1977
Tap, tap, tap.
Tap, tap, tap.
TAP TAP TAP!
The girl’s eyes snapped open.
Slowly pulling her upper body forward, she raised her head and looked around the living room, her eyes struggling to adjust in the darkness. She could feel her heart beating hard in her chest as she scanned the room for the cause of the rapting on the wall.
Everything seemed to be normal and in its place.
Her heartbeat began to slow.
As she turned her head to look down toward the small hallway off the living room behind her, her eyes caught the yellow analog clock on the side table of the couch. The time read 3:17 am.
The girl groaned in exasperation and flopped her head back onto the pillow. She could cry. It must’ve been just a few moments since she had finally fallen asleep; only after making the decision to relocate to the small plaid couch in the living room from her bed that she had spent the last few hours endlessly tossing and turning in. She had hoped that the change in scenery would aid in her restlessness, but no luck.
The girl rubbed her hands over her face, her brain foggy with exhaustion. She hadn’t slept a full night in days and her patience - and possibly her sanity - was wearing dangerously thin.
Tap, tap, tap.
There it was again - that damn knocking. The girl pushed forward up onto her elbows and took another look around. The house was a traditional shotgun style home, with the living room sitting at the front of the house with a rather large bay window and front door. Down the skinny hallway was the only bedroom and bathroom, the doors faced across from each other and then the kitchen finished out the home at the backend. Small would be an understatement for describing the shotgun, but it fit her needs perfectly well. The house was just tiny enough (and cheap enough) to allow her to rent it all by herself - something the girl had been desperately searching for.
She had fallen in love with it the first time she saw it though - with the freshly painted walls and surprisingly high ceilings. The only downfall so far was that the house didn’t have any air conditioning so the girl had to run the ceiling fan high and crack the windows at night for some relief during the most recent heat wave.
The girl laid back down on her pillow again. That noise, it had to all be in her head, right? She was so sleep deprived from the last few nights, her mind was finally giving up on her and making her paranoid. It seemed every night that week, something kept the girl from sleeping peacefully. She stared up at the anchored ceiling fan, the blades rotating slowly around the base. They were almost hypnotic in a way and her concentration on the spinning started to make her eyes feel heavy, her breath became deep. She may just sleep after all. . .
TAP TAP TAP!
Oh that’s it! She had enough. Her body shot up from the couch and marched over to the main light switch in the living room. Flipping it on, the girl crossed her arms and stood quietly, surveying the now brightly lit room more carefully. Nothing moved, no more sound until -
Tap, tap, tap.
Her eyes immediately flew to the open window. Next to it hung the cord to the blinds, the breeze coming from outside was knocking it all around, causing it’s large wooden knob to lightly hit into the window frame.
“Oh Jesus Christ!” the girl exclaimed, walking over and slamming the window shut. It cut off whatever fresh air she might have for the night, but she couldn’t take the ridiculous tapping for one more minute. Well, at least that mystery was solved!
She flipped the living room light back off and snuggled into her pallet on the couch. Maybe now she could finally get some rest. She couldn’t believe all that trouble was caused by a stupid knob on a cord.
Neither could the cops when they found her body 4 days later, still lying on the couch with that same cord wrapped around her neck, the knob protruding from the inside of her throat.
