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Maggie Jo Sherman / Sif ([info]sifwheat) wrote in [info]paxletalelogs,
@ 2011-08-13 22:48:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:sif, urdr

Elelator Go Down the Hoooooooooooole
Who: Lucy and Alex
What: Livin it up while I'm goin...wait that's not it! Actually, they both decide to use the elevator. The elevator doesn't like this so decides to be a dick and not work.
Where: The elevator
When: August 14...sometimish. yeah.
Warnings: hahahaha yeah. Okay.
Notes:




Lucy missed the beach. It was all well and good looking at it through your window, but it just wasn't the same as actually being there. Nothing replaced the feeling of wiggling your toes in the sand, feeling the grittiness between them, feeling the breeze tease your hair and hearing the ocean crack against the shore. She wanted to park herself on a towel laid out under an umbrella, collect some shells to spread around her apartment and get back to doing things the way she'd done them before she'd gotten sick. Enough was enough.

Firmly securing her wig to her head and pinning a large, floppy white hat with a big pink daisy decoration to it, she grabbed her sunglasses and her always packed beach bag and set off. Her flip flops slapped against the floor as she approached the elevator. The sound made her smile. Flip, flop, flip, flop. It had a nice rhythm to it. She pressed the button for the elevator and waited. It wasn't long before the car stopped on her floor and the doors opened. She pressed the floor for the lobby. Her stomach dropped as the car lurched to life.

She was rather surprised when the elevator stopped suddenly. She wasn't an expert on elevator rides in this building, but she was pretty sure the ride to the lobby would take longer, unless this building possessed a super elevator. She saw that wasn't the case when the doors open to reveal another floor in the building that most certainly wasn't the lobby.


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[info]urdr
2011-08-15 11:03 pm UTC (link)
The elevator nearly caught Alex by surprise. She was driven to distraction by the amount of work she was trying to catch up on. She'd decided not to take a leave of absence, which meant that she had more hours than she cared to consider of catch up to play in addition to the two classes she'd be teaching. It had left her more than a little distracted, and so as she hefted her messenger bag, packed tight with laptop, what seemed like reams of paper, and several books, she was also reading a journal article relevant to her research. When the elevator doors opened, she'd all but forgotten she'd pressed the button.

Even so, she stepped on with a slight, small smile to the girl who was already inside, shifting to the back corner opposite the other girl.

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[info]sifwheat
2011-08-16 02:01 am UTC (link)
Lucy gave the other woman a smile as well, though hers was much bigger. When Lucy smiled,it was the sort of smile that took up your whole face and crinkled the corners of your eyes. She didn't mind if people didn't return the gesture.

"Hi," she said brightly, ignoring the whole you don't talk to people on the elevator rule. She'd never understood that one. What was wrong with people on elevators?

Of course, breaking that taboo did not always go well for her. Sometimes she was ignored, other times, she was given weird looks. This time? The elevator itself protested and groaned to a halt, throwing her off balance. One hand went to anchor her hat to her head, the other gripped the rail that ran around the elevator in an attempt to steady herself. After the initial jolt, it was uncomfortably quiet inside the car. That big smile of hers disappeared really quick.

"What just happened?"

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[info]urdr
2011-08-20 03:19 am UTC (link)
When the elevator jumped and seemed to crash to a halt, Alex started, dropping the thick article and nearly toppling herself. She was barely able to grab on to the bar closest to her, but she did manage not to fall on the floor. Blinking, she pushed her glasses up her nose and looked at Lucy as though truly seeing her for the first time. Something hummed, she felt -- something familiar, like something on the tip of her tongue, half a memory, something faded by time but too strong to ever be truly gone. For a moment, she saw someone else -- taller, more voluptuous, glowing, almost unbearably beautiful -- before she blinked and saw a girl, thin, wan, but still cheerful. Wearing a hat. And... a wig.

"Hi," she said belatedly, trying to reconcile that other image superimposed on the real. Then, she looked up at the blinking buttons next to the door and said, "Well, I think the elevator's decided not to work again."

She sighed, shaking her head. "This thing is... less than reliable."

Leaning down, she picked up the paper, dusting it off despite the impeccable cleanliness of the elevator. "Normally they fix things fairly promptly here," she said.

Then, for no reason she could fathom, she said awkwardly, holding the paper to her chest, "I'm Alexandria."

