Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The 11th Floor
    The 11th Floor
    The 11th Floor
    Ebook87 pages1 hour

    The 11th Floor

    By Charles Culver

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Luke, plagued by blackouts since a child, awakens in a room with a headless corpse. He escapes down a fire ladder and is led into a building owned by another one of the characters, Jonathan.

    Jonathan, a millionaire who owns the building, opens his bedroom curtains that morning to find it is raining dead birds. When he arrives at work, he finds that his building completely deserted.

    A father and daughter, on their way to a job interview, find an empty city and a disturbing vision of their dead bodies. They discover that the address given for the interview is the building owned by Jonathan.

    Eddie, a homeless man, follows the other characters. Driven by his curiosity, he enters the building and becomes trapped in an elevator.

    Each character experiences unique and disturbing challenges that they must overcome as they are lured up to the 11th floor of the Koenig building.

    What awaits them in the building and up on the 11th floor? Will they be able to find the answers and help they have been seeking?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCharles Culver
    Release dateDec 5, 2012
    ISBN9781301177592
    The 11th Floor
    Author

    Charles Culver

    Husband and father of two girls. I've been doing computer work for 18 years. I have frequent nightmares that can sometimes be quite vidid. About a year ago I decided to start writing them down and turning them into stories. My first two books, The 11th Floor (parts one and two) are out now. My third book, un-yet-titled, is done and awaiting editing and revisions. It should be out in March.

    Read more from Charles Culver

    Related to The 11th Floor

    Titles in the series (2)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Haunted House Whodunnit

      Sep 20, 2023

      Haunted House Whodunnit
      2 min read

    • Article

      Q-tip Options

      Oct 10, 2023

      I am not a good person. Abby was at my door. My reaction when I saw her should have been more charitable. She was young and cute and needy, but all I wanted was a nice relaxing day at home. When the police questioned her, I should have let them take

      16 min read

    • Article

      An Unspeakable Life

      Jan 10, 2022

      It was a perfect fall afternoon when Muriel found out she was pregnant. Tourists snatched up apple cider by the gallon at farm stands. Leaf peepers stood on the side of the road with their cameras aimed in all directions; wherever you looked, a quint

      12 min read

    • Article

      Letters From The Pandemic

      Apr 27, 2020

      Letters From The Pandemic
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Symposium on Childhood

      Sep 1, 2021

      A Symposium on Childhood
      25 min read

    • Article

      Shame Is Ever-Present When You’re Sitting in a Cell

      Oct 23, 2020

      Between a strained relationship with my family and the death of a good friend, I’ve struggled to feel like I’m worth something.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Afterdeath

      Sep 1, 2020

      The Afterdeath
      9 min read

    • Article

      All Words Fly

      Aug 21, 2018

      All Words Fly
      10 min read

    • Article

      Good Bones

      Mar 19, 2020

      Good Bones
      18 min read

    • Article

      The Space Between Us

      Oct 9, 2019

      The Space Between Us
      8 min read

    • Article

      GhoST StoRies

      Apr 12, 2021

      GhoST StoRies
      8 min read

    • Article

      Chost Stories

      Apr 12, 2021

      Chost Stories
      8 min read

    • Article

      Can’t Take It With You

      Apr 10, 2022

      Can’t Take It With You
      8 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Nov 4, 2021

      When my son was around one, many items of his clothing began to inexplicably disappear. I can’t over-emphasise the inexplicable nature of what occurred – all the items unquestionably disappeared in my house. The house is always secure, and there is n

      8 min read

    • Article

      It Happened To Me…

      Jan 26, 2023

      It Happened To Me…
      7 min read

    • Article

      It Takes Blood And Guts

      Nov 21, 2020

      I’m sitting on Skin’s terrace in Ibiza, soaking up the late summer sunshine via the magic of the internet. It’s the closest I’ve come to travel since the start of the panny danny and looking out my window at the dark Edinburgh sky, I’ll take all the

      6 min read

    • Article

      The End of Learning

      Mar 10, 2024

      A bullet ended Paul Channeler’s childhood at age six when it passed through his abdomen and into the brain of his best friend, Myra. He had assumed he would marry her one day; his mom and dad were best friends; it made perfect sense. He knew nothing

      9 min read

    • Article

      My Story The Secrets We Keep

      Oct 7, 2020

      My Story The Secrets We Keep
      4 min read

    • Article

      Night Terrors

      May 12, 2020

      Night Terrors
      4 min read

    • Article

      My Story The Secrets We Keep

      Oct 7, 2020

      My Story The Secrets We Keep
      4 min read

    • Article

      Siphons

      Feb 6, 2020

      Siphons
      6 min read

    • Article

      Nineteen And Pregnant In 1969

      Nov 1, 2022

      I hadn’t been religious for some time, but I prayed, God, please don’t let me die. The post Nineteen and Pregnant in 1969 appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Somehow I Became Respectable

      May 21, 2019

      Somehow I Became Respectable
      4 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Apr 21, 2022

      It Happened to Me…
      8 min read

    • Article

      When You Need The Money

      Oct 1, 2021

      When You Need The Money
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The 11th Floor

    4/5

    4 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This was a fast paced, short story about random people who seem to be thrown into an odd predicament. Everyone in the city has disappeared and they all are being guided to the 11th floor of one building. The story is dreamlike in its warping of reality, but it works so well with the storytelling that it completely captures you as if you were one of those having to make their way to the 11th floor. I simply could not put this book down and I am torn between feeling that I wish there had been more because I loved it so much and knowing that it was perfect exactly the way it was. You'll enjoy reading and you might not even solve the mystery until the very end.

