The knocking started at 3:43 in the morning.
Segun opened his eyes and stared into deep darkness. Three simultaneous and slow knockings were coming somewhere behind the wall of his bedroom. He listened carefully while he also held his breath. Still waiting for another knock. The whole environment was so quiet, the same with the house, except for some distant sounds of crickets and the standing fan turning around and making some sounds in his room.
Segun stays alone. In their big family house, a place that was willed to him after the passing away of his parents. The building looks so attractive and not frightening in the daylight, but when it is turning dark, all the corners always look different. The wide and empty passage, the old windows rattled whenever there is a breeze, and some areas in the house always look empty with the smell of faintly damped woods.
He has only decided and made up his mind to only stay there for a few months while he renovates the house and puts it up for sale. He has not once believed all those stories his parents told him about some strange noises coming out from the house. Most old buildings usually made noises. That was all he believed.
That was how the knocking came again.
Three simultaneous and slow knocks. A pause. Then it goes on like that.
He reached for the torch he always put at one corner of his bed and switched it on. The weak beam was only in one direction but pointed exactly where he wanted it, the wall beside his bed. Everything was the same; nothing was moving. He pointed the torch to check the time on the wall again, hoping to find a reason for the disturbance, but it was still 3 in the morning. He checked his phone, but no missed calls or messages.
Jumping out of his master bed, he walked out of his room across the empty passage. The tiled floor felt very cold beneath his feet. And when he was slowly approaching the area where the knock was, he tiptoed, holding his breath again as he pressed his palm against it. The knocking stopped.
After that moment, Segun almost laughed at himself. He was fed up, all alone in an unfamiliar house, while giving a chance for his imagination to frighten him. He then went back to his room.
Sitting on his bed, something again knocked from another side.
Segun stood up very fast and moved backward.
Behind the section of that wall, there was no room. He knew that because he always comes to the house often during his holidays. It was the wall separating the other passage from an old laundry space that had been sealed up since when Segun was still very young.
He hurried to open one of his wardrobes to pick up a hammer that he has kept there for some time. He grabbed it as he walked towards the other side where the sound was coming from. He said to himself that he only planned to check out the wall the following morning. Yet, the knocking did not stop, and this time, it was coming with a faint scratching noise.
Close to the floor, he paid attention and saw a thin line running along the wooden panel. Since he started staying in the house, he has never seen that before. Using the hammer, he used the claw side to pried at the edge until the panel loosened and swung inward.
Behind the wall was a very narrow opening, barely large enough for a human body to fit in. Little dust and cold air rushed out, with the smell of the dust coming out.
Pointing his flashlight in the opening was an old metal box on the floor. Looking inside was some old bunches of keys, different old family pictures, and some old notes with no name on it.
Segun carefully checked through as he unfolded with his trembling fingers.
His dad's handwriting filled most of the pages.
If you ever hear anyone of the knockings at night, do not think about going near or opening the locked door close to the other passage.
A loud knock sounded this time.
Segun looked back slowly.
At the end of the other passage, the door of the bedroom next to it began to open itself slowly.
He suddenly dropped the note he was reading and dropped the hammer as he left the torch on the box while he ran outside as fast as he could. He did not look back until he reached the next neighbor's house, pounding on their gate while shouting, "It is me, Segun."
By daybreak, he went to the house with one of his neighbors. The opening was already closed, the passage was still empty, but the note was still there in the metal box.
He sold the house a week later without renovation.
During her final moment in the house, while some of her things were being moved out by the courier, Segun stood at the gate side while looking back at the windows. He was unable to explain what he had heard, though he was happy to be moving out.
As he entered the truck, while they pulled away, another three simultaneous knocks came from the boot side.
He sharply turned back.
But he was the only one who seemed to have heard the knocks.
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