Tap, Tap

by Ross Warren

In the beginning I thought the noise was coming from the pipes.

In the beginning I was in control.

It wasn't much of a house, but it was our house. Our first place and finally a chance to move out from my parents.

Jayne and Rosie loved the house from the moment they saw it, and as Jayne was quick to point out, we weren't likely to find another house of its size within our meagre budget and it did seem like a nice neighbourhood. Amazingly our first offer was accepted immediately. The house became Jayne's project and she worked hard, on our shoe-string budget, to turn the house into a home.

A local boy by the name of Jamie Forrest used to call in some days on his way home from school to see how Jayne was progressing. He appeared delighted to see us doing the old house up.

It was during the housewarming party that I first noticed the knocking sound. Tap, tap. Two days later I was home alone. I went upstairs for a bath and as I lay there I heard a faint but audible knocking. Tap, tap, silence before again tap, tap. It began to irritate me so I decided to investigate. Thinking it may have something to do with the taps, I tightened them all as much as I could. Silence. Then tap, tap again. I left the bathroom to get dressed.

It was Thursday before I heard the noise again but when it returned it seemed louder. I left the studio at noon and returned home to find the house deserted, Rosie had swimming on Thursday afternoons so I would have the house to myself till six. I went to my study in what had been the third bedroom. I sat at my drawing board to work on the latest comic but before I had made my first pencil stroke I heard it. Tap, tap. It was definitely louder this time and appeared to be coming from beneath my feet.

When the girls returned I had worked my way through most of the upstairs floorboards. To say Jayne went ballistic would be to understate her rage by about a million percent. After a grovelling apology I collected the nail gun from the garage and began fixing the floorboards back in place. I took the next day off to finish the task.

Jayne worked Fridays, so I knew I had till at least five to get the house back into shape. In no time the clock was showing one and I had replaced all of the loose floorboards. I decided to break for lunch. As I finished my sandwich I again heard the noise. Tap; tap, this time it was coming from the walls. I was certain of it.

Several hours later I had demolished much of the cavity walling. The noise now seemed to be booming as if through an amplifier.

When the girls returned it was so loud that it drowned Jayne as she shouted at me. I realised that the noise was coming from Jayne herself. I grabbed the nail gun without a seconds hesitation and unloaded nail after nail into the side of her head, her body went limp in my arms before she had chance to utter a sound. The noise went down several decibels but I realised it was now coming from my daughter's room.

I entered to find Rosie sat at her dresser listening to her I-pod, the noise grew louder. Tap, tap. I was certain she was the source of it. I drew close behind her and fired a single nail into her head, she fell forwards. The noise again went several levels lower.

As I stood in the doorway of Rosie's room I heard a voice calling from downstairs. As soon as Jamie saw me he started to talk extremely quickly, something about the previous owner of the house and how it turned out the guy had killed his whole family with a hammer. The police had discovered the man methodically knocking a six inch nail into the head of his dead wife.

The noise had started again, this time louder still. I realised then where it had been coming from all along, and raised the nail gun to my head.
In the end, there was silence.

In the end, I was in control.