byTogi Kayako (土宜草子)

Read this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki.

⓵

Zed had a few points of absolute confidence. Not like skills or trivia (though they had plenty of both rattling around in their big, dumb brain), but the death-and-taxes stuff. Sure things. The sun would rise, the sun would set, and they would do literally anything Angie asked. 

Go to the hotel Angie was renovating in the dead of night? No problem. Leave their phone with her? Can do. Wait alone in the icy lobby for an ancient elevator that was probably not up to modern safety standards? Fine. Humor Angie by going to a bunch of floors in a specific order for some kind of magic ritual, armed with nothing but a tiny pen-sized flashlight? Pretty serious ding to Zed’s self-esteem as a rational person, but there they were, clutching a pink note card with the directions on it.

Even Angie’s handwriting was too pretty to be real, fuck.

The door to the elevator wasn’t metal; it was a normal door, with a brass doorknob and a small, rectangular window at head height. Zed swung their flashlight up to it, but there was only darkness behind the wire mesh in the glass. It was being used by the workers, Angie had said, so it had to be safe, right?

Zed pushed the call button next to the door. It stuck at their first tap and made a faint, squeaky click as they pressed it all the way down. There was no indicator of where the elevator was, so they stepped back to watch the window for its arrival. The lobby was empty, the air smelled like drying paint, and it was dead silent beyond the occasional car passing by.

If they’d known where they were going to end up, they would have worn something warmer than their favorite twirly pink skirt and matching leggings, but it had been a surprise. A few drinks in to the night, Angie had told them about trying an urban legend with the elevator, Zed had been too tipsy not to roll their eyes, and Angie had insisted they try it. As usual, Zed had folded pretty much instantly. They chafed their hands on their black jean jacket and, not for the first time, gave themself a stern talking-to.

Angie wasn’t going to fuck them no matter what they did or how cute they dressed. As far as Zed knew, Angie didn’t fuck and didn’t date, and it sure wasn’t for any lack of options. Every single one of Angie’s friends Zed had met looked at her with the same starstruck expression: confused yet delighted that such a woman would deign to spend time with mere mortals.

A rising hum with a funky, rumbling rattle as a backdrop heralded the arrival of the elevator. A slice of warm light spilled out across the lobby’s dusty marble floor as the elevator creaked to a stop and its window lined up with the door’s. The bulb inside the elevator couldn’t be the original one, but its glass was burnt dark at one end. It flickered once as Zed pulled the outer door open, and they clutched their flashlight tighter.

Did all elevators have a gap between them and the floor? Zed peered at the little sliver of the abyss and absolutely did not shine their light into it to get an idea of how far down it went. The cab dipped as they stepped inside and they grabbed the thin handrail along the wall. The metal was so cold that they flinched right back when their hand touched it, and quickly slapped the button for the fourth floor. It took a second, firmer press before the inner door of the elevator groaned its way shut, hesitating for a second before it clicked fully closed. The elevator hummed to life, and Zed wrapped their arms around themself with a grimace.

⓸

The view through the window slid from the lobby to a number on the inside of the door to a brief strip of neutrally painted space between floors, then back again. Each new level was heralded by a flat, discordant ding from somewhere in the wall of the elevator. Given the age, it had to be an actual metal bell and not something synthesized, which meant there was no obnoxious music or ads. Given the choice between that and the weird creaks and groans of the elevator in motion, Zed might have picked the ads.

A particularly loud whine vibrated the whole cab as the elevator came to a stop at floor four. Angie’s directions, verbal and written, were very clear: Don’t get out of the elevator for any reason, and especially don’t get out on the final floor. Zed inched forward until the tips of their combat boots were at the edge of the gap and peered out the window.

Whatever had been on the floor was long gone, leaving the lonely support beams space to cast their shadows across the whole floor. With the positioning of the windows and streetlights outside, they all seemed to point straight at the elevator. It would have been totally empty, but someone working in the area hadn’t cleaned up after themself. A heap of crumpled white tarp sat against one wall, with a discarded face mask and huge pair of gardening shears sitting next to it.

Zed made a mental note to tell Angie, since she always talked about how expensive tools were and how careless workers were with them. Since nothing weird was going to happen with the elevator, maybe Angie would still be happy with them if they had something useful to tell her afterwards. They’d get to see her big, bright smile, and then everything could go back to normal.

After one last glance at the weird, empty space, Zed stepped back and poked aggressively at the button for floor two until the inner door slid shut again.

