Black Addition

Mrs. Vogan?

I snatched my briefcase-style tote bag from the floor, threw it over one shoulder, and lunged toward my bedroom door. On my way out, I spotted my favorite celebrity crush poster on the back of my door. Despite the impending apocalypse, I paused, blew a quick kiss to the glossy photo, and sprinted down the stairs.

My favorite driver was too upset to say anything. Of course, I kept quiet too. For some minutes, I arrived at work. I burst through the front doors of the shiny, glass-and-steel office building at eight-fifteen. I was twenty minutes late. My chest burned. My heels clicked frantically against the polished marble floor. I ran toward the bank of elevators, desperate to reach the eighth floor before my boss noticed my empty desk.

I dove into the waiting elevator just as the doors began to slide shut. I leaned against the metal wall, panting heavily, pressing the button for the 8th floor. The doors clicked shut. I closed my eyes, letting out a massive sigh of relief. I survived the morning rush.

Then, the elevator shuddered.

I opened my eyes. The digital floor indicator flickered from 3 to a weird, distorted glitch. A sickening clunk echoed from above the ceiling. The elevator stopped completely. The lights blinked once, twice, and then died, plunging me into pitch-black darkness.

"No, no, no," I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs.

I pulled out my phone to use the flashlight. I lunged for the control panel, repeatedly smashing the "Open Door" button. Nothing happened. I pressed the emergency bell. A loud, shrill alarm rang through the shaft, but the elevator remained locked in place. I was stuck.

I gasped as the air suddenly felt thin. I clawed at my throat, my teenage-turned-adult panic rising to a fever pitch. I banged my fists against the heavy metal doors. "Help! Is anyone there? I'm stuck!"

A sudden, violent snap echoed above me. The floor vanished beneath my feet.

The cables broke. I fell. I screamed, a sound torn straight from my lungs, as the elevator plummeted down the shaft in free fall. Weightlessness gripped my stomach. My bag flew upward. The walls became a blur of terrifying speed in the dark.

CRASH.

The impact was blinding. I violently slammed into the floor, my head striking the metal wall. A white-hot flash of pain exploded behind my eyes, followed instantly by absolute, heavy silence.

The next thing I knew, the world was a chaotic blur of flashing red lights and screaming sirens.

I felt cold air hit my face. Heavy hands were lifting me onto a hard plastic spine board. I tried to blink, but my vision was swimming in a haze of red and gray.

"We've got a female, late teens, early twenties, severe deceleration trauma!" a voice shouted above me.

I felt the frantic vibration of an ambulance floor beneath me. The vehicle rocked violently as it tore through the city streets. An oxygen mask was pressed over my nose and mouth. I gasped, tasting plastic and my own blood.

"Stay with us, Maya!" a paramedic yelled, shining a blinding penlight into my eyes. I winced, but I couldn't move my neck. My body felt heavy, numb, and broken.

The ambulance doors burst open, and the bright, sterile lights of the Emergency Room flooded my vision. I was rushed down a long hallway on a rolling Gurney. Doctors and nurses in blue scrubs sprinted alongside me, shouting medical jargon.

"BP is dropping! Get her into Trauma Room One!"

I stared up at the ceiling tiles flying past at terrifying speed. The chaotic rush of my bedroom this morning felt like a lifetime ago. As the doctors swarmed around me, hooking up monitors and cutting away my ruined pink blouse, I remember a face above me pale, angular, with green eyes, and a deep voice. He has everything to make me go mad.

"Her blood type. Match it. Now."

I didn't know who he was. I didn't know why he cared. But as the needle slipped into my arm, I felt some warm blood running in my veins. That was the last memory I have.

I was woken up after three days by a thunderous applause. Across my hospital bed, bodyguards dressed like penguins in crisp black and white suits were spotted. The moment my eyes were blinked, my hands were clapped furiously by them.

"We are glad you're okay, Mrs. Volgan!" was shouted in perfect harmony by the tuxedo-clad flock.

I rolled my eyes, taking the words for granted. I sighed loudly.

"I have already informed the family that you're awake. They will arrive here shortly, Madam," a voice said.