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[info]sifwheat
2011-08-20 04:12 am UTC (link)
Confident her hat and wig were still secure, she stood upright and straightened her jacket and dusted herself off. Yes, she was wearing a jacket to the beach. It was part of her beach sweat suit. Swim suits were not an option when you felt disgustingly thin. That, and chemo made you more sensitive to the sun for at least a year following year, so staying covered up was her best option.

"You mean it does this a lot?" That was not inspiring. "Do people get stuck in here a lot, too?" That was not something she would be okay with. This never ended well in the movies. Someone either had a baby, found out something terrible or ended up sleeping with the person they were trapped with. She wasn't pregnant, nor did she think she'd end up sleeping with Alexandria, so that left finding out something terrible. This was suppose to be a happy beach day, not a day that involved terrible news.

"Oh, and I'm Lucy. Nice to meet you!" She liked this girl. She didn't know why, but she did. Something about her struck Lucy as comfortable and familiar, as though she already knew her. It was silly, of course, but it would make being stuck in an elevator with her more bearable at least.

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[info]urdr
2011-09-02 04:31 am UTC (link)
"Nice to meet you, too, Lucy," Alexandria said. The response was the kind of thing you said when you met someone new, and it had been Alexandria's good fortune to grow up around enough socially adept people to recognize what response was required where. But with this new person, it felt less obligatory and more... genuine? Genuine wasn't quite the word. Nice to meet you was a platitude, so overused and generic that in most cases, it was almost entirely devoid of true sentiment. This was even more true when it had the responsive "too" tacked on.

Even so, it certainly wasn't not nice to meet this girl, and in fact, Alexandria felt good about the encounter, which was more than she could say about most awkward social interactions she had with strangers outside of her comfort zone. She thought she should be neighborly.

"The elevator seems to have a mind of its own, often enough," Alexandria said, and began to try to slide the thick sheaf of papers into her messenger bag. "I don't know about stalls - those don't seem to happen too too frequently, but it does regularly skip floors, and sometimes it unexpectedly changes direction..."

She frowned up at the unmoving numbers.

"I suppose we should try calling maintenance?"

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-03 07:39 am UTC (link)
She frowned slightly. "I've never been stuck in an elevator before. I don't know what to do. Calling maintenance is probably a good idea." It sure beat sitting there and waiting for someone to find them. Who knew how long that would take.

Lucy sat down on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest, arms holding them tightly in place. If she was going to be stuck here, she was going to be comfortable. Being stuck and uncomfortable just didn't seem like fun at all. "Where were you trying to go? I was hoping to go to the beach. I haven't been in so long. I miss it." Conversation would hopefully make the time pass quickly and take her mind off the fact that she was stuck in an elevator.

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[info]urdr
2011-09-03 11:56 pm UTC (link)
Alexandria looked at the girl for a moment, then nodded. Alexandria had never been stuck in an elevator before either, but in general, when faced with a problem, her first instinct was to seek out solutions. Not everyone had the same coping mechanisms, however -- a fact of which Alexandria was aware. If Jamie were here, he'd probably be boosting himself up through the ceiling and attempting to break them out of the elevator himself. The thought brought a faint smile to the corners of her lips as she continue to try to slide the papers neatly into her tightly-packed messenger bag.

From the corner of her eye, Lucy's movement caught her attention, and she canted her head as the other girl sat down, but then took it in stride as finally, the article slid somewhat neatly in with the rest of her work.

"Ah. I was going to LA. I go to school there. I was hoping to get some work done." With the papers now safely stowed away, Alexandria brushed long fingers along the panel that should have hidden the emergency phone. Her lips pursed as she failed to find a catch or latch.

She looked over her shoulder at Lucy and was quiet for a moment. Normally, she wouldn't say anything. Alexandria was a private person, herself, and wasn't one to pry. But somehow, she felt... comfortable with this girl. Or as comfortable as Alexandria was likely to feel with someone she'd just met.

"You're... kind of wearing a lot for the beach."

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-04 01:22 am UTC (link)
Lucy had always wondered what college was like. It looked very serious judging by Alexandria's papers and overflowing bag. Definitely not her type of setting. She'd stick with the beach. She watched as her companion took charge of the situation and set about trying to discover how to get them out of there. She lucked out with her choice of elevator companions.

When she questioned her beach attire, Lucy frowned slightly and began tugging the sleeves of her jacket down over the palms of her hands. It was a common question, but she didn't like fielding it. It should be something she was use to by now but she wasn't.

"I..don't like the sun," she said after a pause, lifting one of her shoulders in a halfhearted shrug. "It's totally not good for you anyways. Causes cancer." Not that she needed the sun to help with that.

