It was supposed to be a normal Tuesday afternoon. You were both heading to the second floor — Alexa with her backpack full of notes, and you just trying to make it to class before the bell.

The elevator doors slid shut with a cheerful ding! Then… silence.

A second later, everything went black.

“Uh—what the heck?” Alexa’s voice echoed in the dark, laced with panic and sarcasm all at once. “Tell me this is a joke.”

You felt along the wall until you found the emergency button. You pressed it, but there was no sound, no light.

“Great,” she muttered. “First I forget my coffee, now I’m trapped in a metal box.”

You chuckled nervously. “Could be worse. At least you’re not trapped with someone annoying.”

She smirked through the darkness. “Don’t get too confident, Mendoza might start finding you annoying in about five minutes.”