Writing Prompt

The clock struck midnight, and my ears were filled with a repeating knocking sound. 3 knocks that sounded identical to each other came, always from the same place—the basement that I had never been down in before.

Fed up with the noises each night, I grabbed my torch and lit it up with the crackling fire. My toes became cold from the the hard, stone ground. Stumbling into the hallway, I maneu...

“What was that?”, Bill asked as he turned to look at the door to the basement. Janet looked at him and surprise and asked, “What sound?”. Bill walked towards the door and placed his head against it, and then there was a large thump that shook the door on its hinges. Bill jumped back and said, “Don’t tell me you didn’t hear that?”, Janet still had a confused look on her face. Bill felt frustrated a...

Thumping, ticking, creeking, it's all the damn same to me.

I haven't been able to sleep for hours thanks to those house noises. I hate the noise of the house settling, the ticking of my old grandfather clock, the thumping coming from the basement. Hm, the basement? When did that appear in the menagerie of sounds that plague tonight? But what do I know, right? I grab my flashlight and head d...

**_He tiptoed into the basement, holding his breath. Sweat started to gather between his palm and the flashlight as he approached the bottom of the staircase. He cringed as he heard the noise again, closer than it had ever been. His foot finally stepped off the staircase and he slowly turned his head around the corner. A brief rush of relief washed over him as he saw that there was nothing there. ...

It had been knocking all night. Thump thump. Thump thump. I had been home alone all weekend, wondering where this sound was coming from. I chose the middle of the night to walk down into the basement with a torch. This was an old Victorian style home that belonged to my wife’s family going back generations. It was on our first date that she told me about some of the myths and legends surrounding t...

It had been three days since the knocking that kept Evelyn up at night began.

Having been a NYC girl all her life and only recently moving to Pennsylvania, Evelyn had quickly adjusted to calm, silent nights. The only lights were the stars in the sky and the occasional streetlamp. The only sounds were autumn leaves rustling and the gentle hum of the furnace in the basement. So, when the knocking jo...

I crept down the basement to see a distorted shadow standing in the dark room I look for the light switch still facing towards the shadow,(flick)I turn the light on the shadow dissapers…...

John is awoken by a hard scratching sound from the basement again. “Every night for a week straight, I swear this sound will drive me mad. It’s time to finally man up like Dad would say and ghost down there.” John speaks quietly under his breath as if psyching himself up, but trying to not wake his still sleeping wife.

John blindly grabs the oil lantern and matches on the side table and leaves th...

Trish said, “I’m going first”, as she took the torch from Ted’s hand. The light switch did not work. “What’s wrong with all of you? It’s just a cat or mouse down there making that noise”, she said in a sarcastic manner as she started toward the basement.

The three other teens followed hesitantly behind Trish. Trish walked slowly down each creaky step.

“Let’s just leave whatever it is alone. Le...

She crept down the stairwell, the faint sputtering of her torch echoed beside her. With each step her weariness grew, the cramped and musty basement was illuminated by a feeble yellow light. She halted at the last step and stretched her arm along whatever she couldn’t make out of the muddled room. The floorboard creaked with the faint scuttling of rats under old furniture, the dust enough to give ...