⓶

The next stop was more like what Zed had pictured when Angie mentioned a historic hotel: Cream and gold striped wallpaper, faded but not yet peeling, broken up by darker rectangles where paintings had once hung and a few wooden doors. The rich red carpet was thicker than any hotel Zed had been in, though the worn path down the center showed why businesses had shifted to more durable options. Angie was pretty pragmatic, belief in supernatural stuff aside, so the hallway would probably be demoted to low-pile and neutral colors in the near future.

Zed had shown Angie some of their personal paintings once, and Angie had said they were nice, but too colorful for commercial use. There was no way to know now, since Zed had tucked them all away in the back of a closet to be forgotten forever. It wasn’t Angie’s fault. She was just business-minded, and Zed was too sentimental for their own good sometimes.

A flicker of movement down the hall made Zed jump and fumble their flashlight to shine directly in their eyes. They got it flipped the right way around and discovered the culprit: a long red coat hanging on an open door, one sleeve flapping in a breeze. A bunch of the building’s windows were missing on the upper floors, getting replaced with more energy efficient ones or something. Zed had missed the exact reasons, as approaching headlights had turned Angie’s mussed bob into a golden-brown halo and their gay little brain had stopped functioning for a solid thirty seconds.

Fuck, they wished Angie were here instead of waiting for them… wherever she was waiting. They hadn’t actually agreed on a meeting place. She wouldn’t be in the magical world that was supposed to be at the end of all the random elevator stops, since supposedly there weren’t any other people there. Zed rolled their eyes and mashed the button for floor six.

⓺

More rooms — no shock there, in a hotel — though this time the wallpaper was red with what might have been a wheat-sheaf pattern before it faded, and the floor was bare wood. Even with no rogue tools or pieces of clothing in sight it was still creepy, because what else could it be? Zed was alone in a cold, empty building, way too late at night, and their earlier liquid courage was drying up. Short of going to one of those full-contact haunted houses, this was about the most freaky situation they could have gotten into, and they had no one to blame but themself.

Well, or Angie, but Zed’s inability to be mad at or disappoint Angie was also a personal failing.

This floor had no visual weirdness, but made up for it with a truly fucked-up trio of sounds, like an off-beat waltz. One, a long metal scrape of something dragging on the ground, then two and three, soft slapping noises. Whatever industrial dehumidifier or other random bit of machinery the crew had left running was super busted. One more thing on the list of stuff to tell Angie. Maybe if Zed treated the whole situation as an oddly timed inspection, it would be less creepy.

The noise was getting louder. Surely they wouldn’t have left something that could like… explode? There were safety standards or something? Zed hurried to send the elevator back down to two again anyway, just in case.

⓶

Being back on a familiar floor, no matter how brief that familiarity was, let Zed ease up their death grip on the flashlight. Their arms were still covered with goosebumps, but at least half of those were only from the cold now. It definitely hadn’t gotten warmer, even though they were in a box in the middle of the building. That probably meant it was well-ventilated, which was good and all. Zed was a big fan of breathing.

The jacket that had startled them earlier fluttered again, and Zed frowned at the blue fabric. They would have sworn it was red before, but they had shone a light in their eyes right before noticing it. Also, their mind could be playing tricks on them — or Angie could be. If this whole thing was some kind of prank, with Angie running between floors to rearrange stuff, Zed wasn’t going to help her repaint her living room tomorrow after all.

They scanned the hallway, but the well-worn carpet didn’t show any footprints. The jacket was definitely on the same door, though it was impossible to tell at a distance if it was draped exactly the same as earlier. Had Angie ever mentioned pulling pranks when she was younger? She was so serious about work she barely even texted Zed back during the week, so it seemed ridiculous that she’d mess around with a job site to screw with them.

The next floor would be a perfect test, because it was the roof and the interior stairs didn’t connect to it. There was a fire escape down, but the ladder to the ground was raised, so the elevator was the only way up from inside. Angie had said it used to be storage for maintenance stuff, but she wanted to put in a rooftop terrace that could host events in good weather. Zed had let her rant about the difficulties of bringing the space up to code, but most of it had gone so far over their head that they didn’t dare ask any stupid questions.

Anyway, Angie couldn’t get up there if Zed was in the elevator, so if there was anything weird up there, she had set it up in advance. If everything was normal, they were just imagining things and it was no big deal. Zed nodded to themself a couple times and hit the button.

