A/N: So this is my first, and possibly only, fanfic for Victorious. Got the idea for this from some old news story about a man who was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. Relatively short chapters, lots of dialogue. I'm thinking maybe around three to five chapters total. Rated T for somewhat suggestive themes.

Also, this story takes place sometime between Seasons 1 and 2. I might include a bit of romance as well, but the pairings are undecided (though I'm leaning toward some implied Jori, Bade, and Cabbie). Enjoy!

-CCM

Chapter 1

"Oh my gosh, that was amazing!" Tori Vega gushed as she made her way down the darkened city streets of Los Angeles, her group of best friends from Hollywood Arts trailing right behind her. The tall, somewhat lanky girl patted her contentedly full stomach and laughed, flipping her long, wavy chocolate-brown hair over her shoulder as she walked and letting it blow gently in the warm summery breeze of the night.

"I know, right? Soooo good!" little redheaded Cat Valentine replied excitedly as she jogged to catch up with the longer-legged Tori, nearly tripping over a crack in the sidewalk in her sky-high stiletto heels and flailing her arms out wildly to steady herself. However, her stumble didn't deter her cheerfulness one bit. "Oh… My tummy is so happy, I think I might sing!"

"Please don't." Jade West glanced down at Cat in scornful amusement, her perfectly manicured and pierced eyebrows raised. Okay, maybe they weren't all best friends, Tori decided, but they could get along for the most part. Though Jade definitely liked to stretch their loose definition of "friends" when it suited her.

Beside her, André Harris laughed loudly. "Ya know, that was probably one of the best meals I have ever eaten in my life… That fettuccine alfredo was the bomb."

The gang had just spent their Saturday evening at a new restaurant, Vertigo, that had just opened up in town. Featuring a menu full of pastas, succulent seafood dishes, baskets of fresh-baked bread, signature soups and salads, and mouthwatering desserts, all at a rather reasonable price, considering, their dining experience that night had been to die for. And the classy atmosphere was a definite plus – with its wavy, dimly-lit ceiling spreading light over the diners in different shades of blue, purple, and red, and the colorful abstract artwork lining the walls, the dining room made one feel almost dizzy with vertigo, but in a good way.

Curly-haired and bespectacled Robbie Shapiro nodded in agreement with André's words as his puppet Rex, perched on his shoulder, added, "Well, I know that was the best tiramisu I've ever eaten."

Jade turned her head over her shoulder and looked the puppet up and down dubiously. "What are you talking about? Puppets don't even eat! Do they?"

Robbie quickly shushed her with a frantic, indistinguishable hand motion. "Don't use the p word," he hissed. "Rex doesn't like it."

"What don't I like?" Rex asked, distracted, just as Cat cluelessly interjected, "The p word? You mean pancakes?"

"Yes, Cat," Jade rolled her eyes, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "I mean pancakes."

"Where did we park again?" Dark-haired and handsome Beck Oliver finally interrupted the increasingly random conversation as the group entered the shady parking ramp where they had parked their car. The lot on the bottom floor was completely empty, not a car to be seen, and the few dim yellow lights over their heads flickered ominously.

"Level four," Jade responded, looping one arm around her boyfriend's as she looked up at him sweetly. Just ahead of them, Tori stifled an exaggerated gag.

Without further thought, the tall brunette marched forward and aggressively pushed the button to the side of the parking ramp elevator in the corner of the lot. The doors opened right away, spreading sickly yellow-tinged light over the darkened space. Tori hopped in and immediately studied her reflection in the mirror on the back wall as the others joined her, squeezing themselves into the tiny room.

"Ick, do I really look like this? Or is it just this terrible lighting?" She ran a hand through her hair as she frowned at the dark circles just barely visible under her eyes.

Behind her, Jade snorted and pushed the numbered button on the elevator for the fourth floor before wrapping her arms around her boyfriend Beck's waist. "No… you really look like that."

