The lift

A stalled lift of a lifetime

It was ten when she lasted look at her watch. She stared at the lift and tapped the tip of her shoes impatiently. Surely the lift must have taken too long to arrived. She folded her arms and checked the call button a third time, it was lit, indicating that the lift has been called and it would arrive soon. However, she has been waiting for ten minutes and she was starting to get irritated. She bended forward and pushed the button repeatedly, hoping that the lift would hurry up. She turned back and saw the construction that was being carried out at the stairs on both ends of her apartment. He shook her head in disagreement and wondered how would an evacuation happen if there was a fire at this point in time. Her eyes met with the yellow lines that cordoned the area off and the black 'Keep out' on the tape itself. Her eyebrows conjoined and she gritted her teeth in anger. It was ten at night and she had just returned home from work, it was a stressful day packed with meetings and presentations back to back. To add on, her bosses and colleges did little to help the situation, instead they bombarded her with orders and requests and she could not take it any further. She looked at the lift once more and cursed the very existence of it. She wanted a hot bath, a long soak in her bathtub, to wash away the stress of the day, to..

"Ding."

The lift came and an orange light washed over her. She stared into the empty lift and muttered under her breathe, Finally. As she walked in, she pressed the button to the eighth floor and heaved a sigh of relief. It was close, she could feel it, the pores of her skin unclogging as she began to soak in the tub but that was only possible if this lift would reach her floor. She stood at the left corner of the lift and waited for the lift to begin its ascend. She closed her eyes and remembered the events that transpired today. The morning meeting was terrible, the afternoon one was worst and the last one was hellish. The directors were morons and her bosses were just lap dogs to them. Whiffing their asses as they barked up the corporate ladder, whereas she was just a simple, hang on a moment, she looked at the lift and realised that there was a bright red one, staring back at her. The lift has not moved at all. Finding it strange, she looked to the button and wondered if she had not pressed her floor's button in midst of her anger, but it was lit, bright red, looking right back at her. She found it extremely strange and gritted her teeth. She took a deep breathe and pressed the button once more and shut her eyes and waited for the ascend to begin.

It was another ten minutes when she started to freak out. She was hot and sweaty and the air in the lift was feverishly humid at this point. No longer was it not moving but she believed the lift must have malfunctioned. She panicked and reached for the alarm button and held down with all her might. The deafening blast of the alarm rang and she waited with bated breathe, this day cannot get any worse. She released her finger and repeated this process again. Slowly but surely, someone was to hear her and call for maintenance and she would be saved then.

 

Her shirt was soaked with sweat at this point and she has already undone the top two buttons of her blouse. The lift was spinning and she was running short of breathe. Her finger returned to the button once more and she heard the alarm again. Her mind began to wander as she thought of the people that were outside, each in their own homes, sitting on the couches, snacking on chips and watching their favourite programmes on television, laughing, enjoying. Her mind began to wander and she wondered if it is due to the construction that the alarm was being drowned out. She cursed her luck, cursed her colleges and bosses, cursed this lift and its cramp and tight

Then a bright light came through and the sweet air from outside came pouring in, she mustered the strength from her legs and ran out, gasping for air and the thoughts of freedom. Once outside, she punched her arms to the air and screamed at the top of her voice. At this point, she did not care if she had woken others, she was just glad to be free. She looked around the floor and realised that it was the eighth floor, she was close to home, she could hear her tub call to her. It was time. She picked up her items and walked forward only to be pushed back by an unseen force. Then, she felt a sharp blow to her stomach and the area felt warm and wet. She clutched the area and raised her hand to her face and saw blood smeared all over. She coughed and gasped for air, turning around to find what has struck her but there was no one in sight. She choked on her own saliva and her knees grew weak. The blood loss at this point has made her giddy. She reached forward and struggled to crawl to the nearest apartment for help. Every movement she made sent jolts of pain down her body and her body grew heavier by the second. The pain from her stomach became intensely stronger and she felt weaker, her vision blurred and she wondered if she was to die, she wondered if she was to..

