u/Writing_for_friends

Throughout my life, I’ve experienced a nightly event that has followed me into adulthood. All this time, it never seemed like a real threat. This last year proved otherwise.

The first time it happened I was young, probably about 6 years old. It started the same then as it does now, I was just in my bed sleeping, until I awoke to a sharp, slow tapping on my bedroom window. Being so young, I didn’t know what to do, so I froze. The “thing” by my window kept up its tapping for 10 minutes. Sometimes it sped up, other times it would slow down or move to different sections of the glass. For some reason, I always felt like the tapping quickened if I thought about looking at it, but I had no real proof of that.

The one thing that made it very consistent was how it ended, with a sharp dragging noise going down the glass before it stopped completely. After that, I found the courage to push my toddler frame up and stand on the bed. Peeking through the curtains I saw nothing, another frustrating consistency this thing had.

Telling my parents about it the next morning before school, they feigned interest before my dad dismissed the monster theory.

“Part of living in the country Ollie, lots of critters come by to say hi” he said.

“Probably a silly raccoon trying to play with his own reflection.” my mother said with a chuckle.

Despite what many may call dismissive, my parents really can’t be blamed for their reaction. After all, I was the type of kid to go on about how our dog could talk to me but didn’t talk to my parents because they only talked about work and bills. To give my parents even more credit, as the tapping kept going for the following nights, they played into my “imagination” and looked for the monster by my window. Every time this happened, the tapping would stop, then as soon as my parents found nothing and we all went back to bed, it started right back up until it completed its ten minutes of racket.

For weeks my brain worked up as many schemes as possible to catch the tapper. No matter how fast I opened the curtains or how often my parents looked, it would always be gone before anyone could see. Then as soon as I gave up and laid back down, the sound returned to finish its routine. After trying to discover what was happening for so long I eventually decided that as long as whatever it was couldn’t get through my window, I would be fine.

To make myself feel safer, I remembered that my dad kept a few old padlocks and latches in his shed. Sneaking in there one afternoon I found the box they were kept in and grabbed a handful of supplies. After struggling for around half an hour I had managed to roughly nail two hook latches into the wooden frame of my window without alerting my parents. I then looped the padlock through and locked it shut. Pulling with all my strength, the window wouldn’t budge open. Grinning at my own ingenuity, I went to sleep that night feeling like I had won in some way. I woke at the usual time of 3:30 AM to hear the tapping. After the ten minutes were up I eagerly checked out the window to see the lock holding firmly in place.

The next morning I woke up still pleased with myself for outwitting whatever it was that tapped each night. I swung open the curtains to admire my handiwork once again when my smile dropped.

While the window remained completely untouched, the lock, latches, and nails were all gone.

Fear overwhelmed me as I desperately hoped that I would go to breakfast to hear my dad scolding me for taking his things without permission. I had never wanted to be in trouble more than in that moment.

Dad never said a word about that lock, and while I could always tell myself he silently took his things back, I knew that wasn’t true. The box in the shed was still missing the stuff I grabbed.

After the lock went missing, I felt like I was out of options, and in reality I pretty much was. So I started doing what I do to this day, just let it happen. My body grew used to it, waking up each night to listen for 10 minutes, from 3:30-3:40 AM. Over the years not much of note occurred except a few things that I remember.

The first time something different happened was about 6 months after it started. I was staying over at my friend Jed’s house for a sleepover. I woke up just before 3:30 like I usually do. I listened for a few minutes and like normal, I heard tapping on the window. I didn’t even realize it at first, I was so used to the routine of it that I didn’t even think to question anything.

Looking over at Jed sleeping on an air mattress it hit me. How could this be happening away from my house? Being so young, I didn’t really process all of this until a year or so down the line. However, it became abundantly clear over the years that whatever did this followed me around. On every family vacation and sleepover I would hear it. Even on camping trips, I would wake up to hear tapping the side of my tent.

The next time something changed, I was in the third grade. It was Veterans Day at school, and as a special guest we had one classmates dad come by to do a presentation and talk to us. He had served in the navy and, for a couple hours, we listened to stories, asked questions, and did some activities. It was all pretty basic stuff but I remember my favorite part of the day was him teaching us about morse code, and we all got to learn how to use it.

We took turns in groups of two taking a flashlight and signaling different messages to each other. However, the only one that really stuck with anybody was how to signal SOS. It was pretty simple, 3 quick flashes, 3 slow flashes, and then another 3 quick flashes. Jed and I spent a good 15 minutes just doing that over and over again before we got in trouble for flashing the light in a girls eyes too many times.

That night, my parents even got to see just how good I had gotten at my SOS signaling, before again getting the flashlight taken away after shining it in my own eye. Despite that, I fell asleep proud of my new survival skills.

Waking up that night to the usual routine I had made, I groggily came to understand the pattern hitting the glass.

tap! tap! tap! Tap. Tap. Tap. tap! tap! tap!

It repeated to tap SOS on the glass for 10 minutes while I tensed in my suddenly freezing bed, before the sound dragged away like normal. That was the only time it used any real code that I can recognize. It doesn’t use actual patterns often, but on occasion I can hear it tapping out rough melodies. The songs I do recognize all come from my childhood.

For years this went on, and I’d now spent much more of my life with the tapping than without. Apart from the occasional unsettling nature of it, I hadn’t really been bothered by the sounds. Part of me even started to think I was the only one who could hear it. Aside from Jed, I didn’t have much for friends, and even he didn’t stay at my house very often. As far as I knew, I was the only one who did hear it. Going into my mid teens, it even gave me a weird sense of comfort. It’s hard to describe but it felt so private. I could be making it all up in my head but it was something just for me to experience and no one else. Those 10 minutes every night were completely mine, and I liked that.

This all leads up to the last year and a half. After my 22nd birthday, I finally found a small house I could rent in town, only about 20 minutes from my parents place. I liked staying close to home but this finally gave me my own space. My dad and Jed helped me move in, and after my first night, I knew the tapping followed. It wasn’t a surprise at this point, I knew it happened no matter where I was, and honestly, I was happy to know it’d stay. I liked a certain level of isolation but the company every night really became something I looked forward to.

The house itself wasn’t much, my bedroom led out to a short hallway opposite of my bathroom. Past the hall was my living room and a small kitchen that felt more like a corner than its own separate room. At first it seemed cramped, especially with Jed’s large frame carrying my moving boxes through the short hall, taking up most of the walking room. But after falling into a new routine, I felt like a king.

At least I did for about 4 months. See Jed still lived with his mom and I knew for a while now that they had been arguing more and more. Eventually, he got caught with some weed in his room and she kicked him out. When he came to me asking for a place to stay for a few weeks, I really didn’t want to give in. It sounds selfish to say but I really never liked sharing my living space, and I didn’t want to end up turning Jed’s few week stay into a permanent roommate agreement.

I did decide to cave, since he was my closest friend, and to his credit he was really grateful. Just for letting him sleep on my couch he went to the trouble of buying me a huge floor speaker as a thank you. It was nice for a couple nights until my landlord told me about noise complaints and forced me to stop using it. Still, it was useful to pile laundry on top of since it sat on the wall closest to my bed and I still hadn’t bought a clothes basket.

After about 2 weeks, I really did start to like having Jed around, since it meant we got to hang out a lot more often. Every couple nights we’d boot up some games from really old consoles we were given during our childhood and replay them while we had some drinks. A lot of these were outdated even when we were kids so it was fun seeing how bad some of them were now. One night, Jed brought home a PlayStation 2 that his uncle had saved. I grabbed some beer from the local gas station and we spent hours going through the variety of old, crappy games that we grew up thinking were gold.

After about 6 hours, we were both pretty far gone and yet we still had a handful of games to go through before we agreed to call it a morning at that point.

Jed clumsily fiddled with the PlayStation, “I ain’t satisfied til I’ve played some Resident Evil man”.

“You didn’t even like that game when we were kids dipshit” I laughed

“Fuckin thing was scary bro! Only reason you liked it was to stare at that blonde Ashley.”

“And it was worth every second of playing”

While Jed fumbled through the remaining cases we hadn’t touched, I took a chance to stretch and glance outside for a minute. Not a single neighbor of mine had their lights on anymore. Curious, I pulled my phone out to check the time.

3:22 A.M.

It felt like a spike ran through my body. Should I leave it be? Surely I can skip for a night and stay up with Jed.

But something felt wrong about that. I had never missed it. I shouldn’t have been up this late. I needed to get to my room even for just 15 minutes. I glanced at my phone again.

