THE ELEVATOR GAME

INTRODUCTION BEFORE THE MAIN STORY

The Elevator Game is an urban legend that originated from South Korea and Japan.

It is said to be a ritual that involves pressing the buttons on an elevator for specific floors in a specific sequence.

When done properly, the elavator will open up to alternate dimension different from the one humanity lives in.

Those that are to play the game are warned to ignore The Woman On The Fifth Floor.

If the game isn't done properly and in accordance with the rules and warnings then well…

…You can only blame yourself for whatever happens to you.

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"Oh please, everyone knows that shit's not real." 

"It IS real." 

"Suck it up Clare, it's a made up story," I said brushing my hair by my friend's walled up mirror in her house.

"Then I dare you to do it." 

Looking up at my friend from since 5th grade, I knew she was angry, she hardly dared anyone.

But I didn't think what she believed in was possible in real life— maybe in the movies but not in real life.

I flung the hair brush carelessly and folded my arms across my breasts, "Fine. I'll do this elevator game and I'll come back and proof to you it's a myth." 

That was how I got myself into this mess.

—--------------

The lights of the apartment lobby blinked three times and I glanced at my phone: 

11:47 p.m. 

Perfect timing. 

The building was silent, all its tenants were asleep. 

My left hand dove into the pocket of my jeans as I pulled out the printed instructions.

"This is just a stupid game," I said to myself aloud then lowered my voice to avoid an echo.

I didn't want to alert the security guard or the landlord, making use of elevators after 11pm to the dot was prohibited in this apartment.

Landlords and their obsessive pile of strange rules.

"I'll prove to everyone this is fake."

The rules were simple, I just had to press the elevator button in the order it was written on paper and then on the fifth floor I'll meet a woman.

And all I had to do was ignore her.

Stepping into the elevator, I rolled my shoulders as the doors closed with a soft thud then looked down at the instructions in the paper.

Step one: Press the button for the fourth floor.

Sighing, I pressed number 4 on the wall in front of me and the elevator hummed, beginning it's ascend.

"This is going to feel stupid." 

The doors opened on the fourth floor. 

It was empty but I didn't step out— the rules were to stay in the elavator during the entire process.

Outside it was dark of course, the fourth floor was reserved to be rented only to the elderly and they all had a common impulse to turn off their lights often, especially at night. 

I read the next line.

Step two: Go to the sixth floor.

Wanting to get this over with, I pressed the button for the sixth floor immediately.

As the elevator went up again, I thought I felt a chill.

Cold in summer? 

Now that was weird but I shook it off, seeing the doors slide open and my breath got held up in my nasal track.

The hallway was dark and let me tell you, that was not normal, not for this floor.

Plus, the overhead lights were turning on and off repeatedly without stopping for a second.

It was quiet as well, except for the faint sound of... breathing?

I shook my head, "Get a grip."

I wasn't going to let this buffed up story get to me.

On to the next line.

Step three: Return to the second floor.

The elevator jerked and I almost lost my footing but held on to the wall as it moved.

The hum was louder this time and I was at the second floor really quick, faster than how it normally felt like it would take.

Step four: Ascend to the tenth floor.

The button lit up as I pressed it, and I watched as the numbers climbed. 

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened to reveal... 

Nothing. 

Just the same, hallway I sometimes went to. 

A sort of relief washed over me and I let out the breath I might as well have been holding since the sixth floor.

"See?" I told myself and no one in particular.

"It's all fake."

Step five: Descend to the fifth floor.

My hand hovered over the button, Clare said this was the important step. 

The fifth floor was where SHE was supposed to appear. 

Pressing the button, the elevator shuddered as it went down with the walls vibrating.

The lights inside started their own blinking pattern and the soft hum turned into a groan.

The doors slid open.

She was there.

Quickly, I closed my eyes then bent my head before opening them again.

Immediately, I pressed number 10 on the wall, anywhere so I could escape this entity.

But it was too late.

I could see her bare feet get into the elevator and I felt my heart drop in a ditch dive.

This was real.

I kept my eyes to the floor, refusing to look at her, remembering the warnings.

Do not speak. Do not look at her.

I could feel the fabric of whatever clothe she wore on my bare shoulders, she was standing close.

"Going up?" 

I squeezed the paper in my hands, breathing shallowly.

"Why won't you answer me?" she asked.

Her breath was brushing against my ear so that meant…

SHE WAS LOOKING AT ME.

'What do I do? What do I do What should I do?'

