Broken Gears (Evermore General, Evermore Colorado | Caleb & Cornelia)

Caleb shuffled through the automatic doors of the building labeled ‘Evermore General’ too deep in thought to notice the crowd of people that were also crossing the gateway and headed towards different areas of the building. Flu season. He stopped momentarily gazing at the map that guided the comings and goings of patients and traced his finger along the path towards the emergency clinic. It was up three flights of stairs and down a corridor to the left. He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. There were no stairs on the map, only an elevator. As if being in a hospital wasn’t bad enough. Steel boxes filled with second-hand germs were enough to make his skin crawl. With a steady frown on his face, the young man headed into the elevator. He was alone, good. That way no one would see him pan -

“Hold the elvalator, please.”

Caleb peered out between the closing doors and managed to stop them, just before a young woman with brunette hair and a slight shake to her step got aboard.

Just what I needed today. Une belle femme regarde ma dépression nerveuse.

                                   (A beautiful woman watching my nervous breakdown.)


He said nothing, as the elevator rolled slowly upwards, the space between his heart and his lungs compressing for air. How do normal people do this?

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Walking through the glass doors of Evermore General, Cornelia pushed her pair of dark tinted glasses into her hair, retrieving a picture from the pocket of her black leather jacket that had a note stuck to it. "Room 304. Madani Russo." The sticky note read, her gaze falling on the headshot of the victim she was sent to interview.

Putting the paper back into her jacket pocket, she walked towards the elevator, calling out to the man inside to hold it for her to get in. Once inside the lift, the detective stood against the metallic wall with hr arms crossed, watching as it slowly moved up the floors. However, from the corner of her eyes she noticed an uneasiness radiating off the male and raised a brow.

However, before she could say anything, the elevator stopped with a loud thump, and as she looked up at the gates struggling to open, she realised they were stuck. "Oh brilliant," The woman cursed in her British accented tone, "Guess we're here for a while now."

The elevator clunked and slowed to a stop. Caleb inwardly groaned. He was not the best with enclosed spaces. Heights were cool and so were giant bears or a moose attack, but being stuck in a tiny metal box was literally one of his worst nightmares. Still, as the young woman stepped inside, he shoved his hands and his nerves, inside his pockets. This was not the time to lose his cool in front of a stranger. "You do not imagine that it will restart en magie, non?" The young man chuckled, running his hands through his hair. He had a doctor's appointment in a half-hour, but if staying in a stalled elevator would allow him to skip it, Caleb would quickly choose the elevator over the time spent in the hospital. When it came to confronting one's worst fears, hospitals were high up on his list. There was no clock to aid with time passing by, but after ten minutes of silence, he sighed. "Mon nom est Caleb. Yourself?"

Cornelia rolled her shoulders back in a shrug at his question, "Considering how busy the hospital gets, they should restart it soon." She rationalised, while the female didn't have any irrational fears as such, she particularly didn't enjoy her work being interrupted by a non-functioning elevator. Sighing, the female pressed the emergency button a few times before retreating back against the metal walls.

She was tapping her foot out of habit, letting it drown out the rather awkward silence when the male spoke up, introducing himself. "Cornelia." She smiled, though after taking in his appearance, she figured something was wrong. "Not a fan of elevators?" She asked, before quickly adding, "I don't mean to pry, but usually talking through it helps as your focus is on something else for a change."

No, Caleb did not like elevators or really, any enclosed spaces. He much preferred the outdoors to the indoors and whenever possible took the stairs. However, considering that he was running late and he had no desire to get lost in a hospital, he found himself in a stalled elevator. When it came to unpleasant situations that were typically preventable, this had to be the type that was his least favorite. There as very little to talk about with a stranger in an elevator and he oftentimes when frustrated found himself silent rather than preferring to speak to someone with whom he had no prior experience. Still, considering he didn't know how long the metal box would be their mutual confined quarters, he introduced himself. 

"I...enjoy walking." Caleb nodded curtly, wondering to himself how difficult it would be to pry the doors open. It wasn't as if he had any supernatural strength, but he'd heard of a mama lifting a tiny tot from underneath a car, surely humans had their own unique qualities when it came to being trapped. "I don't know why someone would regularly prefer such a..." He glanced upward at the shiny steel which surrounded him. "contraption."

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