EXT. SKYSCRAPER – MORNING
A corporate skyscraper towers above the streets below, imposing itself into the sky.
EXT. SKYSCRAPER ENTRANCE – MORNING
People hurry around the revolving doors at its base, their faces set in the same inert expression.
INT. SKYSCRAPER LOBBY – MORNING
Blake Turner (30) enters the building through the revolving doors, and unenthusiastically queues in line for the lifts.
One particular lift is marked “Out of Order”.
INT. LIFT – CONTINUOUS
Blake squeezes into a packed lift and stands there, putting up with the lack of personal space, as he has done so many times before.
INT. FLOOR 48 – MORNING
Blake walks across a noisy open plan office floor, full of flashing computer screens and people dealing with urgent emails, to sit at his desk. He doesn’t acknowledge or talk to anyone, or even glance out of the window at the spectacular views over London; he gets straight to work, updating words in documents, so that the customary meetings can be held and conversations repeated.
INT. BLAKE’S DESK – DAY
He stares at a screen, clearly losing focus on his work of clacking at a keyboard and clicking on a mouse.
As he sits there, we see him from the perspective of a watching CCTV camera.
INT. BLAKE’S DESK – LATER IN THE EVENING
The clock icon at the bottom of his screen shows 7:03 p.m., and most people are still in the office.
Finley (40) peers over the screen, his face tinted by its blue glare.
FINLEY: Blake, I need you to take on an urgent project. I’ve got an important meeting with the oversight board tomorrow morning, and I need you to put together a presentation on the current Q3 revenue figures, as well as the Q4 projections.
BLAKE: (strained) Sure, no problem. What time do you need it by?
FINLEY: First thing in the morning at 7 a.m., so be prepared to stay as long as it takes.
Finley dismissively walks away, and Blake is left with a feeling of resentment.
INT. BLAKE’S DESK – LATER
The others on the floor gradually pack up their things and depart, leaving Blake by himself to work late into the night.
He suddenly becomes aware of something behind him. He turns around to see Finley standing over him.
FINLEY: Are there any problems?
BLAKE: No, it’s fine.
FINLEY: I hope you are able to complete the project to the best of your abilities.
BLAKE: Yes, that’s what I’m doing.
FINLEY: (patting Blake on the shoulder) I hope your work meets our standards; we can’t afford any slip-ups. (walking away) I’ll be on floor 49.
Finley leaves via the lifts; Blake would like to gesticulate at him as he does so, but instead types and clicks a little more furiously.
INT. BLAKE’S DESK – EVEN LATER
Blake is still working.
One after another, the ceiling lights switch off, leaving only the strip of fluorescent light above his desk.
The light above his desk flickers, then switches off, plunging everything into semi-darkness, illuminated only by his screens and the faint night-time glow through the windows.
Blake tries to continue his work.
Suddenly, a thud – like a heavy object has been knocked over.
Blake struggles in the gloom to see if there is anyone else around. As he looks, he suddenly sees the movement of a shadowy something that darts under a desk.
BLAKE: Hello?
Silence.
BLAKE: Anyone there?
Unnerved, he makes his way to the floor’s lifts to exit the building.
INT. 48TH FLOOR LIFT HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS
Blake presses the button to call a lift.
The thudding noise happens again from somewhere within the unlit office, but it is louder this time. He repeatedly presses the button to try and speed up a lift’s arrival.
At last, a door dings and opens.
(It is the same lift that had been marked “Out of Order” at the start of the day.)
INT. LIFT – CONTINUOUS
Blake gets in, presses a button for the ground floor, then quickly presses another for the door to shut.
The door does not shut.
The thump happens again, as if it is near to the lift. It is followed by a high-pitched screech.
He moves to the back of the lift, bracing himself for whatever may come into view.
The door closes, with its two panels sliding together in the centre.
There is a loud thud on the door.
The door opens.
Nothing is there. The door closes and the lift descends.
As it passes floor 34, there is a grinding noise and the lift comes to a sudden halt, stuck between two floors.
Blake presses the emergency button, but there is no response. He tries talking into the intercom.
BLAKE: Hello? The lift has stuck between floors 34 and 33. Hello?
INTERCOM: (robotic) Hello.
BLAKE: Hello?
INTERCOM: Hello.
BLAKE: Hello, I’m trapped in a lift.
INTERCOM: Please enter the password.
BLAKE: What? I don’t have a password. Do you mean my network login?
INTERCOM: Please enter the password.
Blake enters some credentials on the intercom panel.
INTERCOM: The password is incorrect. You have two more attempts.
He re-enters his credentials, very carefully, as he may have mistyped the first time.
INTERCOM: The password is incorrect. You have one more attempt.
BLAKE: This is ridiculous. (directly into the intercom) I’m trapped in the lift!
INTERCOM: The password is incorrect.
Suddenly, the lights go out.
Blake fumbles for his phone and turns on its flashlight. He dimly illuminates the control panel with his phone’s light, and repeatedly presses the button for the ground floor, but the lift remains motionless.
