The elevator door opened and she stepped in. Lee looked up in a slight surprise to see her. She smiled at him and said “Hi! How has your shift been?” as she pushed the button for her floor. He looked into her eyes for a moment before looking away. He pretended to look for something in his tool cart. He managed to get out “ok” before falling into silence.

The elevator stopped and the door opened. She said “here’s my floor, see ya around cutie” and stepped out. The door closed and the elevator continued it’s way up. Lee hit the stop button and stood in the silence.

Even in the small space of the elevator he felt a huge emptiness around him. It was compressing him, crushing him. Why did he feel so alone all of the time. Others tried to reach out to him. The blonde nurse just now. She had always reached out to him, had outright asked him out for drinks or to come over to her place after work a few times.

She was beautiful, yet he couldn’t bring himself to even look at her name badge and find out who she is. Why did Lee have such a hard time connecting with people. Lee could only talk to girls when he was someone else, when he was “his beast” as he called it. Lee liked those times when he could change because he could be all the things that he was not. He could be funny and outgoing, the life of the party. He also was terrified of making the change. When he was “his beast” he had no control, it was like he was there, yet someone else was driving. He didn’t like the things he did or the ways he used people.

He reflected and wondered about Reese, the girl he had just met when he snuck out for a smoke. She was somehow different. He had been himself, yet somehow she had been so easy to talk to. She was cute he thought. Maybe not a bombshell blonde like the nurse, but cute. He hoped that he would see her around again. Lee’s thoughts were interrupted as his pager went off for another work order. He turned off the stop on the elevator, hit the down button to take him to the workshop and felt the elevator begin to drop.