Never Cry Wolf in an Elevator

After getting trapped in a malfunctioning elevator with two classmates, my classmate Sheldon couldn't resist running his mouth. He pressed the emergency call button and said, "Sir, you fell for it! We were just pressing it for fun!" "Brats!" The security guard cursed and slammed the phone down. Harvey and I wanted to beat Sheldon up on the spot. Sheldon, however, looked completely unconcerned. "Just press it again." When the call connected again, Sheldon grabbed the chance to speak first. "Hahaha! Sir, it's us again! Why do you keep falling for it?" The security guard lost his temper. "You bunch of kids–" I quickly cut him off. "Sir, don't hang up! The elevator really is malfunctioning! We're trapped inside!" Sheldon, however, clicked his tongue and sighed. "Jason, you're even better at acting than I am." The call disconnected again. Harvey and I were so furious our jaws were clenched tight. Meanwhile, the temperature inside the enclosed elevator kept rising. Harvey's asthma suddenly flared up, but he had left his inhaler behind. I could only dial the number again like a madman before desperately trying to explain. "Sir, my classmate is having an asthma attack! He's barely breathing! Please, you have to believe me this time!" The security guard replied coldly, "Are you kids ever going to stop? I've encountered plenty of pranks like this. Don't abuse public resources and interfere with me doing my job!" The call was hung up again. I watched as Harvey's face turned blue, and his breathing grew weaker and weaker. I completely panicked. Chapter 1 "Harvey! Harvey, wake up!" I, Jason Sullivan, desperately slapped Harvey Chandler's face. His lips had already turned a dark purple, and a wheezing sound like an old bellows came from his throat. It was the sound of severe oxygen deprivation. My palms were drenched in sweat from anxiety. Sheldon Walker, however, rolled his eyes next to me. "Jason, stop acting. Aren't you tired? "He always pretends to be weak. Isn't he just trying to get out of taking part in today's cleaning duty?" I abruptly turned around and glared at Sheldon. I shouted, "He's dying, and you're still talking nonsense!" Sheldon flinched, but he quickly puffed out his chest again and looked utterly unconvinced. "Dying? There's no way he'd die that easily. "Don't try to scare me. I'm not that easy to frighten." I didn't have time to waste arguing with him. I reached for the emergency phone and frantically pressed the red alarm button. Finally, the call connected again. "You bunch of brats! When are you going to stop?" The security guard on duty sounded annoyed and furious. "I already warned you. If you keep fooling around, I'll call the police and have the school discipline you!" I screamed into the receiver at the top of my lungs. "Sir! Please believe me this time! My classmate really is having an asthma attack! "He left his inhaler behind, and he's barely breathing now! "Hurry and call an ambulance, or help us by opening the elevator doors!" The security guard on the other end snorted. "Keep making things up. "First you said you were just pressing the button for fun, and now you're acting out some life-or-death emergency? "Students these days really have no sense of decency. "Don't call again, or I'll block this elevator's emergency line!" Beep. Beep. Beep. The call was mercilessly cut off again. I collapsed onto the floor. Despair instantly swallowed me whole. Harvey's body began convulsing violently. His eyes rolled back, showing nothing but the whites. This time, Sheldon started to panic too. "I-Is he really convulsing? "Jason, did you push him earlier and hurt him?" He was actually trying to shift the blame at a time like this. I was so furious I was practically seeing red. "Sheldon, if anything happens to Harvey, I'll make you pay with your life!" As I shouted furiously, I frantically pulled out my phone. The signal bar showed a single glaring message. [No Service.] The elevator's signal-blocking effect was simply too strong. All I could do was desperately hold down the emergency call button on the screen. "There's no signal. Damn it! Why is there no signal?" Tears streamed down my face from the panic. Suddenly, Sheldon came over. He snatched my phone away. "What are you doing?" I yelled. Sheldon stuffed my phone directly into his pocket. "You can't call emergency services! "If the doctors and police come, the school will investigate for sure. "If that happens, my parents will find out and cut my allowance! "He's not going to die anyway. Just let him lie there for a while. He'll be fine." Sheldon stared at the tightly shut elevator doors. His eyes darted around nervously. I looked at him and felt that the person standing before me was nothing short of a monster. He was actually willing to watch a classmate die just to avoid getting scolded by his parents. "Give me my phone!" I lunged at him, and the two of us immediately began wrestling. While we struggled over the phone, the steel cable above the elevator suddenly