There was an 18-year old girl named Beatrice who was in her first year at college. She lived alone in a small apartment near her university. One night, she was washing her dishes after dinner, when her phone suddenly started ringing. She picked it up and saw by the caller ID that it was her friend, Peter.

“Hey Pete, what’s up?” she asked.

“Not much,” he replied. “I’m bored and I thought I’d see if you wanted to hang out.”

“Sure,” said Beatrice. “Come on over. We can watch a movie or something.”
“Cool, I’ll be over in 15 or 20 minutes,” he said cheerfully.

She hung up the phone and decided to take a shower before her friend arrived. About ten minutes later, she was in the middle of shampooing her hair when she heard a loud knock on her front door.

Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!

Sticking her head out of the shower, she shouted, “Come in! It’s open!”

A few minutes later, the banging on the door started again.

Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!

She stuck her head out again. “It’s not locked! Just let yourself in!” she cried.

Just then, her mobile phone rang. It was Peter.

She answered it and said, in an irritated voice, “I’m in the shower. Why don’t you stop knocking and just come in?”

On the other end of the line, her friend’s voice was hushed and urgent.

“Don’t open the door!” he hissed.

Beatrice was shocked. “Why not?”

“I’m outside your apartment building,” he whispered. “I just saw a strange woman going up the stairs to your apartment. She was crawling up the wall on all fours…”