Your eyes dart around nervously as the rest of your body remains as motionless as a statue. Could there be someone... or some*thing*... riding the elevator with you? No matter how many times you scan the enclosed space you don’t see anything out of the ordinary but you can’t shake off the feeling that you’re not alone.
You adjust your polo shirt. You swear someone had just groped your body just now. It had been quick but uncomfortably thorough, like the expert hands of a corrections officer giving a prisoner a patdown with the excuse of checking for contraband when he actually meant to check what the new fish was packing below his clothing.
“...Heh.”
Did someone just chuckle? No, it had to be your imagination.
The elevator wasn’t moving. It was small and the airflow was terribly oppressing in this enclosed space. You were already a bit sweaty when you entered but now the back of your shirt was getting soaked.
According to the little display above the doors, you were on the correct floor. But the doors remained shut.
“(Why won’t the doors open? Is the power out? But the lights are on...)” Your thoughts raced. You took a quick glance at the panel on the side and saw two emergency buttons. One of them was for forcing the doors open and the other one had a speaker label on it. You pressed the former.
A loud whirring sound was heard. The doors vibrated slightly but when the whirring ceased the doors hadn’t opened a single inch.
“They’re stuck?” You sighed in annoyance. Worst of all there didn’t seem to be any way to force them open from inside.
“I’m sure having an unlucky day...”
“Oh, you can bet your ass it will be!” A mischievous male voice whispered in your ear.
“Wha...?” You turned around but once again, you were clearly the only person in the elevator.
You didn’t know if it was the lack of ventilation or someone had cranked the thermostat all the way up but the temperature in the small room was steadily rising. You removed your black cap momentarily to brush off the sweat on your forehead.
“Why not remove your shirt too? At this rate you’re going to ruin your clothes! What’s more, you should be naked... just like I am! Heheh.” You felt a naughty hand reaching up your shirt to feel your abs.
“Seriously, who’s there?!” You asked around you but only silence greeted you back. Just great, is the heat making you have auditory hallucinations? You were the kind of guy who didn’t tolerate being laughed at and mocked and you were having the sensation someone was right there with you doing precisely that in silence.
“(Calm down John Thomas, just ignore it)” You thought to yourself. “(Let’s try calling for help.)” You pressed the button with the speaker label on it.
You thought the button would put you in an emergency hotline or something, but...
“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” You said to the intercom.
“Woah! The elevator can talk now!” A jovial male voice answered.
“Err... Who is this?”
“You can call me Cyan, Mr. Elevator! I reside here in Floor 12+1!”
“You reside here... You mean you’re a Stonewood student?”
“That’s right!” The student sounded enthusiastic. “It’s so great that you decided to come alive, Mr. Elevator. There aren’t enough cursed items around here!”
Cursed items? What is this student talking about?
“Mmmm, I’m sorry to... uh... disappoint you? But I’m a human being, Cyan. I’m trapped *inside* the elevator. The doors are stuck, and I think they can only be forced open from the outside. Could you lend me a hand?”
“Uh... A hand?”
“Yeah, try to pry the doors open.”
“Uhhhhh...” The student seemed nervous, as if he had just been asked the most impossible task.
“Well, if you don’t want to get your hands dirty, at least call someone strong to help.”
“That I can do. I know just the guy but it may take a while, I promise I’ll go as fast as I can!”
Feeling better now that help was on its way, you pressed the speaker button to turn off the intercom.
“You’re leaving your fate in the hands of that sucker? That dirt-eating piece of junk can’t help you with jack-shit.”
“(Oh, just great, this again. I’d better ignore it.)”
“Talking about people who suck... Did ya know I’m a pretty good cocksucker?”
You shrieked as you felt a hand grab the waist of your dark gray shorts and slid them down slowly...
“What the...” You took a strong grip on your shorts so they wouldn’t fall down.
“Heh. I knew it. You’re going commando...”
You hadn’t gone to work without underwear this particular morning because you wanted to. A little accident with the washing machine had turned all your white underwear into a pink mess and, feeling afraid of an improbable scenario where you were pantsed and exhibited around in pink undergarments, you decided to forego them entirely for today only.
...Thinking back, maybe any underwear would have been better than none at all.
“Stop it!” You said to the strange force who was keen on making you feel embarrassed.
