Val Pov(first person point of view)

My scream continued for another solid second.

Then my brain finally caught up with what was happening, which somehow made everything worse.

Because the creature wasn't trying to stop itself.

It wasn't grabbing the shaft walls. It wasn't anchoring itself with its tendrils.

It was simply throwing its entire gigantic body directly after us like a nightmare-shaped boulder.

"Oh, this is bad."

"THIS IS VERY BAD!" Mira shrieked.(A very loud, high-pitched scream.)

"THIS IS CATASTROPHICALLY BAD!" Eclipsara corrected.

Above us, hundreds of tendrils spread outward as countless red eyes remained locked directly onto the elevator. (outward:Moving away from the center. Context: The tendrils stretched in all directions away from the creature's body.)The thing already looked horrifying under normal circumstances.

Watching it dive after us made it ten times worse.

"Oh no."

"Oh NO."

"OH NO!"

My brain immediately began calculating things I did not want to calculate.

Specifically:

Its size.

Its weight.

Our elevator.

"...We're going to get crushed."

"WE'RE GOING TO GET CRUSHED!" Eclipsara corrected.

Mira pointed upward with her rifle.

"CAN IT EVEN FIT ON TOP OF THE ELEVATOR?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S GOING TO TRY ANYWAY!"

Above us, hundreds of red eyes stared downward while the creature's countless skull-faces somehow looked excited.

"Heheheheheheheheheh-"

"STOP LAUGHING!" Eclipsara screamed.

The creature rapidly filled more and more of the armored ceiling above us.(Quickly took up more space in their view. Context: The monster was falling closer and closer to the elevator. As it got closer, it covered more of the ceiling above them until it was almost all they could see. Imagine a giant object falling toward you. It looks bigger every second.)

The shaft(the long vertical tunnel the elevator travels inside.) echoed with warped laughter.

"Heheheheheheheheheh!"

"...Guys."

"What?!" Mira yelled.

"What?!" Eclipsara yelled.

"...I don't think it understands gravity."

The creature somehow looked even happier.

"Heheheheheheheh!"

"THAT DOESN'T ANSWER ANYTHING!"

Then-

CRAAAAAAAAASH!

The monster slammed into the top of the elevator.

The impact felt like being hit by a train.

The entire platform dropped violently beneath our feet. Metal screamed. The armored ceiling bowed inward with a deafening groan(An extremely loud creaking or straining sound.), and a massive dent appeared directly above us.

For one horrifying moment, the roof actually flexed downward.

I saw several of the thick support beams bend.

Not break.

Bend.

The force threw all three of us off balance.

Mira stumbled sideways with a startled yelp as her sniper rifle nearly flew from her hands.

Eclipsara slammed shoulder-first into one of the railings before collapsing to a knee.(Shoulder-first means her shoulder hit the railing before the rest of her body. Collapsing to a knee means she lost balance and dropped onto one knee. Context: The impact threw her sideways. Her shoulder hit the railing and she couldn't stay standing, so she fell onto one knee.)

I barely managed half a step before the floor lurched(Moved suddenly and violently.) again and dumped me onto my hands and knees.

The entire elevator shook so violently that standing became optional.

"THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BEND!" Mira screamed.

"I AGREE!" I screamed.

"WHY IS IT BENDING?!" Eclipsara screamed.

The elevator suddenly accelerated.

Hard.

My stomach immediately lurched.

The floor seemed to vanish beneath us.

The shaft walls blurred past.(Definition: The walls inside the elevator shaft. Context: The elevator shaft is the huge vertical tunnel the elevator moves through. The elevator was falling so fast that the walls rushed by like a blur.)

A deafening metallic screech echoed through the enclosure.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

The control panel erupted to life.

Red warning lights flashed everywhere.

WARNING

EXCESS LOAD DETECTED

EXTREME DESCENT(movement downward.) SPEED DETECTED

EMERGENCY BRAKING SYSTEM ACTIVATED

The elevator shuddered violently.

For about half a second, it felt like the system was trying to save us.

Then the creature shifted its weight.

The platform accelerated again.

SKRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!

The emergency brakes were clearly trying.

Very hard.

Unfortunately, they were attempting to stop an elevator carrying us...

And an nightmare mountain sitting on the roof.

The result was not encouraging.

The display flickered.

EMERGENCY BRAKES ACTIVE

ATTEMPTING SPEED CORRECTION

ATTEMPTING SPEED CORRECTION

ATTEMPTING SPEED CORRECTION

The message repeated.

Again.

And again.

Nothing improved.

