The baby was born in May. I was happier than I have ever been in my life. My little family was complete. I was a mother and wife just as I had always dreamed. I thought it was a happily ever after dream come true. I could not have been more wrong.
I decorated the nursery with little hearts. The colors were pastel green and blue. The Nursery was the room that drew me to the blue house. It seemed so bright and welcoming. The odd thing was, that when you actually went into the room, it became dark. I don’t mean it felt dark, and mean it turned dark. It was bright and open looking into the room, but once you were inside, the light was not present.
The baby was about 2 weeks old when something strange happened. The kids were in their beds, and my husband and I were in the living room together watching television. We were quietly chatting when we hear music from one of the babies toys begin to play from the nursery. I wasn’t alarmed by this. Most toys for infants are made to go off by touch. The baby was asleep in her bed, so I assumed she had bumped it.
I got up from the coach and made my way down the dark hallway. I quietly tiptoed into the room and over to the baby bed on the opposite wall next to the window. I reached down into her crib to turn off the lullaby toy but, stopped realizing the music was not coming from her bed.
My eyes dart around the room in search of the toy that’s playing the music. I didn’t want her to wake up. My eyes stop on the baby’s swing that is illuminated by the nightlight near the closet. The music is coming from it, and the chair is swinging.
If I had been smart I would have run right then. However, I am bull-headed. I was a bit confused and surprised but I figured the cat had bumped the swing causing it to rock. However, this swing had to be switched on. I figured my husband had turned it on, or maybe my youngest son had been playing with it. I pushed out of my mind the fact that it had just been turned on and no one had been in the room except for the baby.
I calmly walked over to the swing and located the off button and clicked it to the off position. The music stopped. I tiptoed back out of the room pulling the door, but leaving it open about an inch. I returned to my post on the couch and resumed watching television.
It was not even 10 minutes before I hear the swing begin to play again. I tell my husband about the swing and the fact that I had shut it off before leaving the room. We hear a soft knock come from the babies room, and urgent barking from our dog Shadow can be heard from our backyard. This was more than, “hey mom and dad, we have a guest” bark, This was “Hey mom and dad, you’re in danger!” bark. She was only pausing to growl. We are officially spooked. My husband heads toward the nursery to investigate. I head for the boys’ room to stand guard over them while he searches.
I waited in the dark bedroom with my boys who slept safely in their beds. The music stops, but Shadow is going bananas! My breathing quickens. My mind is going to the worst case scenario. There is an intruder. That must be why the dog is going nuts, I think.
“Babe?” I whisper into the darkness, but there is no response. “Babe, are you okay? What’s happening?”
This laugh was a “ha! ha! I am a twisted fuck in the dark with you.” kind of laugh
A menacing laugh pierces the inky darkness around me. This laugh was not a ha! ha! Laughing with me, or a ha! ha! I pranked you. This laugh was a ha ha I am a twisted fuck in the dark with you, kind of laugh. I chill travels up my spine and It felt like everything around me when into slow motion. A pulsing sensation of static electricity starts vibrating my body, and my stomach lurches as if being dropped off a roller coaster. The waves kept pulsing dropping me with each pulse, as the room’s temperature plummeted.
“Babe is that you? Please answer me.” I whimper desperately. I never saw anyone, but it felt as if there was someone or something in that room with us. I sensed it was circling me like I was prey. I stood my ground with my boys sleeping just feet away from me.
“Shit!” My husband barks, stumbling into sight. “Damnit mache! Why did you leave the fucking tricycle out in the hallway? I stubbed my toe on it” He tells me.
“I didn’t leave it out in the hallway” I stutter in response. The waves stop, and the room begins to warm again.
“Oh,” He says turning to walk back to the living room with me following close at his heels. “I guess the boys did then. Can you just be sure to pick up better after the boys please?”
“What happened?” I asked him. “What made her swing go off again?”
“You must not have turned it off all the way,” he responded massaging his stubbed toe. “I checked the house and outside. No one is here honey.”
“B…b-ut the dog and…” I said looking toward the nursery confused. “I see. Your right.” I slowly sat down on the couch lost in thought. “I guess I didn’t turn it off all the way.”
A few minutes later the eerie tinkle of the swing’s lullaby drifted out of the babies room. The dog was losing her mind. A loud bang from the nursery makes us both jump startled. We look at each other with eyes wide.
“What the fuck?” my husband says with the sound of terror creeping into his voice.
I quickly jump up and walk briskly down the dark hallway toward the babies room. “There is something wrong with this damn swing. I am taking the batteries out” The baby begins to wail.
Rushing into the nursery, I threw open the door and flipped the light on. The baby swing is rocking violently back and forth. I am not going to be intimidated I think. I march over to the swing and grab the baby seat, stopping the rocking. I located the batteries and removed them from the baby swing.
I didn’t return the baby to her bed that night, nor ever again in the blue house. She slept with my husband I, or in the boys’ room. The nursery became a graveyard for all the toys that would play on their own. Some even did so after removing the batteries. I found some explanation that made no sense, but it comforted me.
I never told my husband that I had put the tricycle up in the boys closet that he tripped on in the hallway. There was no way that it had been left out. How it got into that hallway is a mystery.
Oracle's Closet 