The Staircase in the Woods

Owen can tell that something bad has happened between Matty and Lauren, and he is happy to see that they aren’t getting along. Eventually, Matty suggests that they all go up the staircase. When they decline, he invokes the Covenant, but the rest of the group says that this is an inappropriate use of their bond.

Hamish was bullied in ninth grade, and his tormentors—Bryan, Kenny, and Tom—were all in 12th grade. One day, after they attacked Hamish in a bathroom, Matty and Nick agreed that it was time to fight back. One Friday, the group put smelly food into the bullies’ lockers and filled Bryan’s car with 10,000 crickets. The seniors then targeted the entire friend group, beating them up and threatening Lauren.

One day, as the friends watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Owen explained that a covenant is a “bond you can’t get out of” (99), like theirs. The next time the seniors bullied Hamish, he punched Bryan, and Nick put an envelope containing a threat and a bullet under Bryan’s windshield wiper. After that, the seniors left them alone.

Nick nearly failed 10th grade. He had to write a 19-page paper on the history of physical education in America because he skipped 19 gym classes. Hamish invoked the Covenant, and the group wrote Nick’s essay for him. He passed.

In 11th grade, Owen’s father refused to let him go to an amusement park with his friends and forced him to dig up a broken septic pipe instead. The others arrived with shovels and dug. Later that year, Lauren wanted to take an art class at a community college, but her mother was never home, and she didn’t have the money or the necessary transportation to take the class. The others pooled the cash and took turns driving her. Matty never invoked the Covenant for himself.

Owen can tell that something is really bothering Matty, especially when the others say that his request for them to ascend the staircase is not how the Covenant is supposed to work. Matty gets angry because the one time that he is invoking the Covenant, his friends are refusing to do what he asked. He decides to climb the staircase alone, and they follow him to its base.

Lauren realizes how badly she hurt Matty. She believes that he didn’t take the LSD because he was afraid of what it would do. Lauren loves the feeling of having her mind “scoured.” LSD makes her feel like an upgraded computer, as though she can think more clearly and cleanly.

Lauren feels that the staircase leads up to hell rather than heaven, but she tells herself that this notion is the result of the LSD. She can see Matty at the top, happy, and Owen asks him not to jump. Then, a black tunnel opens up behind Matty, and she cries out, but it is too late.

In the present-day timeline, Owen recalls that Matty asked him to climb up with him, and when Owen mounted the first step, he noted that the banister was cold and that the step seemed to lift him up. Matty looked down at Owen as he climbed, and Owen saw a dark hallway appear behind Matty. Matty went into that space and disappeared. Owen felt rooted to the spot, paralyzed by the feeling that the staircase wanted them all.

Nick admits that he doesn’t have cancer. Instead, he reveals that he found the staircase and decided that the friends need to do right by Matty because when he invoked the Covenant, they ignored him, and afterward, they never looked for him or remained true to each other as friends. Now, Nick invokes the Covenant. Owen points out that this is not the same staircase nor even the same location. He wants to know how Nick can be sure that it leads to the same place, but Lore charges up the steps and disappears. Nick follows, then Hamish, leaving Owen alone.

Owen follows his friends up the staircase, feeling the world shudder. Then, he is gone.

When they were teenagers, the friends never understood why Lauren hated being at home; without a parent there, she had absolute freedom. They didn’t know how it felt to be alone when one wasn’t supposed to be.

In the present, Lore feels the same way as she steps off the staircase and into a hallway. Someone has carved the words “THIS PLACE HATES YOU” into the wall (119). There are closed doors nearby, and the staircase has disappeared. Her phone has no signal. Suddenly, Nick and Hamish appear behind her.

When Owen arrives, Lore catches him so that he won’t fall. Nick wants the group to split up and take different directions, but Lore refuses. Owen agrees with her, insisting that they all stay together. Then, a phone rings.

Lore opens a door to find a teen girl’s bedroom from the 1990s. Posters are flecked with mold, and the computer monitor is cracked. The phone is on the bed, ringing even though it is off its cradle. Lore answers it and whimpers. A shrill sound then forces her to pull the receiver away from her ear. She says that the voice on the other end was Matty’s.

In the past, when Lauren learned that Matty talked in his sleep, his mumbling made him more precious to her.

In the present, that mumble is what Lore heard on the phone, and the sound gives her faith that they can find him again. Hamish notices that the door they walked through has closed. He opens it to discover that the hallway is gone.

What was a hallway is now a dining room, and the table is set with paper plates and half-eaten pieces of cake. Flies buzz. The room is from the 1970s. Hamish panics, acting very unlike the easygoing kid that he once was. Nick points out that the rooms do not go together. As Owen plugs in the bedroom computer and turns it on, Lore finds a diary and reports that the writer’s name is Marshie. In the diary, Marshie states that she likes a boy named Grady, hates her parents, and is often sad. Owen opens a computer file that contains a picture of a pocketknife. He had one just like it when he was a kid, and he reflects that he “[u]sed it for…well” (137). He speculates that Marshie died by suicide and wonders if she used the knife for this purpose. Lore reports that Marshie told Grady that she liked him, but he rejected her. Suddenly, Hamish screams.

Lore relates to Marshie, understanding that the girl placed a huge degree of importance on a boy’s opinion of her. As she considers the diary, Owen stares at the computer screen, and Hamish and Nick begin bickering. Nick suddenly looks down and sees a pool of blood forming around Hamish’s feet. Meanwhile, Lore reports that Marshie was planning to die by suicide.

Suddenly, a bloody hand shoots out from under the bed and grabs Hamish’s ankle. He yanks it away, screaming, and a young woman—Marshie—drags herself out from under the bed. She is covered in gore from many cuts, and she glares at them. She says that Hamish looks like Grady and that although she loved Grady, he didn’t love her. Hamish, Lore, and Nick run to the door, but Owen is not with them.

Owen can still feel the pocketknife in his hand. Years ago, he was shocked when his father agreed to buy one just like it for him. Now, Marshie turns to Owen and asks if he loves her. He asks her about the knife, but a different knife appears in her hand. He tells her that he wanted to be loved too, and she says that the two of them can die together. He nods. Just then, he is dragged backwards.

Lore pulls Owen through the door, and Nick and Hamish close and lock it. Lore grows calm; she is always capable in a crisis. She knows that they need to find a way out, so she opens a closet door. Behind some shelves, there is another folding door, and behind it, she glimpses a modern living room. Meanwhile, Owen notices a severed thumb stuck in the cake. Lore and Nick clear the shelves in the closet, and Nick wriggles between them. Hamish says that Marshie looks like his daughter, and Lore reminds him that they have to move quickly if he wants to see his family again.

The narrative shifts to the earlier timeline. Just after Matty goes up the staircase, it disappears. Lauren, who is high and hallucinating, nearly runs off a cliff, but Owen pulls her back. She feels responsible for Matty because she pushed him away, but Nick is convinced that Matty is pranking them. The next morning, they search for Matty and realize that they need to decide what to tell people about his disappearance. They decide that a simple story is best. Owen and Hamish are apprehensive about this plan, but Nick and Lauren insist.