Short Scary Stories

Baby Monitor

This one might be a little better than the last few I have written. It is NOT edited yet, but I really hope there aren't mistakes in it. I can relate to the plot, so it kind of scared me to write this. The picture is the one I actually have for when I babysit. And when I decide to do some cheap ghost hunting. 😂 👻
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Lacey went up the stairs with the baby of her clients. The baby was one-year-old girl with dark hair and bright eyes. To be honest, Lacey wasn't so joyful to be babysitting for this family. The house gave her a bad feeling, and a chill went up her spine every time she looked at the stairs, past the corner of the hallway to the baby's room.
It wasn't a normal house, to say the least. The inside was a little old, but it looked like someone tried to fix it up as to not scare away people. It wasn't fooling her. She tried to stay out of the nursery, but it was where baby Carmen slept. When she would go in there, she felt something was wrong.
The stairs creaked beneath her feet as she walked upstairs, Carmen on her hip. It was getting late, and it was raining hard. Carmen's parents shouldn't have gone out in the rain, but they had to. The mother's father had a heart attack and was in the hospital. They'd be gone for a couple of days, leaving Lacey with the baby all alone in the house.
She had been working for them for nine months, mostly working on the weekends. The parents had no family other than the grandfather living close by, so they had to leave Carmen with her, since they needed to leave as soon as possible. Lacey was going to lie and say she was sick, but they were so desperate. She had reluctantly agreed, packed an overnight bag, and headed to the dreadful house.
Once Lacey got to Carmen's room, she felt like she was being suffocated in the thick air. She thought it was just her, because Carmen didn't seem to be bothered. She changed Carmen into a pair of footy-pajamas and laid her down in her crib. She gave her the fuzzy blanket she couldn't sleep without, turned on the baby monitor, then turned off the light and left the room.
She went downstairs to watch TV on the couch, making sure that the handheld baby monitor was on and working fine. The light was on, signaling that it was fully charged, so she placed it on the coffee table where she could see it, and laid down on the couch.
After awhile, she began to feel sleepy, and there was nothing interesting on TV. She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. The couch wasn't comfortable, and the parents told her she could sleep in the guest bedroom, but she didn't want to go up there unless she had to.
As she was falling asleep, she heard the baby monitor crackling with static. She thought the range was too far, but she'd used it before in the same place and hadn't had any problems, so she picked it up and turned the volume all the way up. There was no crying, no whining, no noises except for static. She dismissed it and threw it on the couch beside her, hoping to get some sleep.

A loud noise woke Lacey, and she looked up at the ticking clock on the wall. It was past midnight. The rain no longer pelted on the roof, and she figured it must've passed. The sound was coming from her side. The baby monitor was going off again, and she was tempted to throw it at the wall in frustration.
"Goddamn thing," she muttered.
There was nothing but static, but as she put it to her ear, she could hear something faint. She thought it was Carmen crying, but that wasn't it. It sounded like someone was saying something, but the baby couldn't even walk yet, let alone talk.
"Check--" the word came from the device, frightening Lacey.
She kept listening for something, but nothing other than "Check" came out. She turned it down and placed it on the table, believing it was just a glitch in the system. That moment, the phone rang, startling her nearly to death. She ran to the kitchen and answered it.
"Hello?" She asked.
"Lacey, it's Mrs. Peters, it's Carmen all right?" She asked.
"Yes, she's fast asleep. How's your father?" She asked as she absentmindedly held a random toy that was on the high chair by the counter.
"He's hanging in there," she sighed.
"Good. I was wondering, do you have another baby monitor I can use? The one I'm using is staticky. It's charged and in range, but it's not working properly," she said.
"No, we don't have another one. We might have to get another one when we get into town in a couple of days. Carmen should be fine, though. I wouldn't worry too much," she said.
"Okay. Bye."
Lacey hung up the phone and put it down. Just as she was going back to the living room, a loud sound came from the monitor once again. She grabbed it and turned up the volume again. This time, her hair stood up on end.
"Check--the--" she heard through the gaps of static.
She wanted it to not finish the sentence, but she was wondering what it was going to say. Check the what? This was not a glitch. This was something out of the ordinary. She gripped it in her sweaty hands and listened carefully.
"Baby," it said.
The static sound disappeared, and she could hear properly again. It was quiet for a second, no sound was heard. But then she heard it crystal clear.
"Check the baby!" A low, demon-like tone came from the device.
In a state of shock, she dropped the monitor on the ground and scrambled up the stairs to the nursery. When she got to the nursery, she opened the door and turned on the light. She didn't look at anything, she just rushed to the crib and peered inside. It was empty, and the only thing left in it was the blanket.
Thinking something horrible had happened, she went into a state of utter panic. Then she heard a giggle come from behind her. She turned on her heel, and saw that Carmen was sitting on the floor, playing with her toys. There was no way she could have gotten out by herself. The mattress in the crib was very low, and it would be near impossible for her to climb out.
"Carmen!" Lacey exclaimed, bending down to her level. "What happened to you?"
Carmen just rubbed her eyes sleepily, and despite her worry and fright, Lacey picked her up and laid her down in the crib. She left the room in a hurry, making sure to turn off the light. She bounded down the stairs and went back to her spot on the couch. The baby monitor lay at her feet, and she picked it up and glared at it.
"What the hell is this?" She groaned.
The small device was silent. There were only the indicator lights on, showing it was on and working. She threw it on the coffee table and laid back down. She was scared of what was lurking in the house. Whatever it was wasn't human. There were no intruders, and if there even was one, Carmen would've been taken, not deposited on the floor.
It made no sense.
The monitor lit up and and blasted with noise. It screeched as Lacey shot up, grabbing the blaring, annoying thing. She listened carefully and tried to decipher anything unusual.
"Stairs," a voice said.
Lacey looked up at the staircase, but nothing was there. Angry, she stomped up the stairs and went into the nursery. When she went inside, Carmen was sitting in the rocking chair, her blanket clutched to her chest. Lacey went over to her and proceeded to pick her up. Carmen looked behind her with wide eyes and pointed. Lacey was scared out of her wits as she turned around slowly. There was a black mass standing in the doorway. It had no shape, no face, no body. It just floated there. Lacey grabbed Carmen as she shook.
"Baby!" The same dark voice said again, but this time, it was coming from the black mass.
The mass came closer and closer, and Lacey tried to make a run for the door, but it slammed and locked before she could reach it. She tried to fumble with the lock, but she felt something sharp in her back, like a knife. When she reached behind her to feel what cut her, there was nothing there.
She felt like she was being suffocated, and Carmen began to cry. A loud, demonic voice filled the room, surrounding them. Finally, she got the door open and ran downstairs. She grabbed her backpack and Carmen's diaper bag, running out of the house. She didn't know where she'd go, but she didn't care. She had to get out of there.
The only sound left in the house was the screeching and demonic laughing coming from the baby monitor that lay on the floor.