[ WP ] Something invisible lives in your home . You try to expose it without letting it know that you 're aware of its presence .

“ It's just the wind. ” exasperation pushed the words past her lips as I stared straight through her to the door that had moved, just ever so slightly. I took pause, eyes flicking over the room as though somehow, if I tried hard enough, if I just willed my eyes to do it they would catch a glimpse of the creature. “ Yeah, I keep forgetting this room is drafty, ” I mumbled in response, watching her heft the basket of laundry onto her hip and head out the room and down the hall. 
 
 But the bedroom was n't drafty, never had been. Some nights I found myself convinced that it was the warmest room in the house even, and unlike my wife I did n't try to explain everything away when things did n't make sense. I did n't need the safety that was a delusion of something not entirely possible. Still... I would let her have her own. There was no need to drag her into this with me. I'd wait. I'd keep an eye on it and I would wait, because it had to slip up one day. I just knew it. 
 
 Working from home helped for the next few months. After all, I could n't just leave her here with that thing, would n't feel safe leaving the house and knowing that she was all alone here with her delusion of safety and white picket fences. I kept watch over her every day, and when she left the house I began to formulate my plans. I did n't fear the creature myself. Whatever it was, we had been alone before. Perhaps it did n't know that I was aware it was there, but I've always had a decent poker face, and so long as it was unaware I knew of it's presence it had no reason to do anything brash. Or so I thought. 
 
 But I knew it was there. I KNEW it. I could hear the rustling, I could feel it looking at me. I swear it's breath brushed my face, so I made the only move I could. Halfway through making a sandwich, I lunged for the flour and sprayed a handful out over the middle of the kitchen. A cabinet slammed to my left and I launched another handful to no avail. It was fast, it was sneaky, and now it knew. It knew I knew. 
 
 Within minutes the entire kitchen was coated, but there was no figure standing before me. There were no footprints through the dusting of powder along the tile at my feet, no rustle through the shattered ceramic of what had once been my wife's favorite jar. Suddenly there was darkness, a splitting pain exploded through my head like a spark of lightening, down to my spine as the world faded away. Oh god. My wife, she would be home soon. She would be alone with it. 
 
 “ I got home at four and there he was, face down on the kitchen floor, coated in flour. The only thing that stood out then was the blood dripping down his temple where it hit the counter when he fell. Please, please tell me he's okay. I... I do n't know what must have come over him doctor. He has n't been right since the stroke. I've tried to stay with him, he wo n't leave the house, he barely eats, barely sleeps. I do n't know what happened but... I'm afraid that if things keep going this way I'll really lose him. The house is in disarray... there are endless unfinished projects, and he does n't even remember what he's forgotten to do, I do n't know if he even knows where we live anymore. ”
