0 reactions
I asked the kid I was babysitting 'What do you think lurks out there, in the forest?'. He responded with 'My mother'.
I've been babysitting all summer in order to make some extra cash. At first, I just asked around at school if anyone needed a babysitter for their siblings, or if they knew anyone who could be interested. I started babysitting kids whose families I knew, but eventually I needed more money, so I put up an ad on Craigslist.
It wasn't long until I got a response.
The family lived in the suburbs, but what bothered me was how close to the woods their house was and the fact that they didn't have any neighbors. I got a bit freaked out at first, considering the fact that they were strangers with a cabin in the woods, but decided to push through the fear for the money.
The house was a cozy little cabin, clean, with a garden in the back that had a gate which led to a trail in the woods. They had little lanterns hung out in the garden, and a swing all the way in the back. The living room had a large window that faced directly the forest, and during the day the room was bathed in sunlight. The kitchen was right next to it, with its counter facing another huge window, surrounded by pots and vines, and stupid signs like 'Home is where the family is' or 'In this house we say sorry'.
Upstairs, they only had the two bedrooms. The attic was a tiny space whose window faced the woods, too.
The kid was pretty quiet. Honestly, I neither liked or disliked him. I tried to form some sort of opinion, but he just didn't stand out in any way. He wasn't mean or stubborn, but he wasn't a sweetheart, either. He must've been around 5 or 6, so I would just put him to bed quickly and then snoop around the house. I've always been curious about whoever hired me, and I know it's not exactly recommended, but I would just go through people's stuff whenever I felt bored.
It must've been around midnight that night when I slowly pulled out one of the drawers in the main bedroom. This one had all types of trinkets - coins, notebooks, pins, buttons. This family liked to collect useless stuff and let it hang around the house, and I liked to explore it.
As I was studying this little ceramic statue of a horse, I moved it around, noticing the moonlight hit its porcelain from different angles. I debated whether to just take it or not. *Would they even notice?*
My chest tightened and my mouth opened. The horse was no longer bathed in moonlight, because this huge shadow had covered it and was dancing on its porcelain. Looking around a bit, I noticed the shadow took up half the room. I could not make out the silhouette, or what could have made it. It just seemed so unexpected, that fear crept up to me and froze me.
Someone was at the window. I know it could have been a bird - that's the rational explanation. And I could have solved all this doubt by just looking up. But I didn't.
Because, what if it wasn't a bird?
I stood still for so long, not knowing what to do, until it passed, and the horse was lit up again by the moonlight. I breathed a sigh of relief and put the horse in my pocket.
I didn't know at the time, but that would have been my first contact with *it.*
Something made me stop snooping around and just get downstairs. I turned on the TV and curled up on the couch.
At one point during the night, I heard creaking upstairs.
I know it shouldn't have freaked me out so bad, but I still got scared so I went to check it out. The house was dark and quiet, and the two bedrooms facing each other were empty. Empty.
*Where did the kid go?*
'Jason?' my voice pierced the silence, and I felt like an intruder, destroying the quiet of the night. 'Jason, where did you go?'
I kept having the feeling of being watched, so I turned around, fixated on the attic door, which was now opened.
My instincts kept telling me to just leave, but my head, now spinning, refused. What if we had an intruder? What if he'd taken Jason? If I had just looked up at the window when the shadow passed, now I'd know what I was dealing with. If I'd just had the courage to face it.
My voice sounded a lot weaker than the first time, but I still had to try.
'Jason?'
'Yeah?'
The response was almost immediate, and coming from the attic. Odd. What was he doing there?
I put my foot on the first step of the stairs. 'What are you doing there? It's really late. Your parents are going to be home soon.'
Step after step, I tried to readjust my eyes to the darkness. The attic was really dark compared to the rest of the house, and I could make out a ray of light that traced out this tiny silhouette.
'Jason, are you there? What are you doing? You're freaking me out.'
