Chapter 1

For my whole life, something has been knocking on my bedroom door every night at random times. Sometimes I would hear it at 10PM, other times at 4 in the morning. It was never loud enough to wake me, and sometimes if I pulled an all nighter on my Xbox I would faintly hear it through my headset. I would only ever hear it whenever it was dark outside.

It never bothered me or scared me. My parents told me it was normal and not to worry about it. I trusted them so I trusted the knocking. My parents would tell me that it would happen to them too, so that always made me feel better. I just had to follow one simple demand.

Never acknowledge the knocker in any way.

I always thought it was strange but I’ve grown so accustomed to it that I hardly even thought about it. It was almost comforting to hear the knocking, a reminder that it was there for me. Of course I see now how creepy that really is, but at the time the thought of someone I didn’t know knocking on my bedroom door every night being scary never even crossed my mind. When you grow up with something for long enough, no matter how unusual it can be you end up just getting used to it and that’s exactly what happened to me.

Growing up I’ve never had many friends. I’ve thought of myself as the introverted type, always afraid of social interaction or saying the wrong thing to people. I only really had one friend, Max.

Me and Max met when we were 9 years old and he was my one and only friend for many years. Max and his family moved into the house next to ours. The day they moved in, my parents thought it would be fun to invite them over for dinner and get to know them. My dad forced me to hangout with their only child, Max. He was easy to talk to and watched the same movies and tv shows as me. We grew up together, hanging out nearly everyday.

One night in particular, Max came over for a sleepover on a Saturday night. We were both 15 at the time so sleepovers were still a big deal to us, but this time it was different. Max insisted on spending the night at my house. We usually did sleepovers at his house because he had a nice gaming setup that we would play on for hours. I was at his house so much our parents used to joke about it being my second home and my second family, but of course the other reason I never invited him over was the knocker.

My parents told me to not tell anyone about the knocker, mostly because they thought people would think I was crazy. It wasn’t until I was 10 years old that I found out not everyone has their own door knocker. It made me feel special or unique in an odd sort of way.

I really wanted to tell him, especially since he would be hearing it if we were still awake, but I couldn’t. When you’re a kid your biggest fear is getting in trouble, and I didn’t want my parents to find out I told him. All I could do was hope it would knock whenever we were sleeping.

Max came over to my house around 7PM, just after dinner time for both of our families. We spent the next couple of hours playing video games on my Xbox. The longer we were awake, the more aware I became of the time. At 10:15, my mother called me over to her room. She looked worried. She pulled me into her bedroom, closed the door and spoke in a quiet voice.

“You need to get Max to go to sleep.”

I didn’t need to ask her why, I already knew and I was worried about it myself.

“I don’t think he will, he usually stays up really late.”

She cursed under her breathe, I was starting to panic myself. I’ve never seen my mother so worried.

“Ok well just try to get him to go to sleep. If he hears it tell him it’s nothing. I can’t make him go home, his parents told me they needed a break.” She said.

I nodded. All I could do in this situation was try to do what she said. I walked back to my room and I got right to it.

“Hey Max, we have to go to bed soon. My mom told us she needs us to.”

Max looked at me, confused.

“What why? We usually stay up way longer than this.”

I was about to sputter out something about how we would get in trouble but before I could mutter out a word, it happened.

Knock knock

It was a gentle knock, as it normally was. The knocking came much earlier than usual tonight. My eyes widened and I put a finger over my lips, but Max didn’t listen to my gesture.

“What was that? Is that your mom?”

I shook my head no and put a finger over my lips again, but Max just wouldn’t listen to me.

“Who is that?” He asked in a much louder voice than I would have liked.

I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve always followed the rule so I had no idea what would happen if I didn’t, and Max was definitely breaking it. He had acknowledged it.

We stood there in silence for about a minute, both of us not saying anything. For a small second in our silence I considered the possibility of the knocking to be my parents trying to get us to go to bed, or playing an awful joke on us. But this thought didn’t last when we heard it again.

KNOCK KNOCK

It was much louder this time, and I was certain my parents could hear it. At this point I was in a panicked shock, fear of the unknown completely overtaking me. I had never heard it knock a second time and my instincts told me that we were in real danger, I had no idea what to do. I was never told what to do if this ever happened.

“What's going on?” Max whispered. I could hear in his voice he was terrified.

