The three knocks echoed through the kitchen.
Knock.Knock.Knock.
Rohan's parents looked toward the door.
"Who could that be this early?" his mother said.
His father walked toward the entrance and unlocked the door.
When he opened it—
No one was there.
Only the grey morning rain falling softly outside.
His father stepped out and looked around the empty porch.
"Strange," he muttered, closing the door again.
But Rohan felt something was terribly wrong.
The knock had sounded too slow.
Too deliberate.
And it had come right after the loud bang upstairs.
His grandmother suddenly stood up from her chair.
"Did anyone open the back door?" she asked quietly.
"No," Rohan's mother replied.
The old woman's eyes darkened.
"Then something is inside the house."
A cold silence filled the kitchen.
Rohan's father laughed uneasily. "Ma, please. It's just the wind."
But before anyone could respond—
A faint sound drifted from upstairs.
Step…
Everyone froze.
Another step followed.
Step… Step…
Slow footsteps moving across the hallway floor.
Rohan's face turned pale.
"That's it," he whispered. "That's the sound I heard last night."
His father frowned and walked toward the stairs.
"I'll check."
"No!" Rohan said quickly. "Don't go up there!"
But his father had already started climbing the stairs.
Each step creaked loudly.
The footsteps upstairs suddenly stopped.
The entire house became silent again.
"Hello?" his father called from the top of the stairs.
No answer.
Rohan held his breath.
Seconds passed.
Then his father's voice came again.
"Why is this door open?"
Rohan's heart dropped.
He knew which door his father meant.
The small wooden door.
The one that was never supposed to be open.
Rohan rushed toward the staircase.
"Dad, wait!"
But before he could reach the stairs—
His father spoke again.
This time his voice sounded… confused.
"Who's in there?"
The hallway upstairs seemed to swallow the sound.
For a moment, there was no reply.
Then something answered.
Soft.
Slow.
And wrong.
"…Rohan…"
Rohan's blood turned cold.
That voice wasn't his.
And it definitely wasn't his father's.
It was the same whisper from the room.
The same voice that had called him in the night.
Rohan's father suddenly shouted.
"What the—?"
A loud slam echoed upstairs.
The house shook slightly.
"Dad!" Rohan yelled.
He ran up the stairs two at a time.
The hallway was darker than before.
The small wooden door stood open at the end.
But his father was nowhere to be seen.
Only his phone lay on the floor, its screen still glowing.
Rohan slowly picked it up.
His hands trembled.
From inside the dark room came a faint scraping sound.
Like something slowly dragging itself across the floor.
Then the whisper returned.
Closer now.
Almost right beside him.
"…you came back…"
Rohan felt a cold breath brush against his ear.
And suddenly—
The hallway lights went out.