The stairs were terrifically long. Poison Pie and I felt as if we were the first to complete the climb in quite some time. We looked at the others who had tried to climb it, for example the dark green mold on the walls of the stairs, and could see that it had given up halfway, content to rest in the gentle curve of the stairs. To be perfectly honest, I also liked that curve. I too was tempted to give up and paste myself to the wall, live the life of a mold along stairs that go nowhere.

However, Poison Pie tugged at my wrist and, as clouds spontaneously gathered overhead, we climbed to the top.