THE LAST KNOCK
THE LAST KNOCK
Every night at 3:13am, someone knocks on the door.
Not loud.
Not violent.
Just three slow knocks.
The problem is…
when she finally forces herself to look outside, nobody is there.
But something is already inside the house.
Chapter One
The first knock came at 3:13am.
Three soft taps against the front door.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Selene opened her eyes instantly.
The room sat dark around her, the red glow of the digital clock bleeding faintly across the ceiling.
3:13.
Rain whispered against the windows.
For a few seconds she stayed still beneath the duvet, listening carefully.
Nothing.
No voices outside.
No car engine.
No footsteps.
Just the storm.
She exhaled slowly and closed her eyes again.
Probably pipes.
Or next door.
Old terraced houses carried sound strangely at night.
Then the knocking came again.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Closer this time somehow.
Deliberate.
Selene sat upright immediately.
Her chest tightened.
That was definitely her door.
A cold draft brushed across her bare arms as she climbed out of bed.
The hallway upstairs looked darker than usual.
The landing bulb had blown days ago and she still hadn’t replaced it.
Typical.
She walked carefully toward the staircase, every creak beneath her feet suddenly too loud.
The house felt… aware tonight.
That was the only way to describe it.
Like the silence itself was listening.
Halfway down the stairs she stopped.
The front door sat directly ahead at the end of the hallway.
Still closed.
Still locked.
Rainwater shimmered faintly through the frosted side glass beside it.
No shadow outside.
No movement.
Selene swallowed hard.
This is stupid.
She continued downward anyway.
Her hand hovered near the lock.
Paused.
Something felt wrong.
Not danger exactly.
Just a heavy instinct low in her stomach telling her not to open the door.
She almost listened to it.
Almost.
Then she unlocked the door and pulled it open sharply.
Cold rain air rushed inside instantly.
The porch stood empty.
No person.
No movement.
No car parked nearby.
The road beyond sat silent beneath orange streetlights and falling rain.
Selene frowned.
“What the hell…”
Then she noticed the footprints.
Dark wet footprints stretched across the porch tiles.
Bare human footprints.
Leading toward her front door.
And stopping there.
Not turning away.
Not continuing.
Stopping.
As though whoever made them had simply vanished.
A cold shiver crawled slowly across her skin.
The prints looked fresh.
Rainwater still gathered inside them.
Her eyes followed the trail again carefully.
One set only.
Small feet.
Almost delicate.
Definitely barefoot.
A quiet sound came from upstairs.
A floorboard creaking.
Selene froze instantly.
Every muscle in her body locked tight.
The sound had come from the landing directly above her.
Inside the house.
She lived alone.
Silence swallowed everything again.
Then slowly…
Something moved across the upstairs hallway.
Not footsteps exactly.
A dragging sound.
Soft.
Wet.
Selene’s pulse exploded painfully in her throat.
The front door still hung open behind her, cold rain blowing lightly into the hallway.
She couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe properly.
The sound upstairs stopped.
Silence again.
Then came a third knock.
Not at the front door this time.
At her bedroom door upstairs.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Chapter Two
Selene slammed the front door shut so hard the glass rattled.
The lock clicked beneath shaking fingers.
Upstairs, silence returned instantly.
No dragging sound.
No movement.
Nothing.
Her breathing sounded too loud in the hallway now.
“You’re imagining things,” she whispered to herself.
But the words felt weak.
Pointless.
Because she knew exactly what she’d heard.
Three knocks.
From upstairs.
At her bedroom door.
Her eyes lifted slowly toward the staircase.
Darkness waited at the top.
Still.
Heavy.
The landing seemed impossibly far away suddenly.
Selene grabbed the umbrella stand beside the door without thinking.
A pathetic weapon.
But better than nothing.
She climbed the stairs slowly, gripping the metal stand so tightly her knuckles hurt.
Every step creaked beneath her weight.
The darkness upstairs pressed around her immediately.
Cold.
Far colder than downstairs.
Her bedroom door stood half open at the end of the landing.
Exactly where she’d left it.
Nothing visible inside.
No movement.
Selene swallowed hard.
Then noticed the water.
Tiny wet footprints marked the wooden floorboards.
Bare feet.
Leading from her bedroom…
toward the spare room at the end of the hallway.
Her stomach twisted violently.
“No.”
The footprints glistened faintly in the dark.
Fresh.
Impossible.
Selene stepped backwards instinctively.
The spare room door sat closed at the end of the landing.
She never used that room.
Not anymore.
Not since Daniel died.
The thought hit hard and sudden.
Daniel.
A horrible memory surfaced instantly.
Rain.
Headlights.
The phone call at 2am.
The sound her own voice made afterwards.
Selene shut her eyes tightly.
Not now.
The house creaked softly again.
Then from behind the spare room door came the faint sound of breathing.
Slow.
Wet.
Human breathing.
Selene felt genuine panic rise for the first time.
Not nerves.
Not unease.
Panic.
She backed away carefully toward her bedroom.
The breathing continued softly through the door.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Then came a voice.
Quiet.
Female.
Barely above a whisper.
“Selene…”
She nearly screamed.
The umbrella stand clattered from her hands onto the floorboards with a deafening crash.
Silence followed instantly.
No breathing.
No voice.
Nothing.
Selene ran.
Straight into her bedroom.
She slammed the door shut and locked it, her whole body shaking violently now.
