Elevator Game

Hello Dear Readers!

I’m going to temporarily one of the founding concepts of this blog talk about somewhere other than Kevin's Crossing.  Instead, I am going to report the exploration of an urban legend in the neighboring town of Telford!  The urban legend is not specific to Telford, a matter of fact it originated in Korea but it requires a ten story building and the newly constructed luxury shopping and apartments, the Tiamat Luxury Shops, and Apartments, in Telford is the only building in the county that’s tall enough(Progress!).

It turns out that having friends is great.   They can introduce you to other friends and then you have more friends! So Vic, my friend from Urgent Care, has a brother, Steve, who has a wife, Karen, who has a cousin, Annette, who has a group of friends.  They were planning to play something called the Elevator Game.  When Vic heard about it, he thought it would be right up my alley.  So he had his sister-in-law do the introductions.

Annette, Yusuf, Casey, and James invited me to play the most dangerous game in the world!  But first, the background information.  The Elevator Game allows you to access another world, separate from our own, by using an elevator.  The Elevator Game works by entering an elevator alone, in a building with at least ten floors. First, you go to the fourth floor.  Then the second.  Then the sixth.  Then the second again.  You may hear a voice calling out to you, do not respond!  Then the tenth floor, do not get out yet.  Then the fifth floor.  On the fifth floor, a young woman may enter the elevator and try to engage you.  Ignore her!  Even if it is terribly rude!  She is not what she seems!  Last, press the button for the first floor, the elevator should then take you to the tenth floor.  You can now exit to another universe!  I hope they donut holes!

It should look the same as the regular tenth floor, except everything will be dark and you are the only person.  From the window, at the end of the hall, you will be able to see a red glowing cross in the distance.  Returning to the elevator is supposed to be difficult.  You then you have to visit the floors in reverse to return to your own world.  I couldn’t wait!

So the five of us assembled in the early morning when the fewest people would be using the elevator.  If someone enters the elevator while you were ‘playing the game’ then it won’t work.  Also, only one person at a time.  We would have worn Gopros but legend has it that electrical equipment doesn’t work in the other world.  That, and they are really expensive.  Before we entered the building everyone fortified themselves with drinks from Yusuf's flask.

Here is a quick rundown of what happened.

Yussuf- Performed ritual correctly but no results.  Didn’t work.

Annette- Maintenance man got on at the second stop on the second floor.  Game aborted.

Casey- She made it!  Casey did not leave the elevator.  Such a waste!  She said it was very similar to the description, dark hallway, sense of foreboding.  She let the doors close and returned to the first floor where we were waiting for her.  She has been quite shaken ever since.  With excitement and joy no doubt!  She was using Bret’s flask for medicinal purposes.  We have made contact with the other side!  Succeeded.

James- A drunken German couple got on the elevator before he reached the tenth floor and canceled the game.  Aborted

And now for my story, which I will tell you about in detail.  To cut to the chase it worked!  No young woman appeared on the fifth floor.  Perhaps she was on break.  Then I pressed the button for the first floor and then the elevator began to rise to the tenth.  I was so excited I could have peed.  Then the elevator doors opened.  I peered out onto another world for the first time.  It was both similar and different than I expected. Same bland carpet, same inoffensive wallpaper, and same cheap light fixtures that are supposed to look posh.  It did indeed look the same as the regular tenth floor.  It was dark and I saw no people.  But at this hour I didn’t see any people on the regular tenth floor either.  I couldn’t see any glowing red cross in the distance though.

I wasn’t about to merely observe from the safety of the elevator though.  I was going to cross the threshold.  If they have good pastries I may never come back.

Right before the doors began to close I stepped out into the hallway.  I braced myself for whatever might happen.  Nothing did. Except, the moment I set foot in the hallway I began to hear an abrasive droning noise, like metal scraping against metal?  Like a broken machine that just kept running.  It didn’t seem to be coming from a specific direction, it was everywhere.  Permeating every cell of my body.

I walked to the nearest window.  It was dark outside as well.  I could see the town outside the window. Dark clouds seemed to swirl unanimously.  It was difficult to see.  I could have sworn the sound was coming from the sky.  I kept walking.

