XV

TW: Murder

"Knock, knock, knock" is all she heard. Shiloh was sitting in her living room, watching a scary movie around 8pm when she heard the knocking. Shiloh was only 16 but knew better than to answer the door when her parents weren't home. She only had on a small lamp in the whole house so she immediately paused the TV and shut out the light. "I know you're in there" an eery voice whispered. Shiloh shuddered. This didn't seem right. It was the Eve of Halloween so she assumed it was probably just a neighborhood kid pulling a prank. She still didn't dare answer the door. She did grab her phone, turn it on silent and texted her mom "someone is at the door. Can you look at camera?" Moments later her mom texted "I don't see anyone. Maybe you're hearing things? Watching scary movies again?" Her mother would soon regret not trusting her only daughter.

A few minutes had gone by since the creepy knocking and whispering and Shiloh was still sitting in the dark. Just then, her older brother walked into the house and said "Shy, why are you sitting in the dark?" Shiloh about jumped out of her skin before realizing it was Sam. "Sam! Did you see anyone out there?" "Uh no?" Sam answered back, kind of like a question. Shiloh explained what happened and Sam said "oh, it's probably just some pranksters. It is Halloween Eve after all." Shiloh sighed and replied, "you're probably right. I am just a scaredy cat. She turned on the light and asked Sam, "what are your plans now?' "Shower and bed. I am exhausted after that 13 hour shift." Sam looked tired. "Sounds good. Love you. Is my movie going to bother you?" "Not at all. Love you, too, sis." Sam smiled and headed off in the direction of his bedroom and bathroom. Shiloh returned to watching her movie and tried to put the weird events in the back of her mind.

About another hour and a half later, Shiloh finished up her movie and decided it was time for bed as well. She shut off the tv, shut off the light and locked the front door. She went to go lock the back door but it was ajar. Odd.... she thought. Maybe Sam stepped out for a smoke? She closed and locked the back door and decided she would go see if Sam was still up and ask him. As she walked across their family room (had a living room and family room, odd set up, they know) she heard what sounded like ticking. "Oh, it's just Sam's dumb clock." She thought. Shiloh walked down the hall towards Sam's room and the ticking got louder. She knocked on the first door to the right and Sam didn't answer. She assumed he must have fallen asleep so she walked down the hall to her bedroom on the left and started to get ready for bed. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on.

Shiloh laid in bed and stared at her ceiling, clutching her teddy bear that was made after Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas. Something weird was going on, she just knew it. Right then, she heard what sounded like light foot steps going through the house. She knew her mom was at work for another 2 hours and dad was out of town on a business trip. It could be Sam? But Sam stomped even in the middle of the night. She decided to investigate. First, she grabbed her handy pink pepper spray off her desk and creeped out of her room. She looked around as she got adjusted to the dim lighting. She didn't see anyone or anything weird. Shiloh decided to check on Sam. She crept down the hall towards his room and heard that damn ticking again. She slowly opened the door and right then, a horrible stench hit her nose and she fell to her knees.

Sam was lying in bed, with the blanket pulled back, with a knife in his chest, blood still slowly oozing out of the wound and his eyes were wide. Shiloh wanted to scream but knew that she shouldn't. If her scary movies taught her anything, it was not to attract attention to herself. And oddly enough, the ticking noise went away when she entered Sam's room. There was a small closet at the beginning of the hall and then Sam's bathroom across from his bedroom.. maybe the ticking was coming from one of those rooms? But Shiloh couldn't focus on that now. She needed to find her brother's killer and hopefully survive until her mom got home. She knew she needed to get back to her room and text her mom to come home NOW.

Shiloh tiptoed down the hall and made it back to her room. She went to grab her phone off the charger and it was gone? Okay.. time to panic, she thought. But she couldn't panic. Obviously Sam's killer killed him, maybe watched her and then stole her phone while she was looking at Sam. Just then, she heard a very loud *DING* from across the house. Hadn't she turned her phone on silent?? This was getting so scary and just downright creepy! Shiloh knew what she had to do. She took a big breath in for courage and headed out that door with a fire she didn't know she had.

Shiloh decided she was DONE being quiet. "Come out, come out wherever you are!" She shouted. "I am done playing nice. You killed my awesome brother and you are NOT messing me with me. And so help me GOD if you hurt my cats!" Silence and that ticking were all that she was met with. "I am NOT messing around!!" Again, silence and ticking. First, she threw open the closet doors and saw nothing. Then she went to her brother's bathroom and again, met with nothing. So she decided to venture to the other side of the house. She wasn't tiptoeing anymore. She was stomping like how Sam used to do. "For Sam" she whispered.

Shiloh arrived at the other end of the house and searched and searched. The ticking noise would go in and out and she searched her parent's room, their closet, the bathroom, the linen closet, the kitchen, the dining room... she came up empty handed. "I KNOW YOU ARE HERE AND I WILL FIND YOU!" Shiloh screamed. She wanted this perp to know she meant business.. even if she was shaking in her boots. Shiloh went to the back door again and it was ajar again. She closed it and locked it and knew whoever he was, was gone. She then remembered her watch would help her find her phone so she could call 911 and her mom. She found her phone in an empty vase on the shelf above the fridge and called 911. She tried not to cry but couldn't help it when she said Sam was dead. She then texted her mom while still on with 911 that something happened and she had to call 911 and Sam was hurt. She couldn't get herself to say the real truth via text.

A few minutes later, police and an ambulance showed up in front of Shiloh's house. At this point, she was in shock. The cops tried talking to her and the Paramedics seemed really worried about her. She didn't know how to make herself not sound crazy. Mom came flying up the road a few moments after the cops entered the house. They didn't want to let her through until she screamed "THAT'S MY KID!!!" And they let her through. She embraced Shiloh and that is when Shiloh finally let go and couldn't stop sobbing.

That night was still a blur so many years later. Shiloh would lay awake at night and could still hear the ticking. Her parents sold the house and bought a smaller house on some property, what Sam always wanted. They even got a horse (his favorite animal) and named him Sam. Shiloh had since moved out, gotten married and was a true crime novel writer. She loved what she did but it still reminded her of that fateful night when she was 16. She was on so many medications and had gone through so much therapy. At first, the cops believed she killed her brother but they were able to find a small pocket watch with a partial fingerprint belonging to a man on it hidden behind where Shiloh's phone had been. The ticking still haunted her dreams but her husband was great at holding her and calming her down. She still thought of Sam and visited his grave often. She just didn't understand why Sam had to die.

It was about 15 years after that fateful night, on Halloween Eve, and Shiloh and her husband, Chris, were sitting on the couch watching a scary movie. It was around 8pm and they heard a knock. Shiloh froze in fear. Chris went to go answer the door and Shiloh begged him not to. "He's still out there." She whispered. "I know you're in there". A voice, so eerily similar, whispered. Shiloh was frozen in fear. Chris called 911 and went to check the back door. It was ajar.. Shiloh was living her nightmare all over again.

The cops showed up in minutes. Chris had to talk to them and some of them had been around when the first case happened so they parked a patrol car outside the house and suggested Chris & Shiloh go to a hotel for the night. They packed a small bag, fed their cat and went to the Holiday Inn down the road. Shiloh couldn't sleep. She was thrown back to the time when Sam died. She couldn't breathe. It was that nightnmare all over again. She texted her mom and dad and told them what happened and that they were safe in a hotel. As Shiloh was drifting off to sleep, she heard knocking and "I know you're in there." She heard ticking. Here we go again..