The Stairs in the Woods
PaperThinSkin14
  • Reads 531
  • Votes 87
  • Parts 22
  • Time 1h 52m
  • Reads 531
  • Votes 87
  • Parts 22
  • Time 1h 52m
PaperThinSkin14
Complete, First published Feb 01, 2022
cryptidsgirlxgirlgxghorrorlesbianlgbtlgbtqmysteryonconc2022opennovellacontestopennovellacontest2022paranormalromancethriller
Ten years ago, Julia Reddings's girlfriend climbed a set of stairs in the woods and never came back down. 

When she was just a teenager, Julia Reddings watched her girlfriend Alice ascend a staircase in the middle of the woods and vanish at the top without a trace. In the ten years since, Julia has never been able to find Alice. Or the stairs. Now working as a park ranger, Julia has gathered the stories behind every paranormal encounter and local legend she can get her hands on, trying to unravel the mystery of her girlfriend's disappearance. But it seems that Alice has been wiped off the face of the earth. 

Until she finds the stairs again. 

Desperate for the truth, Julia returns to the place she lost Alice. But the woods that were once so dear to her are different, now. They feel dangerous. And the staircase that took Alice ten years ago is calling to her.

Based on ONC prompt #33: "And then I pressed my cheek against the asphalt and prayed the dead bodies would cover my scent."

ONC Longlister!!

Cover by @ClaraElisibeth
All Rights Reserved
cryptidsgirlxgirlgxghorrorlesbianlgbtlgbtqmysteryonconc2022opennovellacontestopennovellacontest2022paranormalromancethriller
Table of contents

