Hey everyone. It’s been a while.
I have no idea if anyone here reading this remembers me, or was here when I initially made my first post, but just in case, you can read the original post right here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/tf1e8/i_just_need_to_get_this_out_there/
I’m not entirely sure where to start with this. First of all, I’m sorry for not completely keeping everyone updated in the replies last time I posted. I guess you can say I’m finally honoring those requests, albeit a full decade later. Things got a little busy in the days following that post, mostly for the better, thankfully, but it really drew my attention away from the subreddit. By the time things had calmed down enough for me to go back and update everyone, I figured the time had passed and no one really cared about it too much anymore. Ironically enough, I’m updating it a full decade after the fact instead, but there’s a good reason for that. I’ll get into it soon, I promise.
When I initially made that post, Johnny, Josh, and myself were all sophomores in college living in a house together. Ten years ago. It’s strange. That time, that event, much like college as a whole, feels both like an eternity ago and like it only happened a few months ago. It’s hard to explain. Again, I don’t know if anyone here was around when I first posted that call for help a decade ago, but if any of you reading this right now were, maybe you know exactly what I’m talking about. The passage of time is a strange, bittersweet, sometimes cruel thing.
But anyway, it’s hard to remember the exact details, at least before all of this happened. It was re-reading my initial post that really jogged my exact memory of the time. If I try to think back by myself, without any help, a lot of it is a weird blur. As impactful and nightmarish as it sounds, it was really only about a half week, maybe week-long period in a four-year total college stay with Josh and Johnny. We had met our freshman year in the dorms, got that house together that sophomore year, went our separate ways for work-intern related reasons our junior year, and came back together in a different house for our senior year, graduating together. That incident with Johnny was only a fraction of all of that time. A flash in the pan. So many other impactful things had happened prior to and after it. I know that with what we were dealing with it sounds hard to believe, that we could just drop it, but honestly, it’s kind of what we did. I’ll try my best to explain.
For a few nights after Johnny’s room was intruded, we were constantly harassed by whatever it was that came to my room that night. It knocked on my door, it talked to me, and I wasn’t the only one. Josh would tell me too about how, in strange hours of the early morning, and in weird places, he’d hear knocking and something asking for his keys. Johnny holed himself up in his room whenever the sun went down, and he refused to talk about anything that happened to him. But eventually, without warning, one night, it just… stopped. It just stopped. I went to bed, afraid of what I’d hear and worrying if this thing would find a way to break down my door, but it never came that night. I didn’t hear any knocking. I didn’t hear anything asking about Johnny or trying to get my keys. It was a completely silent, normal, restful night. I remember asking Josh about it too, and he said he didn’t hear anything either. I don’t think we brought it up to Johnny, but over the next week or so, if I remember correctly, he would gradually stay out of his room for later and later. The amount of time after dark he’d stay outside increased every night until eventually, he was in the living room playing Project M with us at midnight like we always did. Like nothing ever happened. And the rest of college was the same way. Like it didn’t even happen.
So then. Why am I posting again? I wish it could tell you that I was just updating everyone a decade too late, but unfortunately, very unfortunately, there’s another reason for this.
It’s because it’s happening again.
I’m 30 years old now. I’ve been out of college for eight years, and have had my job for about seven. I live with my wife in a small home in the suburbs, which we could finally afford after years of saving up for the down payment. I live in the same state I went to college in, but I don’t live in the same town anymore. With Josh and Johnny, it’s much the same. Josh is married with two kids, in a city not too far from here. Johnny’s still single, but with a really good job he snagged right out of college. He bought his own fairly upscale apartment a few years ago in our college town. While we’re not all in the same place anymore, we’re close enough where we still meet up a few times a year, and keep in touch over social media.
Not too long ago, I got a Facebook message from Josh.
“Hey man” it said.
“Yo, what’s up?” I responded.
“Not much, just chillin”
“You watch that reel I sent you yet?”
“lmao yeah that was great Btw man”
“?”
“jw, but has anything weird been happening to you lately?”
“lol depends on what you mean by weird I guess, why?”
“Nah, not much, it’s just that Actually nvm lmao, it’s probably nothing”
He left it at that. At the time, I didn’t really think too much about it. Josh has asked me about “weird” stuff plenty of times since the sophomore year incident, and it never had anything to do with those series of nights. I left it at that and figured, if it was important, he’d get the courage to ask again later.
A couple days went by without issue, until one night, the first night since sophomore year where I was truly afraid, came to pass. I remember it being around 1:15 am. I actually didn’t hear it at first myself; it was my wife who woke me up. She shook me from a deep sleep, my eyes groggy and swimming, my head just a little sore. It was pitch black in our room. I only saw the shadowy outline of my wife half-sitting up in bed.
“Huh? What? Is everything alright?”
