The Falling Sickness

Chapter 2

After I had gotten up and closed the door I sat Zoe on the couch, and crouched down in front of her. "Zo," I said as I wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Something was wrong with Ms. Nelly.. I-" I cut off, not knowing what to say to her, hell, I wasn't even sure what had just happened. It's always so loud outside, that's one of the cons of living in New York City. I know I have to do something and I can't just let Ms. Nelly lay there like that, it's not right. She was always a kind old woman. "Zo.. I'm going to have to call the police.." I'm not sure how she'll take this, but there's no way around it.

"No! What if th-" she starts to slightly hyperventilate,"they arrest me! I-I didn't know what to do, she was trying to hurt you, Mom!" I bring my hand up, cupping her face beneath her chin, "I know, we'll explain what happened Zo, don't worry. I wouldn't let anything happen to you." I say before standing up and making my way towards the phone on the kitchen wall. As I picked the phone up off of the receiver, I waited and nothing happened. Nothing at all. The line was dead. So I hang up and try again and the same things happens, what the hell is going on?

Shit, I'm going to have to go downstairs to the receptionist area, and I can't let Zoe stay up here by herself. Who knows what'll happen. "Zoe, hunny," I say as I hold my hand out to her, "we have to go downstairs, the phone isn't working." She takes my hand without saying a word. I open to door and let Zoe go out first, dropping her hand as I lock the door.

As we're walking down the hallway, I have my left arm wrapped around Zoe's shoulder trying to comfort her. The building's oddly quiet except for the few odd sounds we hear here and there, though we do live in the top floor, which is never as loud as the lower levels. Seeing as how this is an eight story building. As we come to the end of the hallway I reach out with my right hand to press the button for the elevator, which takes a minute to get up here, as the doors open we step inside and I let Zoe press the button this time. She's always liked doing that. We're down to the fifth floor when all hell breaks loose and the power goes out, causing the elevator to try and come to a halt, but to no avail.

The whole elevator shudders as it keeps going, gaining speed. That's when Zoe starts to scream and grabs frantically onto me, and I'm just as scared as she is, pulling her closer as I crouch and wrap my arms around her. I'm holding onto her for dear life. As soon as the elevator crashes to the ground we are thrown into the air, the sound of screeching metal is the last sound we hear before we fall back to the floor of the elevator into unconsciousness. I am awakened by the sound of Zoe's voice and a constant shaking, which turned out to also be Zoe. The elevator is shrouded in complete darkness except for one little sliver of light shining in between the space in between the elevator doors.

My immediate reaction's to check on Zoe to make sure she's not hurt, thank god that she isn't. As I'm finishing checking in Zoe her hand goes up to my forehead and comes away in blood and ours eyes lock as I bring my hand up to check out the wound for myself. There seems to only be a small cut, which seems to be a good sign. I decide to move away from Zoe and check out the elevator doors, looking into the space between them to try and get a view of the room outside, what the hell is going on, why has no one come to help? At first I try prying the doors apart to no avail, the only other option is the yell for help. So I do. "Hello?! Is anyone out there?!" I yell, hoping that someone is out there, anyone. Please let there be someone. "Hello?!" I yell one more time, "My daughter and I are stuck in here, and I'm hurt.. please.." I beg quietly as I slink back against the door just as an older man appears. "Be quiet! Are you crazy?!" He yells in hushed tones, scaring me. I'm confused at first, but then my confusion turns to anger.

I peek through the crack to get a better look at the angry man who seems to be the only other person around. He seems to be in his early fifties and has a dark complexion. I'm not sure how tall he is since he's crouched next to the elevator door, but that doesn't even matter. What matters is getting my daughter out of this elevator. "What the hell-- you know what, I don't care." I say, getting flustered. "Can you please help us get out of here?" I'm practically pleading. If he doesn't help us I'm not sure what we'll do. "I need to get ahold of the police, and my phone wasn't working.." I started to recall what had happened less that an hour ago. The man hushes me as I start to go on. "Be quiet!" He whispers, not as harshly as before. We go quiet. "Damn it," he mutters more to himself than to me, "they're coming." Okay, now I'm really confused. Who's coming, and why would that be a bad thing? We need all the help we can get. "I'll be right back." He says as he starts to get up. I start to panic, what if he doesn't come back.. "Wait!" I say as I go to reach out, but the space between the doors just isn't big enough for my arm to go through. "Please! Don't leave us!" I practically trip over my words. "Quiet!" He orders again, and then he's off.