The cupboard’s handle rattled. Then it began to turn.

A cold, sharp tapping noise broke through Leanne’s memory. For an instant, she felt the same chill that had haunted her as a child. The dread, the fear, the need to run. She scrambled out of the hole in the cupboard and stopped, gasping, on her hands and knees in the hallway.

The tapping came again. It was too fast and too light, she realised. Patience’s cane had been deep, almost thudding. This was the sound of a branch tapping on glass.

She rose to her knees and looked along the hallway. At its end, a window framed dead branches that bowed in the wind. She did not remember the window being there when she’d first started along that hall.

A hint of embarrassment brought heat to Leanne’s cheeks. She stood, her legs unsteady, and leaned a hand against the wall. It had been thirty years. Patience was long gone.

She briefly wondered what had happened to Grace. She’d never known the woman’s surname. Leanne hoped she’d lived a good life after the home closed—but her heart sunk as she realised that was not likely. Grace’s health had been poor. Leanne imagined she could still hear the coughing, soft and weak, that seemed almost incessant on Grace’s worse days.

The hallway led deeper into the building. Leanne let it carry her around another bend, then took an offshoot. She couldn’t remember where the path led. After a moment, it ended in one of the narrow, angled wooden staircases that seemed to fill the home. Leanne pulled her jacket tighter, trying to fight off the pervasive cold, and began to climb.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

She’d been hiding in the staircase, crying. She’d thought it was near the back of the house, where no one would find her, but somehow, Grace had. The woman crouched on the step below her and took Leanne’s hands in hers. Grace’s fingers always seemed to tremble, even though she was never afraid. She rubbed Leanne’s hands and smiled up at her.

“We were playing hide-and-seek yesterday.” Leanne heaved, fresh tears falling over her cheeks. “I know we aren’t supposed to, but we did.”

“That’s all right, sweetheart. You’re not in trouble. I promise.” Grace’s smile was warm. Like sunlight. The rest of the house was so cold, but Grace seemed to make it more bearable.