Speaker 1: It gives me goosebumps to recall that dark and stormy night.
Speaker 1: The weather was at its worst. I was on my
Speaker 1: way to a party in Madison with my best friend.
Speaker 1: The weather forecasts called it for severe thunderstorms, but we
Speaker 1: refused to miss our long awaited trip. We all piled
Speaker 1: in my car for a six hour drive. The first
Speaker 1: few hours were fine, just raining and seldom lighting. Then
Speaker 1: the typical thunderstorm started, the kind where you look down
Speaker 1: at the lines on the road so you don't end
Speaker 1: up in a ditch since you can't see anything else.
Speaker 1: Once when the lightning flashed, my friend Zen swore he
Speaker 1: saw a tornado in the cornfield in the distance. We
Speaker 1: finally gave up and pulled under a bridge until the
Speaker 1: rain led up enough for us to see. We waited
Speaker 1: to twenty five minutes and then drove a few miles
Speaker 1: through the storm. The rest of the trip was drizzle,
Speaker 1: and that post thunderstorm fog made driving impossible. There were
Speaker 1: hardly any other cars on the interstate since most people
Speaker 1: were too smart to be out driving, which added to
Speaker 1: the creepy feeling. Luckily, we had found a little motel
Speaker 1: at twenty minute drive away that was dirt cheap. It
Speaker 1: was three stories tall and with no interior hallways. All
Speaker 1: the rooms were accessed from the outside. Unfortunately, the cheapest
Speaker 1: rooms were on the third floor and the elevator needed
Speaker 1: to be in order. The owner had put up a
Speaker 1: signboard right next to it. Checking into the motel in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night was interesting. It was still
Speaker 1: foggy and drizzling out, but humid and hot. There were
Speaker 1: only two to three other cards in the damp parking lot.
Speaker 1: The only lights were from the lobby and the street lights.
Speaker 1: We walked inside and no one was at the desk.
Speaker 1: After ringing the bell for about fifteen minutes without a response,
Speaker 1: we called the motel from my friend's cell phone. An
Speaker 1: older man answered and soon approached the desk from the
Speaker 1: back room. We tried to negotiate a first floor room
Speaker 1: since they were not busy. He was a jerk, though,
Speaker 1: and kept saying they're booked. There were two to three
Speaker 1: other cars there, indeed, some rooms on the first floor
Speaker 1: had to be available. Exhausted, we took our third floor
Speaker 1: room and prepared to drag our suitcases up three flights
Speaker 1: of outside stairs and the drizzle and heat. As we
Speaker 1: left the lobby. The old man called down to us,
Speaker 1: locked your doors, don't answer them. After dork he went
Speaker 1: back into the back room and slammed the door. Cat
Speaker 1: That creepd me out. We unloaded the car in the foggy,
Speaker 1: dark parking lot and dragged our luggage to the stairs.
Speaker 1: We all saw the elevator as we came around the
Speaker 1: back of the building. The out of order sign was
Speaker 1: gone and the doors were open. The light in the
Speaker 1: elevator was the only light source in the entire back
Speaker 1: of the building. It seemed like something good finally happened
Speaker 1: to us on the trip. The elevator worked and we
Speaker 1: didn't have to carry our things up those slippery stairs.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking it was weird that the doors were open.
Speaker 1: Didn't elevator doors usually stay closed until you pushed the button. Whatever,
Speaker 1: it was better than stairs. We loaded our luggage and
Speaker 1: got in. I pushed the button for the third floor
Speaker 1: and the doors started to close. The doors were standard
Speaker 1: elevator doors, and right before they closed all the way,
Speaker 1: words appeared written in red paint or marker on the
Speaker 1: far side of the elevator doors, so that it was
Speaker 1: only visible when the door closed. It said stay in dude,
Speaker 1: what the hell, Zen said, looking worried, I assured him
Speaker 1: it was just red paint and a silly kid prank.
Speaker 1: The condition of the motel screamed about sketchy people in danger,
Speaker 1: but that was our only option, so we made it
Speaker 1: up to the third floor and checked into our room.
