The stairs themselves were rusty, metal grated stairs. Obviously not meant for public use. I mean, what architect in their right mind would make the general public go up and down creaky, creepy, metal grates for stairs? They didn't match the outside at all! Hell, even the inside – as much as it was falling apart – had that weird.... pseudo-Gothic architecture all over! Arches, mini statues and gargoyles. Was this place really the main way hundreds of thousands of people got to this city?
No matter.
I pulled open the rusted gate that closed the stairs off. Its bolts and hinges screamed at me to stop, to let it rust in peace. Chills went up my spine at the sound along with the piercing of my ears. Still, I had a job to do. Which meant running into the depths of hell if I had to.
“Here goes nothing...” I mumbled as I took my first few steps onto the stairs.
The grates shook with each move I made. Shift my weight to the left? Whole stairway moved, and a new layer of rust and dirt hit the ground beneath me. This was going to be fun...
With each step, I could hear the grates below me bending and bowing with a weight they hadn't felt in decades. God, where was Dex and his constant joking when I needed him? Anything to get my mind off of the idea of falling through one of these things and getting stuck in the oldest, dankest, darkest “basement” I'd ever seen in my life. Or smelled in this case. I swear, my light didn't go any farther than maybe twenty feet before all of the dust and dirt in the air just stopped it!
My heartbeat quickened as my feet touched the ground at the end of the stairway. I felt like I was some kind of explorer in an ancient ruin in some forgotten area of the world. For a minute, I wondered if this was what those jackass urban explorers I'd seen on the news loved about places like this. But that didn't make any sense, because they talked about the thrill and excitement of it all. I just felt like I wasn't welcome. An overwhelming sense of dread and hate filled the air all around me.
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