Short Stories

The Tapping on the Wall

There was a tapping on Alice's wall.

She lifted her head slowly, her eyes still blurry from sleep, and looked around for the source of the sound. A few seconds passed. Nothing. She dismissed it - maybe she had imagined it. 

She closed her eyes, and a few minutes later she was on the brink of dozing off when there were a few more quiet taps, muffled through the brick wall. Her eyes once again opened and she sat up in confusion. Was it the rain? No, rain was constant, and soft - sounding. This was sharp and deliberate. 

She sat absolutely still, her eyes fixed on the wall. It was definitely on the other side - anything on her side she would be able to see. Another three dull raps. Alice flinched in surprise. What was that? The only thing on the other side of the wall was the outside of the house, and Alice's bedroom was on the third floor. Alice rolled her eyes. It must be an insect, she tried to convince herself, or perhaps a bird. She wrapped herself in her covers tightly and lay curled up, until her eyes once again grew heavy and she fell asleep. 

The next day as she sat down to breakfast with her parents in her large kitchen, she thought she heard another couple of soft taps coming from the wall opposite the table, and blinked in surprise. Was it the same sound? Why was it on a different wall? "Mum, did you hear that?" she asked. "Hear what, dear?" Her Mum asked. Alice frowned in confusion. "Never mind." A small shiver ran down her spine. Ignore it. She told herself strictly, and carried on eating her breakfast with a tiny voice at the back of her head whispering not right. Not good. Not natural. 

A couple of days later, Alice had all but forgotten the strange tapping, and was in maths class as her teacher was talking about a new problem when she heard it. Quietly coming from the wall of the classroom. A sharp, hollow, tapping. She started and dropped her pen with a clatter. Her friend looked at her. "What?" She said to Alice. Alice shook her head, shills making their way down her neck. How is it the same noise? How is it here? She thought frantically. The tapping continued. She got more and more panicked, trying to hide her fear and focus on the lesson. What is it?  Alice had to get out. She couldn't focus, she was going to run out if she didn't get out this second. She raised her hand as calmly as she could. 

"Yes?" Her teacher snapped. "Could I get a drink?" She asked, eyes wide in innocence. The teacher sighed. "Fine." She stood up as slowly as she she could, trying to appear casual, and as soon as she stepped into the corridor and closed the door it appeared. The same noise in the corridor walls, on every side, like a tunnel of noise, enveloping her. Alice gasped and started to run, blocking her ears with her hands and sprinting down the corridors.

It followed her, constantly moving with her, relentless. Alice screamed and dropped onto the floor, huddled up in a heap, blocking her ears, shrieking. It didn't stop. It was on the wall behind her, slow and lazy, as if whatever was making it was unbothered by her hysteria.

A door flung open and a teacher appeared, shocked. "what are you doing?! What's wrong?" 

Alice looked up in desperation. "Can't you hear it?!!" She cried. The teacher looked very alarmed. "Listen, I think you should go to the sick bay-" 

"So, Alice." The school nurse said in a warm, pleasant tone. "What seems to be troubling you?" Alice, with her hands still over her ears in a vain attempt to drown out the goddamn noise. coming from the wall of the nurses' office.

"I can hear this... tapping. On the wall." She said through gritted teeth. It was difficult to concentrate on anything other than the constant slow, loud sound. The nurse shifted in his chair and looked her in curiosity. "When did this start?" He asked. Alice bent over, on the brink of screaming again. It was all around her now, on the ceiling, on the walls, on the floor, getting louder with each tap. "Alice?" She groaned. Why was this happening to her? She started to shiver. It sounded like nails drumming against glass. She started to hyperventilate.

A few days later, Alice was in a small hospital room that she had been admitted to, rocking slightly on a small chair, trying desperately to block out the now horribly familiar tapping that plagued her every minute of the day. No matter how hard she pressed her palms down onto her ears, it didn't stop. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat, everything was overshadowed by it. The doctors and nurses, finding nothing physically wrong with her, had decided she was having some sort of mental breakdown - that the noise was all in her head - but Alice knew better. She could feel the vibrations of the sound in her skull. She could feel the sound waves hitting her eardrum. She wasn't crazy. Something was following her. 

All of a sudden, silence filled the air. Alice lifted her head slowly, looking around, and broke out in a relieved smile and exhaled. Thank god.

A tiny, sharp tap came from the wall. Alice screamed.