Listen to the lovely Beatrix Harper narrate this story!
A soft tapping on the window woke me up. I looked around, my eyes trying to adjust to the darkness as I remembered where I was. I was at home in my new apartment sleeping. At least I had been sleeping.
I turned to the window, the sight still unfamiliar. The curtain was partially open, letting in a slither of moonlight. Large raindrops were hitting the glass. Pat, pat, pat.
It was just the rain. The sound of the rain on the roof was one of my favourite sounds. Being on the second floor of a six story building I could no longer hear it on the roof but the window had the same effect nevertheless. I closed my eyes and let it help me drift back to sleep.
My eyes shot open again. I closed the curtain before I went to bed, of this I was absolutely certain. I couldn’t sleep if the curtains were open, it made me anxious. My nightly ritual began with brushing my teeth, getting dressed for bed, closing the curtain and settling in with a book to read before finally turning in for the night.
Yet the curtain was open.
I moved into this apartment only three weeks ago. As a struggling writer with barely enough funds to feed myself and my cat my friends helped with all the heavy lifting upstairs. The neighbours were occasionally loud and obnoxious, I could hear the finer details of the couple upstairs arguing on a daily basis and the loud music of those living below me often distracted from my writing, but you get what you pay for.
Not sure I paid for curtain ghosts.
Lightning flashed followed shortly by thunder. I startled and pulled the blanket up closer. Where the hell was Daisy? Damn cat was never around when I needed her.
I took a drink from the glass sitting on my bedside table and tried to close my eyes again.
Tap tap.
I clenched my eyes tighter. It was just rain.
Tap tap tap.
I opened my eyes. It was too dark to see anything, just rain sliding down the glass.
Tap tap.
Boom.
I scrambled out of bed, hitting the floor with a loud thud as my feet tangled in the blankets. I crawled forward on my hands and knees and locked the bathroom door behind me.
Eyes. The lightning revealed eyes looking in through my window. I didn’t know who’s or what’s but there were eyes and they were looking in my window.
Tap tap.
That wasn’t rain.
My heart was racing. I waited, listening with my heart beating in my chest for what felt like an eternity.
Silence, and the pattering of rain drops on the glass.
No. Not just the rain.
There it was again.
Tap tap.
Screech.
I don’t know how long I sat there listening to the sounds but at some point exhaustion took over and I fell asleep leaning against the bathroom door.
The next morning I found my window covered in hundreds of tiny scratches. The key was still sitting in the lock. I live on the second floor, I never seriously thought I would need to keep the windows locked. For once I was glad I was so pedantic about the little things.
However the fact remained… who, or what, was looking in my second story bedroom window?