"...I think it's panicking," I said.

"The MACHINE is panicking?!" Mira yelled.

"LOOK AT THE SCREEN!"

The display flashed again.

PLEASE REMAIN CALM

A pause.

Then another message appeared beneath it.

THIS SITUATION IS NOT IDEAL

Silence.

We stared.

The machine stared.

The elevator continued screaming.

Then Eclipsara pointed dramatically at the screen.

"THE ELEVATOR IS HAVING A BREAKDOWN!"

"I THINK IT'S DOING ITS BEST!" I yelled.

"ITS BEST ISN'T ENOUGH!"

Above us-

CRACK.

All three of us froze.

A new fracture(A crack.) spread across the armored ceiling.

The creature shifted again.

Several skull-faces peered through the widening crack.

"Heheheheheheheh."

"...It's looking at us."

"I CAN SEE THAT!" Mira yelled.

"Oh, NOW IT'S HAPPY!" Eclipsara shouted.

The elevator dropped faster.

The shaft walls became a blur.

My stomach felt like it was trying to escape through my throat.

Then another warning appeared.

IMPACT RISK DETECTED

Silence.

We all stared at the screen.

Then slowly looked at each other.

"...Impact risk?" Mira asked quietly.

"...Impact risk," I confirmed quietly.

Eclipsara pointed at the display.

"What exactly does impact risk mean?"

Nobody answered.

The machine answered for us.

ESTIMATED ARRIVAL VELOCITY: FATAL(Velocity: Speed in a particular direction.)

Silence.

Absolute silence.

"...Oh."

"...Oh."

"...OH."

Mira immediately pointed at the screen.

"THAT'S A TERRIBLE WORD."

"WHICH ONE?" I asked.

"ALL OF THEM!"

The elevator plunged deeper.

The warning lights flashed faster.

Above us, the roof groaned again.

Another dent appeared.

Then another.

The creature's weight was steadily crushing the armored ceiling inward.(Steadily-gradually, little by little. Crushing inward- pushing the ceiling down into the elevator. Context: The monster was so heavy that the roof kept bending downward more and more.)

"Heheheheheheheheheh..."

The laughter vibrated through the metal.

I looked up.

Then immediately regretted it.

Several skull-faces were now pressed directly against the cracked transparent armor.

Their hollow eye sockets stared down at us.

One slowly tilted its head.

As if curious.

As if wondering why we looked so distressed.

"Oh, I hate that."

"I REALLY HATE THAT." Mira agreed.

Eclipsara pointed upward.

"STOP LOOKING AT US LIKE THAT!"

The skull-face continued staring.

"Heheheh..."

Then I saw something else.

Far below us.

Through the gaps in the railings.

The bottom of the shaft.

Still distant, but getting closer.

Way too quickly.

My stomach dropped.

And suddenly I understood exactly how we were going to die.

"...I have bad news."

"What?" Mira asked.

"I finally understand the situation."

A pause.

Then Eclipsara looked at me.

"...I don't think thats a good sentence."

"No."

I pointed downward.

"The elevator is trying to slow us down."

"Obviously."

"It's failing."

"ALSO OBVIOUS."

"The problem isn't just the creature breaking through the roof."

Silence.

Both girls looked at me.

Then looked upward. Then downward. Then their expressions slowly changed.

"...Oh no," Mira whispered.

"...OH NO." Eclipsara whispered.

I nodded.

"If we hit the bottom at this speed, the elevator stops."

A pause.

"The creature doesn't."

More silence.

Above us, another crack spread across the roof.

"Heheheheheheheh..."

"The impact alone could drive it straight through the glass," I continued. "At this velocity, all that weight keeps moving downward even after we stop."

Mira's eyes widened.

"And then it lands on us."

"We become the filling in the world's worst nightmare sandwich," Eclipsara said.

"Exactly."

Silence.

The creature laughed. The elevator screamed. The brakes screamed. We screamed.

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, the bottom of the shaft continued rushing toward us far faster than any of us wanted.(Context: The elevator was falling very fast. Technically they were moving toward the bottom, but it felt like the bottom was racing upward toward them. This creates a feeling of panic.)

Then, through the panic, a thought hit me.

A completely insane thought.

Which, unfortunately, meant it was probably one of our better ideas.

"...Wait."

"What?!" Mira shouted.

"What?!" Eclipsara shouted.

I pointed at the control panel.

"The elevator."

"What about the elevator?!" Mira yelled.

I looked up toward the monster sitting on our roof, then back at the control panel.

"...Can it go up?"

Silence.

