"He Won't Stop Tapping"

**"He Won't Stop Tapping"** is the first tale in the twefth episode of the eighth season of the Nolseep Podcast. In it, a woman is harassed by a man at her window. Written by Collette Akile, it has a runtime of 23:20 and was performed by Jessica McEvoy. It is the 956th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

Collette lives in the attic of an old house that has been renovated into boarding rooms. The only window in her apartment is one that faces a small section of roofing and a large tree. Collette positions her bed behind a dividing wall, which is the only place in the room that can't be seen from the window.

Collette suffers from several psychological problems such as paranoia, auditory hallucinations, and depression. Taking care of her mentally-ill mother while she was growing up allowed herself to deal with these problems. She leaves the television on all night and texts her best friend, David, constantly to let him know she's okay.

One night while lying in bed, Collette hears rhythmic tapping noises coming from the window. At first she panics, but slowly calms herself down and says she must be imagining the sounds. They last for five minutes before fading away. The noises appear almost every night after that, very early in the hours of the morning. For a few months, Collette is able to ignore and dismiss them, telling herself that the window is latched.

One night, she is in the bathroom when the tapping noises begin. Although afraid at first, she convinces herself to open the door and head back to bed. Peering around the corner, she sees a man crouched on the roof outside her window. She realizing the noises haven't been tapping on the glass, but rather this man clacking his teeth together as he opens and closes his mouth. There is an expression of hunger on his face. He stares directly at the wall behind which her bed lies and fails to see her.

Collette hides in the bathroom until the clacking noises stop, then waits ten additional minutes before looking again. The man is gone. She runs to her bed and texts David to tell him everything that has been happening. She begs him to spend the night with her. He agrees and arrives at sunrise.

The pair pass the day by watching TV and playing board games. Collette can tell David thinks the man was a hallucination. David falls asleep around 10:00 and Collette dozes off too.

Around 3:00, the clacking noises begin again. David wakes up and is shocked to learn the noises are real. He grabs his phone and steps out from behind the wall. Collette hears the man at the window shriek before the cry is abruptly cut off. She gets up and sees the man is gone.

At sunrise, David says he's going to go home and change clothes before coming back to get her so they can go to the police. Hours pass and he fails to return. Collette calls the station, but the dispatcher tells her they can't search for him until he's been gone for twenty-four hours. She thinks the man at the window got to David and killed him.

Collette drives around the city all day, stopping at David's apartment and place of work while also watching for his car, but can find no trace. Sick, resigned, and missing him, she returns to her apartment. As the sunlight fades, she thinks of the man clacking his teeth and wonders if his mouth grew wider with each clack. She unlatches her window and waits. After a while, the noises start again.