For three years.
"You came," the figure said. The voice was neither male nor female. It was old and young at once. Tired. Kaori Saejima -2021-
The Caretaker. She had invented that name. She had never spoken it aloud. Not to her therapists, not to the one ex-boyfriend who stayed long enough to learn her tics, not to the mirror on the nights she wept without sound. For three years
"Did you?" The figure stepped forward, hat tilting back just enough to reveal a chin, a mouth that smiled without warmth. "Or did you simply forget that when a master plays alone for long enough, the ghost learns to play back?" For three years. "You came
As she stepped into the hallway, the light bulb above her door flickered and died.