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A long silence descends as you glance towards Elle and meet her eyes. You see confusion in her gaze, but also curiosity. She's thinking the exact same thing that you are – how could there be stairs here, of all places?
Then, without a word being said, you both leap to your feet and snatch up your backpacks. Hurrying down from your perch, you run towards Mihail only to slow your pace as he frantically waves his arms at you. “No no no, wait wait wait!” he yelps, “Not safe, friends, slow down!”
Slowing to a halt just a few paces away from him, you realise something very strange – he stands partly submerged in the mud and filth, the tops of his boots hidden from sight, but he doesn't seem the least bit troubled. Oblivious to your confusion, Mihail extends his hand to you. “Here, friend. Take my hand, then slowly – SLOWLY – walk. One step at a time, and not too fast.”
“Don't believe your lying eyes,” you mutter to yourself, grabbing Mihail's arm and allowing him to guide you forwards. Mud squelches under your first step, then your second, but your third step...
It's impossible to describe the exact feeling, the sensation of two contrasting feelings happening all at once. You feel soft mud under your boot, exactly as you might expect, but you also feel hard stone as your foot sinks deep into the filth. Mihail nods silently, gesturing for you to move forwards. You do so, stumbling and nearly falling as you find that the solid ground is nowhere near where you expected it to be. Though the surface of the mire remains unchanged, your foot sinks far deeper than you thought possible.
“Stairs,” Mihail repeats, “Ah... perhaps it might be easier to close your eyes?”
-
With Elle clutching tightly to your arm, and Mihail leading you, you step blindly into the abyss. A shrill panic nags at you as you descend, the rational part of your mind reminding you that – as far as your eyes could see – you should be fully submerged in the mud by now. Despite what your body is telling you, though, you certainly don't FEEL as if you're drowning in mud.
Eventually curiosity gets the better of you, and you open your eyes to take a peek. The stairwell is surprisingly unadorned, surprisingly... normal looking. If not for the fact that you marched through a vast swamp to get here, you'd think you were in a dark, slightly plain house of no particular character.
Elle gasps softly from behind you as she too opens her eyes, looking about in confusion. She says nothing else, though, as Mihail leads you down the last few steps and arrives at a door.
“Should we knock?” he asks, forcing a grin. When you shake your head, he shrugs and slowly pushes the door open.
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