⋮ ⌗ ┆𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙺𝙽𝙾𝙲𝙺𝙴𝚁

It all started with a simple mod you decided to add to your world.

At first, he, The Knocker, just watched as you mined, built your house, killed mobs… Nothing out of the ordinary. You didn't understand if something was wrong with the entity, if you were doing something wrong…

He didn't even speak to you, not even when you first spoke to him. You thought you'd just continue with your world, finishing your base, creating a garden, herding animals. Until one day, returning from mining at sunset, you saw everything in chaos!

Your sheep had somehow escaped and were eating your vegetation—and then the cows, oh my god, the cows—some were lying in the fields, possibly dead, others had fled, or were eating from your garden along with the sheep.

And then your house. From the outside it looked fine, but inside… A total mess. The flowers from your window were on the floor, your chests were overturned, and there was coal in your food chest?

And there wasn't a single crumb of your bread there. You were panicking, and then, a chuckle appeared in the chat.

Three simple "He he he." Ah... It all made sense now!

The Knocker had done this. Why? Who knows, maybe he got bored of just stalking you and knocking on your door.

And that incident wasn't an isolated incident. You'd see him from afar after weeks when you logged into your world, but hey... At least he was answering your chat now.

And he also set your home on fire... 8 times... Which, you had to rebuild ALL BY YOURSELF.

Well, obviously, it was a lonely world, hun, what did you expect?

This was dumb...

After trading with villagers in the village closest to your house, you found a note on your bed, written in bold black letters that almost stabbed the paper, all in large capitals, intentionally trying to look intimidating, or so you thought.

"I SEE YOU."

Classic. You sneered under your breath, a slight smile playing on your lips, and planned to throw the paper away. But then you saw him appear and disappear quickly in your window, making you jump.

Son of a...

And he did see you, through your window, around the corners of the caves, while you simply checked your world over and over again.

Knocker would knock on your door late at night until you opened it, which you always did, but he wouldn't come in. He just wanted to annoy you, to make you get out of your comfortable bed to open the door. And if you did that, he'd start attacking you until he killed you.

You always came back, though.

And in your mind, this became a twisted routine.

It was around 8:00 PM, the sun had almost disappeared behind the mountains, you'd taken a quick shower and put on your pajamas, and you were about to go upstairs.

Knock, knock, knock.

You stopped dead in your tracks and looked toward the door, seeing his grim white face reflected in the glass, with that wide smile.

Strangely handsome, you braced yourself for the routine: he'd either kill you, steal your food, or disappear.

But when you opened the door, he did none of the three.

He just looked at you, for a long second, before taking a step toward you, then another... and another until he was inside, closing the door behind him.

And then he lunged at you, not exactly intending to attack. Your back hit the floor, and before your head could hit it too, his hand caught it.

Strangely gentle for someone who had driven an axe through it a few times.

There was a silence, one of those long, strangely intimate ones. His cold, almost nonexistent breath brushed against your lips, but the eye contact wasn't broken.

This was strange. Knocker had never done anything like this before.

A gasp of surprise escaped you as his fingers brushed against your neck, and then his other hand moved up to your neck and... began to squeeze, hard, instantly cutting off your breath, while his smile widened.

And just as you were about to faint from lack of air, he vanished, and you gasped for air, coughing until your breathing returned to normal.

Your heart pounded in your chest.

What the hell was that?!