The Stairs Game.
Three words that literally led me to hell.
A few hundred years ago, when I was still a preteen, it was a normal Tuesday afternoon. My parents wouldn’t be home until much, much later - one of them was a nurse while the other was a security officer at the local police station.
Being the only child, I was very lonely. The only source of entertainment was YouTube as I did not have the luxury of being social and making friends.
I sat in my room after eating my lunch, a microwavable burrito from the local shop, to watch my daily YouTube.
All I would watch back in those days would be gamers playing GTA 5, Wansee Entertainment stories, or simply vlogs of people vising haunted houses. But on that particular day, as if the devil himself put that video in my recommendations - there it was. The Stairs Game.
I was like a fish being fooled by a worm on a hook. Immediately I pressed on that video, not pausing to have any second thoughts about what would happen. The video was only 8 minutes long, but after learning what the stairs challenge was, I was tempted to try it.
After all, I was just a stupid 11 year old.
The person in the video explained, very carefully, that this was a dangerous game and should not be done unless it was taken very seriously. I was just a kid, and I didn’t care about the ‘safety’ or whatever. Now look at what happened to me.
Anyway.
I waited until the sun was down to ‘set the mood.’ I blindfolded myself using a beanie and stood at the bottom of the stairs, taking deep breaths.
This is just a game. A myth. It isn’t real. It isn’t true. Nothing will happen to you.
I began by grasping the railing and going one step up. I began counting in my head.
Soon I got to the top of the stairs. 13.
I stood at the top, my legs trembling. Telling myself over and over that nothing will happen.
Then, I began going down the stairs again. 1 stair down. 2 stairs down. 3 stairs…
Until I was back at the bottom.
The game said to do it 4 times - once up, once down, once up, and lastly… going down, until you meet the devil himself and he grants your wish. That is, if you do not break any rules.
I broke the rules.
Once I was on my last time going down, the texture of the railing began to change. Soon, it was like I was touching some hard, hot surface.
I began hearing sounds, too. Growling, screaming, flames.
Oh my God. Is this actually… working? I asked myself, my heart beating faster and faster.
Another howl. Another flame. Another scream.
A piercing, blood-curdling scream. My heart began jumping up and down, my legs shaking more than ever.
Whatever you do, do not take off the blindfold.
Do not look.
Do not look.
Do not look…
Everything went south when I tripped down a step.
I fell hard on my face, my stomach doing somersaults. The howling and the sound of fire and screaming faded slowly.
In a panic, I wanted to get out of this stupid game. I brought my hand up to my face, caressing the soft material of my beanie, before I pulled down.
I took off the blindfold.
I broke the rules.
What I saw will be in my head forever.
Hell wasn’t what I expected it to be like. It wasn’t a giant space with bloodhounds running after burning people, lava spraying rain, or devils in the air.
It was much quieter once I took off the blindfold. Really quiet. Too quiet.
I was in an empty parking lot. The walls were ghastly grey, and it was so, so quiet, as if I was the last person alive.
There weren’t any signs, any smell, any noise. I felt like I was losing blood. I felt dizzy. There was ringing in my ear.
For a moment I actually believed I was in the backrooms parking lot level.
The beanie fell off my head, but I didn’t bother to turn and pick it up. My body wasn’t responding to my brain anymore. Maybe because everything felt like a lucid dream. A bad one.
I felt as if I was glued to the floor. This was a bad idea. Bad, bad, bad…
Finally I gained myself together and turned around to go back up the stairs… only to find emptiness behind me. No stairs. Just the continuation of the eternal, empty parking lot.
it’s much scarier than hell.