Rain battered the windows harder outside.
Her phone sat charging beside the bed.
She grabbed it immediately.
No signal.
Her stomach dropped.
“What?”
She moved toward the window instinctively.
The streetlights outside flickered weakly through the rain.
Then went out completely.
Darkness swallowed the entire road.
And standing directly beneath her bedroom window…
was a woman in a soaking white dress staring up at the house.
Chapter Three
Selene stumbled backwards from the window so fast she nearly fell.
Her heart hammered violently against her ribs.
The woman outside hadn’t moved.
Rain poured over her pale figure in silver sheets.
Long dark hair hung soaked around her face.
Her bare feet stood motionless in the flooded road beneath the window.
Watching.
Waiting.
Selene grabbed her phone again desperately.
Still no signal.
“No no no…”
The power had gone too now.
The house sat in complete darkness except for weak moonlight filtering through rainclouds.
The woman remained below the window.
Perfectly still.
Then slowly…
she lifted one hand.
And pointed upward.
Directly at Selene’s bedroom.
A loud bang exploded downstairs.
Selene screamed instinctively.
The sound had come from inside the house.
The front door.
Or something near it.
Another bang followed immediately after.
Then silence.
The woman outside the window was gone.
Selene stared at the empty street in horror.
No footprints.
No movement.
Nothing.
Another noise drifted upward through the house.
The sound of slow footsteps downstairs.
Not rushing.
Not hiding.
Just walking calmly through her hallway.
Selene backed toward the bedroom door shaking uncontrollably now.
Someone was inside.
The footsteps stopped directly beneath her room.
Then came a soft creak from the staircase.
One step.
Then another.
Someone climbing upward slowly.
Selene’s breathing became shallow and uneven.
Think.
Think.
She rushed toward the wardrobe and yanked it open desperately.
Nothing useful.
Clothes.
Boxes.
An old torch buried beneath scarves.
She grabbed it quickly and switched it on.
Weak light flickered alive.
Barely enough.
The footsteps continued climbing.
Slow.
Measured.
Almost patient.
Selene turned toward the bedroom door just as something wet slid slowly beneath it.
Water.
Dark rainwater creeping across the carpet from the hallway outside.
Her pulse spiked violently.
Then came three soft knocks at the bedroom door.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Selene stared at it frozen.
A woman’s voice whispered softly from the other side.
“You let me in.”
The torch trembled violently in Selene’s hand.
“I don’t know who you are,” she whispered back.
Silence.
Then quietly:
“Yes you do.”
Chapter Four
Selene didn’t answer.
She couldn’t.
Because somewhere deep beneath the panic…
something about the voice felt familiar.
Not recognisable exactly.
Worse than that.
The kind of familiarity your body notices before your mind catches up.
Rainwater continued spreading slowly beneath the bedroom door.
Cold against her bare feet.
The voice outside spoke again softly.
“You shouldn’t have come back here.”
Selene’s stomach tightened instantly.
Back here.
Not here.
Back here.
The hallway floorboards creaked gently outside the room.
Like whoever stood there had tilted their head slightly while listening.
Selene gripped the torch tighter.
“I’ve never seen you before.”
Silence.
Then a faint laugh.
Quiet.
Wet.
“You saw me the night Daniel died.”
Everything inside Selene seemed to stop.
The torchlight shook harder across the walls.
“No.”
But the word came out weak.
Because suddenly memories were shifting.
Rain on a motorway.
Flashing hazard lights.
Daniel getting out of the car.
Someone standing near the road.
A woman.
Had there been a woman?
Selene pressed a trembling hand against her forehead.
No.
No that wasn’t right.
Daniel died in an accident.
That’s what police said.
That’s what everyone said.
A loud scrape suddenly dragged across the bedroom door from outside.
Like fingernails slowly pulling down the wood.
Selene jumped violently.
The woman whispered again:
“You left me there.”
The bedroom temperature dropped sharply.
Cold air filled the room so suddenly Selene saw her own breath.
Then the torch flickered once.
Twice.
And went out.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Selene gasped.
Outside the bedroom door came the sound of wet bare feet shifting slowly across the landing.
Then moving away.
Toward the staircase.
Toward downstairs again.
Selene remained frozen in darkness listening carefully.
The footsteps descended slowly.
One step at a time.
Then silence returned to the house.
A horrible silence.
The kind that feels temporary.
Her phone suddenly buzzed violently in her hand.
Selene nearly cried from fright.
Signal restored.
One new voicemail.
Unknown number.
Timestamp:
3:13am.
Her pulse hammered painfully.
With shaking fingers she pressed play.
Static crackled loudly.
Then came the sound of rain.
Heavy rain.
Breathing.
Wet footsteps.
And finally Daniel’s voice whispering softly through static:
“Selene… don’t let her inside.”
Chapter Five
The voicemail ended abruptly.
Silence flooded the bedroom again.
Selene stared at the screen in disbelief.
Daniel’s voice.
Impossible.
Her breathing turned shallow and uneven.
“No…”
She replayed it immediately.
Static.
Rain.
Footsteps.
Then again:
“Selene… don’t let her inside.”
Her chest tightened painfully.
It sounded exactly like him.
Not distorted.
Not fake.
Exactly him.
A loud crash downstairs shattered the silence.
Glass breaking.
Selene jumped violently.
Then came the front door slamming open below.
Cold wind roared suddenly through the house.
She rushed toward the bedroom window instinctively.