⓾

As soon as the inside door slid back, icy wind flooded into the elevator and Zed shrieked. There was no door on the other side, just a chain-link gate leading to a rickety tool shed — and that was fully open to the air on one side. In their haste to tuck their hands into their pockets, they dropped the tiny flashlight and watched it instantly roll into the gap by the door. With one tiny rattle, it dropped away into nothingness. The only bright side to this stop was that Zed could see a huge chunk of the roof and there was nothing strange in sight.

Cones strung with brightly flagged rope marked a line around the edge of the roof, and a couple of well-covered and tied-down piles of materials sat in one corner. Besides that, there were only the sea of city lights and the few stars bright enough to stand up to them stretching out to the horizon. Even with the cold sinking in fast, Zed stayed put long enough to take in the view.

There was a seed of a painting out there somewhere. Not the lights and stars, that was done to death, but something about the angle and seeing it through lines of crisscrossed metal. Zed’s teeth started chattering, but they still scanned over the whole scene one more time before they hit the close door button. Shivering their way back up to a reasonable temperature was a great distraction from the next step.

Apparently on floor five a woman would board the elevator, and Zed couldn’t speak to her no matter what. Zed had managed a faint protest when Angie went over that part, but she’d only laughed at them and promised there was no danger as long as they followed the directions exactly. It seemed more likely now than ever that Angie had set something up. If there was anything close to clown makeup involved, Zed was leaving the building instantly, even without their phone.

They hit the button for five and moved to the opposite side from the door. If anyone weird came in, they would have a little space to back up and dodge around them to escape. It wasn’t much, but at least it was a plan.

⓹

Zed was braced for something dramatic, but as the windows aligned on floor five there was only Angie’s familiar figure waiting on the other side. She’d tied a strip of thin, white fabric over her eyes, but it was obviously her. Her smile was as perfect as ever as she lifted one manicured finger to her lips. Zed nodded back. They could play along and not speak to Angie for the rest of the trip, if that was what she wanted.

Angie stepped in without a sound beyond the click of her heels, bringing in a rush of shockingly warm air. Zed bit their lip against a groan of relief as the heat hit their still-chilled nose and ears. Angie hadn’t bothered to change out of her little black dress from earlier, though she had left her long white jacket somewhere. Also her tights, for some reason, and that was a lot of smooth, bare leg that Zed needed to not stare at.

Angie reached past them to hit a button and a wave of her sweet, fruity perfume left Zed reeling. As the door slid shut, Angie stepped behind them, standing close enough that Zed could hear her breathing. She couldn’t have pushed one of the floor buttons, because the elevator wasn’t moving, but there was no way she was just going to stand there to try to creep Zed out. Even Angie couldn’t believe Zed would break that easy.

One agonizing pause later, Angie’s hand landed on Zed’s shoulder and slid forward to trace at the neckline of their low-cut blouse. Zed didn’t make a sound, because they had fully stopped breathing. Angie teased one nail back and forth, skin to fabric to skin, moving a little further down each time until her hand slipped under Zed’s shirt. They’d worn a set of lacy white panties and a matching bralette as a silly just-in-case kind of thing, but now Angie’s fingers were rubbing over that lace. So was Zed’s dick, because yeah, that was all it took, if it was Angie.

She dragged her hand back up slow enough that Zed had time to shake their head in protest. Angie laughed at them, warm breath ghosting against the edges of Zed’s undercut, and pressed her finger to their lips for a split second before pulling away. Zed stood stock still as Angie tugged their jacket back, tangling it up around their arms in a way that forced them to arch their chest out.

When she lifted their shirt up, Zed started shaking like a little purse chihuahua and couldn’t stop. There was a gas leak and they were hallucinating and they were going to die, but on the off chance that this was actually happening, they were not gonna move a single fucking inch as long as Angie kept touching them.

Angie tapped their lips, and Zed happily bit down on a mouthful of their own rucked-up shirt. They didn’t have much in the chest department, but they couldn’t be self-conscious with both of Angie’s hands on them. She gave them a couple good squeezes and then shoved their bra down so hard Zed heard some of the stitches pop. The band dug sharply into their skin, but the angle was pushing their chest up into Angie’s hands and then she started flicking the tips of her nails over Zed’s nipples and any objections they had were gone.

