Chapter Text
Gem knew about the borrower in old house she rented.
She just had never seen them.
Gem hadn’t known about them at first, of course.
Not when she first had chosen the old building, old enough and far enough from anything central that she could afford it with the inheritance from her grandmother.
It had creaking doors and old wood that almost swayed in strong winds. Even the heaters there were old, and at least one needed to be on at all times, lest the house become freezing.
Living there had taken some getting used to.
Maybe that’s why she hadn’t noticed much of the all strange things there going on there at first.
The building was small, all things considered, but with so many creeks and crevices that she hadn’t paid much attention to the things going missing.
In the beginning at least.
There was too much to be unpacked and too many things to do at the start. A sock here and there was bound to disappear in the chaos.
But then odd things kept happening.
Gem would lose things she was sure she put in the right spot, only for some of them to appear again somewhere else, almost like it was magic.
Once or twice, Gem was being a little forgetful, sure, but by the fifteenth time, she was pretty sure something was going on.
It was drawers open that Gem was sure she had closed, the things moved, even if nothing seemed to missing.
Nothing she noticed at least.
Bits of her food kept disappearing too.
Not much, but just enough.
Just enough that Gem started questioning what was happening.
Just enough that one late night, she sat down in front of her PC and started searching through reddit.
The rest of the night, Gem fell into a rabbit hole of strange occurrences and missing things and near encounters.
In the end, Gem was pretty sure she had a borrower living with her.
Which would be pretty crazy, but after a couple of months of living in an old house where things just kept happening, it started to look like the best explanation.
Not that she was ever going to mention that to another living person.
It was one thing to think your house is haunted. When you started talking about the person living in your walls, however, people might start to look at you a little weird.
To say the least.
Surprisingly, Gem found that she didn’t mind the thought all that much.
The house got lonely at times, almost eerily so, the thought that she wasn’t alone was somewhat comforting.
Even if she never saw her little roommate.
Besides, the borrower never took things that she really missed or minded.
It must be hard, having to only live off what others didn’t miss.
Surely there were times the borrower went hungry because Gem didn’t leave anything behind they could eat.
Maybe that was why Gem found herself putting some cookies on a plate, before placing them on the living room table, a night before bed.
She always lost things during the night after all. Gem assumed that’s when the borrower came out of their hiding place.
If they were nocturnal or just hiding during the day, she didn’t know.
She had left a handwritten note along with the food too.
It said:
I know you are there. I don’t mind. Feel free to take anything you need.
It wasn’t the longest note in the world, and with how small Gem had written the letters, the paper looked tiny compared to the cookies accompanying it.
Still, Gem hoped the note would calm the borrower when they realized they had been discovered.
They were trying their best to hide after all.
Silently, Gem hoped it would make their life a little easier too. Knowing they didn’t have to be so careful anymore.
The table was the lowest table she had too. She didn’t know if that would make a difference, but she hoped so.
The next morning, the cookies were gone, but the note was still there.
Gem smiled to herself as she put the dish in the dishwasher.
It seemed her offering had been accepted after all.
After that Gem made a habit of leaving out food before she went to bed.
She continued with the notes too, writing everything from how her day had been, to warning her parents might come over, or that she was going to be vacuuming the next day.
She never saw the borrower.
Still, every time the food was gone and the note left, so Gem knew her secret roommate got them.
It was nice, knowing there was somebody else reading her words.
It made the days feel less lonely.
So she continued.
The notes got longer after a while too, becoming rambly and long rather than the short ones she had written in the beginning.
She wrote about her particularly disastrous cooking as she left half a slice of the pizza Gem had had to order instead.
About the trip the lasagna had been, as she left a particularly stable piece for her roommate to enjoy.
When she left to go home, she told the borrower about it, making sure to leave plenty of non-perishables for when she would be gone.
Gem never got a reply, not that she was expecting one, but after a while, things she had lost started appearing on the table besides the plate.
The keys she had dropped behind the couch, and then subsequently forgotten about, left besides a note about how school was going.
A beloved pin she had put down somewhere and then completely lost, besides a note with a warning about people potentially coming over.
Every time there was nothing indicating how they got there, they had simply appeared during the night.
Once, she even found a beautiful piece of jewelry that she for sure didn’t own.
Gem had almost gotten teary eyed when she had seen the gift.
The note the night before, she had rambled about how her friends had forgotten her birthday, and how she was feeling a little down because of it.
It must have belonged to the previous owner, a lady up in her years, who had passed not too long ago.
The gesture was kind.
It was exactly the kind of jewelry she liked too. Just a little too gaudy to be considered elegant, but not enough that Gem felt she couldn’t wear it.
The only thing slightly different from her usual jewels was that it was more expensive.
So it would be considered bold rather than gaudy or childlike.
It made Gem feel infinitely better, knowing that at least somebody was there for her.
The next night she left candy as well as the regular food, along with a grateful note.
Gem had never seen her roommate.
That didn’t really matter, though.
Because they read her notes and ate her food and left her things she had lost.
Because, if the number of notes and the gifts had anything to say, they knew her.
And to be loved is to be known.