Mira blinked.

"What?"

"Can it go up really fast?"

More silence.

The elevator screamed around us. The creature laughed. The brakes continued dying.

And both girls stared at me.

"...Val," Mira said slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Are you having a breakdown?"

"Possibly."

Beside her, Eclipsara's visible red eye widened beneath her black hair. The yellow-tipped ends swayed as seconds later she suddenly pointed dramatically at me.

"Oh my god."

I pointed back.

"SHE GETS IT."

Mira looked between us.

"...I hate when you two do that."

Eclipsara immediately grabbed Mira by the shoulders.

"MIRA."

"What?!"

"MIRA, HE'S A GENIUS."

"No he's not."

"HE MIGHT ACTUALLY BE A GENIUS."

"I HAVE KNOWN HIM FOR LESS THAN A WEEK AND EVEN I KNOW THAT'S WRONG." 

Eclipsara pointed upward at the creature.

"IF THE ELEVATOR SOMEHOW SHOOTS UPWARD-"

Mira froze.

Then her bright green eyes widened.

"Oh."

"OH," Eclipsara agreed.

I nodded rapidly.

"Exactly."

The three of us looked upward.

The creature looked downward.

"Heheheheheheheh."

"If the elevator accelerates upward hard enough." I said. "the monster gets smashed into the upper floor."

Mira slowly stared.

Then pointed upward.

"You want me to launch the elevator."

"YES."

"You want me to somehow reverse a falling elevator."

"YES."

"You want me to make it go UP."

"YES."

"VERY FAST. 

"YES."

"You want me to bypass the safety speed limits placed on this elevator."

"YES."

Silence.

Then Mira pointed at both of us.

"ARE YOU TWO INSANE?!"

"PROBABLY!" Eclipsara shouted.

"ALMOST CERTAINLY!" I agreed.

The elevator dropped another several feet.

SKRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEECH!

All three of us grabbed railings as the platform lurched violently.

The roof groaned.

CRACK.

A new fracture spread across the armored ceiling.

"Heheheheheheheh."

The creature looked delighted.

Mira pointed upward.

"THAT THING POSSIBLY WEIGHS MORE THAN A FREAKING BUILDING! IT WOULDN'T EVEN WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"YES!"

"DO YOU KNOW HOW ELEVATORS WORK?!"

"No!" I admitted.

"No!" Eclipsara admitted.

"THEN WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME?!"

Eclipsara immediately pointed at her.

"BECAUSE YOU FIXED THE ELEVATOR!"

Mira stared.

"...What?"

"When we first came down to this former orphanage on the top floor, you repaired it! You got it running!"

Mira looked horrified.

"THAT WAS DIFFERENT!"

"HOW?!"

"I USED A MANUAL!"

Silence.

The elevator continued screaming.

The creature continued laughing.

Mira pointed frantically at herself.

"I AM NOT AN ENGINEER!"

She pointed at the control panel.

"I FOUND A MANUAL!"

Another point.

"I READ THE MANUAL!"

Another point.

"THE MANUAL TOLD ME WHICH WIRES TO CONNECT!"

Another point.

"I DON'T EVEN HAVE THE TOOLKIT WITH ME!"

Another point.

"NOWHERE IN THAT MANUAL WAS THERE A SECTION CALLED 'HOW TO TURN YOUR ELEVATOR INTO A MISSILE IN ORDER TO SQUISH A GIANT LAUGHING MONSTER!'"

"...That's understandable." I admitted.

"THANK YOU."

The elevator lurched violently again.

Everyone nearly fell.

Far below, the bottom of the shaft looked much closer.

Way too close.

My stomach dropped.

"We're running out of time."

Silence.

Mira looked down.

Then up.

Then at the warning messages.

Then at the cracks spreading across the roof.

Then at the skull-faces staring through the glass.

"Heheheheheheheh."

One of the skulls tilted its head.

Mira immediately pointed at it.

"STOP THAT."

The skull continued staring.

Mira slowly looked back at us.

"...I don't know how."

Neither Eclipsara nor I answered immediately.

Because she was right.

This was absurd.

Completely absurd.

Possibly impossible.

Then Eclipsara stepped closer.

Her expression softened slightly.

"Mira."

Mira looked at her.

"If it doesn't work..."

A pause.

"We won't blame you."

Mira blinked.

Eclipsara pointed toward the rapidly approaching bottom of the shaft.

"If you fail, we were dead anyway."

I nodded.

"She's right."

Mira looked at me.

Then Eclipsara.

Then the creature.

Then the control panel.