The street outside remained dark.
No streetlights.
No neighbours.
No movement anywhere.
But the front door downstairs now stood wide open letting rain blow into the hallway.
And slowly…
very slowly…
someone began climbing the stairs again.
Not wet footsteps this time.
Bare feet dragging softly against wood.
Selene backed away from the door shaking uncontrollably.
The footsteps reached the landing.
Stopped outside her room.
Then came a different voice.
Male.
Weak.
Terrified.
“Selene…”
Her blood ran cold instantly.
Daniel.
Not through a voicemail.
Outside the bedroom door.
“Please…” the voice whispered shakily. “Open the door.”
Tears burned suddenly in her eyes.
“No.”
The answer came automatically now.
Because something felt deeply wrong.
Daniel died two years ago.
She had identified his body herself.
The voice outside cracked softly.
“You left me there.”
The exact same words.
A horrible realisation crawled slowly through her chest.
Whatever stood outside her room…
it wasn’t Daniel.
The bedroom door handle slowly began turning.
Once.
Twice.
Soft metal clicking in darkness.
Then stopped.
Silence again.
Selene’s phone buzzed suddenly with an incoming call.
Unknown number.
Her stomach twisted violently.
The screen displayed only two words:
ANSWER ME.
The footsteps outside vanished instantly.
No sound.
No movement.
Nothing.
Selene stared at the phone shaking.
Then answered.
Static crackled loudly through the speaker.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then came a woman’s voice.
Soft.
Calm.
Almost gentle.
“You really don’t remember what happened that night, do you?”
Chapter Six
Selene couldn’t speak.
She sat frozen on the edge of the bed clutching the phone so tightly her fingers hurt.
Static whispered softly through the speaker.
Then the woman sighed.
“You always forget the worst part first.”
Selene swallowed hard.
“Who are you?”
A pause.
Rain crackled faintly in the background of the call.
“You know my name.”
“No I don’t.”
Another pause.
Longer this time.
Then quietly:
“You knew it when you watched me drown.”
The words hit like ice water.
Selene stood abruptly.
“No.”
Her breathing became uneven instantly.
“That’s not real.”
“Isn’t it?”
The bedroom door creaked softly behind her.
Not opening.
Just shifting slightly on its hinges.
Selene spun around.
Darkness waited beyond the crack beneath the door.
Nothing else.
“You left me in the reservoir,” the woman whispered through the phone.
Reservoir.
The word cracked something open deep in Selene’s memory.
Rain.
Black water.
A road beside trees.
Daniel shouting something she couldn’t fully hear.
Then headlights swinging wildly across wet ground.
Selene pressed a trembling hand against her mouth.
“No…”
“You saw me.”
The woman sounded closer now somehow.
Not through the phone.
Inside the room.
“You looked directly at me.”
A cold drip touched Selene’s bare foot.
She looked down slowly.
Water spread across the bedroom floorboards beneath the bed.
Dark water.
Lake water.
Mud and weeds drifting inside it.
Her pulse exploded painfully.
Then something pale moved beneath the surface.
A hand.
Selene screamed and stumbled backwards.
The water vanished instantly.
The floor dry again.
The room silent.
Only the call remained.
“You remember now,” the woman whispered.
“No!”
But another memory surfaced anyway.
Daniel gripping the steering wheel tightly.
Her crying.
The argument.
A woman standing beside the reservoir road waving desperately for help.
And Selene saying:
“Just keep driving.”
The bedroom door suddenly slammed open.
Selene screamed again.
The landing beyond sat empty and dark.
Rain blew softly through the upstairs hallway from the open front door below.
The woman’s voice came through the phone one final time.
“He stopped the car anyway.”
Then the call disconnected.
Chapter Seven
Selene didn’t sleep.
Not even slightly.
She stayed curled in the corner of the bedroom until morning light finally crept weakly through the windows.
The house looked ordinary again in daylight.
That was the disturbing part.
The hallway dry.
The staircase empty.
No footprints.
No water.
No sign anyone else had been inside.
Only the front door remained slightly open downstairs.
Exactly as she remembered.
Selene closed it slowly.
Locked it.
Then checked every room in the house twice.
Nothing.
No intruder.
No broken windows.
No explanation.
Her phone still showed the voicemail.
Still showed the unknown call at 3:13am.
Proof she hadn’t imagined everything.
That helped less than she expected.
By midday Selene sat at the kitchen table staring blankly into untouched coffee.
Rain still fell outside.
Lighter now.
Steady.
The reservoir sat less than fifteen minutes from the house by car.
She hadn’t been back there since Daniel died.
Not once.
Her therapist had called it avoidance.
Selene had called it survival.
The phone buzzed suddenly beside her.
Unknown number again.
Her stomach dropped instantly.
But this time it wasn’t a call.
Just a text.
COME BACK.
Selene stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived immediately after.
YOU LEFT HER THERE.
A cold shiver crawled slowly through her body.
“No.”
Her voice sounded small inside the kitchen.
Another message appeared.
YOU LEFT ME TOO.
Selene shoved the phone away from herself violently.
The chair scraped loudly across the tiles as she stood.
“No.”
Because that part wasn’t true.
Daniel died in the crash.
She survived.
That was all.
That was what happened.
Wasn’t it?
A knock sounded suddenly at the front door.
Selene froze instantly.
Three knocks.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Her chest tightened painfully.
Not again.