Zed whimpered through their makeshift gag as Angie toyed with them. She kept her touch light until Zed started squirming, then switched to harder pinches and twists. The first slap to one side of their chest made Zed yell. So did the second, but then they clenched their jaw as Angie kept going until every inch of Zed’s exposed skin was warm and stinging.

When Angie took her hands away again, Zed startled to struggle, twisting their arms against their jacket hard enough for the friction to burn. Angie caught their wrists and shoved them forward with a strength Zed hadn’t known she had. They landed shoulder-first against the wall with a loud thunk. Angie followed right after them, pinning Zed with their face turned toward the door and most of the air crushed out of their lungs.

The edge of the metal control panel froze a line down one side of their chest and the rest of the wall wasn’t much warmer. Zed tried unsuccessfully to spit out their shirt while Angie did something behind them that shifted her weight from side to side. She never moved far enough that Zed had a chance to escape — not that they were trying too hard. Even if it wasn’t the candles-and-rose-petals daydream they’d had of their first time with Angie, it was still (probably) happening, and that was a miracle.

Angie yanked Zed’s shirt out of their mouth, and Zed got one relieved gasp before she jammed in a new wad of fabric to replace it. It was small, silky, and already soaked through enough for Zed to taste exactly where it’d just been. Zed shut their eyes and sucked on Angie’s panties as hard as they could, spreading the flavor across their whole tongue and holding out as long as possible before they had to swallow or choke on their own spit.

They might as well have gotten drunk again for how quick their brain shut off. Angie flipped up their skirt, tugged their leggings down, and Zed mindlessly arched their ass up as her hand came down in a quick spank. Zed tried to wiggle into a better position, but Angie got a grip on their jacket and ground their sore chest harder against the wall. Her free hand landed one merciless strike after another, warming their ass up even hotter than their chest had been.

Zed took it as well as they could, but after a few hits on each side they were starting to wince each time Angie’s hand came down. She moved around to one hip, pausing only a second to shove Zed’s leggings further down so she could get at their thigh too. By the time Angie stopped, as abruptly as she’d started, Zed was sniffling and sucking in sharp little gasps of air.

They stared at Angie through watery eyes when she grabbed their chin. Angie stepped closer, setting one foot on each side of Zed’s sore leg, and leaned in to press her lips to theirs. It wasn’t quite a kiss, with her panties in the way, but it was something Zed had never thought they’d feel, and it was gentle. Zed let their eyes fall closed again, and ignored the taste of salt at the corners of their mouth.

Angie rocked her hips forward and the hot, wet line of her cunt dragged against Zed’s thigh. She moaned into their mouth and ground against them harder, rubbing herself off on them like their thigh was her personal sex toy. Which it was, and could have been at any point she wanted, and would be again if she asked — or didn’t ask and just took what she wanted. It was all fine, of course; it was Angie.

Sweat and sex started to overpower the sweet notes of Angie’s perfume. Zed had never been this hard in their life, despite being mashed into the wall at an uncomfortable angle, their sore spots from Angie’s rough handling, and the awkward tangle their clothes were in. In the midst of trying to figure out if they could twist to get some pressure on their dick, Angie stopped kissing them. She let her head fall forward against Zed’s shoulder as they made protesting noises, and wrapped both her arms around them.

Angie still hadn’t said a word, but her breathing was getting louder and louder as she rode their thigh. Zed could feel the hard nub of Angie’s clit as she started sped up, grinding her hips in small, tight circles. She was so wet that Zed’s thigh was dripping all the way down to the stretched edge of their leggings. As Angie pulled Zed even tighter, she hit a button with her elbow and the door rattled open right next to Zed’s ear. Whatever noises Angie made as she ground harder against them and shuddered through her climax were lost under the screech of the ancient elevator.

All the warmth went with her when she pulled away, and Zed’s thigh slid from blissful to freezing in seconds. Angie tugged her panties out of their mouth and pressed a quick, chaste kiss against their lips before stepping back. She crouched to grab something on the floor — the note card she’d written the directions on — and pressed it into one of Zed’s hands with a little smile. They took it on instinct, and Angie went out the door without a backward glance.

Zed slipped slowly down the wall, but the second their ass touched the floor, they grabbed for one of the handrails and hauled themself up again. They were still hard, but getting softer pretty quick as the cold, confusion, and pain really started to sink in. What the fuck had just happened? Yeah, the two of them had had a few drinks earlier, but not enough for Angie to do that out of nowhere.

