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 maneuvered in the dark towards the basement. I slowly turned the knob to open the door. The door swung open, creaking and making all sorts of high-pitched noises. I could hear animals scurrying around as I stepped down. With each step, the stairs creaked and groaned. I held the torch in front of me, trying to make sense of all the strange noises that came from a dark room in the basement. The room was enshrouded in darkness, and my torch cast an eerie orange and yellow light onto the walls. On the dark door were 3 locks, keeping whatever was inside contained. The knocks continued now, only they sounded much much louder, more like bangs. As I reached out to unlock the locks, I had realized what was in there. It was my wife I had trapped in this room long ago. After an arguement, I forced her into this room, and she’s been knocking ever since. Only now, when I unlocked the door, she was a walking skeleton. Her bones poked out jaggedly from her skin, and her skin was as pale as a vampires. Her hair was white and her old and delicate body was frail and fragile. It seemed that if you touched her, she would fall to the floor dead. Her hands were the boniest part, with her fingernails so long and crooked, with dirt under each of them. She reached for my torch, groaning and grumbling. I grinned and patted her on the head before setting down a bowl of water filled with corn meal. “Don’t worry,” I said, slamming the door and locking it shut. I could almost see her eyes filled with fury, as she banged and knocked. Then I whispered to her. “You’ll get more next midnight,” I whispered. She crashed her fists against the door, screaming wildly as she opened her mouth. Her teeth stained and yellow, with a pile of teeth that had fallen out in her pocket of her deteriorating dress. I moved away from the peek hole, before starting my way back up the stairs, with the screams and bangs stopping. It seems as if she has finally collapsed and died. Looking back in the room, her lifeless body lay sprawled out on the cold floor, her skull almost popping out of her face. I smiled and said “goodnight.”