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“Welcome to the hotel!” said Coiny. “We sincerely hope you enjoy your stay.”
Firey rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but smile at Coiny’s dorky bow. “Alright, loser, enough stalling. I wanna see your room!”
“But of course!” Coiny grabbed Firey’s arm. “Right this way!” He led Firey to the elevator and clicked the button on the wall. He tapped his foot while waiting. When the doors finally opened, Coiny gestured at Firey. “After you, madam.”
Firey rolled his eyes for the second time that day, but accepted Coiny’s offer anyway.
After the elevator door closed behind them, Coiny pressed the button for floor three and waited. The elevator began to ascend. After a few moments, there was a faint click and Coiny felt the elevator abruptly stop moving.
“What happened?” Firey asked. “Why’d we stop?”
“I don’t know,” Coiny replied. “That’s never happened before.”
Firey jammed his fingers into all the buttons on the keypad, but they had all gone dark. That’s when he noticed something. “The lights are out.”
“Yeah,” Coiny said, staring up at the ceiling. “I guess there’s a power outage.”
“So we’re stuck here,” Firey said.
“It looks like it,” Coiny sat down and kicked back. Might as well get comfortable.
A minute passed. Two minutes. Coiny switched positions. Fifteen more seconds elapsed. He stood up and began pacing around the small space. It was weird. His chest was starting to feel tight, like he was trapped in a straitjacket. And why was his heart pounding like he had just run a marathon?
Firey watched Coiny pace around, looking restless and uncomfortable.
Coiny finally broke the silence. “Is it just me or is it really warm in here?”
Firey gave him a look. “Am I really the right person to be asking that?”
Coiny ignored him and started desperately fanning himself.
Firey tilted his head, noticing his friend’s strange behavior. “Are you… okay?”
“No,” Coiny replied, still pacing. “I don’t feel good. I–I think I’m sick.”
“How so?” Firey asked.
“It feels really hot but also cold at the same time. I probably have a fever.” Coiny paced faster, his hands balling into fists as his expression became more and more frazzled. “And my chest feels tight, and my heart is racing, and my head is fuzzy—”
Firey’s eyes widened in realization. He knew what was going on. “Coiny.”
“—and I’m also dizzy, and my thoughts keep racing around in my head—too loud—like what if we’re stuck in here forever—”
“Coiny.”
“—and I feel like I’m having a heart attack, and I have no idea what I did to make me feel this way—maybe I got poisoned or something, I don’t really—”
“Coiny!”
Coiny finally noticed Firey’s attempts to get his attention. He went quiet.
“I think I know what’s wrong,” Firey said.
“What?” Coiny asked.
Firey gave Coiny an apprehensive look, not knowing how he’d react to this. “You’re not sick. You’re… scared.”
“Scared?” Coiny said. He went silent for a moment, then crossed his arms. “No. I don’t get scared.”
Firey rolled his eyes at the stubborn coin. “You literally just described fear. How is it not obvious?”
“Maybe because I haven’t been scared before.”
“Seriously? Never?”
Coiny shrugged. “Never had a reason to.”
“Well, now you do,” Firey said. “I mean, we’re stuck in a small metal box hanging in the sky, and we don’t know how long we’re gonna be here…” He trailed off when the color drained from Coiny’s face.
“H-hanging in the sky?” Coiny stuttered, starting to tremble. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Oh, crap, Firey had made it worse. “N-no, I mean, we’re perfectly safe,” he backpedaled. “I’m just saying how it’s normal to be scared in this kind of situation.”
“But I can’t be scared,” Coiny said, brows furrowing in confusion. “That’s when people run around and scream. Like you when you have to cross a bridge. I’m not doing that.”
“Fear can show up in different ways,” Firey said, ignoring Coiny’s comment about the bridge.
“Huh,” Coiny said. “So I guess I’m scared.” He started pacing again. “That’s… really embarrassing.”
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, it’s just an emotion.”
Coiny paused, then said something in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. “I don’t like it.”
Firey felt a pang of sympathy. “Nobody does. But hey, it’s not like it’ll last forever.”
Coiny sat down and pressed his palms against his closed eyes. “True, but I still hate it. It feels awful!”
Firey sat down beside him.
He hesitated.
Then he reached out and lightly patted Coiny’s shoulder.
Coiny’s eyes snapped open. “What are you doing?” Firey’s cheeks turned a light blue. Coiny squinted. Was Firey blushing?
“S-sorry…” Firey rubbed the back of his head. “I was trying to help. I can stop if you—”
“No.”
“Huh?”
“Keep doing it. It helps.”
So Firey slowly reached out again and rested his hand on Coiny’s shoulder, his blush deepening as Coiny leaned against him.
“Thanks,” Coiny whispered.
“Anytime.”