Chapter 13 — Going Back

She heard David at the bottom of the main staircase, very still.She heard the house breathing — or what had been breathing, that particular settled motion of old wood — and then she heard something else: a shift. A quality change in the silence, like a note held past its resolution finally releasing.From above, from the attic: the slow footsteps.Once. Twice. Moving away.And then nothing.The cold in the stairwell didn't disappear. But it changed. It became regular cold — December through old insulation — not that other thing.She stood there for two full minutes.Nothing moved. Nothing sounded. The house was just a house.She closed the door. She dropped the latch. She looked at the door for a long moment.Then she went downstairs.David was standing at the bottom, timer running on his phone, four seconds left."Done?" he said."I think so." She paused. "I think it's done."He looked at her face. Whatever he found there, it satisfied him.He put his arms around her.She held on.