Speaker 1: It was a big room with three single beds, more
Speaker 1: than we could have asked for for that night. I
Speaker 1: went to wash my face, but turned on the tap. Murky,
Speaker 1: ironclad water came out of it. Ah, yuck, that sticks.
Speaker 1: Shut up, Zen, be grateful to have a roof over
Speaker 1: your head. We were all tired, so we immediately threw
Speaker 1: ourselves onto the beds. My friends were snoring, yet I
Speaker 1: struggled to sleep. The riding on the elevator door kept
Speaker 1: flashing in my mind. After struggling for a few more minutes,
Speaker 1: I heard the elevator ding. Who's coming up at this hour?
Speaker 1: I came to the door and placed my ear on it.
Speaker 1: I heard nothing. I looked at the dim antique brass
Speaker 1: door handle. I slowly put my right hand on the
Speaker 1: handle and turned it. The door creaked open, and I
Speaker 1: quickly peeped out at the slightly open door. I saw
Speaker 1: a silhouette. It looked like a person. I couldn't make
Speaker 1: much out of it. All I saw was a tall, lanky,
Speaker 1: black silhouette standing beyond my hallway. He was not taking
Speaker 1: anything or doing anything. He was standing there. It made
Speaker 1: it so much more creepy. It's standing perfectly still. The
Speaker 1: elevator's sound again appeared, and the doors started to slide.
Speaker 1: The elevator's light hit the hallway and I saw the man.
Speaker 1: He stepped inside the elevator, facing his back to me,
Speaker 1: and then he turned to the front. I will never
Speaker 1: forget the grin on his face, but that wasn't the
Speaker 1: only disturbing thing about him. He was holding a woman's
Speaker 1: head by her long black hair. The woman's mouth was
Speaker 1: half open, with her eyes wide in fear of death.
Speaker 1: We watched each other silently, and then the elevator doors closed,
Speaker 1: locking the door. I came back to the bed. I
Speaker 1: woke up my friends. I don't care if they believed me,
Speaker 1: but I forced them to leave the motel. We reported
Speaker 1: to the cops about the motel and the owner, but
Speaker 1: never got any follow up. Years later, I learned in
Speaker 1: the news that a famous serial killer was arrested at
Speaker 1: that same motel. He cut his victim's head off and
Speaker 1: then sneaked out the body in plastic wrap to dump
Speaker 1: in the lake. It's been roughly eighteen hours since the
Speaker 1: elevator stopped, and I don't know what to do anymore.
Speaker 1: I was heading to my apartment on the ninth floor
Speaker 1: and got trapped in this hell hole. Several times, I've
Speaker 1: contacted the twenty four to seventh service number printed on
Speaker 1: the inside of the elevator, but they're no help. Neither
Speaker 1: are my parents nor the police. I got into the
Speaker 1: elevator on a Friday night, thinking this weekend will give
Speaker 1: me some more time to relax. I watched the number
Speaker 1: plates change. Everything was fine until the sixth floor, but
Speaker 1: right on the seventh a sudden jerk took place. Ah.
Speaker 1: I grabbed the corner walls for support, and then the
Speaker 1: elevator stopped. It took a minute to realize I was
Speaker 1: stuck in an elevator, but once I did, I started panicking.
Speaker 1: I pressed the emergency button, but nothing happened. I checked
Speaker 1: my phone, which had no network. I looked at the
Speaker 1: CCTV camera and waved my hand, Hello Hell. The elevator stuck.
Speaker 1: I sat down on the elevator floor. Worries started to
Speaker 1: hit me. Tomorrow is a Saturday. The cleaning guy took
Speaker 1: off for this weekend, which means he will be here
Speaker 1: on Monday morning. How am I gonna get out of this?
Speaker 1: I jumped and started banging my fists on the elevator door. Hello,
Speaker 1: can anyone hear me? I'm stuck in here? Please help.
Speaker 1: The doors were so tightly closed that I couldn't hear
Speaker 1: any sound outside. Slowly, I started sweating. I began biting
Speaker 1: my nails while thinking of ways to escape this purgatory.
Speaker 1: The closed environment started to make me claustrophobic. I got
Speaker 1: rid of my tie and unbuttoned my shirt to breathe Correctly,
Speaker 1: wiping the sweat off my forehead, I sat down again.