    Book preview

    The 11th Floor - Charles Culver

    The 11th Floor

    Part One

    By Charles Culver

    Copyright 2012 - Smashwords Edition

    V3.1 Updated Feb 19, 2013

    Copyright Information

    Copyright © 2012 by Charles Culver

    All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book.

    This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or deceased, business establishments, events, locales, are entirely coincidental.

    Cover Image: Copyright Kutlayev Dmitry, 2012

    Used under license from Shutterstock.com

    Need to contact the author? You may contact the author by one of the following ways.

    Email: info@chuckculver.com

    Website: http://www.chuckculver.com

    Introduction

    For many years now, I have had some fairly disturbing nightmares. This book will probably be the first of many where I turn those nightmares into stories. I hope everyone reading this will enjoy the work that my subconscious mind cranks out while I am asleep.

    I also would like to thank everyone who supported and encouraged me during the writing of my first book. First, my mother, Susan, deserves a lot of credit. Every time I completed a few chapters, I would send them to her for a review and opinion. Second, my wife Tamsen, who never even read one sentence of this until I was done. She reviewed the whole thing and pointed out every mistake I made.

    I would also like to give some kudos to James Baldini. He is a good friend of mine who also recently just wrote and published his first book. Whether he knows it or not, he was my inspiration for actually getting this book done. His success provided some of my motivation. When you are done reading this story, check out his book. The Book of Virtues, Volume 1.

    Enjoy.

    Chapter 1

    He woke up screaming, heart racing. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he quickly looked around the room.

    Great. Where am I now? he asked.

    Fumbling through his pockets, he retrieved his cell phone and opened the flashlight app. The bright LED light illuminated the room. As the exhausted man looked around the barren room, he thought he was alone. Peering over the edge of the bed, he screamed again at the sight displayed before him. Lying in the corner of the room in a pool of blood was a headless male corpse.

    Beginning around the age of nineteen, Luke had been experiencing occasional nighttime blackouts. A few years later, on the advice of his girlfriend at the time, he saw several doctors and had numerous tests performed. Not a single medical expert was able to find a cause for his condition. The best treatment anyone could suggest was to refrain from eating a few hours before bed, not to imbibe alcohol or drugs, and avoid stressful daily activities. More than one doctor suggested that exercise and a little bit of weight loss might have been wise. Their suggestions did help ease the occurrences, but did not cure his ailment.

    Over the years, he kept himself in terrific health and was pretty much the ideal weight for his height— 185 pounds and six feet tall. He ran a few miles a couple times a week, and lifted weights occasionally. He never drank or used drugs. In fact, he was rarely ever sick. None of that, however, seemed to matter.

    He was thirty-three years old but the night blackouts continued. He could only ever remember going to sleep and the subsequent nightmares that followed. The nightmares typically featured demons, spirits, ghosts, murderers, and other subjects of the macabre. When he would awaken, he would always find himself somewhere other than his own bed. Since he lived by himself in a studio apartment, he had no one to ask about what might have happened. He once tried to videotape himself while sleeping, but it proved to be a waste of effort. Upon review of the tape, it only showed him getting out of bed and turning the camera off. An action which he could not remember doing.

    On a list of places he had found himself upon waking, next to a dead body was the most terrifying. In the past he had awakened under a tree in the woods, in a closet, the back seat of a car, and even once on the bathroom floor of a highway rest stop. The bathroom floor was easily the most repulsive place Luke had ever found himself. This time was different. Not once in fourteen years had he ever woken up next to another person, living or dead.

    Luke stared at the body with his cell phone light and became overwhelmed with fear. His hands shook. With shaking hands, he switched off the light so he didn’t have to see the dead person anymore. Realizing that it would be impossible to find a way out of the room with no light, he quickly switched it back on and searched for a door. He found only a window with blackened panels.

    The room itself was small, with old brick walls. Some graffiti could be seen, but was too faded to read. It looked like there had once been an unsuccessful attempt to remove, or wash it off. There was a twin mattress on the floor in the corner, a small, round coffee table, and a metal folding chair covered in blood. On the table were bits of hair, a few droplets of blood, and a blood-covered bread knife. On the wall next to the table, carved into the brick, was written, Lord, save me. They are coming for me. I don’t want to die. It looked fresh and recent. The brick shavings and dust were still present.

    He headed towards the window. He needed to get out of this room as fast as possible, and the window was apparently the

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1