The next few days felt like walking through a dream I couldn’t wake from. Every corner of the house whispered now. Every creak of the floor felt like a message I couldn’t quite translate. Steve said I was imagining it. He’d started sleeping with earplugs. Bethany buried herself in her headphones, pretending she didn’t hear the noises at night. But David… David listened. He always listened. --- It started on a Tuesday afternoon. The air outside was heavy with humidity, the kind that makes your hair stick to your neck and your patience run thin. I was folding laundry on the couch when I noticed David sitting at the kitchen table with his crayons spread around him like a painter’s palette. He was humming softly to himself — the same off-key tune he’d been singing all week. “What are

