Wonderful Idea That Was

Running down the hall, I see the elevator and sprint towards it. I breathlessly reach the doors and press the down button over and over and over and over until it finally opens. Quickly entering, I find the "close door" button and jam it several times as well, then press first floor. The ride seems like it's taking years, and it seems like now's a good time to calm down, and of course I don't and start fidgeting uncontrollably. I can't understand it. My brain hurts trying to figure out how this happened, where I screwed up. How did she find Collingwood? Better yet, how did she find my apartment??

I think back to when I walked into my small home tonight. I saw a silhouette of a person sitting on my mattress. Under different circumstances I would've recognized her immediately. But coming home after a long day of looking for a job, and seeing everyone in town freaking out about completely different things -- I just couldn't wait to get out of the chaos. Who knew such a small town could have so much drama. I thought I was lucky to escape the bad luck that seems to be circulating. Then this. I should've known. She turned, stood up slowly, and with a sigh, she spoke with that arrogant voice of hers. "Now Brilynn," she said, "I thought I'd told you not to go scurrying off again." As soon as I saw her face and heard that, I turned right around and -- what's the saying? Hauled ass? out of there.

Christ sake this longest elevator trip I've been on. I was only on the 3rd floor, it should've taken no more than 30 seconds max to reach ground level... Then I look at the floor indicator. And see the number on the screen going up. 8... 9... 10... 11... 12... 14..... It stopped there. The doors didn't open for a second, and I frantically pressed the first floor button again. It didn't light up. I tried the second, it didn't light up either. Neither did the third, or fourth, or fifth, or six or any of them. Not even the close door button. That wasn't even the worst part. The whole floor was pitch back, and the elevator lights were starting to flicker. Curling into a ball I tried not to panic. Breathe, breathe, breathe..

Suddenly I had a pleasant thought. I'm hallucinating. Or dreaming. I mean think about it. Seeing her here and now this? It's surreal. So I decided it was not, in fact, happening. This made me feel much better, and gave me enough courage to exit the elevator. Whether or not this is real, there's has to be stairs somewhere right? Slowly making my way out of the elevator, I timidly tip away from the only light I can pick up at all. I hear the doors close behind me, and turn to see the light disappear. If this is real, there goes my only chance of quick escape. On the other hand, she most likely would've thought I'd go to ground level and try to escape out the front of the building, it'll take a while for her to realize I'm still in here. Turning back around, I start my endeavor.

Sometime later I make contact with something hard, like wood. I give it a once-over with my hands and find a knob. Opening it and reaching inside, I feel two objects. One, hallelujah, is a box of matches. Striking one, I see the second object. It's the head of a doll. It looks familiar, like part of something I might've own as a child, if my mother ever let me have one. Then a picture flashes in my mind and I stifle a scream. One day when I decided out of the blue to get a newspaper, it had an article headed, "Curse of the Six!" It was about a little girl who had died, and found later in a lake. They showed a photo of a six year old girl. She was holding a doll.

That is when I really started to flip my shit.
Stumbling backwards, I fall down what seem to be stairs, and tumble down about a flight until I reach a door. My momentum  causes me to slam into it. I roll out of the dark and into the blinding light, shielding my eyes I get up with my body aching in all the wrong places. Blinded, I scrambled to get out of there. I smack into a person and don't bother to apologize as I hear them say, "Dude what the hell?"

What the hell indeed.