Valerie on the Stairs Trivia Quiz

Answer: He committed suicide

The story opens with Rob, an unpublished writer in desperate need of money and a place to live. He gets a call from the Highberger House, which has finally had a room opening. Upon his arrival, he is led up the stairs, through a library, and into the office by Ms. Nancy Bloom, the landlady responsible for calling him. Rob states that he is glad that a spot has finally opened up, but Ms. Bloom says that it was at the expense of a recent suicide; the previous tenant had his work (which she notes was garbage, but his heart was in it) rejected more than thirty times.

She states that Highberger House was introduced in the thirties to allow unpublished writers to hone their craft and get works on the shelves. She asks if he's in love and he says that he's only focusing on his books.

She hands him the key to Room 217 and tells him it's one flight up.

Answer: Terry

When Rob heads up to his room, he drops his things on the bed and begins to unpack and there is a loud knocking on the door. When he checks to see who it is, there's no one there. He does this twice more before realizing the obscurity of the situation and he begins searching around his room for the source of the banging. Crawling along the walls, he reaches the door once again and presses his head to the wall, only to be scared by a fierce bang, knocking most of the pictures on the wall out of place.
Later that night, Rob ends up working on his novel, when once again, as he takes a break, someone knocks on his door. He turns around and asks who is knocking, but no one responds, and as he turns back around he spies a young woman standing behind him in the mirror. As he turns around in fear, he finds that she's gone, and the knocking commences once more. He goes outside to hear crying and he follows it to a small flight of stairs at the end of the hall until it stops.
Later that night, he falls asleep at the keyboard, and during the night, he finds his door opened. Walking back outside and to the stairs, he finds the young woman there, asking for help, and as he goes to help her, she backs up into the darkness and disappears.

Answer: Bruce

As Rob tries to pound the walls and ask if the woman needs help, the rest of the tenants in the Highberger House emerge from their rooms to investigate, and many of them are angry with the noise. Ms. Bloom calms the group down and the tenants leave after a short introduction, save Bruce, another writer who tells Rob to come down if he wants to know what's what with the residence. Rob asks Bruce if the place is haunted, and Bruce comments that it's only haunted by the spirit of failure. Later in the night, Rob continues to work on his novel, but finds himself once again at a block.

He remembers his ex, and concentrates on a moment where she poured his alcohol into the sink. He decides to pour his current drink as well and heads to the bathroom, but while he does this, he turns around to find the entire room covered in blood. Before he knows it though, the room goes back to normal again.

He hears something break in the bedroom and check it out, but it turns out to be a picture of the girl from before, shattered on his desk.

The banging begins again, and he goes out to the stairwell to find the girl once again crying, and as he approaches her to help, two mysterious claws pull her into the darkness once more.

Answer: Dark romance

Rob visits Bruce, who happens to be awake once again, and they talk about the Highberger House together. Bruce has been in the house for quite a while writing his book, and he's found that living a somewhat respectable life in his room is working to his advantage. Rob inquires about noises in the house and Bruce says that it's probably the pipes, since there isn't much maintenance in the place. At least, Bruce says, Rob isn't seeing ghosts.
When Rob returns to his room, he falls asleep and dreams that he is awakened by a kiss on the lips from the mysterious girl on the stairs. While they proceed to make love, the room's door is opened and the girl is pulled off of him by a mysterious demonic creature, who drags her out of the bedroom. Rob wakes up in reality at this point and finds that he has written an excellent piece to match his original paragraph, but after he finishes reading it, his computer crashes, and the file is lost. He falls asleep once again and dreams of his ex.
The next morning, the tenants inquire about his first night in the Highberger House and they ask what he's writing. He tells them it's a dark romance and Patricia, one of the other writers, asks if he means it's a 'doomed romance'. Neely, another tenant, says that it's the best kind.

Answer: A crawlspace

Rob returns to his room and immediately begins to type again, but as soon as he hits the keys, the power goes out. Quickly, he rushes back to the hallway, following the sound of crying, and the girl appears from behind him. He asks why she is without clothing, and she states that 'he' took them from her.

She quickly sits on the steps to weep and Rob follows her. She says that he shouldn't be near her because 'he' doesn't want him to be around, and she asks him if she's real. He says that she is, because he can feel her, and she thanks him before ascending the stairs to leave. Before she departs entirely, he asks for her name, to which she replies, 'Valerie'.

He follows her up the stairs to find her moving into the arms of the demon from his dream, and he chases her as it enters and slams the door in front of him.

As he breaks through the shadows, the doorway becomes the wall once again, and he pounds on it, getting the attention of the tenants once more. Ms. Bloom warns him not to make anymore escapades, and Rob asks what's behind the wall he was pounding on.

She initially jokes that it's the portal to another dimension, but she says that it's just a crawlspace. Bruce invites him down for another talk.

Answer: In Bruce's apartment

Rob asks Bruce a couple of questions, first off, how Terry killed himself. Bruce replies, saying that he took a razor blade into the bathroom and slit his writs and neck in the bathtub. Rob also asks if a woman named Valerie ever lived in the building, and he gives the description of her. Bruce laughs, saying that they could market it as 'The Beautiful Ghost of Highberger House'. Rob looks on the bed at a pile of papers, and Bruce states that it's draft #15 of his current work, and Rob looks to the back of the room to a larger stack, to which Bruce replies that it's just something that may not be worth a single thing. Bruce goes to get the beers and Rob checks it out, discovering that it's a story called 'Valerie on the Stairs', written by Bruce, Neely, and Patricia.

