The Elevator By William Sleator Novels & Stories

He nodded meaningfully to see that the hotel cleaners were doing their cleaning job perfectly. The doors of the elevator were about to slide close when Jesse pressed the button to the top floor, and it was interrupted as a child ran in and beckoned another child to follow her in. A woman too proceeded into the elevator to join them, before the doors finally slid closed and the elevator smoothly began to ascend. "You are sure I didn't pass the flu to you, Evan?" Autumn asked her brother as the elevator moved up, and he shook his head in disapproval and just patted her head.

Jace thanked the receptionist and the two of them walked to the elevator. "Since, when you got interested to baby fats?" Kaizer asked Jace as he pushed the bright button in the elevator that would lead them to the third floor. The elevator was powered with water magic, maybe because to thrift electricity. It lifted upward when the opposite tube was emptied with water and plummeted downward when the water lifting the elevator puked back to the opposite tube. The water changed color for each time and it somehow added to the liveliness of the hotel. Watching the smooth tornado-like sipping of the water, Jace answered. "Just now,” he said proudly.

He looked down at Arthur, his dark eyes totally devoid of human emotion. "You think a piece of paper gives me power, Arthur?" Ethan asked quietly. Before the CFO could reply, Ethan grabbed my wrist with a firm, unbreakable grip, pulling me away from the ruined console and dragging me straight toward the heavy steel express elevator. The lift doors slid open with a sharp heavy hiss, revealing the bright polished chrome inside. Ethan shoved me through the opening and stepped in right after me, hammering his thumb against the top-floor button. The doors slammed shut, sealing us in, and the floor dropped out from under my boots as the elevator accelerated upward.

The air coming from inside the building was cold, stale and smelling of ozone and the copper tang of dry blood. ​"The elevators are dead weight," Captain Kael said, his voice echoing in the hollowed-out lobby. He shone a high-intensity tactical light into the darkness, revealing the elevator shafts, four empty, black throats that stretched upward into infinity. "The counterweights snapped when the power spiked. If we want the 80th floor, we’re taking the emergency stairs. All eighty flights." ​"Then we start climbing," Leo said, his voice a gravelly rasp.

Elena smiled politely as she swiped her master keycard at the private elevator. The elevator doors opened with a soft chime. Elena and Chloe stepped inside, pressing the button for the top floor. "See? Quick and easy," Chloe said as the elevator sped upward. "We grab my keys off the reception counter, and we are out of here in three minutes." The elevator chimed, and the metal doors slid open onto the top floor. The hallway was mostly dark. The long carpeted corridor was lit only by the soft blue emergency nightlights installed along the walls. The air was dead quiet, the sound of their heels making soft sounds on the thick carpet.

She said and started walking towards the elevator. "See you later. Congratulations." Lily greeted and I stood there blankly staring at her. "Do I need to carry you?!" The Secretary said again as she pressed the button that opened the elevator. The elevator was strictly for the secretaries of the CEO. Rumors have it that he didn't want his secretaries to be late for a report or encounter any delay so he made this elevator for them. "Daydreaming?" "No, ma'am. See you later." I said and made a man dash towards her grabbing unto my beige bag.

His eyes darted between me and the car so I leaned around him and opened the door. The entire ride he nearly squeezed my hand so hard I thought it might pop off my wrist. When it came time to go to our room I wasn’t quite sure how to explain an elevator. We stood outside it and I drew a deep breath. “This is a lift that will move us up to a higher floor. You saw how tall the building was, taking the stairs would be too much. With this lift we can move to a higher floor fast and bring our things easily,” I explained. It was about the most dumbed down version of an elevator I could possibly think of saying.

Andrew James urged from slightly behind her as space inside the elevator cleared, with the purring arrogance of his exceptionally wealthy upbringing and the seductive warmth of an elitist Ivy League education, the audio version of a lingering kiss that made Evelyn flush again with embarrassment that her legs felt trembly. Inside the elevator, the younger Mr. James counted obsessively, tapping one foot as restlessly as a caged jungle cat as the lift rose from floor to floor, pausing to let some passengers exit and a few new ones board. With a sly glance, Evelyn noted he paid no more attention to anyone around him than he appeared to in the lobby. To distract herself from his uncomfortable pre

The B2 button lit up. The doors closed. The descent began. The silence inside that elevator felt unnatural. Elena stood rigidly beside Adrian, one hand hidden in the pocket of the lab coat around the knife at her thigh. The fluorescent light above them buzzed softly. The steel walls reflected pale, distorted versions of their faces back at them. On the outside, Elena Hart looked composed. Beautiful. Cold. Untouchable. On the inside, she was balancing over a pit. Every second the elevator dropped deeper underground, more of the pit opened beneath her.

The office lights flickered again. A new corridor appeared between cubicles. At the end of it stood an elevator. Above the elevator doors, words glowed. SOURCE ARCHIVE. Haley clutched her stomach. "Why is there always an elevator?" Jack stepped toward it. The Hollowsmith grabbed his arm. "Do not trust direct routes." "Can we take an indirect elevator?" Haley raised a hand. "I vote stairs." A sign appeared beside them. STAIRS TEMPORARILY DISABLED FOR SAFETY.