Liam and Maya were living with his parents while they were
looking for their own apartment, they were looking to spend
no more than five-hundred pounds a month. After a few
months looking, Liam’s mom told them about a place fifteen
minutes away from them, so they decided to make an
appointment to go and take a look. The next day Liam and
Maya went to their appointment, the agent showed them
around and they both really liked the look of it, it was all
modern, the best one they had seen.
‘’How much a month is the rent’’ Liam asked.
‘’Now I expect questions after I tell you, so feel free to ask.
The rent will be two hundred a month’’ the agent replied.
‘’Wow two hundred?
Why so cheap?’’ asked Maya.
‘’The owner of this two-bed apartment wanted to make it
affordable for young couples like yourselves, so you could
save or start a family’’ the agent said.
‘’In that case we will take it’’ Liam said.
So, they went back to his parents and told them they had just
signed and got the keys. For the next four days Liam and
Maya were busy moving their stuff in the apartment, Liam’s
parents helped them get furniture like sofas and beds.
A few weeks later Maya found out she was pregnant, and
they were over the moon. When Liam was at work Maya
started turning the second bedroom into a nursery. They
didn’t want to know the sex of their baby, so they painted
the room in natural colours, Maya started putting accessories
in the room, she put teddy’s, a white cot, rocking chair and
pictures.
Eight months went by, and Maya would be due to give birth
soon, when she would be home alone, she would start
hearing strange noises, it would start with scratching noises.
She told Liam what she was hearing but he put it down her
hormones and not sleeping well at night times.
Three weeks later Maya had given birth to a healthy baby
boy. When their son was two months old strange things
started to happen. Maya and Liam would stop going out with
friends, they would stop seeing family and they would also
stay in the apartment they wouldn’t want to leave.
The air in the apartment was thick with the silent
accumulation of shared anxieties. Liam sat on the sofa, the
glowing screen of his tablet casting a pale, cold light on his
face. Next to him, Maya was a tense knot of stillness, her
eyes fixed on the empty kitchen entrance. Since the baby
came home, they had been a monument to exhaustion and
worry. Every creek, every muffled sound from the nursery,
was a signal of some new, unfathomable demand, but for the
past hour there had been nothing.
‘’He’s quiet’’ Maya whispered, her voice barely audible.
Liam nodded, his thumb hovering over the screen. He was
looking at the new app they downloaded. It was called the
sleep monitor for babies. The app promised to track their
baby’s patterns and crucially, to use the tablets internal
microphone to alert them of any sounds. The graph on the
screen showed a flat, unbroken line. An hour of perfect
silence.
‘’He’s sleeping’’ Liam said, trying to convince himself as much
as her.
The silence wasn’t restful. It was a vacuum, pulling all other
noise into itself. The city outside, usually a cacophony of
sirens and distant traffic was mute. The gentle hum of the
refrigerator had vanished. It felt less like a quiet apartment
and more like the world had gone deaf, leaving them in a
private, suffocating void.
Maya stood up, her movement slow and deliberate, as if she
were walking through water.
‘’I’m just going to check on him’’ she said.
But it was a promise she broke by simply standing there,
starring at the empty doorway. Liam walked over to her,
neither of them wanted to move any further, they were
frozen by the unspoken question: What if the silence is a
trick?
The app on the tablet, designed to bring them peace of mind
was now the source of a new terror. The flatline was less a
sign of deep sleep and more like a flatline on a heart monitor.
‘’Maybe the microphone isn’t working’’ Liam said, his voice
sounding hollow and alien in the dead air.
Maya took a step towards the kitchen but stopped again. ‘’I
just heard something’’ she said.
‘’What was it? A whisper?’’ he asked
Liam’s eyes darted to the screen, the flatline remained
motionless.
‘’The microphone didn’t pick it up’’ he said.
‘’No’’ she insisted, turning to face him, her eyes wide with
fear. ‘’It wasn’t from the nursery; it was from the tablet.’’
He stared at the screen and the thought of something coming
from the tablet sent a cold spike in his gut. The silence was
not a lack of sound, it was the presence of an absolute, total
stillness and something else was listening within it.