emitted a harsh grinding sound. The entire elevator shook violently. Then came the sickening sensation of weightlessness. The elevator plunged into free fall! Chapter 2 "Ahh!" Sheldon let out a bloodcurdling scream. I slammed headfirst into the elevator wall, and a flash of white light blinded me. Harvey, who had been lying on the floor, was thrown into a corner by the impact. Boom. The elevator came to a violent stop. The surroundings plunged into darkness. Only the emergency light emitted a faint glow. Ignoring the pain in my body, I crawled toward Harvey and reached out to check for his breath. There was nothing. Harvey had completely stopped breathing. My mind went blank with a loud buzz, and I froze. "Harvey! Wake up!" I desperately began performing chest compressions. "One, two, three–" I cried as I pressed down on his chest. Sheldon cowered in the corner and trembled in terror. "This has nothing to do with me. He was sick to begin with. "Yeah, he died because he was sick. It had nothing to do with me." He kept muttering the same words while trying to shirk responsibility. I turned around and glared at him with bloodshot eyes. "If you hadn't run your mouth and hung up the phone, the rescue team would've arrived by now! "You're a murderer!" Sheldon was frightened by the look on my face, but he quickly became hysterical again. "That's nonsense! What proof do you have that I hung up the phone? "There isn't even any sound on the surveillance footage. It was clearly that security guard who refused to save us! "Yeah, it's all the security guard's fault!" As he spoke, he suddenly pulled my phone out of his pocket. "If I smash your phone, no one will know I ever took it!" He raised my phone and hurled it hard against the elevator floor. Crack. The screen instantly splintered. My eyes went wide in fury. That was my only hope. I rushed forward and punched Sheldon in the face. Sheldon screamed and fell to the floor before covering his face. I picked up the phone. Thankfully, this customized satellite-communication phone was extremely durable. The screen was shattered, but it was still lit. A message was clearly displayed at the top of the screen. [Satellite connection successful.] Deep beneath the ground, it had somehow miraculously managed to locate a satellite signal. With trembling hands, I immediately dialed a number. It was my dad Daniel Sullivan's private number. Dad was the chairman of Sullivan Group, and the building we were trapped in belonged to Sullivan Group. The call soon connected. "Jason? What's wrong? Why are you calling at this hour?" The moment I heard Dad's voice, I finally broke down crying. "Dad! Help!" "My classmates and I are trapped in Elevator 3 in one of our own buildings! "Harvey had an asthma attack, and he's stopped breathing! "The security guard on duty thought it was a prank and refused to send help! He even hung up on us!" Dad's voice instantly turned cold on the other end. "What did you say? In one of our own buildings? "Jason, don't panic. I'm actually on site for an inspection today! "I'll bring people over. We'll be there within a minute!" Hearing Dad's words, I finally felt a spark of hope in my heart. Sheldon heard every word. He suddenly sneered. "Jason, at least put some effort into your lies. "Did you say the chairman of Sullivan Group is your dad? "If you're the chairman's son, then I'm the mayor's son! "If your dad can get here within a minute, I'll slap myself to apologize!" He didn't believe me at all. After all, I had always kept a low profile at school and never flaunted my background. Everyone thought I was just an ordinary kid from an ordinary family. I ignored his mockery. Kneeling beside Harvey, I continued administering CPR. "Harvey, hang in there. My dad is coming! "You can’t die!" Right then, the sound of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the elevator. Chapter 3 "Quick! Quick! Pry open the doors to Elevator 3!" An enraged voice came from outside. My heart leaped with joy. "Dad! We're in here! Harvey is dying!" I shouted. However, before the sound of the doors being pried open could even begin, another ingratiating voice cut in. "Mr. Sullivan, please don't worry. This must be some kind of misunderstanding. "The control room reported that a few kids were pulling a prank. "They deliberately pressed the emergency button and even called our security guard crazy. "Young people these days just love filming pranks to post online. "If we make too much of a scene, it'll affect the mall's business. The losses could be significant." It was the property manager. To shirk responsibility, he was actually helping the security guard cover up the truth. Dad's voice was filled with restrained fury. "Shut up! My son is in there. Do you really think he'd joke about something like this?" The property manager continued making excuses. "Mr. Sullivan, you've been fooled by these young people too. "Students these days will put on any kind of act just to get famous online. "You can check the recording from the control