The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Life Review 
by Elaine Pascale

The elevator in the motel had buttons for only two floors: ground level and five.

This seemed an impossibility as Cheryl’s room was on the second floor, which was the top level.

Cheryl walked back to the desk in the lobby and the disgruntled man behind it. “You said I am on the 2^nd floor, right?”

The man raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

“The elevator.” She pointed as if there were more than one. “Only has floor five as an option.”

“You are on the 2^nd,” he insisted, as if this solved the conundrum.

“And how do I get there?”

He pointed to the same elevator she had pointed to moments before.

Realizing she was getting nowhere, Cheryl decided she was reading the number incorrectly or that the person who installed the buttons needed help with their stenciling.

She got into the contraption, which smelled like raw meat, and pushed the button for five. She also deciphered what the man at the desk had asked her as he had taken her information: “window or windowless?” Her mind came up with many scenarios that would require a windowless room and none of them were good.

The elevator jolted to a start. Cheryl felt herself being lifted and after what seemed a long while, the doors opened again. The meat smell was replaced with a cacophony of scents, each bringing a bouquet of memories which made her feel overwhelmed and dizzy.

She stepped off the elevator and into a room with a large screen. Long windows surrounded the room and each window contained numerous sets of eyes. In some instances, there were solitary eyes, blending in with the pairs, blinking and peering into the room.

A voice said, “life review,” and the screen showed clips from a film of her life. The clips mostly focused on the times when she had been selfish. She relived seducing her second husband away from his family. She saw herself wrongly accusing a co-worker of stealing and using his firing as an opportunity for advancement. There were times she had been greedy, times she had been hurtful. She watched as she lied and cheated and intentionally caused misery. The eyes watched, too. Their presence heightened her distress and she wished she had requested a windowless room.

She was relieved when the screen went blank and the eyes disappeared.

“I get it,” she pleaded, “I understand. Can I…can I go now?”

“This is a stopover,” the voice explained, “just like a motel. You don’t settle into a motel and you won’t be staying here.”

This is what she was afraid of. Cheryl got back onto the elevator. It was hot and smelled of sulfur. This time, there was a third button, going much lower than the ground floor.

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Fiction © Copyright Elaine Pascale
Image courtesy of Pixaby.com

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