Knock Knock Knock

The babysitter that a mother had hired to watch her two children for a couple of hours cancelled on the mother with very short notice. This left the mother in quite a bind because she had an important meeting to attend for an hour outside the home. She knew she wouldn't be able to track down another babysitter and still have time to make it to the meeting on time, so her options were to either cancel out on the meeting and stay home or else let the kids take care of themselves for just over an hour.

Her oldest daughter was 12 and her son was 10. The mother had allowed the pair to stay home before during the daytime a few times, just while she dashed of for 15 or 20 minutes to the store. The children had been okay on those occassions and had acted responsibly, so the mother decided that even though it was after suppertime and getting dark outside, her children would be okay for 2 hours or so, as long as they acted responsibly like before.

"Don't open the door for any reason!" the mother warned. "I mean it - be good, finish your homework, don't make a mess, don't fight with each other and - DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR for any reason while I'm gone. I will be back in two hours, tops!"

With that said, the mother left the house and the older sister locked the door behind her mother. The two siblings decided that homework could wait, and they dashed upstairs to watch television while their mother was out.

After about an hour, the siblings heard a loud, KNOCK - KNOCK - KNOCK from downstairs. As a matter of habit, the little brother started to head to the stairway to go see who was at the door.

"No - Wait! Mom said not to open the door," the sister reminded.

"Oh yeah. Okay then," the brother replied and turned away from the top of the stairs.

"Knock-knock-knock" the knock sounded again. It was definitely coming from the direction of the front door.

"Don't go down there...remember what Mom said," the sister warned again as she coaxed her brother back to the TV room. "Whoever it is will have to come back later after Mom is home. We're not going to answer the door."

The person knocking seemed to have left and the pair started watching a new show that was just starting on tv. Pretty soon, they forgot all about the knocking at the door and were enjoying the television show.

"Knock Knock Knock" the sound started up again, louder this time. The sister checked the clock. Her mother had been gone for about an hour and a half, so she would be home soon.

The siblings just stayed put and did nothing, but after a half-minute, the knocking started again, "knock knock knock!"

And then again, "knock knock knock"

and

"Knock-Knock-Knock..." and "KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK" getting more insistent and loud.

FInally, the sister couldn't stand the noise anymore, so she told her brother, "Just stay here and watch the show. I'll go see who it is and tell them to go away, but you stay here - just in case!"

"Knock-Knock-Knock!" the brother heard the knocking continue and heard his sister's footsteps go downstairs. Faintly, he heard the rattle of the door hardware as the door was opened, and he heard his sister ask, "Who is it - what do you want?"

Then there was silence.

The boy thought nothing of this as his interest went back to the television show, but after a few minutes,

"Knock-Knock-Knock!"

He called to his sister, "Hey I thought you were taking care of the door."

"Knock-knock-knock"

The boy started to get scared and turned the sound lower on the TV so he could think.

"knock-knock-knock"

He called to his sister, more softly now, almost like a whisper, "Hey where are you? Where did you go - hey." It was not like his sister to joke around in this way, so he continued to get more frightened.

"Knock-knock-knock"

"Knock-knock-knock"

"Knock Knock Knock"

The boy got really scared and made his way downstairs and to the back door. He opened the back door, then ran as fast as he could across the back yard to the neighbor's house. Luckily the neighbors were home and let him in right away. He was huffing and puffing, almost crying, and the neighbor lady told him to calm down and sit down for a moment.

She sat him down in the living room where the TV was turned to the local news channel. Then the neighbor lady went to get him a glass of water because he was still huffing and puffing from running.

When the lady returned with a glass of water, the newscaster was reporting on a murder that had just been committed. A live camera crew had been dispatched and was filming the location where the murder took place. The news anchor was saying that the killer was still at large but hopefully, the quick action of getting film crews to the crime scene to shoot live footage would help the authorities apprehend a criminal very quickly. The reporter was asking the public to phone in if anyone recognized anything from the film footage...

The neighbor lady said, "Funny - that looks just like your house they're filming on tv..."

The boy looked closer at the tv screen. "Uh...that is!

That IS my house!"

The glass of water slid from his slackened grasp and crashed on the floor!