<P> Discovering a moldy box labeled "Polly," Lily reads Ms. Blum's handwritten notes for the novel, and she comes to believe that Ms. Blum's conceit may be more than a fictional device; it may be based on an actual murder committed in the house . In a flashback, Polly is a bride, and a man, presumably her groom, kills her with a hammer in front of a part of the wall that has been stripped of its boards - the same section where mold is growing in the present . The man, covered in blood, hammers those boards in place, hiding Polly's body in the walls . Ms. Blum confronts Lily, believing her to be Polly, telling her that beauty never lasts and that she's going to rot and "fall apart like flowers ." </P> <P> On the final night of Lily's life, she descends the stairs to investigate a knocking sound, finds the wall boards piled beside the re-opened old burial place in the wall, sees Polly's ghost, and dies, overcome by terror . Since Ms. Blum never receives visitors and no longer has a nurse, she too dies . </P> <P> Later, Mr. Waxcap finds the corpses and we see a new family move into the house who are seemingly unaware of all the ghosts they are "borrowing it from ." </P> <Ul> <Li> Ruth Wilson as Lily Saylor </Li> <Li> Paula Prentiss as Iris Blum </Li> <Li> Bob Balaban as Mr. Waxcap </Li> <Li> Lucy Boynton as Polly Parsons </Li> </Ul>

I am the pretty thing that lives in the house ending meaning