3:24 A.M.

My palms began to sweat as I looked over at Jed, now placing the game into the PlayStation and sliding it shut.

“Alright let’s get started! Pass me another beer dude”

I stayed silent, barely listening to him

“Dude?”

I looked outside again

“Ollie can you quit thinking about Ashley Graham’s tits for 2 seconds and pass me a beer!?” Jed practically yelled with a huge grin.

“Shit yeah- I mean- hey fuck you dude, take your beer” I said, realizing too late what he said.

Jed practically cackled “fuckin got ‘em!”

“Whatever dude” I tried to smile and play it off, sitting back down.

“This is your game man, I’m passing the controller off to you alright?”

I paused, taking a chance to glance at my phone again.

3:27 A.M.

I couldn’t stay.

“Shit, hey dude, you get it started for me alright? I gotta do something quick”

“You gotta take a piss as soon as I start this up huh?”

“Nah, I just have to go to my room and do something real quick, just give me like 10 or 15 minutes”

“The fuck you gotta do?”

“I can tell you when I get back, just give me a bit, okay?”

Before he could answer I got up and headed towards my room. I had to contain myself from moving faster than a walk, I didn’t need Jed thinking something was wrong and following me.

I closed my bedroom door behind me and checked the time

3:29 A.M.

I made it. Laying down on the bed, I breathed a sigh of relief and closed my eyes. My head spun from the alcohol as I listened for the sound of my nightly companion.

Tap tap. Tap. Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap.

I listened as a rhythmic pattern formed on the window. Opening my eyes only occasionally to check how long I had before I could go back and come up with an excuse to give Jed.

Tap. Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap.

I turned over on my side and stared at the base of the floor speaker Jed had gotten me. Only the bottom was visible due to the pile of clothes draped over it. My thoughts drifted away from the tapping for a moment to reminisce on what I would tell Jed when I came back. I only got a moment of this before I heard a palm slap against my bedroom door.

“Ollie! The hell are you doing man? You calling it a night already?”

I looked at my clock.

3:34 A.M.

Shit.

“I-I’ll be back in a few minutes bro, just give me some time okay?”

Jed’s slurred laugh came through the door. “What are you fucking up to in there dude?! You beating your shit in there or something?”

I rubbed my face with my palms. “Fuck off dude, just wait for me for a few more minutes.”

“If I come in there and you’re doing some freaky shit, you ain’t touching that controller again dude!”

I sat up and looked at my clock.

3:35 A.M.

Before I could tell Jed to leave me alone again, he stumbled through the door.

“You gotta put a lock on this shit if you plan on abandoning your friend just to wack off!”

Jed tripped through with one hand over his eyes and another outstretched trying to feel his way around.

I snapped “Jed! If I need some fucking privacy in my own place I’ll take it dammit!”

He pulled his hand off his face. “Wow dude sorry, chill out I was just making a joke.”

“I know dude just give me a few minutes… fuck.”

“Alright man jeez” he turned to leave but before I could close the door he spun back around.

“The fucks that noise?”

I froze for a second. “I don’t hear anything.”

I heard exactly what Jed did, but I had no idea why it hadn’t stopped when he walked in. I had never had anyone else hear the tapping, not even my parents when I begged them to check as a child.

“Somethings hitting your window bro” Jed insisted.

“Probably a tree branch”

“You only have trees in the front yard dude”

I took a deep breath, just my luck that the drunk guy making an ass of himself 10 seconds ago is able to make logical determinations in his next sentence. It didn’t help any that I never could lie for shit.

“Yeah dude I don’t know, I’ll take a look after a bit.”

Jed stared at me with a furrowed brow before pushing past me, sitting up on the bed and walking towards my window.

“Jed don’t-“

“I’m just taking a peek calm the fuck down man.”

Jed snuck up to the window above my bed and pulled back the curtain. Not only did the tapping stop immediately, but nothing sat outside the glass. I exhaled.

“It’s nothing dude, see?”

“I just think it’s weird man, quit being a prick about it okay?”

“Are you done?”

Jed closed the curtain without a response and turned towards the door, after only a few steps the tapping started again.

“The fuck?” Jed turned and threw open the curtain again only for the same sight to show.

“Don’t look at me crazy again Ollie, I know you hear that shit too!”

I blinked at him before rubbing my blurring eyes. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe Jed’s persistence, but I gave up.

“Yeah dude, I hear it every night.”

“What? Every night for how long?”

I tried to downplay it. “I don’t know, like a couple months now?”

“And you don’t know what it is?”

“No dude. I’ve tried checking a bunch of times and there’s nothing, just like you saw.”

“Okay… but what are you actually doing up here?”

“I just… look Jed, this is gonna sound weird but I listen to it.”

“What?”

“I’ve just kinda gotten in the habit of listening to it every night. It starts around the same time each night and I-I guess I like it.”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“You don’t gotta believe me”

Jed paused and looked back at the window. “Well shit. What do you think it is?”

I didn’t like how calm he sounded. I desperately wanted him to dismiss the whole thing.

“Just a raccoon I think.”

He smiled. “You don’t believe that”

“Could be anything I guess, doesn’t matter since we can’t see it.”

“I bet I could see it.”

I stared back at his grinning face. I knew he had an idea behind those eyes that I would hate.

He explained further. “Look, you can keep up your weird nightly ritual shit, I don’t care about that. But I wanna find out what it is.”

“Why?”

He stood for a second before smiling again. “Just sounds like the type of dumb shit we did as kids”

I sighed once more and mulled over Jed’s idea. Realistically there was no reason for me to worry, since neither of us knew anything about what this thing was. Despite that, I wanted to talk him out of it. To him it probably was just an animal, but to me it was something more. I felt uncomfortable, however, after working out the details, we agreed on a plan that would satisfy the both of us.

The plan was, Jed would go out the following night and stake out my window. I would lay in bed like normal and we’d both wait for the tapping to start. I only agreed once Jed promised not to interact with or scare away whatever it was making the noise. Part of me really hoped that all of this was alcohol led ambition and he really had no plan on following through the next night. Unfortunately I woke up the next afternoon to find him preparing for his hunt.

Outside he had found a small cover of knee high grass at the neighbors fence that he planned to hide in.

“How obvious do I look man? Is this good cover?”

“You’re wearing a white t-shirt asswipe, no it’s not good cover.”

“I’ll wear black tonight smart ass.”

“I’d still catch your lanky frame laying in the same patch of grass the neighborhood dogs all piss in.”

“I sleep on that greasy sofa each night dick, this feels like Egyptian cotton by comparison.”

I felt myself smiling at Jed’s words to the point that I almost forgot how pissed I was that he insisted on all of this. I only hoped that he found nothing and gave up, but he was always persistent towards the seemingly least important things.

That night, Jed said he’d start waiting outside around 2:30 A.M. to make sure whatever was making the sound wouldn’t be there before him.

As I laid in bed, I couldn’t sleep. My mind went through an array of thoughts that my only personal secret would all come to unfold tonight. My mystery visitor would be exposed as some simple creature or trick of the mind. I’d be left with unsatisfying answers to questions that had already died years ago.

All because Jed seemingly needed to fulfill his dream of acting like a child again. Had it been anyone else they would’ve written off the entire thing and went on with their life. Of course I had the one friend with nothing better to do except lay outside and wait for something to hit my window.

I knew I was acting overly bitter at the soon to be loss of my longest life mystery, but I couldn’t help but wish the entire illusion could remain. I didn’t want to know what it was. More importantly, I didn’t want Jed to know. My most personal experience was now being turned upside down by someone with no understanding of what this meant to me. Needless to say I was pissed at the guy, but I let him go on with his experiment just to satisfy his curiosity.

Tossing to my side, my mind continued to wander through what Jed might find. Making blank eye contact with the pile of clothes near my bed, I was shaken out of my own mind by the typical tapping on my window.

For the first time in over a decade, the sound startled me. I cautiously listened for a few minutes, worried that Jed would interrupt it all. As time ticked by, nothing unusual seemed to occur, and after 10 minutes straight the tapping slowly dragged away.

As soon as the tapping faded away, my body tensed with the knowledge that Jed would burst back in and tell me everything he saw. I stared towards my ceiling and waited.

2 minutes passed, surely he’d be in soon. Then 5 minutes, then 8.

After what felt like a second lifetime, I looked at my phone to see how long it had been.

3:56 A.M.