22 parts

Sign up to add The Stairs in the Woods to your library and receive updates
or
#298onc
Content Guidelines
You may also like
Drawn to Light by PixieStormcrow
14 parts Complete Mature
✍️ 2020 Open Novella Contest 🎉ONC Short List Jaiyana, Jay-for-short, Brown had abandoned her life long ago after a bitter divorce left her reputation as a Domme in tatters. But when a girl literally falls out of a portal and into her arms in the dingiest alley of the hell-hole that is her neighbourhood, she has no choice but to take her home where a tale beyond her belief unfolds. As a woman with magick in a land where magick is forbidden, Tilly has no rights. Sold by her father for five coppers to the witch hunters, she is doomed to a life as an enslaved dirty secret, used and experimented on. So when the opportunity comes on New Year's Eve, she makes a run for it, armed with nothing but a box of matches and a legend. As the witch hunters close in, Jay must figure out how to keep Tilly safe and out of their clutches in a world she cannot reach. Because Tilly awakens something long dead in Jay's heart and to risk losing her is to lose the last of her hope. The Midnight Retellings Collection consists of re-imaginings of fairy tales and other stories as modern adult romances with D/s and power dynamics flavours. +++ This story contains explicit sexual content and is intended for mature 18+ audience only Trigger warning: This story contains implications of sexual and physical abuse. #OpenNovellaContest2020
My Future Stepmother by ClarisseSwan
50 parts Complete
Love can surprise you sometimes when it arrives unexpectedly, unplanned, and at first sight. It was what happened to Grace one day when her father brought a friend to the house for dinner. When Grace and Julia met for the first time, Grace was very impressed with Julia, she found her very attractive, sexy, and elegant. Grace had never met a woman like Julia before, and soon she realized that this admiration and fascination that she felt for Julia was something more than just that. Would Julia feel in the same way for her? Was just Grace imagination or Julia had started to look at her with lust in her eyes? Grace loved her father and she didn't want to hurt him. Could Grace stay away from Julia and see her just as her future stepmother or her love for Julia would be much stronger than her will? (The story is complete).
//Dollhouse// by thisaccounthasmoved
13 parts Complete
Dark spirits are everywhere and some don't even realize it. ------------ Julia seemed like your average girl.Everyone thought she was perfect.Thought her family was perfect.Thought everything about her was perfect. But what nobody knew is her dark past and the truth about her. Except for her only friends,Alice,Sally,Fred,Jake,and Raphael. Once Julia is in her teen years,it's like her dark past all over again.Her dark spirits come back and use her like a doll. Now it's up to Alice,Sally,Fred,Jake, and Raphael to save Julia from her insanity,through her dollhouse. Will Julia get saved?Or will she be the queen of insanity? ------------ So many paths,so many room.... But so little time.... And so little people...
Red by XerinaFang
12 parts Complete
Grenro, 2013. A young child goes missing after entering the Old School house that had rumours of children disappearing upon entering. Exactly 10 years later, on the same day as the disappearance. Red - Private Eye - was passing through the old schoolyard when they heard a noise. Curiosity tingling through them, they went to investigate and found a corpse of a young woman lying on the ground with a cat sitting over the body. Who is the mysterious woman? Does she have something to do with the disappearance of the child ten years ago? Will our ace detective be able to solve the mystery before time runs out?
Midnight Insomnia by julianlandenreadings
11 parts Complete Mature
A mysterious disappearance, or, perhaps, an abduction of some kind. A witch who loves to toy with men. Ghosts who are trying to find their way and place in the afterlife. Demons seeking redemption for their past sins. Angels hungry to prove their creators aren't as almighty as they seem. Supernatural creatures trying to go against their worst instincts for blood. And ordinary humans turning into the most feared individuals on the planet. Did any of this sound interesting? Check out a teaser: "Last night, I heard something coming into my bedroom...it opened the door and let itself in, it walked on the creaking wooden floor towards my bed, and that's when I saw it, a stream of overwhelming and haunting beam of light." ----Chapter 1: It Came for Me Reader discretion advised: rated mature for graphic depictions of violence, disturbing content including material that may be sensitive to others, sexual content, mature themes, strong language, and some drug use.
Watch Me ✔️ by TaylorLetofsky
21 parts Complete Mature
"I would prefer not to hurt you, but I will if I need to." They said. I felt cold metal on my neck moving lightly against my skin. My emotions were a wreck, I felt anger, fear, and adrenaline all within me at once. But I knew I was not going to die today. Let them think I want this, I'll play into their delusions, and work towards the best plan of escape. Someone had to know I was missing, so now I would just have to start the long game. ************************************************ *Trigger warning: some scenes contain mention or detail related to sensitive topics. Story is rated mature for the mentioned topics* #1 in editing 5/23/2019 #9 in scary 7/10/2019 #11 in pride 1/10/2021 #27 in stalker 5/9/2019 #40 in fiction 1/22/2019
Ghosted (gxgxgxg) by Loiosh
23 parts Complete Mature
