I know that this sounds like the kind of advice to anyone left alone in the house at night but this is different.

It started a week ago, I was in bed it had just turned 01:00, I was scrolling on my phone while my wife Steph was asleep. I suddenly had a notification pop up at the top of my phone. Anyone with a video doorbell will be accustomed to this. ‘Motion Detected’. I normally ignore it as it was either a car coming down the road or a person stumbling back home after a night out. Then the doorbell chimed, the notification followed ‘There is a person at your front door’.

I opened the app, there sure enough was a young woman standing, clinging onto my doorframe. I answered “Hello, can I help you?”, she came back immediately “Please let me in, someone is chasing me”. I told her to stay where she was and I would call the police. I heard her again “Please let me in, he’s going to hurt me, please hurry”. At this point my wife woke up, she asked me what I was doing. As I put some clothes on ready to go downstairs, I said there was a woman at our door begging to come in as someone was chasing her. I was about to dial for the police when Steph opened the app. She said “babe, no one is there”.

We looked back on the motion history, both notifications were logged. I opened the first one, nothing but our front porch. I proceeded to the other notification, where someone had pressed the doorbell. There was my front porch, shrouded in darkness but this time we could hear only my voice. Of course there was no response to my questions. I thought to myself, was I going crazy?! My wife said it was late, I must have been half asleep and my mind was playing tricks on me. Even if that was right, it still didn’t explain why we got the notifications.

The next night we both sat bingeing a Netflix show in our living room. We must have lost track of time as it was nearly 1 in the morning. I went to check the back door was locked when my phone buzzed. I asked Steph whether she had the same. She had. I opened the app just as it notified me that someone had pressed the bell. We both quickly opened the live view, stood at our door, a child.

The young boy must have been no older than 8, the camera was in night vision which was black and white. The boy’s face glowed, eyes piercing through my screen. I once again answered “Hello, can I help” the kid looked up at the camera, “Hi, my daddy broke down just up the road and his phone is dead. Can you please let me in, I need to use your phone”. Me and Steph looked at each other, she shook her head at me. I replied to him “I can call someone out for you or maybe the police can help?”. The boy then seemed to turn, his voice now had anger to it “open the door I need help, are you really going to let me stay out here all alone?”. His story had changed, I went back after swallowing my own fear “stay there I will get help”.

This time I called the police, they came around 20 minutes later. By this point no one was around, we had seen the boy walk off around the corner 5 minutes after I had got off the phone. The officers checked our road and the surrounding area. They found no people, not even the odd car driving around. We both tried to show them the app but obviously, there was nothing there. The two officers were understanding and seemed to believe us. They gave us the departments direct number and told us to call them if anything happens again.

We went to bed that night scared and confused, we didn’t understand what or why this was happening to us. The next day we decided to get an early night, we made sure everything was locked and the house secure. We both fell asleep early, I was woken up at just gone 01:00 to the sound of two sets of buzzing from my phone. I ignored these, I just rolled over and went back to sleep. When I looked at my phone in the morning I opened up the doorbell app. The video playback showed nothing, but I could hear scratching for about 2-3 seconds after the apparent press of the bell. I went downstairs and checked the door. Three sets of four deep scratches went down my front door. The anxiety hit me like a tidal wave going throughout my body. I now feared the night ahead of us.

Two nights ago we both had decided to stay up, we were going to put an end to this. We were on edge in our own home and it just wasn’t right. The minutes drew closer to that damned time 01:00. Then right on schedule, the notifications started. I opened the app, now stood there one of the policeman. He was one of the officers that was with us the other night. I thought it was strange, it caught me off guard. Steph said that she will look out the window upstairs. We had both said earlier that one of us would look out the window to confirm if someone really was there.

I answered the door “Hello officer, can I help you?” He looked into the camera “we have an update on the problem you have been having, can you please open the door”. I felt a sense of confliction come over me, this didn’t feel right. I had watched enough police programs and dramas to know they usually have to report to places with another officer. The lack of any police cars also unnerved me. “Sorry officer, I’m sure you can understand the reluctancy to open the door due to our situation”. He snapped back “It’s fine, I am an officer of the law and instructing you to please open up, I need to come in and update you!” Now I knew something was wrong, his whole demeanour was now completely different to when we spoke two nights ago. I watched as his head looked upwards.

I heard my wife scream the words “Oh my god, His eyes! What the fuck?!” I rushed up the stairs my feet slipping as I ran, I saw Steph but she looked petrified. She stared at me blankly and said “you need to let him in, he will help us”. I uttered back struggling to catch my breath “we can’t, you know we can’t! What did you see? What was wrong with his eyes?!” She tilted her head at me her eyes began to roll upwards “let him in…. Let. Him. In.”. Her tone started to change, it was turning into a gravelly rasping voice. Her face now full of anger as she screamed at me “LET HIM IN NOW”.

I grabbed her and shook her while shouting “Steph, listen to me, snap out of it!”. She looked back at me dazed and confused. She said wearily, with tears in her eyes “I want to go to bed”, I said “only if you are ok”. She said she was fine and didn’t know what happened. I checked the video feed once more, no one was there. It took me a few hours to fall asleep worrying about what happened to Steph.

When I woke the next morning Steph was gone, her phone and jewellery left on the bedside cabinet. I went downstairs and searched for her but nothing, she wasn’t in the house. I called the police department on the number I was given, I spoke to the partner of the policeman that was at my door. I told him everything that happened and that my wife had gone missing. They told me the officer that was stood at my door 8 hours earlier was on leave. He flew out on holiday yesterday morning, it couldn’t have been him.

In the hours ahead a search team was assembled and I joined them in searching the local area. There was no sign of her. It’s now 11pm, I’m sitting alone in my living room, my head now full of fear and radiating pain. I just want my Steph home, I just want normality back.

Here it comes 00:59.

3, 2, 01:00, the notifications came through, I opened the app.

Steph was at the front door, I was almost half expecting it. I said “where were you honey”. She looked into the camera “I was taken, but I escaped and I’m here now. Let me in and I will tell you all about it”. I took a deep sigh. “Ok, I will be there in a minute babe”.

What can I do? She is my wife. I have nothing without her.

I wrote all of this throughout this evening, hoping for some sort of closure, maybe even a happy ending to this horrible experience. I guess now it will just be a piece of evidence on what happened to us both.

I need to go answer the door now.

My wife is home.