“Oh, I know... we’ll do it just like this. You know what they say, first impressions are everything~~”
“What the, whoa!” You were grabbed by your feet and saw everything turn upside down...
Meanwhile, Cyan had reached Markus. It had taken a long time considering all the dirt there had been on the hallway.
“Markus! I need your help!”
The giant orc sighed. “I already emptied your insides yesterday. I know you enjoy it a lot but today I’m not on cleaning duty.”
“Uh...” Cyan’s eyes turned pink. “I don’t exactly *enjoy* it in that kind of way. But a person is trapped, and you have to help them!”
When the two of them arrived at the elevator Markus got ready to shred the doors apart like they were made of paper.
“Be careful not to break the elevator, it’s the only means of entering and leaving Floor 12+1...” Cyan advised.
“As if I didn’t know that!” Markus said and using his two green muscular arms he opened the elevator doors with ease in a flash!
...And Markus was flashed alright. Because the moment the doors opened he was greeted in the face by your thick glutes.
“What the... Hahaha, what kinda fucking joke is this?!”
The exact moment Markus had opened the door the strange forces were pushing you into a handstand and pushing your shorts up to reveal your butt. Markus expected to see a damsel in distress and instead got an upside down dude with his ass exposed where his head should be.
Your face turned red in shame. “It’s not what it seems like!” Almost immediately after, the mysterious grip let go of your body and you fell on the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
The big orc entered the elevator and saw your feeble (in comparison to the orc’s) frame sprawled on the floor, your butt still pointing to the skies. He laughed out loud and slapped your left buttcheek with so much force you were certain it had left a mark.
You stood up as you tried to cover up and regain some dignity. “The other dude on the elevator! He was holding me that way!”
The orc took a glance around and lifted his arms around as if to ask where this supposed other dude could even hide.
“Look, I’m just a delivery guy, I’m not used to the weird... things that happen in this place. In fact this is...” You were about to say that it was the first time you saw an orc in the flesh and never expected them to be this big, but you decided against it as you had already ruined the introductions enough. “I just have to deliver this package and I’ll be on my way out.”
“Sure, pal. Just try not to expose yourself too much along the way, Jiggly Cheeks.” The orc laughed once again. The nickname he had given you was demeaning, but at least he didn’t seem like he was going to report you. He left, but not without glancing at the clock and saying something under his breath. “Oh, damn, it’s that time already? I gotta lock myself in my room before my curse kicks in...”
You picked up the package and got out of the elevator as well. You were so lost in thought after what happened that you almost stepped on the circular cleaning robot sucking up the dirt on the floor.
“Hey, watch it!” The turquoise-colored device said.
“Holy shit, it talks?” You said with surprise. “I swear they add more useless features with each model they come up with...”
“Uhh.... It’s me, Cyan.” The two display LEDs on the automatic vacuuming robot changed colors from neutral yellow to sad blue, as if they were its poor excuse for a pair of eyes.
“Ah... I didn’t know you were a cleaning device... That explains why you couldn’t open the doors by yourself... Sorry about that, poor thing.”
“Actually I’m not... a cleaning device... or a thing... I was studying at Stonewood as a human until I found an old trap that smacked down my essence into a powder... It could have been reversible had I been retrieved fast enough but one of the university’s vacuuming robots found me like that, mistook me for a bunch of dirt, cleaned me up and... Well, uhhh... You can see the result.”
“Holy shit... poor thing!” You said, honestly feeling pity for Cyan.
“Yeah... poor *thing*...” The cleaning device seemed a bit offended and sad. “If you excuse me I still have to eat up the dirt of four more hallways today...” Cyan moved slowly towards the other side of the hallway, tasting the dirt and grime of Floor 12+1 all day, every day.
This place was nuts. You should finish your business here as soon as you possibly can. You stare down at the package you are holding. It was white and with no label except for a Stonewood seal on a corner. The address and some oddly specific instructions that you hadn’t fully read yet were annotated down in the folded sheet of paper you were carrying in the back pocket of your shorts.
Because, even though you are having a very rough and unlucky shift today, you *do* still have that note in the back pocket of your recently mishandled gray shorts, do you not?
“Heh...” You hear a familiar chuckle very close to you, yet you still don’t see where it’s coming from...