Page 191 of Goodbye Note

To give him credit, he didn’t say a word.

I could get through this.

The elevator jerked suddenly, throwing me off balance.

I hit the wall and grabbed the rail. “What the fuck?”

The elevator wasn’t moving, and the doors weren’t opening. I glanced over at Varian, who was in a very similar state of bracing himself.

“Are we going to die?”I asked, not upset.

“Why? You have some deathbed confessions?” Varian wore the hint of a smile I both loved and hated.

“No,” I said coldly. “None I’d tell you.”

He rolled his eyes and slowly let go of the rail. “Hopefully, this means we aren’t going to fall.”

“Hopefully? Why are you letting go?” I couldn’t pry my fingers off the rail if I wanted to. I was white-knuckling this bitch.

“Because I don’t think holding the rail would save me if the elevator fell and we crashed to our death.” His words drove some sense into my brain.

I slowly released my grip and rubbed my knuckles. “Fair point. I guess we should push the emergency button?” What were the fucking odds?

“I think so? I’ve never been stuck in an elevator before.” He pulled his phone out. “Of course I have no signal.”

I hit the call button, and it started ringing. “This seems to work.”

It kept ringing and ringing.

“I’m going to hit the emergency button.”

Varian didn’t say anything, so I did.

An alarm sounded.

I closed one eye as the siren cut through the last of my working neurons. “Well, that’s fucking unpleasant.”

“No shit.” Varian put his hands over his ears. “It’s so bad, blocking it doesn’t help. It’s getting in my brain at a molecular level.”

“I feel it taking the rest of my sanity.”

He laughed. “Not much left, is there?”

I shook my head.

“Hello?” a voice called from the panel.

“Hi. We’re stuck in the elevator,” I said leaning toward the panel.

“Is there anyone injured?” he asked.

“No…”

“Good. Hang tight. We’ll get a technician to your location as soon as possible.” The alarm cut.

“Why do I have a feeling ‘as soon as possible’ will be hours?” I slid to a seat and took my phone out to check my signal. “These fucking all-concrete buildings.”

“I swear they build phone-blocking tech into them now so people can’t stream from concerts.” Varian hesitated, then sat down as well.

---