I was asking myself the question but I had no answer to it.

Suddenly, the elevator lurched upward, throwing me off balance. 

I caught myself against the wall, again, this time with my heart beating, pounding in my chest.

When the elevator stopped, the doors opened and all I could see was a pitch-black hallway.

More like Vanda black.

This wasn't the tenth floor.

"Wrong floor," she said, digging her tongue into the hole in my left ear.

I jerked but before I could react at all, she grabbed me by the hair, yanking me backward.

Hard.

Pain exploded across my scalp as she pulled me over to her side of the elevator and slammed my head into the wall.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

It didn't feel like she was going to stop.

Blood was running down my forehead, warm and into eyes, blinding me.

It hurt badly as she kept on bashing my head again and again on the wall. 

Then the elevator jolted violently, throwing both of us to the floor.

I couldn't even make a sound as my ribs connected to the wall with force.

They said if you ever said a word, ever made a sound in her presence, she would kill you.

I managed to open my eyes and stand up but when I did, she was gone.

And so was the elevator.

I was standing in a desolate landscape, with a red and black sky hanging lowly over me like it was about to collapse any moment soon.

The air was foggy so I couldn't see well.

'This must be the alternate dimension Clare talked about,' I thought to myself.

Stumbling forward on my weak legs, I felt the unevenness of the ground beneath me.

It was littered with sharp, jagged stones that pinched the soles ofy feet through my high heel boots as I walked.

The fog ahead began to take up shapes then I heard a low growl come from behind me.

Turning, I watched a glowing red eyed creature with a hunched and twisted body move out of the fog.

Its skin was a gray, and when it opened its mouth, I saw three rows of sharp looking teeth.

Three rows. THREE.

If that thing caught me I would never survive it so I ran.

I heard more growls and realised there were many of its kind.

I ran, not even knowing were I was going, not knowing how long I keep up the run with how badly my body hurt.

The creatures chased me, snarling louder and louder as they began gaining on me.

Running on the landscape was another problem, the ground was cracking open at every turn I took.

I leapt over them one after the other with the creatures still pursing me.

A sudden crack under my feet happened to fast for me to react and I fell, twisting my right ankles as I rolled on the floor to avoid falling into the deep chasm the crack created.

Throwing my head back, I screamed into the foggy atmosphere, my foot had been twisted all the way to the back.

A creature caught up to me and sank it's teeth legs into my left leg causing me to scream again.

The others were pawing their claws faster on the ground, so close to reaching me and I was still fighting off the one attacking my leg.

Then they closed in and jumped.

Suddenly, the creature on my leg jumped off me and the others sprinted past me.

All of them started whimpering, knocking their heads on the floor before running away.

I looked at them surprised and turned my neck around, then I saw why.

She was crawling towards me.

What I saw first was her hair because of the fog.

Then I saw…

Floating hands, feet with no ankles or legs attached to it and a round thin layer of flesh with a huge hole in it but no eyes, nose and mouth was coming towards me.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!"

She lurched at me, pulling on my right foot to drag me away, unknowingly snapping my foot back in place.

Using my other leg, my left leg, I kicked at the side of her donut looking head, groaning as blood seeped out from my wound.

My kick must have been strong because she fell a sizeable distance away from me.

I couldn't use my legs so I crawled.

I had crawled for almost 3 minutes so I turned, looking back, expecting her to be right behind me but she had only walked up a few inches.

It seemed she wasn't fast in this dimension of hers.

My knees were starting to burn and were bleeding over from the sharp rocks when I saw a shape forming in the fog.

I gasped, feeling tears rush down my cheeks when I saw it was the elevator.

Its doors were open and light was spilling out into the red cloudy fogged place I was in.

The woman from the fifth floor was gaining on me but I pushed myself harder, then lunged inside the elevator.

Risking it all, I jumped on my left foot and slammed the button for the first floor.

The doors closed just as she reached them, I saw then that she had claws and heard them scraping against the metal in anger.

The elevator began to move with the lights turning on and off, and I collapsed to the floor.

—------------

I'm afraid of elevators now. I can't get in one again.

I never visited Clare and she never visited me—- I'm not sure what has become of her or if something happened to

her.

Maybe she tried the elevator game and wasn't as lucky as me.

I don't know.

But I know I'll never be able to use any elevator again safely.

I looked at her, I saw her.

And I screamed.

I broke all the rules and warnings, and I know…

If I ever enter an elevator again, she'll kill me.