The 11th Floor

by Charles Culver

  Calmly, as if he sensed his approach, the janitor asked him, “Damn crazy weather we’re having, huh?”

  “What are you doing in here?” asked Jonathan.

  “I’m on my break, saw the empty room, and thought no one would mind if I relaxed a bit,” said the janitor. “I’ve been here all night cleaning. The boss says some VIPs are coming today and the place needs to be spotless.”

  “I’m the boss here, and I don’t know you,” said Jonathan.

  The janitor spun the chair around to face Jonathan.

  “Indeed, you are the big head boss, but you are not the one I was referring to,” said the janitor. “Guys down on the bottom of the totem pole like me end up with several bosses. I’m a new hire this week, name’s Lou. Everyone calls me Lou. New guy gets stuck cleaning all night while everyone else is home in bed. Isn’t that how it always is?”

  “Well, get out of this office, Lou, it belongs to the department supervisor and he wouldn’t want you in here,” said Jonathan.

  “No problem, boss.”

  “Speaking of which, have you seen him, or anyone else around here?” asked Jonathan.

  “No, boss, just you.”

  “Someone told me I had to go to floor eleven; that people were expecting me,” said Jonathan. “Any idea what that is all about?”

  “No, boss, no one on eleven that I know of. Last I checked, it was empty and I’m the only one here, well, besides you,” said Lou. “What are you doing on six anyway?”

  “Oh, the freaking elevator wasn’t working properly. It opened here.”

  “Yeah, they’ve been having issues last night and this morning,” said Lou. “If you are going to eleven, I would suggest taking the service elevator or the stairs instead.”

  “No kidding,” said Jonathan. “Perhaps you should put up a sign saying they are out of order before someone gets stuck in them.”

  “Point taken, boss. Will do.”

  Lou stood up and walked around the desk to Jonathan. The two of them left the office. Jonathan locked the door from inside, closing it behind them.

  “Oh, and call the elevator company to fix them at once,” said Jonathan.

  “Right on it, boss.”

  Lou turned and walked away from Jonathan, back to the front of the room toward the main elevators. Jonathan watched him walk away, then turned and walked toward the service elevators. A few steps away, he heard the office door open and close behind him.

  “Hey, I told you to stay out of that office, you idiot,” shouted Jonathan. “Don’t you listen?”

  Jonathan hurried back to the supervisor’s office door and threw it open, expecting to see the janitor back in there behind the desk. Instead, a small black hairy creature popped out from behind the trash can and brushed past his shin on the way out the door. It scurried down the hallway, around a row of cubicles, and out of sight.

  Chapter 17

  Drying his tears with his sleeve, Eddie just sat on the floor and rocked slowly, back and forth.

  “Has the grown man finished crying now?” asked the voice on the speaker system.

  Eddie lifted his head up and looked directly at the camera hanging in the corner of the ceiling.

  “What do you want? Why won’t you let me out?” asked Eddie.

  “It’s not what I want, so much as what the boss wants,” said the voice. “He says you are a very important person and he would like to speak with you.”

  “Important? Important how? I don’t get—”

  “Don’t be concerned with that now. All will be revealed when the time is right. I was just having some fun,” said the voice. “I was bored because I have been alone here all night. If you are done crying, come on up to floor eleven.”

  The lights in the elevator car came back on to normal brightness.

  “Eleven? The floor with the free food?” asked Eddie.

  “Yes, Eddie, the floor with the free food. Don’t keep him waiting,” said the voice.

  The elevator doors opened. Eddie pressed button eleven, but the button did not light up, nor did the doors close. He had to either get off on this floor or stay inside the elevator and risk being trapped again. After briefly considering his options, he stepped out onto the fourth floor. As soon as he crossed out into the room, the elevator doors shut quickly behind him.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Eddie said as he repeated pressed the button, trying to get the doors to open again.

  Giving up, he turned around and put his back against the wall.

  Floor number four contained a meeting room. Directly in front of the elevator was a glass wall, separating the conference room table from the elevator, no doubt to provide a bit of privacy. He could see through the glass, and in the center of the conference room table was a bowl full of fruit. Waiting upstairs was free food, but he was hungry now and he didn’t know how long it would take to get up to eleven without using the elevator. He badly wanted a snack.

  He pulled open the conference room door and approached the table. He could clearly see that the bowl was filled with apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes. Now standing on the side of the table closest to the bowl, he reached out and grabbed an apple.

  Just as he was about to take a bite, an oddly shaped black thing fell from the ceiling and onto the far end of the table. It was some sort of creature, not much bigger than a cat, but definitely not any kind of cat he had ever seen. It stood on four legs, scurried across the table, and jumped onto his chest. Its back legs had sharp claws that latched into his skin, much like a cat. Its front legs also had sharp claws, which slashed and scraped at his face, throat, and chest.

  Eddie screamed and stumbled around the room, bumping into the furniture and walls. He pulled at the black thing by the back of its neck and was able to stop it from clawing him. The creature then turned its head completely around backwards, like it was possessed, and bit his wrist.

