Before Epiphany holidays

Since childhood, I have believed in everything unknown and mysterious, and a lot of things have happened to me that I would like to never face it again. Alas, either I'm the kind of person who attracts all kinds of things, or I'm just lucky for all sorts of devilry...

It happened in January before the Epiphany holidays. All my family went about their business, and I was left alone in the apartment. I've always been good about being alone and have never been afraid to be alone. I had never thought before that something could happen to me in an apartment I had known since childhood. So this time, left alone, after reading magazines at night, I fell asleep peacefully.

I woke up at two in the morning because someone was knocking on the window of the next room. The sound of knuckles tapping on a plastic double-glazed window is unmistakable. I listened, thinking that I had imagined it after all. Five minutes passed, and I calmed down and began to fall asleep. But the knocking on the window pane was repeated again, even louder than the first time.

I sat down on the bed. The door to the next room was closed. It was my brother's room, and when he left, he usually locked it with a key, leaving it in the keyhole on my side. Naturally, I didn't want to go and see who was knocking on the window on the fourth floor at night. Then I glanced at my window. The thought came to me: if something is knocking on the window of the next room, what should he knock on the window of mine?.. My heart stopped beating at the thought, and I felt a pang of fear. Closing my eyes, I jumped to my window and pulled the curtains tightly—it wouldn't be so scary after all. My imagination was already picturing something terrible, similar to all the monsters from the horror films I had watched in my entire life.

The knock came again. But this time through the door of the next room from the inside. Terrified, I went to the door and took the key out of the lock, mentally thanking my brother for his habit of locking his room with a key. I stood in front of the door and felt that something or someone was standing there, hiding, waiting. I couldn't even think about anything from the horror that came over me.

It's been about five minutes. There was no knock. Then there were scratching sounds, as if someone was trying to open the door from the other side. I felt dizzy and nauseous. I did what I do in the same horror movies — I locked myself in the bathroom and shook there until morning, remembering along the way that I always felt uncomfortable in my brother's room and tried not to go there once again.

What was that? I am still wondering this question to this day. But whatever it is, I don't want to go through another night like that.