The elevator screamed.

The brakes screamed.

The creature laughed.

The floor below got closer.

And closer.

And closer.

Finally Mira groaned.

A long, suffering groan.

The kind of groan produced by someone whose life had become deeply unreasonable.

"...Fine."

Both Eclipsara and I immediately brightened.

"Really?"

"Really?!"

Mira pointed at us.

"IF THIS SOMEHOW MAKES EVERYTHING WORSE, I'M HAUNTING BOTH OF YOU FOR CHOOSING ME."

"That's fair."

"Completely fair."

Eclipsara nodded.

"I regret many life decisions."

I nodded too.

"This won't be one of them."

"Same," Eclipsara agreed.

Mira stared at both of us.

"...You two are impossible."

"Correct."

"Very correct."

"AHHH...FINE THEN."

Then she immediately dropped to her knees beside the control panel, her fluffy pink side ponytail bouncing as she crouched beside the machinery.

"Cover me."

Without another word, she yanked open a maintenance panel.

Sparks flashed.

Bundles of wiring appeared beneath the metal casing.

Mira stared into the machine's internals.

Then visibly paled.

"...Oh."

"What?" I asked.

"What?" Eclipsara asked.

Mira pointed into the machine.

"There are WAY more wires than I remember."

"That's not encouraging."

"I KNOW."

Taking a deep breath, she rolled up her sleeves and shoved both hands into the exposed machinery.

"Okay."

Another crack spread across the roof.

The creature laughed as the elevator plunged deeper.

Mira immediately began frantically pulling wires, flipping switches, opening compartments, and muttering increasingly panicked technical nonsense under her breath.

"Please work."

SKRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEECH!

"Please work."

CRACK.

"Please work."

"Heheheheheheheh."

"PLEASE WORK."

Meanwhile, Eclipsara and I exchanged a glance.

Then looked up at the creature. Then back at Mira. Then back at the creature.

"...You know," I said.

"What?" Eclipsara asked.

"If this works, it's going to be the stupidest thing we've survived so far."

Eclipsara considered that.

Then nodded.

"...Yeah."

A pause.

"...Which means it might actually work."

---

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT MIGHT ACTUALLY WORK?!" Mira screamed without looking up.

Sparks flew from the open maintenance panel.

The pink-haired succubus had both arms buried inside the elevator's exposed machinery. Her fluffy side ponytail bounced wildly every time the platform lurched beneath us.

"WERE EITHER OF YOU LISTENING TO ANYTHING I SAID?!"

More sparks erupted.

The elevator shuddered.

Mira yanked another wire loose.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!"

Another switch flipped.

"I'M GUESSING!"

Another panel popped open.

"I'M ACTIVELY MAKING THINGS WORSE!"

"You seem very confident for someone making things worse." I said.

"I'M PANICKING PROFESSIONALLY!"

"Honestly, that's kind of impressive." Eclipsara admitted.

"THANK YOU!"

The compliment seemed to arrive automatically.

Neither of us knew why we said it.

Neither did she.

Another violent jolt rattled the elevator.(rattled-shaken hard and noisily. Context: The elevator shook very hard. Metal parts vibrated and made loud noises. Jolt-a sudden strong shake or movement. Context: The elevator suddenly shook hard, making everyone lose balance.)

SKRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEECH!

Mira nearly slammed her forehead into the panel.

"OW!"

"You okay?" I asked.

"NO!"

She shoved another bundle of wires aside.

"I DON'T EVEN HAVE MY TOOLKIT!"

A shower of sparks burst from the machine.

"WHO DESIGNED THIS?! WHY ARE THERE SO MANY WIRES?!"

"Purposefully bad design?" I suggested.

Eclipsara immediately pointed at the machine.

"WHAT IF THEY WERE PAID PER WIRE?"

Mira stared at us.

"VAL! ECLIPSARA! IF WE SURVIVE THIS, I'M HITTING BOTH OF YOU!"

"Fair."

"Completely fair."

More wires.

More switches.

More increasingly frantic muttering.

"I can't reach that..."

Another shake.

"Damn it."

More muttering.

"I need a wrench."

A pause.

"I REALLY NEED A WRENCH."

The elevator dropped several more meters.

SKRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEECH!

All three of us grabbed the railings again.

The roof groaned overhead.

Another crack spread across the armored glass.

"Heheheheheheheh..."

The creature continued pressing down from above.

Mira shoved both hands deeper into the machine.

"Please work."

A shower of sparks exploded upward.

"Please work."

The elevator shook violently.

"Please work."

CRACK.