Speaker 1: I don't have any food or water, and if no
Speaker 1: one comes to my rescue tonight, I might have to
Speaker 1: be here till Monday morning. I looked above and saw
Speaker 1: the vent. I tried jumping to reach the top of
Speaker 1: the elevator, but my height wasn't enough. I started sweating
Speaker 1: even I could hear my lungs rising higher and higher
Speaker 1: to catch a breath. I I can't waste my energy
Speaker 1: like this, The feeling of being trapped inside an elevator
Speaker 1: gradually took over my mind. Am I gonna die in here?
Speaker 1: It's possible, right, The scarcity of oxygen and water can
Speaker 1: kill me, no doubt. It started getting so hot inside
Speaker 1: the elevator, like someone had set a fire from the outside.
Speaker 1: I could feel my lips tremble. My feet were numb,
Speaker 1: and I started to pass out, and I got onto
Speaker 1: my knees, holding my neck. I could feel someone was
Speaker 1: choking me. My vision went blurry and I don't remember
Speaker 1: when I fainted. A high pitched, squeaking sound brought me
Speaker 1: back to my senses. I opened my eyes to see
Speaker 1: a pair of big black eyes staring back at me.
Speaker 1: My heart stopped as those eyes never blinked. Ah. I
Speaker 1: jumped in fear, moving straight to the other side of
Speaker 1: the elevator, and the mouse from my chest, Geez, almost
Speaker 1: gave me a heart attack. My scream scared the mouse,
Speaker 1: and it ran to the hole in the left corner
Speaker 1: and disappeared. But now I noticed the walls of the elevator.
Speaker 1: Something bizarre had started to happen to them. There was
Speaker 1: a big damp like mark on the elevator doors, and
Speaker 1: a hairy, stringy thing, almost like a twig, was poking
Speaker 1: out of it. I touched the damp with my fingers
Speaker 1: and a thick black liquid started dripping. The texture of
Speaker 1: the damp felt disgustingly squashy. What the hell is all this?
Speaker 1: And then again I heard the squeaking sound. I thought
Speaker 1: the mouse was back, so I looked at the hole
Speaker 1: in the corner, but I didn't see it. I went
Speaker 1: close to the hole and tried to see what was
Speaker 1: on the opposite side. At first, it was only darkness. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: a tongue sprung out from that hole. It started to
Speaker 1: move like crazy. Bah, what is this? Please help me
Speaker 1: give me out of here. Growl could be heard as well.
Speaker 1: The tongue looked like it belonged to some creature from
Speaker 1: a terrifying place. Right then, the elevator lights started to flicker. No, no, please,
Speaker 1: I kept hitting all the buttons like crazy. I just
Speaker 1: wanted this nightmare to end. I knew if I didn't
Speaker 1: get out of there, I would eventually go mad forever
Speaker 1: her worst, I might end up killing myself, losing my mind.
Speaker 1: I grabbed the tail like thing poking out of that
Speaker 1: damp wall and started pulling it. The more I pulled,
Speaker 1: the squeaking sound grew louder. The tail came from the
Speaker 1: wall at one point, making me fall on my back,
Speaker 1: and thousands of mice started crawling into the elevator. Their
Speaker 1: dirty smell and soggy, hairy bodies made me nauseous. The
Speaker 1: site was straight out of a horror movie. Tons of
Speaker 1: mice jumped out from the damp wall, filling the closed
Speaker 1: space like water. Mice were everywhere. They were on my
Speaker 1: shoes and soon rose to my waist. I was drowning
Speaker 1: in a sea of plagued mice, and my screams were
Speaker 1: dying down in my throat. Ah slight, I want to diet,
Speaker 1: heir please. Someone called it cops. When the army of
Speaker 1: mice reached my neck, I felt their teeth on my skin.
Speaker 1: They were biting me off like ants finishing a sugar cube.
Speaker 1: Ah A stop stop. I began picking each mouse and
Speaker 1: throwing it away as far as possible, but they didn't stop.
