PART 2 : FALLING

Do read Falling part 1

Her eyes were tightly shut, ensuring she saw nothing. She kept it closed, both hands placed on her ears, not wanting to hear anything she didn’t want to listen to. But the closing and opening door made sure she knew it was her destination—thud, thud, thud.

She wanted to know if this was a dream, screaming in her head, ‘Wake up, wake up,’ but she did not. She did not cry hard, thinking that if there was something, anything, it would find her. So, keeping it to herself, she curled up in the corner of the elevator, wanting to wake up, as if this were a dream the nightmare kept haunting her until her conscious finally gave up.

The light still flickered; the elevator door remained open. She regained her consciousness and suddenly became aware of where she was again.

It was pitch black outside her elevator, as if she was in a hole. She sees the family staring at her, standing the same way they stood while she was taking the lift. Their faces were swollen, as if they had been crying for days. However, the corners of their lips were still stretched into smiles—they smiled and smiled with their empty, dead eyes, their eyes. There was no sound but were still crying, the family looking at her with those faces, she couldn’t move too shocked to scream; fear ran down her spine. A whisper, ‘she’s here,’ caught her attention, and she turned to look. Nobody was there. She quickly turned to look at the family, but they were now gone.

But outside was no longer dark; it was a beautiful alley with rooms on both sides. It resembled her apartment but was cleaner and more beautiful her favourite song ‘lagja galey’ was playing in the background. She thought she was home again and whatever happened till now was in her head. There was fresh garden smell coming from the alley calling her to relax and sleep for a while, she felt safe now, safe to step outside the hell hole and find her room and take a deep nap because probably the stress was making her go insane, she thought of searching for a psychologist after she takes a long nap on her bed.

And in a day and a half, she, for the first time, stepped outside the elevator.

The atmosphere remained eerie the presence of no one would make her uncomfortable but after the incident she rather not see any human, the absence of the flickering lights, thudding, and those haunting whispers brought her some relief. Beautiful paintings of the sea hung on the walls, fresh flowers had found their way to make the alley beautiful and smell fresh. Even though the initial thought was to run until she finds her room, she was mesmerized by how beautiful an alley could be, straight out of a novel she thought.

As she ventured down the alley in hopes of finding her apartment, the lights suddenly went out at the end of the hall, taking her by surprise.The nightmare was a reality and the dream had brough her back to the nightmare. The lights turned out one by one, blackness coming her way. ‘no’no’no’no’,please plese please she begged she begged to She turned to run; it was black again, nowhere to go except for that one door lit looked like her apartment. She ran towards it, opened it and shut behind her.

Inside, she found the family. They didn’t see her, she was now the ghost to them, she saw the father sharpening a knife while the mom and the son had their hands tied to their backs, crying. She tried to go back, but she couldn’t. She pounded hard to get through, but she couldn’t. The ladies and the kid’s cries became louder, louder, louder, and then came the laughter.

Her heart stopped, and she fell to the ground.

The elevator door opened, and a stranger’s scream brought people around the elevator. They found the body inside it, a girl around the age of 24, eyes wide open as if still terrified of something. Blood oozed from her ears, and the corners of her lips were stretched upwards, as if smiling. Her whole body had changed from purple to pale, the whole elevator smelled piss and death. It was the first of many deaths in the building, the beginning of something sinister and ugly that would gulp the building down. 

One of the strangers in the building surrounding the body of rya saw a shadow leaving the elevator crossing people without notice, only Irtiqa saw it and it saw her too, was it a coincidence or was it beginning of something that was coming to an end.

The shadow finally disappears in the dark alley leaving Irtiqa’s body in chills and a lingering feeling of something bad was upon her.

Do read Falling part 1