THE ELEVATOR
By Randy
Romero
Carol
Abrams took a deep, arduous breath as the elevator doors shimmied open. She
stepped in slowly, warily, and exhaled another deep sigh as the elevator doors
closed with a light thud.
Carol
suffered from an extreme case of claustrophobia. But when you live on the
thirty-third floor of a forty floor apartment building, you learn to combat
that fear.
It sure beats
taking the stairs.
She
continued taking deep, laborious breaths as the elevator descended. Its
mechanical hum sounded like a power drill in Carol’s skull.
Trapped.
That’s how she felt. Confined inside a steel box that had haunted her since she
was a little girl. The intense anxiety was enough to make her heart race. She
could feel her throat starting to tighten up. She needed to get out of this
steel contraption ASAP.
She took
soft, weak breaths as it became more and more difficult to breathe. She started
silently counting all the floors she had left. Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen,
fourteen, thirteen…
The
elevator finally reached the ground floor, stopped. But the doors refused to
open.
She
jabbed the first floor button several times with her index finger.
The
doors didn’t open and the elevator resumed moving, traveling down to the basement
level. But it didn’t stop there.
She
pounded against the doors, frantically mashed all the buttons with her palms. Screamed
for help until her throat was coarse. The air felt thin all around her. She
pressed the emergency stop button which was unresponsive.
“This
isn’t possible,” she cried. “This can’t be happening.”
But the
elevator seemed to disagree as it continued its subterranean descent.
After
what felt like an eternity to Carol, the elevator came to a sudden stop. The
doors slid open and she peered out into the darkness.
A thick
raspy voice, like the sound of glass on a chalkboard, greeted her.
“Who are
you?” she said, trembling.
“Oh, I
have many names…Lucifer, Satan…But I’ve always loved the Prince of Darkness.”
“This
isn’t happening…it’s not real…I’m just having a really bad dream.”
“I’m
afraid you’re not dreaming. You died Carol. Car accident just a few days ago.
And now, you’re here. This is your reward for your sins. Everyone’s hell is
different and you are now trapped in your own private hell. Forced to take that
terrifying descent over and over. You will spend eternity trapped inside that
box.”
“I don’t
belong here,” Carol said. “This is a mistake. It’s all a big mistake. If I’m
really dead, then I belong in Heaven.”
“There’s
no mistake. Have you forgotten about your mother, Carol? Your ailing mother who
depended on you for every little thing. You grew sick and tired of waiting on
her hand and foot. A little untraceable poison in her soup was all it took. What
did you call it to make yourself feel better? A mercy killing? I think that’s
the phrase you used to justify it to yourself. I think your mother would have
disagreed.”
The
elevator doors started to close.
“Wait!”
Carol cried out.
“Going
up,” the Prince of Darkness said and waved goodbye with one red, clawed hand.
The doors
banged shut and the elevator began to ascend.
No comments:
Post a Comment