It was only then that she noticed the new sound. One night, after Emma had fallen asleep, Lucy was almost dozing off when she heard it. Beneath the familiar hum came a different noise—three faint taps from the wall beside the bed. A pause. Then two more, evenly spaced, too measured to dismiss. She immediately got up to check.
She stood very still, holding her breath. The tapping did not repeat. Emma slept on, curled around her rabbit, oblivious. Lucy told herself it might be a pipe cooling, a branch brushing brick, anything ordinary. Yet something in the rhythm felt unlike the shapeless creaks she’d grown used to.