I’m not proud to admit it, but the nightly noises started to affect my work. I would lie awake, staring into the darkness, watching the doorknob and expecting it to turn. The knocking became louder each night. Eventually, it was so loud that I had to block my ears to escape it.
There was no more denying that something was outside my door. I imagined it creeping out of my air conditioning at night, slivering across the corridor to stand outside my room. Waiting for me to let it in.
Tears would well up in my eyes. I was scared that I would let it in. After months of not sleeping, my sanity was beginning to slip.
I found a technician specialising in air conditioning service near Brisbane. They had been confident that the air conditioning unit was working fine. When I explained the buzzing noise, they had made sure to tighten the components in the unit but assured me that nothing was wrong with my air con.
They had looked at me with worry. I had wanted to cry. If there was nothing wrong with the unit, then what was making that noise? I had run through every option; I had even gone down an unhelpful rabbit hole into commercial heating and cooling which led to nothing.
I know this will sound crazy, but I swear… the darkness invaded my house. Even during the day, when the sun was shining outside, it felt like it didn’t reach me. The shadows in the corners of the room loomed over me. No matter how often I cleaned my windows, they were always dusty when I woke up – so grimy that light struggled to seep in.
The only time I felt alone was when I left my house. The weight on my shoulder would lift. Unfortunately, as the sun began to set, I would always have to return home to that feeling. I made sure I was in my bedroom before dark.
The air conditioning unit would watch me as I scurried down the hallway. It was taunting me. It became such a familiar feeling of unease, that I almost learnt to live with it. Until the night that it finally came for me.