Word Count: 504
In The Lift
Ben steps into the lift of his apartment building,
mindlessly presses the button to the fourth floor and walks to the back. His
foot moves what sounds like a sheet of paper, he looks down to discover it’s an
x-ray he picks it up to examine it.
“What in the
world,” he raises it to the light, it seems to be a human limb but there’s
something different about it. He puts it under his arm as the lift comes to a
halt, he steps off and starts walking over to his apartment he stumbles into
another person attempting to step into the lift causing him to drop the x-ray
and the stranger drops a magazine they were carrying.
“Sorry,”
the stranger bends down to pick up his magazine
and spots the x-ray, he hands it back to Ben, “Where’d you find this?”
Ben clears
his throat, “It was on the lift,” the stranger pushes him against the wall,
“Hey what the hell man!” the strangers hold on his shirt tightens, Ben tries to
escape but the man is stronger, the lift doors open the man pushes him inside
and closes the lift doors and presses the button to the basement.
“Shut up,
have you shown this to anyone?” Ben searches the man’s face; he’s never seen
this man in his building before how did he get in? “HAVE YOU SHOWN THIS TO
ANYONE?” Ben furiously shakes his head. The lift comes to a stop and the cold night air sends a chill down his back, the
man drags him out, “You mustn’t tell anyone about this, it’s bad news.” Says
the stranger.
“Okay, but what is it? Who are
you?”
“My name doesn’t matter, just thank
me. This is a little picture some bad men are looking for it’s for a little
science project gone wrong. Humans should never play god.” Says the man.
“What- who are you?”
“Let’s just say, nothing can hurt
you know, welcome aboard.” Says the stranger, bringing out a syringe from his
coat. “ Now this will only sting a little.”
Soon everything goes black.
Ben wakes up in his room, dazed and
confused he stands up reaches to his neck, it feels sore. “That was weird.” He
turns on the television; pictures of several leaked x-rays similar to the one
in his dream are splayed out on the screen. “The discovery of experimenting on
humans has been brought to light soon to be presented before a jury, with these images many have been
approached by a strange man and then start hallucinating. We are in a state of quarantine,” said the
voice form the television, “if you’ve been approached by this man,” a picture
similar to the stranger from Ben’s dream pops up, “Please contact-”
The sound of an alarm causes Ben to
wake up, he’s in bed he immediately touches his neck, nothing there. He looks
at his phone it’s Saturday morning.
“Just a dream, that’s it no more
watching the science fiction channel before bed.”