Slowly she approached the hallway.
Looked through the frosted glass.
A man stood outside beneath the porch.
Tall.
Dark coat soaked by rain.
Late thirties maybe.
One hand resting calmly in his pocket.
Human.
Normal.
Selene opened the door cautiously.
The man looked tired more than threatening.
“You’re Selene Harrow?” he asked quietly.
She hesitated.
“Yes.”
He nodded once.
“My name’s Elias Ward.”
Something about the name tugged faintly at her memory.
Then he said the sentence that made her blood run cold.
“I think you were there the night my sister disappeared.”
Chapter Eight
Selene stared at him speechless.
Rain dripped steadily from the edge of the porch roof between them.
“My what?”
Elias studied her carefully.
Not accusing.
Watching.
“My sister,” he repeated quietly.
“Lena Ward.”
The name hit something deep in Selene’s chest.
Not memory exactly.
Recognition.
Like hearing part of a song she hadn’t realised she knew.
Elias continued softly:
“She vanished two years ago near Blackwater Reservoir.”
Selene felt the hallway tilt slightly around her.
“No.”
“You were seen there that night.”
“No I wasn’t.”
But the denial came too quickly.
Too automatically.
Elias noticed.
His expression changed slightly.
“You remember something.”
Selene shook her head hard.
“My boyfriend died there.”
“I know.”
That stopped her cold.
“How do you know that?”
Elias hesitated briefly.
“Because Lena called me before she disappeared.”
Rain whispered around the porch.
Selene’s pulse thudded painfully in her ears.
“She said a couple had stopped near the reservoir road.”
A horrible coldness spread slowly through Selene’s stomach.
“She sounded frightened.”
Selene backed away slightly from the doorway.
“No…”
Elias reached slowly into his coat pocket.
Selene flinched instinctively.
He pulled out a folded photograph instead.
Rain damaged.
Old.
He held it carefully toward her.
A young woman smiled back from the picture.
Dark hair.
Pale eyes.
Beautiful in a sharp haunting sort of way.
Selene’s breath caught instantly.
It was her.
The woman from outside the window.
The woman from the calls.
The woman in the water.
“That’s impossible,” Selene whispered.
Elias watched her reaction carefully.
“You’ve seen her.”
Not a question.
Selene looked back toward the house behind her.
Suddenly terrified to be inside it again.
“She’s dead,” Elias said quietly.
The words settled heavily between them.
“Her body was never found,” he added.
“But she’s dead.”
Selene’s hands began shaking again.
“She’s been calling me.”
Elias went still instantly.
“What?”
“She knows things.”
Rainwater dripped from his coat silently.
“She says I left her there.”
Elias stared at her for a long moment.
Then quietly asked:
“Did you?”
Chapter Nine
“I don’t know.”
The honesty shocked both of them.
Selene pressed trembling fingers against her forehead.
Fragments of memory kept surfacing now.
Rain.
Daniel arguing with someone outside the car.
A woman screaming.
Black water.
Then nothing.
Elias stepped carefully inside the hallway.
Selene didn’t stop him.
The house suddenly felt unbearable to stand in alone.
“She’s been dead for two years,” Elias said quietly.
“But strange things started happening after they drained part of the reservoir last month.”
Selene looked up sharply.
“What things?”
Elias hesitated.
“People hearing knocking.”
Her stomach dropped instantly.
“Three knocks,” he continued softly.
“Always at 3:13am.”
Cold spread through every part of her body.
“She comes back wet,” he said.
“Like she’s still trying to get out.”
Selene backed toward the kitchen slowly.
“No.”
Elias followed carefully.
Not threatening.
Concerned.
“She’s attached herself to someone.”
Selene looked at him sharply.
“What does that mean?”
“I think she wants someone to remember what happened.”
The kitchen lights flickered suddenly overhead.
Both of them froze.
Then came the sound.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Water fell steadily from somewhere above them.
Elias looked upward slowly.
The ceiling directly above the kitchen table darkened.
A wet stain spreading outward across the plaster.
Selene’s pulse exploded.
“No no no…”
The dripping intensified suddenly.
Dirty black water burst through the ceiling in one violent stream splashing across the table and floor.
Selene screamed.
Elias grabbed her arm and yanked her backwards just as something else fell through the collapsing plaster above.
A woman’s body slammed onto the kitchen table with a sickening crack.
Selene cried out in horror.
The corpse lay twisted unnaturally among broken wood and filthy water.
Long black hair covering most of its face.
Pale swollen skin dripping reservoir water onto the tiles.
Then slowly…
its head turned toward Selene.
And Lena smiled.
Chapter Ten
Selene stumbled backwards screaming.
The corpse remained sprawled across the shattered kitchen table dripping black water everywhere.
Lena’s pale eyes stayed fixed directly on her.
Too aware.
Too alive.
Elias looked frozen beside her.
“Lena…”
His voice cracked painfully.
The corpse smiled wider.
Water spilled from its mouth as it spoke.
“You left me there.”
Selene shook uncontrollably.
“I didn’t mean to!”
The words escaped before she could stop them.
Elias turned sharply toward her.
“What?”
But Lena moved suddenly.
Fast.
Far too fast.
The corpse twisted violently off the table and hit the kitchen floor with a wet crack of limbs.
Then began crawling toward Selene.
Dragging itself through black water.
Selene screamed again.
Elias grabbed a chair instinctively and swung it hard.