The flat, empty graph on the screen began to flicker, a thin,
jagged line appeared, like a pulse. It was a single word
written in what looked like a shaky, frantic script, appearing
in a dark corner of the monitor. ‘’Still.’’
Liam fumbled to turn off the tablet, but his fingers, slick with
sweat, only managed to tap the screen. Another line of text
appeared, a confirmation from the app.
‘’The baby is still.’’
He looked up at Maya, the horror in his eyes reflected in
hers. They heard a faint, tiny rustle of what sounded like dry,
papery wings coming from the hallway. And with it a new
sound, a sound that cut through the manufactured silence
and landed right in the centre of their fear: a gentle, rhythmic
tapping.
Click. Click. Click.
Was the next thing they heard.
Where did this message come from?
How did it appear on the monitor?
Liam and May had so many questions going through their
minds, but not one of them checked on their son. They would
get close to the nursery, but they would constantly freeze on
the same spot every time. They went back and sat on the
sofa.
‘’What’s going on’’ Maya said.
‘’I don’t know what’s happening’’ Liam replied.
They sat in silence, starring at the monitor, now and then
glancing at each other. They would hear more rustling,
scratching and clicking noises, it seemed to be getting closer
and louder.
Suddenly, they heard a whisper ‘’Baby still, Baby gone.’’
Weeks went by and no one had heard from Maya and Liam;
family and friends would try to call and send them messages
but there was never a reply. Liam’s parents started to get
concerned as this was out of character for them both, and
they decided to call the police and ask them to do a welfare
check.
When the two police officers arrived at their apartment they
knocked on the door but there was no answer. When the two
officers were waiting at the door for an answer, there was
another whisper. The police officers were about to walk away
when they heard Maya scream, ‘’GO AWAY, GO AWAY.’’
The officers were concerned so they kicked down the door.
When they got inside the stench of death and faeces made
them feel nausea and radioed for back up.
As they entered the living room, they saw Liam sitting in a
corner rocking back and forth, Maya was sat on the sofa on
the sofa. Her eyes wide open, starring at the baby monitor.
‘’Maya, Liam my name is PC Bumble, I’m a police officer’’ he
said calmly.
In sync they both looked up at PC Bumble and said, ‘’Please
can you go and check on our son in the nursery.’’
PC Bumble walked down the hall, and the smell was getting
worse the closer he got to the nursery. He slowly opened the
nursery door, and that’s when he saw the decaying body of
their son still in the cot. As he rushed out of the room DCI
Bradford arrived and PC Bumble told him what he had found.
DCI Bradford told Bumble to go outside and ring for two
ambulances and Bradford rang the forensic team.
The ambulances arrived to take Liam and Maya to the
hospital to check them over and check their mental health.
They both looked withdrawn, eyes sunk in and they also
looked underweight.
When Maya was in the back of the ambulance she heard a
whisper again, ‘’Baby dead, your to blame, you couldn’t
protect your baby’’
Maya started screaming, kicking her arms and legs all over
the place, the paramedics had to sedate her. Both Maya and
Liam were put on the psychiatric ward.
The police and forensics collected all the evidence, and the
baby’s body was taken for an autopsy. While the autopsy was
being done DCI Bradford started questioning Liam and Maya’s
family and friends. Monday morning at 9am Liam’s
parents, David and Dana arrived at the police station.
‘’David, Dana, my name is DCI Bradford we spoke on the
phone could you both follow me please’’ he said.
Bradford took them into the interview room.
‘’Can I get you both a drink before we start’’ he asked.
‘’No thank you’’ replied Dana.
‘’Tell me about Liam, what is he like as a person’’
‘’Liam is the most caring, kind, loving person you could ever
meet, growing up he always wanted to help anyone he came
across. He was, is a good boy, he wouldn’t hurt anyone,
especially his own son’’ David said.
‘’What about Maya, what can you tell me about her’’
Bradford asked.
‘’Maya was shy and very quiet when Liam introduced us to
her, but once she got to know us, she opened up, especially
to me when we would go for coffee’’ Dana replied.
‘’In what way did she open up to you.’’
‘’Well, she told me she didn’t have a great start to life, her
parents passed away when Maya was only two years old.
