[ilikeoldchangke]

I could not tear my eyes away from the bodies.

It’s the first time I saw a dead body.
They are still dressed in their nursing home clothes. I could see the bottom is soiled with excrement. A puddle of unknown liquid has pooled under their bodies.

My eyes slowly lifted from the corpses and onto the men standing up on level 3.


They have masks on to filter out the smell.

They are dressed in nursing scrubs and I recognised one of them as the staff that was eyeing me suspiciously during my first time here.

There’s 8 of them.


And at that moment, all 8 of them were staring at us from about 30m away.

2 of them were trying to carry the body of another old lady onto a plastic sheet.

No one said a word.


They never expected us to see them, and we, never expected to see this.

I could feel a spark inside my belly slowly ignite. My breathing got faster.

I tried to take a step forward but I was held back by Hong.

Hong : Jackson….. no…


The 2 men carrying the body dropped her corpse like it was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. Like they were not carrying a human.

Something was exchanged among the fake nursing home staff, one of them called out.

“ Yakob !... Sven ! … Yusuf !! “

I thought there were only 8 of them but I was wrong.

There were more.


3 more appeared out of nowhere and 2 of them was dragging along a barely breathing resident.

My heartrate spike and as my fingers closed around the box of peaches so hard that the box disintegrated, and everything just fell into the lift floor.

I know that resident.

The old lady Nancy. The one that always asked me to dance.


Her face was bloodied, and she was missing several teeth. She’s crying and sobbing. Her clothes were badly ripped and she might as well have been naked. Bruises were visible all over her arms and face.

Nancy : sobzzz… sobzz…. Ahhhh… Jackson ….sobzz….ahhhh…. Jackson ….

The 3 men were called out because they were nearer to the lift whose door is starting to close having been stationary for a while.


The door rumbled and slid along narrow grooves choked with dirt and grime.

I could hear my own heart racing in my head as I tried to process what I just saw.

I have a lump in my throat and it was getting hard to even swallow my own saliva.


The door of the old lift managed to shut to it’s ¾ mark before I saw a hand slice in and forcibly stop it from closing.

Instinctively, I took a couple of steps back.


I was standing in the middle with Seven on my left and Hong on my right.

As the lift door opened fully, the 3 men dressed in medical scrubs peppered with blood stains greeted us with surgical masks on their faces.

Again, no one said anything.

The 3 men stepped into the loading and unloading lift with their back to the door and a staring match ensued.


My hands were by my side and I could feel Hong’s hand reaching for mine the same time Seven did the same.

You see, the thing with goods lift, it’s all stainless steel on all sides. They are as good as mirrors.

I could see the reflection of everything around from the corner of my eyes.

Hong’s left hand was carrying the bag of fruits and he slowly handed it over to me the same time I saw his right disappear into his pants pocket.

Seven’s right hand pushed the bag he was holding to my left hand and through the partial reflection in the lift, I saw him stretched his legs, neck and shoulders.


The old alarm of the loading and unloading lift started to buzz angrily as the door vibrated in protest as it rumbled to close.

I exhaled slowly and relaxed my fingers as the two sides of the lift door strained to meet each other.

Hong was the first to break the silence.


Hong : Jackson ….

Jackson : hmmmm….

Hong : First chance you get…. You go to Boss….

Jackson : ok…


My body felt hot like it was on fire.

All hell will break lose the moment the lift door close and I reckon it’s going to be 3 seconds away at the very most.

I was counting it down in my head.

3 seconds before the door closed, I saw Hong’s right hand emerge from his pocket with a knuckle duster around his fingers.


2 seconds before the metal door met in the middle I stopped breathing the same time I saw Seven shifted his right leg behind him.

I felt the rumble and vibration of the lift as it’s door shut like the jaws of a metal beast the same time my fingers relax, dropping the bags of fruits onto the lift floor.


And if Nancy were well enough to ask me the same question she always did, I know what my reply would be that day.


Today. We dance.