Stairway to Heaven

The 55 word challenge over at Jezri's Nightmares is a tricky one for me to enter...the whole 55 word thing...you know... Anyway, I managed to make it work today! :) However, I first got so caught up in the picture I thought it was one of the 100 word flash contests...sigh. That was disappointing. I was so excited about my 100 words! And I had to cut almost HALF of them? Was it possible? Could it be possible? Well, I did it. I actually like BOTH of them. I'll let you decide which you like better! First, I'll post the one I submitted (55 words) then the original (100 words). Did I capture the essence in half the wordage? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Oh, and the picture prompt! Photo by DaStafiZ




Here's my entry:

I looked up. There were so many stairs. It seemed my life was like the medieval basement of some dilapidated castle. Life was so impossible. I placed my hand against the rough brick and considered staying. Darkness hid the true state of everything. I lay down, listless. No. I stood. One step at a time.

This is what I started with:

I looked up. There were so many stairs. I wasn’t always in the deepest, darkest dungeon of life. I probably lived most of my life in a second floor condo, but now I was definitely in the medieval basement of some dilapidated castle. It was so impossible. I placed my hand against the rough brick and considered staying. Darkness hid the true state of everything. Perhaps I could get friends to join me here? Keep me warm? I lay down, listless. This wasn’t who I wanted to be. I stood, placed my foot on the step. One at a time.