Warren the safe stair-climber

Warren got out the dying flashlight. He tried to tap the top stair with the handle of the key, but the handle went right through it.


"Kendra, look," Warren said. The handle of the key disappeared through the first few steps. False stairs. Probably masking a drop of hundreds of feet.


They crossed the room and repeated their cautious actions at the other door. Again the door opened to a stairway, and again the stairs were only an illusion. Warren leaned out far, testing with the key, to check if perhaps only the first few stairs were counterfeit, but nothing within reach proved to be tangible.


Warren led the way around the perimeter of the room, tapping the floor and the walls. They reached a place where the key passed through the wall. Warren leaned through the illusion, and Kendra heard him tapping with the key.


"Here is the genuine stairway," he said. Kendra passed through the insubstantial wall and saw a stone stairway winding downward. White stones set in the walls emitted a soft light.


"You never know what might be a mirage in places like this," Warren said.

Chapter 19