"Heheheheheheheh."

"PLEASE WORK!"

Time passed.

Far too much time.

The elevator kept descending.

The shaft seemed endless.

The walls continued rushing past.(rushing past-moving by very quickly. Context: The elevator was moving so fast that the walls seemed to fly past them.)

And after a while, a different thought started bothering me.

"...How deep is this place?"

Nobody answered.

A few moments later-

"...Seriously."

Still nobody answered.

The elevator kept falling.

The shaft kept going.

And going.

And going.

At this point, I was beginning to suspect the facility had somehow connected itself to parts of the planet nobody was supposed to reach.

"Why is there this much underground laboratory?" I asked.

"BAD TIME, VAL!" Mira yelled.

"NO, HE HAS A POINT!" Eclipsara shouted.

The black-haired woman pointed dramatically downward, the yellow-tipped ends of her hair swaying as the elevator shook.

"HOW ARE WE STILL GOING?!"

The shaft continued disappearing into darkness.

Neither of us liked the implications.

Then-

The elevator jerked.

Everyone froze.

The horrible downward acceleration lessened.(acceleration-the rate something gains speed. downward acceleration-speeding up while moving down. Context: The elevator was still going down, but it was no longer speeding downward as much as before.)

The platform slowed.

Slowly.

Gradually.

Almost imperceptibly.(so slightly that it is hard to notice.)

But definitely slowed.

Silence.

Mira stopped moving.

"...Wait."

The elevator continued slowing.

"...Wait."

Mira slowly looked up.

Then down.

Then at the control panel.

Then back up.

Her bright green eyes widened.

"...WAIT."

The descent slowed even more.

Not completely.

But enough that the difference was obvious.

For several seconds, none of us reacted.

Our brains simply refused to process it.

Then Mira jumped to her feet.

"I DID IT!"

"YOU DID IT!"

"SHE DID IT!"

Mira immediately threw both fists into the air.

"I'M A GENIUS!"

"YOU ARE!"

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I DID!"

"THAT MAKES IT EVEN MORE IMPRESSIVE!"

For ten glorious seconds-

Everything worked.

The elevator climbed.

The monster shifted.

The brakes stopped screaming.

Hope returned.

Life had meaning again.

Then-

The elevator abruptly jerked.

Everyone froze.

The upward movement stopped.

Then the platform began descending again.

Silence.

"...No," Mira whispered.

"...No," Eclipsara whispered.

"...No," I whispered.

A warning flashed.

DESCENT RESUMED

WARNING

DESCENT DETECTED

"Oh, come on!" Mira screamed. "I WAS WINNING!"

The elevator began dropping again.

Not as quickly as before, but definitely dropping.

The creature immediately sounded happy again.

"Heheheheheheheh!"

"STOP CELEBRATING!" Eclipsara shouted.

Then-

The elevator stopped.

Completely.

Instantly.

Not slowing.

Not braking.

Not decelerating.

Stopping.

The motion vanished so suddenly that all three of us nearly lost our balance.

Silence filled the shaft.

The warnings froze.

The screeching vanished.

The elevator simply hung there.

Perfectly still.

"...What?" I asked.

"...What?" Eclipsara echoed.

"...What?" Mira added.

For a moment, nobody moved.

Then Eclipsara and I slowly looked upward.

The creature was still there.

Sitting on top of the roof.

Still laughing.

Still crushing the ceiling.

"Heheheheheheheh..."

Then a chime came from the display.

All three of us turned.

STATIONARY

A pause.

Then another message appeared.

CURRENT LOAD: ACCEPTABLE

Silence.

We stared.

Then slowly looked upward again.

"...Acceptable?" Eclipsara repeated.

The monster alone probably weighed more than a small building.

How was that acceptable?

Then I froze.

"...Guys."

"What?" Mira asked.

I pointed upward.

The creature wasn't touching the elevator anymore.

For a second, my brain refused to process what I was seeing.

Then it finally clicked.

"...Wasn't it on the roof?"

Silence.

Eclipsara stared upward.

"...It was literally on the roof."

"YES."

Mira looked up.

Then blinked.

Then blinked again.

The creature was no longer pressed against the elevator.

No longer crushing the ceiling.

No longer anywhere near us.

It was several meters above the platform.

Just... hanging there.

Far enough away that there was now a clearly visible gap between the monster and the elevator.

For a few moments, nobody spoke.

Because none of us had actually seen it move.

One moment it had been sitting on top of us. The next it wasn't.

Hundreds of tendrils writhed wildly through the air. Its countless red eyes blinked in apparent confusion. One skull-face looked downward.

