I thought this was going to be another easy but tedious job. I thought all I had to do was look after Ben and the house, and everything would go alright. If only I knew how wrong I was.
For some background, I was born and raised in South Jersey, and my childhood was relatively simple. I was 13 when I began babysitting for relatives such as my uncles and aunts, and once I turned 15, I started babysitting for other people for some quick cash. Fast forward a few months, when I got a call to babysit for a friendly couple. The job was simple: Be at their house at 5 P.M and babysit their child, Ben, until they came back from their date at about 11 or 11.30 P.M. They paid me $15 an hour, and the next days school was canceled due to heavy snow covering a lot of the streets outside. Plus, I really needed that money to buy a new game that I wanted to play with my friends.
After being introduced to Ben and getting informed several times over about what he should eat and when his bedtime is due, the couple left me to take care of their kid. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening for a little while, it was a dark, windy night, and it had been snowing severely all week. It had now been a boring twenty minutes since Ben was tucked into bed. I had been slowly browsing through social media on my phone when I first heard it. It was a low rattle from upstairs—”nothing too concerning,” I thought to myself while continuing to browse social media on my phone for another two or three minutes before my ears were blasted with a high-pitched scream. It was Ben. I gripped my phone hard and instantly jumped up from the couch, and I rapidly ran upstairs. I booked it into his room the moment I made it to the second floor, and what I saw will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Ben was not alone, his bedroom window was wide open, and right on top of his bed was something, I don’t know what to call it, it had all the characteristics that resemble a human, but it was too large to be a human, it was very furry with grey fur covering all of its muscular body, it had eyes that emitted a light-red color and its hands were like that of a chimpanzee, but with only four fingers that could probably easily cruch a melon. It was feasting on Ben’s body; blood and human parts were splattered all over the room, and what was left of his body was a disfigured mess. I was frozen in fear. I was scared, I was terrified, I felt sick looking at that, I tried to slowly back out of the room, but the thing had noticed me already, it looked straight at me and all I could do was run, which is what I did. I ran into the second-floor bathroom and locked myself in there.
I heard the loud footsteps of that thing getting closer and closer to the bathroom door, and suddenly everything went silent. I peeked under the door and saw that it was just standing there, menacingly, and then I heard my mothers voice through the door: “Art, open the door, everything is going to be alright.” it said in a calm tone. I froze in terror, and I could feel that my heartbeat became increasingly rapid. What was that thing, and how did it imitate my mother’s voice so well? It also took me a few seconds to realize that it called me by my nickname, Art. My full name is Arthur, and I like to draw a lot, so my parents found it fitting to call me Art.
Everything was silent for a few more seconds before that thing started slamming on the door. I could hear it speaking, talking to me in many voices at once. It kept screaming & begging me to open the door and that everything was going to be alright. I called 911 and told them that a deranged person was trying to kill me. They said that because of the heavy snow, it would take some time to send a patrol unit here. I pleaded with them to be quick and hung up because my phone was about to die.
The bathroom I locked myself in had one small window and it was on the second floor. That thing, that monster, was standing in the way of the only safe exit. I could see its large legs and shadow from a small gap underneath the door. I considered my options: Jumping would be painful, and I might not be able to get up in time to run if that thing discovers I jumped out the window, but opening the door would force me to confront the creature. The thing was huge, it could easily crush me as if I were a balloon, and I have no doubt that is what it plans on doing.
So I waited. I waited for something, anything, to happen. That thing kept talking to me, it used both of my parents’ voices, it used my friends’ voices. It wanted me to open the door, but I didn’t, not for a while. After what felt like an eternity of waiting, I heard the sirens from the cops gradually getting closer, and once it got close enough, I heard that thing quickly move away from the door. I looked through the gap between the door and the floor and I didn’t see it, I didn’t see that thing anymore. I was still scared, the image of Bens body, or what was left of it, was still stuck in my mind. I vomitted and it hurt my stomach, a lot. This entire time, tears were rolling down my now red-colored face. I waited for a bit while sitting on the cold bathroom floor. I heard the doorbell ring, and I decided to finally get out of the bathroom I was locked in.
Slowly, I opened the door, but I didn’t see the creature in front of me. Instead of slowly making my way downstairs, I decided to run, because if I heard those sirens and the doorbell, then so did that creature. I ran past Bens bedroom and tried my best not to look inside. I jumped down the stairs and ran to the front door once I made it downstairs. I opened the door to see two police officers, one who seemed older and the other who seemed really young. They both looked tired and surprised to see me. I knew it would be hard for them to find my story to be true, plus I lied when I called them, so I just told them to follow me upstairs without saying another word.
They both followed me up the stairs, and to Bens room, I stood back and pointed to the room because I didn’t want to see that mess ever again. Without going into too many details, I recall that they called for more police officers to arrive, I remember that I was extensively questioned by various people, I also remember the devastated expression on Ben’s parents’ faces when they returned home from their date, and the terrified expressions on my parents’ faces when they came to pick me up from the police station. After that, everything seemed to return to normal. I was having constant nightmares whenever I slept; they would keep me awake for hours at a time, sometimes for entire nights. I had returned to school, and Bens parents had moved to another house.
That brings us to today. I was still having nightmares, but they became less frequent. It was still windy outside, but there was no snow, so I kept my windows open. The house was all for myself as my parents were out at a dinner party. I sank into my bed five minutes before I heard it. That same rattle I heard while babysitting Ben. I froze in fear. I looked at the clock on my wall: 9:33 P.M. My parents would not come back for about another two and a half hours. I looked at where my window is situated and saw the curtains move, and at that moment I knew.