Falling Up

33. Trapped

They both waited a moment in silence, hoping the elevator would start up again, but they were out of luck. After a minute, Kain let out a breath of air before placing the stack of books on the floor.

He took a step forward, pulling the old red emergency phone off the hook on the wall and placing it to his ear as Riley immediately heard another voice on the other end. Kain barely said a word beside some general yes and no responses before placing the phone back on its hook.

"Emergency dispatchers are extremely busy today. They can't get someone out for another three hours," he said calmly, leaning against the wall before sliding down to sit on the not so clean floor.

"Are you serious?" exclaimed Riley, panicking more at the fact that Jason was going to go mental at not knowing her whereabouts without her phone to contact him. "Do you, by any chance, have your phone on you?"

Kain pulled out a phone from his pocket and unlocked it, causing a sigh of relief to slip past Riley's lips. At least she could call Jason and let him know where she was.

"No signal," said Kain as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Jason is going to flip," she mumbled under her breath before adding her books to the stack that Kain had put on the floor and dropping her bag next to it.

"I'm sure he'll understand."

Riley ground her teeth together at the thought of being stuck in this small, tight space for three hours with Kain. Surviving three hours in an enclosed space with Kain was going to be tough. She already felt her heartbeat increase a few beats. No, this would not be good for her. She was supposed to be distancing herself, and this was definitely not distancing.

At least she had recently been to the bathroom. That would be humiliating if she needed to go in front of him. But what if Kain needed the bathroom? Her thoughts were getting away from her in bizarre scenarios that she barely even noticed that Kain had made himself more comfortable by stretching out one of his legs in the tiny space they had.

"What do you want to do for the next three hours, then?"

"Stand here in silence." The words slipped out of her mouth before even realising what she said. But it was kind of true. She just wanted to stand still, face the other wall and not have to deal with whatever emotions she had been feeling over the past week.

Kain let out a short laugh. "Suit yourself," he said, leaning his head back against the elevator wall as he closed his eyes and stretched out his other leg in front of him. The space was now even smaller, as Kains long legs almost hit the other wall of the elevator.

Standing there quietly as Kain looked like he was falling asleep, she regretted telling him she was just going to stand there in silence for the next couple of hours. Almost 40 minutes passed before she felt the ache in her feet and started contemplating sitting down. Curse her weak body.

"Move your legs," she said, kicking Kain softly in his leg to get him to move over so she could sit down. The motion caused Kain to grunt and open his eyes, but he moved his legs to the side, offering some space for her to sit on the ground.

She manoeuvred into her spot at the opposite end of the elevator, crossing her legs, despite her knee touching Kain's outstretched leg, which there was nothing she could do about in the small space they had. As she kept her hands well off the grimy floor, she felt the ache in her legs dissipate. Picking up one of the books on the pile on the floor, she brought it to her lap and opened the pages. The title of the book held no interest to her whatsoever, but there wasn't much more she could do besides try to read in the dim red glow of the elevator. There were still a couple more hours before they were rescued.

After about half an hour of being bored to the death by the contents of the book she was reading, she closed the hardcover, finally taking the time to read the title of the dullest book that she had ever read in her life: Group work applications across the social work curriculum. Well, that explains it. She could only hope that the batty old Mrs Hall wasn't planning on making this a compulsory reading in class.

Riley lifted her eyes from her book to find Kain still with his eyes closed, resting his head against the wall. There wasn't much to do stuck here in this small space and the more she thought about it, the more she started to draw correlations between this tiny elevator and the small closet her stepfather had handcuffed and shoved her into after he killed her mother.

Her breathing picked up as the walls closed in further around her and every wall she now looked at looked like that closet. The one that she was locked in more than once in her life.

"Not now," she whispered to herself. She couldn't have a panic attack now. Not here. Not now.

Squeezing her eyes closed, she pulled her knees to her chest and grabbed hold of her legs as tight as she could. "Not now, not now, not now," she kept on repeating to herself, willing the images of the small closet to disappear and the feeling of being locked away to disappear.

She was shocked out of her thoughts as she felt Kain's warm hand touch hers which was placed on top of her knee. She had no idea when he moved, but he was now sitting down next to her and her eyes whipped up to his at the contact.

"You're okay," said Kain. "I'm here."

And just like that, the image of the closet and thoughts of her stepfather were gone. All she could see was Kain's blue eyes gazing into hers.