Short Story: July 15, 9 A.M.

It was just another job. It was like any other. You get up. You haul your buns outta bed.

Then there’s the traffic. Oh mah god! Construction at every second intersection. Why oh why?

Africa had terrible parents. After all, they named him Africa. Africa Khan. Fuck. I mean, if he was a cute girl he could probably get away with it but he wasn’t even a girl, let alone cute. At least he didn’t think so.

There was that girl, Suzy, though. She wasn’t a catch, but he was pretty sure she was into him. And she was too. He didn’t know. He could have known if he’d picked up the signals.

When they talked she would play with her hair. She would laugh at all his jokes, no matter how lame they were. Her eyes would flutter when she was looking at him. He pupils would dilate a bit. All things that Africa was completely oblivious to.

He did notice her quickly looking away when he looked at her sometimes. He thought that was a sign. Hoped anyways. He wanted to ask her out but never quite had the guts.

So there is Africa Khan, sitting in traffic, slightly annoyed by his own impatience at the backlog. But also daydreaming about Suzy. Pretty Suzy. He hears someone honking. It’s his turn to go. And go he does.

Africa is the IT guy for a company downtown. He doesn’t love his job. In fact, it quite pisses him off sometimes. Anyone who’s ever worked with computers knows this to be true. But he didn’t hate it either. Why? Because he was really fuckin good at it, that’s why!

Even though he just started a mere month ago, he had already learned the infrastructure and had taken a leading role amongst the IT drones.

But today, as he walked up the front steps and up to the elevator, he was elated. He had a plan. He had worked up the courage. He was going to ask out Suzy. He couldn’t wipe the smirk off his face. He was going to go up to his office, drop his knapsack off at his cubicle, march straight up to Suzy’s desk and ask her out for a drink tonight!

The elevator doors opened. He stepped in and turned around and there was Suzy walking up and in right behind him. A more savvy man would have thought this the perfect opportunity but Africa thought, Oh no! This isn’t according to plan!

Come on, Africa, you gotta keep it loose. Just go with it.

“Hi Suzy.”

“Hi.”

Silence.

Normally he would have just carried on a regular conversation with her but the pressure got to him. There was nothing but silence. Silence and the longest elevator ride of his life.

But wait. It wasn’t just the tension. Making it long... what was taking so long? It wasn’t stopped. It was still going. Up and up. Maybe it was just going slow. That’s why it was taking so long. Ya. That’s it.

Suzy was starting to get a little anxious as well, “Why is it taking so long? It never takes this long. It’s only five storeys. We should be there by now, shouldn’t we. Oh. I wish it would show which floor we were at.”

Africa was speechless, both because of the creepy elevator ride and because of his feelings for the girl.

“Africa, are you ok?”

“Uh. Ya.” He snapped back to reality. “Ya, this is taking too long.” By his measurements, they should have penetrated the roof of the building by now. But, still, it kept going, up and up.

Africa began looking around, trying to see if there was a way out. Or maybe just a way to see outside. But, no, it was an elevator. Even the hatch wouldn’t open. Not that he tried it: he wasn’t tall enough. But elevator hatches can’t open from the inside. They’re made so rescuers can get in, not so people can get out. The last thing they want in an emergency situation is people crawling around in an elevator shaft.

He couldn’t think of anything else to do so he started banging on the doors. The banging quickly led to yelling. Not in the good way, either. “Hey! Anyone?! Can anyone hear me?”

Nothing. There was nothing to do... except. The buttons! Why didn’t I think of that in the first place? I’ll just push the Stop button and – nothing happened. He pushed it again. A third time. Still nothing. He just kept pushing it repeatedly to no avail. He tried all the buttons. Nothing was working.

He looked over at Suzy. Her eyes were wide. She looked as scared as he felt. His mind went blank, wanting to give way to all out terror but then he smelled her perfume. Suzy’s lovely perfume. Or maybe it was her shampoo. He didn’t know. It was her lovely girl smell. A little bit of cherry mixed in with some vanilla and lavender. She always smelled like that and it triggered something in his brain. He had to protect her. Whatever was on the other side of those doors when the elevator stopped, he was going to be in between it and her.

For now, all they could do was wait. He put an awkward arm around her and pulled her close. Not too close. Just to the point where they were almost touching. He was still shy. She had to take the last little step towards him.

His heart started beating so hard. She could feel it. But she didn’t mind. She felt safe, if only momentarily.

***

Africa looked at his watch. It seemed like they had been going up for hours. It had only been 27 minutes. Still the longest elevator ride of his life.

They were sitting in the corner, cuddled together. It would have been romantic if it wasn’t so foreboding.

He decided to say something comforting. Just as he was opening his mouth, the elevator dinged.

They both looked up. The elevator came to a halt as they stood up, Africa positioning himself between the door and Suzy.