I finally reached him and put my hands on his tiny shoulders, but he didn't respond. He was just staring out the tiny window, into the woods.
'What's going on?' I asked. 'What are you looking at?'
I sat next to him, and stared out the window at the woods. There was a portion of grass beginning from the house, pierced by trees. The farther you went, the denser the trees were, until you'd discover you were completely surrounded by the woods, unable to see the sky from how tight the branches closed around you. The forest commenced from the garden and swallowed the horizon like a dark mass, blending with the sky.
The window framed this darkness, this suffocating emptiness, and made me feel as if we'd reached the end of the world and, had we dared to venture into the forest, we'd just fall over the face of the earth.
And there stood Jason, just staring.
'What are you seeing?'
He just wouldn't answer, so I decided to find out by myself. Studying the scenery, nothing particular stood out. Of course, I just needed to pay more attention.
Yeah, the more you looked, the more movement you saw. Birds, animals, even the wind thrilled the branches and the leaves, the grass swaying gently. And then the shadows were the next thing you noticed, these forever moving stains on the ground.
I could have stared out there for years. Maybe that's why Jason wasn't moving. There's just something about the night that keeps you up.
'What do you think lurks out there?' I asked him, playfully.
'Where, in the woods?'
'Yeah.'
'My mom.'
I blinked a few times. That was unsettling. I mean, kids say weird stuff, but why would he respond to that? Was that a 'your mom' joke? Was he trying to be funny?
'What do you mean?'
'What does *lurk* mean?'
'Oh. Um, *lurk* means, well... when you wait or move slowly in the darkness, because you don't want to be seen.'
'So, like, hiding?'
'Yeah, but you're lurking when you also want to do something bad. Just how animals lurk before they attack. Or monsters.' I added, trying to scare him. 'So, what do you think lurks out there, in the forest?'
'My mother.' he responded once again.
My body tensed up. 'That's not funny.'
'I don't want to be funny.'
'Why would you say that? Your mom. That's an old joke, and it stopped being funny a while ago.'
'I'm not joking!'
'Okay. Let's go to sleep. Your mother can't be lurking out there - I saw her and she's pretty nice. I don't know what she told you, but she doesn't eat people. She's out with your dad now, and they're gonna come home in a few hours. If they find out you aren't sleeping, I'll get a lot of shit for it.'
'Shit?'
'Don't tell your parents I said that. Come on. Let's get down.'
'I'm telling the truth.'
'What, is she a vampire? You know something was standing at the window earlier?'
I didn't really care that much about what I was saying, because, in my head, everything had a logical explanation. Jason, however, widened his gaze. 'Yeah, that could have been her.'
'Stop.'
'I'm serious.'
'And what does she want from us? Does she want to eat me?' We were now in his bedroom, and I had tucked him into bed. I had my back to the window, facing the hallway which had now become way creepier than expected.
'She doesn't want to eat you.'
'That's so great. I taste horrible. Goodnight.'
I tried to stand up and leave, but he grabbed me. 'Wait. Don't go. Look at me.'
'What, now?'
'I wanna tell you about this dream I had. This dream that woke me up. But you have to pay attention.'
'Okay.'
'So, um, in my dream, I was in the garden, and I was thirsty, and you were there too, and you tried to leave, but there were a lot of bushes around, and you got lost... and I found this puppet...'
I hate it when people tell me about their dreams, but I sat there, listening, facing Jason with my back to the window.
Not because his story was interesting.
Not because I liked being there.
Because, while he held me there, his eyes kept darting to the window, and I'd seen the shadow cover his face. Because he'd insisted I looked at him, but in reality he didn't want me to turn around.
So I listened, until he abruptly finished his story when moonlight reached his face again.
'Thank you for the story. It was really interesting.'
'You're welcome.'
'Goodnight.'
'Night.'
I spent the next hour in the other bedroom, fidgeting with the little porcelain horse. This kid was a lot braver than I thought. In the silence, I kept trying to make out distinct, unfamiliar sounds but didn't succeed. The house had fallen asleep, and the night had become uneventful.
