She's There when She Knocks: A Scary Story

Our neighbor who lived in the apartment next door died last year in July. She was 86 and had a complicated disease. This old woman was very close to us (me, my husband, and my son). Her daughter lived with her and cared for her during the final years. We would always visit their place for it was just a few steps away from where we live. This old woman loves my food, so I often made extra and brought it to her. She was almost a part of our family.

Right after she died, I would visit her place often because it was on the way home from work and I felt bad for her daughter who now lived alone. It was kind of creepy so I only stayed for a few minutes talking to her daughter while staying outside the house. Sometimes her daughter told me that she wished her mother would talk to her in her dreams because she missed her so much. Once she even spoke of the dreadful day, saying that her mother died a little after 8PM and now a few minutes after 8 every day things feel a little strange for about 10 minutes.

Then one night, over a year since the old lady passed away, my husband and son were out. One of my friends was over and we were just eating and chatting away. But at 8:05PM in the middle of our conversation there were three loud thuds that came from the wall. The wall which separates our main room and the old lady's bedroom where she died. We didn't really think about it, and we thought the neighbor was just being loud.

My friend left to buy something at the convenience store, so I was the only one left in their house. I wasn't really thinking about the sounds until I heard scratching on the wall and howling. I ran out of the apartment as fast as I could!

A few minutes passed and my friend returned. I told her what happened and we went to investigate. We saw that my neighbor's lights weren't on and her car was gone. We went back inside after we calmed down and we never heard the noise the rest of the night.

One week later my friend was over again. We were having diner and talking about work, life, things like this when all of a sudden we heard banging coming from that same wall. This time it didn't stop, it just kept going and going until we opened the door to run outside. Once we got there we went next door because the light was on this time.

The daughter answered the door and was surprised to see us. We were scared and could barely make sense when talking but we told her what happened. She said everything is okay and we must have heard something. The old lady used to bang on the headboard of her bed to get attention when she needed something. She said that after her mother died she heard the same noises because she was so used to it that she thought she was imagining the entire thing. That was scary so we left and I spent the night at my friend's house and advised my husband and son to stay at our mother's house.

The next day we came home together and the police were there. Apparently the neighbor killed herself and died a violent death. The cops wouldn't tell us anything about the incident but questioned us and asked us not to talk about it.

That night we were in shock about what just happened. A little past 8 PM that night we heard banging on the wall again! It was so scary that we left without any hesitation and never came back. We found a new place to live and hired movers to collect our stuff. We never found out who or what was making the noise.