Maya was put in the care of her grandparents. One thing I did
find strange Maya wouldn’t talk about them, the most she
ever said was they wasn’t very nice, and she would always
get punished, Maya’s friend Jessie might know more on that
situation’’ Dana told the detectives.
‘’Ok, and what was Liam and Maya’s relationship like? Was
there any arguments or disagreements your aware of?’’ DCI
Bradford asked.
‘’They were made for each other, just by looking at them you
could see how much they loved each other. They never
argued once, they would do anything for one another. We let
them live with us so they could save money for their own
place’’ David explained.
‘’How did they take the news when Maya fell pregnant’’
Bradford asked.
‘’Over the money, they were excited’’ Dana said.
‘’Thank you, that’s all the questions we have at this time’’ DCI
Bradford said.
DCI Bradford couldn’t make any sense of it. According to
Liam’s parents they were a happy, loving couple. A few hours
later, Jessie a close friend of Maya’s came in for a interview,
and she too told Bradford how much of an amazing couple
they were, Jessie went into more details of Maya’s childhood
and how her grandparents would abuse her from the age of
three to sixteen.
‘’Do you know the extent of the abuse Maya suffered’’ asked
DCI Bradford.
‘’Yes, when Maya turned sixteen, she asked, well more like
begged if she could come live with me, when I asked her why,
she broke down in tears and that’s when she told me about
the sexual abuse and the beatings. She also told me how they
would lock her inside a cupboard for hours and sometimes
even for the whole night’’ Jessie told them.
‘’Did Maya suffer any mental illness?’’
‘’Not that I am aware of, after everything she went through,
she was always happy’’ Jessie said.
The detectives were now told that he could go and speak
with Liam and Maya. They both asked tor their baby boy, it
was like they didn’t know what happened, Bradford told
them both their son was no longer with them. When
Bradford started talking to them it was like they were two
different people compared to when they first saw them.
Their eyes were no longer sunk in, they were clean, and they
sounded how people described them, when they got asked
what happened both Liam and Maya told the detectives the
same thing. They told the detectives everything started to fall
apart when they moved into the apartment, and it got worse
when their son turned two months old. They explained at
first, they could hear scratching noises, then the baby was
getting more unsettled day and night, then the whispers
started and writing on the baby monitor.
‘’Are you telling me that there is paranormal going on in the
apartment and that’s what killed your baby’’ DCI Bradford
said.
‘’Yes, because I know me and Liam would never hurt our
son’’ replied Maya.
The detectives ended the interview with them and the doctor
informed Bradford that Liam and Maya would not be fit to
stand trial. A few months went by past, and Liam stuck to
their story of what happened. The autopsy showed that the
baby boy had been suffocated and along side the evidence,
everything pointed that Liam and Maya were guilty, as they
were not fit for trial they were sentenced to life in a
psychiatric hospital.
A year went by, and another couple moved into the same
apartment not knowing what happened previously. Scott and
Louise were expecting their first child. Louise was eight
months pregnant. A few weeks later after they settled in and
decorated the nursery pink, she gave birth to a healthy baby
girl. When the baby turned two months old, Scott and Louise
started noticing strange noises. It would start with scratching
then clicking noises, they put it down to their imagination
due to lack of sleep. Then they would notice their baby girl
started to get unsettled day and night.
One night when Scott and Louise were sleeping, they heard a
whisper, ‘’Baby Still’’. They jumped up, looked at each other
and rushed to check on their daughter, but she was fast
asleep. The noises and whispers were getting worse; they
wouldn’t leave their apartment as they had no where to go.
Saturday night Scott and Louise heard the whisper ‘’Baby still,
Baby gone.’’
Scott and Louise were experiencing the exact same thing just
like Liam and Maya did. Family members started to get
worried it had been over three months since anyone heard
from them, and just like Laim and Maya, family members
rang the police to do a welfare check. Two police officers
arrived at the apartment and knocked on the door, there was
no answer, they were about to walk away when they heard a
blood curdling scream. The two officers kicked the door
down and when they entered, they saw Scott and Louise sat
opposite each other. They had cuts all over their arms and
they both kept saying ‘’Leave our baby alone, Leave our baby
alone.’’
