The scariest time in my life never involved monsters, ghosts, or any paranormal phenomenon, it happened because of three people that grew into a crowd. The guy was tall and thin with long scraggly blond hair that covered his face. With him were two younger women, maybe twins with long flowing brown hair and dressed right out of the 70s. I’m not sure what their relation to the elderly house owner was or why she never just let them sleep in her house instead of those tattered tents in her backyard but, they were there for weeks and seemed content. They usually were not too loud and never harassed anyone so it was whatever, well until it wasn’t.
One evening I was woken just after 1 am to some partying going on outside. I looked out the window and noticed that two more people had joined the trio and they were having a little party. I couldn’t be too mad, it’s not like it happens often so I turned on my tv to drown out the noise and fell back asleep. The next night at 1 am, the same thing happened but there were now 12 of them all playing battered and beating instruments and singing at the top of their lungs. Knowing I should say something before it got out of hand I went outside.
I walked over to the fence peering over.
“Hey, would you guys be able to keep it down slightly? I don’t care if you are talking but I need to work tomorrow” I said with friendlessness in my voice.
They all stopped what they were doing and looked up to the scraggly blond-haired man. He took a deep breath and fixed his eyes on mine.
“We could do that, or if you’d like you could join us,” He replied, “we have cold beer and wonderful tales that will help soothe your soul”.
“I’m good, I have to work in a few hours”.
He nodded and I walked back into my house. As I walked upstairs I peered out the window and I noticed the man staring, maybe more glaring at me as I shut the blinds.
When I awoke the following night, I expected it to be from their partying but in fact, it was the sound of someone knocking upon my door. I got up a little confused about who would be here at this time and went down to answer it. I slowly looked out the peephole noticing the scraggly-haired man standing there. Even more confused now I opened the door leaving the chain attached so he couldn’t just bust in if he was here for nefarious reasons.
“Hello my friend, I was wondering if I could come in so we could have a little bit of a chat?” He asked, “I really want to apologize for last night”.
It was near midnight so I politely declined since I needed to work in a few short hours and quickly ended this weird encounter. I looked out my window again and noticed more tents being set up and there seemed to be even more people all sitting around the bonfire. Taking a mental note to check in on my neighbour and see what is going on I went to sleep.
The next night came more knocking, I knew this had to be the man again so I ignored it and tried to wait for them to leave to go back asleep. They started knocking on my back door after a while too. That meant it wasn’t just the man who was at my house now, but again I just ignored it and waited. The knocking turned into them pounding at the door. Fear started to grip me because these people I did not know were trying to get my attention. It was what came next that made my skin crawl, knocking began on the door leading out to the balcony from my room. They would have had to use a ladder to get up there because there was no other way on it except the door. I freaked out and figured the best place to go confront them would be the front door with the chain so I walked downstairs. Opening the door, the man stood there with an unnerving smile on his face.
“Why the hell are you knocking on all my doors?” I asked, “It’s Thursday I need to sleep, if you want to talk come when I get off work or something.”
I slammed the door hard enough for it to shake on its hinges. I was pissed now so I locked it and went back upstairs. I should have called the cops but figured I had said it firmly enough they would get the picture, hindsight is really 20/20 eh.
The next night I was ready, as I stayed up and peered out of the window of my room. The man stood there, the crowd giving him their full attention, his huge grin visible in the shadows. His posture was that of a priest giving a sermon to their parish, I stood there looking on in utter disbelief as he jerked his head towards me, eyes finding mine and stared as if looking into my soul. They all started to move and I ran down towards the door and waited. The knocking on the front door started, I opened it up ready to tell him to go away, but it wasn’t him. A girl with long black hair covering her face and a floral dress stood, her eyes transfixed towards the floor bowing her head, asking if she could come in.
“Leave me alone please” I yelled.
She just stood there repeating, “Please let me come in,” over and over again. Her words barely registered over a whisper. The eery display shook me as I slammed the door. A crash startled me from upstairs. I ran up to see my balcony door wide open and two more women standing at the threshold. They looked up at me with big grins on their faces, and that is when I noticed the knives in their hands. I had never felt such fear in my life so I turned to try to make it to my bathroom so I could lock myself in. Two bangs penetrated from downstairs, I just knew it was the front and back door. I made it to the bathroom safely, locking myself in.
I went to grab my phone from my pocket so I could call the police. As I patted down I screamed, “fuck”, remembering that I only had a pair of basketball shorts on, with no pockets. Shoes scuffed the floor outside and I froze. I had nothing if they wanted to bust open the door, they’d kill me with no chance to escape. They started kicking at the door and it didn’t take long for the locking mechanism to break and for them to pile in. One stabbed me, fiery pain erupting through me and then another puncture. A fist hit me in the face knocking me down and they started kicking me. In Between a flurry of fists and boots connecting all over me, I was also being stabbed repeatedly. I was falling in and out of consciousness as blood poured out of my body. Before I fell completely into unconsciousness after the beating stopped I was able to see the man leaning over my broken body as he said, “you should have just let me in to talk”, with a huge menacing grin.
I woke up two months later from the induced coma the doctors had kept me in. 36 stab wounds, numerous broken bones, and a cracked skull had begun to heal. From what the police told me when they came to take my statement, one of the neighbours had called, hearing all the commotion and they reached me shortly after the attack, saving my life. No one was there when they arrived so no arrests have been made. They went to speak with the neighbour next door after I told them what happened but it seems like she had been dead for some time. Her body sat in her rocking chair with a knife sticking out of her skull.
It’s been two months since the attack and I am staying with my sister while I wait for my house to be sold. No one knows who these people were or where they went. I am scared every day that they may return to finish the job.