The Beautiful Monster

A few seconds later, the lights flickered back on, and the elevator moved back up the shaft.

It was like nothing had happened, and she sat there and questioned herself for a second, wondering if she had imagined the entire thing.

She lifted her hand to her neck, rubbing at the goosebumps as her eyes investigated the elevator. Nothing was in there. It made no sense.

When the elevator doors opened, she peered out into the hallway. People were moving along like normal, like the elevator hadn't just shut down for no reason.

She had no idea why the elevator did that. The power didn't go out anywhere else. Was she just that unlucky, or was something else going on?

"What are you doing?"

Alyssa looked up to see Jackson standing in front of the elevator, holding the doors closed with his hand.

She realized that she was still huddled in the back corner of the elevator, prompting her to hastily push herself to her feet. She brushed herself off, feeling her face burn.

"Nothing," she said quietly as she walked out of the elevator. She glanced around, still feeling spooked. What made her the most nervous was that she thought someone was in the elevator with her.

But that was impossible, right? No one could've snuck onto the elevator and then snuck out before the lights turned back on.

They would've gotten crushed in the shaft. It was impossible.

"What's wrong?" Jackson asked her, stopping her from walking off.

If she wasn't so on edge, she would've been amused that he actually seemed to show her genuine concern.

That was a first. She shook her head, not wanting to tell him anything. He would just think that she was crazy.

If she was honest, she thought that she was going a little crazy too. She didn't know what just happened to her.

"Nothing," she repeated before walking away from him.

Alyssa considered going off to the side and calling Elias to tell him what happened. It was hard to keep something like that to herself because she couldn't make sense of it.

Maybe someone else could. Maybe they could explain to her what made the elevator stop and what that gust of air was.

But maybe it was nothing. She was stressed. That had to be it, so she didn't need to bother anyone else about what happened.

Elias was dealing with his own things, and she needed to get to work and focus on that. It was a weird incident and nothing more.

But why had there been so many weird incidents lately? There was the flaming candle, the shadow in the parking lot, and now the elevator incident.

She couldn't think of any logical explanation for all of these weird happenings, and she didn't think that the supernatural had any place in the real world.

It must've been her own mind playing tricks on her. She was sure that stress could do that to people. Hallucinations were a real thing.

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts as she approached Dr. Shields.

"What do you have for me today?" she asked him, hoping that he gave her something to focus on.

The last thing that she needed to do right now was to let her mind roam. She would think of even crazier things and spook herself even more.

Dr. Shields looked up from the file folder in his hands.

"Want to assist me with a tissue biopsy?" he asked her as he tucked the folder under his arm.

An excited look immediately crossed Alyssa's face, completely clearing the elevator incident from her mind.

"Really?" she asked him, feeling grateful that he asked her to assist. It was a minor procedure, but it was as close to surgery as she could get right now.

She would take anything that she could get at this point. Medical assistants were given scraps, but she understood why.

They didn't know hardly anything and weren't the best to rely on so early in their education, especially when it came to people's health and lives.

Dr. Shields nodded and handed her the file.

"Come on. We have to take the elevator to the third floor," he said as he started to walk down the hallway.

Alyssa found that she couldn't move from the spot as she turned her head to look at the elevator at the end of the hallway.

The elevator incident was back in her mind, and it wasn't leaving for a while. What if it happened again?

She was almost worried about it not happening again with Dr. Shields in there with her. Did that mean the incident happened because of her being in there?

She didn't want to think that anything weird happened just because of her. She already had plenty of things in the real and normal world to deal with.

She didn't also want to deal with things that she couldn't begin to explain.

"Coming?" Dr. Shields asked when he realized that she wasn't following him to the elevator.

Alyssa nodded, tightening her fists to give herself an extra boost of confidence. She couldn't avoid elevators forever.

What happened was an isolated assistant, and she was done letting fear get in the way of her progress, whether she was facing real life or fantasy.

*********

"Class of 2021!" Zoe cheered before clinking her shot glass full of tequila against Alyssa's.

Alyssa brought the edge of the glass to her lips and downed the shot, feeling the liquid burn down her throat and into her chest.

She coughed as her face screwed up at the taste. She could never get used to the punch that tequila dealt.

She could go her entire life without drinking tequila and be perfectly content, but it was Zoe's shot of choice.

"Class of 2021," she wheezed out as she recovered from the bold taste. She pushed the empty shot glass away across the surface of the wooden bar that she was sat at with Zoe.

With the end of the semester looming in front of them, they decided to take a night and celebrate the end of their undergraduate career.

They had made it so far, despite the hard classes, hard assignments, and hard times. Alyssa hoped that they were all worth it.

Zoe grinned at Alyssa, donning an amused expression on her face. She knew that Alyssa couldn't handle tequila.

"We're graduating soon. I can't wait!" she said as she clapped her hands excitedly. "We're going to be masters of health.. Well, mental health for me."