Story: The Cursed Stairs Of Cooper Lee

              "The Cursed Stairs On Cooper Lee"

As the couple, Tim and Sarah, walked up the driveway to meet her, she greeted them. 

 

 

“Hello y'all!” she gestures to the front yard and the one story house, while saying, “What do you think of it so far?” 

They nod their heads, which is always a good sign in real-estate “It looks very well kept on the outside” says Tim.

“Yes, and it’s the same on the inside. This isn’t one of those houses where they spent all the money on the outside.” She says as they enter the house.

“This house was built in 1982. It has been recently renovated, everything is up to code. Oak floors through out the house and isn’t this a lovely open floor plan?”

“Yeah, this would be excellent for having people over,” Sarah says as they enter the kitchen.

“In here is probably where they did the best. New appliances, marble counter tops, farm house sink and, of course, the bar.”

“It’s great that there’s still a lot of cabinet storage, even though it’s an open floor plan.” She couldn’t help the feeling of triumph as she heard Sarah and Tim talk about the kitchen. Usually the kitchen is what seals the deal.

“What’s the price again, Kelly?” Tim asks.

“It’s listed at $299,000.” At their shared look, she explains, “Yes. It is over your budget, but this house has been on the market a while. I think it’s overpriced, so if you guys were to make an offer, I would suggest going in at $279,000, which is in your budget.” They nod their heads, but she could see that Tim was still a little hesitant about the price.

“Shall we check out the bedrooms?”

“How many does the house have?” Tim asks her.

“It’s a three bedroom, two bath house.” She replies as she leads them to the bedrooms.

Seeing their lack of reaction to the spacious bedrooms, she decides to help paint the picture. “I know that it’s a little hard to imagine the space without furniture, but this is a pretty sizable bedroom and it’s not even the master. You have lovely natural light coming in and look at this closet,” she says while opening it, “It’s huge!”

As they’re looking in the closet, she notices a door, which is strange because it’s not on the listing.

“Is that door to the water heater or something?” Tim asks.

“It must be. There’s not another room on the listing.” She opens it. “It’s probably the heater or the duct wo-” whatever she was about to say gets lost in shock. It’s not duct work or a heater, but a set of stairs leading down. Just staring at them gave her a creepy feeling. Recovering quickly, she says, “Perhaps it’s an old basement. Maybe they forgot about it during the remodel.” She gives it a little laugh, “crazy things happen during remodels!”

“Is it safe to go down there? Because, honestly, I can’t say yes or even no, without knowing what’s down there.” Tim says.

Closing the door and stepping out of the closet, she says, “I’ll call the owner, it’s a sell by owner, so we should have an answer pretty quickly. Why don’t you guys take another look around, talk to each other and I’ll try to get an answer for you.”

They nod their heads and leave. She dials up the owner. She waits three rings before someone picks up. “Hello?” the voice belongs to a man.

“Yes, this is Kelly Scotsdale. My clients are looking at your house on Cooper Lee right now. And, well, we came across a set of stairs hidden away in the closet of one of the non-master bedrooms. Can you give me any insight on that?”

“Well, they’re original to the house.” The man says. She could tell that he was trying to avoid talking about something. “I personally would not go down them, they’re wooden and so they're probably rotten.”

“Okay. But what do they lead to? Why are they still there if you think they're rotten?”

“They don’t lead to anything in particular. They are still there because no one wants to remove them.”

Getting annoyed, she says, “Stop talking in circles, I called you because I need answers. My clients are interested in your house, but they will not make a decision until they know more about the stairs. Why does no one want to remove the stairs?”

She hears a sigh and then he elaborates, “The last three people who attempt to remove the stairs have been critically hurt. They said that it was the stairs. I gave full disclosure to another contractor I was going to hire. Upon hearing about the injuries of the others, he backed out. I then tried to hire a different contractor, but he promptly refused. I later learned that rumors had been flying among contractors about the “Cursed Stairs of Cooper Lee” which was why no one would take the job to get the stairs removed. So I just remodeled the house so that the stairs would be hidden in a closet.”

“Where did they lead to originally?”

“A basement, but now it’s just a crawlspace.”

“Thank you, hopefully that satisfies their curiosity.” 

“Ms. Scotsdale, Whatever you do, do not let them down the stairs.” Then he hangs up.

She was about to find Tim and Sarah, when she heard a sinister laugh come from somewhere inside the closet. She bolted out of the room, grateful that it was not her house to sell.

THE END.