Water and Salt

Elevators made for more than ten people are machines made by the devil. Those made for even twenty people are even worse. Who in the hell would want to get in an elevator full of people? Either you’re really good friends with the other people and in that case, you accept to be squeezed in that small death machine, feeling part of your friends’ bodies you’d never feel against yours in another occasion, or you’re the devil and like this kind of shit.

Ding. Floor five.

The doors open and two beautiful young girls wearing a uniform walk inside. Is that even a uniform? It appears so. I stare at the blonde. She’s looking at a distant something on the silver door of the elevator, but I can tell that she’s feeling my eyes pierce her rib cage or rather, her busty chest hidden underneath the light brown cardigan; she smiles shyly at me. I smile back at her.

There are five of us, so also counting the two girls, it means there are seven souls in this trap. Dammit, I already can feel like I can’t properly breathe.

Shadows is stretching his arms. He looks like a dumb gorilla: can’t tell if he was exercising or if he’s showing off his muscles. Probably the latter. He always tells us he does this when he needs to focus on something. We’ve known him for over ten years and nobody believes him when he says so, but we just nod in agreement. He never questioned us, so I guess he believes us, right?

“Don’t move too much.” The whisper coming from my right makes me turn my head a little.
It’s Jimmy, our drummer. Not only his heart always beats so fast that it’s even scary, and I’m pretty sure the fault was his own because he plays his drums with too much energy (but he’s so damn good at it, so who am I to tell him to just calm down when he plays the drums?), he also suffers from various phobias, one of which is the fear of narrow places. Ca-something-phobia. I can’t remember. I looked it up online once, so I should know, but I forgot. Dammit.

We’re heading to the rooftop of this building in downtown Los Angeles. Apparently our label wants to attend to the launch of a new metal band I’ve never heard of so here we were. Shadows agreed to this shit, obviously. I didn’t want to come.

8, 9, 10.

When the duck walked up to the lemonade stand
And he says to the man that was running the stand
Hey. You got any grapes?

Why in the fuck am I even thinking about this song?

11, 12, 13.

Then he waddled away–waddle, waddle, waddle. He waddled away,
Till the very next day, pom, pom, pom.

Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. It’s all my girlfriend’s fault for showing me that stupid video about that stupid, fucking duck and now I’ll forever have this song stuck in my head. Fuck.

I turn my head to the left just in time to see Zacky open and close his fists, giving the two girls his best longing looks. The blonde turns her head to me and opens her mouth to say something, but I can’t hear her. Actually, I’m not even sure she says anything.

Bam.

With her mouth open, she turns her head to the doors of the elevator and as I do the same, a violent shake makes us realize we’re in the devil’s trap. The sudden shake also makes us hit the walls of the elevator, while the two girls fall on us. The blonde ends up in Jimmy’s arms, who’s holding her more for cavalry than for purpose. I look at him and I can see how tense and nervous he is.

“What the fuck has just happened.” He says, his words not being exactly a question. The girl is still in his arms.

“I think it stopped.” Brian says.

“No, Sherlock.” Jimmy comments.

Another shake.

“The cables are breaking.” Zacky says, with a high pitched voice. He can’t stay still. He looks like a weak branch in the wind.

“Zacky, what are you saying.” Again, this isn’t a question either, but unlike a couple of minutes ago, these words are from Brian.

Jimmy isn’t speaking. He stands there, completely frightened. I suspect he’s cursing mentally, and maybe even mentally stabbing Shadows who agreed to attend this party. Jimmy didn’t want to take the elevator in the first place. He suggested to take the stairs, but c’mon – using the stairs for fifty-something floors? No way. I would rather die here, in the elevator, with two pretty girls and my friends. I can tell, however, without a doubt that Jimmy’s holding back. On another occasion he would’ve started screaming or something, but this time he can’t. Not when there are two young girls in the elevators with us and definitely not when he’s holding a beautiful young girl in his long, tattooed arms.

