antidemeaculumn

''i know not where i was born, save that the castle was infinitely old and infinitely horrible; full of dark passages and having high ceilings where the eye could find only cobwebs and shadow.

''nor was there any sun outdoors, since the terrible trees grew high above the topmost accessible tower. there was one black tower which reached above the trees into the unknown outer sky, but that was partly ruined and could not be ascended save by a well-nigh impossible climb up the sheer wall, stone by stone.

''once i tried to escape from the forest, but as i went farther from the castle the shade grew denser and the air more filled with brooding fear; so that i ran frantically back lest i lose my way in a labyrinth of nighted silence.

''then in the shadowy solitude my longing for the light grew so frantic that i could rest no more, and i lifted entreating hands to the single black ruined tower that reached above the forest into the unknown outer sky. and at last i resolved to scale that tower, fall though i might; ...

''in the dank twilight i climbed the worn and aged stone stairs till i reached the level where they ceased, and there after clung perilously to small footholds leading upward. ghastly and terrible was that dead stairless cylinder of rock; black, ruined, and deserted, ...

''all at once after an infinity of awesome; sightless crawling up that concave and desperate precipice, i felt my head touch a solid thing, ... and i knew that i must have gained the roof, or at least some kind of floor. in the darkness i raised my free hand and tested the barrier, finding it stone and immovable ...

''i knew that my climb was for the nonce ended; since the slab was the trap-door of an aperature leading to a level stone surface of greater circumference than the lower tower, no doubt the floor of some lofty and capacious observation chamber. i crawled through carefully, ...

''believing i was now at a prodigious height, far above the accursed branches of the wood, i dragged myself up from the floor and fumbled about for windows that i might look fo the first time upon the sky, and the moon and stars ...

''unexpectedly my hands came upon a doorway, where hung a portal of stone, rough with strange chiseling. trying it i found it locked; but with a supreme burst of strength i overcame all obstacles and dragged it open inward.

''fancying now that i had attained the very pinnacle of the castle, i commenced to rush up the few steps beyond the door; ... which i tried carefully and found unlocked, but which i did not open for fear of falling from the amazing height to which i had climbed. then the moon came out.

h.p.lovecraft, the outsider.