Dreamer Easy

Ascent

2.          Ascent


        The elevator’s outline seemed to appear from the wall, either that or Jack was going insane and hadn’t noticed it up until when the security guard pointed it out. It was the same color as the room, and it quietly slid open, as if on queue, to allow Jack to enter it. Jack walked forward hesitantly, but stopped mid-stride to relay another question to the tacit guardsmen, who only pointed again to the slow-opening door. Jack uneasily stepped in, and the door promptly shut, much quicker than it had opened.

        At first, the elevator seemed as bland as the building; it wasn’t glistening metal like the ones seen in hotels but pale or khaki colored with paint chipping off. There were no buttons in sight, nor was there a floor signaling device. Jack leaned back onto a metal rail against the back wall, closed his eyes, and took a deep, relaxing breath.

        “It’ll be ok.” he thought to himself repeatedly. “I’ll do fine.”

        The moment he opened his eyes he was startled to see that the once-bland walls were now brilliantly polished metal: so clean that Jack could easily see his own reflection, totally un-blurred. Rubbing his head in disbelief, Jack arose from his slouched position to investigate. He now thought he may very well be going insane.

        All the signs of a hangover had gone away, and there was no clear culprit in what seemed to be some kind of hallucination. He shook his head, composed himself, and reasoned that stress was getting to the best of him. “It has to be the stress…” he said to himself, his forehead becoming heated in panic.

        Slowly, Jack raised one hand out and let it hover right over the shiny surface. He recoiled only once, and then finally touched the wall. It was freezing cold. Disregarding instinct, Jack let his hand rest their awhile, out of sheer curiosity. The surface felt as though it was moving—or at least rippling under the surface of Jack’s hand. He moved his head closer but could not distinguish any visual signs of the wall’s movement—it seemed like a perfectly solid surface. The floor was the same as it had been before: pathetically carpeted in bland, dark burgundy and blue colors and extremely gritty.

        Jack finally removed his hand, this time rather quickly, as the cold was getting to him now. The wall seemed to shake, and he jumped back, startled. The brilliant metal seemed to take on an animated gradient, moving and rippling throughout the metallic surface. All of the sudden, a picture appeared, and then more, encompassing the entire wall, and all of its sides. A desert, it seemed. And then, the metal flashed and yet another picture was displayed. The wall seemed to cycle through them, at what seemed to be an increasing speed.

        Throughout this entire experience Jack was somewhat afraid for his life, and halfway into it he wondered if someone had given him some sort of drug before he left his apartment. He couldn’t think, was too mesmerized by the display of pictures.

        Jack was so jolted throughout the ride that he couldn’t properly pay attention, but could later recall seeing a huge ziggurat, a garden in the sky, pyramids, Stonehenge, what seemed to be the Colossus of Rhodes, a crucifixion, a shuttle launch, and many depictions of war, famine, plague, death, assassination and similar terrible occurrences. The images cycled through rather quickly, so he could only really recall things of familiarity. He did, however, recall the last two images as the large ziggurat piercing a dark sky while fire and brimstone seemed to rain onto it and a view of a space station somewhere in the universe that appeared to be dangerously close to what looked like a black hole.

        The elevator abruptly shook to a halt. It was at this point that Jack realized that the elevator had been moving. The wall dimmed and then returned to its brilliant metallic color. It continued to change metallic gradients until finally restoring itself to its original pale.

        “What on earth…?” Jack said aloud, just as the wall returned to normal. He composed himself quickly and looked around. Everything was the same as before. At this point, Jack seriously doubted his senses, and came to the conclusion that he was in fact hallucinating, but could not reason what the cause was.

        The elevator was still.

        Nothing happened for a couple of moments, just long enough to make Jack feel quite uneasy, and then finally the doors began to open in a slow, deliberate manner.