"This is gonna be a great time!" I said to my best friend.
It was time for our fall break at college. We were both anxious to head home and experience Thanksgiving with our friends and family, and of course, each other. Michael and I both lived in the same town, on the same block, and in the same houses we grew up in as young boys. After all these years, neither of our families wanted to move or saw a need to do so.
I could almost taste mom's turkey and dressing now. College meals, at least for me, consisted of microwave mac and cheese and ramen noodles so the thought of a home cooked meal with all the fixings was absolutely heavenly. It motivated me to pack up some of my things quicker. After making sure any and all loose ends were tied up with our classwork, Michael and I headed towards home; he in his car and I in mine. It may make more sense if we rode together, but I wanted to explore my favorite spot at home and having only one car may prove difficult if we both had separate plans while at home.
I stopped at the gas station and filled up, cleaned my windshield, and got a snack and drink for the road. I couldn't wait to see my folks. It hadn't been quite that long since I had seen them last, but to be honest, I was a momma's boy. I turned on my favorite oddities podcast and was so engrossed with the show, that the drive home seemingly took no time at all. The stories of encounters, experiences with ghosts and the paranormal, not to mention the true crime segments thrown in from time to time, engulfed me in my own world. I have a tendency to visualize what I hear and some of these encounters were chilling. Hulking creatures bounding through the woods, to ghostly apparitions floating across an empty cornfield were I'm sure for some, the thing of nightmares. But I was fascinated by such things, no matter how creepy they were. Just then, Michael sped by me and blew the horn and unwittingly told me that "I'm number one," based off of his hand gesture. He got in front of me and laid on his brakes. I could see him laughing as my car squealed to a quick halt to avoid hitting him. Michael was a good friend, a great one actually, but he had some quirks about him that got on my nerves, that, being one of them.
I pulled into my driveway and just sat looking at our home. A two story white house with columns and box bushes in the front. Nothing extravagant but it didn't need to be, it was my home. I always enjoyed sitting out on the covered front porch in the bench swing and I was aching to do it again. Michael sped past and blew the horn all the way down the street until he got home. I sighed, shook my head, and got out. I left all of my things in the car because all I wanted to do was go inside and feel the tranquility of being home and away from the hustle and bustle of college life and stress that followed. I walked in the wooden front door, being sure to catch the screen door so it didn't slam shut behind me. and took a deep breath engulfing my nasal passages with the sweet smell of home. Mom always made sure our house was clean and smelled good just in case anyone happened to pop in. That's when I saw her. My mom. She was petite and her smile could calm the most frazzled of nerves. She wrapped her arms around me and just held me for a bit.
"I missed you too, mom."
She stepped back and looked at me shaking her head.
"What, mom?" I asked wiping my clothes off thinking I had gotten crumbs on me from eating my snacks.
"Skin and bones, skin and bones, don't they feed you there?" She asked looking me over.
I laughed. "No, I must say, they don't, not as good as you can anyway."
My dad came downstairs just then. All smiles and a hug later, we walked to the kitchen and I sat at the table. Man, it felt really good to be here and each time I visited, made it harder and harder to leave. But, at the age of nineteen, it's what happens. You grow up, go to school, get a job, and then fall in line with all the other people working to live. I wanted this time home to be something to remember to carry me through to the end of December. we talked of the plans for Thanksgiving and all the family that would be coming. Later, I brought all of my things in and got situated in my old room. When I walked back downstairs, the sweet aroma of chocolate chip cookies filled the air and I was almost led to the kitchen floating by the smell. Hot cookies sat on the stove almost beckoning to be eaten. Just then, my mom walked in and smacked at my hand as I reached for one. I backed up with my hands up, conceding to her wishes.
"You'll ruin your appetite, young man." she laughed.
"You win, mom, you win." I said as I sat down.
I watched as she took the then cooled cookies off the tray and placed them on a plate for after dinner.
"So, what are you and Michael going to do while you're home?" she asked as she started prepping dinner.
“I want to go to the woods. I don’t have time to do any kind of nature walking, hiking, or anything like that at school. I wanted to take full advantage of that while I’m home.” I said as I walked over to her.
She had her back facing me as she cut vegetables up on her cutting board. I wrapped my arms around her like I was hugging her, but instead, grabbed a cookie and ran, laughing all the way out to the porch swing with her voice trailing off as she scolded me.
Michael walked up the road shortly after and sat with me on the swing. We talked of his folks and mine. The sun was beginning to set, and the streetlights had come on. He and I began reminiscing the times when we were young. Nostalgia surrounded us as we slowly rocked back and forth in the swing.
“Now look at us, grown-ups.” Michael said, shaking his head.
I laughed, “That’s up for debate. I think we’re grown as far as age, definitely not mentality.”
