I followed Ikud deeper into the gloom. There were fewer lamps the further down we went. We moved from the land of light and into a dark hell.
The stairwell was a mixture of damp, mouldy patches, with disturbing fungal growths clinging to the wall, and dry, arid regions duned with dust. Both of them made my nose itch and I fought the urge to sneeze. I didn"t want to breathe in whatever might be floating in the air. Spiders, with tiny bodies and long legs that made them as big as my hand, skittered over the deserts, while fat, anaemic slugs writhed amongst the mildew. I imagined a war between these two forms of decay and prey. Dry rot versus wet corruption.
I don"t know, now, if I realised that same war was waging within me.
Ikud said nothing during our descent. But when we reached the bo
