Sister's Baby

My sister and her husband were trying to keep up their social life. They were attending a friend’s wedding in the city and asked me to watch their seven month old baby, Sebastian, at their house for the evening.

I didn’t like going to their house. The area was too rural for my taste. It was the kind of area where people from the city drove out to dispose of dead bodies. I agreed to it anyway. I figured it would be nice to do my sister a favor. They even offered to pay me.

When I showed up, I remember being bothered by the state of the old house. It seemed to be rotting in several places, and the smell of the old musty wood made me gag. I was convinced the place was infested, too. Later, in the bathroom, I saw a type of bug that I had never seen before. It had a long black body with red stripes. It was near the faucet. Soon after I saw it, the thing disappeared behind the sink.

My sister left explicit instructions which I followed exactly as stated. I put Sebastian to bed. He was very calm for a baby. I noticed he was growing hair on his head already, red like his mother’s.

I set up in the living room with the baby monitor on the end table and some football highlights on the TV. It wasn’t long before I dozed off.

“Nick…” I woke up to the sound of my name. But who said it?

I looked around. Nobody was there. I checked on the baby. He was fast asleep.

It must have been something in my dream, I thought. But the voice was so clear. It was a man’s voice, similar to my grandfather’s.

I shivered. My mother, rest in peace, had gone through a phase where she heard voices in her final months. I hoped that this wasn’t the beginning of some genetic mental illness.

Despite my nerves, I was able to calm down enough to go to bed and fall asleep.

My dream felt so real. I was at a king’s feast. Which king? I don’t know. But there was so much food laid out, and all I did was eat. I felt infinite hunger as I stuffed my face, scarfing down sliced beef, tearing the meat from a turkey leg, even crunching on the cartilage.

“Nick…” I shot awake again. The voice seemed even more clear than the last time.

“Who’s there?” I yelled.

“You have such a lovely mind, Nick.” The voice whispered. It sounded like it was right next to my ear.

I looked around in panic. Still, nobody was around.

The voice continued. “I’m thinking we are going to live quite happily together.”

Something strange was happening. I felt a jolt of concern. I needed to check on the baby.

“Don’t bother checking on the child,” the voice insisted. "You won't like what you find..."

I ignored it.

When I got to the baby’s room. The crib was empty. I felt a heavy sensation in the pit of my stomach. It was intense.

That’s when I realized there was a hair on my tongue. I pulled it off and held it up to the light. It was a fine red strand of hair. Oh dear god…

“He was delicious,” the voice said. “We enjoyed biting into him and crunching on his bones.”

“What have I done?”

“You’ve fed us,” the voice went on. “We’ve been wanting to feast on the child for months. But we are a mere insect, much too small for such a large meal.”

I fell to the floor where I gagged and sobbed at the same time.

“We have made a home in your brain. The other brains were not as easily controlled as yours. You take our suggestions so well. As we crawled over your pleasure receptors, we were able to enjoy eating the child as much as if we had done it ourselves. Thank you, Nick. Thank you for coming here. We might have never found a strong host were it not for you…”