What the hell was taking so long? I hadn’t heard the door open but maybe he just went in and laid down. Surely even he needed to get some sleep and talk about his discovery tomorrow?

I decided to rise out of bed and check quickly. Maneuvering my way through the dark I found my bedroom door and peeked my head past the hall.

Empty.

Silent.

Jed was still outside.

Fear struck my chest as I grabbed a jacket and pushed through my front door. Weaving to the side of my house I called out in a forceful whisper.

“Jed! You still out here? Get inside!”

Crickets and wind.

Moving closer to the patch of grass Jed had picked out I saw an unmoving leg caught in the moonlight. Bile rose in my throat as I knelt down and reached out.

“Jed, wake the fuck up, fucking move dude!”

As I pressed harder into his bigger frame he jostled back into his previous slump. My heart raced with panic and I practically beat him in the torso with my fist, trying to get anything to react.

Tears welled in my eyes at my waning attempts.

“Fuck dude, get up, tell me what you saw…”

I fell back from the grass and wiped my eyes, every part of me wanted to look away, but I moved back to look at his face.

Two shadowed eyes blinked back at me, as a groaning breath parted his lips.

“Holy shit Jed! Get the fuck up, you about gave me a heart attack you dick!”

“I’m fine. No thanks to you, is that how you wake people up?”

His voice was stiff and low, with a tone behind it that leaked a sense of resentment.

“Motherfucker I thought you were dead! Corpses sleep lighter than that you crazy fuck!”

“Whatever, I’m headed back in to sleep.”

“Wait, did you see anything?”

His eyes met mine and I noticed bags under them I never knew existed. The usual lighthearted glow you could find in his stare was gone, he could’ve just as easily been looking at the houses behind me. I’ve felt more compassion in eyes that pierced with hatred than the cold indifference I now greeted.

“Nothing came by your window.” The words weren’t meant to be debated.

“But you were sleeping.”

“I waited as long as I needed to, doesn’t matter now.” He shrugged.

I squinted at his empty expression, “Bullshit.” I challenged.

“You don’t gotta believe me.”

As he turned back towards the house I was left to chew on the echo of my old words. Technically I got what I wanted, Jed no longer seemed interested in whatever did this. But that was the problem, Jed never had a lack of ambition in his small adventures. In the blink of an eye, the smile on his face that seemed almost permanent was missing. He just didn’t engage with me or the world around him like he once did. At the time, I tried to justify that he’d be fine the next morning, but it never could be that easy.

I snapped back to the present once I heard the front door of my house slam shut. Jed was gone, having left me out in the grass with my own thoughts. I went back around the house to the front door. Going inside I saw a heap of blankets on the sofa, he seemed to already be asleep. I passed by and carefully retreated back to my bed. Shutting my eyes I waited to see if tomorrow would be any different.

I must’ve gotten some form of rest that night, as I opened my eyes to see that the sun was already up. I looked at the time to see that I had slept through the morning and into the afternoon.

Ignoring all else I crept out of my room to check on Jed. The house seemed empty, and calling out his name earned me no response. Nervous, I checked each room before looking outside to see his car still parked on the street. Letting out a deep breath, I rubbed the crusted corners of my eyes before stepping outside into my obnoxiously bright yard.

Squinting through the sun, I rounded the house in a brisk walk, stopping at what I found. Jed stood in the yard, still dressed in the black t-shirt and shorts he wore the previous night. His posture looked like he might collapse any second, shoulders slumped, arms hanging to his sides. The only part of himself raised upward was his head, slightly tilted high. His eyes ran back and forth, tracing every inch of the window to my bedroom. If I hadn’t seen him on the couch the night before, I would assume this is what he had been doing ever since.

I walked up to him carefully, he still didn’t react. Reaching out I tried to shake his shoulder, and before I had even spoken his name, the contact ignited the person behind the blank stare.

“Hey! What the fuck?! Don’t sneak up on me! What the hell are you doing following me?!

I nearly fell over from the outburst “Jesus Christ Jed! I didn’t follow shit! The fuck are you doing out here?”

Before he could yell again he looked up and squeezed his eyes nearly closed, as if he just noticed the sun still existed.

“Fucking hell, what time is it?”

I eyed him worriedly “it’s one in the afternoon, a little past that now.”

He flashed a look of almost shock, before smothering it back down with his previous venom.

I tried again “Jed, why are you out here again? What are you doing?”

“I was on a walk.” His voice was numb.

“Somethings up with you dude, the fuck happened last night?”

His tone was calm but the next words were anything but.

“Why is it that when someone’s finally sick of your shit you assume they’re the problem?”

The words hit like a truck, I was beginning to think that our friendship was completely collapsing in front of me. My words lost all fight as I just stared at him.

“The hell’s gotten into you?”

His eyes left me and went back to the window for a moment.

“Maybe some sense for a change.”

With that, he once more pushed past me, his face pink from the inescapable sunlight that he had stood in for God knows how long. I couldn’t bring myself to even react at this point. I stayed in the yard for a length of time, eyes fixed on the glass like Jed had. By the time my gaze broke and I began stepping away, I still couldn’t discern what he might’ve been looking for.

I tried over the next week to talk things over with Jed, but the same cold attitude followed him like a shadow. No more banter, no more late nights, not even a memory of a smile passed his expression.

Coming home from work one night, his things were gone, as was he. You wouldn’t know another man called the place home just that morning. I tried reaching out to his mom only to find out she hadn’t been able to hear from him either, but all his stuff from her house was missing too. Last I heard, his mom found him living about an hour away, in some small apartment complex. She only got 2 words out before he closed the door on her.

I don’t know if Jed saw anything that night. But I’m almost certain that whoever visits me during those early hours saw him first.

(End of part 1)

Throughout my life, I’ve experienced a nightly event that has followed me into adulthood. All this time, it never seemed like a real threat. This last year proved otherwise.

The first time it happened I was young, probably about 6 years old. It started the same then as it does now, I was just in my bed sleeping, until I awoke to a sharp, slow tapping on my bedroom window. Being so young, I didn’t know what to do, so I froze. The “thing” by my window kept up its tapping for 10 minutes. Sometimes it sped up, other times it would slow down or move to different sections of the glass. For some reason, I always felt like the tapping quickened if I thought about looking at it, but I had no real proof of that.

The one thing that made it very consistent was how it ended, with a sharp dragging noise going down the glass before it stopped completely. After that, I found the courage to push my toddler frame up and stand on the bed. Peeking through the curtains I saw nothing, another frustrating consistency this thing had.

Telling my parents about it the next morning before school, they feigned interest before my dad dismissed the monster theory.

“Part of living in the country Ollie, lots of critters come by to say hi” he said.

“Probably a silly raccoon trying to play with his own reflection.” my mother said with a chuckle.

Despite what many may call dismissive, my parents really can’t be blamed for their reaction. After all, I was the type of kid to go on about how our dog could talk to me but didn’t talk to my parents because they only talked about work and bills. To give my parents even more credit, as the tapping kept going for the following nights, they played into my “imagination” and looked for the monster by my window. Every time this happened, the tapping would stop, then as soon as my parents found nothing and we all went back to bed, it started right back up until it completed its ten minutes of racket.

For weeks my brain worked up as many schemes as possible to catch the tapper. No matter how fast I opened the curtains or how often my parents looked, it would always be gone before anyone could see. Then as soon as I gave up and laid back down, the sound returned to finish its routine. After trying to discover what was happening for so long I eventually decided that as long as whatever it was couldn’t get through my window, I would be fine.

To make myself feel safer, I remembered that my dad kept a few old padlocks and latches in his shed. Sneaking in there one afternoon I found the box they were kept in and grabbed a handful of supplies. After struggling for around half an hour I had managed to roughly nail two hook latches into the wooden frame of my window without alerting my parents. I then looped the padlock through and locked it shut. Pulling with all my strength, the window wouldn’t budge open. Grinning at my own ingenuity, I went to sleep that night feeling like I had won in some way. I woke at the usual time of 3:30 AM to hear the tapping. After the ten minutes were up I eagerly checked out the window to see the lock holding firmly in place.

The next morning I woke up still pleased with myself for outwitting whatever it was that tapped each night. I swung open the curtains to admire my handiwork once again when my smile dropped.

While the window remained completely untouched, the lock, latches, and nails were all gone.

Fear overwhelmed me as I desperately hoped that I would go to breakfast to hear my dad scolding me for taking his things without permission. I had never wanted to be in trouble more than in that moment.

