That night, Ezra was still sitting at his desk, staring at the laptop screen he hadn't touched in a while. His school assignment should have been finished that afternoon, but it had been left untouched because his thoughts kept returning to the strange sound he'd heard a few minutes earlier.
Ezra's house was never truly quiet. There was the sound of the television from the living room, his mother's dishes clattering in the kitchen, or a neighbor's motorcycle passing in front of the house. But that night felt different. The streets around the house were quieter than usual. The wind was blowing softly too, making the branches of the tree out front scrape against the fence.
Ezra tried to focus on his assignment again.
"Ugh, why am I thinking about creepy stuff instead?" he muttered, raking a hand through his hair.
He had just opened his book when the sound came again.
Knock...
Knock...
Knock...
Ezra stopped moving at once.
The sound had come from the back of the house.
He slowly turned toward his bedroom window. His heart began beating faster—not because he was sure there was something outside, but because the sound had been so clear.
"Who's out there this late?" he whispered.
Ezra got up from his chair and walked toward the window. He pulled the curtain aside slightly and looked out at the dark backyard. The small light near the old shed was still on, but its dim glow wasn't enough to illuminate the whole area.
There was no one there.
Ezra let out a relieved breath.
"Maybe it was just wood creaking or a rat," he said, trying to convince himself.
He returned to his desk. He had barely sat down when the sound came again.
Knock...
Knock...
Knock...
This time, it was louder.
Ezra turned around at once.
"Seriously?"
He stood again and took the small flashlight from his drawer. He really didn't want to go outside, but his curiosity was stronger than his fear.
As soon as he opened his bedroom door, he almost jumped—his mother was already standing in the hallway.
"Ezra?"
Ezra instinctively held his breath.
"Mom? You scared me."
His mother gave him a small smile.
"Where are you going this late?"
"Out back for a minute. I thought I heard something."
"What kind of sound?"
Ezra hesitated. If he told her he'd heard a mysterious knocking sound, she would definitely tell him to go to bed and stop thinking about weird things.
"I think something fell."
His mother stared at him for a few seconds.
"Don't take too long. You have school tomorrow."
"Yeah, Mom."
Ezra walked to the kitchen and went out through the back door. The night air immediately felt colder. He turned on his flashlight and swept the beam across the yard.
The old shed behind the house looked the same as usual. Its wooden door hung slightly crooked from years of neglect. Beside it were several old cardboard boxes and a broken chair that no one used anymore.
Ezra approached slowly.
"If it's just a cat, I'm going to feel like an idiot," he whispered.
He opened the shed door a little.
Creak...
The sound of the rusty hinges made him wince.
His flashlight beam swept across the inside of the shed. There was nothing there. Just old, dusty things.
"Oh my God, Ezra. You're scared of an empty shed," he mocked himself.
He was about to leave when a faint sound came from behind him.
Knock...
Ezra froze.
The sound hadn't come from the shed.
He slowly turned toward the back wall of the shed, which bordered his neighbor's empty house.
The house had been unoccupied for nearly five years. The locals often called it the empty house because the previous owner had moved away and never returned.
Ezra aimed his flashlight at it.
There was nothing there.
Then the sound came again.
Knock...
Knock...
Knock...
This time, Ezra was sure.
The sound had come from the empty house.
He took a step backward.
"No way..."
The next morning, Ezra was still thinking about what had happened the night before. Even during breakfast, he couldn't focus.
"Why have you been so quiet?" his mother asked.
"It's nothing, Mom."
"Are you sick?"
"No."
His mother furrowed her brow.
"If something's wrong, tell me. Don't keep it all to yourself."
Ezra just gave her a small smile.
"Yeah, Mom."
After he got to school, his thoughts were somewhat distracted. But the moment he met his best friend, Dika, he remembered everything again.
Dika was the person who heard Ezra's strange stories more often than anyone else. It wasn't because Ezra liked looking for trouble. For some reason, strange things just tended to happen near him.
"You look like you just saw a ghost," Dika said as he sat down beside Ezra.
Ezra looked at him.
"If I told you I heard a weird sound last night, would you believe me?"
Dika immediately perked up.
"What kind of sound?"
"Knocking."
"On a door?"
"No. It came from the empty house next to mine."
Dika stopped opening his lunch.
"That house that's been empty forever?"
"Yeah."
"And then?"
"I heard it three times. Knock, knock, knock."
Dika was silent for a moment, then chuckled.
"Maybe someone broke in."
"No way. That house is empty."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure. Even the grass out front is already overgrown."
Dika shrugged.
"All right, we'll check it out later."
Ezra stared at him in disbelief.
"We?"
"Yeah. You're curious, aren't you?"
"Just because I told you about it doesn't mean I was asking you to come along."
"But I know that look on your face. You're going to investigate anyway."
Ezra fell silent because Dika was right.
After school, Ezra and Dika walked toward his house. From a distance, the empty house looked the same as always. Its paint was beginning to fade, its windows were tightly shut, and its front yard was covered in dry leaves.
Dika studied the house.
"Honestly, this place is pretty creepy."
"Took you long enough to notice."
"That doesn't mean there's something inside."
They walked closer until they stood in front of the empty house's fence.
Suddenly, Ezra stopped.
"What?"
Ezra pointed at the ground near the fence.
"There are footprints."
Dika looked too.
In the slightly damp soil, there were indeed several tracks that looked as if someone had just passed through the area.
"Did it rain yesterday?" Dika asked.
"No."
They looked at each other.
Before either of them could say anything, the sound came again.
Knock...
Knock...
Knock...
They both fell silent.
The casual expression Dika had been wearing slowly changed.
"Ezra..."
"Yeah?"
"Don't tell me I'm the only one who heard that."
Ezra stared at the house.
"You heard it too?"
Dika slowly nodded.
For the first time, Ezra felt that maybe the sound wasn't just in his head.
There was something in that empty house.
And tonight, the knocking might be heard again.