Invisible Smoke ➵ l.s. (editing)

three

The girls tumbled down the metal chute.

Elara landed feet first into a pile of scrap metal, paper, and other garbage. The murky water stained the bottom of her pristine white pants into a disgusting grey.

Her eyes wandered around the small room, landing on a small door. She waded over toward the door, and attempted to open it. Nothing she did made the door move. Luke, who'd just tumbled in, even tried to open it, attempting to pry it open with a metal fragment as if it were a crowbar. It didn't budge a millimeter. "This thing has to be magnetically sealed."

Magnetically sealed, meaning only someone on the outside could open it. The chance of an Imperial letting them out didn't even exist. They didn't need Threepio to figure those odds.

The final two of the group dramatically plummeted into the foul odored room. A 7 foot tall Wookiee and his companion – a slightly shorter brunette hotshot pilot. (Who – Elara thought to herself – was just Leia's type.)

"The garbage chute was a really wonderful idea! What an incredible smell you've discovered," The pilot seethed. He carelessly aimed his blaster to the small door, "let's get out of here."

"No! Wait!" Luke reached to stop him, but made contact a second too late. The laser bolt violently ricocheted off the metal walls. Luke ducked his head for cover, simultaneously shielding Elara with his Stormtrooper armor.

The laser finally dissipated in a fiery explosion of sparks and smoke above their heads. Luke snapped viciously at the reckless pilot. "Will you forget it? We already tried it. It's magnetically sealed!"

Leia gestured to his blaster with a stone cold expression painted over her paled face. "Put that thing away! You're gonna get us all killed!"

"Absolutely, Your Worship. Look, I had everything under control until you led us down here. You know, it's not going to take them long to figure out what happened to us."

"It could be worse!" Leia retorted.

A low, chilling moan echoed throughout the metal room, causing all five's bickering go silent. "It's worse."

Elara exchanged a wary look with Luke – the blond boy grasping firmly onto his blaster. She scans the murky water, her heart dropping in her chest as something seemed to swim through it. It's slimy back brushed against her leg, causing her to nearly lose her balance, only catching herself on the arm of the boy. Luke noticed too, and pointed his blaster at the water. "There's something alive in here."

"It's just your imagination." The pilot scoffed.

"It just moved past my leg," he pointed incredulously at the creature slithering through the water, "look, did you see that?"

For a split second, the creature seemingly disappeared. Before he could even begin to react, the creature resurfaced and latched onto Luke's leg, pulling him under. The color in Elara's face quickly drained to a pale white. "Luke!"

"Kid! Luke!" The pilot, Han, dug trash from of the water, trying to find the boy who seemingly disappeared amongst it. Elara grabbed a rod of metal and prodded at the water for any sign of life from the blond boy. He resurfaced near the pilot, gasping for air with slimy tentacle wrapping itself tighter around his throat.

"Blast it, will you! My gun's jammed." He said in between strained breaths while Han and Elara attempted to each grab onto one of his arms to pull from the creature's grip. With every pull, it grew angrier and slithered tighter around his neck.

"Where?"

"Anywhere!" Han fired at the creature, but that only angered it. It tightened its grip for the final time and forcefully pulled Luke back under.

"Luke!"

The walls of the room shuddered, inconspicuously moving inward a few inches. A deathly silence fell over the room — interrupted by the sound of Luke gasping for air. The creature disappeared from sight. "Grab him," Leia shouted as Han moved to grab the boy, "what happened?"

"I don't know!" he coughed, "It just let go of me and disappeared!"

The walls shuddered again. The noise sent a feeling of dread tingling through Elara's entire body. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Before she could take another breath, the walls began to move inward at a rapid speed, sending panic-induced adrenaline through all five still trapped inside. "The walls are moving!"

"Don't just stand there! Try and brace it with something," Leia panicked, and struggled to pick up a large pole, "help me!"

Han helped the young princess lodge the pole between the moving walls, only for it to bend as the walls continued to get close in.

Elara could feel the unfortunately familiar sense of dread come over her. Her chest began to feel tighter, making every breath harder. It began to overwhelm her, but she fought against it. She forced herself to focus on stopping the walls.

Luke remembered his com link, and grabbed the small object from his belt. He yelled urgently into it. "Threepio? Come in Threepio! Threepio! Where could he be?"

As she tried to help brace the walls, Leia found herself sinking further into the garbage. She struggled keeping her feet on top of the pile. "Get to the top!"

"I can't!"

The walls continue to get closer while Luke still struggled to contact his droid. He eventually gave up on it. "One thing's for sure, we're gonna be a lot thinner!"

Elara manages to get to the top of a garbage pile, and attempted to somehow the wall back with her legs. She too gave up on the effort, and rested her head on the wall. Her eyes closed, and she prepared herself for the inevitable – the sensation of being crushed by a trash compactor.

Luke's comlink buzzed, and he ripped it back off his belt. "Threepio, will you shut up and listen to me? Shut down all garbage mashers on the detention level," he tried to keep his head above the garbage, "Shut down all garbage mashers on the detention level!"

The walls were now inches apart. Elara kept her eyes shut; she didn't want to watch herself, or her childhood best friend, get crushed. She placed a shaky hand onto the wall, and waited. She waited for the moment to come, when the walls stopped.

a/n
thank y'all for reading!
I know this took a while to get published and probably isn't the best (I didn't get to edit it) but
anyways I hope y'all enjoyed and don't forget to vote and comment and have a lovely night 💗