Stuck in the Lobby Without Elevators and the Silent Conference Room

Stuck in the Lobby Without Elevators and the Silent Conference Room

I woke up feeling like I’d just missed the train. In the dream I was standing in the lobby of my office building, but the elevators were gone and a long, dim hallway stretched past the reception desk. I tried to call my boss on my phone, but the screen was just a blank white rectangle. A woman I hadn’t seen since high school—she looked like my old math teacher, but she was also wearing my sister’s coat—walked past, glancing at me as if she knew I was late. I ran toward the stairs, but each step felt like wading through thick water; I could hear the distant rumble of a train that never arrived. When I finally reached the door marked ‘Conference Room’, the sign read ‘Exit’ and the room was filled with rows of empty chairs all facing a screen that flickered with my own face, looking worried. I tried to open the door, but it was locked from the other side, and I could hear a faint ticking, like a clock counting down.