On my way to work today, I had the most peculiar experience, one that has shaken me and I am still not sure if actually happened.

I woke up, showered, got dressed, and had breakfast before making my way to the office. Then, while I entered the elevator to get to the second floor, I stopped and noticed a strange man with off-color pants, and a tattered shirt sitting on the floor. Before I could leave the elevator and ask someone about why this strange man was here, the door had already closed behind me.

It was just me and the man, who looked quite bewildered to see me. I decided to ignore him, and pressed the '3' on the elevator control panel. It was then the man spoke as the elevator started to move up.

"How did you just do that?" He asked in what sounded like disbelief to me. I was confused at what he meant.

"I just pressed the elevator button here," I replied. "Have you never seen an-"

"No, it's just that it never works when I do it. It seems like we're going to be in here a while."

I was confused for a couple of stunned moments, before deciding to wait for my stop. I soon realized that we should have stopped on the third floor by now. I looked at the display which showed the floor number, and noticed it was blank. Silently, I turned back to the man, remembering what he said.

"What do you mean, is the elevator broken?" I quizzed.

"No, it's just... this elevator doesn't end, and it takes a while to get between floors. I myself have been waiting for my floor for months now."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "This building only has 3 floors." But when I looked back to the buttons, there were so many. An incomprehensible amount of buttons that they were overlapping on top of each other, reaching far into the distance and up so high that I couldn't see where they went until my vision hit the ceiling of the elevator. I stepped back, looked away from the buttons bewildered and turned to the man, wide-eyed.

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Shaken, I asked, "Where... Where am I?"

The man gave a small, sad smirk before it disappeared just as quickly it appeared.

"The endless elevator, as others have called it. A few have told me about, but I haven't seen anyone get on in... a long time. It takes you where you want to go, but you can get off every time it opens. I don't want to get off anywhere but where I want to go, though."

I took a seat next to the man, a bit calmer now but still very confused.

"How can this... thing be endless? No space can go on forever, and if it's in our office, it's even more limited."

The man turned and quirked his eyebrows down.

"You aren't wherever you were. This place take you between places. The same way your legs take you between places. For the same reason, it takes time to get between those places as well. "

We fell into a couple of minutes of silence as I digested what he said. I listened as the elevator moved up the shaft, before thinking of another question.

"Why are you in this elevator?" I asked.

He stared up at the flickering lights that were at the top of the elevator and answered.

"I... I am trying to get to my home. It is gone, but I thought this elevator could take me there. I want to go back, it's all I've ever wanted, but it seems my home is very far away if it is taking this long to get there."

I stared at him in silence, not really knowing what to say, when the elevator let off a small ding and opened to the hallway of the third floor of my office.

"Ha, it seems the place you wanted to get to was much closer than mine. It guess it's time to say goodbye." And just as suddenly as I got on, I was off the elevator, and standing in the hallway. I turned, and saw the man waving at me as the door closed.

I decided to skip work for the day, and took the stairs down to the lobby and walked back home. I still do not know what to think of the man I met, but I don't think I will be taking the elevator anytime soon. I don't know who the man was, I never learned his name, but I still remember his distant gaze as if it is burned into my eyes. I still see it, sometimes as if he is really there in front of me, and I don't know if it will ever go away. I fear that someday, I too will board that elevator, searching endlessly for something that doesn't exist.