Urban Tales - The Elevator

The elevator squeaked and droned, as if annoyed at being woken up from its slumber. I could hear that annoyance in its voice, as it rose up angrily and noisily, menacing its way up through the free space, that was its shackles.

‘Shit! This is gonna take forever. I wish I could just take the stairs!’, I cursed to myself. But after the accident that had broken my leg and weakened my knees, my doctor had advised me to avoid taking stairs as much as possible.

And thirteen floors of stairs was ‘much’!!

Finally, the elevator stopped its ascent, and, with a speed that rivaled the saunter of a one-legged tortoise, opened up its doors to reveal the most beautiful face that I had ever seen in my life.

‘Hello?? Are you ok?’

Her words brought me out of my daze and I mumbled something in return. She in turn looked at my crutch and gave a sympathetic smile, forming that perfect curve with those wonderful lips. I dropped my gaze, lest she thought of me as some pervert, and stepped into the elevator.

As the doors closed, I could feel the air around me getting a little warmer and my heart started to beat a little faster. A drop of sweat appeared on my forehead, as if put there, magically, to complete the picture of bewitchment on my face. I looked at her face to check if she had sensed my discomfort, but she seemed oblivious to it. The elevator doors closed, and in its characteristic nonchalance, it started its lumber to the pits. Meanwhile the silence between us grew heavier and heavier. I was thinking of some witty line to break the ice, when suddenly she spoke up.

‘I thought I was the only one working so late. You new to this company? I have never seen you around before’.

Well I did have a mathematical answer for that. Each floor in our company had about two hundred people working in various shifts, with almost sixty percent of them thirty-something men like me. And with a total of seventeen floors in this building, there were roughly two thousand faces like me. There were just too many faces to look at, leave alone remembering them.

But somehow, I thought giving a mathematical answer was not the best of ways to make a first impression. So, instead, I chose to give a non-committal reply.

‘Well. I guess we might have crossed paths before’.

I thought it was a pretty good attempt and it sounded witty too! But she just nodded her head and turned her face to the other side. Meanwhile, the elevator made its customary stop at the twelfth floor. It had been almost two years since this new office was built, and by now, people were convinced that this elevator had some defect in it, which made it to stop at every floor of the building.

‘It’s not safe to take this elevator. Especially at night times, she whispered slowly.
Her sudden change in demeanor caught me off guard.

‘Do you know it could even prove to be fatal?’

‘Gulp.. What is she talking about?’, I started feeling a little nervous.

‘About two years back, one of the employees who was working very late, took this same elevator and when it was somewhere at the ninth floor, the cable snapped and the elevator just plunged down and hit the floor. The next morning, they found the body. The whole face was mangled up and was barely recognizable. Ever since that, a lot of people believe that this elevator is haunted…………... What do you think?’

If she was trying to scare me, she was doing a pretty good job. I looked at her neck, to see if there were any marks or something. I am not sure why, but somehow I started to believe that this elevator was indeed haunted.

‘May be’, I managed to feign a composed response.

She again turned her face to the front. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. We were approaching the ninth floor now. She looked at me now and then looked at the display panel. The number 9 was displayed in blood red….

I could feel the hair on my back stand up. I was sweating profusely now.

‘Are you getting afraid?’, she asked me in a tone which made it sound more like a threat than a concern.

‘No no. I don’t believe in ghosts.’

‘Really? How come? For all you know that ghost could be standing right next to you’.

She said it with such sincerity that I couldn’t help but feel scared, my nerves tingling with apprehension. I closed my eyes and started praying to god. I did not want to spend any more time in this elevator.

‘Open your eyes. We have reached the ground fl….Hello?? Where did you go?............Oh my god!! You are...??’

I opened my eyes and much to my astonishment, I was greeted by the sight of my own cubicle. I looked to my right and the girl was not there. Somehow, in the split second between hearing her last words and opening my eyes, she had vanished. But it was over now.

'Just like Ground Hog Day', I mumbled to myself as the reality of the situation sunk in.

I looked at my monitor and it stared back at me, angrily, as if annoyed at having been deserted. Having accepted the bitter truth, I stepped out of the elevator. And with each step that I took, the memory of the girl began to erase itself, cell by cell, until I reached my cubicle when the memory faded completely. The monitor was calling me now. I had to test my code. I had a deadline to meet. I sat on the chair and switched on my monitor.


Epilogue:

I had been working very late. I was supposed to finish testing my code. The clock on my monitor reminded me that it was waaay past bed time. No wonder I was felling all lazed up. I decided to retreat for the day and get back to the boxing the next day.

‘Nothing like getting punched by one’s work!’, I muttered to myself.

I shut off my monitor and made myself down to the elevator lobby. I could not hear or see anyone else in the building.

‘Just my luck’, I thought to myself as I called the Elevator.

The elevator squeaked and droned, as if annoyed at being woken up from its slumber. I could hear that annoyance in its voice, as it rose up angrily and noisily, menacing its way up through the free space, that was its shackles.

‘Shit! This is gonna take forever. I wish I could just take the stairs!’, I cursed myself. But after the accident that had broken my leg and weakened my knees, my doctor had advised me to avoid taking stairs as much as possible.

And thirteen floors of stairs was ‘much’.

Finally, the elevator stopped its ascent, and, with a speed that rivaled the saunter of a one-legged tortoise, opened up its doors to reveal the ugliest looking guy that I had ever seen in my life.

‘Hi. Going down?’…………..


Author’s Note:
For those of you who are wondering what is so special about this post, go back and read it again… this time, very carefully and tell me, is there actually a ghost in the elevator?