He tries to make a call. However, there is no reception in this lift. He tries to pry open the door panels, but they do not budge.
He bangs on the door.
BLAKE: HELP! HELP! HELP!!
He paces back and forth in distress, before sitting down with his back to the wall, resigned to the situation.
Blake scans the lift with his flashlight, and notices a strange symbol etched in the corner beside the door. It looks like some kind of ancient glyph.
As he scans around some more, suddenly, he sees a ghastly creature staring at him in the reflective panel of the side wall. Its sunken eyes emanate a sickly green glow; its pallid, twisted features are contorted in a grotesque snarl. Blake is terrified.
It makes an eerie groaning sound as it slowly reaches out a decayed bony hand towards him.
The thump returns on the door and the lift shakes. Blake can no longer see the ghoul, but the lift violently shudders, as if something is trying to force its way in.
The lift door creaks open, slowly, revealing nothing but darkness.
A long thin tongue, like a wriggling snake, appears through the doorway. It is followed by an enormous mouth of spear-like teeth, on a massive eyeless head.
It lets out a deafening screech.
The creature’s tongue darts out at Blake and wraps itself around his arm. He struggles against being dragged into razor-sharp teeth. The mouth opens wider as it pulls Blake closer.
BLAKE: I’ll WORK HARDER, I PROMISE!
The monster continues dragging him closer.
BLAKE: I’LL DOUBLE MY WORK!
The monster continues.
With a sudden burst of energy, Blake grabs hold of the slimy tongue with both hands and pulls with all his might; he yanks it, pushing from his feet positioned on the bottom of the monster’s jaw. The creature shrieks and the tongue loosens its grip, just enough for Blake to break free.
The monster retreats back into the darkness.
INTERCOM: What is the password?
BLAKE: Floor 49!
The door shuts. The lift jolts back into motion.
It ascends all the way to floor 49, where it comes to an abrupt halt.
The door slowly slides open, revealing complete darkness.
Blake expects something else to emerge from the darkness at any moment.
INT. 49TH FLOOR LIFT HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS
After some hesitation, Blake steps out of the lift; as soon as he does so, it closes its door and departs.
The hallway is completely silent.
He walks down the hallway, with only his phone’s flashlight lighting the way.
INT. FLOOR 49 – CONTINUOUS
Blake enters the office area and continues walking.
He hears movement behind him, but can’t see anything. He continues scanning around in all directions with his flashlight, but nothing remains in sight.
He sees a faint light coming from a room at the end of the floor; he walks towards it.
The light is coming from within a locked meeting room. He looks through the room’s window.
Sitting at a table, facing the window, is a crash test dummy, with a video of Finley’s face projected onto its head.
FINLEY: Is it done?
BLAKE: Yes, I think… it’s good enough.
Another crash test dummy’s head illuminates with a different face, taking the projected light from Finley.
CRASH TEST DUMMY 2: Send it to us.
Blake taps at his phone.
BLAKE: It’s sent.
A third crash test dummy takes the projected light.
CRASH TEST DUMMY 3: Barely acceptable.
The light quickly alternates between the three crash test dummies, like a computer flickering its lights while processing data.
Blake retreats. As he leaves, the meeting room becomes increasingly bright. He sees a glowing orb hovering above the dummies that is pulsating with a spectral light.
INT. 49TH FLOOR LIFT HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS
The same lift is there, waiting for him with its door open.
He notices a door to the stairwell at the end of the hallway. He hesitates, thinking about using the stairs.
INT. STAIRWELL ON THE 49TH FLOOR – CONTINUOUS
On opening the door to the stairwell, he sees only darkness beyond, illuminated by his phone. But he decides he would prefer to enter that than the lift.
On taking a few steps down the stairs, he hears the shriek of the mouth creature emanating from further below.
He runs back up the stairs and out of the door.
INT. 49TH FLOOR LIFT HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS
He rushes along the hallway and gets into the lift.
INT. LIFT – CONTINUOUS
As the door closes, Blake notices blood and scratch marks on the ceiling. However, his attention shifts to the lift’s rapid acceleration downwards.
It drops to the ground level at breakneck speed and slams to a stop. Blake is thrown to the floor.
As he lays there, dazed and disoriented, he sees a pair of glowing eyes staring at him through the crack of the slightly ajar door panels.
The eyes withdraw. Nothing happens, except Blake trembling in fear.
There is a sound of metal grinding against metal as the door fully opens.
INT. GROUND FLOOR LOBBY – CONTINUOUS
Blake stumbles out of the lift into a deserted ground floor. Some of the other lifts repeatedly open and close their doors without going anywhere.
As seen from CCTV footage, he hurriedly makes his way towards the exit.
He glances back, and to his horror, sees the ghoul peering at him from inside the lift.
Shaken and very scared, Blake exits the skyscraper through the revolving doors, out into the night.
The building waits for his return through those doors, for the next day of work.
Robert Walker 