Then upward.

Then downward again.

"Heh...?"

Even the monster sounded confused.

Several more seconds passed.

And somehow it drifted even farther away, with the gap now being impossible to ignore.

The creature squirmed(twisted and moved around restlessly.) frantically, as if something unseen were dragging it upward through the shaft.

"...What the heck is going on?" Eclipsara whispered.

"I have absolutely no idea."

Then Mira suddenly blinked.

"...Huh?"

"What?" I asked.

She looked down beside herself.

A toolkit sat on the floor.

Next to it rested a pair of insulated gloves.

Beside those lay a torn sheet of paper.

Silence.

Mira stared.

Then looked at us.

"...Val?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you put this here?"

"No."

She looked at Eclipsara.

"...You?"

Eclipsara stared.

"...No."

All three of us looked down at the items.

Then at each other.

Then back at the items.

"...What the heck is going on?" I repeated.

Mira immediately grabbed the paper.

Her eyes scanned across it.

Then widened.

Then widened even more.

"...No way."

"What?" Eclipsara asked.

"No way."

"Mira."

She pointed at the page.

"It's a speed-bypass procedure."

Silence.

"A what?"

"A speed-limiter bypass."

Mira looked at the exposed wiring.

Then the toolkit. Then the gloves. Then the paper. Then back to the wiring.

A very dangerous smile slowly spread across her face.

"Oh."

Both Eclipsara and I immediately noticed something was wrong.

"Mira?"

She grabbed the insulated gloves.

"Mira."

She snatched up a screwdriver.

"Mira."

Her bright green eyes locked onto the exposed wiring.

A manic grin spread across her face.

"Time to slam that creature."

"Oh, we're doomed, aren't we, Val?" Eclipsara muttered.

"Completely doomed." I agreed.

Then Mira dove back into the machine.

Sparks exploded from the panel.

The elevator remained suspended in the darkness.

And somehow, against all logic.

I had a feeling things were about to get much, much worse.

Then Mira started giggling.

Quietly at first.

"Heh."

Eclipsara and I slowly turned toward her.

Mira was still staring into the exposed wiring.

"Heh..."

The giggle came again.

Slightly louder.

Her shoulders shook.

"...Mira?" I asked.

"Hehehe..."

The pink-haired succubus tightened another connection.

A shower of sparks erupted from the panel.

Then she started laughing.

Not a normal laugh.

Not a reassuring laugh.

The kind of laugh people develop after reality has repeatedly hit them with a chair.

"Hehehehehe..."

Eclipsara slowly pointed at her.

"Val."

"Yeah?"

"I think we broke her."

"I think she broke herself."

"We are still responsible for this, Val."

"Hehehehehehehe..." Mira's grin widened.

Both hands disappeared deeper into the machinery.

More sparks flew.

The elevator remained perfectly still.

The creature continued drifting farther away above us.

"Heheheheheheheheheh..."

Unfortunately, Mira's laughter was beginning to sound disturbingly similar.

"Mira?" Eclipsara asked cautiously.

The succubus didn't answer.

Instead, she flipped something inside the panel.

A loud CLUNK echoed through the shaft.

Then another.

Then another.

Mira's eyes widened.

"Oh."

"What?" I asked.

"Oh."

"Mira."

"Oh wow."

"MIRA."

She slowly looked up at us.

Her grin somehow got bigger.

"...It can do that?"

Before either of us could ask what that meant-

The elevator launched upward.

WHOOOOOOOOM!

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

All three of us immediately hit the floor.

The acceleration nearly folded my spine in half.(spine-backbone. Context: The elevator accelerated so violently that Val felt intense pressure on his body. Not literally folded. It's an exaggeration.)

The shaft became a blur.

The darkness below vanished.

The walls shot past so quickly they barely looked real.

Mira's laughter instantly became screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"YOU DID THIS!" Eclipsara yelled.

"I KNOW!"

Above us, the creature froze.

Hundreds of red eyes widened.

Countless tendrils flailed wildly.

For the first time since we'd met it-

It looked surprised.

Then the elevator caught up to it.

The monster was shoved upward by the armored roof.(armored roof-a very strong protective ceiling. Context: The elevator moved upward so fast that its reinforced roof pushed the monster upward.)

The shaft echoed with a horrible grinding sound.

SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE!

Black tendrils slammed against the walls.

More tendrils were dragged upward.

Then more.

Chunks of black flesh tore free.(chunks-large pieces. tore free-ripped off. Context: Pieces of the monster's body were being ripped away.)

