Nick’s peaceful slumber was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a shrill that he knew belonged to Ro-Ena. He quickly found himself stumbling out of the couch he was laid out on and stood upright listening intently in trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. The first thing he realized was that Reese was no longer present.

“Ro-Ena,” he whispered under his breath as he began to roam around his hotel room trying to see if he can find the path where the sound of her scream will increase in volume.

He headed for the front door: the sound grew more visible to his ear, realizing that the shrill was coming from outside. Nick rushed to the front door and quickly grabbed the doorknob and turned it counter-clockwise as he swung the door opened and found his self, running out of the hotel hallway in his socks.

Other guests in the hotel floor opened their door as well to see what the sudden commotion was about as they peeked their head out of their front doors, looking to find the where the chaos was originating from. Nick ran down the hallway, following the sound where Ro-Ena’s voice was coming from, which eventually led him to the elevator doors. All three was closed.

Nick quickly looked up at each light above the elevator doors. The first one, the number was moving upwards from the 23rd floor going into the 24th floor. He pressed his ear against it: nothing.

The second door was moving downwards from the 15th floor to the 14th. He also pressed his ear against it: he heard some chatters amongst the people that occupied the elevator, he knew she wasn’t there.

The third elevator door showed him that the floor was stuck on the number 31, the floor just beneath him. He quickly pressed his ear against it and Ro-Ena’s scream grew louder. “Ro-Ena?” Nick began to call out as he began to pound on the door.

A man approached him from behind, “Is everything all right?” he asked as concern was sensed in the manner of his voice.

“I think my friend is stuck in there,” Nick replied, not bothering to look at the guy and continued forcing on opening the elevator door with intervals of him taking one step back to where the elevator buttons were and would repeatedly pound on the buttons.

Ro-Ena’s scream continued.

“Ro-Ena, are you okay?” Nick screamed out hoping she could hear him atop her own screams of terror. “We have to get her out of there!” he turned to the man hoping to give him aid.

“I think the elevator is stuck in between floors. If we can get the door pried opened then we can pull her out of there. Either that or we call the hotel maintenance and wait for them to fix the elevator!” the man informed

“There’s no time for that, I have to get her out of there now!”

“Then I guess we have to pry the door open”

The man walked beside Nick as the two of them began to give all their might in trying to pry the elevator door opened. It wasn’t working.

“It’s not even budging!” Nick said, somewhat out of breath.

“Does anybody have a crowbar of some sort?” the man called out from all the spectators that have managed to scurry out of each of their own rooms and created a semi-circle as they watched both Nick and the stranger in full anticipation. “Or anything that we can use to help us open the door?”

A woman screamed out, “Wait a second! Here’s something you can use!” she exclaimed and ran to one side of the hallway and pulled out the emergency axe provided beside the emergency hose, and handing it to the man.

Within time, the two of them managed to lever open the elevator door and found Ro-Ena sitting on the floor hugging both her legs that was folded up against her chest, screaming and crying in sheer fright.

Nick quickly ran to where she was to console her, “Hey…” he called out to her gently as he touched both of her shoulders to comfort her.

“No…no!!!” Ro-Ena detested. “Leave me alone!” she exclaimed, not bothering to look up. “Leave me alone!!!”

“Ro-Ena, it’s me! It’s Nick. It’s okay! You’re going to be okay!” he persisted as he tried to pull her head up so that she could see him. “Everything is okay now!”

Ro-Ena slowly pulled her flushed face up, which was filled with tears with a confused look lingering in her eyes. “Nick?” she slowly said, voice almost unrecognizable due to her constant scream. “Nick?” she called out again as she began to sob a cry of relief and fell into Nick’s arms.

“It’s okay,” he comforted her once more as he wrapped his arms around her. In his arms, he felt her entire body shivering. He began to stroke the back of her head along her long, soft, dark hair with one of his hands while he began to ponder her reasons for freaking out the way that she did. He was confused and he felt in the dark of her reasons but he knew it wasn’t just from panicking or experiencing an anxiety attack of being stuck in an elevator alone; he knew there was something more to her reasons and he was going to make sure that he will find out.