The chair smashed through Lena’s body.
For one horrifying second the corpse collapsed apart into water and weeds and mud.
Then the kitchen lights exploded.
Darkness swallowed the room instantly.
Selene heard Elias swearing beside her.
Then came wet footsteps moving across the tiles.
Closer.
Closer.
A flashlight beam suddenly cut through the darkness.
Elias had his phone out now, trembling light sweeping wildly across the kitchen.
The corpse was gone.
Only filthy reservoir water remained across the floor.
Selene’s breathing turned ragged.
“That was real.”
Elias didn’t answer immediately.
Because written slowly across the flooded kitchen tiles in dripping black water were three words.
COME BACK TONIGHT.
Then from somewhere upstairs came three soft knocks.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Chapter Eleven
Neither of them moved.
The knocking upstairs echoed softly through the silent house.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Elias kept the phone light aimed toward the kitchen doorway, breathing unevenly.
Selene stared at the words across the flooded floor.
COME BACK TONIGHT.
Water continued dripping steadily from the broken ceiling above them.
“What happens tonight?” she whispered.
Elias swallowed hard.
“The reservoir was closed after Lena disappeared.”
He sounded distracted.
Like he was piecing something together in real time.
“But tonight…”
He checked his watch instinctively.
“Tonight’s the anniversary.”
Cold spread slowly through Selene’s chest.
Two years.
Exactly two years since Daniel died.
Since Lena vanished.
The upstairs floorboard creaked softly again.
Someone moving across the landing above them.
Elias looked upward sharply.
“You said you live alone?”
“I do.”
A wet sound dragged slowly across the ceiling overhead.
Like something crawling.
Selene backed toward the hallway.
“We need to leave.”
Elias nodded immediately.
For the first time all night he looked genuinely frightened.
They moved quickly toward the front door.
The hallway lights flickered weakly overhead.
Selene grabbed her coat from the bannister.
Her hands shook so badly she nearly dropped it.
Then Elias suddenly froze beside the front door.
“What?” Selene whispered.
He slowly raised the flashlight beam toward the frosted glass panels.
A figure stood outside beneath the porch.
Tall.
Motionless.
Watching the house.
The beam shifted slightly higher.
Selene’s stomach dropped instantly.
Daniel.
Or something wearing Daniel’s face.
Rain soaked through his dark jacket.
His skin looked pale beneath the porch light.
Too pale.
And his head tilted slightly at an angle no living person would hold comfortably.
Selene felt tears burn suddenly in her eyes.
“No…”
The thing outside smiled faintly.
Then raised one hand slowly.
Three soft knocks sounded against the glass.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
The hallway temperature dropped sharply.
Then Daniel’s voice whispered softly through the door:
“She’s lying to you.”
Chapter Twelve
Selene stared at the figure outside unable to breathe properly.
It looked exactly like Daniel.
Exactly.
The same tired eyes.
Same dark hair falling across his forehead.
Same navy coat he wore the night he died.
Except for the water.
Rainwater streamed constantly from him.
Too much water.
As though he’d climbed directly out of the reservoir.
Elias stepped protectively in front of Selene slightly.
“That’s not him.”
The figure smiled wider.
“No,” it agreed softly.
The voice sounded wrong now.
Still Daniel’s voice.
But layered strangely beneath something deeper.
Something female.
Something drowned.
Selene’s stomach twisted violently.
“You let me die,” the thing whispered through the door.
“No…”
“You watched.”
A flash of memory hit Selene so suddenly she nearly cried out.
Daniel standing waist deep in black water.
Rain hammering down around him.
A woman screaming somewhere nearby.
Then headlights swinging wildly.
And Selene driving away alone.
She gasped sharply.
Elias grabbed her shoulders immediately.
“What did you remember?”
Selene looked horrified.
“I left him there.”
The figure outside the door tilted its head slowly.
“Yes.”
Tears filled Selene’s eyes instantly.
“No…”
“You locked the car doors.”
Another memory surfaced violently.
Daniel pounding against the window shouting at her to unlock the car.
Water rising around him in darkness.
And Selene terrified.
Too terrified to move.
Elias stared at her carefully now.
“What happened that night?”
“I don’t know!” she cried.
The figure outside suddenly slammed both hands violently against the door.
The entire hallway shook.
“She remembers.”
Its voice distorted horribly now.
Wet.
Broken.
Hungry.
Then all the lights in the house went out at once.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Selene screamed instinctively.
Elias grabbed her arm hard.
“MOVE.”
The front door burst inward behind them with a deafening crack.
Cold rain air exploded through the hallway.
And something wet came crawling rapidly across the floorboards toward them through the dark.
Chapter Thirteen
They ran.
Straight through the kitchen.
Selene nearly slipped on the flooded tiles as Elias dragged her toward the back door.
Behind them came wet dragging sounds moving impossibly fast through the house.
Not footsteps anymore.
Crawling.
The back door stuck once before Elias slammed his shoulder into it hard enough to force it open.
Cold rain hit them instantly.
They stumbled into the garden gasping.
The storm had worsened again somehow.
Rain lashed violently across the darkness.
The back garden lights flickered weakly.
Then died.
Selene heard glass shattering inside the house behind them.
“Oh my God…”
Elias grabbed her wrist.
“My car’s around the front.”
They ran along the side alley beside the house slipping through mud and overflowing drains.
Selene’s lungs burned.
Her entire body shook violently now from cold and panic and memory.