I didn’t know how to answer him. How do you explain something like this to someone? I just told him to be quiet as we tried to make as little noise as we could. What else could we do? I wanted to go get my parents but I would have to open my door to be able to get to them. We didn’t have any options.

Just then the knocking came again just as gentle as the first. But with it came a voice.

Knock knock

“Hello? May I come in?”

The voice was identical to Max, it sounded just like him. Max looked at me with so much horror in his eyes I thought he was about to cry, but I’m sure I looked the same. Just then, Max took a step back and whispered something I couldn’t hear. I didn’t know what he had said but it was audible.

It began pounding on the door at a rapid pace, it knew we were here now. I screamed for my parents but they didn’t come to our help. The walls were shaking around us and the noise was so loud I was sure if I heard it for too long I would go deaf.

Then suddenly the noise stopped as quickly as it begun, the room filling with silence once more. For a moment I thought it was gone, but the feeling of relief was short lived when I saw the light in my closet turn on. Just behind the door frames I could see a large black shape so wide it almost took up the whole closet. The only visible part of it's body being it's eyes. They were huge. The two eyes almost a foot apart from each other. They were an impossibly dark yet bright green, it's a color I can't describe. A color that no human should be able to see.

Whatever this was, it had no business here.

The lights were turned off. Then we heard it yet again.

KNOCK..KNOCK..KNOCK

It was knocking on my bedroom door again, this time the noises being a second delayed from each other. The sound of Max's laughter echoing from the other side.

Max was now openly crying, shaking so badly I thought he would have a seizure. He was whispering under his breathe.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry"

I couldn't tell if he was saying it to me or himself.

Then I had an idea.

We would get out of the room through my window which led into the backyard. I screamed at Max to open the window and he began to frantically pull on it. I looked at the door and it looked like it was beginning to break down through its frame.

Eventually Max pulled the window open, then whatever was hitting the door instantly stopped. I didn’t know what was going to happen next but I wasn’t going to stick around and see. Max was yelling at me to go and I ran towards the window at a great speed. Right as I stepped outside, the window slammed shut.

Max was pulling onto the window on the other side, i could see the fear in his eyes. I wanted to help him but I couldn't, the window only opened on the inside. I was forced to do nothing watch and hope he would find a way out.

I jumped as i heard the door being knocked down from the other side. It was so loud I was sure it woke the whole street. I watched in complete despair as i saw Max for the last time. He was screaming and looking helplessly at me with a kind of desperation and sadness in his eyes i hope nobody has to see.

I simply blinked, and he was gone. Vanishing as if he never existed in the first place. The whole neighborhood being as quiet as it usually was.

I just stood there at the window, frozen.

The reality of the situation kicked in after a few seconds and I ran back inside as fast as my legs would allow back to my room, but I didn’t see him. I turned around to see my parents at my door, both of them angry.

“What are you doing?” My dad said in a defeated, pissed off tone.

Now I was angry.

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? MAX DISAPPEARED, HE’S GONE. I WAS SCREAMING FOR YOU GUYS” I yelled.

“Who the hell is Max? Go to fucking sleep, we’ll talk about this in the morning.” my mom said, sounding even more pissed than my dad.

My dad flashed me a look and with that they both turned around and walked back away.

I was left alone in my room, confused and angry. I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night. There was too much to think about. Where did Max go? Why is my mother acting like he wasn't just here?

The next morning I tried to explain to my parents what happened but they claimed they had no idea who Max was. I looked next door to see a completely different family, moved in as if they lived there for years.

I couldn't find any pictures me and Max had together, couldn't find him in my yearbook photos, and nobody ever knew who he was after I started asking around. I could never find any trace of him, I’ve been trying for years.

When I became old enough, I moved out and cut all contact from my parents. They didn’t help me when I needed them, and they never tried to warn Max or his parents. After the night Max got taken I only spoke to them when I had to, but they didn't seem to care. I'm much older now and still we only talk in emergency situations.

I never heard the knocking again, it had stopped completely. It was at first difficult to adjust to the new change, but I was happy about it. I still think about Max everyday, my childhood best friend. My best friend that nobody remembers. He didn't deserve his fate and I find myself nowadays, wishing I warned him and ignored my parents rule.

I don't know what that thing was, or what it's purpose was, but I'm better off not thinking about it.

All I know is next time I heard that familiar knock, I'm ignoring it.