Tap, tap, tap.

The random occurrence of the constant clicking sounded over and over again. I was ready to pull the very hair from my own head in pure frustration.

Tappity-tap.

It seemed to be laughing at my irritation now. I groaned inwardly while rolling my head back on my shoulders. And when I let my head drop, my eyes fell to where my feet were on the ground.

“Oh,” I said aloud in embarrassment and quickly planted both feet firmly on the ground to silence the tapping. I even found myself blushing despite the fact that no one was there to see my blunder.

“Luke Adams?”

I jumped and blurted out a, “Present!” before I could bite my tongue.

The policeman’s eyebrows rose in amusement, but that was the only indication he made concerning my mistake.

“Officer Henry’s office is at the end of the hallway. Just knock.”

Giving myself a shake, I hurried forward and nearly barreled over the policeman as he attempted to scramble behind the door just to hold it for me before I got to him first. He didn’t win that battle and I rushed the apologies before continuing in my lightning flight down the hallway.

I did as he said upon reaching the door, but not purposefully. Instead of my hand knocking on the door, my head accidentally took care of that part.

“Come in,” came the husky, but friendly, voice from inside.

“Uh, yes,” I said as I shakily opened the door, “How are you, Officer Henry?”

“Better than you, it seems,” he replied while rising from behind his mahogany desk, “Is that a… welt I see on your head?”

“N-never mind that,” I said quickly with a brief flourish of my hand, “I’m here about… the usual, as you probably already know.”

Henry nodded his head and gestured towards one of the two, scarlet plush chairs seated at an angle in front of his desk.

“Take a seat, Luke, and we’ll begin.”

And then I allowed myself the privilege of collapsing into the chair in a heap of misery and exhaustion.

“They keep coming back!” I moaned while sweeping either hand across my cheeks, “Every time I think I might actually have some useful information, something else pops up to prove me wrong.”

”What happened, Luke?” Henry said dryly.

I swallowed the rising lump of dread and fear that rose within me.

“Well… it all started when I was trying to get to sleep last night. I’ve been sick with a bad cold recently, you see, and it takes a lot to wake me up. But this… this didn’t take much at all. I remember laying on my bed and staring at the clock tick by tick. It was exactly two o’ three with thirty-two seconds elapsed. And I said,

“Goodness, I wish that Nyquil would kick in.”

I gave a discomforted toss on my bed and threw the covers over to one side to allow the cool air from the fan room to reach me easier. My wife beater had bunched up my chest and, while rolling my eyes, I yanked it off and heaved it at the window. At that precise moment, a flash of darkness disrupted the path of light from the nearby lamppost to my window.

I froze.

And since I had taken my eyes from the clock, I no longer had any sense of how much time had passed and therefore how long I had stayed in that exact position with my arm extended as if to catch something, my other arm supporting me, and my lips still slightly parted. A slow feeling of numbness began to creep up my supporting arm as my lips became dry from the air of the fan.

“This is silly.” The sentence popped into my mind as clearly as though someone had spoken it from right beside me. I was even stupid enough to turn and glance towards the darkness in between my bed and my dresser.

“You’re right,” I said aloud and then proceeded to fling my legs over the side of the bed and stroll around to the other side where the window hung as a gaping hole in the wall.

With halting breaths I stretched forth my right hand to pull back the curtain. My hand trembled slightly and, as if in punishment, I slapped it and then shot it forward to shove back the curtains in one fowl swoop.

Light both from the lamppost and from the half-covered moon spilled in through the window. I blinked it back slightly and slowly, cautiously, leaned forward to turn my head side from side in search of “him”.

There was the neighbor’s house with their dog, Zippidy, tied to his doghouse, the slight edge of my yard as it collided with my neighbors’, the heat pump with small bushes surrounding it as supposed camouflage, the lonely street, and a few other houses lining the street. It was nothing unusual or out of the ordinary.

“Nine, this is not a time for questions. Two is out of place and it’s your responsibility to get him back where he should be,” a quiet voice murmured. But even despite the slight volume I could still hear the power and spite that haunted his tone.

“I’m eight,” a second voice argued weakly, “And two is an idiot. I don’t see why you hired him to begin with.”

“Because!” he growled and then halted as if to realize his error and then repeated in a more hushed tone, “Because he was the only other choice at the time. You’ll have to work quickly, though. Three isn’t happy right now…”

“I’ll get him. Tomorrow is Halloween, the perfect day for all crimes.”

“Good. Now-“

And even though I strained with all I was worth to hear the rest of the strange conversation, they seemed to be moving away from my window. I leaned my head in closer to the glass but misjudged its distance.

Clunk!

I pulled away with a sharp indrawn breath. The murmur of the whispers silenced. I forced myself to hold in that breath and not move a muscle.

And just when I was sure I could barely hear that same hushed whisper, a small prick jabbed into my neck. Startled, I jumped and went weak in the knees. I managed to catch myself on the window pane and used that as my support. My vision began to blur. I struggled to fight off the oncoming unconsciousness, but there was no winning this battle. In my last few seconds of awareness, two blurry figures darted out in front of the window.

I gasped in fear and shock.

Then everything went black.

This is a new story that I've been thinking about for awhile now. Let me know if I should keep going with this one. Much appreciated! :))