Not Scared Anymore

Chapter 1 - Stephanie

The doors closed behind Stephanie with a louder clang than normal. The elevator descended for about 10 seconds, then there was a bang, a jolt, and a nasty grinding noise before the elevator stopped moving. Oh god. Stephanie Halder was alone with a stranger in a broken elevator; all she could think of was how she should have taken the stairs, and if she got this job, she would never take the elevator again. Six flights of stairs would be nothing after a couple weeks.

The man in the elevator with her was trying to push all the buttons he could in hopes something happened. No luck. Stephanie pulled out her cell phone, but there was no signal. Finally, a voice came through the elevator speaker, "Hello, this is security, please stand by while we determine the problem." Ugh.

"Oh, come on." The man said, and he leaned his head against the control panel. He dug his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a phone, but he quickly put it back when he realized he also had no service. He proceeded to bump his forehead against the wall three more times for good measure before he turned to face her. It was then that she noticed he was holding a small potted cactus.

"Well, I guess we're stuck. I hope you aren't late for anything."

Her interview had ended 10 minutes ago. Thank goodness this hadn't happened on her way in. "Nope, just going for lunch."

"Late lunch." He replied, "I think at this point I'd just wait another hour and head home early instead if I could. I have to go back to the office though."

She made a non-committal sound in her throat. She didn't want to seem rude, but the stress of the interview had stolen her appetite earlier in the day, and it was catching up with her. She rarely came downtown anymore, and had been looking forward to a lunch at the little café on the corner, but they would be closed at 3:00, so she had less than half an hour to get there.

"Do you think you can call and ask them what's happening?" she nodded towards the control panel he was blocking.

"I'm not sure. We can try. Maybe this button?" He pushed it but nothing seemed to happen. He jabbed it a few more times then looked at her helplessly. "Well, where do you think we are stuck, at a floor but the doors are broken, or in between the middle of two floors?"

She contemplated this for a moment, "I'm guessing in between two floors. We obviously didn't fall too far, but I think the grinding was caused by unexpectedly overshooting a floor when somebody called it."

"Do you get stuck in elevators frequently to know this?" he looked at her suspiciously, as if she did this on purpose.

"No of course not. I just think that the noises would have been different if it was just a broken door."

"Like silence?"

She nodded. "Exactly. Maybe a high pitched squeal."

"Okay. Want to try and force the door open to see?"

Stephanie sighed. Leave it to a man to try and solve everything with brute force.

"There's a camera up there, don't do anything stupid." She hadn't meant to sound preachy, but this seemed slightly better than saying they might get in trouble.

"It's already broken, how much worse could it get?" he pointed out, before adding, "No, pretend I did not say that, it could get lots worse. Lots and lots worse, but we're not going to talk about it." He looked slightly pale and she was beginning to think he was a bit claustrophobic, but maybe that was just his normal colouring.

Placing his cactus gently in the corner, he got his fingertips into the door and was just starting to pull on it when the speaker blared again.

"Please remain calm. We are fixing the problem as quickly as we can. Please do not pull on the doors." Stephanie hated getting in trouble, and instantly felt like she was back in middle school, getting yelled at for breaking a rule. She groaned, and leaned back against the wall. He straightened up and returned to his place against the opposite wall.