The Staircase in the Woods

Lauren “Lore” Banks cradles Owen Zuikas’s head in her lap, though neither character is named yet. She explains that friendship is like a house. Each friend has their own room, so to speak, but there are many shared spaces. The house is a place of fun and laughter, but it also contains frustration and pain. The air can go bad, mold can grow, and friends can move out, leaving the house empty.

Owen is sleeping, but his buzzing cell phone wakes him. He declines a call from his childhood friend Lore. As he looks around his bland apartment, he feels that he doesn’t “deserve” anything better than these mediocre surroundings. Lore calls again and tells him to check his email. He sees a message from their mutual friend Nick Lobell and is shocked by the contents. As the call ends, Owen stares at the email for the next hour.

In the email, Nick tells his three childhood friends—Lore, Owen, and Hamish Moore—that he has pancreatic cancer and will soon die. He is invoking the “Covenant” (a solemn agreement that the friends made years ago to support and protect one another). Now, Nick is summoning them all to his home in New Hampshire before he dies.