"Goodbye!" you shouted in a singsong voice to your friend as you waved from the end of her walkway. It was great getting to catch up with her after work that day. But it was getting dark and, as everyone knows, you're terrified of the dark. You pranced along the street on your way back to your apartment building. It's a bit of a walk, but you've never minded the extra exercise. You glanced up at the setting sun. You didn't have much time before it got dark at that point. You started walking briskly, half running every several steps. You finally slowed to a stop, a little out of breath. You were right in front of a makeup shop. You were tempted to go inside, but knew you should get home before dark. You took a few steps forward, looked back and see how far you'd come from your friend's house and decided that since you had made such great progress, you could spare a few minutes in the makeup store.

     As soon as you walked in, ladies were handing you samples and recommending brands. You walked the length of the store several time, picking out a strawberry blush here, and a shimmery eyeshadow there. Before you knew it you'd managed to spend 35,000 won. After paying, you suddenly remembered that the sun was low in the sky. You ran out of the store terrified of how dark it might have gotten.

     There was only a tiny sliver of light left. You sprinted down the road, a tension building in your chest and tears preparing themselves in your eyes. You could see your building in the distance. Then you hit the pavement. You looked back to see the uneven pavement on which you had tripped. You started to panic, wondering if you were going to make it. Everything seemed to fall away from you as darkness closed in and only one thought remained in your mind: Myungsoo. You thought of his cute smile, the way he laughed when you shared an inside joke. You thought of the time he proposed to you, how euphoric you were just looking at each other. You thought of your wedding day, the way he blushed when you walked down the isle. You thought of the time you started a fight with him and he apologized first. You thought of cuddling with him on the couch doing nothing in particular. You thought of the way you looked at him when he was busy working on something. He would always ask "why are you looking at me like that?" In that moment you just missed him so much. You just wanted him with you. Instead you were accompanied by the demons of anxiety and fear that haunted you. You wanted to scream. Maybe you did. Everything was such a blur.

     You worked up the courage to get up and begin walking toward your building. You noticed blood dripping from your wrist which you must have put down to stop your fall. The building seemed to get further and further away. Shadows teased you from the sides of buildings and all along the pavement with their threatening shapes and edges. They seemed to materialize out of nowhere, caused by nothing. They seemed to grab at your feet, slowing your every step to an agonizing pace. You tried to imagine your loving husband holding you close, your hair. Yet the fear pounding through your head just drowned him out, diluting his image into almost nothing. The rest of the trip to your building, you don't remember, thankfully. All you know is that you eventually got inside the door and were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

   You collapsed on the lobby sofa and the secretary came over and patted you and calmed you down. You chatted a bit and eventually you felt ok to make your way up to your apartment. You walked slowly to the elevator, entered and pushed our floor number. As the elevator started moving toward the 16th floor you thought about how much you couldn't wait to see Myungsoo. you wouldn't mention the incident, you thought. Just being with him would be enough. The thought of it made you happy. You'd been married for 3 years, yet everytime you saw him, it still felt like when you two first started dating. Your heart fluttered and you smiled a lot and just couldn't get enough of being with him. You smiled thinking about it.

And thene everything went dark...

And you fell apart.

     At that moment you was far too frantic to know what had even happened. You didn't realize that it was a power outage. All you knew was that the elevator wasn't moving and it was completely dark. You felt like a thousand snakes were slithering at your feet. You felt like there were creatures on the ceiling just waiting to swoop down and grab you. You felt that there was a vicious lion circling you curiously. And suddenly you couldn't place sounds. The sound of your breath seemed to come from all directions at once. You heard scratching on the walls, stumbling footsteps. Were they sounds you were making? Did your mind invent them? You couldn't tell. You collapsed into the corner of the elevator, hugging your knees. 

"How did it come to this?" You wondered.

You thought back to the years climbing into bed with your parents after awful nightmares as a child. 

     You remembered all the hideous creatures that have haunted you throughout the years: spiders, demons, psychopaths, men without skin, aliens, strangely contorted people and so many more awful images. Why did they haunt you? Why did the darkness always cause you to feel weak and afraid? Why did you still feel so uneasy when Myungsoo turned out the lights? You felt silly and ridiculous for being a grown woman who never overcame such a stupid phobia. 

You became vaguely conscious that you were crying. Your head was spinning. When had you laid down?

     Suddenly a sliver of light rushed into the still elevator. You heard commotion outside but it sounded too far away. You could make out a few words. "Stay back", "in there", "she would panic", "let me" and then it all went quiet. A figure dropped down into the elevator with you. You thought it must be another hallucination, but this one felt so real. It had a definite presence. The figure took a few slow steps toward you. All at once he dropped to his knees and gatherd you into his arms. You rested your head against Myungsoo's chest, crying. You said "I love you" an impossible number of times. And he said it over and over, too. You just held each other like that. You told him how scared you felt.

     "I was scared, too." He held you even tighter. Soon enough the fire fighters got you both out of the elevator. It had been about 7 feet below the nearest floor level, so you only had a small space to be lifted through, but you made it out safe and sound in the end. He insisted on carrying you back to your apartment and, despite your objections, he took care of you for the rest of the evening.  He made me kimchi jjigae because he said it would relieve stress and helped you clean the mascara off your face. He continued working hard, running all over the apartment to get things for you, but all you wanted was him. You grabbed him by his sleeve as he rushed by, pulling him down onto the couch. 

"Thanks for saving me" you kissed him

"You know it was the firefighters who got you out of the elevator."

"No I mean thank you for saving me from myself. Thank you for saving me from going crazy." 

He wasn't sure what to say, so he just kissed you. He pushed you down against the couch, and held your face so softly as you kissed each other. 

In the end, it wasn't such a bad night after all.