I had recently picked up babysitting as a side job since I was saving up to buy a new
camera.
My mom brought it up to one of her friends, and they decided to hire me for a weekend.
They were going out of town for a wedding, so I was supposed to watch their son from
Friday to Sunday.
When I arrived at the house, I couldn’t help but notice how it looked like a normal
suburban home
It surprised me, because they were paying me a lot of money to watch him only for a
weekend.
The kid’s mother opened the door and welcomed me inside.
She seemed like a lovely woman.
Somehow the smile lines around her eyes made her seem so friendly, and she had no grey
hairs in sight.
After we chatted for a bit, she took me upstairs to meet the kid I was gonna be watching.
Whenever I first met Evan, he seemed like a completely normal kid.
His mom told me he had no special allergies or anything, and I just needed to make sure
he was safe and fed 3 times a day, which was no problem for me.
After his mom left, Evan begged me to play hide and seek.
Although his house wasn’t gigantic like I expected, I still noted some good hiding
spots when I first walked in.
As soon as I agreed, he began counting down from 20.
I rushed down the stairs, and made my way into the guest bedroom- where I was meant
to sleep for the night.
The door was opened beforehand, so I just hid behind it.
Granted, it wasn’t the best hiding spot, but Evan was only 5 so I didn’t wanna hide
somewhere that would take him forever to find.
Once he finished counting, I heard his soft footsteps make his way to the first floor.
I put my hand over my mouth to muffle my breathing when he began to approach the guest room.
He walked in, but didn’t automatically find me.
Instead, he went towards the closet.
At this point he wasn’t facing me so I peeked my head out from behind the door to see what
he was doing.
Evan opened the closet, and stared into it for a bit.
Then he started to talk, and it wasn't like he was calling for me to come out.
It was like he was actually having a conversation with someone in there.
The possibility of an intruder being in there crossed my mind, but I never heard anyone
reply whenever he spoke.
Just to be sure, I jumped out of my hiding spot and surprised him.
Evan giggled, then I discreetly ushered him out the room and shut the door behind us.
I told him we should take a break for a bit, then put a kids show on the TV as I went to
the house phone and dialed his mom.
I explained the situation to her, but she just dismissed it.
“Oh honey, don’t worry about it.
Evan just has an imaginary friend named Madeline.
He rarely interacts with other kids since he’s homeschooled, so it’s totally normal.”
We both laughed it off, then I hung up.
When I looked back into the living room, Evan wasn’t there anymore.
I smiled to myself, he probably thought we were still playing hide and seek, so I went
back around the house calling out for him.
I noticed the guest room was open now, so I quietly pushed the door open and tried to
scare him by screaming ‘boo!’.
There was no response.
I was about to walk farther in to check for where he was, but a voice from behind me made
me jump.
“I'm right here!”
Evan giggled.
“I was upstairs!
Didn’t you hear me?
I ran upstairs right after you left!”
At first, I laughed along with him.
But then it started to fade out as I realized something.
If he was upstairs, then who opened the guest room door?
I disregarded it, I probably just left it open when we left the room.
Afterwards, we played with some of his toys for a bit, then I tucked him into bed.
I put on a movie in the living room and sat there before heading to sleep myself.
But I couldn’t help but hear something.
Grabbing the remote, I turned down the TV volume.
It sounded sort of like… a kid giggling?
I went back upstairs and put my ear against Evan’s room door.
It sounded like he was talking to someone again.
Remembering what his mom told me, I knew it was probably Madeline.
I knocked on the door softly, and asked if I could home in.
He opened it for me, and of course there was no one in there.
I told him to go back to bed, but he gripped onto the bottom of my shirt and begged for
us to play one more round of hide and seek.
I thought, “Eh, one more round couldn’t hurt.”
So I said yes and he started to count down again.
I made it sound like I was going back down the stairs, then quietly tiptoed and snuck
into his closet.
Once I closed the door, it kinda creeped me out since it was pitch black in there.
A faint light came in through the door crack, but I could just barely see.
After he counted to 20, I heard him shoutout “ready or not, here I come!”
That’s when I felt a cold hand with sharp nails on my shoulder.
I froze.
It brushed back my hair and whispered
“Can I play?”
That’s when I realized Madeline wasn’t imaginary