Chapter 1 Part 2

Stephanie followed Esther and Ivan down the stairway. They walked for a while, and then they continued walking. After about 5 solid minutes of walking down the stairs, they turned around and looked back and saw that the light from above ground had faded to a small square of light that had long since stopped illuminating their location. So they kept walking for another 5 minutes, until the light was but a speck.

Ivan began to worry, "How do we know that we're not about to fall into a pit, or a lake, or a trap?"

Esther stopped and the rest followed suit. The sound of her removing her pack could be heard and then the sound of her rummaging through it. "Does anyone have a match?"

Stephanie's face lit up, though nobody could see it, "Here!" Esther then struck a match and lit a small lantern. She held it up to see how far the stairs went and they were all surprised to see that they were about 10 steps from what appeared to be a small landing and a door. They walked down the remaining stairs and stopped in front of the door and looked at one another. The door was a heavy, industrial, grey door with a brushed steel handle. Ivan shrugged and knocked.

"I don't think anybody's home." Said Ivan, as Esther reached out and opened the door. As they pushed the door open they heard several clicks around the room as torches lining the walls lit up. They looked around the room, which was about 10 feet high and made of the same granite as the stairs. Along the wall opposite the entrance were more doors similar to the front door, however only the door to the far left had a handle on it. On the left wall there was a glass plate sunk into the stone, with a large, red lever on either side, and a button below it. The left lever had "I" written next to it, the right a "III", and the button a "II". Above all of this there was a picture of a large, friendly smiling face painted on the wall in green. In the top corners of the wall were two metal horns colored with peeling green paint. The right wall was filled with a great white square, and didn't appear to be doing much.

Chapter 1 Part 1

Nobody could read it. The sign, that is. It was a large sign, made of a silver-colored metal. It could have been steel, aluminum, or tin. That information is lost, now, as none of those present at the time were metallurgists and the sign was soon after scrapped by the impoverished people living near it. What is known is that the sign read, "Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth" and had in fact been stolen from Disneyland.

Four people stood around the sign with a sense of awe, confusion, and discomfort. The discomfort from the frigid weather of the Canadian Shield, the confusion from the fact that none of them could read the ancient English sign (not that it would have helped), and the awe from the staircase behind the sign that appeared to descend directly into nowhere. The staircase itself was not particularly threatening, it was made of perfectly square, flat, polished granite. It was eery because of how effortlessly the surrounding natural landscape surrounding it transitioned perfectly into this very unnatural staircase that went down into utter darkness.

A small, dusty-brown haired young woman broke the stillness of the group by walking confidently toward the staircase. Almost immediately, a stocky black-haired man of about twenty-five leapt forward and grabbed her arm, "Esther! What the Hell are you doing?"

"Get off me!"

"Get back here!"

"I!" Esther brought her foot back behind her, "Said!" she started swinging it "Get!" her boot firmly connected with his shin, "Off!" The young man let go of her with a yelp, holding his leg and hopping on one foot.

"What was that for?"

"Don't touch me, Micheal."

"That doesn't mean you get to kick me!"

"Then don't touch me."

"Then don't go in there."

The other young man in the group, Ivan, pitched in, "Esther, Micheal's an ass, but maybe he's right, we don't know what's down there."

Esther glared at Ivan, "Then I'm going to find out."

"That sign could easily say 'danger' or 'certain death ahead' or even just 'no trespassing'"

"It might also say 'free candy and beer', besides, how bad can it be? I mean, there's a picture of a castle on it." Coincidentally, this is precisely the reason that the builders of the staircase decided to use a stolen Disney sign.

Michael stopped nursing his leg long enough to say, "Esther, we should at least come back later after we've planned this out. It's too dangerous to go down there by yourself."

"Well, then I guess it would be a real dick move for you to stay up here." as she turned around and started trotting down the stairs.

Michael hesitated for only an instant before he proudly and boldly started walking in the opposite direction, "Fuck that. Have fun dying down there, I'll gather a search party in the morning."

"You're a dick, Esther, wait up." Called Ivan as he took off after Esther down the stairs.

"Umm... what about me?" Piped a voice. Esther and Ivan both backtracked and looked up over the top stair at the girl whom the voice had come from.

"Oh," Esther sighed, "Sorry. Come with us, Steph?"

"Ok." Stephanie then meekly walked over to the stairs. She stopped before the first one, looking down. She checked her pockets and pulled out a book of matches, looked relieved, and put them back in her pocket. Ivan and Esther really can't be blamed for forgetting Stephanie. She was a plain looking girl, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but she also seldom spoke and didn't contribute much when she did. She was the sort of girl who would go to a party and sit in the corner, behind the punchbowl, and put her hood up.