Speaker 1: I screamed for one last time and fainted. When I
Speaker 1: woke up, I heard the ambulance. Two men were taking
Speaker 1: me out on a stretcher. An oxygen mask was covering
Speaker 1: my face, and I saw the daylight shining on my face.
Speaker 1: I stayed in the hospital for a week due to
Speaker 1: severe dehydration and low blood pressure. The cleaning guy found
Speaker 1: me in the elevator Monday morning. I was trapped inside
Speaker 1: the elevator for more than forty hours. Though there were
Speaker 1: no wounds or bite marks on my body, that invasion
Speaker 1: of the mice still haunts me to sleep. My doctor said,
Speaker 1: I suffered major hallucinations and panic attacks due to the
Speaker 1: claustrophobic environment. I still get goosebumps thinking how real it
Speaker 1: all was, even if none of it made any sense.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'll ever feel safe inside an elevator again.
Speaker 1: The story you just saw is a fictional representation of
Speaker 1: the trauma lived by a man who spent forty one
Speaker 1: hours trapped inside an elevator in nineteen ninety nine. Nick
Speaker 1: White was thirty four with a home, a beautiful girlfriend,
Speaker 1: in a great social life, and a good job, but
Speaker 1: all that was about to change when he got trapped
Speaker 1: in an elevator without food or water. Working late one
Speaker 1: Friday evening, Nick left office to smoke a cigarette outside.
Speaker 1: Once he'd finished it, he walked back into the building.
Speaker 1: He got into the lift and pushed the button. On
Speaker 1: the way up to his floor, he felt a jolt
Speaker 1: and the lights dimmed for a second. Nick White soon
Speaker 1: realized that the elevator had stopped. He rang the emergency bell,
Speaker 1: the first thing anyone would have done. He waited for
Speaker 1: a while for someone to answer, but no one did.
Speaker 1: The more time passed, the more the horrifying thought of
Speaker 1: dying in that closed space rained his mind. Two days
Speaker 1: in an enclosed space without food or water is an
Speaker 1: incredibly long time to be imprisoned. The CCTV footage of
Speaker 1: that night went viral, and Nick eventually filed a lawsuit
Speaker 1: against the managing committee. When I returned from work, I
Speaker 1: saw a cop car parked under my building. I went
Speaker 1: in and saw two cops talking to the landlord. They
Speaker 1: looked at me suspiciously and said we'll be back for more.
Speaker 1: The cops left, and I asked the landlord, is everything
Speaker 1: all right? He scratched his head in confusion and gave
Speaker 1: me bizarre news. One of our tenants named Marcus went
Speaker 1: missing today. He was last seen taking the building elevator
Speaker 1: from the ground floor. His apartment was on the ninth,
Speaker 1: but before he could reach there. He just disappeared from
Speaker 1: within the elevator. I was so shocked to hear this
Speaker 1: that I couldn't grasp the landlord's words. For a moment,
Speaker 1: I was checking the elevator footage from last night. Marcus
Speaker 1: was inside the elevator till it hit the sixth floor,
Speaker 1: and then on the seventh it was gone. But how
Speaker 1: is that possible? It makes no sense. I can show
Speaker 1: you the footage I have shown the cops. I went
Speaker 1: to his office and he showed me this clip of
Speaker 1: last night. Around twelve thirty, Marcus got into the elevator.
Speaker 1: The floors went one after the other, and the elevator
Speaker 1: suddenly stopped. The visual suffered a few glitches, and the
Speaker 1: screen went dark. After three seconds, the screen turned on,
Speaker 1: but Marcus wasn't there anymore. My apartment was on the
Speaker 1: first floor, telling my landlord to keep updating me on
Speaker 1: this disappearance case of Marcus. I walked up the stairs.
Speaker 1: I noticed the normal looking old elevator from the corner
Speaker 1: of my eye. Felt shivers. How could a person just
Speaker 1: vanish like that? He was right there on the sixth floor,
Speaker 1: and after that malfunction, it was just the empty elevator
Speaker 1: on the seventh. I got inside my apartment, showered and
Speaker 1: had dinner. Even though I was exhausted, but I still
Speaker 1: struggled to sleep. That was the moment I realized it's
Speaker 1: been eleven months I've been living here now. But not
Speaker 1: Once I availed the elevator, I looked at the clock.
