Where the Walls Still Whisper Your Name

Dear Elliot,

I know you think you live alone. That the apartment is yours. That no one walks these floors at night but you.

You’re wrong.

That room you never opened, the one behind the rusted door, it remembers everything. Nights you whispered secrets to the walls, thinking they wouldn’t answer, it remembers that too. Your laughter, the kind that spilled out when you thought no one was listening, yeah it remembers that. And the moment you swore you’d forget it all… it remembers that too.

I live there now. Not as you remember me, but as something sharper, quieter. I do not scream. I do not knock. I wait in the shadows between moments, in the spaces between your heartbeat. Every night I move a little closer, so close that your dreams taste like my presence before you even wake.

Last week, you left a candle burning. You thought it was safe. It wasn’t. The flame bent toward me, as if drawn by the stories you buried in your closet. The scent of wax carried your regrets to me. I inhaled them. Delicious.

Tonight, when you pass that locked door, you’ll feel it. A chill brushing your shoulder, a breath where no air exists. You’ll think it’s wind. It is not.

If curiosity makes you reach for the knob — don’t. It’s too late. The room has collected your hesitation, your half-thoughts, your whispered “what ifs.” I’ve folded them into the corners where your mind cannot reach.

Elliot, I do not hate you. Not yet. I am simply patient. I wait for the moment you forget which step you took last, which shadow is yours, which breath is real. And then, finally, I will greet you.

Do not look for me in the mirror. Do not try to call me back with words.

When you wake tomorrow, if you wake, you will know only that something moved in the apartment that does not belong to you.

And the room you forgot will never let you leave.

Yours,

The Keeper of Forgotten Corners

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This piece is for an unofficial challenge. The details are in this link:

https://shopping-feedback.today/writers/tales-from-beyond-the-haunted-letter-challenge (link)