I kept my eyes glued to the descending numbers, my happiness increasing with each floor we reached. I wasn’t the sort that was all tongue-tied around anybody, I simply had no desire to ‘make nice’ since I was tired. The easiest thing for both of us was for me to stay in my little corner, keep a friendly but not ‘inviting’ smile on my face and concentrate on what I was going to do once I got home. I even began humming a little tune in my head to distract me from the soft movements of my fellow passenger.
Lost in my thoughts, a little ‘oh’ of surprise escaped me when the elevator came to a jerky halt. The whining of the elevators gears was eerie and more than a little worrying. The lights flickered on and off, and then back on. My eyes shifted left to look at the button panel. Every button was lit up, and then suddenly went dim.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked slowly turning my head to observe the other passenger. Before the man said anything, the elevator jerked again as if it were trying to lower. It stopped dead. This time the lights went out. The emergency lights barely illuminated the elevator. We were left in a dimly lit, roughly 8”x8” box, and stuck between floors.
My hand immediately pressed the call button. I pressed it, and then tried several more times. There was no sound from the intercom. If this one wasn’t the only one stopped…and there as only a skeleton crew, would anyone respond?
“Um…there’s no answer…I guess…we…uh…we wait.” I said as I finally looked at the man trapped with me. I wasn’t expecting him to come up with a solution. I just didn’t know what else to say. This was just great. Stuck on a damned elevator with no idea of whether someone was coming to help us. I sighed in frustration and pushed a strand of hair from my face. This was not the night I’d planned.
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