Creak

 I’m sure the floor creaked.  For months, I’d been squatting in a basement where the homeowner was bed bound on the second floor. I settled my possessions in the corner of the basement and scavenged a rug to put on the dirt floor. The house had a gravity furnace with decorative metal vents open from ceilings to floors above and the rising heat warmed the house. The dirt floor creaked again. It was not possible. I went to the furnace and looked up the vent and saw an old woman, lying face down. She creaked out the word Help. Creak. Help.

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