may either intimidate the offender by sticking out their tentacles pretending to reach for them, or actually attack them to either injure or kill them, in which case they might store the dead corpse to eat later on.
Predatory Doors are not discriminatory to any entities, but they will not consume Wretches nor people affected by Sanguine Festivus, likely because they do not want to waste their energy getting rotten flesh that is not nutritious enough for their demands. In addition, they will outright avoid powerful entities, God-like entities, or anything they have memorized to be threatening to their existence. Regardless, the strength of Predatory Doors means other entities typically stay away from them, with no report of an entity that actively seeks out to destroy Predatory Doors in particular.
When walking in a hallway with a Predatory Door, it is recommended to bring a preferably large object (e.g. a shopping cart) that will act as an intermediary between the person and the Predatory Door; this will briefly distract the entity into investigating the object, which will give enough time to make an escape. If grabbed by the entity, however, one must use any sharp tools or weapons they possess to force the entity to let go. Anyone in the immediate vicinity should shoot the main body of the creature as it is the most effective in neutralizing the creature. If all else fails, one must play dead, which will hopefully make the Predatory Door lose interest after some time and free the individual.
Quick reaction is the key, as Predatory Doors are able to grab and pull their victim(s) away in mere seconds. The creature's boney structure is highly resistant to puncturing and can even deflect lighter bullets, meaning attempting to save someone behind the door is infeasible and could aggravate the entity even more. Heavy bullets that can penetrate through the shell should be primarily used for marking Predatory Doors, and should not be used to try to rescue the captured. Because of this, the fatality rate when encountering a Predatory Door is high.
The general idea of the true appearance of a Predatory Door is that they have a large mouth in the center, and a total of 16 tentacles: 8 main ones to grab objects, and 8 smaller ones surrounding their mouth to secure their food in place. The 8 main tentacles in particular are flexible, able to retract and stretch to capture prey from further distances. This implies that they have no bones besides their shell. Their tentacles can also squeeze through the tiny space between its shell (door) and the door frame, though this often leads to their shell cracking. Furthermore, any limbs that are cut off can be regenerated in a period of approximately 2 weeks.
Surrounding the walls of their mouth are an array of small teeth presumed to break down and grind food. Moreover, their liquid waste suggests acids and additional enzymes are secreted to dissolve the food into nothing but fluids.
The appearance of their shell from the outside, otherwise the part that resembles a door, has a flat surface and is coloured grey. If one looks closely at the door, they can notice that the shell slightly bulges out at the center (in similar fashion to a convex lens). Their shell is described to feel boney, and produces a faint, dull sound when knocked on, confirming the shell to be solid rather than hollow. The shell does not possess a peephole or any windows/cut outs, but some Predatory Doors have door handles, with others not having handles. Some have speculated this to be indicative of their gender, yet there are no other qualities that can help identify which is which. Predatory Doors only periodically shed their shell by flaking the damaged parts of their shell off to replace with fresh bone. More substantial damage such as deep scratching or the handle being ripped off take much longer to heal, often taking months for a full recovery.
Communication between Predatory Doors is done vocally in sound frequencies under 20 Hz, lower than what human ears can pick up, and their communication comprises patterns, with each pattern having their own meaning—this can be notifying others of food nearby, when to attack, calling others to help them, alerting any danger they suspect, or when to retreat.
Reproduction is certain to happen between their species, but the mechanics on how they do it are unknown. It is presumed Predatory Doors reproduce to replace deceased individuals exclusively in a colony; because offspring are only meant to replace a deceased Predatory Door, and no more colonies can be made to support any potential excess births, the population of Predatory Doors in the Backrooms are thought to have remained stagnated, with the rate of death and birth almost equaling each other. Albeit, estimates imply that the population will slowly decline in the foreseeable future as solitary Predatory Doors inevitably die off without reproducing. Nonetheless, the lifespan of an average Predatory Door ranges from 30-45 years.
The current evolutionary form of a Predatory Door has been sighted as far back as the 20th century. Before that, however, there were many reports of the entities simply crawling around on their tentacles, as well as the sounds of them constructing burrows behind certain corridors. Their camouflage as a door would have only been to hide themselves from major threats, as they were noted to be weaker entities back then. Predatory Doors may have underwent rapid evolution once the human population in the Backrooms had started to increase substantially. The excerpt below from a dated journal helps to visualize what Predatory Doors may have potentially been like before their final evolutionary form:
““...in my peripheral vision I noticed a creature akin to a tortoise wandering about in the same labyrinth as I. After I glanced at it, the entity seemed to have noticed me and hurried to go into hiding by standing on its hind legs underneath a dingy door frame. It was then I realized the purpose of its atypical shell that resembled a door...”
