The Lift
The Building
The Building
It a high-rise apartment building which as total 20 floors. It’s pink colour gives it a unique standing among other buildings. There is only one entrance to the building which is always guarded by a security guard.
There are cctv cameras around the building which feeds to a screen at the entrance in front of the desk to security guard. Once anyone enters the lobby after passing by the security guard desk there are two lifts facing each other. The lifts also have cctv cameras.
There is also a staircase which runs through all the floors. Each lift again opens in a small lobby at each floor. There are four apartments on each floor. If anyone is standing in the lobby they will find there are seven doors. Four apartment doors, two lift doors and a door that leads towards staircase. The wall opposite to staircase door has duct windows which has all the wiring. Each floor lobby has a tube-light fitted in ceiling and well lit.
The building is constructed 4–5 years back and most of the apartments are occupied. If anyone see it from outside the two sides of the building has lots of windows and the two sides are plain wall. Each window has iron grills. People hang up their wet clothes outside window to dry up, which makes the building more vibrant and alive. All the apartments are alike in construction. The ground floor has stilt parking and the area around the building is used for parking as well.
There is a small garden in front of the building which as few trees and a brick path for walking. In the middle of the garden there is a big banyan tree which has two concentric circles around its base that is used as a park bench.
Weird
Rohan lived on the 9th floor of the building. From parking the car to reaching his apartment is pretty much became a muscle memory for him. Once entered in the lift he always kept the keys handy. It was one of those days when he walked to the main lobby of the building.
“Hello, How are you?” said Rohan to Ramprasad who was security guard at the building.
Ramprasad was and elderly main in his sixties. Though he always looked much older than that. Ramprasad was thin and tall guy and very feeble in speaking. Rohan used to thought that this guy don’t have any traits of a security personal but still working in the building from past 4 years.
“I am good, How are you?” said Ramprasad
“Good” said Rohan while pressing the lift button and get in and get out pretty much mechanically. But the shock hit him when the key to his apartment refused to open the lock. It was the time when he realised that he is on the 10th floor of the building and trying to open the door of the apartment just above his.
He felt weird but thought that he might have pressed the 10 floor instead of 9th and hence all the misunderstanding.
But then it started happening more frequently that he ended up on the 10th floor rather than 9th. This always happened with one particular lift which is opposite to the door of his apartment. It makes him conscious and he started pressing number 9 button multiple times to make sure that he didn’t miss. This used to happen only when he was alone in the lift.
“Babe, our lift is behaving weirdly lately,’’ said Rohan while brushing his teeth one morning.
“Why, What happened”. asked puzzled Sujata.
“Nothing, now a days it sometimes doesn’t stop at our floor and stop at 10th” said Rohan without putting much stress on it.
“Nah, you must be pressing wrong button or may be it malfunctioned. never happened with me” said Sujata with a smile on her face.
This made him think that something paranormal was going on with him in the lift. But he didn’t say anything.
After this he started to record on his phone whenever he was alone in the lift. He took out His phone and record the surrounding in the lift , the button lit on the panel and the display telling the floor on which lift has reached. But the lift never went to the 10th floor on recording, it always stopped at the 9th floor. But whenever he forgot to start recording it happened on and off.
Close Encounter
It was one of those days when Rohan reached home after partying with friends. He had few beers than usual. As usual he got into lift. He felt that it’s taking time then usual but thought that might be because of slow because he is drunk. He opened the door without making any noise thinking Sujata might be sleeping and he didn’t want to disturb her.
“Sir, You are on wrong floor ” the feeble voice came.
As Rohan turned and looked in the direction of the voice. The security guard was standing there and pointed towards the floor sign. It displayed 10.
Rohan was socked to the core as the door was opened by his key.
“I might have pressed wrong floor” said Rohan almost in apologising. “Thanks “ as he turned towards the stairs.
“Take care, sir” Ramprasad said in very feeble voice.
Rohan glanced at him and thought that he was looking very pale.
“humm” he nodded and moved. He made a mind note to check with him again in the morning about the lift and if anyone else also faced the similar problems.
He was still very confused how the door was opened by his key or was he just mistaken it for the same.
He came to his apartment opened the door silently and went to check on Sujata who was sleeping. He thought of waking up her and tell the entire episode but judged against it.
Face-off
In morning while going to office, he stopped at the reception to check about the lift with Ramprasad. But it was some other security personal there.
“Where is Ramprasad?” queried Rohan.
“He is not coming to from last few days. He is not well.” said the new person looking puzzled.
Now Rohan was utterly confused as he has meet Ramprasad last night only. He decided that he needs to go into the root of this mystery. He kept thinking about this entire day and decided that he will go to 10th floor when he will reach home. He want to see who is leaving there.
In evening he went straight to lift and pressed for 10th floor. In the lift he was deliberating whether he should disturb people leaving there or not. He came out of his thought when lift door opened.
he went to the door of the flat above his and pressed doorbell but no one answered. He did the same for 2–3 times and decided to give a try to his key just to make sure he was mistaken last night.
He got his key out of his bag and tried to open the lock. The lock opened without and resistance. he opened the door and asked “Is anyone here?”.
The entire apartment was empty and dark. It smells like still water body. he got into the apartment and looked for the light switch. he could feel that there was water on the floor.
As soon as he reached the light switch the door of apartment closed with a bang and a hand hold his hand just moment before he could switch on the light.
“We have been waiting for you for so long” the hoarse voice came. He could felt multiple hands on his body at once. He wanted to scream his lungs out but couldn’t as the hands dragged him inside the apartment.
Something hit on his head and he felt as a sharp light before his eye and felt drowsy. Then everything went blank.
PS : If you like this and want me to write it further please leave you comments.