Lucifer

Chapter 1

I mash the button to go down, fear thick in my throat, almost making it impossible for me to breath. I didn't know why they were chasing after me, only that if I stayed here I was going to die. Desperate to find a way out, I ran through the house, attempting to open any doors and windows I passed, until I came across the elevator doors.

It is an old school elevator, one with the metal mesh doors that had to be closed manually before the thing would even move.

Precious seconds gone, and I didn't even know if it was going to work, if the thing had any power at all.

"Come on, come on!" I breathe. No light came on from me mashing the button, no indication at all the elevator was even registering that I was willing it to move.

My whole body began to tighten and tingle as I heard footsteps coming down the ancient wooden stairs.

"Stupid bitch!" called the voice, belonging to some wretched woman who had taken me in the middle of the night from my dorm room.

I had no idea who she was, where she came from, or what she wanted. Her steps were heavy on the stairs, hard and unhurried, as if she knew there was nowhere for me to go.

Tears began to stream down my face. I still mashed the down button as I wiped my face, my eyesight beginning to fail. "Pease, please," I beg continuously.

Finally, the woman was down the steps. She wore all black, her thick heeled boots hitting the ground with a firm click with every step, until she realized where I was.

"Get out of there, girl," she spat, her dark obsidian eyes ablaze with the command.

The whole house was covered in bottles and jars, containing various plants and animals, with other things I refused to look at for fear of recognizing them. I was wearing nothing other than my white night shift. No shoes, no jacket, no socks, nothing. Roused from sleep.

At first, I believed that this was a nightmare, and willed myself to wake from it over and over. Lately, I had so many dreams of similar situations, but when I felt her cold hands grip onto my arms, yanking me from the bed, I knew that it was something more.

"Please!" I scream, hitting the button one final time, knowing that in the next moment I will be back in her unbreakable grip.

It had only been dumb luck that I was able to get away in the first place. She had turned around for one moment, and I had bolted

The woman took another step, and I silently began to pray to God, the gods, anyone and anything that might be listening, and then it happened, the elevator lurched to life and began to descend down.

The woman gripped onto the outer metal mesh door, now locked into place until the elevator returned back to its original spot. She was screaming, the sound deafening.

I sunk to the bottom of the elevator, relief and pain rocking my body, the first from the elevator finally moving, and the second from the scream.

I gripped myself by the arms, shivering from the cold that bit right through the thin material of my silk shift. Slowly, ever so slowly, the elevator drops down and down. There were no buttons, no lights, no indication of where I was going, only darkness as the light from that woman's house faded into nothingness.

*******

I did not know how long I was in the elevator for, but by the time it finally lurched to a stop my whole body ached as I struggled to stand.

A faint warm glow came from beyond the second mesh door, and what looked to be a lavish hallway with a long red and black carpet.

I tentatively step out, once again hugging myself. Where was I? I've never seen anything like this before. I began walking down the hall to the right, the carpet soft beneath my bare feet.