Tap. Tap. Tap.
You hear a noise coming from the wall of your apartment. Annoyed, you sigh and make a mental note to ask your neighbor to stop when you see her again.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
You suddenly stop. Alarmed, you realize that you have a corner apartment. And that annoying tapping was coming from your outside wall.
On the third floor.
After a brief moment of panic, you calm down and remember one of your old jobs where one very persistent but not very bright woodpecker spent hours at a time pecking away at the metal pipe outside a co-worker's office.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Laughing at yourself, you step out onto your balcony to shoo the bothersome bird away. Still hearing that persistent tapping, you look around the corner over your balcony.
You freeze. Also frozen, something that is very much not a woodpecker is staring back at you. It sits, perfectly still, attached to the wall by no way you can see, but staying there nonetheless. It sits there, with one long, bony finger raised, poised above the hole it was tapping into the wall.
You can't move, only stand there, staring at the creature affixed to your wall. Then, at the same time, it opens both its mouth and eyes impossibly wide. And you find yourself staring at the thing looking at you with too few pupils, and grinning at you with too many teeth.
Still looking at you, the thing on your wall moves its finger.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound snaps you out of your paralysis. You run inside, close the door and lock it, and, fueled by adrenaline, you push your heavy leather couch against the glass sliding door.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
You don't leave your apartment for the next few days. You can still hear it. You call your friend to see if she can see anything from the parking lot, but when she gets there, she sees nothing but a small hole on the side of your outside wall. There was nothing there, but you could still hear it.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A few days later, when you wake up, something is different. You can't place it at first, but then you realize. It's quiet. Almost too quiet. Almost totally silent. There is no tapping.
You stand there for almost half an hour, listening, to make sure it really was quiet. You finally gather up the courage to move your couch and go out onto the deck.
You go out, and sure enough, it's gone. No tapping, no creature, just a hole on the side of your apartment building. It was big, though. Much larger than when you first saw it being made.
You sigh with relief, thinking that the thing, whatever it is, is finally gone. You turn to go inside, but out of the corner of your eye, you sense movement. Whipping around, you see the source of movement, and scream.
Crawling, skittering up the wall, faster than should be possible, comes the creature. It's gripping the wall only with its fingertips, and it's got too many joints, in weird places, and none of them move how they should.
Horrified, you stumble back inside, almost tripping on the couch, and put your barricade back up.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The creature is at it again.
Terrified out of your mind, you can only sit on the couch and cry. And suddenly stop. Because something is different now.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It's faster.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
You start crying again.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Tap tap tap tap tap.
Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptapaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap.
Tap.
Tap.
TAP.
CRACK.
