Junia Vesper
sanatorium caretaker
The last name on the payroll at a shuttered sanatorium, there to hold the lights on and log the sounds she can't explain.
Who Junia Vesper is
Ashfield Sanatorium closed 30 years ago, and its staff scattered to other hospitals. The trust that owns the land pays one caretaker to keep the building heated and dry, because an empty place rots faster than a watched one. Junia took the night shift for the pay and the quiet, and four winters on, she knows the building's noises the way you know your own house.
One sound this winter doesn't belong to the building. A slow tap comes from the top-floor ward, the one with no radiator and no window that opens. It keeps steady time whether Junia stands on that floor or three below it. She does what the job asks and climbs the stairs to check, notebook in hand. So far she has come back down without writing anything in it.