room. They admitted that they were just pressing the button for fun. "Why don't we have the technicians inspect the system first? Once we've confirmed the situation, we can open the doors." After hearing this, I trembled with rage. These people were treating human lives like a joke just to protect their performance records and avoid responsibility! Inside the elevator, Sheldon heard what the property manager said and immediately became smug again. "Hahaha! Jason, did you hear that? "The property manager himself said it was a prank. "So what if your dad came? Does he really have more authority than the property manager? "No matter how convincing your act is, nobody will believe you!" He even moved closer to the elevator doors and shouted, "Sir! We really were just playing around! "Jason and Harvey were fighting inside, and Harvey is just pretending to be unconscious! "Don't come in! You'll fall for it too!" 'This lunatic!' Just to prove that he wasn't at fault, he was actually snuffing out Harvey's last chance of survival. My eyes were bloodshot as I kicked Sheldon to the ground. "Sheldon, you monster!" Sheldon lay on the floor clutching his stomach while laughing hysterically. "I just can't stand that righteous act of yours! "Why do you always get to be the good guy while I'm the bad guy? "Even if Harvey dies today, it'll be because of you and that guard who wouldn’t save him. It has nothing to do with me!" His face twisted with sick pleasure. The sounds of the doors being pried open stopped. The property manager seemed to have convinced some of the people accompanying Dad. "Mr. Sullivan, listen. The kids inside just admitted that they were playing around. "Breaking open the elevator by force would be a small matter if the elevator were damaged, but if word got out, it would hurt the group's reputation. "We should follow the proper procedures." Dad fell silent. Although Dad was the chairman, he still had to consider the group's regulations and public image. If he forced the doors open and it turned out that this really had been a prank, he'd face enormous pressure. At that moment, I felt more desperate than ever. Was Harvey really going to die in here? Chapter 4 I looked at Harvey lying motionless on the floor. A single tear slowly slid from the corner of his eye. It seemed to speak of his desperate will to live. I couldn't give up! I clenched my jaw, picked up my shattered phone, and called Dad again. "Dad! Put me on speaker!" I screamed hysterically. The call connected, and I heard Dad switch on the speakerphone. I shouted into the phone, "Property manager! Listen carefully! "My name is Jason Sullivan, and I am the sole heir to Sullivan Group! "The person lying beside me is Harvey. His father is Frank Chandler, the deputy hospital director of Central Hospital! "If Harvey dies here today, not only will your property management company be finished, the entire Sullivan Group will be dragged down with it! "That security guard on duty, and you, the property manager, are both guilty of deliberately causing someone's death! "My phone automatically backs up recordings to the cloud. Every conversation we've had, including all the crazy things Sheldon just said, has been recorded! "You don't believe me, do you? Then I'll send the recordings to the police right now!" Every word I said weighed down on them. The area outside the elevator instantly fell silent. The property manager drew a sharp breath. He was clearly shocked by both my identity and Harvey's background. "J-Jason Sullivan? "T-That can't be. The security guard in the control room clearly said–" His voice began trembling uncontrollably. Even the security guard who had been standing by and watching the whole thing finally panicked. "S-Sir, I had no idea! "They really did say on the phone that they were just pressing the button for fun. I thought it was a prank. "I didn't deliberately refuse to rescue them!" The security guard looked like he was about to cry. His voice was filled with fear. Dad's furious shouting came through the elevator doors. "What are you waiting for? "Break it open! "I'll take responsibility if anything happens!" Bang! Bang! Bang! The sound of the doors being smashed open finally rang out. Firefighters and SWAT officers had also arrived at the scene. Sheldon sat on the floor while feeling completely dumbfounded. He stared at me blankly with his lips trembling. "Jason, are you really the chairman's son? "And Harvey's dad is the deputy hospital director?" His face instantly turned pale. He finally realized just how much trouble he had caused. "Jason, Jason, I'm sorry!" Sheldon suddenly crawled toward me and reached for my pant leg. "I must've lost my mind! I was talking nonsense! "Tell your dad this was all a misunderstanding. We're good friends!" I kicked him away. "Get lost! You're no friend of mine! You can explain yourself in court!" Just then, a deafening crash came from the elevator doors as they were forcibly pried apart, leaving a narrow gap. Blinding light finally poured inside.