The Elevator Game
Thoughts About the Disappearance of Elisa Lam
Last night I decided to try out Discovery Plus and as an avid Ghost Adventures fan, I was very curious to hear about their most recent investigation of the Cecil Hotel and the disappearance of Elisa Lam. As most people remember, Elisa vanished back in 2013 on a trip from San Diego up to northern California while staying at the Cecil Hotel. Strange footage was released which shows Elisa acting very odd and apparently attempting to interact with some unseen figure outside the camera's range.
Diving deeper into this story, investigators ascertained that she was most likely playing a game known as "The Elevator Game" which supposedly originated in Korea or another Asian country and popped up in an online forum about dangerous games to play in real life. The rules are simple; the individual playing must enter an elevator alone in a building with at least ten floors and press buttons in a particular order. Once the buttons are pressed and the person has traveled to each floor in succession, the elevator is supposed to either return to the ground floor, at which point the player exits and the game didn't work, or shoot up to the tenth floor, where the player succeeds and enters another dimension.
The creepy thing about all of this is that not only do the doors open to an eerily vacant building in this alternate dimension, but there is also rumored to be a ghostly woman that boards the elevator on the fifth floor. The rules specify that the player should not, under any circumstance, interact with the woman or risk being dragged away into another reality by an inhuman force. By reaching a vacant version of the building on the tenth floor, the player will know they have succeeded since the reality will seem altered and they will appear to be the only one in existence. The only way to return to their own reality at that point will be to repeat the process all over again.
Now in Elisa's case, she acted in a way that indicated she had made progress in the game and was being influenced by some kind of paranormal force. It took a long time after she went missing, but investigators eventually discovered her body in a water tank on the roof of the hotel. The steel door was shut behind her and her clothes had been removed. The hatch was heavy enough that she definitely could not have closed it after she fell in, which led investigators to believe that perhaps there was foul play involved.
So what actually happened to Elisa Lam? Unfortunately it is extremely unclear and in all likelihood, we might never know the truth behind her death. However the Elevator Game itself is now quickly becoming the driving force behind a new horror movie directed by the same creators of "American Horror Story". It may very well be the next horror movie to scare the living daylights out of viewers around the world in the same vain as "Paranormal Activity" once did.
All I know is that I would probably never attempt to play the game myself because who knows what could go wrong? If it somehow works, what lies beyond the doors on the tenth floor? Would I ever be able to return to this reality? These are all questions I hope most of us would never be put in a position to ponder the answers to as the elevator moves between floors. For now, I think I'll just take the stairs.
About the Creator
Keep reading
More stories from Robert Reinert and writers in Horror and other communities.
Day at the Construction Site
When I was in elementary school I used to ride my bike constantly. Every day I would ride up to the grocery store and spend fifteen or twenty minutes browsing the candy aisle, deciding whether or not I wanted Starburst or Twix. I also loved feeding spare change into the vending machines outside of Giant Food to get a bag of chips or a pack of gum. One of my favorite places to ride however, had to be the bike path that went around the Sports Pavilion pond in the community, which was about a 10 minute bike ride to go all the way around. Sometimes I would even ride up to Blockbuster and play the Nintendo 64 in the showcase for hours on end.
By Robert Reinert 3 years ago in Families
The Poisoner
Assassins have existed since the dawn of time, higher ups in society across the world desire to see those who wronged them dead! So killers are hired to eliminate the targets for wealth, typically money is the reward they seek. Most assassins use hidden blades, carried under their sleeves, quickly slashing their victims before blending in with the crowd again. Others use sniper rifles or other long range guns, shooting from afar or up close. The best assassins are subtle and sneaky, the greatest ones of all have never been caught! There are a disturbing number of ways you can kill a human, I obviously won't share any, not in this story so use your imagination. The point of this tale is to explore the most bizarre assassin to ever walk the planet, a killer who is still unknown but has committed a countless amount of murders across the globe. All of which include spiking or tampering with the victims food or drink. This would poison the target to the point of fatal illness, it happened to the most unlikely of people, as though this assassin had no true targets but simply killed for sport. Perhaps there were reasons he chose to kill these people, but it is a mystery that has been left unanswered for decades. Many believe there to be multiple Poisoner assassins throughout the years, the theory that is it no single man or woman makes a lot of sense. It is a theory many subscribe to. The targets killed range from cute couples, families or lone travellers, who visit exotic restaurants whilst on their holidays around the world. It is always detected to be either rat or ricin poisoning, that kills the victims. There have been numerous cases investigated, where CCTV has spotted strange chefs in kitchens, those who were never officially hired had slipped in a disguise and tampered with the food. They always wear the chef's scarf over their face, to hide their identity. The figure has been described as male, standing tall and athletic. To presume the killer is male, he has been spotted in bars too, a hooded figure with a balaclava, spiking drinks of people who later end up dead. Usually the police don't investigate until the killer has already committed his murder, so it seems they have long vanished before any trail can be found. Not to mention the amount of people who were at first presumed to have been food poisoned, where it was the restaurant or cafe found responsible for not properly serving well cooked food. Only for forensics to later discover the truth, which was far more sinister and purposeful. Nobody knows who this assassin is, or why they do the terrible things they do. They are presumed to be male, but even that is uncertain. The race or gender of the killer is not yet confirmed. No face has ever been identified. A pattern has not been detected either. The Poisoner is a ghost, an assassin so good, they always manage to slip through the cracks, what with their many disguises and hiding spots. One can only assume the assassin seeks out those with bounties upon their heads, do if you've angered the wrong person, someone high up in society, be sure to eat food from the supermarket instead. You'll never know if The Poisoner is after you or not, until it is too late! If you eat or drink anything that tastes off, you should probably bin that item and wash out your mouth, there's a good chance it may be dangerous to consume. Then you'd become another death, on a list of thousands.
By Joseph Roy Wright5 days ago in Horror
Descent
“60 seconds.” Aris tightened her grip on the overhead handhold. The troop transport shook like a leaf in a windstorm as it battled through the atmosphere. Dim lights flickered on and off as the ship’s systems were battered by pelting rain and narrowly dodged blasts from laser cannons on the surface of the planet.
By M. A. Mehan 6 days ago in Fiction
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.