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[info]urdr
2011-09-04 03:51 am UTC (link)
There was something in the way she said the word. Maybe not. But Alexandria was sure of it - maybe she was projecting, maybe it was just her own response to that word, but it had a resonance when the girl said it that was absent when it passed the lips of those who didn't know. And there was the full coverage for a trip to the beach. The hat. The wig.

It wasn't Alexandria's place to say, to try to commiserate with this stranger when who knew how she wanted to deal with it, whether she wanted to acknowledge it. She certainly didn't seem to want to talk about it, and Alexandria hadn't forgotten so much from her own experiences that she would force the issue. So she nodded quietly and turned back to the panel, the latch for which she could not for the life of her find. She pulled out her cell phone, and shook her head.

"No service." With a little sigh, she sank down to the floor, giving over to the inevitable.

Small talk.

She was so bad at small talk. But something made her want to reach out to this girl.

"So... when did you move into Pax?" she asked.

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-04 04:03 am UTC (link)
"So we're stuck?" That was not inspiring, to say the least. She had hoped this would all be solved with a simple phone call. The thought that it might not work never even crossed her mind. She chewed on the inside of her lip, unsure of what they were suppose to do next.

Thankfully, Alexandria seemed to know how to steer this portion of their confinement as well. Small talk would be a good distraction. She tilted her head and tried to think back. She felt like she'd been here forever. Being here just felt right and she couldn't imagine moving anywhere else. "I guess it's been about....a month. Yeah, about a month. Not that long. My parents really wanted me to get out on my own again. What about you?"

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[info]urdr
2011-09-04 08:29 pm UTC (link)
"We are," Alexandria replied, answering first things first. "There's only one elevator, though, so someone should notice relatively soon that it's not operational. With any luck, it won't be long before someone fixes it."

With that, she folded her legs to one side, settling her bag next to her. That the girl had been living with her parents added just another piece of circumstantial evidence to the theory of which Alexandria was already mostly convinced. She remained silent on that point, however.

"I've been here about a year now. Where do your parents live?"

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-04 09:01 pm UTC (link)
She nodded. She could accept that answer. A brief stay in the elevator with decent company wouldn't be so bad. It was certainly unplanned, but the unplanned stuff always made for the best adventures. Now all she had to do was hope that elevator logic she'd thought through before would remain absent. No babies and no bad news and they would be set.

"Wow, you've been here a while. So you like it here?" She toyed with a strand of hair and let her legs stretch out in front of her. "My parent live a few blocks away. Mom worries, so she likes to keep me close."

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[info]urdr
2011-09-05 02:38 pm UTC (link)
The thought of impromptu baby delivery hadn't occurred to Alexandria - though if it had been something she'd considered even in the realm of possibility, her composure would have been considerably compromised. Alexandria didn't truck with babies or blood if she could help it, and to her knowledge, both played a significant role in childbirth. As for bad news, Alexandria was unaware of this trope, and so settled in for what she hoped wouldn't be too long a delay.

"I..." Alexandria considered this question carefully. She didn't want to alarm this girl by enumerating some of the less than savory events that had occurred since she'd moved in to Pax, but at the same time didn't want to mislead her. "There are things I like about it."

After a pause, Alexandria pushed up her glasses and shared more than would have normally made sense. "It's nice to have family nearby. My friend Adam, who I suppose is like family, lives across the hall from me, and my brother just moved into the building; he's also a worrier."

A faint smile pulled at her lips. "My parents fortunately live about a half hour away, so they keep the bulk of their worry to phone calls. Though I think they're channeling through my brother a bit now."

Alexandria had the immediate sense that she should reach out to this girl. It was unfamiliar and a little uncomfortable, if only because she was wholly unaccustomed to the sense when not directed at close friends and family. All the same, she said,

"So. Have you had the chance to meet many people here yet?"

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-05 05:01 pm UTC (link)
"It seems nice here. I like living right on the beach. The last apartment I had was in the same building as my parents and nowhere near the beach. Well, not like this one is. It's nice being able to just walk there. When the elevator will let you." She leaned her head back against the wall to get a glimpse of the dark and unmoving numbers. She sighed.

"I wish they wouldn't hover so much. Or look at me like they're afraid that breathing in my direction is going to make me break. I'm not made of glass."

No, she was just sick and thin and nearly as breakable. Glass had the luxury of being prone to shattering and that was it. Lucy was was prone to much more. Perhaps it would be better if she was made of glass. At least then she wouldn't have to worry about germs.