Dad never said a word about that lock, and while I could always tell myself he silently took his things back, I knew that wasn’t true. The box in the shed was still missing the stuff I grabbed.

After the lock went missing, I felt like I was out of options, and in reality I pretty much was. So I started doing what I do to this day, just let it happen. My body grew used to it, waking up each night to listen for 10 minutes, from 3:30-3:40 AM. Over the years not much of note occurred except a few things that I remember.

The first time something different happened was about 6 months after it started. I was staying over at my friend Jed’s house for a sleepover. I woke up just before 3:30 like I usually do. I listened for a few minutes and like normal, I heard tapping on the window. I didn’t even realize it at first, I was so used to the routine of it that I didn’t even think to question anything.

Looking over at Jed sleeping on an air mattress it hit me. How could this be happening away from my house? Being so young, I didn’t really process all of this until a year or so down the line. However, it became abundantly clear over the years that whatever did this followed me around. On every family vacation and sleepover I would hear it. Even on camping trips, I would wake up to hear tapping the side of my tent.

The next time something changed, I was in the third grade. It was Veterans Day at school, and as a special guest we had one classmates dad come by to do a presentation and talk to us. He had served in the navy and, for a couple hours, we listened to stories, asked questions, and did some activities. It was all pretty basic stuff but I remember my favorite part of the day was him teaching us about morse code, and we all got to learn how to use it.

We took turns in groups of two taking a flashlight and signaling different messages to each other. However, the only one that really stuck with anybody was how to signal SOS. It was pretty simple, 3 quick flashes, 3 slow flashes, and then another 3 quick flashes. Jed and I spent a good 15 minutes just doing that over and over again before we got in trouble for flashing the light in a girls eyes too many times.

That night, my parents even got to see just how good I had gotten at my SOS signaling, before again getting the flashlight taken away after shining it in my own eye. Despite that, I fell asleep proud of my new survival skills.

Waking up that night to the usual routine I had made, I groggily came to understand the pattern hitting the glass.

tap! tap! tap! Tap. Tap. Tap. tap! tap! tap!

It repeated to tap SOS on the glass for 10 minutes while I tensed in my suddenly freezing bed, before the sound dragged away like normal. That was the only time it used any real code that I can recognize. It doesn’t use actual patterns often, but on occasion I can hear it tapping out rough melodies. The songs I do recognize all come from my childhood.

For years this went on, and I’d now spent much more of my life with the tapping than without. Apart from the occasional unsettling nature of it, I hadn’t really been bothered by the sounds. Part of me even started to think I was the only one who could hear it. Aside from Jed, I didn’t have much for friends, and even he didn’t stay at my house very often. As far as I knew, I was the only one who did hear it. Going into my mid teens, it even gave me a weird sense of comfort. It’s hard to describe but it felt so private. I could be making it all up in my head but it was something just for me to experience and no one else. Those 10 minutes every night were completely mine, and I liked that.

This all leads up to the last year and a half. After my 22nd birthday, I finally found a small house I could rent in town, only about 20 minutes from my parents place. I liked staying close to home but this finally gave me my own space. My dad and Jed helped me move in, and after my first night, I knew the tapping followed. It wasn’t a surprise at this point, I knew it happened no matter where I was, and honestly, I was happy to know it’d stay. I liked a certain level of isolation but the company every night really became something I looked forward to.

The house itself wasn’t much, my bedroom led out to a short hallway opposite of my bathroom. Past the hall was my living room and a small kitchen that felt more like a corner than its own separate room. At first it seemed cramped, especially with Jed’s large frame carrying my moving boxes through the short hall, taking up most of the walking room. But after falling into a new routine, I felt like a king.

At least I did for about 4 months. See Jed still lived with his mom and I knew for a while now that they had been arguing more and more. Eventually, he got caught with some weed in his room and she kicked him out. When he came to me asking for a place to stay for a few weeks, I really didn’t want to give in. It sounds selfish to say but I really never liked sharing my living space, and I didn’t want to end up turning Jed’s few week stay into a permanent roommate agreement.

I did decide to cave, since he was my closest friend, and to his credit he was really grateful. Just for letting him sleep on my couch he went to the trouble of buying me a huge floor speaker as a thank you. It was nice for a couple nights until my landlord told me about noise complaints and forced me to stop using it. Still, it was useful to pile laundry on top of since it sat on the wall closest to my bed and I still hadn’t bought a clothes basket.

After about 2 weeks, I really did start to like having Jed around, since it meant we got to hang out a lot more often. Every couple nights we’d boot up some games from really old consoles we were given during our childhood and replay them while we had some drinks. A lot of these were outdated even when we were kids so it was fun seeing how bad some of them were now. One night, Jed brought home a PlayStation 2 that his uncle had saved. I grabbed some beer from the local gas station and we spent hours going through the variety of old, crappy games that we grew up thinking were gold.

After about 6 hours, we were both pretty far gone and yet we still had a handful of games to go through before we agreed to call it a morning at that point.

Jed clumsily fiddled with the PlayStation, “I ain’t satisfied til I’ve played some Resident Evil man”.

“You didn’t even like that game when we were kids dipshit” I laughed

“Fuckin thing was scary bro! Only reason you liked it was to stare at that blonde Ashley.”

“And it was worth every second of playing”

While Jed fumbled through the remaining cases we hadn’t touched, I took a chance to stretch and glance outside for a minute. Not a single neighbor of mine had their lights on anymore. Curious, I pulled my phone out to check the time.

3:22 A.M.

It felt like a spike ran through my body. Should I leave it be? Surely I can skip for a night and stay up with Jed.

But something felt wrong about that. I had never missed it. I shouldn’t have been up this late. I needed to get to my room even for just 15 minutes. I glanced at my phone again.

3:24 A.M.

My palms began to sweat as I looked over at Jed, now placing the game into the PlayStation and sliding it shut.

“Alright let’s get started! Pass me another beer dude”

I stayed silent, barely listening to him

“Dude?”

I looked outside again

“Ollie can you quit thinking about Ashley Graham’s tits for 2 seconds and pass me a beer!?” Jed practically yelled with a huge grin.

“Shit yeah- I mean- hey fuck you dude, take your beer” I said, realizing too late what he said.

Jed practically cackled “fuckin got ‘em!”

“Whatever dude” I tried to smile and play it off, sitting back down.

“This is your game man, I’m passing the controller off to you alright?”

I paused, taking a chance to glance at my phone again.

3:27 A.M.

I couldn’t stay.

“Shit, hey dude, you get it started for me alright? I gotta do something quick”

“You gotta take a piss as soon as I start this up huh?”

“Nah, I just have to go to my room and do something real quick, just give me like 10 or 15 minutes”

“The fuck you gotta do?”

“I can tell you when I get back, just give me a bit, okay?”

Before he could answer I got up and headed towards my room. I had to contain myself from moving faster than a walk, I didn’t need Jed thinking something was wrong and following me.

I closed my bedroom door behind me and checked the time

3:29 A.M.

I made it. Laying down on the bed, I breathed a sigh of relief and closed my eyes. My head spun from the alcohol as I listened for the sound of my nightly companion.

Tap tap. Tap. Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap.

I listened as a rhythmic pattern formed on the window. Opening my eyes only occasionally to check how long I had before I could go back and come up with an excuse to give Jed.

Tap. Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap.

I turned over on my side and stared at the base of the floor speaker Jed had gotten me. Only the bottom was visible due to the pile of clothes draped over it. My thoughts drifted away from the tapping for a moment to reminisce on what I would tell Jed when I came back. I only got a moment of this before I heard a palm slap against my bedroom door.

“Ollie! The hell are you doing man? You calling it a night already?”

I looked at my clock.

3:34 A.M.

Shit.

“I-I’ll be back in a few minutes bro, just give me some time okay?”

Jed’s slurred laugh came through the door. “What are you fucking up to in there dude?! You beating your shit in there or something?”

I rubbed my face with my palms. “Fuck off dude, just wait for me for a few more minutes.”

“If I come in there and you’re doing some freaky shit, you ain’t touching that controller again dude!”

I sat up and looked at my clock.

3:35 A.M.

Before I could tell Jed to leave me alone again, he stumbled through the door.

“You gotta put a lock on this shit if you plan on abandoning your friend just to wack off!”

Jed tripped through with one hand over his eyes and another outstretched trying to feel his way around.

I snapped “Jed! If I need some fucking privacy in my own place I’ll take it dammit!”

