Cold winds whirled outside the old glass window. Noel turned towards it and sighed. She could never get a good night’s sleep at a place like this. She sat up in the old bed, still wrapped in the blankets she brought with her for the stay. She reached over and checked her phone. None of her friends had messaged her. They were probably all asleep. Even after they dared her to stay the night in a haunted house, she at least expected one of them to stay awake in case something happened. That’s the issue though, as her friends probably didn’t think anything would happen. There’s no such thing as ghosts after all.

Noel had always been scared of the dark. That’s why she reluctantly took the dare. It was three in the morning, and she had been here since seven from the prior evening. She had not seen, nor heard anything. During this time, she explored every corner of the place, and all was silent. Noel had set herself up in the master bedroom of the old house. There was a bed in the center against the back wall, with a nightstand to her right. Left of the bed sat a window in the middle of the wall. The rest of the room was adorned with dusty old furniture. A desk, chair, stand-alone closet, and bookcase stood off to the right of the room past the bed. At least she had a signal, so she could watch some shows during the boring hours of nothingness. It was better than counting the dust that blew in the air after she touched the old furniture. Noel looked around the room once more, before putting her phone down on the old nightstand, and rolling over to go to sleep. She stared out the window where the wind whistled by. She could see a naked old tree in the moonlight. It shivered and swayed in the cold. She watched it as she drifted herself to sleep. She watched, and watched it move outside, before blinking again. Her drift into slumber stopped, and her green eyes opened. The tree had changed, or had it? She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and looked again. A shadow laid over the long, bare branch, almost as if someone were sitting on it. Noel sat up, and cautiously moved to the window. The night was silent. Nothing was in view except the night sky, stars, and the old tree. 

“I’m too tired for this,” she said, before turning back to the bed.

Before she could make it back, she heard the wind again. It startled her. Noel jumped around back at the window. There was nothing there. She sighed aloud to herself. Always scared of the silliest things, she thought. She looked out the old glass again. A shadow stood against the broken fence line below the tree. She stared intensely at what she thought looked like a tall man, but as she looked closer, it disappeared. Seeing something while you're sleepy is one thing, but being jolted awake, and then seeing the same shape again…

She stared out the window for ten more minutes. Nothing changed. Noel breathed deeply to calm herself down, and got ready for bed again. The cold was brushing up against her skin, and a warm blanket would be the cure. She wrapped herself up, and rolled over towards the other wall. The window couldn’t bother her, if she couldn’t see it. Noel drifted back to sleep in the darkness of the room.

“What was that?”

She sat up in bed again, as she did before, and listened. The only sound was the wind. She stayed upright for another minute, before it happened again. Tap, tap, tap. Something was hitting the window. She turned to look as something dark darted past. Her heartbeat quicked. This had to be a dream. She got up and crept to the window. Outside was the same scene, but she knew she saw something. Noel walked around her bed, and grabbed her phone. She opened it, and turned on the flashlight. She slid on her old sneakers, and wrapped a blanket around her white tank top, wearing it like a cloak. She opened the door to the bedroom and walked out. 

The hallway upstairs was quiet. The only thing she could see was all the old furniture that was left behind. She walked to her right and went down the singular set of stairs. Everything was exactly where she left it. The open floorplan of the downstairs was the same. Nothing was moved, and her backpack was on the kitchen table still. She walked over to it, checked every pocket it had. She grabbed her pocket knife and clutched it. This would make her feel safe. She then moved to the back door. She turned the handle, and it would not move. 

“Still locked.” She said, before shaking it again just to make sure. 

She thought that the eeriness of the place was getting to her. All the old wooden furniture, dust, and ghost stories had gotten to her head. Noel looked out the back door at the old tree. It remained swaying its branches in the wind as if it were an old man flailing about. She sighed in relief, and walked back to the stairs. The wind had stopped periodically, and she silently marched back up to her bed. Tap, tap, tap. Noel froze. Tap, tap, tap.

“What is making that noise?” Whatever it was needed to shut up.

Noel charged headstrong to her room. She ran up to the window and slammed against the wall. Her green eyes furiously darted around. She moaned out of anger. There was absolutely, utterly, nothing. Her head was full of steam as she paced around the room. Maybe her friends weren’t responding because they were messing with her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, before berating the groupchat with her friends. As usual, nobody responded to her foul mouthed message. She huffed and sat down on the bed. She stared at the message she sent, and twirled the pocket knife in her free hand. There was no getting any sleep now, she thought. Tap, tap, tap. 

