Thank you for waiting.

Chapter Ten

Beryl was about to give up. She felt too numb to stand, and found herself slumping, legs about to give way. The desire to be at peace with her fate washed over her in waves, but it was very quickly drowning her.

"BERYL!" shouted Eloise, "ELEVATOR!"

She snapped up, and surely enough, on the opposite side of the room. There was a tiny, barely visible, illuminated sign that said 'Elevator' on it. Then she looked up towards the ceiling. The commercial ceiling tile had all been removed, leaving the bare concrete of the store's second floor, steel frames, and wiring, but no creature.

"RUN!" hissed Eloise, darting ahead of her. She threw off her helmet, letting it crash on the floor behind her.

Beryl was off after her, she sprinted as fast as she possibly could, head down, tears in her eyes. The assistance desk was up ahead and gave her just enough light to be able to see the floor. There was a bit of blood pooling within reach of the light, dripping from the ceiling. She could only imagine the worst but did her best to ignore it.

That's when she was grabbed.

It was like hundreds of tiny claws grabbed into her arms, lifting her off the ground. She began to writhe, screaming until she managed to slip out of her felt coat. She dropped the flashlight, but it didn't matter in her mind as much as running. The elevator sign was getting so close.

Eloise was there. She began mashing the 'up' button as hard as she could. It lit up, and something motorized began to move in the back.

Beryl saw black arms reach down around Eloise. "HEY!!" she screeched at the creature, as its face turned around to her for just a moment. That's when the elevator door opened, casting bright, incandescent light into the room. The creature screeched, letting Eloise fall to the floor. Beryl scooped her up, and the two fell into the elevator before the doors closed.

On the floor, they began to choke up. Something like a mixture between delirious laughter and sobbing came out of both of their mouths. No words would come, though.

Five minutes went by. The two of them were close, barely doing much other than breathe. They became tired, but it wasn't the kind that permitted either of them to sleep.

"Beryl," whispered Eloise, "What.. the.. hell?!"

"Don't think about it," she replied. "We need to leave. This elevator won't be safe forever. It might not even be safe right now."

"Look, I'm sorry-"

"You don't need to-"

"Don't interrupt me," signed Eloise, "I've been awful. Chad didn't deserve that. I did."

"Hey, don't-"

"You know what writing in someone's journal costs? The death penalty. I could've been killed for that joke. Should've been killed." Her face was sullen. "I was gonna remove it. And no one ever reports it, but..."

"Eloise?"

"Uh-huh?"

"What is this place? Where are we?"

She was quiet for a long time, but eventually, she spoke. "I don't know."

"Is there anything I should know?"

"We don't die," she whispered, "We just come back without our memory. At first it was sad, I was told. But then it happened to everyone and it became normal. We did the same old things over and over again and met each other for the first time so many times and... I feel dead, Beryl."