His parents arrived soon after that. I put the horse in my pocket and went downstairs to greet them.
'Was he good, Keith?'
'Yeah, the best. Don't worry.'
I studied both of them, head to toe, their clothes, mannerisms, facial expressions. But mostly the mom.
'Were *you* good?' asked the dad, jokingly.
'I hope so.' I responded.
They wanted to drive me home, but I insisted on taking my bike. I closed the door behind me, but, instead of leaving, I headed to the back yard.
I just wanted to see something. Climbing on the fence, I made it on the roof of the porch. Right next to the bedroom window. Hoping to see some signs of something, anything.
The window was covered in scratches, but nothing gave out what had been there. I stood there for a while, I don't know why. The parents had gone to sleep, and Jason was probably asleep in his room, too. I studied the garden from that angle, then the woods, as quiet as a mouse.
Then the room where the parents were sleeping.
After that, I don't remember how I got home. I don't even think I took my bike, just ran frantically until my legs bled. I didn't even scream. I didn't look around, or stop. Just ran until I reached my house and banged on the door. My mother answered, annoyed, and I ran past her, right to my bedroom. Covered myself in my blanket and started typing this.
Because, while I was watching the parents sleep, something had caught my eye.
In the hallway, what I had though to be a coat hanger moved all of a sudden. It had been standing there so still, I hadn't even bothered to notice it, until disappeared out of my range, then appeared again.
This bony, twisted silhouette dragged itself into the bedroom and stood right next to the mother, who was sleeping.
It looked uncanny, like a human who'd starved to death, with wide eyes, and arms so long, they trailed behind it when it walked. It just stood there watching the parents, then lifted a bony finger and started counting.
I stood there frozen, watching this horrifying show, forever scarred in my head. It kept counting, and counting, and counting. I was so scared to move that I would have watched it forever.
It wasn't until something else happened that made me break into this exhausting run.
It saw me.
#entertainment
source
I've been babysitting all summer in order to make some extra cash. At first, I just asked around at school if anyone needed a babysitter for their siblings, or if they knew anyone who could be interested. I started babysitting kids whose families I knew, but eventually I needed more money, so I put up an ad on Craigslist.
It wasn't long until I got a response.
The family lived in the suburbs, but what bothered me was how close to the woods their house was and the fact that they didn't have any neighbors. I got a bit freaked out at first, considering the fact that they were strangers with a cabin in the woods, but decided to push through the fear for the money.
The house was a cozy little cabin, clean, with a garden in the back that had a gate which led to a trail in the woods. They had little lanterns hung out in the garden, and a swing all the way in the back. The living room had a large window that faced directly the forest, and during the day the room was bathed in sunlight. The kitchen was right next to it, with its counter facing another huge window, surrounded by pots and vines, and stupid signs like 'Home is where the family is' or 'In this house we say sorry'.
Upstairs, they only had the two bedrooms. The attic was a tiny space whose window faced the woods, too.
The kid was pretty quiet. Honestly, I neither liked or disliked him. I tried to form some sort of opinion, but he just didn't stand out in any way. He wasn't mean or stubborn, but he wasn't a sweetheart, either. He must've been around 5 or 6, so I would just put him to bed quickly and then snoop around the house. I've always been curious about whoever hired me, and I know it's not exactly recommended, but I would just go through people's stuff whenever I felt bored.
It must've been around midnight that night when I slowly pulled out one of the drawers in the main bedroom. This one had all types of trinkets - coins, notebooks, pins, buttons. This family liked to collect useless stuff and let it hang around the house, and I liked to explore it.
As I was studying this little ceramic statue of a horse, I moved it around, noticing the moonlight hit its porcelain from different angles. I debated whether to just take it or not. *Would they even notice?*
My chest tightened and my mouth opened. The horse was no longer bathed in moonlight, because this huge shadow had covered it and was dancing on its porcelain. Looking around a bit, I noticed the shadow took up half the room. I could not make out the silhouette, or what could have made it. It just seemed so unexpected, that fear crept up to me and froze me.
