Page 60 of The Staircase in the Woods

“I call bullshit,” Owen said.

Whoa, look who’s got a little fire in his belly?Good. Lore wanted the fight. She longed for the fight. Fights got shit done.

“It’s not bullshit. I choose to live a life without regrets.”

“Then why’d you run up those stairs? We didn’t even have a chance to talk it out. You just—you booked it right up the stairs, and we had to deal with that.”

“Oh, please, stop. I made my choice, and it didn’t have to be your choice, Owen. See? That’s your problem. Always basingyourdecision off everybody fucking else’s, alwayswaiting—”

“No,no,” Owen said, now raising his voice—he reallywason the edge, wasn’t he? Owen rarely,rarelyraised his voice. Especially to Lore. “This isn’t that. You took off like a fucking gazelle. We were there together. We’re supposed to be friends, and your decision becameourdecision. But that’s always beenyourproblem, hasn’t it? Lore does what Lore wants, fuck everybody else.”

“See, now I think you’re talking about more than just the staircase, Owen.”

Nick turned his hand into a gun and pointed it at Owen. “I see you. Iseeyou, Zuikas. Clear as glass, buddy. Lore goes up those steps and oh, little lost puppy has to follow after, go on, puppy, chase thegirl. But Matty goes up there,Matty,our best friend, our fuckin’leader,and you’re likeNah, bro, we’re fine.”

Hamish laughed an unhappy sound. “Oh fuck off, Nick—”

“We were kids!” Owen said.

“We werekids,” Hamish echoed. “We didn’t know shit from shit. Matty went up there and then he was gone. You wanted us all to go, too?”

Nick stood up, arms out in an incredulous crucifix. “Youjust fucking saidwe deserve to be here—”

“I didn’t say I didn’t regret it!”

“You never looked for him! You never answered my emails! I tried to get us to look for him, for a new staircase, for years,years,you fucking dicks, you fucking cowardly shitty dicks, so where was that regret, then? Huh? Instead, Owen’s too scared to live, Lore is off making preciousvideo games,and Ham, you’re off, what, getting fucking married and having fucking kids and selling toxic fucking mortgages to poor stupid idiots who don’t know any better and living the kind of lifeMatty never got the chance to live!”

That last part, yelled so loud it filled the room, with the roar of blood, with a sharp tin-scrape noise. And then it erupted. A cacophony of noise—everyone standing now, their blood up, shouting and pointing andseething. It was like the room wanted them to fight. Like it trapped them here in this soul-killing place, a room of greige walls and cloying vanilla and spilled blood. Lore could feel something working its way through her, like a rabid animal looking to take a bite out of someone.

She barked then: “Everyone shut up!”

To her shock, they did.

“We are in a situation none of us understand, and we need to keep ittogether.”

“Doesn’t feel like we’re verytogether,” Nick said.

“Nick.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

Lore held up the palms of her hands. “We are all very tired.”

“And hungry,” Hamish said, with a half shrug.

“That, too. We spent half a day marching through the woods and then we came here—and since then it’s been, I don’t know. I don’t know how long it’s been or what this place is, but it is not our imagination. It is a real place, and we are here in it, and we will need to find our way out of it.”

“No, we need to findMatty,” Nick said.

“We need to getout,” Hamish mumbled.

“There he goes again, folks. We have a shot at finding our friend and you don’t even want to take it, you just want to run for the hillsagain—”

“Yeah, I do! I want to find a fucking exit! A front door, a back door, a—a fuckingwindowto jump through—”

Lore yelled at them again toshut up.

And again, they did.

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