More flashes kept surfacing uncontrollably.
Lena screaming beside the reservoir.
Daniel trying to pull someone from the water.
Selene crying behind the steering wheel.
Then driving away.
“I left them,” she whispered.
Elias looked at her sharply while running.
“Selene what happened?”
“I don’t know properly!”
But deep down she did.
Or enough of it.
Enough to feel guilt clawing slowly through her chest.
They rounded the front of the house.
Elias’s car sat parked beneath a streetlight across the road.
Safety.
Normality.
Almost there.
Then Selene froze.
Someone sat inside the passenger seat already.
A pale woman.
Long black hair hanging wet around her face.
Lena.
Elias stopped dead too.
“No…”
Lena slowly looked up through the rain streaked windscreen.
And smiled.
The streetlights suddenly flickered overhead.
One by one.
Until the entire road dropped into darkness again.
Then came the sound.
All around them now.
Three knocks.
Not from one place.
From everywhere.
House windows.
Car doors.
Garden fences.
Streetlamps.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Selene turned slowly in horror.
Figures stood silently throughout the road.
Dozens of them.
Motionless shapes in soaked clothing watching from the rain.
Men.
Women.
Children.
All dripping reservoir water onto the pavement.
All staring directly at her.
And every single one had pale clouded eyes like something drowned long ago.
Chapter Fourteen
Selene couldn’t move.
The street had become impossibly wrong.
The drowned figures stood silently beneath the storm watching her.
Not attacking.
Not speaking.
Just waiting.
Rainwater streamed down their pale faces in endless silver lines.
Elias stepped slowly backwards beside her.
“What are they?” he whispered.
Selene shook her head faintly.
But deep inside she already knew.
Not ghosts.
Witnesses.
The drowned woman inside Elias’s car slowly placed one hand against the fogged window.
Then wrote something with one finger through the condensation.
REMEMBER.
A violent headache struck Selene instantly.
She cried out and grabbed her head.
Memory crashed into her properly this time.
The reservoir road.
Daniel stopping the car.
Lena standing in the rain beside the water screaming for help.
Her younger brother trapped further down the bank after slipping into the reservoir.
Daniel running to help immediately.
And Selene terrified because the storm was worsening.
Because the roads were flooding.
Because she wanted to leave.
Then headlights appearing behind them.
Another car.
A black SUV.
Someone getting out.
A man shouting.
Then violence.
Pushing.
Daniel hitting the water hard.
Lena screaming.
Selene gasped sharply as the memory snapped away again.
Elias grabbed her shoulders.
“What did you see?”
Before she could answer, every drowned figure in the street turned their heads slowly toward the far end of the road together.
Someone else was coming.
A pair of headlights appeared faintly through the rain.
Slowly approaching.
The black SUV.
Selene’s blood ran cold instantly.
“No…”
The vehicle rolled silently closer before stopping directly in front of the house.
The driver door opened.
A man stepped out calmly holding an umbrella.
Late fifties maybe.
Grey coat.
Sharp features.
Completely dry beneath the umbrella despite the storm.
And Selene recognised him instantly.
Dr Adrian Vale.
Her therapist.
Elias looked confused.
“You know him?”
Selene could barely breathe.
Vale smiled faintly across the rain.
“Good evening, Selene.”
The drowned figures remained perfectly still around the street.
Watching him now too.
“You remember me from that night,” Vale said softly.
Not a question.
A statement.
Selene stared at him horrified.
“You were there.”
Vale’s smile faded slightly.
“Yes.”
The truth settled slowly into place like poison.
The arguments.
The therapy sessions.
The careful questions about memory.
The way he always redirected her away from that night.
Not helping her heal.
Keeping her confused.
Elias looked between them.
“What’s going on?”
Vale sighed softly.
“Daniel should never have stopped the car.”
The drowned figures began moving toward him slowly through the rain.
Chapter Fifteen
Vale noticed them immediately.
For the first time his calm expression cracked slightly.
The drowned figures moved silently through the storm surrounding the road.
Dozens of pale faces.
Dozens of dead eyes fixed upon him.
“You see?” Vale said softly to Selene.
“She’s angry now.”
Lena stepped slowly from Elias’s car.
Water poured from her dress onto the road.
Her pale eyes remained locked onto Vale.
Not Selene.
Vale tightened his grip slightly on the umbrella handle.
“I tried helping her,” he said quietly.
Elias looked disgusted.
“You murdered them.”
“No.”
Vale’s voice sharpened suddenly.
“Daniel attacked me first.”
Another memory surfaced violently inside Selene’s mind.
Daniel shouting at Vale beside the reservoir.
Lena crying nearby.
A child trapped in the water screaming.
And Vale panicking.
One shove.
That was all.
Daniel slipping violently down the muddy bank into the reservoir floodwater below.
Selene gasped sharply.
“He fell.”
Vale looked directly at her.
“Yes.”
“You left him there,” Lena whispered softly from the rain.
Selene’s chest tightened painfully.
Because that part was true.
She remembered now.
Daniel screaming for her to help him.
Lena trying to climb down toward him.
The water rising too quickly.
And Selene terrified.
Frozen.
Then driving away alone while Vale pulled her screaming into the SUV.
The drowned figures continued closing slowly around the road.
Vale finally looked afraid.
Not guilty.
Afraid.
“You don’t understand what she is now,” he whispered.
Lena tilted her head slightly.