Amy and Paige had finally started their life together. Away from overbearing and homophobic parents, they had gotten married and moved to the Massachusetts shoreline to start their new life together. If only life hadn't thrown them a curve ball and ended their marriage and lives as quickly as it began. Five years later, Talia and Elise buy the house out of foreclosure and are determined to make it their house to start their own married life. But what will happen when they find out that Amy and Paige never left? Can both couples coexist? If you're looking for more gxg books, there are several here on this profile, so by all means go check out: A Rock And A Heart Place (Mature) The Inner Ring (Mature) Full Circle (Not Mature) To Those Who Wait (Mature) Dead Men's Bells (Mature) Jungle Love and Lost (Mature) Cloud Dancing (Mature) This book should be updated every Wednesday and Sunday until completion or until I lose my patience and publish it all because I can't stand waiting. Thanks so much to the wonderful @SohoDolle for the new cover!
House Ghost ONC 2022 LONGLISTER by SayWatt74
11 parts Complete
Curiosity killed the cat. Or at least that's what a young ghost woman, Grey, tells herself everyday, feeling the same tug to know more about the human world. There's only one problem: the lights. The same lights that has made her kind extinct and has made her avoid any humans in her building. She's managed to balance her survival instincts and her curiosity for so long. But one day she makes a single error that brings her closer to a human than she ever wanted to be. Now she'll have to give up the life she's made for herself or fight the light to save her home. Let sleeping dogs lie. That's what college dropout Justin tells himself everyday, ignoring the issues piling up in his life. He's made it work this long. But one day he comes across something totally out of place in his world, and it's only the first of many. Now he has to either accept there's a stalker living in his house, or that his mind is unraveling. They're both running out of time. * ONC 2022 LONGLISTER ONC Prompts used: 64, 70 **Credit to @stella_vigo for the amazing, beautiful cover! **Credit to @ladyloki34 for the lovely lovely chapter banner!
The Vampire and The Ghost | ✔︎ by SammyE9
63 parts Complete
[BOOK ONE OF THE VAMPIRE AND THE GHOST SERIES] She's dead, he's undead. An unusual duo make their way through the modern world, and its modern challenges. Annalise Redwood had spent too much time alone, floating in a centuries old house. The very same house she was murdered in 5 years before. She'd watched people leave, come in, investigate and even squat in this house. Yet none of them stayed long. And more importantly none of them saw her. It was hell, and she swore she was cursed. But this all changes, on the 5th anniversary of her death when a seemingly normal young man walks in. And he sees her. Eugene Cubert was old. Too old. He was done with life, had lived, breathed (well not really) and seen too much for one soul to bare. Quite frankly all he wanted to do was find a nice house to live in and spend the rest of the century comfortably locked away from all of the supernatural and natural. He's visiting his 5th house that day, when he hears it. A woman, screaming to be seen. And then he sees her. And nothings quite the same after that. ---------------------------------------------------- #No.2 in paranormal 3/7/2021 #No.1 in ghost 9/7/2021 #No.8 in murder 2/8/2021 Updates weekly! (unless otherwise said)
The Painting by colleyflowers
94 parts Complete
"It took me five seconds to fall. The impact on my chest jarring my body but not my mind. I suppose this is the point where your life is supposed to flash before your eyes as time itself freezes - and it did in a way. But I didn't relive my life physically like walking through an old memory, déjà vu in each step. It was a feeling, something that started in my chest and spread to my fingertips, one so unique to me that it encapsulated each significant event into one single second." For as long as May can remember one mystery has haunted her world. A dirty window before her, the grim obstructing her vision, she has lived with a loss she can't identify - that is until one rainy night. Gradually the spots of dirt May scratched at for so long wipe away with the touch of a finger. But when she looks in will she like what she sees - or will curiosity kill the cat?
You may also like
Slide 1 of 10
Drawn to Light cover
My Future Stepmother cover
//Dollhouse// cover
Red cover
Midnight Insomnia cover
Watch Me ✔️ cover
Ghosted (gxgxgxg) cover
House Ghost ONC 2022 LONGLISTER cover
The Vampire and The Ghost | ✔︎ cover
The Painting cover

Drawn to Light

14 parts Complete Mature

✍️ 2020 Open Novella Contest 🎉ONC Short List Jaiyana, Jay-for-short, Brown had abandoned her life long ago after a bitter divorce left her reputation as a Domme in tatters. But when a girl literally falls out of a portal and into her arms in the dingiest alley of the hell-hole that is her neighbourhood, she has no choice but to take her home where a tale beyond her belief unfolds. As a woman with magick in a land where magick is forbidden, Tilly has no rights. Sold by her father for five coppers to the witch hunters, she is doomed to a life as an enslaved dirty secret, used and experimented on. So when the opportunity comes on New Year's Eve, she makes a run for it, armed with nothing but a box of matches and a legend. As the witch hunters close in, Jay must figure out how to keep Tilly safe and out of their clutches in a world she cannot reach. Because Tilly awakens something long dead in Jay's heart and to risk losing her is to lose the last of her hope. The Midnight Retellings Collection consists of re-imaginings of fairy tales and other stories as modern adult romances with D/s and power dynamics flavours. +++ This story contains explicit sexual content and is intended for mature 18+ audience only Trigger warning: This story contains implications of sexual and physical abuse. #OpenNovellaContest2020

More details