  He screamed once more and dropped the creature. It landed on the floor with almost no noise at all. It jumped onto the table, then leapt up to the ceiling and crawled away into the ductwork, leaving Eddie bleeding on the floor.

  Grabbing some tissues from a nearby box, he wiped the blood off his face. Behind the glass door, he heard the elevator ding and the doors open. When he turned to look, out walked a janitor pushing a bucket and mop, whistling. It didn’t appear the janitor had seen him, as he began mopping up the floor around the elevator, and then backed into the glass door, pushing it open with his rear end.

  “Yo, hey,” said Eddie. “I need a little help over here.”

  The janitor turned and made the “whoa” whistle noise loudly.

  “What happened here?” asked the janitor.

  “Something attacked me, clawed me up, and bit me real good.”

  “Nah, nothing around here but the occasional roach or mouse,” said the janitor. “But whatever happened, you need to file an accident report with the boss.”

  The janitor picked up a towel off his cart and tossed it to Eddie.

  “He is up on the eleventh floor.”

  Eddie wiped his face and chest with the towel, which had an odd smell to it, like cleaners or some kind of chemical.

  “Funny you mention eleven. That’s where I was going,” said Eddie.

  “Then what the blazes are you doing here on four? You’re a bit off,” said the janitor.

  “Sort of a long story,” said Eddie. “…. Say, you guys have a doctor in this place, I suddenly don’t feel—”

  Before he could get out his last words, he collapsed on the floor. He was not unconscious and could see what was going on, but couldn’t move or speak. Through blurry vision, he watched as the janitor put down his mop, grabbed his feet, and dragged him across the room.

  He heard a ding and elevator doors opening, but from his view, all he saw was blurry ceiling. He felt himself being dragged again and finally saw that he was now in the elevator. The janitor stepped over him and left the elevator. He saw the janitor lean in and press the button for el
even.

  “Good luck up there, buddy,” said the janitor. “Tell ’em Lou sends his regards.”

  The janitor just grinned as the doors closed.

  Chapter 18

  Joseph and Tina were half way across the lobby, heading towards the doors leading back to the street, when the lobby lights suddenly went dark. They both slowed to a walk, now only having a little daylight coming from the glass in the lobby to see where they were going. Cautiously, they continued to make their way to the exit. Joseph stumbled as his foot kicked into an object on the floor. He dropped Tina’s hand in order to catch himself from falling.

  Once he regained his footing, he said to her, “It’s okay. It was just a fallen chair. Lets keep going.”

  Tina was now in front of her father. She reached back to grab his hand, but it was not there. She moved her arm around, searching for him, but found nothing. Just before she could turn around to find him, she heard a muffled scream from behind her. Even though the sound was muffled, she recognized it instantly to be the voice of her father, Joseph.

  Tina spun around quickly and screamed out, “Daddy!”

  Squinting to hopefully see better in the dim light, she saw a hooded shadow figure dragging Joseph, kicking and fighting, into one of the nearby elevators. Even though her father had at least forty pounds and a foot of height on the hooded figure, he was unable to break free. The figure reached over and pressed a button inside the elevator, and the doors began to close.

  Tina again screamed for her father and ran as fast as she could towards the closing elevator doors. She was unsure what she would be able to do if she did manage to get there in time. Clearly the shadow figure was much stronger than her father, so she, too, would also be no match for him. Just before she reached the elevator, the doors fully shut. Her running came to an instant stop as she nearly ran face first into the doors.

  She pounded on the doors, screaming, “Daddy” through tears.

  A few seconds later she heard her father scream, “Run, kiddo, get out of here! Go find help!”

  She didn’t want to leave him behind. She thought that even if she could find her way out of the city, she had no car to do it. Her cell phone still had no signal and she had apparently no way of finding help or getting to it. Rescuing him was her only option, regardless of his wish for her to leave him and get out. She needed to find him and save him and up was the only direction to go. Resigning herself to saving him, she reluctantly reached over and pressed the elevator call button.

  The second elevator’s doors opened nearly instantly. She knew she had no idea what floor her father was taken to, so instead of getting in and guessing, she had the brilliant idea to just wait a minute to see where the other elevator stopped. Bringing her tears under control, she waited and watched the digital screen beside the elevator her father was dragged in to. Eventually the numbers stopped changing when the display read nine. She nervously stepped in to the elevator, pressed nine, and watched the doors close.

  After a short wait, the elevator chimed and the doors opened on the ninth floor. This floor was a giant empty room. She looked around for signs that her father was here, but found absolutely nothing. The room was completely empty, not even a speck of dirt to be seen. She looked back at the elevator screen on the wall, and the other elevator now indicated it was on eleven, not nine. Perhaps it was not done moving or it had made a quick stop here for some other reason? Regardless, she now knew she had to go up to eleven.

  She stepped back in the elevator and pressed the button for eleven. She was looking down at her feet as the doors closed, when she heard a man’s voice yell out “Hey!” By the time she looked back up to see the source, the doors had fully closed.

