Even if I told you my story, you wouldn’t believe it.
My name is Wilona Jones and I am a 15 year old girl from Texas. My Mom works as a nurse, she mainly covers the night shifts which means i don’t get to see her after 10pm. At my house we ( my twin sister Sarah and I) have to follow a set of rules for the night. These rules are extremely important and it never crossed our minds to break them. Ever.
The rules: Once our mom leaves we have to lock the doors, close the windows and drapes. We cannot open the door to anyone or answer the phone, no going outside. So far they seem normal right? There are more… We are never to look outside the window, especially after 3am. No opening the door even if it’s mom unless she does her secret knock - Four short knocks, a pause, a short knock, pause, a long knock, pause, another short knock followed by a long knock. Oh and the most important rule, NEVER follow the screeching nail sound.
You must be confused, what screeching noise? Ever since we were kids we have changed our residence multiple times, yet this odd deafening noise followed us around. It would start at night and would be gone by the next morning when we woke up. It sounded like long nails on a blackboard, loud and unbearable. It often came with the feeling of being watched, it’s hard to explain but whenever this noise arrived so would a sense of fear, the feeling of being watched. It’s normal to be be scared if you hear strange noises every night but this was different. We could feel the presence of an ominous being, so close to us. So every night Sarah and I would stay up together in fear, keeping a baseball bat by the side. The darkness always made it scarier but at least we had each other. We soon got used to it but due to this our grades drastically dropped. We were distracted and under constant terror.
There were days were our mom would come banging the door loudly, as she would shout as us telling us to open. Those days she would shout so loudly it would reach our bedroom. Even though we recognized her voice we would never open unless she did her secret knock. “Open the door, or i will break it and hurt you both” she would say in a loud harsh tone, it was nothing like her. The screech sounds would deepen, and it would be followed by her laughing. A sinister laugh, very unlike our mother, who only ever giggled so sweetly and softly. It would last for about 10 minutes and then shortly after that we would fall asleep. We would wake up the next morning and open the door to our mom only to find out she doesn’t remember what happened the previous night. Due to this constantly recurring, Sarah believed that mom had drinking problems and that she’d be drunk every night. Although she was convinced of it, I wasn’t. That woman can’t be our mom, it was clearly something else. It cannot be something so simple as alcoholism. Sarah would always accuse me of being sensitive and not liking any theory that went against our mom just because I didn’t believe her. Despite being twins we were so different. She was almost fearless, by that I mean she was never AS scared as me. Sometimes it would feel as if the fear was all and act and that she knew exactly what was going to happen, almost as if it was keenly awaited by her. Of course that can’t be the case though, we were after all different people with different reactions.
Another thing that made us different was how we treated the rules, I blindly followed them in fear. But Sarah? She hated them so much and would try to break them. I would often catch her trying to peak out the windows and would stop once I caught her doing so. “It’s for our own good if we look outside and prepare for what’s coming” she would explain. She was the one who peeked outside the door to confirm it was our mom who was shouting and asking us to open. I didn’t need to peek, i could tell by the voice, because my mom she had a very unique one.
Last night our mom came early, she wanted to surprise us.
Today is our birthday, mine and Sarah’s. Sweet 16, a big deal. Last night our mom came early, she wanted to surprise us. Our first night ever spent with her. The weird thing is by morning her sweet and genuine demeanor changed. Mom always made our birthdays feel so special but today there was no celebration, only warnings. Mom was tensed. She constantly monitored us today, even the screeching started early. A storm was brewing, this time even Sarah could tell.
Okay it’s around 10pm by now and Mom hasn’t left for work, she wants to stay over to protect her. But the thing is I heard the secret knock from outside a few minutes ago, Sarah and Mom didn’t hear it I think. I have to go before she sees me writing this ill update u later bye