" The spiral staircase suddenly narrows, swirls like a stream drying up. Can he still get through up there, or is he going to be crushed against the sides? All at once the darkness increased. Borluut felt he had already climbed more than a hundred steps, but he had not thought to count. By now his pace had adjusted to a rhythmical tread, instinctively shortened to adapt to the stone steps. But plunging into impenetrable darkness disoriented his senses. Borluut no longer knew in which direction he was going, whether forwards or backwards, whether up or down. Unable to see himself, it was in vain that he tried to determine which way his steps were taking him. He had the feeling he was descending, making his way down a subterranean staircase, in a deep mine, far from the light of day, through motionless landscapes of coal, and that he was going to come to a lake... "

― Georges Rodenbach , The Bells of Bruges