Chapter 12: Knock Knock
Three knocks echoed through the apartment door.
Not loud. Not aggressive. Just three simple taps, almost polite—like whoever was on the other side wasn’t demanding entry, just announcing presence. That made it worse.
Kai froze in place.
The hallway beyond his door suddenly felt closer than it had any right to be, like the walls of his apartment had quietly shifted inward. His pulse hammered so hard in his ears it almost drowned out everything else. Even the stream—still running, still exploding with messages—felt distant now, like it belonged to another life.
But the chat wasn’t distant to them.
Boobykiller_051:
BRO DO NOT OPEN THAT DOOR
Peepee_666:
IM GONNA THROW UP
WetHamster_420:
WHO THE HELL IS VISITING AT MIDNIGHT
Jacksonvill3_89:
CHECK THE PEEPHOLE
Messages flooded so fast they blurred together, all of them carrying the same shape underneath the words: panic, excitement, disbelief. The internet loved danger most when it wasn’t theirs.
Kai took a slow step back from the door, then another, as if distance alone could make this feel less real. His phone buzzed in his hand immediately after—unknown number. He declined without thinking. Another call replaced it instantly. Then another.
The knocking came again.
Three taps. Same rhythm. Same patience.
Kai’s throat tightened.
"Kai."
Luna’s voice came through the headset, softer than the chaos in the chat but instantly cutting through it anyway.
"Yeah," he whispered.
"Stay away from the door."
He swallowed. "What do you think it is?"
A pause stretched through the line. Not long, but heavy enough to feel intentional.
"I don’t know."
That answer hit harder than anything else. Luna always sounded like she had angles on everything, like she was already three steps ahead of whatever situation they were in. Hearing uncertainty from her made the entire apartment feel colder.
Kai’s eyes drifted toward the peephole.
Every instinct he had screamed not to look.
Every other instinct—the stupid, human one—insisted he should.
Before he even realized it, he was moving.
"Kai."
Luna’s tone sharpened.
Not loud. Not angry. Just firm in a way she hadn’t been before.
"I’m just checking," he muttered.
"No."
That single word snapped him out of it.
Kai stopped, frozen halfway between the hallway and safety, realizing too late how heavy the silence had become. Even the apartment felt like it was waiting for something to happen.
His chat had stopped being chaotic and started being tense.
Viewer count ticked past 100,000.
A number that should’ve felt impossible. Instead it felt like pressure building behind glass.
Then—
the knocking stopped.
No rhythm. No follow-up.
Just... gone.
That was worse.
Silence filled the space it left behind. Rain tapped softly against the window. The computer fans hummed. Somewhere in the stream, donation alerts still blinked, forgotten for the moment.
Kai’s phone buzzed again.
Text message. Unknown number.
He stared at it for a second longer than he should have, then opened it.
A photo loaded instantly.
His stomach dropped.
It was his apartment door.
Taken from the hallway.
Fresh. Close. Real.
The timestamp showed it had been taken moments ago.
For a second, his brain refused to process it as information. It just sat there as an object that shouldn’t exist.
The chat noticed his silence immediately.
Peepee_666:
WHY HE LOOK LIKE THAT
WetHamster_420:
BRO WHAT HAPPENED
Boobykiller_051:
IM ACTUALLY SCARED NOW
Kai couldn’t answer. Couldn’t even breathe properly.
Under the image, a message appeared:
big fan :)
His hands went numb at the edges.
The headset crackled.
"Kai."
Luna’s voice had changed again.
Still soft. Still controlled. But sharpened into something precise, focused.
"What is it?"
He didn’t answer immediately. His eyes flicked between the phone, the door, the chat, like any one of them might explain the others.
Then Luna spoke again.
"Send me the number."
No hesitation. No uncertainty. Just immediate intent.
Kai stared at the message.
Every alarm in his head screamed at the idea—not because he didn’t want help, but because he knew, instinctively, that whatever Luna did with that information wouldn’t be small.
Still...
something else rose underneath the fear.
Relief.
That was the part that made his stomach turn.
Because his brain didn’t go to police. It didn’t go to security. It didn’t even go to calling someone else.
It went to her.
The thought scared him more than the knocks had.
"Kai," Luna said again, quieter now. "I’m not going to do anything crazy."
That wasn’t reassuring.
Not even close.
The chat was still moving, but differently now. Slower. Uneven. Like people were starting to realize something real was happening beyond the jokes.
Then the stream lit pink.
A donation.
LunaLove donated $1:
Please don’t be scared alone. ♡
The message hit harder than the photo had.
Because it didn’t feel like performance. It didn’t feel like content. It felt like someone actually seeing him in the middle of all this noise.
Kai swallowed hard.
His apartment suddenly felt too large, like all the empty space had become visible at once. No footsteps in the hallway. No voices outside the door. Just him, the glow of his monitors, and the idea that a hundred thousand people were watching him be afraid.
The headset stayed quiet for a few seconds.
Then Luna spoke again, much softer.
"...Kai?"
"Yeah."
Another pause, smaller this time.
"I really wish I was there."
That should’ve been the most normal thing she’d said all night.
It wasn’t.
Because it sounded real.
Not dramatic. Not manipulative. Just... sincere in a way that made his chest tighten.
Like she meant it.
Like she would actually be here if she could.
And against every rational thought he had—
Kai found himself wishing the same thing.
The thought hit him so hard it almost made him dizzy.
A loud metallic crash echoed somewhere down the hallway outside his apartment.
Close.
Too close.
Kai snapped upright.
The chat erupted instantly.
His phone buzzed again.
Another image.
This one was worse.
Taken farther down the hallway, blurrier, like it had been rushed. The angle was slightly off. The lighting inconsistent.
Under it:
wrong floor lol
Then another message followed immediately.
sorry :)
Kai stared at it, trying to force his mind to organize what he was seeing into something normal.
It refused.
This didn’t feel like threat or intimidation.
It felt worse.
Like someone playing.
Like the situation was entertainment.
The headset crackled again.
Luna spoke very quietly now, almost to herself.
"...That’s not the same person."
Kai blinked. "What?"
A pause.
"The first photo and the second photo," she said. "The shoes are different."
The words landed like something dropping in a quiet room.
Kai’s skin went cold.
Slowly—carefully, like the air itself had become fragile—
another knock echoed through the apartment door.
Not three.
Just one.
