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Kevin walked into the elevator, pushing a shopping cart. Gwen followed behind him and pressed the button to the fifth floor. As the doors closed, she stood beside him and released a contented sigh. She'd spent the last couple hours shopping for things she didn't need yet wanted anyway. All the while, Kevin offered opinions on which colors or styles suited her best. He'd made it abundantly clear that he didn't particularly enjoy shopping, but he couldn't turn her down when she’d asked him to come with her (albeit as a replacement for Julie).
He gestured at the cart, filled with bags of clothes and shoes. She’d used up several months’ worth of allowance to afford half of it, and he’d insisted on paying for the other half. "Happy?"
She leaned on him. "Mhm! Thanks for keeping me company and all that."
With a faint smile, he kissed the top of her head. "Anythin' for you."
She playfully elbowed him. "Maybe next time, you can try on new clothes and I'll stand around telling you you look nice!" He'd said time and time again that he was fine with his limited wardrobe, but she couldn't accept that. He'd relent one day, she knew it.
"Eh, not like there's a point when I'm stuck like this." He stared into the mirror stretching across the back wall of the elevator. His reflection evoked a visceral reaction within him, bringing unwanted emotions he’d tried burying back to the surface. His human appearance was merely a facade. Beneath his ID Mask, he was, in his opinion, a freak.
Gwen slowly reached for Kevin's face, ostensibly to remove his mask. He tensed up when he noticed the security camera behind her. Not here, his wide eyes conveyed to her. He didn't want to subject whoever was watching the cameras to his hideousness. Against his wishes, her hand drew closer and closer. He shut his eyes, bracing himself for his mask to come off... only to feel her hand resting delicately on his cheek instead. His eyes fluttered open, his apprehension melting away.
Their moment barely lasted five seconds. Before either of them could get a word out, the elevator jerked to a stop and the power went out, plunging them into darkness. The silence lingered a few seconds longer, in futile hopes that the elevator would start moving again. No dice.
Gwen swallowed hard, her pulse pounding madly in her ears. "W—What happened?!" Her question came out strained, as if it had been stuck in her throat.
"Elevator broke down," Kevin replied unhelpfully.
With every ounce of self-control, she fought the impulse to use her powers to bust out. Exposing them to the public wouldn’t do any good. "This— This is bad." Of all the times for this to happen, why now?
"No kiddin'," he said with a snort. "They need to stop slackin' on maintenance."
She showed no reaction to his attempt at lightening the mood, not even mild annoyance. Taking a couple steps back—and away from him—she gripped the handrail at the back of the elevator. Her chest tightened, her breathing becoming uneven. "Nononono. This c—can't be happening!"
Any inclination Kevin had to joke around disappeared. They had to get out immediately. His hand felt around for the button to open the doors. When pressing it predictably didn’t work, he held down the emergency button on the panel, applying only a little pressure so he wouldn’t accidentally break it. The voice of a middle-aged woman came through. "Hello?"
He tried to keep his eyes on Gwen while he spoke but couldn’t make her out in the darkness. "The elevator in the south wing stopped movin' and now my girlfriend and I are stuck."
"Oh, no! Is anyone injured?”
He brushed off her concern. “We’re fine.”
“Can you tell me how many people are in the elevator with you?”
“Just me and my girl.”
“Do you know what floor you’re on?”
He glanced at the indicator above the doors, realizing that he couldn’t see it, and even if he could, it wouldn’t be working. For all he knew, they were between floors. “Uh… fifth, I think? That’s where we were goin’.”
“Okay, hang tight, alright? I'll send a team to come rescue you right away," she responded calmly. Trying to make them feel safe, he figured.
"Just hurry!" He released the button, giving the woman no chance to continue the conversation. A pang of guilt hit him. He could have been nicer to her since she was just doing her job. No time to dwell on it now, though. Gwen was more important. Arms outstretched, he moved in the direction of her loud breathing, feeling around for her until he caught her shirt. "Can you teleport us outta here?"
"No, I— I don't know how!"
He spoke serenely in an effort to calm her down, clamping a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, hey, it’s okay, you're safe. I'm here." Her eyes darted all over the small, dark space, terrified that the walls were going to close in on her. "Deep breath," he instructed, hands on her cheeks.
The sensation of his rough palms against the soft skin of her face gradually brought her back to reality. She didn’t know what she would have done if he weren’t with her. Gathering all her concentration, she closed her eyes, inhaled deeply—her chest rising in the process—and mentally counted to 10 before exhaling.
He took his hands off her face. “Better?”
Her eyes remained closed as she tried to pinpoint exactly what she felt, only opening when she failed to find the words (not that it made a difference with it being pitch black). “I… I’m not sure.” Attempting to make sense of the emotions swirling in her mind was a fruitless endeavor in her current state.
“That’s okay. Might wanna sit down, though," he suggested. "We'll be here a while. Good thing neither of us has to use the bathroom, huh?”
“I swear, if you just jinxed us…” She slid along the wall behind her onto the uncomfortable metal floor, with her legs outstretched and her gaze glued to where she assumed the doors were. With the limited space, the lack of light, the suffocating silence and how the minutes seemed to blur together, she guessed this was close to what being in a sensory deprivation tank was like. She was not a fan.
Kevin sat beside her and moved a hand up and down her back while shushing her. Seeing her in such a fragile state was strange, to say the least. He’d seen her go up against much worse without flinching. Somehow, being trapped in an elevator was what scared her? This whole thing would have been funny if it wasn’t so unfortunate.
His hand stopped right above her waist. "Is it always this bad?"