Wait, where is the blonde’s friend? Oh, there she is, held by Shadows’ strong arms. I look at the girl’s face and damn, she’s really pale. I wonder if she was always this pale or if it’s just the prospect of dying with a bunch of strangers that makes her look like a ghost. Are ghosts even pale? I’m sure they are, I mean, they’re dead people, right? I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that ghosts are probably pale. About 80% sure. Enough, this is not the time nor the place to think about ghosts. I tilt my head as I notice how the girl’s slowly pulling away from him. I finally look away from her and sigh.

Why does nothing good ever happen to me? Good things always happen to the others. I mean, both Shadows and Jimmy are holding the pretty girls to their chest. When is something like this going to happen to me?

The silence in the elevator is almost too disturbing to explain.

“There mu–” Zacky speaks, but immediately stops himself. He clears his throat and when he speaks again, his voice is kind of normal again. “There must be an alarm button. Push it.”

Nobody moves.

The blonde wrapped by Jimmy’s arms reaches out to push the red button. Or rather, she’s trying to. Despite being the closest to the buttons, Jimmy is holding her so tight to his chest that the poor girl can’t do anything. I want to chuckle, but I hold back. After a couple of seconds, she finally pushes the button. We all wait for a sign, a noise, anything that can let us know that somebody acknowledged us, that they know we’re trapped in here.

Nothing.

“It’s not working.” Zacky says. His high pitched voice is back.

“Let’s do something!” Jimmy says.

“There’s no service here.” Brian says, right after taking his phone out of one of his pockets.

“Of course there isn’t. Have you ever watched a horror movie, Brian?” Zacky says, “Victims’ phones never work!”

“What are we gonna do?”

“Let’s do something!”

“What?”

“Shut up.” Shadows thunders, suddenly and imposing. “And don’t move. Everybody shut the fuck up and don’t move.”

He takes a deep breath and starts pushing the doors, trying to opening them. There he is, strongest man of the situation. His movements are so slowly I feel like I’m dying.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Jimmy asks.

“I wanna know which floor is this.”

We are at wall-floor. Behind the silver doors opened by Shadows, in fact, there’s a strong wall made of reinforced concrete that staring back at us. How great.

“I’m claustrophobic.” Jimmy says without even breathing.

Claustrophobia! That’s the word!

“We know.” We all reply in unison.

The blonde girl opens her mouth to say something: “Me too.”

Brian raises an eyebrow, looking at her. “You know, too? How do you know?”

“No. I meant that I’m claustrophobic, too.”

Brian glares at her at first and then at Jimmy. “You guys are so claustrophobic that you’re holding each other like leeches. Makes sense.”

Jimmy looks up at the ceiling of the elevator; he doesn’t seem to be bothered by his best friend’s words. “She has a good smell.” He answers, completely lost in thought. “It calms me down.”

“Thank you! What’s your name?”

He looks down slowly at the girl in his arms. He notices her green eyes and her clean face. I don’t think she’s wearing make-up, but I could be mistaken. For me, make-up is eye-liner and that’s it and you can see that shit, not unlike the other stuff girls usually use on their faces.

“James.” He answers and for a moment he looks calm, but the terror comes back in his eyes in less than a couple of seconds.

“I’m Johnny.” I say just to say something. “This is Zacky.” He smiles slightly, I suspect he’s gonna throw up very soon. “That’s Matt.” Clearly, Shadows smirks at the two girls but barely moves his head to say hi. “And that’s…”

“Angry as fuck.” Brian finishes my sentence, “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Oh, please. Calm down, Synyster Gates.”

The voice isn’t coming from any of us guys. Instead, it’s the pale girl the one who spoke. I look at her and I notice how Shadows isn’t holding her anymore, but she still standing next to him. As if she had a choice, we’re all trapped in a death machine where we’re forced to stand next to each other. This situation reminds me of that movie, Cube. Strangers stuck in a fucking cube.