“Do you hear that?” she asked in a whisper. I looked in her direction for a moment, then turned my attention elsewhere in the room. I waited for a few moments. Just when I was about to tell her that no, I don’t hear anything, I heard a faint knock in the distance. “I think it’s the front door,” she continued. “You hear that, right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, sitting myself up and swinging my legs around the side of the bed. I scratched the back of my head as I sat up. “Who the hell’s at the door at this hour?” In retrospect, it’s almost funny that this exact scenario didn’t ring any bells. But I wouldn’t have to wait too much longer for those bells to start sounding like alarms.
I shuffled through the darkness of our house, a slow knock echoing through the hallways. When I got to the door, I thought about calling out, but something inside me told me to keep quiet. Instead, I peered through the spyhole into our front porch.
I couldn’t see anything. What would usually be a dimly-lit street with a partial view of our lawn and porch was instead an inky blackness. It was strange. It didn’t look like someone was, say, covering the spyhole from the other side. It instead looked like something dark was standing eerily close to the door.
Once more, a knock rang out.
I stepped back from the spyhole. Glancing at the door handle, I opted to peer very quickly one more time to double check what I saw, then backed up again. A knock once more. Right when I was about to demand who it was, I heard it.
“Where is Johnny?”
I froze. Whatever I was thinking of doing, whatever I was in the middle of doing, whatever it was, I stopped.
At that point, it all came flooding back.
All of the memories. Everything that happened. The ordeal with Josh and Johnny, the fallout of those several nights. The absolute bone-chilling horror and dread I felt every time I went to sleep and heard that knocking. It all came back.
It all came back from that voice.
Josh’s voice.
I was paralyzed. I didn’t know what to do. My mind was completely blank. It felt like my legs could give out at any moment.
“Where is Johnny’s room?” Josh’s voice asked again.
I’ve known Josh for a long time by this point, close to twelve years. This voice didn’t sound like the Josh I know now.
It sounded like the Josh I knew then.
The door banged.
I didn’t say anything in response. All I could do was stare at the door, petrified. That dread of not knowing whether or not my room would be breached, it all came crashing back. It all was happening again. Eventually, I managed to take a step backwards. I can’t remember if it was right as I did, or a little bit after, but at that time, around the time I could finally move again, I heard another terrifying noise.
A tapping on the living room window.
My eyes darted toward the sound. It was too dark to see anything, but I could hear it. A tap, tap, tapping sound. Rhythmically. One, two, three, pause. One, two, three. Our windows didn’t have any blinds. I couldn’t see over there, but I was terrified of the definite fact that whatever was over there could see me.
After what felt like an eternity, I stumbled toward the hallway, desperate to get back to my room. Whatever was making that noise, it felt like it followed me. As I hurried back, I heard the tapping and knocking grow exponentially louder, like something was gaining on me. My house isn’t big, and my hallways aren’t long. My trip probably only took a few seconds, but it felt like hours, with the knocking like a rapidfire of bombs before I finally crashed into the room, startling my wife up in bed.
I quickly closed the door behind me and sat there, arms over the door like a cartoon character, breathing heavily, listening. But the noise was gone. All I could hear was my own hefty breaths. My wife shuffled closer to the edge of the bed.
“Honey, are you alright?” she asked. “What the hell was that all about? What was all that noise?”
I paused for a moment, listening for a little longer, before I heaved a big sigh, walking closer to the bed. “Nothing,” I panted. “It was, uh, nothing. Just scared myself is all. Dark hallways and all.”
My wife pondered this for a moment, then laughed. “Have you been reading scary stories again?” I sat back in bed, my only answer being a short, breathy laugh.
Relieved, she also shifted back into position and got comfortable, ready to sleep again. I still sat up, trying to process what happened.
“So who was at the door?” she asked. “I thought I heard Josh at some point.”
“…No,” I said, dropping all airs. “Definitely not him.”
As soon as I could, I got in contact with Josh. I was perceptive enough to know now that he definitely experienced something similar. My wife would go out every Wednesday night to hang out with her friends, so I waited til she was out of the house for some privacy, then punched in Josh’s number.
“Hey Josh,” I said as soon as he answered.
“Hey, what’s up? Must be important if it’s a call.”
“It happened to you too, didn’t it?” I asked, wasting no time.
It was silent on the line for a long while. Maybe five full seconds. “…Heh.” I heard him suck in air from his teeth. “How the fuck, huh?”
I felt like I had to laugh. A bizarre combination of a laugh, followed by the strong need to hold back tears. “I thought this was over.”
“I guess there was no closure to it all if you think back, huh?”
I nodded to myself. “…Do you think Johnny’s okay?”
“…I think so,” he said. “For now. Otherwise whatever this is wouldn’t be bugging us, right?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I thought for a moment.
“Should we go see him?” he asked.
“No, no, no. We don’t need this thing following us,” I replied. “We should be careful about this… I’ll call him.”
“Are you sure we should?”
At first, I wasn’t sure what he meant. But after a quick reflection, I realized. Quick flashes of 20-year-old Johnny scarred, cornered, and whimpering flooded my mind before I snapped back. It made me pause for thought. “…Yeah. We should. What if something happens ‘cause we didn’t?”
