The Tapping

Sarah jolted awake to the faint sound of tapping coming from somewhere in her apartment. She lay frozen in bed, straining her ears to locate the source of the noise. Tap...tap...tap...steady and muffled, like someone rapping their knuckles against wood.

With a trembling hand, she grabbed her phone from the nightstand, the harsh glow of the screen illuminating her terrified expression. 3:17 AM. She let out a shaky breath, the noise still continuing in the dead of night. It had to be coming from inside, maybe the closet or behind the dresser? An intruder, or worse - something not human at all?

Heart pounding, Sarah slowly pulled back the covers and slid out of bed, her bare feet touching the cold hardwood floor. She grabbed the baseball bat she kept in the corner for protection and crept toward her closed bedroom door, the tapping growing slightly louder with each step. She pressed her ear against the door, holding her breath as she tried to triangulate the source. It seemed to be coming from the kitchen.

With a surge of adrenaline, Sarah threw open the door and stormed into the hallway, bat gripped tightly as she whipped her head around. The tapping stopped abruptly. She stood motionless, listening for any sound over the rushing of blood in her ears. The apartment was pitch black save for the slivers of moonlight seeping through the curtained windows.

Mustering her courage, she inched down the hallway toward the living room, her toes curling against the bare floor with every step. A loose floorboard creaked underfoot, making her wince at the sound shattering the silence. As she neared the entryway to the kitchen, a new sound caused her to freeze in her tracks.

It was the slighery rasp of something being dragged across the tile floor, like nails on a chalkboard. Paralyzed with fear, her eyes searched the darkened room, struggling to adjust to the lack of light. There! A shadow seemed to detach itself from the wall and inch forward, a shapeless black mass slinking over the tiles with that same hair-raising screech.

Sarah's scream caught in her throat, her entire body petrified as the form crept toward her with Purpose, leaving a smeared trail in its wake. As it emerged from the gloom, she could make out two pinprick points, like flickering eyes trained directly on her. Something was dangling from it, scraping along the floor and producing the dragging sound that set her teeth on edge.

Her brain finally kicked into survival mode and she swung the bat in a wide arc at the creature, bellowing a feral scream. It connected with a sickening crunch, knocking the thing backward, two of its appendages loosing their grip and rolling away across the tile.

Skulls. They were human skulls.

The creature let out an unearthly wail that felt like ice water flooding her veins. Sarah scrambled backwards, completely consumed by primal terror, finally giving voice to her screams again. The bat slipped from her numb fingers as she retreated, her back slamming against the wall.

The entity contorted and morphed in front of her, skulls and femurs extending from its body like twisted branches, weaving into a new form. More skulls tumbled to the floor from its depths, jaws hanging agape as they rolled and spun with clacking sounds. Within moments, it had reformed itself into a nightmarish amalgam of bones and shadows, a dozen empty sockets glaring in her direction.

Sarah's bladder gave way as she stood rooted in fear, warm liquid pooling around her feet. She wanted to run, every instinct firing at once, screaming at her to flee. But some deeper, more primal part of her brain wouldn't let her move a muscle, paralyzed under the gaze of that skeletal aberration.

It began dragging itself toward her again with that bone-chilling screech.

Just as its gnashing, protruding jaws were nearly upon her, a deafening crack rang out in the enclosed space like a gunshot. Something shattered at Sarah's feet and she blinked, shaken from her trance. A bright, blinding light was pouring out, surrounding the bone creature and filling the room.

It twisted and thrashed, its eerie shrieks devolving into pure, unholy screeching as the illumination intensified. Sarah shielded her eyes against the radiance until suddenly, it stopped. She blinked again, her eyes adjusting to reveal an ordinary, empty kitchen awash in moonlight from the now-open curtains.

A small object clattered across the tiles, the source of the shattering - a shattered light bulb. Sarah crumpled to the floor, her legs finally giving out as the adrenaline drained from her body in waves. Sobs racked her frame as she curled into a ball, whimpering and shaking uncontrollably.

After several dazed minutes, she managed to collect herself enough to reach for her phone with a quavering hand. Her fingers trembled as she dialed 911 and held the phone to her ear.

"911, what's your emergency?"

Sarah opened her mouth, but only a ragged croak escaped her lips.