“Remember that band I told you about?” She says, her eyes on her friend. “Avenged Sevenfold.”

The blonde shrugs, probably she doesn’t remember or she doesn’t care. For a moment, the fact that we’re all stuck in the devil’s trap, suspended in the air by just a couple of cables, with reinforced concrete all around us and the possibility of dying being 1 of 3, isn’t that important. Instead, we all move our eyes to the pale girl. Perfectly done dark hair, neat nails, freshly ironed shirt and skirt. No, she definitely doesn’t look like our usual fans.

“You listen to metal?”

The high pitched voice makes me believe it was her friend the one who spoke, but sadly, it’s Zacky. Again.

“You know, it’s the first time I’ve noticed that when you’re nervous you got a higher voice than Mariah Carey. Or Céline Dion.” Jimmy notices, still sniffing the blonde’s hair. It’s kind of creepy, to be honest.

Zacky is about to open his mouth when Casper, the pale girl, interrupts him. “Yeah, well. That’s one of the reasons why my parents sent me to an all girls’ school. Metal isn’t what a good girl is supposed to listen to.”

“I thought it was because they caught you doing that thing.” The blonde says.

Jimmy laughs, softly.

“What thing?” Zacky asks, suddenly curious about whatever sent Casper to an all girls’ school. She doesn't reply.

“What about you, Rapunzel? Why did you end up in an all girls’ school?” Brian asks, flattered to be acknowledged by at least one of the girls, but not letting go of his cocky attitude.

The blonde girl, Rapunzel, looks at him. Softly. I wonder if she has a slightly idea of who’s in front of her. I look down and I notice how her hands are on Jimmy’s chest and how she’s letting him sniff her hair. Again, that’s creepy as fuck. Gotta have to make fun of him for this.

“My parents are very old fashioned so I guess it’s just something that happened normally.”

Brian snorted, in his usual sarcastic way.

“And do you get sexual education in that school?”

There we go. Good job, Gates. Really.

“We’re going to an all girls’ school, so not really.” Rapunzel answers. The tone of her voice makes me think she’s almost sorry for her answer so I smile a little. I almost feel sorry for her.
He laughs, almost offended. “So you have no absolutely idea about the best thing in the world?”

Shadows glares at him and groans out loud, as he pushes all the buttons. He really wants to get out of this. Well, he’s not the only one.

“Brian, do you really think this is the time and place where to talk about the birds and bees? I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re stuck in an elevator.” I say, hoping Gates will stop being a dick. Clearly, I was wrong.

“What do you suggest to do, shortshit? What have you done, huh? It’ll tell you that: nothing.” He says, “Unless somebody decides to call this fucking elevator, nobody will notice that seven fucking idiots are stuck in here like in that shitty movie, Buried.”

“Buried.” Jimmy whispers, “Buried alive…”

“What is he even talking about?” Shadows asks, staring at the concrete wall. I wonder if he’s waiting for the wall to open in half so he can pass through it.

“Nothing. Nonsense.” Brian answers and since he probably decided that making fun of the two girls is probably the best thing to do while waiting for someone to save us, he decides to speak his mind even more. “So. Rapunzel and Corpse Bride. Are you virgins?” He asks, winking like the asshole he actually is. I roll my eyes. He’s absolutely unbelievable.

“No.” Casper answers, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the wall. Rapunzel, on the other side, moves uncomfortable against Jimmy.

“Yes.” She answers and by the look on her face, I can tell she doesn’t even know why she said that.

Jimmy suddenly comes back to the living and looks down at the girls. “When we get out of here, I’d like to take care of it.”

She blushes, her blood rushing to her cheeks who are now extremely red. I bet they’re really warm, too. She moves her hands slightly away from his chest. Then she smiles. Softly.
Again. I think that’s the best thing she can do, smiling softly to strangers.

Brian shakes his head. “I’m afraid he’s not a flowers and dance kind of guy. The wooing won’t be that great.”

