In the weeks after the discovery, the family slowly rebuilt their routines, but nothing returned to how it had been before. Their days were filled with paperwork, inspections, and cautious conversations with neighbors who asked polite questions while clearly wanting more details than anyone could give. Lily listened to the adults trade theories, noticing every time they lowered their voices or changed the subject, and she began to understand that not knowing was its own heavy burden.
As time passed, the house shifted from home to memory, a place they spoke about in the past tense even while decisions about it remained unresolved. Lily carried the image of the living stones with her, not as a nightmare, but as a quiet, persistent question about what else might be hidden in ordinary places. That experience didn’t leave her frightened so much as alert, more aware of the mysteries that sometimes lie just out of sight.
