You probably know about the “fight or flight response”, where your body either makes you fight or run away when you experience fear. Well there’s a third one, freeze. Your body gets so afraid you can’t move. I’m a freeze person, whenever I drop something, I just sit there for a second, frozen, when I hear creaking in my home, I freeze, and when I heard the knocking on my window, I froze.
My room is small, and my bed is right up against a wall, where my bed is just the right height where my window is only a few inches above my bed. My room is also on the second floor so I had an amazing view of the trees outside my home. I was sleeping facing left, away from my window and looking at my door, like I usually do. I was on my phone, scrolling through social media zoning out, slowly drifting in and out of sleep. But then I heard something, a slight knocking sound.
knock
I sat up and looked at my door silently. I sat there for a few seconds, but eventually sat back down and went back to scrolling.
knock knock
I froze, I was starting to get freaked out this time, I told myself that it was just my imagination, but then I heard it again, louder.
knock knock knock
But, I couldn’t rationalize it this time, because this was the sound of knocking on glass. I could tell the difference. It was so clear. I couldn’t move. I froze with the phone in my hand, it slowly turned dark, and then off. I didn’t even put it down, I just sat there staring at my door, unable to see in the darkness.
The slight noise of my fan groaned on as I sat there trying to think of an excuse to why this was happening. The trees outside my window were too far away for any stray branches to knock on my window. I tried to think of something, trying to think of any excuse to calm myself down.
I told myself that it wasn’t possible, I was on the second floor, but this thought only started to make my heart race faster and faster to the point where it sounded like it was in my ears.
My breathing was fast, but i tried to keep quiet. I tried to move at least a limb, but my body didn’t let me, it was like I was paralysed. I desperately wanted to run, hide, tell my parents, do something. But I couldn’t, it was like even my eyes were paralysed, unable to even blink as my eyes adjusted to the darkness.
The fear rose in my body as I realized the knocking had stopped. I thought it would be a good thing, but it was like waiting for a jumpsacre you knew was coming, the anticipation slowly growing as you know something will happen, unable to do anything, just thinking about how petrified you’ll be when it happens. And then…it happened again. Violent knocking at my window.
knock knock knock
This definitely wasn’t a treebranch. It rang in my ears, I stopped breathing, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I didn’t WANT to believe what I was hearing. But it undeniable reality. I stared into the darkness, which my eyes had adjusted to by then.
I couldn’t do anything, not breath, not blink, not anything. I still had my phone in my hands, but my hands wouldn’t move. I simply stared.
But that’s when I realized something that petrified me even more, I didn’t even realize I could become more scared. I thought I had hit rock bottom, but I realized that my blinds were up. Whatever was knocking at my window, was staring at me, it knew I was awake, and it knew I was paralyzed.
This realization made me start to hyperventilate, and I desperately tried to force my body to move, eventually getting off my bed and running towards my door. I threw open my door, ran down the hallway, and ran out my front door. I started to run down the sidewalk, trying to get as far away from that person as I could. I ran until my adrenaline couldn’t carry me. I was tired, shoeless, and running down the sidewalk hyperventilating. I looked back, and I couldn’t see my house anymore.
I walked up to one of the houses and knocked on the door, it was one of my friends from schools’, my friend Mary. She let me in and had me sit on the couch. She ran off down the hallway of her home to get her parents. I simply sat there sitting on the couch looking at the TV, which was off.
My breathing had slowed a little, but my tears kept rushing out like a running faucet. I looked at the phone, whiched was still in my hands. I thought I had dropped it, but there it was, clasped in my hands. 1:45, I should have been asleep by then, but if I had fallen asleep that person would have been staring at me while I slept, and that thought terrified me, and I started to shake.
But my shaking stopped when I heard something.
knock knock knock