This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Ashen_Writ on 2026-05-25 03:55:44+00:00.

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I really did not plan to stay at the office that late.

Around eleven, the last person on my team packed up and asked if I wanted to go down with her. I told her I only had one file left and would be right behind her.

That was not exactly true, but I believed it when I said it.

Our printer sits in the copy area outside finance. It is old, always jammed, and loud enough that you can hear it from any desk. A few minutes before midnight, it warmed up by itself.

I thought someone had printed something from home. People did that all the time and forgot to pick it up.

One page came out.

No header. No file name. Just one line in the middle:

Don't take the elevator after 12.

I actually laughed, because it sounded like the kind of dumb thing someone from operations would do. I took a photo and sent it to our team chat.

"Who's bored tonight?"

Nobody replied.

I crumpled the paper, but I did not throw it away. I left it beside my keyboard and kept working.

The file took longer than I thought. By the time I sent it, it was already 12:21.

That was when the printer started again.

This time I did not laugh.

It printed slower, like the machine was struggling. One page came out, then stopped halfway, then pushed itself the rest of the way.

The line on it said:

No matter what you hear, don't get off on 14.

I stood there for a while, listening to the office hum. The lights over the empty desks had gone off again, so the only bright place was the copy area.

I told myself it was still a prank. Someone had probably scheduled two print jobs. Maybe they were waiting for me to freak out in the chat.

I folded the second page and put it in my coat pocket. I don't know why. Maybe I wanted to show everyone in the morning.

Then I packed up and left.

The hallway outside our office was quiet. The elevator was already on our floor when I got there, doors open, like it had been waiting.

I almost turned back.

Then I felt stupid for almost turning back.

I stepped in and pressed L.

The elevator started down like normal.

I remember relaxing a little.

Then the car dropped hard, just for half a second, the way an elevator does when it catches itself. My stomach lifted. The lights blinked once.

The display changed to 14.

The elevator stopped.

I pressed L again. Nothing happened. I pressed the door close button. Nothing. Then I pressed the emergency call button because that is what you are supposed to do when you are stuck in an elevator.

The phone clicked on almost immediately.

There was static first. Then a voice.

"It's all right," it said. "The doors will open. Please exit the car."

I was so relieved to hear another person that I almost did exactly what it said.

The doors began to open.

Outside was black.

Not dark like a hallway with the lights off. I could not see the floor, or the wall, or the opposite elevator. The light from inside the car reached the doorway and just stopped there.

"Please exit the car," the voice said again.

I took one step forward.

Then my hand brushed the folded paper in my coat pocket.

I pulled it out without thinking. The page was crushed from my hand, but I could still read the last part:

don't get off on 14.

That was when I looked at the elevator panel.

There was no 14 button.

I started hitting the close-door button over and over.

The voice in the phone changed.

"Please exit the car."

I kept pressing.

"Please exit the car now."

From somewhere in that black space, I heard footsteps.

Hard shoes on tile.

Slow at first.

Then faster.

The doors were still open. I hit the button so hard my thumb slipped and bent backward.

The footsteps got close enough that I could hear the little scrape after each step.

The voice said, "You have to leave."

Then the doors finally started closing.

For a second, right before they met, something moved at the edge of the black.

I did not see a face.

Only the shape of a hand reaching through where the light ended.

The doors shut.

The elevator dropped again.

Then the emergency phone clicked, and a different voice came through, clear and rushed.

"Hello? This is security. Is someone in elevator three? Hello?"

I was sitting on the floor by then. I told him I was stuck. I told him the elevator had stopped on 14.

He went quiet.

Then he said, very slowly, "Sir, this building doesn't have a fourteenth floor."

I stayed on the floor until they opened the doors from the lobby.

The paper was still in my hand.

It was damp from sweat, but the last line was still readable.

Don't get off on 14.