One Hour Inside

Danny taps his card, prompting the metal door to open. Holding the bulging plastic bag with his left hand, he walks in and presses the button with the number 38 written on it. A girl follows him, pressing the button with number 40. Then the two wait for the elevator door to close.

Ten floors pass by. The girl pulls out her smartphone from the pocket of her dress and glues her eyes into the social media account.

Twenty floors pass by. Danny averts his vision from the girl, trying his best not to stare too much.

Thirty floors pass by. The elevator suddenly comes to a stop, yet the door stays closed. Danny glances at the floor display and realizes that the screen has gone blank.

Without instructions, both Danny and the girl look at each other in confusion.

“Is the lift… stuck?” the girl throws a question.

Danny presses the open button several times, yet the door stays closed. “It seems so.”

Upon hearing the reply, the girl starts to press every button from the top, hoping one of them can bring a change to the situation. Yet, nothing happens; the screen stays blank, the elevator stays immobile.

Until she presses the bell-shaped button beside the open button.

“How can we help?” a husky voice echoes inside the metal box.

“Hey, can you send a technician? We are stuck inside the elevator,” Danny lowers his face towards the holes below the bell-shaped button.

“Sure, please wait for a moment,” the voice replies.

The girl shoves Danny away, taking over to speak to the staff with a shaky voice. “Can you tell us how long until the technician is here?”

The voice stays silent for several moments before answering. “I’d say about an hour? But it depends on the traffic from the technician’s location to yours.”

---

Ten minutes inside, Danny leans his back on the right corner, while the girl stands at the other corner of the elevator. The two of them spend the time in silence; each busily fiddles with the mobile phone on hand.

From time to time, Danny glances over, unable to resist the urge to observe the girl stuck beside him. The girl has light brown hair, dark brown eyes and fair skin tone. With pastel blue coloured nail extensions, the dark blue short dress and the white sling bag, she completes her look.

The girl, as if she feels his eyes on her, turn her head towards Danny. Yet, without making any noise, she turns around and occupies herself with her phone once again.

And the two stay without letting out any voice.

Until a stomach rumble penetrates through the silence.

Danny lets out a chuckle. He pulls out a snack from his white plastic bag, slowly stretches it in front of the girl.

“Do you want to eat some snacks?”

---

Thirty minutes inside, the two of them are sitting at the elevator’s floor, with empty packaging surrounding them. Feeling slightly better from having a full stomach, Danny pulls out one last thing from his white plastic bag.

“I only have one, but feel free to have a drink. All those snacks must have been salty,” Danny stretches his hands, offering the bottled lemon tea for the girl.

“Oh, thank you!” The girl reaches out her hand towards the drink, right when Danny pulls his hands, moving the bottle behind his back.

“On one condition,” Danny grins playfully.

The girl pouts. “What?”

Danny keeps on smiling as he lets out his sentence. “Give me your contact.”

The girl eyes widened by the surprise request. She rolls her eyes, puts her hands under her chin, contemplates over the deal for a few second. 

“Social media is fine, right?”

Danny nods. 

The girl then pulls her smartphone, handing it onto Danny’s palm, gesturing to him to type his profile out.

---

Forty-five minutes inside, the elevator is now full of chatter, from which Danny learns about the girl in front of him, whose name is Jade.

From the social media account, he realizes that they are both the same age, twenty-two.

And going through the posts on social media, it turns out that they have many mutual friends, yet they never met with each other beforehand. 

On top of that, they are both students in the same university, although taking two different major.

“Why don’t we have lunch sometimes at university, then?” Danny asks suggestively. He slightly bites the bottom of his lips, nervously hoping that Jade agrees to his invitation.

“Yeah, sure,” the girl gives out her reply almost immediately, taking Danny aback with such a positive response.

“I mean…, if our schedule matches, sure,” she rephrases her sentence. Jade averts her face, but Danny could see the girl in front of him is blushing shyly.

And Danny could no longer hide the wide smile from his face.

---

One hour inside, the technician finally comes over. With his tools clinking against each other, he squats down on the first floor and quickly starts to disassemble the parts of the elevator.

“How is it looking?” The building manager comes over, then stands behind the man in the orange-coloured jumpsuit.

The technician lets out a sigh. “Honestly speaking, it is pretty bad. Do you have any idea on which floor the lift was stuck?”

The building manager ponders for a while. “I believe it was around thirty. Or maybe even higher.”

The technician puts his focus back on the machine in front of him. “Has there been any weird sound or anything from this elevator?”

“Some residents in the lobby mentioned that they heard a loud bang a few minutes before you came,” the building manager gives out her answer as she crosses her arm. Her face looks worried. 

“Then, it might be already too late.”

The technician no longer talks, but his hands move even faster.

And when the metal door is open, red splashes have filled the inside of the elevator.

Along with two lifeless bodies, sitting on the floor, hugging each other, with smiles painted over their face.

If only they were lying flat on their back to increase their chance of survival from a free-falling elevator.