The Voice Beneath

The Voice Beneath

Beneath the floorboards it whispered,

Calling names I had never known,

The air trembled with old grief,

I stepped lightly, but it followed.

Something cold brushed my sleeve,

A memory I did not own,

The house breathed like a heart,

And I became part of the silence.

I tried to leave,

The stairs bent like water,

Each step echoed into nowhere,

I wondered if I ever existed.

It called louder,

I answered without speaking,

A shadow passed through me,

And I stopped, trembling, waiting.

The walls closed like jaws,

My breath thickened in the dark,

I felt eyes behind the wood,

And the whispers grew urgent.

I sank to the floor,

The voice sang of forgotten names,

I was neither living nor dead,

Only a shadow of someone once known.