- Avoid doors that do not have a figure in their exit sign;
- Avoid doors that appear out of place in a level;
- Refrain from entering hallways with multiple doors with exit signs unless it is explicitly confirmed the level/area does not have any Predatory Doors;
- Bring a object to distract the Predatory Door in case it attacks;
- Avoid doors with strange noises behind them—this can either be munching, growling, shuffling, grumbling, or a voice of a wanderer;
- Use a sharp object or a weapon to startle the entity into letting go;
- Pass through an area with a Predatory Door quietly and slowly without making any sudden movements or sounds that might trigger the entity;
- Keep distance away from the entity;
- Play dead if you are caught by the entity and have no other option.
- Blindly enter doors without precaution;
- Approach any doors with cracking around the sides or edges;
- Try to run past a Predatory Door—this alerts them and any other Predatory Doors and they can quickly catch you;
- Fall for their attack methods (luring with exit signs and mimicking wanderers' voices);
- Become distracted with something else in the proximity of the entity;
- Make loud noises—Predatory Doors have sensitive hearing and this easily irritates them;
- Panic when grabbed, as this tells the creature that they have food in their hands.
Predatory Doors have existed in the Backrooms for a couple centuries, with appearances of them dating as far back as the 19th century.
The following is an infamous tale of operative and explorer R. Aindi's encounter with a Predatory Door in Level 2. This story at the time generated a fad around the species for their abstract-like properties (as depicted in the sketch made by R. Aindi).
What appeared in the blink of my eye.
Wandering through the corridors of Level 2, I was to make my regular exit to Level 3. It was so frequent that I memorized what paths to take and what dangers to avoid without the help of a fellow wanderer or database; it was a piece of cake.
However, during my journey, I stumbled across something peculiar that captured my consciousness: an exit door. The problem was, the exit door wasn't anything I can remember whenever I would take this route specifically. I recalled the area where this materialized exit door currently lays to be abnormally noisy at times, but knowing the properties of Level 2, I figured certainly that it must have been some sort of anomaly of the utility halls. Whatever the reason, the flashy neon exit sign lured me into the exit door, like a moth to a lightbulb at night. I found it odd that the sign did not have a human figure, yet that was such a nuanced detail that I couldn't care anymore.
I whipped out my flashlight as I slowly approached the mysterious door and I laid my arms on the handle to push it open, expecting a dark room or a hallway in front of me. But nothing could have prepared me when I was instead greeted by a set of black gooey arms reaching out towards me. If that didn't send enough shivers down me, my heart stopped when I heard the creature let out an ear-blistering scream that echoed throughout the hallways and overpowered any white noise.
I can vividly remember the myriad of limbs that surrounded the creature's ominous mouth seizing me tightly. In a split second panic, I went for my pistol and had several rounds directly at the beast. It screeched and immediately retreated, throwing me back into the hallway and shutting its "door" on me.
Crying and still not believing what the hell I had just seen, I ran in the direction away from this amalgamation of an entity as far as possible. That was not a wise move in hindsight, especially if there were others of its own kind lurking within the same winding corridors I hasted through. Even if the relief of my survival had been overshadowed by the weight of trauma I had gone through, I was thankful to have lived to spread the word of this foul entity, so others don't end up like me, or perhaps be feasted upon by the entity like savoury meat.
Footnotes
- ↑ It is theorized that the number of individuals in a given area they are comfortable attacking corresponds to the number of limbs they have to hold them.
- ↑ From eyewitness reports, wanderers that are desperate for an exit and least observant are the most suspectable to the trap.
- ↑ It has been suggested the entity cannot draw a human figure in their exit signs without it looking too out of place, or the Predatory Doors think an exit sign with a human figure is not convincing.
Current Author and Rewriter: Skyvory.
Images(s):
- First, third, fourth and fifth images were all drawn by Skyvory.
- Second image is from Stoneofficesupply.ca (https://stonesofficesupply.ca/scn-industrial/scn-running-man-exit-sign/BEG00143/p) and was edited by Skyvory.
Critiqued by: Normal.