Someone was at the window. I know it could have been a bird - that's the rational explanation. And I could have solved all this doubt by just looking up. But I didn't.
Because, what if it wasn't a bird?
I stood still for so long, not knowing what to do, until it passed, and the horse was lit up again by the moonlight. I breathed a sigh of relief and put the horse in my pocket.
I didn't know at the time, but that would have been my first contact with *it.*
Something made me stop snooping around and just get downstairs. I turned on the TV and curled up on the couch.
At one point during the night, I heard creaking upstairs.
I know it shouldn't have freaked me out so bad, but I still got scared so I went to check it out. The house was dark and quiet, and the two bedrooms facing each other were empty. Empty.
*Where did the kid go?*
'Jason?' my voice pierced the silence, and I felt like an intruder, destroying the quiet of the night. 'Jason, where did you go?'
I kept having the feeling of being watched, so I turned around, fixated on the attic door, which was now opened.
My instincts kept telling me to just leave, but my head, now spinning, refused. What if we had an intruder? What if he'd taken Jason? If I had just looked up at the window when the shadow passed, now I'd know what I was dealing with. If I'd just had the courage to face it.
My voice sounded a lot weaker than the first time, but I still had to try.
'Jason?'
'Yeah?'
The response was almost immediate, and coming from the attic. Odd. What was he doing there?
I put my foot on the first step of the stairs. 'What are you doing there? It's really late. Your parents are going to be home soon.'
Step after step, I tried to readjust my eyes to the darkness. The attic was really dark compared to the rest of the house, and I could make out a ray of light that traced out this tiny silhouette.
'Jason, are you there? What are you doing? You're freaking me out.'
I finally reached him and put my hands on his tiny shoulders, but he didn't respond. He was just staring out the tiny window, into the woods.
'What's going on?' I asked. 'What are you looking at?'
I sat next to him, and stared out the window at the woods. There was a portion of grass beginning from the house, pierced by trees. The farther you went, the denser the trees were, until you'd discover you were completely surrounded by the woods, unable to see the sky from how tight the branches closed around you. The forest commenced from the garden and swallowed the horizon like a dark mass, blending with the sky.
The window framed this darkness, this suffocating emptiness, and made me feel as if we'd reached the end of the world and, had we dared to venture into the forest, we'd just fall over the face of the earth.
And there stood Jason, just staring.
'What are you seeing?'
He just wouldn't answer, so I decided to find out by myself. Studying the scenery, nothing particular stood out. Of course, I just needed to pay more attention.
Yeah, the more you looked, the more movement you saw. Birds, animals, even the wind thrilled the branches and the leaves, the grass swaying gently. And then the shadows were the next thing you noticed, these forever moving stains on the ground.
I could have stared out there for years. Maybe that's why Jason wasn't moving. There's just something about the night that keeps you up.
'What do you think lurks out there?' I asked him, playfully.
'Where, in the woods?'
'Yeah.'
'My mom.'
I blinked a few times. That was unsettling. I mean, kids say weird stuff, but why would he respond to that? Was that a 'your mom' joke? Was he trying to be funny?
'What do you mean?'
'What does *lurk* mean?'
'Oh. Um, *lurk* means, well... when you wait or move slowly in the darkness, because you don't want to be seen.'
'So, like, hiding?'
'Yeah, but you're lurking when you also want to do something bad. Just how animals lurk before they attack. Or monsters.' I added, trying to scare him. 'So, what do you think lurks out there, in the forest?'
'My mother.' he responded once again.
My body tensed up. 'That's not funny.'
'I don't want to be funny.'
'Why would you say that? Your mom. That's an old joke, and it stopped being funny a while ago.'
'I'm not joking!'