As I moved down the hall I saw something that stopped me dead in my tracks.  I thought I had prepared myself for anything that I might encounter in this strange world.  I was wrong.  Spray painted on the wallpaper to my right was was a pair of lips with a finger over them.  ‘Shhh’.  I stopped and stared.  My mind struggled to grasp the ramifications of this symbol appearing here.  Did someone else come here and paint it.  Did it originate here and someone brought it to mine?  I still had no one idea what it meant.  What are we meant to keep quiet about?

Then I heard the elevator ‘ding’.  The sound it makes when you push the floor button.  I was halfway down the hall.  I turned and looked.  I had placed a trash can from the hallway in front of the door to keep it from closing.  A security precaution until I can determine the quality of the snacks in this world.

The trash was no longer blocking the door.  It had been moved.  Standing the elevator was a young man wearing a hat and sunglasses.  In his left hand, he held a can of spray paint.  With his left hand, he waved twice and the door closed.  Before I could tell my feet to move the elevator began to descend.

Where did the man come from?  He must have been in one of the rooms between myself and the elevator.  The ceaseless droning sound from the sky must have hidden the sound of the door closing.  Why didn’t he saw something?  Tap me on the shoulder and offer me a lifesaver.  Like you should when you meet a stranger in an alternate universe.

I hurried over to the elevator.  I looked at the little screen with the floor number of the elevator on it.  The elevator was heading down.  I wondered where he was going?

The number indicated that the elevator stopped on the fourth floor.  As I continued to watch the elevator went to the second floor.  Then to sixth.

“Oh, no,” I said aloud. The mystery vandal was putting in the combination of floors that would return him to the regular world.  Perhaps my world!  I began to panic.  My four new friends were waiting for me in the lobby on the first floor.  They would have no doubt been watching my elevators journey and know that I had made it to the tenth floor.  They would now be watching the elevator’s return and assume that I was in it.  I pressed the button to call the elevator back.  But nothing happened.  It went through the sequence of floors and then began heading back down to the first.

Finally, it began to ascend again.  I couldn't help but wonder what was happening on the first floor between my new friends and the Vandal.  When it finally arrived I jumped on and pressed the reverse combination of buttons..  I would have to go through the same routine I took to get here, to get back.  The same as the Vandal.

Minutes ticked by as I went from floor to floor.  Flop sweat ran down my brow.  The doors finally opened on the first floor.  It was pandemonium.  My four new friends were in a heated conflicted with the night time manager and a security guard.  The manager and guard were attempting to eject them from the building.  They were shouting about a strange person in hat and shades and their concern for my well being.  It was so chaotic that they didn’t notice the elevator open and I stepped out.  I heard the manager shout the word police and Bret shoved the guard.

“We should go,” I said as stepped forward.  My four fellow explorers surrounded me, joy and relief on their faces. We made a hasty exit and left the apartment building with the manager shouting at us and the sound of approaching sirens in the distant.

We regrouped and settled our nerves at a local all-night greasy spoon diner, Muriel’s. Muriel's is located next to the Strand Cinema which was playing a late night double feature, the classic exploitation films ‘Knucklehead Revenge’ and ‘Bride of Knucklehead’.

I told them my story and explained the significance of the graffiti.  They were blown away, to put it lightly.  Though I am surprised that none of them noticed the graffiti themselves.  They went on to tell me how the Vandal, as we began to refer to him, bolted from the elevator the moment it opened.    He headed straight for the apartments front entrance.  The four friends called and chased after him but they were so taken by surprise that no one got near him.  No one got a good look at his face.  This commotion drew the attention of the night manager, who got the security guard.  Things went downhill from there.  Until I showed up and we left.

After greasy meals of patty melts and vanilla cokes, none of us could explain what any of it meant.  Knowing that a strange person, possibly from another world, was now loose on ours.  We all agreed that it seemed unlikely that this would simply go away.  Hopefully, we have no unleashed anything awful onto the world.  At least I didn’t see the ‘not a real cat’ while I was in the other world.  Then again I didn’t get to look around as much as would have liked.

So we called it a night with promises to get together again soon and explore further.  Though I doubt we’ll be welcome at the Tiamat Luxury Shops and Apartments building anytime soon.  I’m sure we all tripled checked are locks before we went to sleep that night.  I think it will be a while until any of us try any urban legends again.

I’ll keep you updated!