Speaker 1: It was twelve thirty night yesterday. At this time Marcus
Speaker 1: went missing. I never talked to Marcus much, not like
Speaker 1: he was a talker anyway. We mostly said hello whenever
Speaker 1: we came across each other in the lobby. He would
Speaker 1: smile awkwardly and walk away. I don't know what came
Speaker 1: over me, but I just couldn't stop thinking about this incident.
Speaker 1: Dragged down by my curiosity, I ended up leaving my apartment.
Speaker 1: I walked up to the elevator and pressed the seventh floor.
Speaker 1: The metal doors closed with a screeching sound, and the
Speaker 1: number plate began to change, but the elevator functioned correctly
Speaker 1: this time. I reached the seventh floor without any trouble,
Speaker 1: which surprised me. Once I stepped into the lobby, I
Speaker 1: felt cold. I had never come to this floor. The
Speaker 1: lights on this floor flickered like crazy. Some were even
Speaker 1: burnt out, making it hard to see. I slowly walked
Speaker 1: up to Marcus's apartment. We came into this building the
Speaker 1: same day. While filling out the forms in the landlord's office,
Speaker 1: I remember seeing the number of his apartment sixteen. I
Speaker 1: stopped outside the apartment using my phone's flashlight. I saw
Speaker 1: the door sealed with yellow tape. The cops must have
Speaker 1: searched his apartment. Should I go in? My hand trembled,
Speaker 1: Am I doing the right thing? I switched on the
Speaker 1: light and saw the room as a mess. The closet
Speaker 1: was open, with clothes on the floor, bed and linens
Speaker 1: were turned over to the edge. Geez. Realizing how crazy
Speaker 1: I had been, I quickly exited the apartment. I closed
Speaker 1: the door and rushed into the elevator. I pressed the
Speaker 1: ground floor and the elevator door closed once again. But wait,
Speaker 1: why isn't it going down? Oddly, the elevator was just
Speaker 1: standing on the same floor. What the hell? I pressed
Speaker 1: the button again, still no movement, and then the elevator
Speaker 1: made a sudden jerk and started going down. But before
Speaker 1: the number could change from seven to six, the lights
Speaker 1: inside the elevator went off, and it ultimately got dark, Hello,
Speaker 1: anyone's here? I started having a panic attack. I switched
Speaker 1: on my phone's flashlight, and just then the elevator light
Speaker 1: sparked and shattered, splashing droplets of fire above my head. Ah.
Speaker 1: I covered my face while screaming. I removed my hands,
Speaker 1: hearing the sound of the door sliding by. In front
Speaker 1: of my eyes stood this dark space with a small
Speaker 1: white spotlight in the distance, and under that light stood
Speaker 1: a man, yes, a man. He had his back to me. Hello,
Speaker 1: oh me, Marcus, what are you doing here? Which floor
Speaker 1: is this? I looked at the number plate and couldn't
Speaker 1: believe my eyes. It was floor six point five? Me please?
Speaker 1: Marcus's ominous cry brought my attention back to him. Was
Speaker 1: shaking footsteps. I stepped out of the elevator. The floor
Speaker 1: beneath my bare feet was so cold. Marcus still had
Speaker 1: his back on me. Marcus, what's going on? He's just
Speaker 1: carrying me now, Marcus. I took two steps ahead, and
Speaker 1: so did he. Is this guy crazy? I again took
Speaker 1: two steps, and Marcus did the same. I looked back
Speaker 1: at the elevator and felt Marcus's head turning as well.
Speaker 1: Moment I looked at him again, I saw his back.
Speaker 1: He was mimicking my every move like a puppet. Stop it,
Speaker 1: just turn around. What are you trying to You must
Speaker 1: turn around. I turned around, and holy smokes, Marcus was
Speaker 1: now standing right behind me, facing his back at me.
Speaker 1: I walked towards him, screaming how did you get behind
Speaker 1: me so fast? And he mimicked my footsteps again, walking
Speaker 1: straight inside the elevator. I stopped in fear as he
Speaker 1: turned around and said, I'm sorry. There's no other way,
Speaker 1: no way