Tori merely rolled her eyes in response as the elevator lurched into motion. She set one hand against the elevator wall to steady herself, a bit nervously. Something about the slow, jerky way the elevator moved made her feel inexplicably apprehensive…

She watched the floor numbers displayed over the elevator door tick by one by one. One… Two… Thr-

The elevator abruptly staggered to a halt. Six pairs of eyes darted around at the elevator walls, accompanied by distinctly worried expressions and anxious questions.

"What…?"

"Are we on the top floor already?"

"No…" Glancing back up at the floor number over the door, Tori saw that they had stopped somewhere between floors two and three.

Without warning, the lights flickered out, and the entire elevator was plunged into pitch darkness.

Immediately, a high-pitched, feminine scream echoed throughout the tiny room, causing everyone else in the surrounding area to flinch and cover their ears.

"Cat!"

"I'm sorry!" Cat squealed. "I'm sorry, it just surprised me!"

There was a soft flurry of movement, and then Cat spoke up again, "…I'm scared."

"Ow, Cat! Please, will you get off of me!" Apparently, the red-haired girl had fearfully grabbed Jade by the arm, who had the luck of being the person nearest to her.

Suddenly, the lights came back on, though they were significantly dimmer this time around.

"Oh, thank you!" Robbie gasped from his position on the floor, earning him a sneering laugh from his puppet, who was perched upon his lap.

Beck stepped forward and forcefully pulled at the elevator doors, but to no avail. He couldn't get a proper grip on the shiny, smooth metallic surface, and the door refused to budge under his hands. "It won't open!"

"What about the emergency button?" André spoke up. "I think this constitutes an emergency."

Beck immediately turned to the panel of buttons to the right of the elevator door. He quickly located the large red one with the picture of an alarm bell on the bottom right corner of the panel, and slammed it down with his thumb. Nothing happened.

"I… I think it's broken."

"Oh… Well, perhaps you could try the 'door open' button?" André offered. "Maybe if we can get the doors to open, we might be able to just climb onto the nearest floor."

Beck hit that button too, but again, nothing happened. "…I don't think any of the buttons are going to do anything. In fact, I think we're lucky the lights are even on."

"Well, this is just great." Jade flung her arms up in exasperation.

"…Does this mean we're trapped?" Cat whimpered, her innocent, deep brown eyes wide with fear.

Tori's brown eyes widened as well, and she quickly over to pull her Pear Phone out of her purse with shaking hands. "Umm… Here, let me just call Trina… Maybe she can do something. She might still be in the area - she had a mani-pedi appointment just down the street a little while ago, from what I remember."

Jade snorted derisively, attempting to hide her inner discomfort at the entire situation. "Trina? What is Trina gonna do? I say call nine-one-one."

She glanced over at Tori, who was staring, unmoving, at the phone in her hand. "Well?"

"There… there's no service." Tori muttered.

Jade frowned at her. "What the chiz do you mean, no service?!"

"Well, it means th-"

"I know what it means!" Jade interrupted Beck angrily, whipping around to glare at him with piercing eyes. He bit his lip and leaned back against the elevator wall, arms folded coolly over his chest as his girlfriend groaned in defeat and kicked at the wall. "Stupid Pear Phone. Stupid elevator!"

"Here, let me try mine…." André spoke up helpfully, and whipped out his own cell phone. Within seconds, his face fell. "…Nope."

Everyone else in the elevator did the same, with the same results. It seemed that none of the cell phones were working.

"So… that's it? We're stuck here?" Jade asked bitterly, forcing herself to keep calm, if only for her boyfriend's sake. Tori shrugged, her eyes wide, and beside her, André nodded solemnly.

"We're doomed!" Robbie suddenly shouted in a panic. Standing next to him, Cat let out a fearful squeal.

"Ah, shut up, Robbie," Rex reprimanded his owner. "Geez, you're worse than a female."

The dummy turned his head toward Tori suggestively. "Speaking of females…"

Tori shot both Rex and Robbie a scandalized look, her tone firm as she spoke. "No."

"What the heck, Robbie?" Jade glared daggers at the bespectacled boy. "Control your puppet!"