He pulled his hand off his face. “Wow dude sorry, chill out I was just making a joke.”

“I know dude just give me a few minutes… fuck.”

“Alright man jeez” he turned to leave but before I could close the door he spun back around.

“The fucks that noise?”

I froze for a second. “I don’t hear anything.”

I heard exactly what Jed did, but I had no idea why it hadn’t stopped when he walked in. I had never had anyone else hear the tapping, not even my parents when I begged them to check as a child.

“Somethings hitting your window bro” Jed insisted.

“Probably a tree branch”

“You only have trees in the front yard dude”

I took a deep breath, just my luck that the drunk guy making an ass of himself 10 seconds ago is able to make logical determinations in his next sentence. It didn’t help any that I never could lie for shit.

“Yeah dude I don’t know, I’ll take a look after a bit.”

Jed stared at me with a furrowed brow before pushing past me, sitting up on the bed and walking towards my window.

“Jed don’t-“

“I’m just taking a peek calm the fuck down man.”

Jed snuck up to the window above my bed and pulled back the curtain. Not only did the tapping stop immediately, but nothing sat outside the glass. I exhaled.

“It’s nothing dude, see?”

“I just think it’s weird man, quit being a prick about it okay?”

“Are you done?”

Jed closed the curtain without a response and turned towards the door, after only a few steps the tapping started again.

“The fuck?” Jed turned and threw open the curtain again only for the same sight to show.

“Don’t look at me crazy again Ollie, I know you hear that shit too!”

I blinked at him before rubbing my blurring eyes. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe Jed’s persistence, but I gave up.

“Yeah dude, I hear it every night.”

“What? Every night for how long?”

I tried to downplay it. “I don’t know, like a couple months now?”

“And you don’t know what it is?”

“No dude. I’ve tried checking a bunch of times and there’s nothing, just like you saw.”

“Okay… but what are you actually doing up here?”

“I just… look Jed, this is gonna sound weird but I listen to it.”

“What?”

“I’ve just kinda gotten in the habit of listening to it every night. It starts around the same time each night and I-I guess I like it.”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“You don’t gotta believe me”

Jed paused and looked back at the window. “Well shit. What do you think it is?”

I didn’t like how calm he sounded. I desperately wanted him to dismiss the whole thing.

“Just a raccoon I think.”

He smiled. “You don’t believe that”

“Could be anything I guess, doesn’t matter since we can’t see it.”

“I bet I could see it.”

I stared back at his grinning face. I knew he had an idea behind those eyes that I would hate.

He explained further. “Look, you can keep up your weird nightly ritual shit, I don’t care about that. But I wanna find out what it is.”

“Why?”

He stood for a second before smiling again. “Just sounds like the type of dumb shit we did as kids”

I sighed once more and mulled over Jed’s idea. Realistically there was no reason for me to worry, since neither of us knew anything about what this thing was. Despite that, I wanted to talk him out of it. To him it probably was just an animal, but to me it was something more. I felt uncomfortable, however, after working out the details, we agreed on a plan that would satisfy the both of us.

The plan was, Jed would go out the following night and stake out my window. I would lay in bed like normal and we’d both wait for the tapping to start. I only agreed once Jed promised not to interact with or scare away whatever it was making the noise. Part of me really hoped that all of this was alcohol led ambition and he really had no plan on following through the next night. Unfortunately I woke up the next afternoon to find him preparing for his hunt.

Outside he had found a small cover of knee high grass at the neighbors fence that he planned to hide in.

“How obvious do I look man? Is this good cover?”

“You’re wearing a white t-shirt asswipe, no it’s not good cover.”

“I’ll wear black tonight smart ass.”

“I’d still catch your lanky frame laying in the same patch of grass the neighborhood dogs all piss in.”

“I sleep on that greasy sofa each night dick, this feels like Egyptian cotton by comparison.”

I felt myself smiling at Jed’s words to the point that I almost forgot how pissed I was that he insisted on all of this. I only hoped that he found nothing and gave up, but he was always persistent towards the seemingly least important things.

That night, Jed said he’d start waiting outside around 2:30 A.M. to make sure whatever was making the sound wouldn’t be there before him.

As I laid in bed, I couldn’t sleep. My mind went through an array of thoughts that my only personal secret would all come to unfold tonight. My mystery visitor would be exposed as some simple creature or trick of the mind. I’d be left with unsatisfying answers to questions that had already died years ago.

All because Jed seemingly needed to fulfill his dream of acting like a child again. Had it been anyone else they would’ve written off the entire thing and went on with their life. Of course I had the one friend with nothing better to do except lay outside and wait for something to hit my window.

I knew I was acting overly bitter at the soon to be loss of my longest life mystery, but I couldn’t help but wish the entire illusion could remain. I didn’t want to know what it was. More importantly, I didn’t want Jed to know. My most personal experience was now being turned upside down by someone with no understanding of what this meant to me. Needless to say I was pissed at the guy, but I let him go on with his experiment just to satisfy his curiosity.

Tossing to my side, my mind continued to wander through what Jed might find. Making blank eye contact with the pile of clothes near my bed, I was shaken out of my own mind by the typical tapping on my window.

For the first time in over a decade, the sound startled me. I cautiously listened for a few minutes, worried that Jed would interrupt it all. As time ticked by, nothing unusual seemed to occur, and after 10 minutes straight the tapping slowly dragged away.

As soon as the tapping faded away, my body tensed with the knowledge that Jed would burst back in and tell me everything he saw. I stared towards my ceiling and waited.

2 minutes passed, surely he’d be in soon. Then 5 minutes, then 8.

After what felt like a second lifetime, I looked at my phone to see how long it had been.

3:56 A.M.

What the hell was taking so long? I hadn’t heard the door open but maybe he just went in and laid down. Surely even he needed to get some sleep and talk about his discovery tomorrow?

I decided to rise out of bed and check quickly. Maneuvering my way through the dark I found my bedroom door and peeked my head past the hall.

Empty.

Silent.

Jed was still outside.

Fear struck my chest as I grabbed a jacket and pushed through my front door. Weaving to the side of my house I called out in a forceful whisper.

“Jed! You still out here? Get inside!”

Crickets and wind.

Moving closer to the patch of grass Jed had picked out I saw an unmoving leg caught in the moonlight. Bile rose in my throat as I knelt down and reached out.

“Jed, wake the fuck up, fucking move dude!”

As I pressed harder into his bigger frame he jostled back into his previous slump. My heart raced with panic and I practically beat him in the torso with my fist, trying to get anything to react.

Tears welled in my eyes at my waning attempts.

“Fuck dude, get up, tell me what you saw…”

I fell back from the grass and wiped my eyes, every part of me wanted to look away, but I moved back to look at his face.

Two shadowed eyes blinked back at me, as a groaning breath parted his lips.

“Holy shit Jed! Get the fuck up, you about gave me a heart attack you dick!”

“I’m fine. No thanks to you, is that how you wake people up?”

His voice was stiff and low, with a tone behind it that leaked a sense of resentment.

“Motherfucker I thought you were dead! Corpses sleep lighter than that you crazy fuck!”

“Whatever, I’m headed back in to sleep.”

“Wait, did you see anything?”

His eyes met mine and I noticed bags under them I never knew existed. The usual lighthearted glow you could find in his stare was gone, he could’ve just as easily been looking at the houses behind me. I’ve felt more compassion in eyes that pierced with hatred than the cold indifference I now greeted.

“Nothing came by your window.” The words weren’t meant to be debated.

“But you were sleeping.”

“I waited as long as I needed to, doesn’t matter now.” He shrugged.

I squinted at his empty expression, “Bullshit.” I challenged.

“You don’t gotta believe me.”

As he turned back towards the house I was left to chew on the echo of my old words. Technically I got what I wanted, Jed no longer seemed interested in whatever did this. But that was the problem, Jed never had a lack of ambition in his small adventures. In the blink of an eye, the smile on his face that seemed almost permanent was missing. He just didn’t engage with me or the world around him like he once did. At the time, I tried to justify that he’d be fine the next morning, but it never could be that easy.

I snapped back to the present once I heard the front door of my house slam shut. Jed was gone, having left me out in the grass with my own thoughts. I went back around the house to the front door. Going inside I saw a heap of blankets on the sofa, he seemed to already be asleep. I passed by and carefully retreated back to my bed. Shutting my eyes I waited to see if tomorrow would be any different.

I must’ve gotten some form of rest that night, as I opened my eyes to see that the sun was already up. I looked at the time to see that I had slept through the morning and into the afternoon.

