The agent didn't tell them the price until the drive home, and she said it like an apology. Sixty-one thousand. Eleven rooms, a wraparound porch. Mara signed before Daniel finished reading. That first night they slept on a mattress in the parlor. Above them, a floorboard creaked. Then again, slow and even, like someone pacing the room overhead. They were alone in the house.

Mara pulled the blanket over her head. "Old houses do that," she whispered. "Go to sleep." Daniel tried. But the pacing matched his own heartbeat, and when he held his breath, it slowed down too. Like whatever it was could feel him listening.

By morning the pacing stopped. Relieved, they started unpacking. But every box was already empty, their things neatly arranged in upstairs rooms they'd never entered, as if the house had moved them in overnight and decided where everything went. Mara found her grandmother's ring on a stranger's nightstand.