English: Elevator door of the Pera Palace Hote...
English: Elevator door of the Pera Palace Hotel Italiano: La porta dell’ascensore dell’hotel Pera Palas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Daily Prompt: Elevator.

We were coming back home from school, my baby sister and I. We opened the main door and took the elevator and suddenly a strange man came running and before we could do anything, entered the elevator and closed the door behind him. It was a very old elevator, a narrow wooded case into a cage-like structure, with a mirror in the opposite side of the door. We were going to the sixth floor. The highest.

The man said he was going to the second floor. But when the elevator stopped he wouldn’t go and said it was a mistake. He had to go to the third floor. He was smiling, but looked nervous. I was terrified. He was wearing an old grey coat but was sweating. Once in the third floor he said it was a mistake again. I tried then to exit the elevator with my sister but he wouldn’t let me go. So I put myself between the man and my sister. I didn’t understand anything. I only smelled danger. The man asked to go to the fourth floor. I didn’t try to go out because the man blocked the door. So we stopped, he smiled, sweated more and more , and I pressed my sister against the mirror harder and harder. she didn’t understand. She was too young. I was so scared I couldn’t even cry. We started to the fifth floor

The man began to ask me about my dress and then I finally began to cry aloud for help with all the strength I had. Thanks God a neighbor did hear me, opened his door and asked what was happening. Then the man fled running the steps down. I was trembling. When we arrive home I only could cry. Mom was so concerned. She asked me about all the details of the story. I was embarrassed as if it was my fault a man just tried to assault us in the elevator. I told her everything. As always. Mom consoled me and taught me that it was not my fault there were bad men in the world. So we prayed to God because we were grateful nothing happened despite the big danger we were in that day.

Author: Olga Brajnović

Journalist and writer. I've worked for 26 years in a newspaper in Spain. I worked for two years as a stringer and correspondent in the US and went as a special envoy to other places like the Balkans. Author of a biography. Sea lover. Avid reader. Classic Music enthusiast.

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