'Okay. Let's go to sleep. Your mother can't be lurking out there - I saw her and she's pretty nice. I don't know what she told you, but she doesn't eat people. She's out with your dad now, and they're gonna come home in a few hours. If they find out you aren't sleeping, I'll get a lot of shit for it.'
'Shit?'
'Don't tell your parents I said that. Come on. Let's get down.'
'I'm telling the truth.'
'What, is she a vampire? You know something was standing at the window earlier?'
I didn't really care that much about what I was saying, because, in my head, everything had a logical explanation. Jason, however, widened his gaze. 'Yeah, that could have been her.'
'Stop.'
'I'm serious.'
'And what does she want from us? Does she want to eat me?' We were now in his bedroom, and I had tucked him into bed. I had my back to the window, facing the hallway which had now become way creepier than expected.
'She doesn't want to eat you.'
'That's so great. I taste horrible. Goodnight.'
I tried to stand up and leave, but he grabbed me. 'Wait. Don't go. Look at me.'
'What, now?'
'I wanna tell you about this dream I had. This dream that woke me up. But you have to pay attention.'
'Okay.'
'So, um, in my dream, I was in the garden, and I was thirsty, and you were there too, and you tried to leave, but there were a lot of bushes around, and you got lost... and I found this puppet...'
I hate it when people tell me about their dreams, but I sat there, listening, facing Jason with my back to the window.
Not because his story was interesting.
Not because I liked being there.
Because, while he held me there, his eyes kept darting to the window, and I'd seen the shadow cover his face. Because he'd insisted I looked at him, but in reality he didn't want me to turn around.
So I listened, until he abruptly finished his story when moonlight reached his face again.
'Thank you for the story. It was really interesting.'
'You're welcome.'
'Goodnight.'
'Night.'
I spent the next hour in the other bedroom, fidgeting with the little porcelain horse. This kid was a lot braver than I thought. In the silence, I kept trying to make out distinct, unfamiliar sounds but didn't succeed. The house had fallen asleep, and the night had become uneventful.
His parents arrived soon after that. I put the horse in my pocket and went downstairs to greet them.
'Was he good, Keith?'
'Yeah, the best. Don't worry.'
I studied both of them, head to toe, their clothes, mannerisms, facial expressions. But mostly the mom.
'Were *you* good?' asked the dad, jokingly.
'I hope so.' I responded.
They wanted to drive me home, but I insisted on taking my bike. I closed the door behind me, but, instead of leaving, I headed to the back yard.
I just wanted to see something. Climbing on the fence, I made it on the roof of the porch. Right next to the bedroom window. Hoping to see some signs of something, anything.
The window was covered in scratches, but nothing gave out what had been there. I stood there for a while, I don't know why. The parents had gone to sleep, and Jason was probably asleep in his room, too. I studied the garden from that angle, then the woods, as quiet as a mouse.
Then the room where the parents were sleeping.
After that, I don't remember how I got home. I don't even think I took my bike, just ran frantically until my legs bled. I didn't even scream. I didn't look around, or stop. Just ran until I reached my house and banged on the door. My mother answered, annoyed, and I ran past her, right to my bedroom. Covered myself in my blanket and started typing this.
Because, while I was watching the parents sleep, something had caught my eye.
In the hallway, what I had though to be a coat hanger moved all of a sudden. It had been standing there so still, I hadn't even bothered to notice it, until disappeared out of my range, then appeared again.
This bony, twisted silhouette dragged itself into the bedroom and stood right next to the mother, who was sleeping.
It looked uncanny, like a human who'd starved to death, with wide eyes, and arms so long, they trailed behind it when it walked. It just stood there watching the parents, then lifted a bony finger and started counting.
I stood there frozen, watching this horrifying show, forever scarred in my head. It kept counting, and counting, and counting. I was so scared to move that I would have watched it forever.
It wasn't until something else happened that made me break into this exhausting run.
It saw me.
#entertainment
source
| 16,000 mlx | |
| 16 | |
| 0 |