Fuck, maybe there really was a gas leak — either one that made Zed hallucinate, or one that made Angie lose her goddamn mind. Zed set the note card aside and put themself back together as best they could. The wet patch where their shirt had been in their mouth was cold and glued itself to their stomach even when they tried to tug their leggings higher as a shield. Their bralette was a loss. One side seam was torn halfway down, and one of the straps had snapped off at the front.

Zed ripped it the rest of the way off and threw it to the floor. The plastic strap adjusters clicked faintly as they landed, but it didn’t have enough weight to be satisfying. Angie’s note card of directions, now half crushed from Zed’s grip, sat innocently where Zed had set it on the handrail. There was only one stop left on the list, and the rest of the space was filled with the underlined warning not to get out of the elevator.

If it worked the way Angie claimed, Zed would push the button for floor one, but the elevator would start going up to the tenth floor instead. Zed sighed and let their head thunk back against the wall. This was stupid. Angie had to be fucking with them in every possible sense of the words, and when Zed reached the lobby again she was going to smile, pretend like she had no idea what had happened, and everything would go back to normal.

Tomorrow, Zed would repaint the living room of Angie’s huge-ass condo, probably wind up fixing some other random stuff that she could have called maintenance for, have a nice dinner on Angie’s dime, and then drive back to their shitty apartment to jerk off and sleep. Nothing would change.

The tiny corner of Zed’s brain that retained anything their therapist had taught them pointed out that things could change. Had changed. Even if Angie wouldn’t admit it, she clearly wanted Zed in some way, even if she wasn’t going to bring them flowers or confess her love like Zed had always imagined. They’d had worse relationships.

Zed reached over and hit the button for the first floor with the side of their fist.

?

The door glided ninety percent of the way closed, then stopped with a grating squeak. Zed opened the door, which worked fine, but it stuck again when they pressed the button. They peered at the edge of the cab, but there was nothing obvious blocking the path. The third time the door stuck, Zed gave it a little kick, then a harder one, and then pounded on the button for floor one full force. By the time they stopped, their angry panting filled the tiny elevator, but the door finally slid fully shut.

Zed grabbed the note card, crossed their arms tight, and wedged themself into the corner furthest from the door as the elevator hummed into motion. When the window hit the space between floors, the elevator ground to a halt with a loud, definitive clunk. Staring at it in disbelief wouldn’t change the situation, but Zed sank into a crouch and did anyway until their eyes watered up too much to focus on the tiny rectangle of glass any longer.

As they scrubbed the back of their hand over their eyes, the elevator gave one heart-stopping dip and then rocketed up. Zed screamed, but the elevator drowned them out. Metal shrieked against metal and the bell rose to join it in a frenetic, offbeat rhythm. If each ring had counted a floor, the building would have been hundreds of stories high, would have stretched up into space.

The overhead light flickered once, twice, and went out.

Zed could barely breathe between screaming and getting crushed against the floor by the sheer speed. They managed to tip their head far enough to see the window, but it was only a strobe with slices of dark and light blinking by. The elevator shook harder and harder, rattling like it would fall apart at any second. Zed buried their face in the crook of their arm and hoped that whatever was going to kill them would happen before they were sick to their stomach.

The light flicked back on and the car slowed to a normal speed. Zed’s head drifted up, light as a feather after the acceleration, and they fixed their eyes on the window.

Floor six rolled by with an appropriate ding. Had they just had a panic attack? Floor seven, another ding. Every muscle in their body was clenched tight. Floor eight. Their heart was still racing and they were soaked with sweat. Floor nine. Somehow, they were still alive.

Floor ten.

Zed uncurled carefully as the door rolled open. This time, the cold air was a welcome relief. It carried a familiar sweet scent, and when Zed looked outside, Angie was there. The stars and city lights behind her swayed and danced like fireflies, twirling in impossible patterns that Zed couldn’t get their eyes to focus on, but it was fine. Angie was there.

Their arms and legs shook as they grabbed a handrail and pulled themself to their feet. Everything hurt, and nothing made sense, but the lights wove around and made Angie’s eyes glow and she was so, so pretty. She smiled at Zed, and opened her arms. They stumbled forward, eyes locked on Angie’s big smile and her brilliantly white teeth, almost blinding against the shadows all around her.

Angie was here. Zed loved Angie. Everything was going to be okay. Their hands unclenched, and the crumpled note card dropped quietly to the floor.

Zed stepped out of the elevator.

Read this piece’s entry on the Shousetsu Bang*Bang wiki.