Gemotions

The sudden stop had jolted Chloe, and she gasped. The lights flickered, plunged into darkness, then flickered back to a sickly, dim glow. She immediately reached for her phone, but there was no signal. She tried the door, pushing and pulling fruitlessly. Her breath came in short, shallow gasps.

Across from her, Ben, the new intern, was staring at the ceiling, his face flushed. She had to stay composed. She had to appear calm. But her hands were shaking. She forced herself to take deep breaths. In, out.

"It's okay," she said, her voice sounding far away to her own ears. “They'll fix it.” But the assurance felt hollow, even to her. The silence in the elevator was deafening, broken only by the hum of the emergency lights. She pictured all the things that could go wrong. The possibilities. Her stomach churned.