It Followed Me Into the Dark

Years after we moved out of that house, I thought whatever was there stayed behind.

I was wrong. It didn’t follow me every day… just enough to remind me it remembered

me. Sometimes I’d wake up in the middle of the night with that same feeling—

like something was standing just outside my vision. Not touching me. Just waiting.

I’d hear quiet movement in the room. Not footsteps… more like breathing that wasn’t mine.

Once, I heard my name whispered the same way I heard that little girl’s voice

years ago. Right next to my ear. I didn’t turn around. I learned not to.

Because every time I acknowledged it before, it got closer. Lights on,