Death Lines

The walls are screaming my mother’s name, but my mother has been dead for ten years. Then I saw the face of the woman whispering from inside the walls—the same woman I prepped for autopsy in the morgue two weeks ago. My landlord, Daniel, says it’s just a glitch in the house, but his eyes tell a different story. He’s hiding a blood-debt secret that makes the ghosts in the walls look merciful, and as the bruises of a dead woman begin to appear on my own skin, I realize I’m not just a tenant—I’m the final piece of a ritual. Now, I must trust the man who lied to me to survive the night, or become the next permanent resident of this house.