Jimmy frowns and I think he’s just realized what he said just a minute ago. “Brian, shut up.”

“Maybe, if you find a good tie you haven’t painted or cut, you can use it to meet her parents. You know, it’d look official that way.” Brian says, as if Jimmy said nothing. “What about you, little ghost? Who was the lucky guy?”

“Who are you? A priest or something?” The blonde asked, glaring at him.

“Why? Do you tell this kind of stuff to the priest?” Zacky asked, suddenly more than interested in the conversation. He looks at Rapunzel and she moves closer to Jimmy, embarrassed.

“Yeah, well. We’re kind of supposed to do that.”

“Oh, wow. Wow. We wanna know everything.” Zacky says, a smirk on his lips. Casper rolls her eyes while Rapunzel looks down, uncomfortable.

“What do you want to know?”

Oh, Casper is speaking again. As much as I complained about Gates being a dick, I suddenly, feel interested in this conversation, so I start listening, too.

“Is yours like a normal school or a boarding kind of school?” Zacky asks.

“The latter.”

“Then how do you meet up if you wanna fuck with someone?” Brian asks immediately. I look at Rapunzel, who’s probably thinking her mother was right when she told her that all men are disgusting and can’t stop thinking with what was between their legs.

“She jumps out of the window.” The blonde says, pointing her finger to her friend, “I haven’t found anybody who I’m willing to break my legs for yet.”

Rapunzel, you girl. That’s surprising. So you can do much more than just blushing and stutter. Good. Very good.

“What about you girls? I mean, you never done anything between you two?” Zacky asks, raising his eyebrows.

“Some girls do, yeah. As for us, only once. Not a big deal and not that great.”

“You two slept together?” Our rhythm guitarist got his Céline Dion voice back and his eyes quickly move down to the girls’ skirts. Well, he’s not the only one. We’re doing the same. We’re all thinking the same thing. Jimmy slowly pulls away from the girl, not wanting her to feel anything she isn’t supposed to feel.

“Once. We were tipsy.” She says and removed her cardigan. “Oh, it’s so hot in here.”

I raised my eyebrows. So she isn’t that innocent. Whoa, I got a completely wrong impression of her. I watch her as she takes her shirt out of her skirt and rolls up her sleeves.

“Whatever you do, don’t unbutton your shirt.” Casper whispers, taking her cardigan off as well. Rapunzel put her hands on her waist and looks around ignoring her friend’s words.

“We’ve been in here for a while now. What do we do?” Casper asks as her friend put her cardigan in Zacky’s hands, who takes it as if it was made of gold.

“Let’s see what’s going on up there.” Rapunzel says, looking up at the ceiling. I follow her eyes and notice a small escape hatch. “I wanna see what’s up there.” She says, “Will you help me, please?” She asks Jimmy.

The drummer blinks a few times before nodding. I suspect he hasn’t really understood what he has to do.

“You gotta grab her by the thighs, not by her waist.” The infamous engineer Brian Haner Jr. says, probably thinking of the fact that this way he’ll have the chance to look at Rapunzel’s panties.

“Can you guys please not look at my panties?” Rapunzel asks, almost reading his mind, while even Shadows is helping Jimmy trying not to harm the poor girl. She tries to pushes the small opening on the ceiling and when she finally does, we all jump a little, completely surprised as we stare at her light pink panties.

“I can’t do it.” Rapunzel says, her eyes still up. “I can’t do it.” She repeats, this time looking down at the guys who are holding her. Jimmy and Shadows aren’t helping her enough; I think she needs someone or something else to support her weight. Her friend put her hands on her butt.

Whoa.

“You’re too short.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just wanted to help!” The brunette says, removing her hands.

Shadows and Jimmy look at each other. At this point, it’s only a matter of time of who does it first. Jimmy wins. His hand on her butt is helping her get out of the elevator.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He says, his eyes shut closed as he tries to ignore his erection.

