Hello, my name’s Catherine. 32, female. As I tell you this story, I am currently sitting on the floor with my back on the wall, staring at nowhere. I could hear the flickering of each lights, a dark hallway that’s clouded with strong irony smell. I lost track what time it is, where am I. I could barely remember what I ate for breakfast. I felt an unfamiliar sway of wind towards my cheeks. I never felt air like this ever before. Maybe… Maybe… It is the ‘elevator person’ trying to tell me something.
From what I can remember, I was running late for my work. I passed through everyone on my way, hitting some shoulders and hearing some “look out!”. But why would I care? It is my first day at my second job, and here I am failing to make a good impression already for my boss. I took a deep breath, stared at this long ass building from bottom to top. And all I could see was endless shimmering and reflecting windows. “Well then… I have no choice but to go inside and do my job. I have to feed myself” I whispered. As I walked towards this main huge entrance making clicking sounds from my stilettos, I fixed my skirt and tried to iron the crumpled parts using my hand. Goodness gracious, what I’ve been doing these past few hours before going here and I was not able to prepare everything for me? Ah yes! It is my landlady banging on my door repeatedly every hour since 5am. I failed to pay rent for two months and since this is my new day of my new job? I did my best to jump from the window silently as I can so I could avoid her. My ears were already tired from her blasting nerve wrecking voice. I sometimes imagine as she shouts at me, I could have just strangled her.
“ID please?”
“Oh, I do not have one yet since it is my first day but here are my work documents. Would that suffice?” I replied as I grabbed a brown envelope from my bag and handed it to the guard. He stared at me for a few seconds, up and down before taking the envelope from my hand harshly and scanning the contents of the envelope. “Just great, what an asshole, you don’t have to look at me that way” I whispered to myself feeling irritated. “Hmm… Alright, put your bag now on the baggage scanner please” He finally said handing back my envelope without even looking at me. I put back the envelope inside my bag and placed my black medium sized shoulder bag neatly on the moving conveyor. I got this back on a thrift store for $2, if I did not buy this I might be using my old backpack. As I walked past the body scanner, I grabbed my bag and started heading towards the elevator. I could feel a couple sets of eyes staring right at my soul. Like yes, I know my bag looks like shit, I am wearing faded red stilettos, my skirt was not ironed enough and my white polo inside my blazer looks more like dirty white. Not white. Now I am starting to see myself, getting fired already before I could even sniff the mint from my first crisp salary because I looked too ‘unprofessional’ for the company already.
Once the elevator opened, I walked inside together with 3 other guys and a woman. I’ll admit… I do not know how to use an elevator so I let one of the guys operate the buttons so I could see how you are supposed to do it. As I observed him doing it, I noticed that he pressed 12th floor. Bingo! That’s where I am supposed to go. Guess I’ll just walk out with him. The elevator door closes, no one’s talking and everyone’s minding their own business. The one guy’s chewing a gum, the other one’s wearing an earphones but you could hear a little bit of whatever he is listening to and the guy who pressed the elevator buttons kept looking at his watch again and again; tapping his right foot repeatedly on the floor. I guess we are both running late. The woman who was with us grabbed a neatly stapled couple of papers inside her bag and started analyzing whatever she is reading. I decided to get my phone from my bag so I could entertain myself while waiting before my ass get kicked in this toxic environment when suddenly the elevator lights started flickering and making these weird loud noises.
“Oh fuck, this can’t be! For another time?! Come on! I am running late! I thought this was already fixed?! What are we gonna do then?! Wait for another couple of minutes?! Or an hour? Guess what?! Fuck you!” The man who kept looking at his watch screamed while looking at the CCTV of the elevator on the corner. I slid back my phone inside my bag and gently pressed my index and middle finger on my side temple, trying to calm myself down. “Hey man, obviously we can’t do anything about this. Can you just please shut the fuck up?” the man who’s chewing a gum suddenly blurted out. The man who has a watch was about to pull his collar off when suddenly the elevator started falling down and we could see the number going down from 8 to 7 to 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
And then basement.