When Bruce realizes what Rob is doing, he fights him, punching him to the ground, and then attempting to throw a typewriter at his face. Rob runs out to find the tenants of the House in the halls, and he asks if they're all mental.

He asks who Valerie is, and Neely claims that she's a product of his imagination. Before Ms. Bloom can speak, Rob tells her that he's leaving the house.

Answer: The Beast From Beneath

While Bruce picks up the first papers of the manuscript, the lights begin to flicker and Valerie appears before him. She speaks to an unknown presence that he should be 'put into it', and Bruce realizes that she's speaking to the demon, who lunges forth and calls him a spineless, little human.

While Valerie says that Bruce has no one to blame but himself, the demon pulls Bruce's spine out through his mouth and tosses it across the floor. The demon says that he's spilling all of the blood for Valerie, yet Valerie says that he does it to fuel his own hunger.

The two of them make love before departing. Rob visits Neely's room, and Neely tells him to get out of Highberger House; no one reads anymore anyway. Rob looks to the wall to find an old movie poster for 'The Beast From Beneath' and he realizes the writer's name is 'Neil Edwards'. Upon realizing that he, 'Ed Neely' wrote it, he states that he's seen the demon in the poster before. Neely tells him to get out once more, and Rob says that he's seen Valerie in Highberger House, and the demon, which Neely calls 'Othakai'. Neely forces Rob out of the room and Rob decides to pack his things then and there...until he hears a scream.

Answer: Patricia

Rob rushes downstairs to find Ms. Bloom in Bruce's room, having found his remains and a set of footsteps leading into the wall. She states that some things are better left unknown and runs off to call the police. Rob takes the 'Valerie' manuscript and goes into the hall, blaming Neely and Patricia. Knowing Neely's contribution, he asks what Patricia contributed as well, and they continue to deny the claims.

When Neely asks about the banging in the wall, Rob tells him it's his demon, and he tells them that with all of the unfinished works and energies in the building, perhaps something has been made of their works, formed in flesh and blood, roaming through the walls of the House. Patricia returns to her room while Neely tells him that if Valerie were real, there would be no way to save her, since she was the beast's. When Patricia returns to her room, she is approached by Valerie, who emerges from the shadows. Shocked at her fiction turned reality, she kisses the girl, claiming that she created her beauty, and because she could be touched, all of her feelings and emotions were in front of her. Regardless, Valerie says, her time must come, because Patricia allowed her to be punished time and time again, along with others.

While Valerie backs into the darkness, the demon approaches Patricia from behind and tears at her chest.

Answer: From Patricia's room

Neely and Rob head to Patricia's room and break down the locked door to find blood all over the room. As Rob enters, Patricia jumps and reaches for him before falling to the ground and dying. Rob tells Neely to give him his gun and get Ms. Bloom, but Neely doesn't let him take it, since he needs to see the creature that he brought to life with his imagination. Neely wonders why they would come back, but Rob realizes that they're killing the authors of 'Valerie on the Stairs' so that they can write their own ending, and live it out for themselves; killing the authors allows for their freedom. Neely realizes that he must help destroy them, and Rob takes a chair and destroys the walls in Patricia's room. Asking where the crawlspace leads, Neely tells him it's the demon's torture chamber. Rob asks why they didn't finish the work and get it published, but Neely tells him that it was an addiction.

He would take the work about Valerie from Patricia and write it, with her, into a darker and darker place, and as the story progressed, the body count rose, literally dragging in its victims and causing them to disappear in the works. Bruce would get high with a victim, wake up the next morning, and find them written into the works. Neely continues, telling him that if he ends the story for them, then it'll be all over, and as much as Rob wants to finish the story, perhaps Bruce's final pages said otherwise. Rob tells Neely he needs a shrink, but Neely says no, he needs a bestseller. The two enter the crawlspace entrance, now dripping with blood, and continue deeper. Neely notes that the depths below were part of Bruce's work, and that they didn't know what to expect.

Answer: False

As they continue down the hallway strewn with chained and rotting corpses, Rob finds one on the wall who happens to be his ex, Anna. As he goes closer, she opens her eyes and looks around before lunging at Neely, biting into his neck and killing him. Before he dies, Neely tells Rob that he's supposed to save her. Rob picks up the gun and carries on. When he reaches the final chamber, he finds the demon in his throne.

The demon states that they knew it would come down to the hero and the beast, since all the writers are dead and they can now write their own history, and as he says, the victor is the one who writes it. Valerie is brought forth and Rob shoots the demo in the ear. Rob gets her free of her chains and holds her close, but as the demon approaches, Rob turns the gun onto her, saying that if she's the one who matters, then she can be the one to end this.

However, as the demon nears the fire, he pushes Valerie away and forces the demon inside. Quickly, they race out of the torture chamber, and as they reach the roof of the building, Valerie tells him that it she can't proceed because they finished the book.

She disappears as they reach the sunlight. As he looks over the side of the building, Rob finds that the police have arrived and he drops his gun down the side. He crosses to the center of the roof and looks at his hands to find type print on them, and the words 'Rob had failed' across his palm. Taking off his shirt, Rob finds that he too was part of the story, literal pages of typing. He slowly begins to tear away the pages that compose his body until none is left and the story is complete.