 

The bright light hurt her eyes when she opened them. She realised she was standing and she was alone at the lift lobby once more.  She reached for her stomach and felt for a wound but there was none there. She checked for traces of blood or sweat, anything that related to the previous feeling she had but there was none. She looked at her watch once more and realised that it was ten. Ten in the night once more. She looked at the lift and looked to the button, she had called for the lift and it was taking its time once more. She felt shivers went through her body as she remembered what happened. She took and a deep breathe and look to the staircases once more and wondered if she could take them instead. Upon walking to the stairs, she realised that she could not pass for the passage way was blocked off completely.  She paced around the entrance and wondered if there was another way up to her apartment when

"Ding."

She looked at the lift door open and she scolded herself for scaring herself as such. It was just a bad imagination and she should not dwell upon it. She walked into the lift and pressed the button to the eight floor and closed her eyes.

She was scared at this point. She reached to her stomach once more and felt for blood once again. There was none, just as it was when she came back to the lobby once again. Her eyes widen as she began to panic, this is not happening, why is this happening, how is this happening? She looked to her watch and it showed ten o clock in return. She clutched her chest and felt light headed. She looked once again and the lift doors opened again. She wondered if it would be the same as before. She being trapped in the lift, the pain, the blood, the watch. She paused and looked again. She was on the floor, with a burning pain at her stomach once more. There was blood all over the floor and she looked at her watch only to find it missing from her wrist. She looked around and saw her watch in the distance, leaving for another corner but on the wrist of another person. She looked at her wound for the third time and felt her eyes grow heavy again before she slumped down again.

It was ten again and she walked to the staircase and looked closely at the construction work only to find that it was not construction but a police barricade. She looked up and saw two police officers up on the stairs holding a notebook, making notes of the crime scene.

"Hey, just our luck eh?"

"Yeah. I was just going to sleep to."

"Yeah, but poor lady, stabbed to death, once, in the stomach."

"Yup, that's what autopsy said. One clean stab. They believed the weapon to be a knife."

"A kitchen knife. Anyway, they reported that the victim's watch was taken from her."

"A watch?"

"Yeah. A branded one too. Poor soul, killed over a watch."

As she overheard this, it all made sense now, she was killed as she was returning home. It was all a recurrence of what has happened over time. She felt sick and looked to the lift once more. The door was closed. In her mind, she tried to grappled with the information at hand, it was so unreal, like a horror story gone wrong. Gone so wrong. Gone so..

"Hey, why are you wearing a lady's watch?"

Her eyes widened to the police officers and she saw it. She saw her watch. She saw it on the wrist of the police officer before her.

"Oh this? Damn man, this is my wife's. Must have taken the wrong watch as I rushed from home."

"Hey, is that lipstick? The red stains there."

"Its finger polish, she must have gotten some on it this morning."

Her heart skipped a beat as she heard all this. She reached forward wanting to scream, wanting to seek justice, wanting to kill. Then as she moved forward, she heard it once again.

"Ding."

Author's Note

Second story and it is the start of a longer chain to come. Hope you all enjoy it. Please give good feedback!

Reviews

[Not here]

I like this story. You could break up the paragraphs a little more and make it more appeasing to the eye, but i enjoyed reading. keep it up :)

[Aiben Aero]

The basic setting and premise of the story are good, the idea of a restless spirit or entity in an endless loop of denial and pain is generally frightening to most people. You kept it short but informative, I hoped I'd learn more about the main character but that's just what I prefer.

Now there are a few things that don't add up to me in the story, the first is why was she stuck in the elevator? It may have added some suspense in the beginning but when we learned the whole story that scene didn't seem to fit with the rest. The second was when you showed the murderer to be the police officer and the problem in this is why would he kill her? Did he want to rob her? If so why did he take her watch only? Did he really hate this woman and decided that he wants to kill her? What I'm trying to say is that when you gave the identity of the killer without mentioning anything as to why he did it, it brings up so many questions that we readers wonder about which takes us out of the story's mood, I think it would have been better if you left the murderer unknown and focused and the torment the main character is facing.

Your writing is ok, you should try giving your stories to someone else to read so he can tell you about your grammar and spelling errors, preferably someone experienced in writing or with the language.

[Robert Parlange]

Good story. It has a strong plot and the suspense builds.
There are some spelling and grammatical errors and you might want to work on the formatting.
The story itself is strong and holds the reader’s attention.
Good work.

[DavinDei]

Haha thanks!