"I've met a few. Everyone seems really nice so far."

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[info]urdr
2011-09-08 02:42 am UTC (link)
Alexandria nodded. She hadn't met so many of her neighbors as she probably should have; her time away last semester had seen many of the ones she had met moved out, she presumed, and new tenants moved in. The fact had caused Alexandria brief anxiety; so many new people to meet, to have awkward conversations with, to not know what to say to. But admitting that would make her appear even more awkward than she undoubtedly did already, and so she refrained. Instead, she addressed the other part of what Lucy was saying, which was actually something to which she could relate all too well.

"I don't know if they ever get over that," Alexandria said, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Realizing that might not seem to make sense, she added,

"You know. I..." she pursed her lips. "I was ill as a child. For years."

It wasn't something that Alexandria talked about much -- not for shame, but simply because most people wouldn't know what to do with the information, and she didn't particularly want or need pity, which seemed like a best case for people who hadn't been there. But this was an entirely different context.

"My parents, my sisters, my brother... they're fantastic. They were... they did everything. They sacrificed, and they took care of me, and I don't know where I'd be without them. But..."

She shook her head, smiling slightly. "Sometimes I just wanted to move to China and not leave a forwarding address."

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-08 11:18 pm UTC (link)
Lucy tensed. This conversation was starting to waver over the thin line that divided comfortable small talk and extremely personal. She bit her lip and drew her knees up once more, hugging them tightly. If she hugged hard enough, maybe she'd disappear and not have to get into this. There was a part of her that rebelled against the instinct to avoid, though. Part of her really wanted to test the waters to see if Alexandria was talking about what Lucy thought she was. Because if she was, wouldn't it be nice to have someone that could possibly understand what it was like?

"Oh? Did you have....allergies?" That wasn't what she meant to say. Cancer was so easy to bandy about when it was casual. This wasn't as casual as quoting facts about melanoma. That didn't directly refer to her. This was personal, for both of them. She also didn't want to just spill the beans in case she was wrong. Maybe Alexandria had just had lots of colds. That was always a possibility.

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[info]urdr
2011-09-09 02:37 pm UTC (link)
The smile Alexandria gave Lucy was wry but not unkind. She shook her head with a dry chuckle and said,

"Not exactly." She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "When I was almost six, I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia."

It was a little strange to say it. She probably hadn't said the words aloud in years. But somehow, in the small, dim confines of this elevator, it felt strangely... right. As though in such a quiet, confined space, embedded in the core of an enormous building, such things could be spoken of more freely.

"It went on for a number of years. They were fairly certain I wasn't going to make it for most of that time, I think." That wry little smile came back. She looked at Lucy. "So yeah, my parents were overbearing for a long time. I actually ran away to the East Coast for college just to get away from them for a while."

Her smile now was just slightly impish.

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-10 04:37 am UTC (link)
"How did you know?"

That was the only reason it would come up. Cancer wasn't something you just casually talked about in passing conversation. Was it her hair? Was it not on straight? She knew she'd put her make up on, so it wasn't that. Maybe her wig had slipped in the jostle of the elevator and she hadn't caught it when she had checked to make sure it was still in place. Not having a mirror did make it somewhat difficult.

"I'm jealous you got to get away. It must have been nice."

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[info]urdr
2011-09-10 02:50 pm UTC (link)
It would have taken too long and it would have been unnecessarily unkind to point out Lucy's too-slender appearance, the thinness of her skin, the unmistakable look of someone who was in treatment. Beyond that, one just learned to be able to tell these things; the way the hair of a wig fell as opposed to hair one had grown out oneself, the way a body moved in recovery. Instead she said,

"You know. You develop an eye for these things."

Alexandria recognized the wistfulness in Lucy's voice and gave her a little smile. "And it was nice. It was also hard, and lonely. And cold."

She stretched out her legs.

"I missed home. I came back. It was good to get out on my own, but I don't know that I had to go so far." She shrugged and smiled slightly.

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-10 11:00 pm UTC (link)
She made a slight face when she mentioned it being cold. "I don't know if I could do cold weather. I get cold enough as it is here in California." She didn't like the idea of being lonely, either. Truthfully, if she ever did move away, she'd probably end up just like Alexandria, homesick and back in California before too long.

"I don't think my parents would ever let me go that far from home. It was hard enough for them having me move into a different apartment building. Another state would probably be out of the question. I would miss them, too, even if they do drive me nuts most of the time."