The creature's laughter abruptly transformed into confused screeching.

"Heh-?"

SCRAAAAAAAPE!

Entire masses of writhing tendrils were ripped apart by the concrete and metal walls.

Black fluid splattered everywhere.

The monster was being forced upward whether it wanted to go or not.

"Oh my god," I whispered.

"It's working," Eclipsara whispered.

"It's WORKING!" Mira screamed.

The elevator shot upward faster.

And faster.

And somehow even faster.

The floor we'd just left flashed past.

Gone in seconds.

Then another level.

Then another.

The creature continued being dragged upward ahead of us.

Pieces of it broke away as tendrils scraped against support beams and shaft walls.

"Heheheheh-!"

SCRAAAAAAAPE!

A cluster of tendrils ripped completely free.

The monster flailed.

The elevator did not care.

It continued accelerating.

Mira stared at the speed indicator.

Then blinked.

Then blinked again.

"...Wow."

"What?" I asked.

"It can go this fast?"

"What do you mean it can go this fast?!"

"I DIDN'T KNOW IT COULD GO THIS FAST!"

"THAT ISN'T COMFORTING!"

The elevator roared upward.

The shaft blurred around us.

The monster continued getting shoved toward the top of the facility.

Then a thought hit me.

A very important thought.

A very late thought.

"...Mira."

"What?"

"If this thing gets crushed against the ceiling..."

She blinked.

"...Yeah?"

"The force has to go somewhere."

Silence.

Eclipsara slowly turned.

"...Oh no."

I pointed upward.

"If several thousand tons of nightmare monster get pancaked against the top of the shaft..."

Mira stared.

Eclipsara stared.

I stared.

"...Wouldn't that shove the roof into us?"

A pause.

Then Mira's smile vanished.

"...Oh."

Silence.

"...You accounted for that, right?" Eclipsara asked.

Another pause.

"...Right?" I asked.

Mira looked at both of us.

Then at the ceiling.

Then back at us.

"...Define accounted for."

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Eclipsara screamed.

"THAT'S A BAD ANSWER!" I screamed.

The top of the shaft rushed toward us at an impossible speed.

The monster finally noticed.

For the first time, genuine panic seemed to spread across the hundreds of skull-faces embedded throughout its body(The skull-faces were stuck inside the monster's body, not sitting on the surface.). Tendrils lashed(whipped around violently.) wildly in every direction as it desperately tried to grab the walls and pull itself aside.

It didn't have enough room.

It didn't have enough time.

"Heheheheh-?"

The creature looked upward.

Then downward.

Then upward again.

As if it had only just realized what was happening.

"Oh, NOW it understands the situation!" I yelled.

Then-

The monster hit the ceiling.

KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The impact was indescribable.

The entire shaft shook as though a bomb had detonated somewhere above us.(The whole elevator tunnel shook like there had been a huge explosion overhead.)Every remaining tendril exploded outward(outward = away from the center. Context: The tentacles were thrown violently in all directions from the force.). Black flesh compressed(compressed-squeezed into a smaller space. Context: The monster's body was crushed and flattened.). Bones snapped. Hundreds of skull-faces shattered simultaneously.

The creature didn't merely hit the ceiling.

It was crushed between two unstoppable forces:

The top of the shaft.

And a completely unhinged elevator traveling at a speed no elevator should ever reach.

The result was immediate.

The nightmare creature ceased being a creature and became a very large problem spread across several surfaces.

Black matter splattered everywhere.

Fragments of tendrils rained through the shaft.(The broken pieces fell everywhere like rain.)

The laughter stopped.

Completely.

The elevator violently shuddered beneath us.

All three of us were already flat on the floor with our arms over our heads.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Then-

Silence.

The elevator stopped.

Nothing moved. Nothing laughed. Nothing attacked us.

Slowly...

Very slowly...

I lowered my hands.

Beside me, Eclipsara did the same, her long black hair hanging messily around her shoulders. Mira cautiously peeked up from behind the control panel, her fluffy pink side ponytail sticking out at an odd angle.

The three of us looked upward.

Silence.

The armored ceiling was still intact. Bent. Scratched.

Covered in horrifying amounts of black goo.

But intact.

Beyond it-

The creature was gone.

Or at least gone in the sense that it was no longer capable of being described as a single object.

Pieces of it were smeared across the upper shaft. Bits of tendrils hung from support beams. Black fluid dripped from the ceiling.

A lone skull-face slowly slid down a wall somewhere above.

Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.

Finally, Eclipsara inhaled.

Then exhaled.

