31 Days of Halloween

Day Fourteen: The Elevator

If you looked at it, it was an ordinary elevator. It went all the way up to the fortieth floor, all the way down to the basement. The buttons lit up when pushed, delighting children of all ages. It made a beep as it hit each floor, especially good for people glued to their phones. It even had annoying music playing from the speakers. To anyone else, it is a completely normal and mundane elevator.

But I know better now. It's deceptively safe when anyone else was in it. But I had been on Reddit one night, reading stories. I've read the elevator game story a million times over, knew it by heart even. And I decided I would try it, except I skipped an important part. The rules say a woman will enter the elevator on the fifth floor and you aren't supposed to look at her under any circumstances.

But you see, I was curious. The game had been working so far, I had pushed all the right buttons, but then a woman in a brown trench coat and stilettos got on. From the corner of my eye, she looked like a normal woman who would work in a hospital, maybe a doctor or receptionist. And of course, instead of waiting for late evening, I decided to play right as everyone was leaving work. So, I didn't think much of it when this woman said hi. I pressed the button for the first floor again, intending to start over, and turned to say hi back.

Those of you who know the game, will know that this is where I made a fatal mistake. She was staring right at me, her eyes pinning me to the wall with the intensity. Well, where her eyes should have been. Instead of eyeballs, it was just two black holes, blood dripping down her cheek. Her face was pale and gaunt, cheekbones jutting from her face in an almost comical way. I decided it would be comical if I survived this.

Her hand snaked out and pressed the emergency stop button, an alarm ringing in my ears. She was impossibly close, her rank breath fanning against my face. I waited for something to happen, my horrible death or the loss of my soul, but all this woman did was stare at me. She stared and stared, and then her spidery fingers pressed the stop button again, silencing the alarm. The elevator gave a jolt and continued its descension, the woman retreating to the other side of the elevator. She gave a small smile as the doors opened, showing an empty dark hall.

I didn't want to leave the elevator. I didn't want to have to turn my back on this woman or wander down an empty hallway by myself. And the game rules didn't say what to do if you look at the woman and she lets you go. It felt loaded and I wasn't willing to pull the trigger. But I didn't want to know what would happen if I stayed on this elevator.

I kept her in my sight, inching my way out. It should've been a red flag that the elevator doors stayed open this whole time, but in the moment, I just wanted to get away. So, I left the elevator, watching the woman closely. She only continued to smile. But the doors still didn't close, they remained open as if broken. That seemed to make her happier, but just standing here watching the woman smile at me was making me feel uneasy. I turned away from her and faced the hallway.

There wasn't much there, a few windowless rooms and a wall that was all glass. Outside it was dark and grey, lifeless and dismal. It reminded me of the movie Silent Hill when the siren would go off and the darkness would descend over the town. It made my skin crawl. In the distance was a glowing red cross, exactly as the story said. It hovered in the air like a macabre moon, even though there isn't a moon in sight.

I didn't have any courage left in me. My knees felt like loose Jell-o and I was ready to start crying. I look over my shoulder, praying that horrible creature was gone, and nearly sobbed in relief when I saw the elevator doors had finally closed. I sprinted for the door, my sneakers squeaking harshly in my ears. It was such a familiar sound I could have wept for joy.

But I wasn't getting any closer to the doors. I could have sworn I'd taken six, maybe seven steps away from the elevator, but somehow, I'd gotten miles away. And I was still getting farther away. My heart fluttered in my chest, my legs ready to give way from exhaustion. If I kept getting farther away, how in the hell was I going to get home? How was I going to see my family again? In that moment, I fully realized what I'd done and knew I had made a grave mistake trying this game in the first place.

And then I smacked right into the doors, my head clunking painfully against the steel. I rubbed the spot, knowing I'd have a huge goose egg there in the morning. I pushed the down button, growing more frantic when it didn't open. I pushed and pushed, more than likely breaking the stupid thing, and then the doors slowly and painfully broke apart. I steeled myself to see that ugly woman's face, but she wasn't in there. I made the sign of the cross across my chest anyway before I got on the thing, just in case she was hiding somewhere. Not that I was religious but I'm betting it worked against evil whether you are or not.

I did the reverse sequence, being mindful of the rules this time, and then pushed the button for the first floor. Immediately, the elevator raced up the shaft, heading for floor ten again. I quickly pressed first floor again, just in the nick of time, and it came back down at a normal speed. But when the doors dinged open at the first floor, I hesitated. Everything looked as it should, but of course I'm expecting the other dimension still. I did look at the woman after all. But looking over the familiar receptionist desk, empty, and smelling the antiseptic smell from the night crew cleaning made me feel at ease. Something on the other side wouldn't give me the feeling of being safe.

I went straight home and wrote this all down. I still can't believe I escaped that horrible woman, though I had been in the other side longer than I had thought. I got to the hospital at about four o'clock and when I walked inside my house, my grandfather clock was just chiming for nine o'clock. I had a feeling most of that time was simply getting back to the elevator. I know I'm an idiot at this point, I easily could've died tonight, but it was a lesson well learned. And I wasn't a skeptic anymore.

I dressed in my fluffiest pajamas, needing the extra comfort and safety, and drifted into a fitful sleep. Nightmares plagued me all night, mostly of the bloody cross hung in the night sky. In the dream, the cross pulsed with a living heartbeat, dripping blood into the streets below. I jumped awake, drenched in a clammy sweat and chilled to the marrow. I put my hand to my forehead, rubbing the dream from my mind, and went to turn on the light.

But instead of a pull string for my lamp, my fingers touched a thin nose. My eyes opened wide and I cautiously looked over at what I had grabbed. It was the woman's face, drenched in the blackness and holding my sheets in her fisted hands. She was kneeling on the side of the bed, stock still; her gangly spine arched like a cat, her eye sockets still dripping blood. Her mouth slowly opened in a cruel smile, showing yellowed dagger-like teeth.

She sprang, her hands reaching for my throat and I screamed bloody murder. I scrambled off the bed, feeling her claws tear my shirt down the middle, and ran for the bathroom. I flicked the light on and slammed the door shut right in her face, locking it from the inside. I breathed a deep sigh before inspecting my back in the mirror, shocked when I saw a long line down my spine. She had just made it, but it was already healing into a pink scar. It looked infected.

The reflection of my face fogged over, steam rising in the little space. I began to sweat, my breathing becoming ragged as it became too hot to pull in a proper breath. A dark shadow appeared over my shoulder, the fingers reaching out for my arm. I screamed and pounded my fists into the glass, shattering it into shiny pieces. Blood dripped from my hands, cut to pieces my mother would say, but the steam dissipated. Nothing was in the bathroom anymore, and when I opened the door to my bedroom the woman had gone too.

I packed my bags then and there, planning on staying in a motel until arrangements could be made for my things. No way was I staying the rest of the night here, not with what just happened. I was getting the hell of dodge and never looking back. The new tenants could have all her stuff, she didn't really care. But as I left the house, locking the front doors behind me and hopping into my car, I heard the grandfather clock go off again. It gave a big boom, once, and then stopped. I wouldn't know this, but the next tenants did get my furniture. And that clock never chimed again.