The door opened.

Everything was normal. Julia, the front receptionist, greeted them with a smile. She was a little thrown off by their reaction, or lack thereof. Also, probably, their defensive posture was a little unsettling.

After a moment, Africa relaxed and Suzy followed suit. He decided to play it cool, for now.

“H–Hi Julia,” he stammered.

He walked Suzy to her cubicle, slowly taking note of everything that was going on. Everything was normal. Everyone was behaving normally. Other than this feeling, deep down, that something wasn’t right. They didn’t talk to anyone on the way.

He finally got her alone. “What the hell is going on?” He said.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Everything’s... normal... but it’s not. Like, look at James over there. He looks like James. He sounded like him as we walked by. But there’s something... off about him. I – I can’t describe. His mannerisms, his facial expressions. It’s like someone wearing a James suit, pretending to be him, and doing an almost perfect job of it. But not quite”

Africa hadn’t noticed this but now he looked around. Everyone around the office was awkward, but only a little bit. It was then that he noticed the clock on the wall. They were on time for work! According to his watch, they were almost a half hour late but the clock on the wall was just striking 9 A.M.

He wasn’t sure what these new realizations meant yet but he had a plan, well, the start of a plan: “Okay, let’s just go back to our desks and do our work–”

“No, Africa, I don’t want to leave you.”

His heart fluttered a bit. He’d always wanted a girl to say that to him, especially Suzy. He just wished he knew what to do.

“We’ll go back to our desks. I’ll keep an eye on you and we’ll do our work and see if we can’t figure out what’s going on here and think of a plan. Right now we need more information before we can decide what to do.” She nodded and went about her work.

***

It was about an hour in. Things were getting weird. What Suzy had said about the James suit. It looked like it was getting worse. With everybody. Not just James. It was like their acting was deteriorating as time went on. They had begin slurring the occasional word when they came to mingle and even stuttering in some cases.

But they never broke character. Not once. It’s like they didn’t even know they were acting. Maybe they weren’t. Maybe they were like some sort of reflection. An echo, if you will.

Africa decided to go talk to Suzy. They should get out of here. He stood up. Just as his boss, David, walked by. He was an older fellow.

Oh fuck! What’s wrong with him? He thought. It looked as though his face was slowly melting off. His jowls were sagging and his eyes were drooping to the point where he could actually see into the man’s sockets. It was unnerving.

When David opened his mouth to talk, just to exchange normal office pleasantries, he smelled like death. Worse than death. Like whatever caused Death to die. Like rotting meat mixed with compost. Africa had to fight back a gag.

The weirdest part was, it was like the man didn’t even know there was something wrong with him. Just all normal hunky-dory.

That grotesque encounter finished, he went to see Suzy.

***

“We have to get out of here,” he said.

“Yes. But how?” She had seen some people start to melt as well.

“Well, I don’t want to go anywhere near the elevator. But, if it brought us here, maybe it can bring us back, too.”

“I know. I... I don’t want go back there but we don’t have any choice that I can see.” She got up to leave.

It was then that Africa glanced the clock by Suzy’s desk... it was still 9 A.M.! His watch said it was almost 11.

He grabbed her wrist and led her towards the elevator. There was already someone there, waiting for it.

The doors opened. Inside was... nothing. It’s not that the elevator was empty. It was just nothing. Not dark. Not black. Just... nothing.

The man who had been waiting for the elevator apparently didn’t notice and walked right onto it, disappearing as he crossed the threshold, without a sound.

Africa stepped forward and put his hand into the Nothing. It did not disappear like the man did. He tried his foot to see if there was still a floor there. There was not. It was just nothing.

They turned around to see Julia’s melted face pooling on her desk, parts of it still hanging on to her skull.

“Is everything okay?” She asked pleasantly. Well, as pleasantly as possible considering that her throat was partly missing.

Suzy stifled a scream. He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the stairs.

“Where are you goooooing?” Asked Julia pleasantly. She sounded like a recording, skipping on the ‘o’.

They ran down the stairs as fast as they could. It was the usual five storeys.

What they saw when they got outside was almost beyond their comprehension.

They stopped, breathtaken.

The world around them wasn’t exactly melting. It was being deconstructed. It was slowly vanishing before their eyes. There were large patches of Nothing. There were buildings missing from where they were supposed to be. There were parts of buildings missing, completely defying all known laws of physics, somehow still standing but with nothing keeping them up.

The Nothing was slowly growing, enveloping everything but them. They couldn’t be touched by it. They were not of this world. Pretty soon all that would exist is Nothing. Nothing except them.

A cruel, slow fate awaited them and they both knew it. But they accepted it, because this was the most beautiful thing that they or any other human being had ever seen. It was a privilege afforded only to them, at a great cost.

They held each others’ hands and waited until July 15, 9 A.M. was finished.