DCI Bradford was put on the case as he had already had a
similar case the previous year, when he arrived at the
apartment, two ambulances arrived and took Scott and
Louise to the hospital and bandaged up their wounds.
DCI Bradford couldn’t believe what he was seeing, it was a
case of DeJa’Vu, while the autopsy was being done on the
baby girl, DCI Bradford started interviewing family and
friends of Scott and Louise, and they all said the same thing,
that Scott and Louise were lovely, kind, amazing people, and
they were excited when they found out their were expecting
a baby girl.
Two days later Bradford was told he could go and interview
Louise and Scott. He questioned them, and Scott and Louise
described how for weeks they would hear scratching and
clicking noises, then the whispers started, they told Bradford.
After the interview doctors told him they weren’t fit for trial
and again just like Maya and Liam the autopsy and evidence
were against them. Louise and Scott were sentenced to life in
a psychiatric hospital.
Even though the case was closed, there was something about
the two cases that DCI Bradford couldn’t shake the feeling that there
was more to it. So, on his days off with permission
from his boss he started looking into what both couples went
through, he went through their statements and their friends
and family’s statements again and the evidence. Bradford
also made an appointment to go and see Laim and Maya and
they told him what they said before, their story didn’t
change.
Bradford wanted to investigate any past convictions with
similar cases. He found fifteen cases, all the same and all took
place in the apartment. His next step was to see what he
could find out about the apartment and any previous
tenants.
Bradford found out everything about the apartment setting
back to 1961, when a young married couple expecting their
first baby when they moved in. Their names were Greg and
Kayla, they were both twenty-three years old, Greg worked
as a machinic and Kayla was working part time in a café
called Sunny Side Up, she was working until she was eight
months pregnant.
Greg convinced her to give up work and become a full-time
mom, as he was earning enough money for them to pay the
rent and still have nice things. Kayla told him that she would
need a few days to think about it. After a few days thinking it
over she agreed. When Greg was at work Kayla was getting
the nursery ready, she painted the walls pink, she got a white
cot, rocking chair, teddies and pictures and a mint rug, it was
looking amazing. Six weeks later Kayla went into labour, she
grabbed her phone and rang Greg, he rushed home and took
her to the hospital, two hours later she gave birth to a
healthy baby girl. Greg and Kayla were so happy, Kayla and
the baby had to stay in hospital for the night. Friday
afternoon they got discharged and Greg went to pick them
up.
A few weeks later they named their baby girl Bonnie. When
Bonnie was three months old Kayla started to change, at first,
she would start by telling Greg how useless he was, then she
would start pushing him and slapping him up the head. She
would knock his self esteem making him really think he
wasn’t good enough for her and every day she made him sit
in the corner of the room. Kayla would also get a knife and
start scratching the walls, then she would start cutting her
arms and telling Greg it was all his fault that and he made her
do it. Greg couldn’t understand why she was doing this, he
couldn’t understand why she had changed.
At first Kayla was only physical and mentally abusive towards
him. Then one morning Bonnie wouldn’t stop crying, so Kayla
started shouting at her, telling her to be quiet. She then
started leaving Bonnie in her cot crying for hours. Greg tried
to intervene and help calm his daughter but when he did
Kayla would shout and pus him into the corner and that
when she would take the abuse further. At this time Greg
had become so weak and withdrawn, he lost his job as he
wasn’t aloud to leave the apartment and while he was sat in
the corner she would go over to him and start kicking,
punching and even using the broom to hit him with, he would
be covered in bruises and deep cuts.
This would carry on for weeks. One Saturday morning things
in the apartment would change dramatically, Kayla hadn’t
slept that night, she went into the nursery, picked up a
blanket and smothered Bonnie. Greg was in the living room,
ha had been sat in the corner rocking all night, when he
heard Kayla whispering ‘’Baby still, Baby gone’’ as he looked
up, she was standing over him waving a knife in his face. She
started stabbing him repeatedly while laughing, she then
went and sat over on the sofa watching tv as if nothing
happened. Four hours past when she then turned the knife
on herself and she slit her wrists.