“…Okay. Should we both do it?”
“No,” I replied. “I think I can handle this. Let’s not overwhelm him.”
“If you’re sure.” He sighed at the other end of the line. “…Be safe, alright?”
“…You too, buddy.”
Despite the conversation, I didn’t call Johnny right away. Truth be told, I was scared. I didn’t want to call Johnny and have to relive all of that again. Relive ten years ago, relive last night. I was terrified that I might will something into existence simply by speaking about it. But after longer than I’d like to admit, I finally got myself to scroll through my contacts and select Johnny’s number.
The phone rang. Once, twice, three times. Halfway into the fourth, he picked up.
“Yo~,” he answered. “What’s good, man?”
“Hey Johnny, hey.” I stumbled a bit, trying to think of something to open with. “…S-So, what’s up?”
“What’s up?” He laughed. “Homie, you called me.”
“Ha, heh, yeah, yeah,” I muttered.
“Is everything alright? What’s going on?”
I thought for a long while. “So, Johnny. Do you, uhh, remember our sophomore year of college?”
He paused. For quite a moment, the line was silent. “…Depends on the part, I guess.” His voice was flat.
“The, uh… you know, man. The… the incident.”
“…What about it?”
I sighed deeply. “It’s, uhh.” I thought a bit on how to word it. “For Josh and me, it’s, uh…” I inhaled sharply. “It’s happening again.”
It was silent for about ten seconds. I pulled the phone from my ear and looked at the screen. The timer ticked up, second after second, until the call abruptly ended. I tried to call him back, but it went straight to his answering machine.
I sent Josh a Facebook message letting him know it didn’t go well, then tossed my phone onto the couch. I sat down with it and rubbed my hands through my hair. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but out of all the possible outcomes, this was definitely on the “worse” end of things. I sighed to myself and tried to think of my next steps. Should I drive over, I thought? No, that’d be bad. Like I said to Josh before, it might lead it right to him. Like all those years ago. But how would I know if he was okay? These thoughts stirred in my head for several minutes, circling back and forth as I tried to conjure up the best case scenario.
There was a knock on the door.
Instantly, my eyes darted to the sound. There was no immediate follow up. I had a staredown with my door for what felt like hours. I could hear the shaking in my breath, feel the sweat form on my forehead.
Again, there was a knock. “Honey? Honey! It’s me!” It was my wife’s voice. “Why’d you lock the door?” I didn’t say anything. Instead, I picked up my phone and slowly stepped towards the door. “Look, I forgot my keys, can you open the door for me?”
I got to the door, my heart beating out of my chest. I glanced at the spyhole. Dreading everything, I peered in. There, I saw my wife. Or, rather, the shape of her, out on our porch with the street in view behind her. Her front was completely shaded in darkness, but this silhouette of her huffed her arms to her side and swayed impatiently, just as my wife would.
I backed away, with no relief at what I saw. I took a moment to collect my thoughts. “N-No,” I finally managed to say, my voice rickety and shaky. “No. My wife’s keys are gone,” I continued, glancing at the key rack, my mind drifting back to her “I love you” as she swiped them up on her way out earlier.
Then, there was silence. Silence for an uncomfortably long time. I stood at the door, my breath heavy and labored, thinking about what might be on the other side. Slowly, I placed my ear to the cold wood.
But I couldn’t hear anything.
Cautiously, I lifted my ear from the door.
I thought about the spyhole again. My gut told me that I still wasn’t alone, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to check. After about a full minute, I built up the courage, and I leaned my eye in toward the spyhole.
Like the other night, I couldn’t see anything. No silhouette of my wife, no porch, nothing. Only that inky blackness.
“No matter,” I heard in a deep whisper. I didn’t notice at the time, but upon thinking back to this instance over and over, I don’t think it sounded like it was coming from the door. “I have what I wanted.”
I darted my eye back to the spyhole, but all I could see was that familiar, dimly-lit street.
Immediately and panicked, I whipped my phone out to call Josh. But, strangely, my phone was completely dead.
There were no other disturbances the rest of the evening. My wife came home later, and the night was completely quiet.
This is more or less where I am now. I messaged Josh about it, and he’s got no clue what to do. He said nothing new has happened on his front, and he’s terrified that something will soon.
On the contrary, I’m terrified that something won’t. Not to him.
I’ve tried calling Johnny over and over, but his phone seems to be off. Either that or he’s deliberately hanging up on me and Josh.
I think I might drive over to Johnny as soon as I can, but I just don’t know if that’s wise. I want to check up on him, but I’m terrified of what might happen.
It’s bizarre that this is all happening again. This fear, mixed with this site, its formatting and all that, the mechanics of it all, it all brings back some perverse feeling of nostalgia. I feel as lost as I did then, but it feels like there’s so much more on the line now.
Does anyone have any advice? I can’t promise I’ll get back to everyone, or anyone, but I’d appreciate any thoughts to read nonetheless.
I’m not sure we’ll get lucky like we did all those years ago.