Just then, the voice of Michael’s mom echoed down the street. He and I shared a handshake, and I watched him walk all the way back to his house before I went inside. Dinner was amazing. Roast with tender vegetables, all in a nice flavorful broth, and dinner rolls to soak it all in with. I had two helpings and debated the third until mom offered me cookies with ice cream. After that and a shower, I was beat and ready for bed. I laid in my room that night listening to the remainder of my podcast I hadn’t gotten to finish from earlier. It was a strange case. A couple of hikers had gone missing. A search was had but nothing turned up. It was almost as if they had just vanished into thin air, leaving only memories of their previous lives behind. The host of the show asked the guy he was interviewing if anything seemed odd or out of the ordinary. The guest, a park ranger who held that jurisdiction, was flabbergasted. He said it was like they were sucked into a portal and disappeared.
There was nothing to indicate they had even been there except the fact that their car was in the lot. They had sent a text to a couple people in their family letting them know where they were and what time they had planned to leave but, after a few hours of them having not returned, their family became worried and reached out to him. The only other thing this park ranger mentioned was a staircase in the woods. I cocked my head hearing that.
“Why would a single staircase be in the woods,” I wondered. “Were the stairs the only thing remaining after a cabin fell down due to degradation or a bad storm?”
I couldn’t make sense of that but shortly after, I fell asleep and didn’t hear the end. The morning’s sun came up over the horizon and fell onto my face. I got up and headed downstairs for some coffee. Mom and dad sat at the table. Mom was working her crossword puzzle and dad was reading the paper. They both said good morning but went back to what they were doing.
I sat down with my coffee and a muffin.
“I’m headed out to the woods after breakfast, but I’ll be back before dinner. I’ll be in my usual spot.” I said, remembering how those missing hikers told their family of their whereabouts. He figured it wouldn’t hurt.
Dad laid down the paper and brought his steaming hot cup of coffee up to his mouth. He looked at me over the top of his glasses. “Is Michael going with you?”
“I’m not sure what he has going on, but I want to get into the woods as soon as I can.”
Mom looked over at me. “Just be careful, dear. Bears are in those woods and probably wolves.”
I chuckled inside at that. Mom was always overthinking things and making it ten times worse in her mind than it really was.
“I’ll be fine,” I smiled. “I just want to get the leaves under my feet and the trees over my head.”
After getting all the things I needed together, I hopped in my car and made my way to the woods. The podcast replayed in my head on the way there. The echoes of what the park ranger said repeated in my mind as well. A staircase. I still couldn’t make sense of that, but I was actually going to look for one while I was there. I hadn’t ever seen any staircases in the past but supposedly, these things just popped up whenever they felt like it. I parked my car and got out, making sure to lock it behind me. I picked my backpack up off the ground where I had set it and hoisted it onto my shoulders anxious to get in there. It was almost mid-morning which meant I had plenty of time to do everything that I wanted to before nightfall. As I walked through the forest, I took in all the sights, smells, and sounds surrounding me. The leaves in the trees had begun to turn a pretty orange color with flecks of red and purple splattered on them. All around me sounds echoed from the already fallen leaves. They made small crackling noises as small animals like squirrels and mice scampered around. Acorns at times, fell around me as I walked. The sun was warm as it laid across my shoulders and I couldn’t ever fathom not being able to explore nature.
My favorite spot was an old, dilapidated tree house. It’d been here for years, and a place Michael and I used to always hang out at back when we were younger. We would talk of bigfoot, fairies, ufo’s, and ghosts. Then typically, we would scare ourselves and go running out of here, jump on our bikes, and pedal as fast as we could back home. I climbed the still rickety, small ladder and made my way into the tree house. I sat my bag down and sat on the floor. I got out my binoculars and began looking around. All manner of life was moving around me. Chipmunks, squirrels, and birds, moved through the trees and the forest floor. But that’s when I saw it. I had followed the trail a squirrel and it ran right up a tree. Typical, and that’s not what captured my attention. It was what was beside the tree that made me draw a double take. If you weren’t looking for it, you may have missed it and I think the only reason I saw it, was because I was using my binoculars, so everything was more pronounced. But it was covered in vines and leaves and had probably only shown itself because some of the leaves had begun to dry up and shrink away. I laid the binoculars down, still looking in that direction. What I had seen, disappeared. I looked once again through the binoculars and saw just a glimmer of the concrete through the leaves again. I decided to go over there and have a closer look. I left everything in the tree house, climbed down the rickety ladder, and found my way to whatever this was.