"...I cannot believe that worked."

"I can," Mira said.

Silence.

Eclipsara stared at her.

"...Really?"

"No."

"Okay."

Another pause passed.

Then Mira slowly looked down at the exposed wiring, the dismantled control panel, and her own hands.

"...I genuinely have no idea what I did."

I laughed weakly.

"Still, that was amazing."

Mira blinked.

Then smiled slightly.

"Thanks."

For several seconds, all three of us simply sat there on the floor, breathing heavily while staring at the remains of the monster.

Then Eclipsara pointed directly at Mira.

"You are never allowed to touch machinery unsupervised again."

Mira immediately pointed back.

"Counterpoint."

"What?"

"The monster is dead."

A pause.

"...Damn it."

"The monster is dead," I agreed.

"Fine," Eclipsara admitted. "Revised statement."

She pointed again.

"You're never allowed to touch machinery unsupervised when you've temporarily gone insane from stress."

"That's fair."

Before anyone could say anything else, Eclipsara suddenly leaned sideways and wrapped both arms around me.

I blinked.

A second later Mira threw herself into the hug too, nearly knocking both of us over again.

The three of us sat there in the middle of the destroyed elevator, covered in dirt, sweat, monster goo, and poor life choices.

For several moments nobody said anything.

Then Eclipsara started giggling. 

She buried her face against my shoulder and laughed harder, her arms tightening around both of us.

Mira immediately joined in, laughing while hugging us both.

A second later I did too.

The laughter spread through the elevator until all three of us were laughing almost uncontrollably.

Part relief. Part exhaustion. Part complete mental collapse. 

But mostly because we were still alive.

Eventually Mira wiped a tear from her eye.

"...Seriously though."

"What?" I asked.

Mira pointed upward.

"How is that ceiling still intact?"

Silence.

We all looked up.

The transparent armored roof should have been gone.

The creature's weight alone should have crushed it.

The impact should have shattered it.

And yet it hadn't.

As I stared upward, something near the armored roof caught my attention.

At first I thought it was just a trick of the light reflecting off the black goo smeared across the ceiling. Then the distortion moved.(something that looks strange or warped. Context: The air looked oddly twisted.)

A small swirling (swirling-spinning in circles.)portal hung in the air for only a moment. Darkness filled its center-not normal darkness, but something deeper, something that felt wrong just to look at.

And within that darkness was an eye.

A single black-and-red spiral eye.

It watched us silently.

Not the elevator.

Not the remains of the creature.

Us.

The feeling that came with that realization was difficult to describe. It wasn't hostile. It wasn't threatening. If anything, it felt as though the eye was checking on us. Making sure we were still alive.

My breath caught in my throat.

For a brief moment, the noise of the elevator seemed distant.

Then the eye blinked.

The portal collapsed.

Gone.

As though it had never existed.

"...No way." Eclipsara whispered beside me.

I glanced toward her.

Her visible red eye was wide.

She looked just as shocked as I felt.

Neither of us spoke.

Because at that moment, a memory I hadn't thought about in a long time suddenly resurfaced.

Vemmora.

The dreamlike madness in her voice.

The way she'd looked at me as if she were seeing someone else entirely.

Fully masked and hooded. Red and black spiral eye. A walking horror.

At the time, I'd assumed she was insane.

Or mistaken.

Or both.

She'd spoken as if she already knew me. As if she'd seen some future version of me that I couldn't possibly understand.

The memory sent a chill down my spine.

No.

That didn't make sense.

It couldn't.

How could I ever become something like that?

How could I become whatever Vemmora thought she'd seen?

The idea was absurd.

Impossible.

And yet...

I'd just seen the eye myself.

Beside me, Eclipsara remained unusually quiet, staring at the empty space where the portal had vanished. She looked like she was remembering something too, though whatever it was, she kept it to herself.

Neither of us mentioned it.

Mira hadn't noticed any of it anyway.

She was already crawling back toward the control panel.

"Well," she announced while wiping monster goo off one sleeve. "I'm going to make this thing continue to the bottom floor."

She tapped the side of the machine.

"Preferably without launching us into orbit this time."

"That would be appreciated," I said.

"Very appreciated." Eclipsara agreed.

Mira grinned.

"Good. Then everybody stay seated while I try not to accidentally create a second disaster."

I leaned back against the railing while Eclipsara settled beside me.

Neither of us said anything about the eye.

Not about the portal. Not about whatever we'd just seen.

There would be time to think about that later.

For now, we'd somehow survived.

And the bottom of the facility was still waiting for us.