Permanent Residents
I trapped myself in this room for so long,
I forgot it was built within the house.
I woke up, taking in the familiar room.
The cobwebs glowed silver in the moonlight,
casting shadows that once brought unease,
now a comfort.
Walking up to the windows,
I saw that star that had returned to my sky.
It twinkled at me.
I knew it was time.
Did I have the power to bring down these walls?
Could I find my way out of this maze I made so the house couldn’t find me?
The maze I hoped would make the house forget I haunt these halls?
To my surprise, I didn’t have to do much,
for there was a blue door.
It had never been there before.
Or maybe it had?
Just waiting for my soul to wake up.
Surprise is the wrong word.
These walls love to play tricks on me.
The candlelight that painted them
wrapped me in a warmth
my bones refused to remember.
Even though I trapped myself within the seventh layer,
when the door opened,
I was in your wing.
I could feel you for the first time—
a rush of emotions
I taught myself to ignore.
Where are you?
I checked the darkest corners, per usual.
I checked all of your frequent haunts.
What I wasn’t expecting
was to find you back in that room
I lost you in that first night.
I wish I could say,
“we didn’t say anything,
we didn’t need to,”
but I would be lying,
and I promised full transparency.
I yelled like a banshee.
I cried like a sinner.
I said words to make you feel the hurt
I harbored in my being
for what felt like years.
You said your piece as well.
Finally, the truth, I thought.
Then,
where there used to be voices,
there was peace.
Quiet.
Not silence,
but that still sort of quiet
I’ve only ever felt
running through those woods.
No haunted laughter.
No hushed footsteps.
Unfortunately,
if you are reading this
waiting for some grand ending,
there is none.
The cosmos didn’t erupt.
The sun didn’t rise,
for the house is perpetually shadowed in night.
The ghosts just returned
to the normalcy they once knew.
However,
they are trapped here forever
in this house that never stays the same.
This is just the next chapter
in the story
that is never-ending.