Two Knocks

The witch doctor said to never open the door when you hear only two knocks. The usual person knocks many times when he’s in a hurry or knocks more than twice when nobody opens the door after the first try. If it’s only two knocks, then never expect it’s a person.

“It disguises its voice. You hear it as though he’s your neighbor or friend,” the witch doctor said. “Be sure to see first before opening the door.” His eyes rounded, and it made her chill. “Because if you open it, you will see nobody in the doorway. You won’t see it slips in. At night, it will fulfill its purpose. To seize all the ghosts in this house. Spirits that never have justice at all.”

Myles froze. She felt warm blood creep on her back.

“Here,” the witch doctor offered Myles a small transparent sachet of something ground, “take this, and this will temporarily protect the house from it. Burn this tonight.”

“What’s this?” asked Myles.

“Incense powder.” The witch doctor turned and walked to the front door. His steps clanked on the burnished antique wooden floor. He went out into the light of the dawning dusk.

Myles locked the door and climbed upstairs.

The crickets sang their ritual songs. Every note surrounded the house. The dogs barked at the nearby houses. Then they howled in a howl of absolute despair.

Myles looked out through the bedroom window. Down the street, she noticed a shadow walked beside the light-post. The shadow was gone when it reached the front door. Her heart pounded. Pools of sweat slowly streamed down her neck. She was shaking. She almost couldn’t take steps to the bed where her sister Josie lay calmly.

“Have you heard that?” asked Josie. Her rounding eyes were fixed on the ceiling. Then she turned her head to Myles.

Myles stopped moving. She heard a scratch outside the window. She pulled the windows hard shut and moved to Josie.

“I heard two knocks,” said Josie. “He is out there, Myles. Don’t open the door, please.” Josie’s eyes were full of worry.

“I won’t, honey.” Myles sprinted to the bedroom door and locked it closed. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right here.” She sat beside her sick sister.

Suddenly, the windows hinged open. The curtains waved as the chilly wind blew in. Myles covered her fearful sister with her body. The chairs danced on the floor. The TV fell off, and the glass shattered. The bed rocked as though someone or something monstrous has made it move from beneath it. They both shrieked in horror.

Outside the house, the howls were getting louder and louder. The wind was getting stronger and colder. It got through the windows and slapped the two slim bodies, cuddling with each other.

A few moments later, everything was calm. Silence like when death devours you. Then, two knocks came on the bedroom door.

Myles’s heart galloped. She could feel Josie’s distress. She could feel her lovely sister worried the devil could get in, take her out of the real world, and be a princess in his dark realm.

“Don’t open it, Myles. Please, please, please. He would take me to his world. I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to die. Please, Myles,” Josie said in a pleading tone.

“Honey, don’t worry, I’ll protect you from him.” Myles quavered.

Myles got up to get the rosary from the altar, but Josie held her hand. “Please don’t leave me, Myles.”

“I won’t, honey. I’ll just go get the rosary.”

Josie let her go.

The silver-blue rosary dangled in Myles’s hand as she swirled back to her sister. Myles glanced at the door. It was rattling as though someone from outside was trying to break the knob. It slammed hard, banging the wall. Nobody was in the doorway. A cold breeze winnowed in Josie’s direction. Myles looked at Josie.

Josie was now crouching on the bed like a ravenous tiger ready to attack its prey and like a runner in a race, ready to rush off. Her fiery eyes, not her own eyes, were scorning her older sister. Myles noticed Josie’s cheeks blotted into something rough. Her eyebrows thickened and met at the center. Her ears became pointed up and below her chin sprouted thick hair. Her hair swept up like a witch-broom. Then, her pupils were gone, which made her eyes pitch-black. Finally, two horns grew on the sides of her forehead.

“She is mine,” said Josie. But it wasn’t her voice. It was a hollow, totally deep, and creepy voice. A voice that makes everybody shiver. A voice that nobody dares to hear, because it was a voice from the deep sea of fires of hell. The voice of the devil.

The devil from Josie’s helpless body laughed in exaltation. It echoed around the bedroom. Myles could feel its wave in every part of her body. She froze like a corpse and fell to the floor. The devil jumped at Myles. It licked its long, snake-like tongue on her cheeks. Saliva dropped to Myle’s smooth face. It was sticky, cold, and stinky. The devil lifted Myles by strangling her. The hot breath it produced was losing her strength.

Myles caught her breath when someone grabbed Josie off. It was the witch doctor, armed with a bamboo cross as big as his arms. He pushed Josie off.

“In the name of Almighty God, I command you to leave the body of that woman!” he shouted.

The wind raged through the windows. Cockroaches and rats came out from the gaps all around the house. They formed into a figure of a black hooded being.

“I am the knight of darkness and I’m here to take this woman’s soul to become my princess,” the hooded being said in a voice that no one could ever describe.

The witch doctor raised the cross. “In the name of Jesus the Son of God, I command you to leave this place and go back to your dwelling.”

The ghastly figure laughed raucously. “This is my dwelling place.”

Myles struggled up to her feet and leaped to sling the rosary to the figure. The insects that formed it scampered away, back into the gaps. The wind stopped like hardcore music being muted. Myles then ran to Josie and helped her up to the bed.

In a few moments, there was incomprehensible chaos. All hinged things in the house, doors and windows, cabinets, cupboards, and closets, were disturbed, as though someone was playing at them. The wind hummed a deafening cry. Fragile things broke, sprinkling shards on the wooden floor. The floor shook as if a great earthquake is ongoing. The statues and icons of saints on the altar fell to the floor, breaking into pieces. Myles, Josie, and the witch doctor fell and rolled over on the floor.

“Get up,” said the witch doctor. “We must get out of the house. Now!”

Myles wore the rosary on her sister’s neck.

They ran downstairs, stumbling and falling. They moved out and away and rested near the light-post that had been blinking like lightning. They watched how the house slowly collapsed and how it was swallowed by the ground. It was like a boat that slowly sinks into the deep-blue sea.

Now everything was serene.

“He could never take your sister.” The witch doctor glanced over at Myles, who was clutching her sister. “He’s taken the house and the souls in it.”

“What happened?” said Josie softly.

“He’s gone, honey, don’t worry.”

A week later, the sisters rented an apartment in the middle of the busy city. It was a nice place with two bedrooms and a wide area of the living room. On one wall of the living room was a long sofa chair facing the door and three glass windows. Myles set up a curtain, designed in sunflowers, over the window.

It had been a peaceful life inside the apartment until one Friday night. Myles was about to shut the windows off. But before she could close the last window in the corner, the wind hummed and brushed the hair that blocked her face. She noticed someone. A shadow. A hooded figure. She shivered and quickly closed the window, locked the door, and rushed into the bedroom where Josie was sleeping.

Myles perched in the bed's corner, her knees on her chin trembling.

“Have you heard that?” asked Myles, as though her sister was wide awake.

Josie rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked up at her.

Myles crumpled, setting her head between her calves. “I just saw him!” she whispered in fear.

Josie widened her eyes in worry. “Who?”

She didn’t answer. There was total silence like silence down the deep well.

Then… two knocks came on the bedroom door.