There is only one step, and it is to simply go, but there are many goings within it and many steps within this one large one, that stretches as high as a wall. Across all the world, you must come to this one place, and across all the water, you must come to this one water. The roads are not any different from normal roads, as are the trees, the grass, the dirt. Everything is normal, even peaceful. The cliff face is grand and jagged, and the water cuts a line down its middle. From there it pools in front of it, clear and bright and all full of life, and yet not. When you look down into it, there is no movement. No fish, no algae, there is nothing but dirt and bare rocks underneath the liquid. At a glance, there is nothing else to see here. If you take the time though, you will see that another line is cut by the water, a narrow little line that goes straight back into darkness behind the waterfall. I went there, and I followed the water down into the narrow passage, until I could see nothing. I lit a match and saw before me that the stream cut off right in front of me, one step away, and it went down like an ancient well. Terrified, I stumbled back and my match went out in the water. I walked back towards the entrance, but as I did, the water was different. The stream that at one point was a trickle about my feet began to rise, as if the waterfall was turning against me, all of it flowing at me, and I imagined it’s barren pool was empty, and now all trying to push me into the abyss at my back. This is where I discovered the secret. I struggled for my life, and I lost. As the water rose about me, I could only try to keep my footing. I could smell the death, the smell of chlorine in my airway, through my nose and mouth. I stepped forward to certain doom; I faced it rather than turn around and be overtaken by it. As my lungs overflowed I took a breath and my eyes were opened. I could for a moment see only red, and then there were four pillars before me, that stretched up farther than I could see. Shadows crawled up and down them, and they eyed me hungrily. I was afraid, but I walked the direction I had before. I could hear the water. I was close. A great door, a line of light stood before me, cutting through the jagged rock. I took a breath and it opened. I was there, in the empty bed of the pool, the soft silt and the hard pebbles innocently swirling about my feet and the water began to trickle back in. The hole was still there, it had not been a hallucination or a mirage. I fled the place, and only later thought about what I saw. I can only think that I have stumbled upon something great, and maybe not wholly evil. It is a gate to the land that lies beyond death, and there is only one step to get there: that one must go. I would not go back there though, I fear that I have only returned out of luck, and the steps to do so remain to me clouded as ever.

^^^