Ignoring all else I crept out of my room to check on Jed. The house seemed empty, and calling out his name earned me no response. Nervous, I checked each room before looking outside to see his car still parked on the street. Letting out a deep breath, I rubbed the crusted corners of my eyes before stepping outside into my obnoxiously bright yard.

Squinting through the sun, I rounded the house in a brisk walk, stopping at what I found. Jed stood in the yard, still dressed in the black t-shirt and shorts he wore the previous night. His posture looked like he might collapse any second, shoulders slumped, arms hanging to his sides. The only part of himself raised upward was his head, slightly tilted high. His eyes ran back and forth, tracing every inch of the window to my bedroom. If I hadn’t seen him on the couch the night before, I would assume this is what he had been doing ever since.

I walked up to him carefully, he still didn’t react. Reaching out I tried to shake his shoulder, and before I had even spoken his name, the contact ignited the person behind the blank stare.

“Hey! What the fuck?! Don’t sneak up on me! What the hell are you doing following me?!

I nearly fell over from the outburst “Jesus Christ Jed! I didn’t follow shit! The fuck are you doing out here?”

Before he could yell again he looked up and squeezed his eyes nearly closed, as if he just noticed the sun still existed.

“Fucking hell, what time is it?”

I eyed him worriedly “it’s one in the afternoon, a little past that now.”

He flashed a look of almost shock, before smothering it back down with his previous venom.

I tried again “Jed, why are you out here again? What are you doing?”

“I was on a walk.” His voice was numb.

“Somethings up with you dude, the fuck happened last night?”

His tone was calm but the next words were anything but.

“Why is it that when someone’s finally sick of your shit you assume they’re the problem?”

The words hit like a truck, I was beginning to think that our friendship was completely collapsing in front of me. My words lost all fight as I just stared at him.

“The hell’s gotten into you?”

His eyes left me and went back to the window for a moment.

“Maybe some sense for a change.”

With that, he once more pushed past me, his face pink from the inescapable sunlight that he had stood in for God knows how long. I couldn’t bring myself to even react at this point. I stayed in the yard for a length of time, eyes fixed on the glass like Jed had. By the time my gaze broke and I began stepping away, I still couldn’t discern what he might’ve been looking for.

I tried over the next week to talk things over with Jed, but the same cold attitude followed him like a shadow. No more banter, no more late nights, not even a memory of a smile passed his expression.

Coming home from work one night, his things were gone, as was he. You wouldn’t know another man called the place home just that morning. I tried reaching out to his mom only to find out she hadn’t been able to hear from him either, but all his stuff from her house was missing too. Last I heard, his mom found him living about an hour away, in some small apartment complex. She only got 2 words out before he closed the door on her.

I don’t know if Jed saw anything that night. But I’m almost certain that whoever visits me during those early hours saw him first.

(End of part 1)

Throughout my life, I’ve experienced a nightly event that has followed me into adulthood. All this time, it never seemed like a real threat. This last year proved otherwise.

The first time it happened I was young, probably about 6 years old. It started the same then as it does now, I was just in my bed sleeping, until I awoke to a sharp, slow tapping on my bedroom window. Being so young, I didn’t know what to do, so I froze. The “thing” by my window kept up its tapping for 10 minutes. Sometimes it sped up, other times it would slow down or move to different sections of the glass. For some reason, I always felt like the tapping quickened if I thought about looking at it, but I had no real proof of that.

The one thing that made it very consistent was how it ended, with a sharp dragging noise going down the glass before it stopped completely. After that, I found the courage to push my toddler frame up and stand on the bed. Peeking through the curtains I saw nothing, another frustrating consistency this thing had.

Telling my parents about it the next morning before school, they feigned interest before my dad dismissed the monster theory.

“Part of living in the country Ollie, lots of critters come by to say hi” he said.

“Probably a silly raccoon trying to play with his own reflection.” my mother said with a chuckle.

Despite what many may call dismissive, my parents really can’t be blamed for their reaction. After all, I was the type of kid to go on about how our dog could talk to me but didn’t talk to my parents because they only talked about work and bills. To give my parents even more credit, as the tapping kept going for the following nights, they played into my “imagination” and looked for the monster by my window. Every time this happened, the tapping would stop, then as soon as my parents found nothing and we all went back to bed, it started right back up until it completed its ten minutes of racket.

For weeks my brain worked up as many schemes as possible to catch the tapper. No matter how fast I opened the curtains or how often my parents looked, it would always be gone before anyone could see. Then as soon as I gave up and laid back down, the sound returned to finish its routine. After trying to discover what was happening for so long I eventually decided that as long as whatever it was couldn’t get through my window, I would be fine.

To make myself feel safer, I remembered that my dad kept a few old padlocks and latches in his shed. Sneaking in there one afternoon I found the box they were kept in and grabbed a handful of supplies. After struggling for around half an hour I had managed to roughly nail two hook latches into the wooden frame of my window without alerting my parents. I then looped the padlock through and locked it shut. Pulling with all my strength, the window wouldn’t budge open. Grinning at my own ingenuity, I went to sleep that night feeling like I had won in some way. I woke at the usual time of 3:30 AM to hear the tapping. After the ten minutes were up I eagerly checked out the window to see the lock holding firmly in place.

The next morning I woke up still pleased with myself for outwitting whatever it was that tapped each night. I swung open the curtains to admire my handiwork once again when my smile dropped.

While the window remained completely untouched, the lock, latches, and nails were all gone.

Fear overwhelmed me as I desperately hoped that I would go to breakfast to hear my dad scolding me for taking his things without permission. I had never wanted to be in trouble more than in that moment.

Dad never said a word about that lock, and while I could always tell myself he silently took his things back, I knew that wasn’t true. The box in the shed was still missing the stuff I grabbed.

After the lock went missing, I felt like I was out of options, and in reality I pretty much was. So I started doing what I do to this day, just let it happen. My body grew used to it, waking up each night to listen for 10 minutes, from 3:30-3:40 AM. Over the years not much of note occurred except a few things that I remember.

The first time something different happened was about 6 months after it started. I was staying over at my friend Jed’s house for a sleepover. I woke up just before 3:30 like I usually do. I listened for a few minutes and like normal, I heard tapping on the window. I didn’t even realize it at first, I was so used to the routine of it that I didn’t even think to question anything.

Looking over at Jed sleeping on an air mattress it hit me. How could this be happening away from my house? Being so young, I didn’t really process all of this until a year or so down the line. However, it became abundantly clear over the years that whatever did this followed me around. On every family vacation and sleepover I would hear it. Even on camping trips, I would wake up to hear tapping the side of my tent.

The next time something changed, I was in the third grade. It was Veterans Day at school, and as a special guest we had one classmates dad come by to do a presentation and talk to us. He had served in the navy and, for a couple hours, we listened to stories, asked questions, and did some activities. It was all pretty basic stuff but I remember my favorite part of the day was him teaching us about morse code, and we all got to learn how to use it.

We took turns in groups of two taking a flashlight and signaling different messages to each other. However, the only one that really stuck with anybody was how to signal SOS. It was pretty simple, 3 quick flashes, 3 slow flashes, and then another 3 quick flashes. Jed and I spent a good 15 minutes just doing that over and over again before we got in trouble for flashing the light in a girls eyes too many times.

That night, my parents even got to see just how good I had gotten at my SOS signaling, before again getting the flashlight taken away after shining it in my own eye. Despite that, I fell asleep proud of my new survival skills.

Waking up that night to the usual routine I had made, I groggily came to understand the pattern hitting the glass.

tap! tap! tap! Tap. Tap. Tap. tap! tap! tap!

It repeated to tap SOS on the glass for 10 minutes while I tensed in my suddenly freezing bed, before the sound dragged away like normal. That was the only time it used any real code that I can recognize. It doesn’t use actual patterns often, but on occasion I can hear it tapping out rough melodies. The songs I do recognize all come from my childhood.

For years this went on, and I’d now spent much more of my life with the tapping than without. Apart from the occasional unsettling nature of it, I hadn’t really been bothered by the sounds. Part of me even started to think I was the only one who could hear it. Aside from Jed, I didn’t have much for friends, and even he didn’t stay at my house very often. As far as I knew, I was the only one who did hear it. Going into my mid teens, it even gave me a weird sense of comfort. It’s hard to describe but it felt so private. I could be making it all up in my head but it was something just for me to experience and no one else. Those 10 minutes every night were completely mine, and I liked that.

