Frostbite

Chapter Nine - Cicada

The movie was entertaining, I was entranced with the movie and how they played upon the fears using filmography. It was a true talent to do something like that.I kept hearing the clicks on the window, trying to ignore them as they got even more frequent. "Okay, you can't not hear that right?" I asked quietly nudging Stephanie.

To my horror, Stephanie was not moving. I was on my own for this. I was now torn between two possible options, wake Stephanie up and possibly scare her, making her scream so the intruder would know we were inside. The second option is, slowly walking out of the room to the bathroom to call my father and alert the police silently, or alert Mr. Valor. Then the third is to stay silent and not move.

The chance of the man being outside was incredibly high considering the neighborhood was still on lockdown.

Click. Click... Click. Click.

It had become rhythmic, with repeating taps on the class that proved there was no possible way it could be just rain. Rain was nonrhythmic, it was out of beat, unpredictable.

Click.

I wondered what It could mean, why would someone just be standing outside tapping on the window of a random person's house just to mess with them? However I am not random, I did outrun and juke the man in question, so perhaps he thought I made a fool of him.

Click...

I tried to think for a moment, before noticing there was a long pause in the clicking pattern. I waited for a moment before I heard it again.

Click... Click...Click.

There was a pause again. It then came to me. The clicking was in a Morse code pattern. I quickly reached for my phone and put down the dots and dashes I heard to try and translate the message, learning Morse code was mandatory in the system.I quickly began to type them as I listened to the clicks continue.

Click. Click.Click... Click.

The clicks and pauses had spelled out 'Let Me In.'I quickly, but quietly tried to get Stephanie's attention, trying to wake her up from the sleepy state she was in. I could not tell if I was hallucinating these clicks or if they were real anymore."Stephanie," I whispered, shaking her gently. "Stephanie wake up-" I repeated, was the exhaustion hitting me now?

Stephanie stirred a bit but did not wake up. I cursed under my breath and tried to shake her again, trying to remain gentle but calm. "Please please wake up," I begged, my whisper turning into a hiss to try and stay quiet.

I had noticed the taps had repeated the pattern over and over. Stephanie soon stirred and woke up. "What's going on?" She mumbled gently, slowly sitting up. Stephanie seemed to be a heavy sleeper, so I wanted to try and inform her of what was going on.

"Clicks are hitting the window... it spelled out in Morse code 'let me in' and it keeps repeating," I explained, helping her sit up, a hand gently placed on her upper back so she would not fall back over unintentionally. Stephanie squinted, I assumed she was listening and trying to pick up on the clicks. Please tell me I'm not hallucinating this...