text: You enter a house. This house is very old and has been there long before you and will continue to stand long after. At first the house seems beautiful, a gift. After a while of exploring all the different rooms you come to a staircase that you had not noticed until now. Overjoyed with curiosity, you ascend the staircase eager to see all the new rooms. Upon stepping foot on the second floor you immediately feel different, it’s not quite like the first floor is it? No, it’s a little bit darker; there are not as many lights and in a few spots there is no covering on the floor. But alas, it's still a new and exciting experience. More time passes and once again you find another staircase you had not seen before, but this time you begin to ponder; should you even be in this house? Nobody stopped you when you walked through the front door... it was unlocked, so it should be alright... right? Your thought subsides as you decide to ascend once again. This staircase is different; it's much steeper than the previous staircase but there are small handrails for you to hold on to, so you can help yourself up. Your eyes adjust as you step foot on the third floor. This floor is a lot darker than the previous floors and it's not as welcoming. You notice that there are fewer rooms than the previous two floors, but you are still filled with curiosity and so you explore once again. Some of the rooms are not so pleasing, but you still check all of the rooms to ease your conscious. Now you begin to feel a little tired and you decide to go down to the bottom floor to sleep; seeing as it is the nicest of the three floors you have visited. But you cannot find the stairs you just came from. Instead, there are a new set of stairs going up. But this time, next to the stairs, there is a small door you have not seen before. The sign above this door reads “Exit” you are confused at first as to how there would be an exit on the third floor, but you decide to not look at this room. Tired and feeling a bit overwhelmed you decide to continue to climb the stairs onto the fourth floor. Once you have stepped foot on the fourth floor, you notice that now, there are only three rooms. Upon the doors of all three rooms rests three small signs that read from left to right: “Up” “Extended” and “Exit” You now feel another wave of fatigue hit you as you take a step towards the doors. Now you want to give up. You want to sleep and you want to rest and so you decide to sit down for a while on the fourth floor. After five minutes of sitting, you notice a ticking noise. This noise was not here before and now that you have noticed it, it is getting louder. You cannot trace its source and it disturbs your rest so you cannot rest. You stand and walk over to the doors again but this time you notice something, on each door is a small eyehole for you to look through. You look through door number one labeled “up” and see the usual, a set of stairs in poorly lit light leading up. The second door has a long corridor behind it but you notice that as the corridor goes on it gets darker and darker. You look through the eyehole on the third door marked “Exit” only to find a descending staircase. You decide to push onwards as now the ticking noise is excruciatingly loud. You pick the first door and once again begin to ascend. The next few floors are exactly the same. The same three doors and the same things behind them. You decide to consistently pick the door marked up. The fifth. The sixth. The seventh. The eighth. You reach the ninth floor and now you feel you cannot go any further. You feel like you have walked for a lifetime and that there is no way you could push on any further, especially upstairs. Reluctant to leave after coming so far you decide to pick the second door this time marked “Extended” Upon entering the room you notice that is is significantly colder and much less light than you saw through the eyehole. As you begin to walk forwards the door behind you is engulfed in darkness. You spend the next few hours here, walking until you cannot see the walls of the hallway anymore and so now you wander aimlessly. You want to sleep you want to rest but the ticking is louder than it has ever been before and it will not let you stop. Wherever you are going you must continue. You cannot stop. After what feels like years you see a light in the darkness. You begin to find yourself filled with energy as you run towards the light. Once closer you can see the source of the light. Two doors. You approach the two doors and suddenly the consistent ticking begins to quieten down. As you read what is inscribed on the doors a chill runs down your spine. The first door reads “Up” and the second reads “Exit” You have been walking for decades and your bones and muscles ache. You want a break. This time there are no eyeholes on the door and you will have to take a risk. You can’t take it anymore your mind tells you. You feel that you cannot walk anymore and you decide to take the second door. “Exit” You enter a pretty room much like the first time you stepped into the house at the beginning. Everything looks good. Nothing looks wrong. You walk ahead and see a bed alone in the middle of the room. You feel relieved and make for the bed. As you reach it you take one moment to embrace the silence. But it doesn’t last long. The second you sit down in the bed the ticking from before returns but this time it is deafening and going very fast. You close your eyes and cover your ears but you can still hear the ticking, next to the bed you realise there is a table and upon this table there is a pill and the pill reads “end” you pick up the pill and after a short moment you swallow it. It sticks in your throat but the ticking immediately stops and you immediately feel relieved of your need to sleep. As you lay in the bed the world around you slowly fades in and out and now you are outside the house you entered at the beginning although you had never seen the house before as you can only remember the first step in the house and nothing prior. As you look at the old house you realise something. The house is ten storeys high. You immediately feel regret and pain knowing that you were almost at the top. You want to take it back and you try to move but you cannot as the time has already passed. As you drift in and out of consciousness the only thing you feel is despondency. The last thing you see before it all ends is a house. This house is very old and has been there long before you and will continue to stand long after.