"If I close the door," she asked, "will you leave?"
Vega's mouth made a shape like an invoice. "Name for name," she said. "You leave what you love here, and we leave what we've kept for you. A trade. A parasitism. You will owe, but the ledger counts even when you do not." Parasited.22.10.17.Agatha.Vega.The.Attic.XXX.10...
"An absence," Vega said. "A thing you will never name again." "If I close the door," she asked, "will you leave
She took a pen and began to write a new list, not of things to trade but of things she would never say again. She wrote her brother's name and then struck it out A trade
Agatha kept her hand on the banister because habit steadies panic. The key in her pocket pressed into her palm, warm from her skin, and she thought of returning downstairs and pretending the attic had been an empty coffin of memories. She thought of her brother's last laugh on the phone, twelve days ago, when he'd joked about inherited curses and attic spiders. That laugh had stopped being a joke when the calls had stopped.