The Elevator

You wouldn’t think about it because it’s not something you would notice…

It was an average autumn day—maybe a little warmer than most. The weather was actually very nice and the breeze was light. It was just another day at college. Classes were over for the day and the later activities ended a little after supper time. The afternoon had been filled with gray clouds, ones that made it hard to tell if it was going to rain or not.

It was a new moon. The sky was dark blue and a hint of orange from the city lights. The skies were still overcast. And there was a female, just an average person, no one special, just another citizen. She was walking back to her dorm after a quiet supper which consisted of her listening and very little talk. She was a first year, age eighteen. She was still beginning to know people.

She followed the twisted sidewalks all the way down to the library and up the many levels of stairs to the second floor to the elevators. THAT is where the story truly begins.

She enters the doors to the computer lap, her thumbs tucked under the straps of her book-bag which carried her books and homework. She catches her breath quietly and starts towards the elevators. She is seconds from stopping to press the button to go up—but before she rocks into her final step, the elevator opens for her. She didn’t press a button, the up and down buttons were not glowing from someone else’s attempt. The light above the door didn’t signal going up or down. She was slightly confused, but thought nothing of it. She stepped into the lonely elevator. Only herself. The long ends of her pants rubbed against each other and the ends of her book-bag zippers jingled as she faced the door. She pressed button number four to take her to the brew where she always walked through to get to the backdoor walkway that made a nice short cut to her dorm.

She waited for the doors to close, and they did. The doors sealed and the elevator jerked to a start. It seemed all too normal. How often do you just walk up to an elevator to just have it open for you like it was waiting for you? You wouldn’t think about it because it’s not something you would notice…

But it was something that should have spiked some primal instinct of danger. And maybe it did a little bit, it was just shy enough to ignore. And that is just what IT wanted its victim to do. Ignore. How often do you look up in an elevator? I know sometimes you do. You are going to the top floor, so you look up as if you could see your destination. You look up and maybe let out the air you were holding. SHE looked up for both reasons. Out the corner of her eye she saw a shadow, but again ignored what she saw. It was just the cream colored ceiling, and then the doors with the line down the middle.

The elevator dinged once it reached its destination. Once again the elevator jerked to a stop and opened its doors. She walked out of the elevator, through the brew, and opened the door to the walkway on scaffolding. The walkway had a boarded fence and a slanted roof top. Between the fence and the roof was an opening. The orange and yellow leaves peaked in. The light breeze rattled the leaves and the fountain below sprinkled in the shallow brown, reflective waters of the slough.

The boards thumped an empty echo under her feet. A dog was barking in the distance. The warm breeze blew her untied hair into her eyes. It was such an eerie feeling. Now she was starting to notice.

She kept her pace in the dark where the only sounds were that now of the crickets and the leaves, and only the orange light of the parking lot lit the dim sidewalk. She followed the sidewalk to the road and then followed the alongside the road. To her left were the thick trees of the open campus. It was quiet. The trees still rustled in the wind. And then, quick, like a flash of lightning or an unsuspecting loud clap of thunder—

Something jumped from one tree branch to another. It landed hard and shook the dead leaves upon her like a sudden heavy rain. Her body was shocked, her heart pounding. She walked faster, telling herself that it was only the wildlife, maybe a squirrel. No, it was too big. A raccoon maybe?

Something inside the dense and dark trees started crunching in the fallen leaves. She felt like she was being followed. As she quickened her pace, IT quickened. As she neared her destination, the steps got louder. Louder. Louder! LOUDER! They were following her, right beside her, hiding in the tree line, out of site. In the darkness where there was no light.

She stopped. “Go away!” she yelled, her whole body shaking.

Silence. But it was watching her. It was staring at her. And she had no idea how close it was to her.

She inhaled shakily. She put her thumbs back under the straps of her back pack. She put her weight on to one foot and lifted the other to take a step. Then. Then it lunged.

She felt a sudden sharp pain on the whole left side of her body as she was thrown to the ground, her bare forearm scratched by the thin rocky surface of the dirty sidewalk. She hit the ground hard with a thud. She turned around to face her attacker, and before she had the chance to scream, her throat was ripped out by the sharp claws of the winged creature with a goblin’s face. It had sharp, long bearing yellow teeth and big green glowing eyes.

She felt her throat as it was removed, the little bit of elastic the skin had before it tore under the pressure in which the creature was pulling. She felt a sharp pain that made her see a display of bright ugly colors in her eyes. And felt the sudden sensation of warm liquid against her face and chest. The whole area around her neck stung like a burn from a hot metal rod. And then numbness quickly filled her body. All feeling stopped. Her once racing heart, stopped. Her head went limp and turned on its side. Her dead eyes still open staring coldly through the rubbery grass, beyond the sidewalk, passed the trees and to the building that she was so close, yet so far away from.

Voices echoed in her now deaf ears. Life was going on without her. Voices screamed in panic. Hands jittered to their phones. Shouting, screaming, everything. Nothing.

And amongst the noise the creature sat up on a thick limb of the trees. Watching, seeing, waiting, and wanting more. So much more to feed its bottomless pit, the want for more blood, the thrill of the next victim.