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[info]urdr
2011-09-14 01:52 am UTC (link)
Alexandria gave her a half-smile. "Don't go to the Northeast in winter, then. Spring is beautiful, summer's humid, and fall is really lovely too, actually. But winter..." she shook her head. "It's not for humans, I don't think. I don't know how people do it year after year."

She shrugged. "Sometimes you have to do things your parents don't want you to do, though, just to prove to yourself that you can. Though, like I said, it's not really necessary to go as far as Philadelphia. Good for you for taking the first step."

She smiled, and the elevator lurched. Alexandria looked up, her hand clutching her bag.

"Well. Let's hope that was a good one."

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-14 04:15 am UTC (link)
She sighed and gave a half hearted shrug. "It wasn't really my idea. My parents encouraged it." She dropped her chin onto her knees and pursed her lips. "They thought it would help me get back on my feet again, like it did the last time. Last time I just moved into another apartment in the same building as them. I don't know how I found this place. But I like it here."

When the elevator lurched, Lucy lifted her head and stared at the overhead lights. "Do you think we're finally going to be able to get out of here?"

She was kind of happy here. It was like being in a bubble. All of the outside world was cut off, and she was safe with someone who could understand her and what she felt. No one could overhear them, no one could pass judgment. It was just Lucy and Alex and their common link. She'd never had this sort of camaraderie before, and even though it was because of something less than pleasant, she had a feeling she was going to like it.

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[info]urdr
2011-09-17 01:35 am UTC (link)
"It's... there are good people here," she said. And it was true. The few she'd met seemed good enough, and Adam and Jamie were here. That was certainly good. She tried to erase the images of the former concierge's brutal murder from her mind for what must have been the trillionth time. The elevator lurched again, and the sound of the engine shifting to life hummed through the space.

"I think we are," she said. She didn't get up yet, though. Instead, she opened her bag and reached in, retrieving a small, white business card.

"If you want, you can call me," she said, taking a pen out of the bag as well and writing on the back.

"No pressure, of course," she said, smiling wryly as she held the card out to Lucy. "I don't promise much excitement, and I can be a bit of a drag between my schoolwork and my extreme introversion, but if you ever want to talk, you know. Or something. Feel free to call."

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-18 11:25 pm UTC (link)
She took the card and gently ran her finger across the indention formed by the letters. She pulled her wallet from her beach back and tucked the little card safely inside, then pulled out one of her own. Hers were neatly printed with her name, new address, contact information and emergency contact information. Her mother had bought them for her in case she was ever incapacitated. She thought they were overkill, but the blue and orange daisy pattern was pretty.

"Here's mine. And I don't think you're a drag. Calm and quiet isn't a bad thing. Besides, my dad says I talk enough for three people, so I think we'll be fine!"

Lucy wanted this to be a friendship that lasted. She didn't know much about Alex, but she knew she wanted to keep her around. Her gut was a fairly good judge in cases like this, so she was going to trust it.

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[info]urdr
2011-09-19 01:09 am UTC (link)
As the elevator began its safe, if delayed, descent to the lobby, Alexandria took Lucy's card and looked at it, nodding with a slight smile.

"Thank you," she said, looking back to the other girl. "And you should reserve judgment; you haven't known me very long." She offered her a little half-smile. As they finally reached the first floor and the doors opened, she gave Lucy a little nod.

"It was nice to meet you, Lucy."

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-19 01:59 am UTC (link)
She gave a slight shrug. "I feel pretty certain that I'm not wrong. But if you'd feel better if I waited to say so, I can do that too."

The elevator reached its destination, and the doors parted, revealing the sunlit lobby and bringing their time to an end.

"It was nice to meet you, too. Hopefully, the next time we hang out it won't be because we're stuck in an elevator."

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[info]urdr
2011-09-21 02:43 am UTC (link)
Alexandria gave Lucy a little half-smile.

"Thanks," she said as they exited the elevator. She gave a little nod that seemed almost to be a bow somehow.

"I'm sure we can figure out something more entertaining than that to do," she said.

"Have fun at the beach."

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[info]sifwheat
2011-09-25 04:25 am UTC (link)
Lucy checked her hair and her hat once more. She tried to be subtle about it, but that was more out of habit than anything else. Alex would notice it no matter what she did.

"We will. Maybe you can go to the beach with me next time! That could be fun! Have fun at school. I mean, if you really can have fun at school, that is."

With that, she headed out the door and headed on her way, her step a little lighter than it should have been after being trapped in an elevator. Carrying secrets around was a heavier burden than one ever imagined.

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