Looming over the less-than-welcoming staircase, he couldn't see what it led to as shadows clung abundantly to the passageway below.
I could probably just rest here...right? He thought.
Looking around, it didn't seem to be a bad place to stop and rest, though it would hardly be comfortable. Sitting down with his back to the wall and his eyes on the entrance, he attempted to relax, but found himself restless at the existence of the stairway.
It wasn't exactly that he had a boundless, unquenchable curiosity pertaining to that stairway; it was that sitting there in silence resulted in his mind wandering, latching onto anything else it could find.
Minutes passed of him simply trying not to think, but it was an impossible task to ask of his fractured mind. All of the bravado he forced from himself during his journey alone fell to ruin once he was finally allowed to sit in silence, alone with his thoughts.