Spoiler: show
We walk down the narrow hall.
We do not feel the floor; we do not see it,
But we walk as if we did.
We must walk down that hall.
We turn to look at the wall beside us
And we reach out to touch it.
It crumbles and slithers beneath our touch;
It's moving with us down the hall.
As we move, we feel as if we start to fall,
But we do not leave the hall.
In darkness we can only feel,
The hall is falling with us.
In this way, we walk this hall,
Following steps made long before
By strangers so very near us,
If only ever in this narrow hall.
We hear a noise, a gasp of breath.
From whence? … we cannot know,
But we might suspect a stranger near;
Some uninvited guest.
Whispers caught in wake
And lost in movement,
We slow our pace to turn an ear
And listen... listen closer.
Doubts and fears and chilling questions
Why do we want to walk this hall?
It grips our throat and steals our breath
… Or do we want to walk this hall?
This stranger near, this ghost of fear
Asks again about the hall.
In darkness we can only feel,
Why do we walk this hall?
We stop
And feel a bitter winter breeze
Blowing past us down the hall.
We must walk down this hall.
We stumble back;
Wind hisses against the wall.
We fold our arms
Against the wind... Wind hisses, or wall?
Step back again,
Our right foot falls in ice cold water.
A shiver warm like melting snow
Trickles down our spine.
Another step,
Our other foot plunges to the knee.
The wind is getting stronger,
Rushing violently.
Now further in,
Water reaches at our waist.
We start to sink as it pulls us down
And tries to crush our chest.
Our bones begin to ache,
Our muscles start to tingle.
And now the water finds our throat
So close to swall'wing us whole!
Darkness gone, there's only ice
Which slowly takes us from the hall,
Which falls alone, abandoned now,
Abandoned by us all.
We sink beneath the surface.
Or did we? Something here feels very wrong...
How could it be?! We've been inverted!
We sank above the floor?
We try to swim, to get upright,
But nothing in our frame works right.
We stretch and reach and kick and flail,
All for naught and no avail.
Our nostrils breached,
We cannot feel our hands
Nor toes nor arms nor heel.
We breath it in, our life we yield.
You open your eyes.
Hands and feet awake from sleep,
As water fills your chest
And you learn that it isn't water.
What joy you have! and life as well.
But some stranger dear with concern sincere
Recalls a darkness we can only feel
And how, one day, we must walk down that hall.
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