Page 44 of The Staircase in the Woods

The four of them met in the middle of the hallway.

“I guess let’s split up—” Nick started to say.

“No,” Lore said, firmly. “We do not split up. Not yet. Not until we know what we’re dealing with here. This doesn’t feel right.”

“Jeez, what doesn’t feel right?” Hamish asked sarcastically. “It’s totally normal to walk up a set of steps in the middle of the woods and appear in some weird fucking hallway with some weird fucking message.”

Nick threw up his hands. “We just need to pick a door and go through it. What’s the big fucking deal? Let’s move.”

“Lore’s right,” Owen said. He felt it, too. Something in the air. Something in the pit of his stomach. Turning over and over again. Restless and sick. For a moment, he thought he heard something: voices, mumbling, murmuring. But then it was gone again. “We should stick together. Horror movie rules.”

“Besides,” Lore added, “Matty split up and we didn’t go with him, and look what happened then. We need to stick tight.”

“Pick a door, then,” Nick said.

And then, as they all stood around, trying to think their way through a course of action—

A phone rang.

28

Answer Me

The sound of the ringing phone came from the door closest to them. Not the one at the end of the hall—but the one across from the message.

No,Owen thought.Not a message.Awarning.

He looked at it again, and in the garden menagerie art of the wallpaper, he blinked and out of the corner of his eye wassuresomething moved—something in, or on, the wallpaper. A shifting of shadow, an adjustment of space. Fingers wrapping around the filigree of vine and leaf. Eyes watching. But when he blinked again, nothing moved. All was still.

A shudder danced over his neck, like a hand hovering just above the skin.

“It’s coming from in here,” Lore said, pointing to and pressing her ear against a door. A door, Owen noted, with three faded cartoon stickers in its center.

The door to a kid’s room, Owen thought.

Ring, ring.

Ring, ring.

Two rings at a time. Tinny and sharp.

“Open the door,” Nick said, impatient.

Lore reached for the knob, but Hamish caught her hand.

“What if we shouldn’t?” he asked them.

“Why?” Nick asked.

“Could be some kinda…trap.”

“A trap? It’s not D&D. It’s not a dungeon. It’s a room. There’s a phone ringing. Someone might be on the other end of it, and we can ask for help. Or we can call someone—Jesus, use your head.”

Lore nodded. “We can’t just stay out here. We open the door.”

So that’s what she did. She turned the knob—

And let it drift open. No creepy creak. Just a silentwhoosh.

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