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<center><h1>The Stairs </h1><sup>prompt by @ntowl </sup></center>


The darkness flowed into the basement stairwell as Jon opened the door. He paused, listening. *Shit! They’re already asleep*, he thought. His parents had gone to bed promptly at eleven thirty when the evening news was over. Usually he did his best to get into his room before they went to bed so he could avoid the situation he now found himself in. *I knew I shouldn’t have tried to finish that bonus level!* It was so easy to lose track of time in the basement hangout.

A tiny night light at the end of the kitchen counter illuminated a small spot on the floor beneath it, but otherwise the room was dark and still. In his mind he ran through the short path that would take him down the hallway, up the stairs and into his bedroom. All he had to do was turn the basement light off in the stairwell and walk through the darkness to get there. Keeping his hand firmly on the doorknob and taking a deep breath he flipped the switch. The stairwell light went out leaving him with after image shapes moving in front of his eyes. Deliberately he closed the door slowly so he wouldn’t wake anyone, and tried not to panic. *Nothing to be afraid of*, he thought, *it’s just my  house at night*. The hinges creaked and the latch snapped shut with a jarring bang in the otherwise noiseless space. 

*Stay calm, there’s nothing to be afraid of*. Stepping carefully, he made his way down the hallway. As he got closer he could see the faint yellow glow of the upstairs hallway light through the doorway to the next room where the stairs were. He paused, took a breath and continued. At the bottom of the stairs he looked up and saw the light. He hated that light. The dim yellow reflected off the walls, making the stairs and hallway appear dingy, rundown, dangerous. 

With his first step on the stairs he felt the darkness close in behind him, lurking, waiting to see what he did next. Another step and he felt the pull of it, coaxing him to step back and let it take him. *Stop being stupid. It’s just dark, there’s nothing there*, he thought. He went up the next three steps quickly while trying to keep the panic at bay. 

*Tink, tink, thud*. He stopped and turned around. *Tink, tink*. Waiting, he heard nothing else and rationalized the sounds as the house settling. But he looked at the bottom of the stairs, where the dark now consumed whatever light managed to escape down the stairwell. Nothing moved inside it, but he felt the pressure of it, reaching for him through gloomy light. Instinctively he knew it wasn’t bright enough to hold it back, that if he waited where he was, halfway up the stairs, the darkness would eventually reach him. He didn’t know what would happen if it did, but some part of him wanted to find out. The sane part screamed at him to run. 

<center><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1482855549413-2a6c9b1955a7?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=750&q=80"></center><center><a href="https://unsplash.com/@rohit_choudhari"><sup>Source</sup></a></center><br>


<h2>My ending</h2>

He climbed the steps, wanted to reach the top of the house as soon as possible and escape from the darkness that grew beneath, like an immense abyss that formed, devouring everything in its path. 

The yellow light in the corridor above began to fail intermittently as if trying to flee from his presence. He hesitated for a moment and stopped in the middle of the steps, he could feel the darkness moving forward to the upper corridor to set a trap for him, he had no escape.

Finally, the yellow light vanished, driven away by the loud sound of thunder that shook the stairs, tried to scream, but was unable to make any sound because of the panic, or perhaps the darkness had taken over his voice, like everything else in the house.

He could see nothing and could go nowhere, the darkness had caught him! Being totally petrified by fear, he could do nothing but sit and cry in the middle of the stairs. His head was hidden between his knees as he protected her with his arms, he closed his eyes tightly wanting to stop seeing the darkness, wanting to escape from it, he could feel the darkest figures forming around him, stalking him, waiting for him to open his eyes to attack him.

When it seemed that he could not stand any longer, he managed to feel with his foot one of the bars that supported the handrail of the stairs, had an idea, began to hit the railing with the spinner that carried in their pockets, making the biggest noise possible, hoping to wake his parents and that they would come to rescue him, but the latter never happened.

He opened his eyes and was encouraged to see that the yellow light from the top floor had returned, now the darkness remained controlled at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for the opportunity to take over everything again. He was very happy to see that light on and no longer seemed dark as before, rather now it was just the opposite. without thinking twice he ran to the door of his room.

Already in the hallway and in front of the door of his room he felt safe, soon he could hide among the protective sheets, while his room was watched by the light of his lamp. He sighed in relief, placing his hand on the doorknob and was ready to open it.

A horrible clown appeared behind the door, holding a large hammer and laughed out loud with his big mouth from which sprang an endless stream of blood.

He woke up sweating and with tears in his eyes, on the TV screen, the final boss of the bonus level laughed out loud as he crushed Jon's character with his big hammer. Jon turned off the video game console and saw the time on the wall clock, two o'clock in the morning, knew he had to go to his room and several hours ago his parents had gone to bed.

<center><b><h2>The End.</h2></b></center>

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This is my participation for the <a href="https://steempeak.com/finishthestory/@bananafish/finish-the-story-week-63">Finish The Story - Week #63</a> from @bananafish. I hope you like it there, do not hesitate to comment.

Thank you for reading.

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