After less than a minute, she gets back in the elevator and sighs heavily as she cleans her hands.

“There’s nothing outside.”

“I figured.” Her friend says.

“You can remove your hand, thank you.” The blonde says to Jimmy, looking up at him. He raises his hands and smiles softly, showing her how he isn’t touching anything inappropriate. She frowns and turns her head, noticing a smirking Brian who’s quickly removing his hand away from her butt. “Sorry, just wanted to make sure you got here safe and sound.” He says,
“Nice panties, by the way.”

“Thank you. Mom bought them for me.”

Her mom bought them for her! We all feel uncomfortable and as I look at her, I realize how she hasn’t really understood what kind of sentence she’s just said as it was full of sexiness.

“Well, if mommy bought them, uncle Brian would like to take them away very much.”
Shadows says and we look at him, surprised. Usually, when we’re having these kind of conversation, he always says nothing, preferring to watch us rather than take part in it, but this time… Well, I guess it’s different.

Another shake.

“What the fuck was that?”

“We’re gonna die.”

“It’s the end.”

“I don’t wanna die with Christ by my side.”

“Hey! What have I done now?”

Shadows moves his hands to shut us up, then puts his ear on the concrete wall, but thankfully he quickly moves away since the elevator starts moving again. Jesus Christ, the noise!

The lights go off. We scream and we hug each other. The lights turn on. We look at each other, confused and scared. The lights go off. The doors close making a disturbing and awful noise. Somebody finds God. Somebody else says they’ve always believed in God even if it could’ve seemed the opposite. The lights turn on. Casper yells something along the lines of “If only this happened with Metallica!” and I guess she’s referring to the fact that dying with Metallica would’ve been cooler much than dying with us. I can’t blame her. The lights go off. Suddenly, the elevator stops moving. We all fall on the ground, cursing or groaning in pain.

The lights turn on.

I slowly open my eyes and… Larry! That’s our manager! I smile at him and when I look who’s standing next to him, I notice four other people I’ve never seen before.

“Mommy?” Rapunzel asks as she’s almost laying on Jimmy, his hands strongly holding her thighs. She turns her head to him and they both can feel their breath on each other face, she blushes and quickly moves away. The blonde woman (I believe she’s Rapunzel’s mom) watches the scene, her eyes moving from the elevator and us in general, then to Jimmy and his tattoos. She stares at the hands on her daughter’s thigh for a brief moment before holding onto the wall. Suddenly, she turns pale and not in a good shade of pale.

Is she about to pass out? Scratch that, she’s just passed out.

Casper gets up and helps her friend move away from Jimmy, her parents didn’t seem that surprised or upset about the whole situation. Nobody says anything.

I look around and I notice a tall man who’s probably Rapunzel’s father. He keeps staring at his daughter and then at Jimmy, ignoring his passed out wife on his side.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Jonathan Seward.” I say, stretching out my hand.

“Marcus Williams.”

“You’re the father of…?”

“Penelope. I’m Penelope’s father.”

Penelope. Rapunzel’s name is Penelope! I hold my breath as she leans towards Jimmy. “I’m Poppy, by the way.” She says, “Well, see you around.”

Poppy.

Jimmy waves at her and I wants to started laughing, but I’m sure we’re all alive, so I decide to check this first. While I made sure my friends are still alive, Poppy and Casper (who’s still without a name), walk out of the elevator. Nobody hasn’t helped Mrs. Williams. Groaning, I realize how I always have to do everything, so I move closer to the woman and start gently shaking her shoulder.

“Ma’am? Can you hear me?”

Zacky crawls towards me, pushing me away. “What are you doing? If she wakes up and sees you, she’s gonna freak the fuck out!” He says.

“Ah, right. ‘Cause you got the pretty face, huh?” I says as I roll my eyes.

“Ma’am?”

Jimmy slowly got up and ran a hand through his hair before looking at Poppy’s father.

“What… Um, what did you see was completely accidental. You see, we were stuck in the elevator, so Mr.–Mr…?