The bodies were discovered six weeks later. Bradford started
to think that the apartment was haunted by the evil spirit of
Kayla. He knew he had to tell someone about this as innocent
people were serving life in a psychiatric hospital for crimes
they didn’t commit, and poor little babies were losing their
lives. Bradford started looking into the paranormal and trying
to find experience people to investigate the apartment.
He found two ladies that had ten years’ experience in getting
answers from the dead and get rid of evil that won’t leave
premises. Bradford got the number for Josie and Jenna and
rang them up to see if they could help, he explained the
situation and they agreed to meet them on Saturday morning
at 10am.
Thursday morning when Bradford went into work and went
to speak with his boss and told him what he had found out
and he told him they made a mistake, and they have locked
up innocent people. His boss said he must collect as much
evidence as he could, and he would need to get it on tape.
Even though he noticed his boss being very sceptical he also
believed there was more to these cases.
Saturday morning Bradford went to meet Martha and Angie
at the apartment. They were sat in their car waiting for
Bradford. Bradford parked his car behind them; he got out
and tapped on their window.
‘’Martha, Angie, I’m Bradford I was the one that contacted
you’’ he said.
‘’Nice to meet you’’ Martha replied.
The ladies stepped out the car and Angie went to the back
and grabbed a bag out of the boot.
‘’Please show us the apartment, and we can get started’’
Martha said.
‘’Please follow me’’ he replied.
Bradford showed Martha and Angie the apartment and as
soon as they walked in Angie could sense heaviness and evil.
Angie then opened her bag up and took out a EMF meter.
‘’ Can you tell me what you know of the apartment’’ Angie
asked.
‘’Not much, there have been some strange cases that have
involved this place, where parents have lost their minds and
their children have all passed away’’ he explained.
‘’When I stepped in here I could feel the heaviness and the
evil that is here’’ Angie told him.
‘’We will use our equipment which will include EMF Meters,
EVP Recorders, infrared and thermal cameras, spirit box,
motion detector and vibration sensors and a digital camera’’
Martha told him.
‘’Is there anything you need me to do’’ he said.
‘’We would like to ask you, if possible, stay as quiet as you
can while we do our investigation’’ Martha said.
Bradford stayed quiet while Martha and Angie moved room
to room with the EMF. While Angie was using the EMF,
Martha was taking pictures, to see if anything would show
up. They then went into the nursery and the heaviness got
worse, they both could feel how thick the air was, it was hard
to breath.
‘’This is the room’’ Angie said.
They set the cameras up, put motion sensors down. They
wanted to see what they could capture before using the
spirit box. They all went back to the living room and set up
their laptops that the cameras were connected to and they
sat and watched to see if anything would be picked up.
An hour went past and there was nothing happening. They
had been at the apartment for six hours. Bradford didn’t
want to give up he could feel it in his bones there was
something here. At 6pm it started to get dark when they
heard scratching noises, they turned to the cameras, and
they saw a lady in the corner of the nursery. For three days
they collected all the evidence Martha and Angie collected
and gave it all to DCI Bradford.
Bradford took all the photo, video and voice recordings home
with him. He sat down and went through it all, the photo’s
captured orbs, figures of the lady and babies in the cot. He
went through the videos and saw items moving, he could also
hear scratching, he did hear some whispers, but he couldn’t
make it on the video, so he went to get his hear phones and
got the voice recordings and started listening to them. He
was shocked he heard a voice on the recording, and it said,
‘’Baby gone, baby still’’ ‘’It’s your fault’’ ‘’Baby must die’’
‘’Hahaha.’’ Bradford was horrified.
The next day he took it all the evidence to his boss and when
he went through it all he knew the families were all innocent.
He went to talk to a judge and showed them the evidence,
the judge believed in the paranormal and he told Bradford to
arrest the owner of the apartment as he was responsible for
the outcome of what was going on in the apartment. While
they went out to arrest the person who rented the
apartment out the judge got every single person that was
charged of the death of their baby, that lived in the
apartment in court and told them ‘’we have enough evidence
you didn’t commit the crimes you are charged with’’
They all received one hundred thousand pounds each in
compensation and was all free to try and carry on with there
lives. The judge also gave them access to any help and
support they needed.