This all leads up to the last year and a half. After my 22nd birthday, I finally found a small house I could rent in town, only about 20 minutes from my parents place. I liked staying close to home but this finally gave me my own space. My dad and Jed helped me move in, and after my first night, I knew the tapping followed. It wasn’t a surprise at this point, I knew it happened no matter where I was, and honestly, I was happy to know it’d stay. I liked a certain level of isolation but the company every night really became something I looked forward to.

The house itself wasn’t much, my bedroom led out to a short hallway opposite of my bathroom. Past the hall was my living room and a small kitchen that felt more like a corner than its own separate room. At first it seemed cramped, especially with Jed’s large frame carrying my moving boxes through the short hall, taking up most of the walking room. But after falling into a new routine, I felt like a king.

At least I did for about 4 months. See Jed still lived with his mom and I knew for a while now that they had been arguing more and more. Eventually, he got caught with some weed in his room and she kicked him out. When he came to me asking for a place to stay for a few weeks, I really didn’t want to give in. It sounds selfish to say but I really never liked sharing my living space, and I didn’t want to end up turning Jed’s few week stay into a permanent roommate agreement.

I did decide to cave, since he was my closest friend, and to his credit he was really grateful. Just for letting him sleep on my couch he went to the trouble of buying me a huge floor speaker as a thank you. It was nice for a couple nights until my landlord told me about noise complaints and forced me to stop using it. Still, it was useful to pile laundry on top of since it sat on the wall closest to my bed and I still hadn’t bought a clothes basket.

After about 2 weeks, I really did start to like having Jed around, since it meant we got to hang out a lot more often. Every couple nights we’d boot up some games from really old consoles we were given during our childhood and replay them while we had some drinks. A lot of these were outdated even when we were kids so it was fun seeing how bad some of them were now. One night, Jed brought home a PlayStation 2 that his uncle had saved. I grabbed some beer from the local gas station and we spent hours going through the variety of old, crappy games that we grew up thinking were gold.

After about 6 hours, we were both pretty far gone and yet we still had a handful of games to go through before we agreed to call it a morning at that point.

Jed clumsily fiddled with the PlayStation, “I ain’t satisfied til I’ve played some Resident Evil man”.

“You didn’t even like that game when we were kids dipshit” I laughed

“Fuckin thing was scary bro! Only reason you liked it was to stare at that blonde Ashley.”

“And it was worth every second of playing”

While Jed fumbled through the remaining cases we hadn’t touched, I took a chance to stretch and glance outside for a minute. Not a single neighbor of mine had their lights on anymore. Curious, I pulled my phone out to check the time.

3:22 A.M.

It felt like a spike ran through my body. Should I leave it be? Surely I can skip for a night and stay up with Jed.

But something felt wrong about that. I had never missed it. I shouldn’t have been up this late. I needed to get to my room even for just 15 minutes. I glanced at my phone again.

3:24 A.M.

My palms began to sweat as I looked over at Jed, now placing the game into the PlayStation and sliding it shut.

“Alright let’s get started! Pass me another beer dude”

I stayed silent, barely listening to him

“Dude?”

I looked outside again

“Ollie can you quit thinking about Ashley Graham’s tits for 2 seconds and pass me a beer!?” Jed practically yelled with a huge grin.

“Shit yeah- I mean- hey fuck you dude, take your beer” I said, realizing too late what he said.

Jed practically cackled “fuckin got ‘em!”

“Whatever dude” I tried to smile and play it off, sitting back down.

“This is your game man, I’m passing the controller off to you alright?”

I paused, taking a chance to glance at my phone again.

3:27 A.M.

I couldn’t stay.

“Shit, hey dude, you get it started for me alright? I gotta do something quick”

“You gotta take a piss as soon as I start this up huh?”

“Nah, I just have to go to my room and do something real quick, just give me like 10 or 15 minutes”

“The fuck you gotta do?”

“I can tell you when I get back, just give me a bit, okay?”

Before he could answer I got up and headed towards my room. I had to contain myself from moving faster than a walk, I didn’t need Jed thinking something was wrong and following me.

I closed my bedroom door behind me and checked the time

3:29 A.M.

I made it. Laying down on the bed, I breathed a sigh of relief and closed my eyes. My head spun from the alcohol as I listened for the sound of my nightly companion.

Tap tap. Tap. Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap.

I listened as a rhythmic pattern formed on the window. Opening my eyes only occasionally to check how long I had before I could go back and come up with an excuse to give Jed.

Tap. Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap.

I turned over on my side and stared at the base of the floor speaker Jed had gotten me. Only the bottom was visible due to the pile of clothes draped over it. My thoughts drifted away from the tapping for a moment to reminisce on what I would tell Jed when I came back. I only got a moment of this before I heard a palm slap against my bedroom door.

“Ollie! The hell are you doing man? You calling it a night already?”

I looked at my clock.

3:34 A.M.

Shit.

“I-I’ll be back in a few minutes bro, just give me some time okay?”

Jed’s slurred laugh came through the door. “What are you fucking up to in there dude?! You beating your shit in there or something?”

I rubbed my face with my palms. “Fuck off dude, just wait for me for a few more minutes.”

“If I come in there and you’re doing some freaky shit, you ain’t touching that controller again dude!”

I sat up and looked at my clock.

3:35 A.M.

Before I could tell Jed to leave me alone again, he stumbled through the door.

“You gotta put a lock on this shit if you plan on abandoning your friend just to wack off!”

Jed tripped through with one hand over his eyes and another outstretched trying to feel his way around.

I snapped “Jed! If I need some fucking privacy in my own place I’ll take it dammit!”

He pulled his hand off his face. “Wow dude sorry, chill out I was just making a joke.”

“I know dude just give me a few minutes… fuck.”

“Alright man jeez” he turned to leave but before I could close the door he spun back around.

“The fucks that noise?”

I froze for a second. “I don’t hear anything.”

I heard exactly what Jed did, but I had no idea why it hadn’t stopped when he walked in. I had never had anyone else hear the tapping, not even my parents when I begged them to check as a child.

“Somethings hitting your window bro” Jed insisted.

“Probably a tree branch”

“You only have trees in the front yard dude”

I took a deep breath, just my luck that the drunk guy making an ass of himself 10 seconds ago is able to make logical determinations in his next sentence. It didn’t help any that I never could lie for shit.

“Yeah dude I don’t know, I’ll take a look after a bit.”

Jed stared at me with a furrowed brow before pushing past me, sitting up on the bed and walking towards my window.

“Jed don’t-“

“I’m just taking a peek calm the fuck down man.”

Jed snuck up to the window above my bed and pulled back the curtain. Not only did the tapping stop immediately, but nothing sat outside the glass. I exhaled.

“It’s nothing dude, see?”

“I just think it’s weird man, quit being a prick about it okay?”

“Are you done?”

Jed closed the curtain without a response and turned towards the door, after only a few steps the tapping started again.

“The fuck?” Jed turned and threw open the curtain again only for the same sight to show.

“Don’t look at me crazy again Ollie, I know you hear that shit too!”

I blinked at him before rubbing my blurring eyes. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe Jed’s persistence, but I gave up.

“Yeah dude, I hear it every night.”

“What? Every night for how long?”

I tried to downplay it. “I don’t know, like a couple months now?”

“And you don’t know what it is?”

“No dude. I’ve tried checking a bunch of times and there’s nothing, just like you saw.”

“Okay… but what are you actually doing up here?”

“I just… look Jed, this is gonna sound weird but I listen to it.”

“What?”

“I’ve just kinda gotten in the habit of listening to it every night. It starts around the same time each night and I-I guess I like it.”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“You don’t gotta believe me”

Jed paused and looked back at the window. “Well shit. What do you think it is?”

I didn’t like how calm he sounded. I desperately wanted him to dismiss the whole thing.

“Just a raccoon I think.”

He smiled. “You don’t believe that”

“Could be anything I guess, doesn’t matter since we can’t see it.”

“I bet I could see it.”

I stared back at his grinning face. I knew he had an idea behind those eyes that I would hate.

He explained further. “Look, you can keep up your weird nightly ritual shit, I don’t care about that. But I wanna find out what it is.”

“Why?”

He stood for a second before smiling again. “Just sounds like the type of dumb shit we did as kids”

I sighed once more and mulled over Jed’s idea. Realistically there was no reason for me to worry, since neither of us knew anything about what this thing was. Despite that, I wanted to talk him out of it. To him it probably was just an animal, but to me it was something more. I felt uncomfortable, however, after working out the details, we agreed on a plan that would satisfy the both of us.

