Wednesday Writing Romp #6

Last week's Wednesday Writing Romp inspired Morgan, over at A Writer's Universe, to tangle with some shape shifters. Read her piece here.



This week, I've been thinking about stairs.

When I was a kid, stairs made me apprehensive. Especially long, winding staircases where the bottom was obscured from sight, either due to structure or lighting. And open-backed stairs made it just a little too convenient for someone or something to grab at your ankle. (Have you seen Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs? I think that movie did me in on the creep factor of stairs. And cellars.)

On television and in movies, people are always getting trapped on the stairs, either due to natural disaster, preternatural beastie, or masked killer. Staircases make cramped and hazardous battle grounds. And they're common obstacles, whether you're running away from something or attempting to reach a destination before time runs out.

This week, your prompt is stairs. You have a picture and a rhyme, from Hughes Mearns, to get the juices flowing.

"Old Stairs" via Stock Xchng

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away...

When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all! 

- Hughes Mearns, "Antigonish"

Remember the rules: You can choose to write 50, 250, or 500 words. Genre, style, etc. are up to you.  Deadline is Sunday at midnight. 

(Leave a comment to this post with a link to your response and I'll check out what you've done and link back to it on the next Romp post.)

Happy Writing.