Page 51 of The Staircase in the Woods

Lore felt sick. Scared. But also—in awe.

The girl looked around at them, head low, shoulders hunched. The look of a kennel-kept dog, starving and wary.

Still smiling. Eyes big.

Lore stepped forward. Owen hissed at her, tried to get her to stay back.

But she couldn’t do that.

“Are you…Marshie?” Lore asked.

The girl opened her mouth and choked out an incomprehensible reply. As she did, a vent in her throat opened like a steamed envelope, and fresh blood oozed. So did slashes up the length of the undersides of her arm. Owen failed to stifle a bleat. Black ichor splashed over the girl’s teeth and lips as she tried—and failed—to speak.

But she’s still smiling,Lore realized.

To the others, Lore said: “Maybe—maybe we can talk to her. Maybe she’s trying to tell us something.”

But the way the girl tilted her head this way and that—Lore wasn’t so sure. Her eyes flashed with what Lore could only describe asjoyful hate.

She loathed them.

Lore then remembered the message sliced into the wallpaper.

“Hey!” Nick barked at her. “Hey. We’re looking for someone—”

But the girl fixed her gaze on Hamish, like a nail in drywall.

“Youuuu,” she said, the word clearer after a fresh push of black blood from over the dam of teeth and lip.

“M-me,” Hamish said.

“Llllllooook. Liiiiiikkkkke. Himmm.” Her smile broadened. Eyes wider. A fat glob of coagulated blood danced on her tongue, like a breath mint juggled around her mouth.

“Him?” Nick repeated.

“Him…who?” Hamish asked her.

“Ggggggraaaaaady,” the girl said, with nearly a swoon.

“Grady,” Lore said. “That’s the boy she liked.”

Hamish forced a smile. “Okay. Okay. So she liked him.” To the bloody girl: “You liked Grady? That’s good. You, you like me, then. Maybe—maybe you can help us. We’re looking for—”

The girl said in a wheezing, whimpering, breathless croak: “I loved him.”

“That’s—that’s great. That’s sweet. Our friend, Matty—”

The girl’s smile sank. Her stare narrowed.

Darkly, she said:

“But he…didn’t love me.”

“I’m—I’m so sorry—”

“So I ddddddid this.”

She held up her arms. The slices down the undersides looked like fish gills. Lore thought she could see bundles of artery and raw muscle in there.

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