We all look around wondering if we are all meant to be here, if we will end our lives on the 8th floor. No one speaks, perhaps afraid that this might be the truth. A short man in a white lab coat comes over. What do they do here, experiment on people?

We all look around at each other, wondering if we are meant to be here. Here we are on the 8th floor, we could be almost at the end of our lives now. No one says a word as we absorb our surroundings. The last thing we want to do is face the truth. This place looks like it holds a big experiment, and one that we do not want to take part in.

Footsteps start to echo from the distance and grow closer. A short man, probably no bigger than my five feet tall, comes into view. His walking comes to a halt at the elevator door.

I exchange confused glances with Alexis, and we start to stand up. She stays still in her spot, but I approach the door feeling like this is how it’s meant to be.

“No.” The man’s arm goes up, blocking me from the door. I walk backwards to my original spot while he begins to point at Madison. “That is who we want.”

To my surprise, she stands up instantly and moves over. From the side, I can see the fear in her face even though her actions will not match it. Madison stares off into the distance. Something is about to go down and I can feel it flowing through the air.

She turns around to get a final glimpse of the elevator, then suddenly she takes off. She runs to the left, going past the man. After a moment, he runs down after her.

Startled, I jump to the loud blare of an alarm. Red lights begin to flash down the plain walls as it sounds like we are inside a giant service bell. I begin to see more people in lab coats running around, all in different directions. A sense of panic rises in me as one of them comes over to the elevator.

The fear in me continues to elevate as a woman stands in complete silence. I was told that I didn’t need to get off here and I don’t want to be told different. I’m not supposed to be on the 8th floor, or else I would’ve been out of this elevator already. Then, she begins to speak.

“Congratulations”

The elevator door begins to start closing in. The scene of the red lit-up hallways and alarm gets shut out. The elevator starts to pick up the intensity that it had before. I really hope we don’t have to repeat that odd little game before we get to a different floor. I already lost one person from that and I don’t want to do it again. I could’ve done something to save Madison, but I didn’t. Sitting in this elevator with two people instead of three makes me feel guilty. I could’ve changed the entire situation and it was wrong of me not to take that advantage. I’m letting someone die. All I could think about was the fact that I didn’t have to face the worst floor. I let a little bit of thrill and perhaps even excitement control me. I tried so hard to believe that this place wasn’t bad and I made a big mistake.

The floor indicator starts shaking as it is about to move. I don’t bother watching it intently like I did before. I just wait for the next event to happen and hope that I don’t mess up again.

The number seven lights up, and the elevator comes to a more cushioned stop. As the door starts opening, the voice overhead says “You’ve been assigned to the seventh floor”. I glance over at Alexis the same way I did earlier, and we begin to part ways. This is it, the last moment. Everything is now the responsibility of the individual. If we continue to focus on everyone else, we will only destroy ourselves. There has got to be a way to leave this place, and that is yet to be found out.

I take my first step out of the elevator with Alexis. I look straight in front of me while she disappears. Looking to see where others are going is not needed right now. After all, we are in a safer place. No one ever said anything bad about the seventh floor.

This place now matches the outside of the building. The brick is exposed in many areas, and it is obvious that this place hasn’t been updated recently. This is another reason to believe the seventh floor is harmless. It may seem empty and old, but it feels much better than the too-perfect looking eighth floor. The dim light brings down the importance that this place could possibly hold.

As I start moving my way down a random hallway, I hear the sound of children. I hear the sounds of laughing and screaming, and it sounds like it is out of enjoyment. I wish I could be like that, I miss those days.

As I make my way around a corner, I see a bigger room. A bunch of the children are running around chasing each other. They seem like they are playing tag like this is a real summer camp. No one seems upset to be here. What if this is the one good place here? What if the seventh floor means nothing? Perhaps this is why John was upset with my reaction. I was already destined to be here, maybe this could be better than life at home. Everyone here is around each other, there are no distance laws.

One of the children in the room takes off to a hallway on the opposite side of the room. Everyone else begins to follow and the noise in my location quiets down. I take a few moments of silence to absorb the free feeling of being here.

A faint sound of a guitar comes present. I look around and start turning my head to see where it’s coming from. I hear the children laughing again and it leads me to the hallway that they walked out of. The sound becomes louder as I get closer and closer.

I walk over and I see a doorway covered by beads strung to the floor. I push them aside and step into a small room with a little platform. The guitar that I once heard is placed on top of it.

I look around and see that everyone has left. I look to see how messed up this room looks. The wooden floor is dented up, probably from the years of chaos that it has endured. I look around for evidence of the noise I previously heard, but there isn’t anyone around.

A loud click echoes throughout the room, and I jump. As I do that, the guitar slides off the platform and onto the ground. I stand there looking down in shock to see it snapped in half. I turn over and screech as I see someone standing there.

It’s just one of the little girls who was running around earlier.

“Follow me so I can show you something.” She says to me.

Hesitantly, I start walking behind her to the opening on the other side of the room. I turn the corner to see that we are no longer in the old part of the building. This new hallway seems to be a place where summer camp activities would actually take place. It looks like a school, there’s even rooms labeled on the side of the doors. I look over to see someone standing against the wall with a blank expression.