"Not usually.” A near-inaudible sigh preceded her next words. "One time when I was little, I was playing Hide and Seek with some friends. I hid in my mom's closet, but I couldn't open it from the inside. I'm sure I wasn't in there for long, but it felt like forever. I couldn't see a thing, couldn't hear anything except my own breathing.” Her voice cracked. “It... It was scary . When my dad finally got me out, I couldn’t stop crying. I could never handle closed spaces the same after that.”
“It wasn’t your fault. You were just a kid,” he sympathized.
Though she wasn’t completely convinced, she answered, “Yeah.” Having nothing more to say, Gwen nestled her head under Kevin’s chin. The scent of her sweat mixed with rose perfume filled his nostrils. Although he couldn’t quite feel the heat, judging by how damp her clothes were, it must have been intense. He reached around and repeatedly tugged at her shirt to give her some air.
“Y’know,” he began with a chuckle. “I’m actually scared of the dark.” While the elevator was like a tiny, inescapable box to her, it was an endless void to him.
“Wait, you’ve been scared this whole time too and you didn’t tell me?!” she scolded. How could she have been so caught up in her own fear that she’d forgotten to make sure he was alright too?
He stopped tugging at her shirt. “Okay, lemme put it another way. I’m scared of bein’ alone in the dark, and well, I ain’t alone. In fact, if I gotta be stuck here, there’s no one I’d rather be with than you.”
“I feel the same way.” She cracked the slightest of smiles, though he couldn’t see it. “How do you cope when you are alone, though?”
“I sleep with a nightlight sometimes. Calms me down. I— I guess it’s less about the dark and more about the weird sounds and smells in dark places. I’ve been to lotsa creepy places that all happened to be dark.” Recalling his time as a runaway in the streets of New York and in the Null Void, he shuddered. She patted him on the thigh, hoping the gesture would convey her empathy when words couldn’t.
He shook his head, banishing his traumatic memories from the forefront of his mind. “You’ve never asked about my past. Aren’t you curious?”
“Of course I am!” she exclaimed louder than intended, then quieted herself. “I just figured you’d tell me more when you’re ready. I know there’ll come a time when I expect to know everything, but I want you to feel comfortable enough with me to open up on your own terms.”
He couldn’t fathom how she was so understanding. Most other girls would have ended things over his reluctance to open up, and here she was, willing to give him as much space as he needed. “Wow” was the only reply he could muster.
Another bout of silence befell them, broken by an annoyed grunt from Gwen. “They're taking for ever ! I’m burning up here!” She pulled away from Kevin, her fingers fumbling to undo her ponytail. Strands of her hair stuck to her forehead, which she wiped away with the back of one hand as the other stuffed her hair tie in her pocket. Sweat soaked her clothes in the most uncomfortable places. When she got home, she was going to take a nice, long shower. “You’re lucky you can’t feel the heat.”
“I’d take that over being stuck like this.”
She was glad he couldn’t see her wince. “Sorry, that was insensitive. I know you’re struggling—”
“It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean anything.” His hurried tone indicated he wanted to sweep the topic under the rug. Frankly, he wasn’t in the mood to discuss his predicament. He quickly thought of something else to talk about. “Think you should call your folks?”
It sounded like a reasonable thing to do. She was likely going to be out past curfew at this point, and they were bound to worry. Still, she thought better of it. “Nah, they’ll freak out. I’ll fill them in when I get home.” Already, she dreaded the questions her parents were going to bombard her with. It almost made her want to be stuck in the elevator a while longer. Almost.
“Probably won’t be too happy ‘bout you hangin’ out with me,” he stated, a hint of resentment slipping through.
“They know I’m with you.”
“I repeat my statement.” Sure, he was a little offended that Gwen’s parents didn’t like him, but more than that, he strongly believed she knew what she was doing by being with him. Perhaps he didn’t deserve their trust, but she did.
Rather than returning to her spot under his chin, she lay her head on his lap. “They’ll have to deal with it,” she hmphed.
Her proud declaration lifted his spirits. “Is it bad that I think it’s hot when you rebel?” He threaded his fingers through her hair, curling a strand around them.
“I’d be offended if you didn’t,” she admitted with a snicker.
Kevin continued stroking Gwen’s hair, delighted that she had let it down. He understood why she normally tied it up, but he hated it nonetheless. As far as he was concerned, her hair tie was his worst enemy.
His repeated, rhythmic motions threatened to lull her to sleep. Her eyelids drooped, her mind wandered, but she resisted when she remembered he needed her company. He was probably more spooked than he let on. “Holding up okay?”
“I’m bored.” He forced a laugh to mask his frustration.
Seeing right through him, she got up and straddled him, feet against the wall behind him. “Touch me,” she invited. She guided his hands to her temples, damp with sweat. He traced along her ear down to her chin, his fingers relishing every inch of her skin. When he gently rubbed a thumb over her lips, they curved into a smile. Her hands travelled up his chest, looping around his neck in anticipation of what was to come.
A creaking sound from above caught their attention, but they were too engrossed in each other to care. Their faces were so close now that their noses brushed, her warm breath tickling his lips.
That’s when it happened again , this time much louder; impossible to ignore. “Kev!” she half-whispered, half-screamed, scrambling to stand up.
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “Moment’s over.”
He clutched her hand to drag himself up, and they watched as a hatch on the roof creaked open, flooding the space with a dim light. They squinted, adjusting to the sudden brightness. Briefly, their gazes strayed from the hole above. Words could not describe how good it was to see each other’s faces again.
A man holding a flashlight peeped through the hatch. “We’re here to get you out.”
“Took ya long enough!”