Black water dripped steadily from her hair.
“You left us too,” she said softly.
Vale backed away instinctively.
“She drowned days later.”
His voice shook slightly now.
“She kept trying to come back out.”
The drowned figures stopped moving suddenly.
The entire street fell silent except for rain.
Then Lena looked slowly toward Selene.
And for the first time all night…
she didn’t seem angry.
Just sad.
“You remembered,” she whispered.
Selene felt tears spill instantly down her face.
“I’m sorry.”
The streetlights flickered violently overhead.
Then every drowned figure turned together toward Vale.
At once.
Vale stepped backwards quickly.
“No.”
Lena began walking slowly toward him through the rain.
“You left us in the dark,” she whispered.
Vale ran.
Straight toward the SUV.
But the drowned figures moved instantly.
Not fast.
Not violently.
Just suddenly there.
Surrounding him.
Blocking every direction.
Vale screamed for the first time.
A real scream.
Terrified.
Then the streetlights exploded all at once just like they did in my kitchen.
Darkness swallowed the road completely.
Chapter Sixteen
The screaming stopped abruptly.
Silence flooded the street.
Heavy.
Wrong.
Selene stood frozen beside Elias in complete darkness listening to rain hammer against the road.
Then slowly…
the streetlights flickered back on.
The drowned figures were gone.
Every single one.
The road stood empty again beneath the storm.
Only Dr Vale remained.
Or what was left of him.
He sat collapsed in the middle of the street staring ahead blankly.
Alive.
Barely.
Water streamed from his open mouth as he whispered the same sentence over and over again.
“She kept knocking…”
Elias moved cautiously toward him.
“Vale?”
The man didn’t react.
“She kept knocking…”
Selene approached slowly too.
Vale’s eyes looked shattered now.
Not injured.
Broken from inside.
“She wanted to come home.”
Then he started laughing softly.
Wet.
Unstable.
“She was still alive when I left.”
The words hit Selene like ice through her chest.
“What?” she whispered.
Vale looked up at her slowly.
Rainwater dripped from his lashes.
“She climbed out after Daniel fell.”
His voice cracked weakly now.
“She kept begging us not to leave.”
Selene felt physically sick.
No.
No no no.
Another memory surfaced violently.
Lena pounding weakly against the SUV window while Selene cried in the passenger seat.
Vale driving away.
And Selene saying nothing.
Doing nothing.
Because she was terrified.
Because she wanted to survive.
“Oh my God…”
Vale began sobbing suddenly.
Real sobbing.
“She kept knocking on the car.”
Three soft knocks sounded behind Selene immediately.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Everyone froze.
The sound had come from inside Selene’s house.
The front door slowly creaked open by itself.
Darkness waited beyond the hallway.
Then Lena’s voice drifted softly from inside.
“Come back.”
Chapter Seventeen
Selene stared at the open doorway unable to breathe properly.
Rain blew softly through the dark hallway beyond.
Vale remained collapsed in the road whispering broken apologies to himself.
Elias looked between Selene and the house carefully.
“You don’t have to go in there.”
But Selene already knew she did.
Not because Lena wanted revenge.
Because she wanted the truth seen properly.
The whole truth.
Selene stepped slowly toward the house.
The hallway lights flickered weakly inside now.
On.
Off.
On.
Off.
The air smelled damp again.
Reservoir water.
Mud.
Rain.
Elias followed closely beside her.
The front door swung shut behind them with a loud click.
They both jumped instinctively.
Then came the sound.
Water dripping upstairs.
Slow.
Steady.
Elias lifted his phone torch again.
The beam shook slightly across the staircase.
Wet footprints marked every step leading upward.
Bare feet.
Fresh.
Selene swallowed hard.
“She wants us upstairs.”
The second floor looked darker than before somehow.
Longer.
The hallway stretching strangely beyond the weak light.
Water dripped from beneath the spare room door now.
Black water spreading slowly across the landing.
Selene froze halfway up the stairs.
“She was in there before.”
Elias frowned.
“You said you never use that room.”
“I don’t.”
Not since Daniel died.
Another memory clicked suddenly into place.
Boxes.
Daniel’s things.
The spare room filled with everything she couldn’t bear throwing away.
Everything she avoided looking at.
Everything connected to that night.
The dripping intensified.
Then Lena whispered softly through the door:
“You hid it.”
Selene’s pulse exploded painfully.
“What?”
“The truth.”
Her stomach dropped instantly.
Not just memory.
Something physical.
Something real hidden inside the room.
Selene stepped toward the door slowly.
Every instinct screamed at her not to open it.
But she reached for the handle anyway.
Cold water covered it instantly beneath her hand.
Then she pushed the door open.
The room beyond sat completely flooded.
Black reservoir water filled the entire spare room ankle deep.
Daniel’s old belongings floated silently in darkness.
Photographs.
Clothes.
Books.
And directly in the centre of the room sat an old camcorder blinking faint red light.
Chapter Eighteen
Selene stared at the camcorder in disbelief.
Rainwater dripped steadily from the ceiling around it.
The little red recording light still blinked faintly in the darkness.
Elias stepped carefully into the flooded room first.
Water rippled around his ankles.
“How is this still working?”
Selene barely heard him.
Memory struck suddenly again.
Daniel filming everything.
Always filming.
Road trips.
Rainstorms.
Stupid arguments.
He carried the camcorder everywhere.
