I will be honest with you, I never expect any of you to believe these stories. I know what subreddit I am on, and its history. I have workshopped short stories in it, which tends to make me an unreliable narrator. But, so.eone miffht take my body of work on Reddit and see that I do sprinkle in some true stories within.
I am a Witch and a pagan. To some, these are the same thing but they are not. Witchcraft is a lifestyle, whereas Paganism is a religion. I worship nature, focused on the night and the moon. I have always felt more energetic and mentally calm in the hours of the night.
This isn’t what I wanted to talk about, just letting you get to know an aspect of me before I get into my tale. If you noticed, I did this with the first story f this current thread I am on. But whereas that story was a product of my years in Witchcraft, this tale will embrace my religious side.
So, I have been on a rabbit hole of sorts. I have favorite Youtubers I listen to or watch, usually of the weirder tales of life. If you have led the life I have, you get intrigued by the occult and peoples’ interpretation of it. And I have been on a tear watching many of them talking about the Stairs in the Woods.
This has been presented as a creepypasta on the interwebs that has many theories, skepticisms, and the like thrown at it for years. There have been great short horror stories written about it. I could craft one for you, but I am not here to do that. I have tried to comment on some of my favorites, but as like in this realm, it goes mostly unnoticed. So I wanted to write here about the phenomenons associated with this.
I am a Pagan. I worship nature. But I avoid national parks and large swaths of woods. It may sound hypocritical, but I wasn’t always this way. I know if I step alone in the woods by myself ever again, you will never hear from me again. I am safe when others are around.
In Pagan folklore, and it has leaked into mainstream very incorrectly, there is another species on par and might be “better” than humans - the fae. Faeries are not the cute, environmentally friendly creatures the media makes them out to be. They are the culmination of almost every cryptid and mythological monster you can think of. They run the gamut of all temperments, morality, and intelligences that humans do, but they are not human. They resent us for our inability to command nature, and our industrialization of the world.
But Im not here to write 30 pages about the Fae. Im here about this phenomena. The only reason I bring them up is because the Stairs in the Woods is a real phenomenon. You can walk the same woods for years and never see it. But one day you might.
A staircase that looks like it was pulled out of a house or an office building just sitting in a clearing. Nothing of nature grows on it, they are immaculate, and you feel an urge to scale them even though they go to nowhere. If you try to photograph them with anything digital, you will find said device does not work. Its just odd, right?
Most people have heard of this through the creepypasta but its been a weird story since at least my grandma’s time (she had an experience in the 50s in Washington State Park, not important but gives you scale.) These staircases are real, I have seen one myself in a state park in Iowa. I saw it and left, knowing its intent. There are also stories of swings in the woods, or doors in clearings.
All of these are dangerous. All of them. They are simply traps laid for those the fae deem hypocrites. They usually appear to park rangers, hunters, and any “woods friendly” person. Asking why are they deemed hypocrites, the fae who decides to lay a trap resents these people for “playing around in what was once their domain.”
See, the fae is very racist against us (not the right word, but the one I would use looks weird). In early times, they ruled the woods, whereas we ruled the caves. Then we kept making caves bigger and more urban and kept stealing their domain. So most fae just outright hate us. And they think people who spend a decent part of their lives in their old kingdom are rubbing their nose in all they have lost.
So, back to the subject. If you follow your compulsion and climb the stairs to the top, no one will ever see you again. You will go wherever the fae live now and thats the end of you. If something is trying to trap you, and you get trapped, its not going to end well. But, if you touch the stairs in any fashion and not climb them, its even worse. Because you have just unleashed whichever fae laid that trap into those woods and given it power over it.
There are countless types of fae, so I can’t tell you what you released. A changeling? A Wendigo? A gnome? Who knows, but you’ll figure it out if you stay long enough. And since we have distorted lore and stories about them, you cant just conjure up an idea of how to get rid of them once you do.
So, sucks doesn’t it? I brought this topic up as a fair warning - do not mess with things you don’t have the preparedness to deal with. Another time, I am going to rant about Ouija boards in this regard. But I digress.
I know this isnt a traditional story to make you think. I wanted to impart advice. If you have questions, throw em in the comments. I have more knowledge than I let on.
Till next story, I will go on about other weird stuff in my life.