I was lying in bed one day when I got a call.
“Hello,” said the voice on the phone.
“Hi, who is this?” I asked.
“I’m Braelynn Baker, and I moved into 5555 Shifters St. a month ago. I saw your flier for overnight babysitting, and I was wondering if you were free on Saturday night and Sunday morning. I am going to go to another state for work, and we aren’t allowed to bring our kids," said Mrs.Baker.
I was initially skeptical because the address was the address to the old scary haunted and abandoned house but the lady seemed very nice.
“Yes, I am available on Saturday and Sunday. Who will I be babysitting?” I asked.
“You will be babysitting my 9-year-old. Her name is Hadley and she is mostly very nice, a bit talkative, and she doesn’t have any allergies. I’ll pay you an extra 2 dollars per hour and a $50 tip,” answered Mrs.Baker.
“Ok, it sounds good, see you then,” I said.
“Thank you, goodbye,” said Mrs.Baker.
I was wondering if I could cancel and say she was busy but she already accepted and I was getting paid a lot more than I usually do for overnight babysitting.
The night came when I had to babysit Hadley. My mom dropped me off at the address. The house looked scary and I was nervous about ringing the bell. I rang the bell and Hadley opened the door. She looked very happy and excited. She had brown hair and brown eyes. She immediately introduced herself to me.
“Hi, Elin! My name is Hadley Baker. I'm in 3rd grade and my favorite color is pink. The color reminds me of warm things and it's the color of very pretty things. Did you know that my room is also pi…,” she said as her mom interrupted her.
“Hadley let Elin come in and set her stuff down first,” said Mrs. Baker.
I walked into the house and smelt a weird smell. I set my stuff down by the couch.
“Hi, Elin I'm running a bit late so I have to be on my way in a bit. There is a phone book folder and it has phone numbers for basically everything in there and my phone number is on a note on the fridge. Hadley needs to be in bed by 10 and if you want you can watch TV and sleep in the guest bedroom right next to Hadley’s room she will give you a tour of the house. Food is in the fridge for both of you and lots of snacks are in the pantry. Hadley has been telling stories about this shape monster but they are not real so don’t let them get to you. Also, Hadley was very curious about going to the basement but there is a lock on it. The person who sold us the house said that they lost the key but it is still in the house don't go in there at night because there might be rusty nails and stuff but yes. Call me if you need anything,” Mrs. Baker said as she rushed out the door.
Hadley was very sweet and gave me a tour of the house and told me a lot about herself. She asked me a lot of things too. After the tour, it was about 7:15 and she said she was hungry and wanted to watch a movie while we ate. She decided on the movie while I was getting our food. She picked the movie ” and we watched it till it ended. We just talked afterward. It was about 9:30.
“Do you want to get ready for bed?” I asked
“Ok, that sounds good,” she answered.
She brushed her teeth and climbed into her bed. I sat down in the chair next to her bed and rolled it closer to her.
“ Elin? Can I tell you something,” she asked.
“Sure,” I said
“There is something weird in this house. I think it's kind of like a shapeshifter. The first day that I moved in, the shapeshifter shifted into me and said that she wanted to play with me in the basement. I told my mom but she didn’t believe me. I still hear her and feel her watching me sometimes,” she told me.
Mrs. Baker had already told me about this so I thought of positive things to say to her.
“Hadley moving to a new place is scary and I think you're seeing the shapeshifter because when I was your age I used to see the same things but as I got older they just stopped,” I told her reassuringly.
“Hopefully it will all just go away when I get older. Goodnight Elin!”
“Goodnight Hadley,” I told her as I turned off the light and walked out of the room.
I was tired but didn’t want to go to bed right away so I went downstairs to watch TV. I grabbed some snacks out of the pantry as I put on a movie. Halfway through the movie I got tired and was too lazy to go upstairs to sleep so I fell asleep on the couch.
In the middle of the night, I heard giggles. I got up quickly to see if Hadley was up. Giggles were coming from the basement.
“Hadley,” I said in a whisper-ish voice.
“ Are you in the basement?” I asked.
“Elin thank goodness you're here. I found the key to the basement but I left the key there and the door accidentally locked,” said Hadley through the basement door.
“Ok, where are the keys?” I asked.
“They are in the kitchen underneath the first floorboard that is cracked,” she told me.
“Ok,” I said as I was walking away to the kitchen. Hadley sounded a little weird but she was probably scared. I saw the cracked floorboard and lifted it surely enough the key was under it. It looked really old and dusty. I picked it up and dusted some of the dust off. I walked back to where their basement was and tried to unlock it. It didn’t work for the first few times because the lock was rusty but eventually, it opened. Hadley was sitting on the first step and she was playing on her iPad.
“Do you want to go back to bed now it's 3:39 AM?” I asked her.
“In a bit, I'm not very sleepy,” she told me.
“Can you play hide and seek with me?”
“Ok, but only one round because I am very sleepy,” I told her.
“Ok yay! But we can't go to my room," she said. It was a little weird that she said that but I didn't think of it too much.
“Ok, I'll hide first,” I told her.
While she was counting I ran and hid in the pantry and waited for her to find me. She opened the pantry door and found me.
“I found you,” she said excitedly.
“Good job,” I said
“Your turn to hide, and weren't you wearing something else before you went to bed” I asked.
“Ok count now,” she said, completely ignoring my question. I counted till 30 and then I turned around and tried to find her. I saw a light coming from the basement so I knew she was there. I decided to wait a bit before I went to find her, so I went to the kitchen to get water. I drank my water while wondering why she was acting awkward. I finished drinking my water and went to the basement and there she was a little farther down the stairs.
“I found you Hadley,” I said
“Ok I'm tired and I think I'm ready for bed now,” she said as she was walking up but while she was walking she dropped her iPad down the stairs. The iPad fell down the stairs. It was dark and you couldn’t see the bottom.
“Elin, can you get my iPad for me? I am really scared of the dark,” she asked me.
“Sure I said,” I said hesitantly. I was a little scared but I walked down the stairs slowly and was halfway there surrounded by the darkness when I realized I should have brought my phone for the flashlight. The stairs were squeaking as I walked down. I turned around to see Hadley walking out, shutting the door behind her. I walked down to get the iPad when I reached the bottom of the stairs. I was looking for the iPad when suddenly the ground beneath me fell. I fell through the basement and then hit the ground hard. I then realized that Hadley was never lying and that she never woke up.
