The Unwritten

The Unwritten Part XIII - Tom

Tom was walking and descending, descending and walking, down and around a stairwell that was eventually heading into…where? Finally, he just stopped. The back of his thighs ached, his side ached. His eyes and head were aching from continually straining to see into the dark of the chasm amidst the stairwell. And always ahead to see if there were anything hiding in the dim light.

"Well, this is going no where," he finally said a bit too loudly. His own voice made him flinch slightly. He worried at the possibilities of who his voice might attract. Who, or what. But there was no one here. Nothing anywhere. He was alone. Tom glanced back upward. Maybe he should go back? Before, it was too late. Perhaps this was a bad idea from the get go anyway. Where the hell was this headed anyway? Other than simply down, that is.

The staircases had increased in odd increments. There were flights that were more steps going down than others, walkways increasing in length. What had been a long side of the stairway at about ten strides, had become thirty. The end of the rectangular stairwell had grown closer to twenty feet long now. Stairs had gone from ten and twenty steps to twenty and thirty. Then twenty five and thirty five, or thirty seven and just kept on increasing.

Tom was frustrated at how the stairwell had expanded outward. He’d been at it the larger part of an hour now and what had originally taken him seconds to walk around was now taking several minutes. It was getting harder to consider successfully tossing a stone from one side over the stairwell to the other. Had there been any stones to through in the first place. Soon, no matter how hard he could throw, he wouldn’t any longer be able to make it to the other side.

Going back up was starting to sound like a good idea to him. He fell back against the wall, dejected, frustrated, irritated. Pissed off. Angry, he kicked one of the posts at the corner of the railing, striking it solidly. It felt good. He kicked it again, and again, harder and harder until suddenly, a piece chipped off and flew across the dark expanse of stairwell. It flittered downward into the dark. He watched until it disappeared from site thirty or so feet below him.

“I give up, this is going, nowhere. Down, but nowhere.” The words dissipated quickly in the dark air. What the hell, he was going to head back up now and he knew it. He leaned over the rail and looked into the dark and screamed:

“NOWHERE! FUCKING NOWHERE!”

Tom was breathing hard. He turned his head, facing his ear downward and listened. There was no echo. That meant there was nothing for his voice to rebound off to return to him. The stairs must continue to expand outward all the way down. He imagined he had been entering a large conical cave from above and was going around and around as the cave expanded downward.

“Fuck it,” he said finally and headed back up the stairs, his muscles groaning in anticipation.