"Thank you for agreeing to see me. I know we're about to do an interview, but first I wanted to be sure you had an escape if you needed one. There's a kind of emergency ladder inside, in case you ever need to use it. We'll explain it during the tour."
The preparations for the interview were taking longer than I had expected, and it was now close to one o'clock. After long and careful preparations they finally led me outside. We passed through the lobby and were heading into the elevators when suddenly I heard a gasp. I spotted a man to the right, his face drawn with fear. He was bright red, nervous. He was just about to rush to the elevator, as if he needed to get out as quickly as possible. "What's wrong?" I asked, getting closer to him and pushing the call button.
Arthur looked at me, his eyes alive. "Don't come here, it's not safe!"
"What are you talking about? Are you injured?"
"No, no. I'm…fine. Just don't come this way!" the man was now panting heavily.
"Arthur, what's going on?" I asked him, worried by the shaking of his hands. He wasn't injured, but he was somehow frightened.
"I don't know who he is," Arthur said. The doors of the elevator opened and he pulled me inside. "I should never have come here."
He was acting really strange. I was starting to feel uncomfortable. His moves were abrupt and unnatural. I hadn't been expecting him to behave like that. "Are you alright?" I asked. "You're acting really strange."
He slipped his hand inside my pocket and took out my phone, then threw it to the ground, shattering it instantly. "Please stay here. I'm afraid they'll see us together." He went on, staring into my eyes with a strange look on his face, intense and focused.
The door was starting to close. I stepped back so I could dodge the closing door. "Who will see us together? Who are you?"
He just stared at me, his gaze growing increasingly intense as the last seconds before the elevator doors closed slipped by. The door finally closed, and we were suddenly in darkness. I was now finding this all too strange and scary. Was I dreaming? Maybe he knew I had dreamed about him and now he was here? I knew this was crazy, but I had a strange feeling about all this. I was about to ask him about it, when I noticed that he was also standing in the darkness, his eyes closed as if…as if trying to control himself.
He opened his eyes and looked at me. Maybe he hadn't noticed my phone was in pieces on the floor. He stared at me curiously and then his face became completely expressionless. "We have to get out of here before they catch us." He stopped and pursed his lips, then continued looking at me, his features somehow changing. He was looking at me deeply, hypnotically almost. "We have to get away hell soon! Away…away."
I was feeling uncomfortable, even more than before. He was acting like a madman. "Who will catch us? Who are you?" I asked him.
His lips were already moving slowly, but I couldn't hear a miracle. "They are watching us. In the darkness. The darkness. The darkness won't catch us. It won't catch us. It will find us later in the darkness. In the darkness." His face was changing, his features becoming more enhanced. He was suddenly looking peculiar. He could have been thirty or fifty five. He was dark-skinned, dark and tall. His face seemed to glow in the darkness of the elevator. He was looking at me intensely, examining me with the look of a pro. It seemed like he knew I had been dreaming of him at night, that he knew what was in my dreams. I realized he could read my mind. He smiled at me and it felt so friendly, as if he was able to sense the problems I was having, as if he were able to hear my thoughts.
"Who are you?" I asked him, looking at him in awe. "Is this real?"
"Yes. It is real. It's you. You are real. I need you." He seemed to be in trouble, his accent changing every now and then, changing with each word he said. His face was becoming so focused, so intense. He licked his lips and then puckered them. "I need you, now." Then he saw something behind me. He was terrified. "He sees us. He's looking for us. Find cover behind the trees, quickly. Now." We both ran and hid behind the trees as quickly as we could.
"I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't come here but…I have to. They have me. They have…power over me. Can you help?" he asked raising his eyes, as if realizing there was no other way out.
"Who do you mean? Who has you? Who are you?"
He looked up into my eyes and smiled. "They are evil. They are weak. They are evil. They are in this darkness. They are not in this darkness. I'm guessing in darkness." He pressed his lips tightly and got up, his eyes gleaming. "I have to go back. The door's open. I have to go through the door." He walked back slowly and entered the dark elevator.
"Stop him! He's crazy! He's gonna try to hurt someone, maybe my daughter!" a terrified voice sounded from above. I looked up and saw one of the men from before, his eyes looking at the elevator in panic. He was rushing downstairs, trying to get down as quickly as possible.
I could hear Arthur speaking in the elevator. "I'm trapped. Somebody help me. Help me. Please help me. Someone is trying to kill me. He is trying to kill me. I need to escape. Please, someone help me."
The door was minutes away from closing. I had to do something. I raced back to the elevator, but I was too late. The doors were closed. I kept pressing the button to open the doors, but nothing happened. I was pressing the button, but the elevator had already started moving down, fast. "No!" I looked at the floor. I had to do something. My pocket was empty. I was clutching a crystal paperweight. I looked around me, searching for something to break the window. Suddenly my eye caught a stone on the ground, a very sharp one. I picked it up, and ran back to the elevator. I could hear Arthur screaming with pain and panic in the elevator screaming out. As I was running, I noticed a file lying next to the elevator. I grabbed it, opening the file…and then I was inside.
"Let me out. I want out of here."
"Open the file."