The plan was, Jed would go out the following night and stake out my window. I would lay in bed like normal and we’d both wait for the tapping to start. I only agreed once Jed promised not to interact with or scare away whatever it was making the noise. Part of me really hoped that all of this was alcohol led ambition and he really had no plan on following through the next night. Unfortunately I woke up the next afternoon to find him preparing for his hunt.

Outside he had found a small cover of knee high grass at the neighbors fence that he planned to hide in.

“How obvious do I look man? Is this good cover?”

“You’re wearing a white t-shirt asswipe, no it’s not good cover.”

“I’ll wear black tonight smart ass.”

“I’d still catch your lanky frame laying in the same patch of grass the neighborhood dogs all piss in.”

“I sleep on that greasy sofa each night dick, this feels like Egyptian cotton by comparison.”

I felt myself smiling at Jed’s words to the point that I almost forgot how pissed I was that he insisted on all of this. I only hoped that he found nothing and gave up, but he was always persistent towards the seemingly least important things.

That night, Jed said he’d start waiting outside around 2:30 A.M. to make sure whatever was making the sound wouldn’t be there before him.

As I laid in bed, I couldn’t sleep. My mind went through an array of thoughts that my only personal secret would all come to unfold tonight. My mystery visitor would be exposed as some simple creature or trick of the mind. I’d be left with unsatisfying answers to questions that had already died years ago.

All because Jed seemingly needed to fulfill his dream of acting like a child again. Had it been anyone else they would’ve written off the entire thing and went on with their life. Of course I had the one friend with nothing better to do except lay outside and wait for something to hit my window.

I knew I was acting overly bitter at the soon to be loss of my longest life mystery, but I couldn’t help but wish the entire illusion could remain. I didn’t want to know what it was. More importantly, I didn’t want Jed to know. My most personal experience was now being turned upside down by someone with no understanding of what this meant to me. Needless to say I was pissed at the guy, but I let him go on with his experiment just to satisfy his curiosity.

Tossing to my side, my mind continued to wander through what Jed might find. Making blank eye contact with the pile of clothes near my bed, I was shaken out of my own mind by the typical tapping on my window.

For the first time in over a decade, the sound startled me. I cautiously listened for a few minutes, worried that Jed would interrupt it all. As time ticked by, nothing unusual seemed to occur, and after 10 minutes straight the tapping slowly dragged away.

As soon as the tapping faded away, my body tensed with the knowledge that Jed would burst back in and tell me everything he saw. I stared towards my ceiling and waited.

2 minutes passed, surely he’d be in soon. Then 5 minutes, then 8.

After what felt like a second lifetime, I looked at my phone to see how long it had been.

3:56 A.M.

What the hell was taking so long? I hadn’t heard the door open but maybe he just went in and laid down. Surely even he needed to get some sleep and talk about his discovery tomorrow?

I decided to rise out of bed and check quickly. Maneuvering my way through the dark I found my bedroom door and peeked my head past the hall.

Empty.

Silent.

Jed was still outside.

Fear struck my chest as I grabbed a jacket and pushed through my front door. Weaving to the side of my house I called out in a forceful whisper.

“Jed! You still out here? Get inside!”

Crickets and wind.

Moving closer to the patch of grass Jed had picked out I saw an unmoving leg caught in the moonlight. Bile rose in my throat as I knelt down and reached out.

“Jed, wake the fuck up, fucking move dude!”

As I pressed harder into his bigger frame he jostled back into his previous slump. My heart raced with panic and I practically beat him in the torso with my fist, trying to get anything to react.

Tears welled in my eyes at my waning attempts.

“Fuck dude, get up, tell me what you saw…”

I fell back from the grass and wiped my eyes, every part of me wanted to look away, but I moved back to look at his face.

Two shadowed eyes blinked back at me, as a groaning breath parted his lips.

“Holy shit Jed! Get the fuck up, you about gave me a heart attack you dick!”

“I’m fine. No thanks to you, is that how you wake people up?”

His voice was stiff and low, with a tone behind it that leaked a sense of resentment.

“Motherfucker I thought you were dead! Corpses sleep lighter than that you crazy fuck!”

“Whatever, I’m headed back in to sleep.”

“Wait, did you see anything?”

His eyes met mine and I noticed bags under them I never knew existed. The usual lighthearted glow you could find in his stare was gone, he could’ve just as easily been looking at the houses behind me. I’ve felt more compassion in eyes that pierced with hatred than the cold indifference I now greeted.

“Nothing came by your window.” The words weren’t meant to be debated.

“But you were sleeping.”

“I waited as long as I needed to, doesn’t matter now.” He shrugged.

I squinted at his empty expression, “Bullshit.” I challenged.

“You don’t gotta believe me.”

As he turned back towards the house I was left to chew on the echo of my old words. Technically I got what I wanted, Jed no longer seemed interested in whatever did this. But that was the problem, Jed never had a lack of ambition in his small adventures. In the blink of an eye, the smile on his face that seemed almost permanent was missing. He just didn’t engage with me or the world around him like he once did. At the time, I tried to justify that he’d be fine the next morning, but it never could be that easy.

I snapped back to the present once I heard the front door of my house slam shut. Jed was gone, having left me out in the grass with my own thoughts. I went back around the house to the front door. Going inside I saw a heap of blankets on the sofa, he seemed to already be asleep. I passed by and carefully retreated back to my bed. Shutting my eyes I waited to see if tomorrow would be any different.

I must’ve gotten some form of rest that night, as I opened my eyes to see that the sun was already up. I looked at the time to see that I had slept through the morning and into the afternoon.

Ignoring all else I crept out of my room to check on Jed. The house seemed empty, and calling out his name earned me no response. Nervous, I checked each room before looking outside to see his car still parked on the street. Letting out a deep breath, I rubbed the crusted corners of my eyes before stepping outside into my obnoxiously bright yard.

Squinting through the sun, I rounded the house in a brisk walk, stopping at what I found. Jed stood in the yard, still dressed in the black t-shirt and shorts he wore the previous night. His posture looked like he might collapse any second, shoulders slumped, arms hanging to his sides. The only part of himself raised upward was his head, slightly tilted high. His eyes ran back and forth, tracing every inch of the window to my bedroom. If I hadn’t seen him on the couch the night before, I would assume this is what he had been doing ever since.

I walked up to him carefully, he still didn’t react. Reaching out I tried to shake his shoulder, and before I had even spoken his name, the contact ignited the person behind the blank stare.

“Hey! What the fuck?! Don’t sneak up on me! What the hell are you doing following me?!

I nearly fell over from the outburst “Jesus Christ Jed! I didn’t follow shit! The fuck are you doing out here?”

Before he could yell again he looked up and squeezed his eyes nearly closed, as if he just noticed the sun still existed.

“Fucking hell, what time is it?”

I eyed him worriedly “it’s one in the afternoon, a little past that now.”

He flashed a look of almost shock, before smothering it back down with his previous venom.

I tried again “Jed, why are you out here again? What are you doing?”

“I was on a walk.” His voice was numb.

“Somethings up with you dude, the fuck happened last night?”

His tone was calm but the next words were anything but.

“Why is it that when someone’s finally sick of your shit you assume they’re the problem?”

The words hit like a truck, I was beginning to think that our friendship was completely collapsing in front of me. My words lost all fight as I just stared at him.

“The hell’s gotten into you?”

His eyes left me and went back to the window for a moment.

“Maybe some sense for a change.”

With that, he once more pushed past me, his face pink from the inescapable sunlight that he had stood in for God knows how long. I couldn’t bring myself to even react at this point. I stayed in the yard for a length of time, eyes fixed on the glass like Jed had. By the time my gaze broke and I began stepping away, I still couldn’t discern what he might’ve been looking for.

I tried over the next week to talk things over with Jed, but the same cold attitude followed him like a shadow. No more banter, no more late nights, not even a memory of a smile passed his expression.

Coming home from work one night, his things were gone, as was he. You wouldn’t know another man called the place home just that morning. I tried reaching out to his mom only to find out she hadn’t been able to hear from him either, but all his stuff from her house was missing too. Last I heard, his mom found him living about an hour away, in some small apartment complex. She only got 2 words out before he closed the door on her.

I don’t know if Jed saw anything that night. But I’m almost certain that whoever visits me during those early hours saw him first.

(End of part 1)