The Stairs in the Woods

Chapter 21-Now

Wind roars in my ears. It's not windy—the leaves are still. But I can hear it whistling anyways.

I'm running. I don't think I'll get tired. The wind's in my lungs, too, in my blood and my muscles and my bones, and I think I know the way. I can picture where I'm going. And, as much as it hurts, I can picture a leathery corpse with the remains of bright clothing fused to its leathery skin and a head of dull, stringy red hair.

They found a body.

Alice.

Alice.

The woods are familiar for a bit, and then they're not, and that's how I know I'm going the right way. I can feel it in my gut. This is where the scraping noise ends, this is where I find her, for better or for worse.

Gravel beneath my feet, a hairpin turn, a final line of trees, and then I'm in the clearing.

A dozen heads swivel my way. I wince, stunned for a moment under the weight of their gazes, before ducking under the caution tape. I recognize some of them. "Hi, um, I'm here to—"

Three things happen simultaneously.

One of the rangers starts shouting at me, but it's like they're underwater. I blink, confused and unable to understand.

Another ranger rushes towards me, hands outstretched as if to grab me. I don't move myself. I know I don't move myself. But a split second before their hands close around my arm, I'm a few feet away.

The third thing that happens, heartbreaking and dizzying: I catch sight of the stairs. Or, more specifically, I see the body at the base of the stairs, with a sheet draped over it like a veil. It could be Alice. I don't know. I can't see its face.

Everything is so, so loud, and then it's quiet, and I'm alone in the clearing, and there's no caution tape and no corpse and I'm not quite sure if I'm real.

Voices flit through the trees, detached whispers, but I can't make out any words. Maybe the rangers are still here, but I don't know where.

"Julia?"

I look up, and I start to sob.

"Alice?"

She looks just like she did ten years ago, young and beautiful, all red-and-blue hair and bright eyes and freckles. The bracelet I'd given her dangles from her wrist. She lounges on the first step, lanky and leisurely. Like she doesn't have a care in the world.

"Hey," Alice says softly, and she smiles.

I don't think I'm twenty-seven any more. I don't feel like it. I feel like the seventeen-year-old girl who loved the woods, the girl who kissed her girlfriend in the trees, the girl who lost everything in a split second. I don't dare take my eyes off of her.

Alice. Alice here, now, in the present tense. Just like I knew she would be. I take a step towards the stairs. Muscle aches and pains have faded away. Some excess weight slips away from my frame. Suddenly, the prescription for my glasses is a bit too strong. I want her back. To hold her, to kiss her, to feel her hand in mine. I want the years we lost.

Her hand reaches out, to meet mine, but just when I think our fingers are going to touch, she hops up another stair. She's on the second one.

"Alice?" I say her name like a plea. "Alice, please, it's not safe up there. Come on down—"

She shakes her head. The wind ruffles her skirt. "I can't," Alice says softly. "I can't."

Tears track down my face. I'm not losing her again. I can't lose her, when she's so close. That would destroy me, I think, past rebuilding.

"How do I get you back?"

She smiles coquettishly, secrets and seduction. Without a word, Alice ascends another step. I remember how she looked on the stairs, how sure she seemed.

"Are you real?"

That makes her laugh. "Of course I am," Alice replies.

My head feels fuzzy. Something about this is wrong. Something, vaguely, distantly, is off. But I don't have it in me to figure out what it is, and Alice is right there.

"What about the body?"

"What body?"

I swallow nervously. Alice's form flickers. "The corpse. They found a corpse."

"There are lots of corpses here."

"Are any of them yours?"

Alice laughs again. "I'm alive, clearly."

She should be older. She should be twenty-seven, like me. Except that I might not be twenty-seven anymore.

"Alice, what happened to you?"

Her form flickers, and for a moment, she looks dead. But then she's back. "I went up the stairs. Hurry, now, Julia. I'm running out of time."

I shudder. I feel cold. I feel young. I feel dead. I'm stupid and in love all over again. "How do I get you back?" I repeat.

I blink, and she's up another step.

A chilling sort of dread ferments and solidifies in the pit of my stomach. I know. I know what the forest wants. But still.

"What happens to me if I do?" I ask.

"We get to be together," she replies. There's love in Alice's eyes, clear as day.

The earth shifts beneath my feet again. I'm in front of the stairs, and they're everything I remember.

"What else do the stairs do?"

Alice shrugs, up another step. I miss her. I want her. I need her. For the first time, she asks a question of her own. "Does it matter?"

No.

No, it really doesn't.

For a second, reality shifts back. Rangers are shouting at me, but no one dares lay a hand on me. I don't think they can see Alice. God, I must seem insane. They're panicking. Blood and adrenaline twist in my veins.  Part of me feels like I should respond, assure them that everything's okay. But Alice is here, and my heart breaks over and over again because I can't just walk away and leave her now.

The stairs are right in front of me. So close. I could reach out and touch them. Alice is holding out a hand, and her smile. Her smile.

It's okay, I think. I don't feel like I'm in danger. I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be. This is right.

The sun is bright. The air smells like rich earth. The trees are beautiful. There's life, here. So much life.

I climb the stairs.