I was hardly breathing while I was holding tight to a metal bar behind me attached to the wall when suddenly the elevator door opened. We stood in shock as we stare outside the door, and all we could see was a dark hallway, lights buzzing and we could hear faint rustling noises. “Guess we have to take the stairs then and try a working fucking elevator. Damn it.” The watch guy said. “Can you see any stairs? It’s too dark” I asked but no one answered. Guess it’s true, I really do have a low fucking voice and now no one could even hear me that much. Finally, the woman with us stepped out a little bit, peeked her head out leaving her left foot inside the elevator. “I… I don’t see any stairs. I guess we have to wa-“ “What?! We can’t hear you, raise your damn voice woman!” The frustrated guy shouted. I wonder how much salary does this guy get from his work here that he has to stick even though the elevator’s shitty and here he is blasting his arse off to everybody.
“I said… I… Do… Not… See… Any… Elevators… I guess we have to wait for the elevator to work!” The woman shouted back and you could see her jaw clenching but most of her face was covered with her long thick black wavy layered hair so only 1/4 of her face could be seen.
The guy just shooked his head in frustration and started cursing towards the CCTV again, when suddenly the elevator made another huge loud noise and the door shutted so quick…
So quick that the woman who has this long black hair managed to put her right foot inside but… But her hair…
Half of it was caught up.
“Help!!! Help!!! Does anybody has scissors?! Please please please!” She started screaming in a panicked voice while trying to pull her hair.
“Oh fuck! Let me see!” the watch guy cursed and started going through his bag while the other guys too.
I am starting to hypervintilate, oh shit shit shit. What am I supposed to do? Her crying panicked voice, the tension… I could not think properly. I reached out for my bag to open it and damn it! I got nothing!
‘BANG!’ suddenly the elevator moved in a sudden quick phase making a tugged crunching noise.
All of us… Stared at the woman in disbelief, all we could hear was pure deafening silence, ears ringing, heavy breathes, the tumble of her body falling down, her blood splattering everywhere, her faint moaning noises and all we could see was her mouth trying to move up and down… Her bare face… So bare that you could see nerves, snapped muscles and bones inside.
‘Ding!’ the elevator door opened and here we are at the ground floor.
“What the heck?!” A woman screamed as the back of the body dropped in front of her after the elevator door opened. Mouth gaping, eyes looking directly towards her, bleeding out from her face. A pool of blood was starting to form under her neck area. People started gathering outside the elevator staring at the body, some of them called an ambulance. The 3 guys were frozen on their position, one of them has their hands behind his head with a total shock expression. Surprisingly, the woman very slowly tried to stood up and started mumbling. “Ple-… Please… He-lp… Me… I… I have… Work… To… Do… Ple-… Plea… Please” she mumbled as she walked outside the elevator, walking in a dragging way, blood still pouring out.
As we followed her, she suddenly dropped dead on the floor making choking noises. After a few gasps…
There she is, laying on the floor. Eyes opened. Lost all of her head skin. Mumbling “I still have to live” as her last words.
One thing I know, after that incident there is… Oh wait. Something caught my attention. I noticed it before for weeks already I guess but I kept dismissing it since I think it’s not that important and I have work to do but this time I have to check it out. So I stood up, patted the back of my skirt and walked towards it. I am guessing, someone left their black shirt here maybe? It is shining a little bit, I wonder what it is? I bent down, picked it up making the thing shine more from the flickering lights. My hands started to feel warm, I tried to blink repeatedly so I could analyze what the fuck I am holding.
And oh…
Three moles…
A little bit of freckles…
Thick brown lips…
Long black wavy hair…
I cannot believe it.
I covered my mouth in shock, felt my finger tips passed through some weird stringy sensation, I stared at whatever I am holding again. “I cannot believe it, why would anyone leave their head skin out here! Seriously? What a sicko!” I exclaimed, shook my head having that ‘weird feeling’ again of strong wind passing through my cheeks into my mouth. I dropped the object again and started walking towards where I sat earlier. I felt like I did a huge effort just to get up. I wonder why does it smells like blood in here and why do they avoid going here? Don’t they want to see me? I don’t think there is anything wrong myself right? I sat down again, leaned my back on the wall and whispered “How I wish I could change my polo and blazer. It felt so warm and wet. I don’t like it” and tried to close my eyes.
But fuck! I cannot close my damn eyes properly! Hard to do! I wonder what does the elevator person wants to tell me?