Arcane House

The Stairs

A hallway opened up in front of Katie, the walls turning a pale purple and the floor and ceiling a charcoal black.

She took a step, and her bare foot felt something slimy.

Looking down she saw thin silvery lines, all leading the same direction down the hallway.

She took another step—ignoring the squelchy feeling—and her eye caught something in front of her, on the floor, moving slowly ahead.

Taking another step she saw many creatures which turned out to be snails of all sizes.

The first she saw was small, no bigger than her pinky, the next about the size of a quarter, and they become a steadily bigger and bigger as she walked between them, until they were as tall as her waist, and she could have ridden on them if she had a mind to.

They all looked the same, with pale brown body's and yellow spiral shells.

They took no notice of her, their long eyes and feelers guiding them down the hallway, always moving in straight lines and never stopping, slowing or speeding.

Although Katie did not notice this, a light now drifted all around her, a soft white light—almost fuzzy—that illuminated her immediate surroundings but not very far in front or behind her.

The light around Katie shone suddenly, lighting the entirety of the end of the lavender purple hallway, and it contrasted much with the blackness that seemed almost to seep down the stairs of an enormous staircase, which by the shape of its bottom step seemed to sweep magnificently up to the right, with a large banister, the end carved like a large lion with ruby red eyes, holding a small plaque in its paws which read:

______
|   Up |
|______|

As they neared the bottom step, the light wrapped itself around Katie and went into her, lighting the space around her less and less as she neared the stairs.

The snails began gliding up the steps, going vertical and then flat, vertical then flat.

Katie watched them with amusement for a moment—it was awfully interesting to see snails climbing stairs—and then her eye caught somthing on the bottom step, barely see able by her light.

It was another Peace Rose and Katie placed it in her small bouquet.

She placed her foot on the stair and immediately yet steadily her light condensed and acted more like a flashlight than a candle, for when she looked around her she saw nothing but blackness but when she looked down she could see her little softly furred feet moving beneath her.

Placing her right hand on the bannister which presented itself to her immediately, she took another step.

Her snails had all passed now and looking down she saw the smallest glide beside her foot, disappearing into the dark. Their silvery tracks glowed in the darkness, guiding her up, and each took on a different iridescent color, green or pink or blue or yellow or purple.

She took a third step.

The stairs were uncarpeted and made of dark beautiful wood, firm and uncreaking and smooth.

She lost count of her steps at 13, when she was startled by a movement at her left foot.

A leopards paw set down silently beside her, then lifted and moved on again. A second later its back foot replaced the first and then also disappeared.

She continued and then saw a small deers hoof delicately walked beside her, it's right front hoof, then right back hoof... Next a crocodiles scaly, clawed feet stomped past, followed by the waving tail.

All around her was darkness, and all she could see when she looked up was the luminescent snails trails leading on ahead. behind and around her only the stairs close to her feet could be seen where the light was just bright enough to see by.

They were going up, all together, all moving steadily and surly, in there own ways and paces.

One after another they moved up beside her: A tigers black and orange striped paw and a zebras white and black striped hoof.
3 lemurs small, gray feet bounced lively past, one by one, almost seeming to be racing. A black bear's rather flat, wide furry paws.

The bannister was smooth and strong, wide and rounded with a lined depression where her fingers were to give her a good hold, and low enough for her short stature to cling to it.

A pair monkeys, whose feet sprang past with vivacity; a buffalos surprisingly small hoof; a large, clawed lizard foot; antelope, although she wasn't sure how she knew;
bears of all descriptions; a giraffe, who set its hoof down daintely; and even an elephant's huge round grey foot.

After some time Katie's hand felt something rather thin and soft, yet textured like a glossy book cover. It seemed to be wrappped around or layed along the bannister. She tried to look at it, but her eyes saw only black darkness.

Taking another step, her hand went farther up the bannister, and into a thicker part of the long shape. Then it moved and something about the same size of her hand came and touched her fingers.

A Snake! She thought in mild suprise. But it didn't do anything except bump it's blunt head into her hand and then move off again, up the banister.

Taking hold of her balance again, and going up another step, something tickled her wrist, seemed indeed to run across it with many long legs, and she withdrew her hand quickly.

She took another few steps and replaced her hand upon the bannister, gripping it, and took another step. Now she found her fingers touching sticky webs, and several more spiders ran over her hand, of different sizes and weights, some hary and others seemingly hairless.

She agin withdrew her hand, and took a few more steps slowly.

She reached out and touched the bannister and now it was as if a wave of small arachnid body's were flowing up the bannister, there was not even room to touch the wood of it.

She whipped her hand away and wiped it on her dress, shuddered slightly, and began climbing the stairs more slowly and seriously. She kept her eyes on her feet—there was no going back down now, this was obviously a 1 way set of stairs—and was astonished to see the sheer number and variety of animal feet moving around her: A raccoon little clawed hand; a pigs cloven and pink trotters; an armadillo, which tripped along gaily; a rabbit who hopped off playfully; a lamb, a squirrel and a weasel; a dog who loloped past in playful excitement; a fox, its white paws moving gracefully; a sloth who went very slowly past; a cow and a kangaroo, who both went at the same time and each in very singular ways.

Katie didn't know how long she was climbing, and she certainly didn't know when she would reach the top, and her whole mind was focused on the next step, her own feet, and the other feet moving with her.

Once she tried putting her hand out to find the bannister, but it was no longer there, and she was sure she was in the middle of the stairs now, in the very midst of this moving crowd.

Small animals like squirrels and rabbits and such ran past her, chased by little dogs, and medium dogs, and big dogs.

Frog webbed feet sprang past with alacrity and praying mantis moved with the skill of a martial artist.

The animals were becoming difficult to recognize now, and they moved too fast to see. Paws and feets, decorated with claws of all sizes, sharpness, or roundedness; scails and feathers and furr of all colors
flashed and sparkled, throwing rainbows around the edges of those so near feet.

The snails tracks glowed before her, always leading her on, and as she went on and up she thought the tracks seemed to begin crisscrossing each other, overlapping and making wide circles. Katie wondered if they were going around the other animals, who left no glowing tracks, but who must be moving around the snails as they moved around her own small body.

And then, although she still could not see them, she began to feel them all around her, all shapes and sizes and textures. They pressed up to her, moving her up like a wave.

Finally, in one huge rush, they reached the top of the stairs and streamed away into the darkness, leaving Katie standing there alone, another Peace Rose at her feet.

End of chapter 5