I was a process server in PG County, Maryland. I had to serve a subpoena to a car insurance agent, whose office was in this very old office building. Its surrounding area is what I called an “empty shell of a suburbia’. It looked like a neigbhorhood from far away, but there’s no neighbors since it never recovered from housing crisis way back. All the stores in the nearby plazas were closed down. There were barely any cars. The townhouses near by were probably all empty.
The building had no front desk and no security guard, only two elevators in the middle of a dirty blank wall.
The elevator was old, the kind that had a thick dark brown colored door that slide to one side instead of opening up in the middle.
The numbers on the elevator buttons was the first red flag I ignored. There was no L for the lobby, only 2, 6, 10, 12, 16, and 20.
I figured it was one of those, “even number floors only” elevators (even though 4 and 8 were missing). And the other one was probably an “odd number floors” only elevator. I assumed 2 was the lobby, and I knew I had to go to the 6th floor, so I just told myself to not think too hard and pressed that button.
The ride felt a bit short for going up 6 floors, I thought to myself.
The elevator opened at one end of the corridor. It was very narrow. Two people would not be able to walk shoulder to shoulder. There was no window. All the doors to the offices are grayish brown. No noise seems to be coming out from any of them. It was so quiet I wanted to turn down my own heart beat.
I knocked on the door of the insurance agent’s office, and no one answered. Typical. The air was thick and the narrow corridor was suffocating. I hurried back to the elevator and pressed the arrow down button next to the elevator to get out of there.
The elevator door opened. I went in and the numbers were all different. 3, 5, 11, 13, 17, and 21
I was annoyed, this was probably the “odd number floors” only elevator. I pressed 3 because I wanted to go down. But nothing happened. It didn’t light up. I pressed again, no light. After the elevator doors closed, I was shocked that I was going up.
It was going up? Did someone call it up? Why did it open on my floor, since no one got out?
It opened to the 13th floor. There was nothing there, just an open plan office that seemed to not have been used for years. Cobwebs and dust covered everything. Who called it up here? I started to get nervous. This was all very eerie.
I called the elevator again, hoping for the even one to open. At least I was more familiar with that one, and I assumed that pressing 2 would get me back to the lobby. It was the odd one, again. I pressed 3 and it took me down this time.
It went down very far. It opened up to a short narrow hallway with just a door. There wasn’t another elevator next to me, only the one I came out of. I was surprised.
Just one elevator… one long hallway… to one door.
I walked out to push the door but It was locked.
I turned around and I saw something that made my heart sink to my feet. The button for the elevator was taken out. It was just a hole.
The door was locked and I couldn’t call the elevator. How was I going to get out of there? I went to the door again. I tried to peek outside through the foggy small rectangular window on the door.
I saw someone sitting on the ground at the other side of the door. I tapped the window. The window felt so thick, so I didn’t know if he could hear me. I started banging very loudly. The legs moved. He heard me. The man got up and walked towards the window.
My relief disappeared when he had this eerie grin. That man, who was quite old, like late 50s, pointed at me and laugh. I was pissed off. How is this funny? I mouthed, open this door, please.
He continued to laugh. He clapped his hand above his head and jumped up and down, like a child. And he was also very tall, at least six feet. In the middle of his laugh, he said “you will never get out of here!”
In a flash of anger, I screamed, open this door right now! His face turned angry and he started slamming the door with both his hands, hard. He slammed it so hard, I was so startled. I thought he was going to break it.
This guy was beyond mad. He started kicking the door. It was obviously not going to help me. I was horrified that he was going to come in and strangle me. The elevator door suddenly opened and I ran back in.
What is this place? I thought to myself as the door slide to close. My heart was beating so fast I couldn’t hear myself think.
Okay, if this is 3, then let’s go up one, which is 5.
I went up to 5, all the while thinking about the obsessive look of that angry man. Something about him does not appear human. It was as if he was something pretending to be human.
The 5th floor was a similar-looking narrow corridor, like the 6th floor. I exited the elevator and headed to the stairway. I walked down only one floor and it was just a door. And the door was locked. I looked through the window and I saw someone. A middle-aged cleaning lady.
I was so happy I found someone, and I was about to call out to her, I noticed her facial expression.
The cleaning lady just stared blankly out the window. That was the first window I saw in the building by the way. Then, suddenly, she snatched a pigeon from the window and began devouring it.
She chomped on it hard. The pigeon was almost as big as her head, but she kept chomping and chomping. She then tilt her head up and tried to let the gravity help her swallow it. I then saw the shape of her teeth. They weren’t human.
While the bird’s wings were flapping and its legs were twitching, she took one more big chomp which sprayed blood all over. As soon as she slightly turn, I quickly duck down. To be honest, I almost crap my pants. What is this place? I was so scared now.
I ran back up the stairs. I figured, if I’m 1 floor underneath 5, and I run up two floors, then I should be on the 6h floor, right? I got out and saw the sign, 2nd floor. I was so frustrated and scared I wanted to cry. Isn’t the 2nd floor the lobby? Why was the 2nd floor above the 5th floor? This ‘2nd floor’ was a long corridor without any office doors this time. Just an empty corridor with nothing in it.
I took a deep breath to think. So far I operated as if this building had a rule that can be understood if tried. But it was clear to me now that the building was designed to confuse or even trapped people. The fact that none of the floors had windows was by design. And that the more I tried to escape using normal logic, the worse it becomes.
I also just realized something. In the lobby, the elevator was in the middle, yet when it opened up to each floor, it was always at one end of the corridor. That meant the building was divided in half. And that there are actually four elevators. Only two lead to the exit and the other two lead to nowhere.
I tried to look around for the camera. If there were any, they weren’t obvious.
I stood in front of a pair of elevators in front of me and think. I pressed down. An elevator opened up. This one was an odd one, and also a decoy. Because, the other elevator was on the other side of the even elevator in the lobby. I entered this one and pressed it to go up, then exited the elevator, and pressed down again, hoping to summon another one.
The elevator next to it opened up. This one was even. It was the first one I rode. The lowest number on the button was 2. I pressed it, nothing happened, which made sense in a twisted way because I was already on 2. I pressed 6. And it went down instead of up.
Even though there was a chance that there could be no exit, at least I’m doing something the designer of this maze did not expect.
The elevator door opened and I was back on the 6th floor, where the insurance agent’s office was at. remembered when I came up from the real lobby it didn’t take me that long to reach this floor. I went to the stairway of this floor and walked down.
Then I saw it. The lobby. I could see it through the door. But it was locked. I was not having it at that point. I know the building was not going to play fair, so I am not going to play fair either. I smashed the window. Just as I was getting one foot out of the small rectangular hole, I heard the door opened loudly from above, and heavy footsteps rushing down.
Thinking that the only two people I had met in this building were the pigeon-eating lady and the angry man, I did not want to find out which one was coming down, I quickly climbed out.
I had a few cuts on me but because I wore long sleeves I was mostly fine. I looked back into the hole and there was nothing. No more sound of footsteps. It probably stopped following me when it knew I got out.
I hurried out of there. I got to my car. Somehow I expected the tire to be slashed or something but they weren’t. They were probably confident I wasn’t going to escape.
Even as I was driving away, I knew it was going to be a while before I see another person around there, because of how isolated this place is. It was a trap from the start.