My friend Maria asked me to dog sit for her while on vacation for a three days. She has two adorable Yorkshire Terriers and I’ve always felt comfortable in her home so I agreed. It was a two story and two bedroom house with plenty of space. Maria told me to sleep in her room as she keeps the guest room closed off.
My first night when I went off to bed the dogs followed me up. I noticed that the AC was really loud, not loud enough to bother me, but loud enough to notice. As I started to drift off asleep, I heard a knocking noise. It was two knocks around two seconds apart. I figured it was maybe one of the dogs, but then noticed they were both in bed with me.
I decided I’d just shrug it off and not freak myself out, so I tried to fall asleep. Once again I heard it, two knocks, two seconds apart. At this point I sat up uneasy and noticed the dogs, while not barking, were alert. I then realized it must be from the loud AC. That was enough to set my mind at ease. I finally drifted off despite hearing the knocking happen again and again.
The next morning there was no sound of the knocking. I got ready, fed the dogs and left for work. I asked my boyfriend if he’d stay with me the night as I was still feeling uneasy and he agreed. That night when we went off to bed, he asked if we could turn off the AC as it was really loud and he was having trouble falling asleep. I agreed, went to turn it off and climbed into bed. That’s when we heard the knocking again. This time it was loud, angry. The dogs immediately started barking and jumped out of bed. My boyfriend ran downstairs to investigate. He checked that all the doors were locked and that nobody was inside or outside. However, I noticed that the dogs didn’t run down with us. They were all standing outside of the guest room door, and one of them was growling. I called my boyfriend upstairs, I was worried that someone broke in somehow and was hiding behind the door.
My boyfriend ran up, tried to open the door, but it was locked. We checked the batch of keys Maria left, and none of them opened that door. We checked outside to see if any of the windows were open or broken, but all was intact, in fact, we couldn’t find a corresponding window for the guest room. With the room being on the second floor with no access from outside, we were confused as to what spooked the dogs. I decided I’d send Maria a text about the situation, I’m sure she’d explain it.
“Hey, sorry to freak you out. We’ve been hearing loud knocking throughout the night and the dogs have been barking at the guest room door. Is this normal?”
My boyfriend suggested it was probably the pipes or something and we tried to set our minds at ease and closed the bedroom climbed into to bed.
The next morning, I rolled over, and found his side empty. I figured he went down for a smoke, and went to look for him. I found him fast asleep on the couch. I asked why he went to sleep down there, and he simply said “it was too loud”. I figured “it” was the knocking maybe, though it wasn’t as loud with the door closed, and he looked genuinely exhausted.
I checked for any response from Maria. “Read” Okay, maybe she’s busy? I thought. We both got ready for the day and went off to work. I told my boyfriend I’d spend the night alone because he really needed the sleep.
Still nothing from Maria. I stayed up late watching a random show off Netflix, with the dogs by my side. I was really uneasy but it was my last night in the house. I had to be brave and deal with it. I locked all the doors, checked all over the house, made sure I was alone. Weirdly enough, the dogs wouldn’t follow me upstairs as they usually did. That set off my paranoia again. I climbed into bed, and once I did the knocking started again, one, two… three? A third knock. This set off a feeling of fear that I couldn’t explain. The third knock was louder than any of the past knocks over the last three nights.
I had my phone ready on my boyfriends number, ready to call him. Got out of bed, and left the room.
The guest room door was open.