  Chapter 19

  Luke burst out of the stairwell onto the ninth floor and slammed the door shut behind him. Unsure of what was following or chasing him, he leaned back against the door and braced it to help keep it shut. Pushing on the door, he listened for noises of someone coming up the stairs. He heard nothing from behind the door.

  After about a minute of pressing against the door, he finally eased up and looked around to survey his surroundings. The large room was completely empty, but across the way he could see the elevators. One of them was open and he saw a woman inside. The doors began closing and Luke yelled out “Hey” to hopefully catch her attention. She either didn’t hear him, or didn’t care, because she allowed the doors to close with no verbal or physical response to his call.

  Luke again yelled, “Hey,” as he ran over to the elevators to attempt to catch her.

  When he reached the elevator wall, he pressed both up and down buttons. The other elevator opened shortly after, indicating it was going up. The display on the elevator the woman left in was indicating it was on floor ten.

  Luke pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and once more fired up the app that allowed him to check the Wi-Fi signal strength in the area. It did a quick scan and showed that the signal he had been following earlier in the day was indeed still present and of excellent strength.

  It appeared that his only hope of getting out of this place and back home again was to continue on his quest to find the person responsible for the Wi-Fi signal, and his mysterious phone call earlier. According to the janitor he met, that person was up on floor eleven, so that was where he needed to go. He looked over at the display on the elevator where the woman was, and that indicated it was now on eleven, not ten. Was that some kind of weird coincidence? Everything was leading him to this place and floor eleven.

  Luke walked back over to the stairwell and listened again for the sound of someone on the other side. He still heard nothing. He reached down and grabbed the doorknob and turned it slowly and quietly, but it was locked. He pressed harder, but it still would not turn.

  “Damn,” said Luke. “I guess I have to take the elevator now.”

  He remembered his earlier conversation with the janitor, who told him to avoid the elevators, but he looked around the empty room and there was no other way. He would have to take the elevator up to eleven. He began heading back over to the opposite wall.

  Two steps from the stairwell door, he heard the knob rattle. There was nowhere to hide, so he ran over to the corner of the room on the same side as the stairwell door and pressed himself up in the corner as close as he could get. Hiding in plain sight was something children usually did while playing hide and seek, but he had no other choice at this moment.

  The door creaked open and he saw a small black creature come through the doorway. A foot into the room, it paused, looked up, and appeared to be sniffing the air. A few seconds later, it ran across the room and jumped up to the ceiling, knocking loose a ceiling tile. It jumped again, up through the now open hole and climbed out of sight.

  Luke let out a deep sigh. He snuck out a bit more into the room and looked back toward the door. It was still open from when the creature entered. Now was his chance to get out of here. He hurried as quietly as he could back to the door and entered the stairwell. All the lights were back on again and it was well lit. To prevent the creature from following him, he closed the stairwell door behind him.

  Chapter 20

  Jonathan had never seen anything even slightly resembling that black creature. It was definitely not any kind of cat or dog that he had ever seen. It was sort of shaped like a ball that was being pressed down; round but slightly oblong, and covered in coarse black hair, blacker than anything he had ever seen before. The hair was so dark that it appeared to almost consume light.

  Freaked out by the presence and very nature of this creature, he hurried back to the service elevators that Lou had suggested he use. The doors to the elevator were already open, so he stepped inside and pressed the button for floor eleven. Around the corner, the black creature appeared. It stopped and just watched Jonathan standing inside the elevator. Jonathan noticed this and became nervous at its behavior. Its eyes seemed to be red, but not solid, swirling. It looked hostile and Jonathan wanted to avoid all
future contact with it, starting right then. He reached over and pressed the eleven button again, and again, and a few more times, including the door close button for good measure.

  The doors finally began to close, and the creature seemed to notice its prey was going to get away. It immediately began a full speed gallop like motion toward the elevator. Just as the doors fully shut, there was a loud bang noise, followed by scratching and growling sounds, growing more distant as the elevator continued up. After a few more seconds, the creature’s noise was gone and the only sound Jonathan could still hear was his own heavy breathing.

  “What in God’s name was that thing?” Jonathan asked himself.

  About another minute of a completely uneventful ride passed before the elevator finally stopped. The display read eleven, then chimed, and the doors to floor eleven opened.

  Jonathan stepped out and immediately noticed a man lying on the floor in the center of the room.

  “Hey! Buddy,” Jonathan called out. “Are you okay?”

  There was no answer from the man. He appeared to be either dead or unconscious. From the amount of cuts and bruises the man was covered with, and the blood present on his clothing, Jonathan guessed the former and that the man was in fact dead. Not liking to assume anything, he walked up to the man, intending to search for a pulse.

  “Ah. VIP number two has arrived,” said a deep voice behind him.

  Chapter 21

  Quickly, Tina began mashing the door open button, but it was already too late. The elevator had begun moving up toward the eleventh floor. She wondered who it was that yelled out to her as the doors were closing. She hadn’t seen anyone else besides her father and that weird janitor all day. It didn’t sound like either of those two, so she was a bit hopeful knowing that someone else was there.