Nobody Got On at the 5th Floor

When I was in elementary school, there was a strange rumor going around our apartment complex.

People said that if you pressed the elevator buttons in a certain order, you could go to another world.

Looking back now, it was probably just one of those internet urban legends. But back then, nobody really knew where stories like that came from. Kids would just bring them up naturally after school or at the playground like they were real.

Everyone remembered the rules a little differently, but I think this was how it went.

4th floor. 2nd floor. 6th floor. 10th floor.

Then you pressed the button for the 5th floor.

A young woman would get on.

And no matter what happened, you weren’t supposed to talk to her or even look at her. If you ignored her and pressed the button for the 1st floor, the elevator would supposedly take you somewhere else.

There were always stories about someone’s older brother who had “actually done it.”
Or a kid from another building who disappeared for a few minutes and came back crying.

It sounds ridiculous now.

But at that age, everyone believed at least a little of it.

I think it happened sometime after school.
The sun hadn’t fully gone down yet, but the apartment hallway alre