I brushed some of the vines and leaves away from the grey, cement. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The more vines and leaves that I pulled off of this structure, the larger it seemed to be. After about thirty minutes, it became apparent what this actually was. I stood back and just stared at it. Could it be? Is this real? Surely, I’m just imagining things. It was a staircase. Had it heard my thoughts of wanting to find one or, had this been here all along and I never realized it? On the podcast, I had heard that they pop up out of the random but, this one had the appearance of age and wear from the weather. Not to mention how covered up it was with nature. I took a few steps back to take in the whole thing. Weathered, aging, falling apart in some areas. I knew this had to have been here. There’s no way that this is going to just randomly appear in such degraded form. Or would it? That was never talked about on the podcast, although, some of the people being interviewed almost matched the description of what I was looking at.
“Never climb the stairs.” I remembered a guest saying that. “You never know where the staircase came from or where the stairs may lead.”
I must admit, my curiosity was getting the better of me. As I stood looking at the staircase, I counted the stairs, fifteen. Fifteen stairs that could either lead to proving that this is just a tale made up by someone bored or wanting attention or…the latter. This staircase could actually be the entrance to a portal I couldn’t see or maybe a spaceship that was cloaked. I laughed to myself. I guess I really did have an active imagination. But I couldn’t stop myself from wondering, what if. My heart began to race as I walked closer to the stairs leading to seemingly nowhere. I stepped up and laid my hand on the rail of cement that had been warmed by the sun. My body almost tingled. Was this because of the excitement of finding a staircase in the woods or was the staircase energized somehow and causing the tingling. I let go of the rail and stepped away from it. The tingling stopped. Strange. I walked back to the stairs and grabbed the rail, this time, ignoring the tingling in my hand. Five stairs up, keep going. Then, ten stairs up. My whole body felt like it was literally vibrating. Only five more stairs to go. I would get to the top and snap a picture of myself proving that I had found them and that nothing actually happened when you made it to the top. Stair fifteen, made it! I stood on the flat platform and stared off into the distance of the trees. A light wind blew across my face. A lone bird screeched as it flew overhead. I strained my eyes to see something that wasn’t there. I couldn’t wait to tell Michael about this.
I turned around to go back to the treehouse and get my things. I wanted to go get Michael and bring him back here. I froze and my heart raced, I couldn’t move. My feet were almost like the railings that lined the stairs, cement. Now, when I say that, I don’t mean they turned into cement, but my feet were stuck. I pulled with all my might, but nothing worked. I reached down with my hands and tried to pull one foot up at a time, nothing. I leaned forward trying to loose them from the backs, no luck. Just then in front of me, a strange blur started to appear. It was shimmering like a mirage would if you’ve been in the desert heat for too long. Hands appeared in front of me, with long spindly fingers. They reached out from the nothingness in front of me. I was so confused, dazed. None of this made sense. Why did I come up here? Why hadn’t I listened to what that guest had said on the show who had encountered these stairs himself. His voice echoed in my ears. “Never go up the stairs. You don’t know where the staircase comes from or where it may lead.” Tears began welling up. I could feel them just on the edge of my eyes and my nose burned. I was sad, mad, and I was terrified. What did these fingers belong to just on the other side of my vision? I would soon find out as the hands flew out of nothingness, wrapped around my head and pulled me into the blur with it.
Just then out of nowhere, and seemingly in only a split second, I saw Michael with my parents and a barrage of police officers running towards me.
“Run, he’s over here!” I heard Michael yell.
I gasped and tried to clear my head from the fuzz that surrounded me. I wasn’t in the blur. There were no hands, I wasn’t stuck to the platform like cement anymore. But I was instead sitting on the bottom step of that cement staircase. I jumped up and spun around, expecting any minute for something else to reach out and grab me. I was pale and sweating and my clothes, they were torn to shreds. How long have I been here? What happened?
“I’ve been gone for days?” I asked my mom when we got home later. “How many days? It feels like I was only gone for seconds.”
I refused to be seen at the hospital, I just wanted to go home. I was still confused, and my mom was really worried about me. I just couldn’t bear being poked and prodded on and no one would believe what happened to me anyway. I didn’t even know if I did to be honest. What even did happen to me? I was being pulled into the blur. That I knew. But I know nothing else until I heard Michael yelling. I didn’t know if I ever would remember. I often thought of being regressed, but once I found out what really happened to me, if anything, it may mess me up even more. With me being a missing person, Thanksgiving was obviously put on hold. The next week we celebrated and as I sat around the table with my family as well as Michael and his family, I truly had so much more to be thankful for that year. I didn’t go back into the woods anymore; alone anyway and I never gave into my curiosities after that either. I went back to school after taking a two month break just to get my bearings back. I’ll never forget the blur. I’ll never forget how it changed me and how this could have turned out way worse than it did.
During my interview on The Oddities podcast within the next few days, I will be sure to reiterate what I should’ve listened to. “Never go up the stairs. You don’t know where they came from or where they lead.”