I finally grabbed the heavy flashlight I kept near the kitchen drawer and started walking toward the bedroom. I could feel my pulse in my throat with every step. The apartment suddenly felt colder than usual.

When I reached the doorway, I stopped completely.

The curtains were moving.

Not dramatically, just enough to notice. A slow sway back and forth even though the window was closed.

I remember whispering, “Nope,” under my breath and almost turning around right there.

Then the knocking stopped.

Instantly.

The silence that followed was worse than the sound itself.

I stood frozen in the doorway staring at the curtains while my brain tried desperately to come up with a normal explanation. Maybe someone outside was playing a prank with a long pole. Maybe it was construction equipment moving nearby.

But deep down, I already knew none of those explanations made sense.

I took another step forward.

And another.

The flashlight was shaking in my hand so badly the beam kept bouncing across the walls.

I reached the window and grabbed the edge of the curtain. I told myself I’d peek for one second, prove there was nothing there, and laugh about how paranoid I’d been.

I pulled the curtain back slightly.

At first, I saw nothing except darkness and the reflection of my own terrified face in the glass.

Then a face moved into view from the side of the window.

I screamed so loudly my throat hurt.

There was a person standing directly outside my window.

Three floors above the ground.

I stumbled backward and dropped the flashlight. For a second, my brain literally refused to process what I was seeing. The figure outside raised one hand slowly and knocked against the glass again.

Knock. Knock.

I couldn’t breathe.

The person was wearing a dark hoodie pulled low over their face, but I could still see enough to realize something that made my blood run cold.

I knew them.

Not well, but enough.

A few months earlier, I had briefly dated a man named Daniel. It never became serious, and honestly, I ended things because he gave me strange vibes. He was overly intense, constantly asking where I was and who I was with. After only three weeks, I told him I didn’t think we should continue seeing each other.