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The Knocking


 

The knocking continues, the same sharp rhythmic pace. 

The lock is the only thing keeping them out. 

The cabin belonged to Sam's great-grandfather, and hadn't been used in years. We were miles from civilization, and anyone that could help. 

It started the moment we pulled up. I felt a sense of dread filling my chest as I stared at the cabin bathed in shadows from the trees that surrounded it. 

I pushed the feeling aside, chalking it up to being so far from everything and everyone. But the feeling didn't disappear. If anything, it got stronger. 

It was Sam who found it. He'd been looking for fishing gear in the cellar. Instead he found the jar, stuffed with a folded piece of paper, and what looked like a twig. 

He dumped the contents onto the floor, holding the twig in between his fingers. 

"It's… a bone." He'd said, dropping it into the jar with a clink. 

"A bone?" Cora asked, crinkling her nose.

"A small animal bone maybe." Sam said. He'd shook the dust from the paper, silently reading .

"What's it say?" Matt asked. 

"Just gibberish" he said, attempting to shove it back in the jar. 

Cora snatched it, staring at the shaky print. Matt read it out loud over her shoulder. 

"My wife is not my wife. She ate our dog, crunching his bones in her jaws. She's out there now, still knocking to be let in." 

There were brown streaks on the paper. 


Sam put the jar back in the cellar, but the damage, whatever that was, had been done. We'd all felt it, some sort of ominous countdown.

Matt was the first to go. At midnight he jumped up, mumbling something about his dog, and ran out into the woods. We tried to explain that he didn't have a dog. But he ran and ran until the darkness swallowed him up.

Cora chased after him screaming his name.

Sam left an hour later, swearing he'd heard his little brother calling him. Seth's been dead six years. 

Sam pushed me when I tried to stop him. I called after him, but he kept running. So I locked the door, sitting on the floor with my back against it. I'd get help in the morning, I reasoned

Then the knocking started. 

"Kay, let me in." Matt said. but his voice was wrong, like he had a mouthful of gravel. I ignored the knocking, and after a while he left.

But the knocking continued.

"Kaaaaay." Cora said. I could almost hear her smiling.  I stayed quiet, and like Matt, she left, eventually. 

Sam began knocking a few moments ago. 

"I'm coming in." He said, his voice like water bubbling in a drain, broken fingernails scratching at the wood.

I have a few hours until morning but I know I won't make it, because I can hear whatever that thing is behind the door chuckling, and an unmistakable jingling sound. 

That's when I remember that Sam has the keys.

---

Credits

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