"Hey-" Rex started, irritated at being called a puppet, but Robbie interrupted his complaint with a nervous apology.

"I'm sorry!" To the puppet, he said in a loud whisper, "Rex, what did I tell you about that!"

"Just… shut up, please!" Tori finally called out, unable to take it anymore. Loud voices in a confined space were not a good mix. She pressed her fingers to her temples. "You're all driving me crazy! And who knows how long we'll be stuck here…"

They all sat in silence for a few seconds to let the realization sink in.

"This is all your fault, Vega," Jade suddenly spat as she turned to glare at the tall brunette, who had her back against the wall, her eyes closed.

"Hey!" Tori quickly whipped around to face Jade with a look of indignation. "What did I do?"

Jade folded her arms as she looked Tori up and down, smirking at the other girl's shimmery silver cocktail dress. "Well, if you hadn't-"

"Jade." Beck interrupted her, putting one hand on his girlfriend's shoulder to try and calm her. "It's nobody's fault. It was just an accident. A really weird and completely unexpected accident, yeah, but an accident, nonetheless. I mean, how were any of us supposed to know that this elevator would break down?"

André nodded hopefully. "Yeah… And we might not have cell phone service here, but someone will find us eventually. I mean, someone else has to use this elevator sometime, right?"

"Yeah," Jade retorted angrily, "when we're all dead. You saw how deserted this stupid parking ramp is. There's nobody here, and there won't be for a long time!"

The entire group turned to stare at her, even Rex, and Jade shrugged. "What? I'm just saying. We're probably going to die here!"

Tori narrowed her eyes at the gothic girl. "No… No, we won't. Because people will realize that we're missing, and so we'll get out of here, and it will all be just fine and dandy, okay?"

"Okay, whatever you say, Vega…" Jade sighed, leaning back against the wall, "But you can't deny that the oxygen in this room will only last so long…"

"Ugh! Nobody needs your negativity at the moment! In fact, I don't know how Beck manages to put up with you!" Tori clapped a hand to her mouth as soon as she said it, her coffee-colored eyes wide and fearful as she realized just what she had said, and to whom. She timidly glanced at Beck, standing just behind Jade with his hand on her waist, and he shrugged. Everyone else just looked shocked at the outburst.

"That's none of your business, Tori." Jade frowned, her blue-green eyes sparkling lethally, outlined in thick black eyeliner. "But for your infor-"

"Hey, let's all just calm down for a bit, okay?" André interrupted, slouching onto the floor. "…Okay. Let's just… have some quiet time. You're all giving me a headache, and I didn't bring any aspirin."

Jade rolled her eyes. "Sorry," she huffed, and she and Beck settled down on the floor as well, his arm draped over her shoulders as he murmured quietly into her ear.

Tori shrugged and carefully joined the others on the floor, taking a seat beside Cat, who was sitting against the wall with her knees hugged to her chest despite wearing a short, hot pink party dress. At least she had the sense to wear a pair of comfy shorts underneath her dress, unlike Tori, who was now finding it extremely difficult to find a semi-comfortable position on the floor without showing off her underwear to everyone else in the elevator.

It seemed they were in for a long night, Tori sighed to herself as she checked the time on her Pear Phone. It was about ten thirty, already getting late, but they had no way to get home… her own parents weren't even home to miss her, as they had left on a business trip together over the weekend, and Trina would probably just assume that she was sleeping over at a friend's house and forgot to tell her, as many of her friend's families might also suspect.

In fact, Tori fretted, their absence might not even be noticed until they didn't show up for school on Monday morning… if, of course, it took that long. But according to the sign outside, this particular parking ramp was closed on Sundays, so their chances of rescue by tomorrow were slim.

Might as well become resigned to the fact that they're all stuck.

A/N: Thank you for reading! This is really nothing serious – it's a pretty old fic of mine that I decided to edit a bit and post, so I just hope it brings you some amusement. I'm not really sure if I should continue with it, though, so reviews would be awesome!

-CCM