Prompt: You injure yourself at work and are taken to the hospital.

It was no secret that Penelope was accident-prone. Everyone in her family knew it, all her friends knew it, her coworkers knew it. The worst part was that Penelope hated being the center of attention, and the spotlight was often drawn to her accidents. Six months ago, she started working as a secretary for a new company. It was an office job in a ten-story building with one elevator. She was located on the seventh floor. Her duties consisted of fielding phone calls, meetings, scheduling issues, visitors, and whatever her boss threw at her. Penelope’s biggest fear had been the high heels required as part of the dress code. But that was before...

It had never occurred to her that the elevator might stop working. It had never occurred to her that she might have to climb seven flights of stairs in those deplorable high heels. Penelope walked into the main level of the building just like any other day. She waved at the receptionist and held her purse closer to her body as she walked passed the janitor. He gave her the creeps. She was definitely not paying attention to the sign hanging on the elevator door until it was right in front of her face. “Out of Order. Please use stairs. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

She froze, fear slowly sinking into her limbs. Seven. Flights. Of Stairs. In her not-yet-broken-in, 3-inch, navy blue heels. Paling, Penelope backed away, nearly tripping over herself in her shocked state. She walked towards the door to the stairwell like a condemned criminal walking to his noose. Taking a deep breath, she started up the stairs, taking extra care to focus on her steps.

After surviving the first three flights, she began to relax, even looking around instead of watching her feet. Her pace increased slightly and she let go of the handrailing. Fourth floor, she was almost there. Penelope let her mind wander, thinking through her schedule for the day. That’s when it happened. On the second-to-last stair before fifth floor, her heel failed to clear the step. She tripped. Hard.

At first, her breath just caught in her throat because she felt herself falling. Then she screamed as the middle of her shin landed directly on a stair, and snapped. Blinded by the pain, she didn’t catch herself in time and her whole body fell to the stairs. Penelope was bruised, broken, and bleeding from a cut on her head. Thankfully, her scream had echoed in the stairwell, so even though she blacked out, people ran to see what was going on and called an ambulance. She woke up in the hospital.