The Staircase Down

The audience is laughing, as they should be.  Unfortunately, for the host of the show, it's cartoon laughing.  Spittle and other debris are flying from the audiences mouths.  One man in particular, wearing a pinstripe suit, is almost dying from the laughter.  Big hearty laughs.  He has to clutch his neighbour, also laughing, to prevent himself from falling over.

The host of the show can't remember what he's said to cause such a ruckus.   It won't stop.  He's getting frightened.  He tries laughing along at first, but the dark mob beyond the lights are not funny.

Intuitively he checks the drawers at which he sits.  There he finds the heads of dolls in the top drawer.  He takes one out and examines it.  The audience laughs harder.  He holds it up by the hair in front of his face and stares at it's glass eyes.

 "Have you got any candy?"  The doll asks.  The host replies by tossing the doll skyward whilst wearing his most terrified expression.  More laughter.  He quickly slams the drawer.   This must be the worst day of his life.  He acknowledges that fact by turning his back to the audience on his swivel chair and hiding his face with his hands.

In the darkness he creates, he hears a wee voice.  In panic, he side glances at the drawer - double checking it's closure.  It's closed.  He peers into the fake city standing behind the cage behind his desk.  There he sees it, a gnome, his childhood friend.  "Nilbert!"  The host exclaims.

"Yes, Al, it is I.  Make haste!  You are in great danger!  Follow me!"  Exclaims Nilbert, who stands atop the empire state building.

"But, the show!"  He motions to the laughing horror in the darkness.

"Don't be thick with me, Al.  They're this close to lynching you."

"...but..."

Nilbert makes stabbing motions with his hand.  It's no match for Al's reasoning.  No match for his will power.  Al has no choice.

Much like an escaped con Al climbs the fence barring him from the city.  

He jumps down, lands squarely on his feet and runs to Nilbert.  Nilbert motions him around.  Then he sees it:  The golden staircase.  It leads down.  Down to the depths of the mind.

"I told you I'd be back. Hee hee hheeeee!!!!!"  Screams Nilbert, and with the agility of a gnome, he runs down the twisting luminescent stairs.  Al has no choice.  His life is a wreck.  It's his only hope. 

"Into the abyss! Wheeeeee!"