“Williams.”

“Mr. Williams. I’m James. James Sullivan. Nice to meet you.”

“Ma’am? Does anybody have salts or something?” Zacky asks, looking around to see if anybody’s helping him and when he notices that he’s the only one trying to wake the woman up, he groans in frustration. His fault. I was trying to help.

“I’m really sorry about what happened.” Jimmy keeps explaining, but the man doesn’t seem very interested in the story.

Brian stumbles towards us, then looks down at the passed out woman. He kneels down and yells into her ear, “MA’AM?”

“I’m dead.” She says.

“No, you’re not. It’s just…”

Mrs. Williams opens her eyes and immediately frowns as she saw Brian’s face so close to hers.

“Are you Satan?”

“Alright. Now that’s too much.”

The woman looks around then stretches her arms out. “Will anybody help me, please?”
Suddenly, both me and Shadows help her get up. She looks at her daughter again and takes a deep breath. “So, will you tell me what happened?”

“I was just trying to survive, mother.”

“I see.” She says, her dark eyes on Jimmy. “Nothing else?”

“No, mother.”

“Good.” Mrs. Williams says, “I think it’s time for you to say goodbye to these… People.”

Ah, people. Not men. Not guys. People.

“Of course.” Penelope says, turning around to shake Jimmy’s hand. “It’s been nice to meet you, Mr. Sullivan and thank you for the hand you gave me back in the elevator.”

We all try to hold back our laughs, even Jimmy, who’s shaking her hand, amused.

“The pleasure’s all mine. I’ll be happy to give you a hand whenever you need it.”

“All of this is very inappropriate.” Mrs. Williams says, hoping the person next to him will agree with her. Too bad that person is Brian.

“I agree.” The guitarist says, only to receive a glare from the woman.

Finally, Casper’s parents decided to speak.

“Well, I think it’s time to go.” The man says, “Addison.” Oh, her name is Addison, “Poppy, Marcus, Rosemary, dear,” the dear being his wife, “We need to go. It’s already late and the girls haven’t even got changed for dinner.”

“Thank you again for your help, boys.” Addison says to all of us. “We wouldn’t have made it without you.”

Our help? What did we do? Shadows opened the door, Brian annoyed everyone with his sexual comments, I was quiet for most of the time, Jimmy was like a piece of ice on a fireplace and Zacky delighted us all with his stupid opinions. Other than that, we all shouted at each other like old gooses. Our manager is still quiet.

“Since these boys have been so kind to help our little girls” little girls “to get out of the elevator, maybe we should invite them for dinner.”

We all stare at Mr. Williams, shocked by his words. Our manager finally decides to open his mouth to say something.

“Actually…” He tries to say.

“We happily accept the invite.” Brian says, showing one of his best smiles. What even?
Addison’s father coughs.

“Well, maybe you’d like to get changed before dinner.” He says, looking at us up and down. His eyes stopped on the uniform of the girls, then to our ripped pants, our skull shirts, the ruined eyeliner around the eyes, not to mention the tattoos.

“I’m not sure I have something appropriate.” Shadows says, slightly thoughtful.

“I do!” Zacky exclaimed.

Addison’s father coughs again.

“There’s a service elevator right at the end of the corridor.” He says, pointing his finger to somewhere on the opposite side of the corridor. “I’ll meet you outside this restaurant in thirty minutes.” He adds, handing Brian a business card.

“See you later.” Penelope says right before following her parents to the nearest exit.

I guess we’re fucked, right?

Notes

Guess who's back with a new story? :D As you probably noticed, the writing is slightly different than my usual since it's in first person and in present tense. I tried to check the spelling and everything, so I hope there aren't (many) mistakes, but mostly, I hope you enjoy this first chapter!

If you haven't clicked while reading the story, this is the song Johnny started thinking about while being in the elevator. Enjoy haha

As always, feel free to leave comments, votes and suggestions <3