The Devil's Staircase

This is a rough draft of a short story, published here just for the sake of curiosity. It's unpolished and should be considered unfinished as it will undergo a number of edits for style, grammar, length, clarity, and because I'll look at bits of it and thing, 'Wow, that sucks'. The full version of the second draft will likely be published in a few weeks when I've had a chance to look at it with fresh eyes.