Behind Elevator Doors

By Alicia Maxwell

I still have nightmares about that day.
I can still see the woman standing outside my house with that creepy smile stretching across her face.
I still hear the elevator sound; it haunts me in my dreams. That day before I even pressed the button, I felt the chills run down my body. Now I know it was a warning sign. It’s too late anyways.
I already played the game.
“Can you press six for me please, darling?”
The voice of an elegant woman disturbed my thoughts and nervous chills ran down my body. Breathing out, I kept my eyes closed and leaned to my right, pressing six. My shaking finger steadied against the cold buttons.
The elevator moved up.
“Ding.”
I felt a shift in the elevator.
“Oh! And one more thing.”
I opened my eyes, turning to face her.
The woman was tall and heavy with loose, dark hair curtaining the sides of her chubby, dark chocolate face.
Her head was tilted in a way that made it look detached. Blood started to drip from her mouth, pooling at her feet.
“Don’t be scared, darling. You can talk to me.”
What the fuck.
She seemed to fill up the room and it wasn't just because of her weight. The air started to feel heavy and suffocating. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes and my breathing got quicker. I stepped back, circling around her.
Shit I should’ve just stayed home.
Sweat built from the roots of my dark hair down to the tiny kisses of my pink lips. I felt the oxygen being sucked out of my body. Her face lit up in excitement, as if she just sniffed crack. Her pupils went wide and her body expanded. I fell to my knees clutching my throat trying to draw back air into my body. Tears clouded my vision. My body shook uncontrollably. I was losing strength in my limbs. I saw my reflection on the elevator door.
Don’t go out like this.
Get up. RUN.
Scared for my life, I gathered all the energy I could. Pushing off on my heels, I reached for the elevator button. The doors closed in her face.
Whew.
Feeling luck siding with me for the first time that night, I let my body relax against the steel elevator walls and gulped in air. I just want to get back to my room.
“Ding.”
Eyes wide open, I threw myself against the middle wall. Her eyes were bloodshot and bull-like. Her body heaved an angry radiation that filled the closed in space. I felt whatever strength I had in me before evaporating. A hand dug into my hair, lifting my body off the ground like a rag doll. We stared in competition, my eyes shadowed by fear.
I felt a wind whip against my face as a painful pressure slammed me up against the frozen, silver elevator walls. With the metal railing pressing hard into my stomach, a scream clawed itself up from my throat before being shoved back down by a hard blow to the left side of my head.
Why is she doing this to me? Why the hell would anyone ever want to play this damn game? Sinking to the floor, my head fell in my lap and my eyes rolled back. I felt myself losing consciousness.
A piercing scream escaped her lips, threatened to shatter my skull and break through the metal walls. I covered my ears and shut my eyes tight, but the scream still seeped through the space between my hands and ears, forcing me to suffer even more.
“Ding.”