Inhabited by Steph Lay
He walked slowly out of the fog, pausing at the end of the row of identical houses to check the address. Hubble Drive. All the streets on this new estate had been given names connected to space, but the incidents at number twenty-two sounded anything but celestial. He knocked and waited, looking up at the unlit bedroom windows and remembering the account he’d been sent. The neighbours said they’d seen lights up there when no-one was home, and noticed a dark shadow moving from room to room. The homeowner had sounded desperate, at her wits’ end with unsettling noises in the night and too many things that she couldn’t explain. He shifted his heavy bag to the other shoulder as the door opened and a pale face peered around the gap.
“Ms Marsden? Good evening. You asked for my help?”
She nodded, glanced around, and beckoned him inside.
“I never thought I’d need someone like you, but I don’t know where else to turn.”
“I hear that a lot. So, tell me, how did it begin?”
As he talked, they walked into the kitchen. She shivered by the sink, clasping her arms tightly around her.
“As soon as it got dark, the night I moved in. I kept feeling like someone was watching me, but with no blinds up, I thought it was just my reflection in the windows. I was worn out from moving, but I couldn’t sleep. And then things got worse…”
She trailed off, and he nodded gravely for her to continue.
“I’d find things moved around. Boxes I hadn’t touched had been opened. Jars swapped around in the fridge. Drops of water in the bathroom sink when I got up in the night… and the noises.”
“You mentioned those in your email. Footsteps?”
“Yes. Up and down the stairs. Scraping, scratching noises, no idea where they came from. I’ve been so scared.”
“I can see how that must have been unsettling. May I look around?”
She nodded, and sat tensely at the kitchen table.
“Sure. Do what you’ve got to do. I don’t want to watch.”
He paced through the hushed house with a reverential tread, listening closely as he went. He could believe she had felt a presence here, sharing her sense of gaunt dread that they were not alone. Muttering under his breath, he checked every room with an expert eye. He paused at the top of the stairs, looking up towards heaven. Something he saw there made him gasp and he called down to her, voice taut with urgency.
“Ms. Marsden, you need to get out. Now!”
As she fled, the builder hoisted himself into the loft. A sharp smell hit him, sour and stale. Peeling back the insulation he revealed a hidden space strewn with empty bottles and discarded food. He pulled a torch from his tool-bag, appalled on her behalf at the idea of someone hiding up here while she slept below. Some people would do anything to feel at home.
© Stephanie Lay, January 2025
About this story
Oh, I had so much fun writing this one! The MKLitFest’s theme for the 2025 competition was “Home”, and for quite a while, I’d decided to sit this one out because I couldn’t think of anything that resonated on a spooky level with such a comforting concept. Then I read about “phrogging” – a more sinister variant of squatting where people hide themselves inside the fabric of an occupied building, living secret lives alongside, above or below the owners. Apparently it can even happen during the construction of new homes, where someone sneaks in and makes themselves a space and stays there even when people move in. It’s a horrible thought, that invasion of your place of safety – when you close your front door, you don’t want to be shutting someone else in with you! There’s been a new estate springing up just over from me, and I’ve watched it go from a green open space to a building site to a perfectly normal block of houses. I often cut through there, and think how weird it is to be walking such fresh streets. I was walking through there one misty November morning, and had the mental image of a shadowy figure walking slowly out of the fog towards me – and the two ideas bumped into each other in my head and when they got up and shook themselves off, Inhabited was there.
The LitFest folks took a pass on it for the competition, so I’ve shared it here for anyone to read. Enjoy. Ignore those strange noises from the attic. I’m sure it’s just the pipes.
I couldn’t decide on a cover for this one, so made a few different ones – the one with the blurry star-field effects was actually taken on that foggy morning 🙂
