Page 39 of The Staircase in the Woods

No.

She hard-charged to the steps—

No!

Owen reached for her, but she was fast, too fast. Slipping away from him.

Already at the steps.

“Lore!”

One foot on—

Wham.

The whole staircase shook.

With movement from her? Or because it was eager, because it was hungry?

“Lore!”

Second step, third, fourth—

No, no, NO—

Owen called after her, yelling her name again and again.

“Fuck!” Hamish yelled.

Nick clapped and cheered, watching her intently—

She reached the top step—

And was gone.

Owen made a sound—a keening gasp of shock. “No, no, no. What the—no. Lore. Christ, Lore—” He started to walk to the side of the staircase, heading toward the back of it to see where she’d landed, because she fell, right? She jumped off the back and fell, that’s whatobviously happened, and she might’ve been hurt. But Nick stopped him. Blocked him. “Nick,move—”

Nick grabbed Owen’s shoulders, gripping the collarbones so hard it was like he was using them as handlebars. “Clock’s ticking. Time’s almost up. I’m going. You don’t have to care about Matty, but now Lore’s gone, too. Can you live with that? I can’t. Make your choice, Zuikas. I choose the Covenant.”

And then Nick hopped onto the first step—

“Nick,” Hamish said, hands into fists, shaking the air like it was a screaming baby. But it was too late—up the steps he went, taking them two at a time. “Nick!”

Nick bellowed it one last time—

“Remember the Covenant!”

And then he jumped—

Off the step—

Into nothing—

And he, too, was gone.

Owen paced. “Jesus. Shit. Jesus. Hamish—”

But Hamish stood quietly at the base of the steps. Looking up, like a kid who’d lost his mother at a grocery store. Shattered. Searching.Despairing.

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