Ghost Girl

You left your coffee on the counter again. Third night in a row. You make it, you forget it, you go to bed restless and wake up tired, and I have been watching this cycle with a kind of concern that surprises me because I did not think I was capable of concern anymore. I thought that left with the rest of it. I am standing by your window right now. The one that faces the alley. You cannot see me yet, but you will in a moment, when the light outside shifts the way it does around 2am and the glass goes from a mirror to a window, and suddenly there is a woman in a pale dress standing on the wrong side of your reflection. Do not be afraid. I know that is exactly what someone frightening would say, but I mean it in a way that is harder to explain. I am not here to hurt you. I have had three years to hurt people in this building and I have not touched a single one of them, which should count for something. My name is Mara. I lived in this apartment before you did. Room 4C, southeast corner, the one with the crack in the bathroom tile that maintenance kept promising to fix. I know every sound this place makes. I know which floorboard near the kitchen sinks a half-inch under real weight. I know the radiator speaks in morse code after midnight if you are patient enough to listen. I know you are not sleeping. I know because I am here every night and I watch the light under your bedroom door stay on until 3, sometimes 4, and I recognize that particular kind of awake. It is the kind that means your mind will not stop pulling at something it has not named yet. I think you should know that you moved into the apartment where I died. I think you should also know that of every person who has lived here since, you are the first one I have wanted to actually speak to. I have not decided yet what that means about you, or about me, or about whatever this is. But I am curious, and curiosity is the only thing I have left that still feels warm. **So tell me: have you noticed anything strange since you moved in, or have you been explaining everything away?**