The next morning, sunlight poured through the thin curtains, chasing away the shadows that had clung to her thoughts all night. Lynn tried to convince herself the footsteps were just part of settling in. New apartments always made noise. Old wood expanded, pipes groaned, neighbors walked—
Neighbors.
Yes. That had to be it.
She went to the library to distract herself, diving into work sketches and art books. But her mind wouldn't settle. Each quiet aisle felt too still. Each turn made her half-expect someone to be standing there.
When she reached for a book about urban legends, another hand touched the spine at the exact same moment.
She gasped softly and pulled her hand back.
A man stood before her—tall, dark-haired, with a calm expression that contrasted his icy, observant eyes. He looked like someone who had watched storms instead of avoiding them.
"Oh—sorry," she murmured.
"You like this kind of thing?" he asked, glancing at the book's title. Haunted Places and Lost Souls.
Lynn felt embarrassed. "I… not really. I just moved into an old building. I thought maybe reading about creepy things might make the noises feel less scary."
He raised an eyebrow. "Does that work?"
"No," she admitted.
He gave a faint, almost amused exhale. "I'm Cyrus. I write occasionally. Mostly about strange things people don't like talking about."
She blinked. "Ghosts?"
"And people," he said. "The two overlap more than you'd think."
Something in his voice—steady, thoughtful—soothed her more than she expected.
Before she could stop herself, she said, "My apartment… I heard footsteps last night. But no one was there."
Cyrus's eyes sharpened.
"What kind of footsteps?" he asked quietly.
Lynn hesitated. "Slow ones. Like someone didn't want me to know they were there."
He didn't laugh. He didn't call her dramatic.
Instead, he said, "Where do you live?"
When she told him, his expression changed for the first time—slight tension, almost recognition.
"That building…" he murmured.
But before she could ask more, another library patron walked by and he stepped aside.
"Be careful tonight, Lynn."
She blinked. "Why?"
He gave a slow, knowing smile.
"Old buildings remember things."