You were having fun. All was well. The day, the movie, the dinner, it had been perfect. She smiled, asked if you'd enjoyed it. You said yes, a bit more enthusiastically than you'd intended.

She kissed you on the lips, and slipped the ring onto your finger. "Now" - she said - "It's your turn to take the lead. Your parents said you could sleep over, didn't they?"

You stuttered, gasping in surprise, trying to gather your courage. You'd been to her apartment before. Just... Not, at night. Alone. It would have been easy to just say goodbye while you were still at the ground floor, and meet her the next day as if nothing had happened.

No. You'd come this far. You loved her more than anything. She was trusting you to do the right choice. No backing out. You held her hand tightly, then called the elevator. The anticipation was palpable.

The doors opened. You walked in, pulling her by the hand-

CLUNK

She let out a small yelp, and you turned back to see the automatic doors closed around her waist. You shared a moment of utter confusion as to what had happened. Was it a malfunction? You hadn't even dialed in her floor yet, or-

WHIRRRRRRRRRR - CLUNK

The elevator jolted upwards, knocking her off her feet and making her fall down onto her face. Blood streamed from her forehead, where it'd hit the metal floor. You screamed, and pressed the emergency stop button, but nothing happened. The cabin continued moving upwards slowly, inexorably, the gap between her back and the top of the door growing smaller each second.

She begged you to open the doors, to pull her out, and you tried both, but she was firmly stuck. When her back finally touched the wall, the elevator suddenly grew slower, motors struggling to compress her torso.

"Eileen. Eileen, pull me out. Please, please, do something! DO SOMETHING! IT HURTS! OH GOD, IT HURTS! PULL ME OUT! PULL ME OUT, PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU AAAAAAAH"

You grabbed both her hands, pulling with all your might, but you had always been weak. You couldn't do it. There was a cracking sound, as the cabin moved another inch upwards.

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE HERE PLEASE OH GOD OH GOD-"

Another inch. Something white and red jutted out through her shirt, dripping more blood onto the floor. A broken rib.

"PULL ME OUT PULLE ME OUT PULL ME OUT I DON'T WANT THIS - I WANT TO BE WITH YOU - I WANTED TO LIVE WITH YOU - WHY -"

Her voice grew ragged and hard to understand, choked by the blood overflowing her throat.

"WHY? WHY DOES IT HAVE TO END HERE? I, I HAD JUST STARTED TO LIVE! WHY? WHY?!?! IT HURTS! EILEEN, PLEASE-"

You pulled, and pulled, and pulled, with all the strength of your love and despair, until-

CRUNCH



...You'd done it. She was in your arms. She was saved. You hugged her.

She didn't hug you back.

You called her name.

Her eyes were dull and unfocused.

You looked up. You had pulled her torso out, indeed. But her waist had stayed, pinched into an unrecogniseable mess between the cabin and the shaft wall. Only broken bits of spine and burst intestines connected the two halves, slowly leaking out blood and feces onto the floor.

You screamed, hugging her as tightly as you could. You begged for it not to be true, even as you felt her arms and found no pulse. You cried, and voided your bowels, and tore at your own arms, cradling that most precious corpse as well as you could, choking and gagging at the foul, acrid smell that filled the small chamber.


It took the firemen five hours to get the elevator working again and pull you out. But by then, you weren't you anymore.