The Dexter Effect

It's 2 o' clock at night. I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something is just not right. The eerie silence of the night seems to confirm my fears. I am shaken from my stupor by an incessant feeble sound. This is a metal clinging sound which is emanating from my balcony. It feels as if somebody were inconspicuously trying to unlock the door from the outside. I contemplate stepping out of my quilt and switching on the lights but change my mind. What if he gets alert by the light and runs away. Then I think of picking up a torch, going to my balcony and catching him unawares but I change my mind again. What if he gets furious and slits my throat open by his knife.

I decide to stay back in my bed and think of an alternate to catch the thief or whosoever has dared interrupt my beauty sleep. I fumble for my phone under the pillow then on the mattress around me but find it lying on the bedside table. Dazed, I climb out of my bed, turn my phone on and with the help of the display light, I tiptoe to the window that opens out to the balcony. I lean against the closed window so as to hear the noises more clearly. I hear the same feeble clinging sound of metal as though the thief was trying to unscrew a bolt on the other side of the door. I slide a few steps on my left towards the door and peek through the key hole so as to get an idea of his appearance. I am expecting to see a fat, shabbily dressed man with big dark fear inflicting eyes, bearing a stubble and wild unkempt hair. Clearly, I have never seen a real thief in my life and I am a little excited at the prospects of catching one. But when I peek through the keyhole, I see an empty balcony, bereft of any living being. My mind is in turmoil as I can still hear the same consistent sound coming from the other side of the door.

I brush away my fears and muster the courage to unveil the mystery myself. I gasp a deep breath, calm my quivering nerves and go to my brother's room to arm myself with a cricket bat. I open the door quietly holding the bat in the other arm in an attacking position. And behold, I am presented yet again with an empty balcony filled with the ever persisting metal clinging sound. I look towards my left and then towards my right, but no sign of a living being in sight. Then I look upwards at the ceiling. There is a pair of pigeons pacing up and down at the roof of the air conditioner. I go a little closer and realise that the sound is coming from the claws hitting the metal of the roof of the AC. I laugh out loud.

After savouring the silence of the dark, I return to my room. I gulp down a glass of water and sit in a chair mumbling incoherently to myself, "You watch too many horror movies these days. And stop watching Dexter. It leaves you with disturbing visions and violent thoughts."