More Stairway

What may be described as metaphysical pressure has been exerted towards myself by obscure persons to add to my earlier piece Stairway To..., but sure as I am of my intimate entanglement with the divine mind, such pressure, dependent for success on fear of the future beyond, is futile. However, due to a mix of compassion and maybe even personal pleasure, I will add a little to what could be said to have been adequately self-contained and complete in its previous form. That piece should be read before what follows.

It should be borne in mind by the conscientious reader that I have ceased to exist as an empirical observer of the scene, and what follows is mere artistry, or lack of, or, as some would say, lies, though by coincidence may coincide with "truth", in both its prosaic particular and exalted general forms.

Our hero began to ascend, and while there was nothing to measure the passage of time it seems certain much of it passed, perhaps even millennia. His mind oscillated between expectation, irritation, despair, hope, terror, boredom and even a form of tension that bordered on the ecstatic, as well as some other forms of psychological terrain it would be too tedious, for all concerned, to continue to mention. He had wondered from his initial starting point whether to go up or down the stairs, and, though not a superstitious man, he thought perhaps, all in all, considering the circumstances, maybe upwards was safer; the lower regions of theoretical afterlife visions tending more towards the dystopian than the utopian. True, at times, following great stretches of time, he did sometimes wonder if he had blundered. "Perhaps a few steps downwards and I'd have got somewhere. A door would have opened and voila! Maybe this is all a mockery - a test to see would I turn coward and avoid the dangerous descent into the nether regions."
Such thoughts were more in the way of keeping himself company than a matter of serious belief however. And upwards he continued.
Finally a change- a flickering of light. A torch. He rubbed his eyes. He glanced below. There was no staircase. He fell into the void.

Though perhaps he came to a door. He opened and once again...life.