Her pulse hammered painfully now.
“No…”
Elias lifted the camcorder carefully from the water.
The screen flickered weakly alive.
Static burst across it first.
Then grainy footage appeared.
Night.
Rain.
The reservoir road.
Selene felt sick instantly.
“Oh my God…”
Daniel’s voice sounded through the tiny speaker.
“She’s in the water!”
The footage shook violently as he ran toward the reservoir bank.
Headlights illuminated Lena waist deep in floodwater trying desperately to pull a child upward from the current.
Then Vale appeared on screen shouting.
The memory played out exactly as Selene had seen fragments of before.
Except this time there was no confusion.
No missing pieces.
Only truth.
Daniel managed to pull the child free.
Alive.
Then Vale grabbed him during the argument.
One shove.
Daniel fell hard into the black water below.
Selene heard herself screaming from inside the car.
Then Lena turned toward the camera shouting:
“HELP HIM!”
But the footage shifted suddenly.
The camera falling sideways onto wet ground.
Still recording.
Still capturing everything.
Selene watched herself climb into Vale’s SUV.
Watched Lena pounding desperately against the window begging them not to leave.
And watched herself look away.
The room fell silent when the footage ended.
Selene stood frozen in black water shaking violently.
Elias looked devastated beside her.
“You were scared.”
But Selene shook her head instantly.
“I left them.”
A soft sound came from behind them.
Both turned sharply.
Lena stood in the doorway now.
No longer rotting.
No longer monstrous.
Just a pale exhausted woman soaked by rain.
Her eyes rested quietly on Selene.
Not angry anymore.
Heartbroken.
“You remembered,” she whispered.
Chapter Nineteen
Selene’s tears came instantly.
Not dramatic sobbing.
Just exhaustion finally breaking open inside her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered again.
Lena stepped slowly into the room.
Water rippled softly around her bare feet.
Elias remained completely still beside the camcorder.
Almost afraid to interrupt whatever this was becoming.
Selene looked at Lena properly for the first time.
Not as a ghost.
Not as a monster.
Just a woman whose final moments had been terror and abandonment.
“You tried to save him,” Selene whispered.
Lena nodded faintly.
“And you saved yourself.”
The words hurt because they were true.
No cruelty in them.
Just truth.
Selene wiped tears from her face shakily.
“I should’ve stayed.”
“Yes.”
Silence settled heavily through the flooded room.
Rain whispered against the windows.
Then Lena looked slowly toward the camcorder.
“That’s why I came back.”
Selene frowned slightly.
“The recording?”
Lena nodded.
“He buried it here after.”
Vale.
Hiding the truth.
And Selene helping bury it by refusing to remember properly.
Elias looked toward the hallway suddenly.
Blue flashing lights reflected faintly through the bedroom window outside.
Police.
Ambulances.
Someone must have called after the screaming in the street.
Lena noticed too.
Then she looked back at Selene one final time.
“You don’t have to stay here anymore.”
The room temperature shifted suddenly warmer.
The black floodwater around their ankles began slowly receding.
The walls dried.
The dripping stopped.
And little by little Lena herself began fading softly into shadow and rainlight.
Selene stepped forward instinctively.
“Wait.”
Lena smiled faintly.
Sad.
Tired.
Then quietly said:
“He kept knocking because he thought you’d come back for him too.”
Daniel.
The words shattered something inside Selene completely.
Fresh tears spilled down her face.
But Lena was already fading now.
Until finally only rainwater remained where she’d stood.
And silence.
Chapter Twenty
The newspapers called it a psychological breakdown.
That part almost made Selene laugh.
Dr Adrian Vale was arrested three days later after the camcorder footage surfaced.
The rescued child from the reservoir, now fourteen years old, confirmed enough of the story for police to reopen the case completely.
Daniel’s death was ruled unlawful.
Lena Ward’s disappearance became a homicide investigation.
And Vale never stopped repeating the same sentence during questioning:
“She kept knocking.”
Selene moved out of the house less than a month later.
Too many sounds lingered there.
Too many memories waiting in corners.
Sometimes at night she still woke suddenly convinced she could hear wet footsteps on wooden floors.
But the knocking stopped.
That was the important thing.
No more knocks at 3:13am.
No more flooded rooms.
No more drowned faces staring through windows.
Just silence.
Real silence.
Or something close enough to it.
Elias visited sometimes.
Not often.
But enough.
There was a strange understanding between them now.
The kind trauma leaves behind.
One evening in late autumn they sat beside Blackwater Reservoir together watching rain drift softly across the water.
The place looked smaller in daylight.
Less haunted.
Almost ordinary.
Selene pulled her coat tighter around herself.
“I still can’t remember everything perfectly,” she admitted quietly.
Elias nodded once.
“I don’t think memory works like that after trauma.”
The reservoir water shifted gently beneath the fading grey sky.
Selene stared at it for a long moment.
“Do you think she’s gone?”
Elias was quiet for several seconds before answering.
“I think she just wanted the truth found.”
That felt right somehow.
Not comforting exactly.
But true.
The wind moved softly through the trees behind them.
Then Selene noticed something near the waterline.
A small shape half buried in mud.
She frowned slightly and stood.
“What is it?” Elias asked.
Selene walked slowly closer to the edge of the reservoir.
Rain tapped softly against the dark water.
Then her stomach tightened.
Daniel's body had never been found.
Neither had Lena’s.
Until the tide came in.
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