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The House Remembers Its Tenants

horror◐ Mature
5 contributors · 5 paragraphs deep

Mara yanked him off the worn boards. The warmth drained out of the wood at once, leaving it cold. Scratched into the floor at the edge of the oval were tiny tally marks, hundreds of them, like someone counting days. The last few looked fresh and new.

They scrubbed at the tally marks, but the wood healed over and the marks came back darker. "We leave tonight," Mara said. "Right now." They ran for the car and she floored it. In the mirror the house got smaller, then the porch light came on, then every window lit up at once, as if the house were waving them goodbye. They never went back. But some nights they still feel it remembering them.

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