Knock Knock - Part 1

''So did you hear, he is moving to the USA for his masters?" Tina remarked while arranging the bed for us.

"Yeah good for him,'' I replied nonchalantly.

Tina's birthday party had ended. Some were leaving. Others staying the night were indulged in a serious conversation about their future.

"The food was great, especially the chicken." Erena complimented Tina on the dinner she had prepared for us.

"Thanks," Tina replied cheerfully.

Tina lived in her ancestral home. A two-storied building in dire need of renovations. The ground floor housed two big rooms, a kitchen, and a toilet. The upper floor had four rooms arranged linearly around a common hallway overlooking the courtyard. On the other side of the courtyard, loomed a four-storied school shrouded in darkness. The school engulfed the courtyard in its shadows. The windows of some of the classrooms were open creating an eerie environment.

Tina's room was at the beginning of the corridor, adjacent to the staircase. A small toilet was at the end of the staircase lobby. The middle two rooms were locked for some reason. Tina's

parents were old and had trouble climbing the stairs so they spent most of their time downstairs. The first floor was occupied by Tina when she needed space.

"Say, Tina. Why are the rooms adjacent to yours locked?" I questioned.

"Oh, those two rooms belong to my relatives. Some lady died in one of those rooms a long time ago."

"What? So is your house haunted?" Daisy squealed mockingly.

"Kind of," Tina squinted.

"I was only kidding," Daisy's eyes popped out.

"How can you say that your house is haunted?" I inquired.

"Well....., I..... have heard strange knocking......coming from within the house."

We looked at each other and huddled to prompt her to continue the story.

"Then why are we staying here?" Daisy was still trying to overcome the news she had just heard.

"Don't tell me you want to stay downstairs where my parents can hear everything we say?"

"Ooh!!! Tell us more !" the ghost hunter in me kicked in.

"Well....," Tina hesitated but then decided to go on. "I was up one night for an assignment and heard a noise from the other room. (You know the one at the far end of the corridor.) By the time I reached that room, everything went quiet as before. I switched on the lights in the room and looked around. Everything seemed normal. I was about to leave when the knocking came from one of the windows. We rarely use this floor so we keep all the windows closed most of the time. I didn't think much of it. I came back to my room and resumed my work. When suddenly the knocking came from one of the windows in my room! This time it was persistent. I was too scared to check it out and fled downstairs to my parents. This has happened twice."

We glanced at each other.

"You know there is a saying. What has happened twice will happen the third time." Daisy did not share the same enthusiasm as the rest of us.

"Like this?" I tapped my hands on the table."

We laughed. Then suddenly a sudden noise made everyone jump. A muffled sound came from behind the door. We looked in the direction of the noise. Erena had slipped outside the room when I was distracting others with the tapping noise.

"Not funny." Daisy was almost in tears.

****************************

Later that night, I was woken by Tina. She was shaking me vigorously.

"Yes. Yes, I'm awake." I managed to pull myself up.

"Stop it already, Alice. It's not funny anymore." Tina pleaded. She was very scared for some reason.

"What's not funny?" I asked.

"The knockings! Please stop them."

"What? What knocking?" I rubbed the remainder of the sleep from my eyes when I heard what she was talking about.

A 'tap-tap' sound was coming from outside one of the windows.

"Please stop it. It’s enough." Tina was on the verge of crying.

"We are not doing it. See everyone is here."

Erena and Daisy woke up from the commotion.

"Wait. I'll go and check." I reassured Tina.

I drew the blinds, opened the window and peered outside.

"See, there is nothing here." No one outside could have made those noises.

I closed the window. Tina collected herself but her expressions were still tense. I was about to switch off the light when the tapping sound came from the other window.

"What now! Who's doing this?" I muttered.

The noise stopped abruptly just as it had started. Silence engulfed us once more. The silence was scarier than the tapings. I could hear my breath. It was fast and shallow. We exchanged worried glances. Everyone was anticipating the sound and it did happen for the third time.

This time it came from outside our door.

Erena jumped out of bed and slammed the door open.

But.....there was no outside. A dark and empty corridor stretched before us.

"Who could be doing this? And why?" I was lost in my thoughts and didn't notice that Daisy was standing beside me, clutching my hand.

The knocking started again. This time it was coming from the far end room. A distant, low sound of someone knocking on the door was heard .............. from the inside!

"Impossible!"

Everyone gathered behind me. Erena gave me a concerned look. She was scared too.

"I don't want to be here anymore. Let's go down." Daisy was pulling at my sleeve.

"It must be an intruder," I tried to be reasonable.

The knocking did not cease. It resonated with another knocking sound. This new horror was coming from somewhere near us. It did not take us long to locate the source of the new sound.

"The locked room!!! Isn't this the same room where some lady had died?" Daisy screamed.

This sudden knocking made everyone jump out of their skin. It prevailed. The intensity grew with each tick of the clock. We were too petrified to respond and stood frozen like wooden dolls. The knocking soon turned into kicking and then thrashing.

The door began to jolt. The noise was deafening. The door was not strong enough to take so much damage. It started to creek and break under the pressure. One of the holdfasts came loose. Soon it gave away and one of the screws rolled in front of Tina.

Everyone ran towards the staircase, screaming frantically.

Everyone fled except me. The wooden panels of the door were falling apart. I stood gazing at the door, glued to my place, hypnotized by whoever was on the other side.

"Someone is inside." I could make out someone's hands and legs in that room.

"What are you doing? Get away from the door! Now!" Erena called out for me from the staircase.

I could hear her call my name but my body failed to respond. It had somehow suddenly become numb to all that was going around.

"What's wrong with you?" Erena pulled me with her. She came back for me. While running downstairs, my sight and mind were stuck to the door barely hanging together. I strained my neck to see the last bit of the door being torn apart and a long dark figure coming out.

****************************