###Lone Prisoner

It is the only step painted that alarming red, not to mimic the color of stop signs, instead being the origin that stop signs had copied. All sets of stairs had a red step if there were fourteen or more of them, and contractors went out of their way to ensure a floor didn't start at a thirteenth step.

It was all nonsense and today, Blake decided that he would prove it once and for all. He shook his head as he watched the other kids cautiously step over it and jeer at others as they approached it. They're all imbeciles, Blake thinks. I'll show them.

He marches up the steps with a backpack full of incomplete homework and a face full of snark. His foot approaches the 13th step, and he slams it down as growing expressions of horror surround him. He wasn't expecting anything to happen, especially anything immediate so his eyes widen when a shockwave ripples out away from his footfall.

Time freezes as the ripples spread outward like a stone striking the surface of an invisible surface of water. With everything around him frozen in place, the 13th step becomes an open door downward, and Blake's center of gravity is shifted forward, causing him to tumble through it.

His arms pinwheel and he screams as he falls over, but his falling soon transitions into a float like a leaf becoming detached from a branch. He glides lazily in a slow spiral, a light shining from above him and a featureless abyss surrounding him.

He approaches a round symbol on a floor and rights himself, setting his feet down in the circle. The light above him is illuminating the circle and a few feet beyond. The surrounding abyss is no longer featureless as a deep-blue horizon glows at an unknowable distance.

Blake notices two things immediately. The first is the decaying remains of a skeleton in the circle next to him. The second is a figure standing between him and that blue horizon. He can't see much more than a vague outline but it many times larger than him with its yellow eyes floating in the darkness.

"Do not be afraid, little boy," says the creature, its mouth opening and displaying white fangs affixed to the darkness. The shape of the mouth gives an impression of a great wolf.

Blake stands taller and grips his bag straps, pulling the backpack tighter against him. "What are you," he asks.

"I'm a prisoner, of course. Wrongfully, locked away by my cruel masters."

"But what did you do to get locked away?"

"Nothing, unless you count being the largest wolf a crime. I wasn't locked away for anything I did. I was locked up for what I might do! I just hate being punished for something that hasn't even happened. How is that fair?" The wolf growls, baring its teeth as it looks away from Blake.

"Well, that's not right," Blake replies.

The yellow eyes snap back to Blake. "I'm glad you agree, because you can fix this grave injustice!"

Blake turns back to look down at the skeleton next to him. "What happened to this person," he asks, gesturing down to it.

"Oh, they were awful, no better than the masters that locked me away here. Instead of releasing me and allowing us both to get out of here, I had to sit here and watch them waste away, trapped and slowly dying from thirst."

"That's terrible," Blake agrees, while looking at the yellow eyes that move up in down in a head nod. "While how do I get you--us out of here?"

"You just have to break one of the lines on the seal around you."

Blake kneels and looks over the design. There is an encompassing white circle with intricate swirling patterns across its center. "What do I do?"

"Just scratch out any part of the lines," the wolf replies eagerly.

Blake reaches towards the outer rings and scrubs away a section, causing a break in the line. "Like this?" he asks, looking back up to the wolf.

"Yes, perfect," the wolf replies. His eyes narrow and his stature quickly shrinks down to the same height as Blake. The eyes are more normal sized now but still glow a dirty yellow and begin moving towards the light.

"What's your name?" Blake asks.

"Well, a long time ago, they called me Fenrir, but I don't think that's necessary now." A shoe steps into the light, then a kid with a backpack walks into the circle.

Blake's eyes grow wide as he stares at the mirror image of himself, the only difference being the yellow eyes, a contrast to his blue. "Why do you--" Blake starts before being shoved out into the shadow.

Fenrir grabs a small piece of bone and lays it over the broken line before turning back to see Blake's glowing blue eyes floating in the shadows.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Blake demands. He tries to step back into the circle but the light burns and smoke peels away from his form. He watches with horror as Fenrir flies back up like Peter Pan with outstretched arms and legs.

Not-Blake steps up to the 14th step as the other students look at him in horror. He just narrows his yellow eyes at them, and they scatter. He pulls open the door and steps into school.

This prompt was also a combination of this WP:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ye3374/wp_heaven_and_hell_had_united_forces_only_once_to/

"Don't do it." Andrew hissed at me as I teetered backwards and forwards on the 12th step. It was an open secret at Gispert High to never set foot on the 13th step of the main hall staircase, every day I would see thousands of kids hesitate before stepping over it in their desperate bid to get to class on time. A few kids were understandable, but everyone including the facility was just to much for me.

​

I've always prided myself on my logic and reasoning. Able to deduce the true and factual answer from everything. And this, was just mass paranoia. No, mass stupidity. 13 wasn't unlucky. Nothing was inherently unlucky. It was just pure stupidity, and I was going to prove them wrong.

​

'So why was I hesitating?'

​

"C'mon." Andrew persisted, "We have class soon. Don't bother with it." Still, I stood there staring at the offending piece of marble. Refusing to take my eyes off of it, like some primal fear of the unknown.

​

Suddenly, and wordlessly, I stepped onto the 13th step. Instantly, Andrew recoiled out of fear, shielding his face out of instinct, yet nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. People continued talking, people kept on walking, No bomb or unforeseen tragedy occurred, putting me or anyone in danger.

​

Crossing my arms, I stared triumphantly at him.

​

"You owe me $50 now." I smiled.

​

"Wait, something could happen!" He shot back, eyeing the entire room around me. His pale face was slowly growing red with embarrassment.

​

"Yeah, you tell me when." And with that, I stepped forward, only to step on nothing.

​

While gloating, I had subconsciously flipped back into autopilot. The autopilot that had carried me up these 13 steps of stairs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, pause, step onto second floor. I was still stuck on phase 12, and was stepping one step higher than I should be to make it to the second floor. I tried desperately to correct myself, and pulled back, slipping on the marble tile edge, and falling backwards down the stairs.

​

12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I hit every single stair, then hit the floor, hard.

​

Crunch.

​

Darkness surrounded me.

​

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​

I was awoken by a heart monitor, or was I just awoken by myself? I will never know. All I do know for certain is that most likely never walk again.

​

I had landed right on my neck at the ground floor. From witness accounts, there was no blood, no mess, just a poor kid falling down the stairs to hit the floor with an awfully sounding crack. Then nothing. No movement whatsoever until Andrew came down after me... like me.

​

In his panic, he had stepped on the 13th step while running down, he tripped... and was less lucky than me. I apparently had to be pulled out from under his corpse as he was a rather large kid. Ran for the quarterback.

​

It's days like these were I consider my place in the world. Where I think that logic isn't what it's all cracked up to be. Is the step truly unlucky? I... still don't know. Even though I might never walk again, and my best friend died a horrible death, I still can't say. Maybe I'm a coward and fool for refusing to look god in the eye and understand that some things are just unlucky.

"Luckbreaker," they called me. Luckbreaker. Of all the ridiculous, asinine -

Yes, I stepped on the thirteenth step. No, I didn't have any bad luck as a result. No, this doesn't mean that I broke the curse, there just wasn't a curse to break.

I mean, had anyone stepped on the thirteenth step and had bad luck? No. No-one at all. Because I was the only one to step on that step at all.

But now? My classmates will want to sit near me in the exams if they've recently seen a black cat or broken a mirror, in the hope that my presence will break their "bad luck". Contrariwise, the popular girls won't give me the time of day - they don't want to risk me breaking their good luck.

And absolutely nobody wants me to get anywhere near senior prom, for some reason.

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