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She looked up as black fingers quickly slid out of view. Before she could even move, something else happened that turned her blood to ice. Directly below her, the back door rattled. She could hear it shake. She got up and ran downstairs, thinking it was time to confront her friends for messing with her. She got to the door. The knob was twisting in every direction.

“Hey! Stop that!” She yelled. “Stop!”

The noise died down, and silence overtook the house again. Noel stared at the door. Her pocket knife was flipped open, and she held it with her arm out. The door started moving again, but to her surprise, it only turned once. Then the lock popped open.

“I said stop! Leave me alone!”

The door slowly slid open. Her heartbeat quickened. There was nothing. Noel slowly walked towards the open door. She could feel the cold outside. She walked to within a few steps of it, and stopped. Tap, tap, tap.

She gasped as long black fingers crawled around the exposed doorframe. Noel stumbled backwards as a dark figure faded into being. She screamed and dropped her knife, and shed the blanket that was around her. She ran upstairs with her heart beating thunderously. She made it to the bedroom and slammed the door. She twisted the lock, and ran to the corner of the room, where she sank down and started to cry.

“It’s just a bad dream,” she sobbed. “It’s not real”.

But it was very real. Slow footsteps ascended the stairs. One by one. They sounded like a man’s heavy boots treading on iron. They traced along the hallway, before stopping at the door. Tap, tap, tap.

Noel screamed to get whatever it was to go away, but it continued to tap on the door with its fingers. It kept tapping, and tapping. The sound polluted her mind. It sounded like there were thousands of taps all around her. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

“Stop!” Noel could barely get the words out.

 Her skin was ice cold, and her heart pounded so loud she thought it would rip out of her chest. Every corner of the room sounded. She felt her sanity slipping away as the thousands of tapping sounds consumed her. 

“Stop, please! I beg of you… stop…” Noel cried into her arms, and curled as far into the corner as she could.

The sound stopped. The only thing was her muffled sobs as they echoed around the room. She looked up, her eyes were stained with tears. They ran down her face, soaking her white tank top. She looked around the room at every dark corner. There was no sight of anything, yet the doorknob moved again. The lock painfully twisted, and the door creaked open. The hallway was completely dark. She couldn’t see anything. Noel tilted her head down, and wiped away the tear again. Tap, tap, tap.

The sound played again, yet, this time, it was tapping on the inside of the window. She kept her head buried in her arms. Tap, tap, tap.

“Please don’t.”

Tap, tap, tap.

“Go away.”

Tap, tap, tap.

“Please…”

Tap, tap, tap.

“I said leave me alone!” Noel screamed and looked up at the window.

She saw it. A huge black shadow, with no distinguishable features. It towered over her cowering form, and reached out with its long fingers. It touched her soft skin with its cold hands. She stared into the void where a face should have been, and it felt like something was looking back. Before she knew it, she coughed.

The dark mist of the figure had begun to seep into her mouth. She fell forward and coughed again. She felt it as it slid down her throat into her body. Cold, sharp pains echoed across her skin, as if a thousand knives tapped into her flesh. She wheezed and tried to stand, but fell right back to her knees. She choked and sobbed as her body tried to force it out. Her eyes began to bleed, and she tried to scream, but the form continued its path into her. She wrapped both hands around her neck, as if she were trying to force the mist out. Her vision blurred into red, and everything became fuzzy. She felt her lungs expand, and never cease. She tried to scream again as sharp pains filled her chest. Her body crumpled to the ground with a stiff sob. Then, everything fell into darkness…

“We have reports coming in about a missing girl named Noel Carry. She was last spotted entering the abandoned Madlin House. Police report that all of her belongings that she would have had on her were present, but Noel was nowhere to be seen. There was no evidence of a struggle. In fact, there ‘s no evidence of her at all. It was like she just disappeared. If you have any information, please contact the Gaplan County Sheriff’s Department at…”

The TV turned off, and blackness took hold of the screen. Two hollowed eyes stared through the reflection with bloodstains running from the sockets. Even though there was nothing where her eyes should be, it felt as if something was staring back through the empty holes. Within them was only darkness.