Talking

When my sister, Gillian announced her second pregnancy, I was so happy for her and my brother in law. She and her husband Matt already have a three year old son, Jared, whom I love to spoil. I was very excited to be an aunt for the second time.

Unfortunately, when my sister was in the seventh month of her pregnancy, the world was ravaged by the COVID 19 pandemic and life seemed to come have come to a standstill. Shortly afterwards, Matt was laid off from his job. Gillian worked from home but her income wasn't nearly enough to pay rent on their two bedroom flat. I couldn't bear the thought of my dear sister and her family struggling. I own a three bedroom house and invited them to stay with me until the pandemic waned and Matt found a new job. They agreed and soon moved in with me. My sister and Brother in law took one of the spare bedrooms; my nephew took the other one. The new baby would sleep in Gillian and Matt's room.

My dog Nova, a German Shepherd-Rottweiler mix has always been very gentle with Jared. Every time he came over, they had a blast playing together, under supervision of course.. I often jokingly called Jared "Nova's tiny hooman". I was looking forward to how she would react to an even tinier human.

Two months later, Gillian gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Matt was over the moon and Jared too seemed excited to have a little sister. I didn't go to the hospital due to COVID restrictions and instead, got everything that my sister would need ready at home. As soon as their car pulled into the driveway in the early afternoon, Nova tucked her tail between her legs and whined. This was something I had never seen her do. I wanted to comfort her and take care of whatever was bothering her, but I had to go help my sister out of the car while my brother in law got the car seat out. Nova ran off into my bedroom and stayed there.

Until, we had entered the house, I hadn't gotten a good look at my niece. When everything had settled down, I decided to greet the newest addition to the family, Akira. I looked at her little face, ready to introduce myself as her aunt, but something stopped. Akira's gaze held an eerie intelligence. A strange sort of awareness. One that didn't seem to fit the countenance of a newborn infant. Her blue eyes seemed to regard me as if she was sizing me up, trying to see if I would be a problem for her.

Matt noticed my discomfort and jokingly said "I didn't know you were *that* scared of babies". I made an effort to smile and set aside my discomfort. I tickled Akira's little feet and welcomed her to the world. I told myself, I was just tired and seeing things. We got Akira into her crib and Gillian settled in to get some sleep. Matt and Jared were playing in the living room. I went to fill up the water bottle Gillian kept at her bedside. As I was about to exit the room, I heard a female voice say "finger". The voice sounded child like. But I jumped to the obvious conclusion that it came from my sister. Who else would have said it? I went close to Gillian to ask if she needed anything, but she was asleep. Then I heard it again. "Finger...…finger". I froze when I realized that it came from the crib. I looked in and baby Akira looked me in the eye and said once again "finger". I just stood there. It was as if my brain could not process what it had seen and heard.

I stumbled out of the room. I went downstairs and asked Matt if it was normal for newborn babies to talk. He looked at me like I had two heads and asked "what?". I realized how ridiculous that question sounded and just replied "oh nothing!". The baby monitor hadn't been installed yet to he obviously didn't hear the baby talk. I should mention that the entire time, Nova refused to leave my room. She stayed near the bed with her ears perked up. Since the day Akira entered my home, Nova only left the room to go outside. She would do her business and then rush upstairs to the safety of my bedroom.

The next morning, we were all sitting at the breakfast table. And of course the baby was there too. I was slicing us some more apples when the large butcher knife I kept in the knife case fell on my finger. Let me rephrase that. The knife seemed to jump out of the case and the sharp edge landed on my finger. It caused a long and deep cut and in seconds the cutting board and the apple slices were painted crimson. Gillian and Matt rushed to check on me. Gillian asked why on earth I would use a big ass butcher's knife to cut apples. I wanted to tell her that this inanimate cutting instrument had pretty much attacked me, but I bit my tongue as I had started to question my own sanity.

But then, as Matt was bandaging my finger, I looked at Akira. I didn't know it was possible for a baby to look evil. But that's exactly how Akira looked. And I don't mean the fuck-you-I'm-gonna-start-crying-at-3 am kind of evil. This was a look that said "Bitch I'm just getting started".

For the next few days, life went on as normal. I tried to explain away the incident that had occurred just days prior. Akira hadn't really said anything. My tired brain was just playing tricks on me. The butcher's knife hadn't been properly placed in the case, so it fell on my hand. The baby hadn't given me any kind of look. It was probably just…..baby making a weird face. Babies make weird faces all the time. And Nova was probably just sick or something. I spoke to her vet and he agreed to let me bring her to his home for a quick check up.

As we drove to the vet's house, the old Nova seemed to have returned. She thoroughly enjoyed the drive as she always did. She looked out the window as her ears blew in the wind and pawed at my hand asking for pets. The vet examined and told me nothing seemed to be wrong. He asked about her food intake and bowel movement and told me that too didn't show signs of illness. On the drive back Nova was her playful self, until we got to the front door. She seemed reluctant to go in. I had to pull her indoors by her leash.

Gillian greeted me and asked if Nova was ok. I told her she was fine, even as Nova rushed upstairs. Matt was in the kitchen making dinner. Gillian and Jared were playing on the living room floor and Akira was in her bassinet, gurgling like any other baby. I felt guilty for having had those awful thoughts about her. Gillian's phone rang and she went to answer it. I decided to play with the baby. I touched her little cheek, when she suddenly said "Chest". I withdrew my hand immediately in fear. She once again gave me that evil smile. I looked at Jared to see if he had heard it. But he seemed lost in his own make belief world. Gillian was coming back into the living room when the chest of drawers in the hallway, that was leaning against the wall fell over. From my point of view, it looked like it was pulled down by an invisible force. The chest was heavy and steady and there was no explanation for it to just topple over like that. Thankfully it missed her, but only by a few inches.

Matt ran into the hallway to check on Gillian, as did I. Even Jared was pulled out of his childish fantasy. We asked Gillian if she was OK and Matt asked how the chest had fallen. As we picked up the chest and the items that had fallen out, Akira's "chest" replayed in my mind over and over again. Gillian went back to playing with Jared and Matt to the kitchen. When I looked into the bassinet again, Akira was grinning from ear to ear. The grin was one that I'm sure is impossible for a baby to produce. But there it was.

I decided to take a leaf out of my dog's play book and keep my distance from Akira. I would avoid going near her. When Matt and Gillian played with her, I would only smile from a safe distance. Or I would simply interact with Jared instead. I tried to disguise my aversion, but my sister still noticed. One evening she asked me point blank why I had been so distant from her daughter. I tried to come up with some cock and bull excuse, but she was clearly hurt by my behavior. She said "I just think you should interact with her while we're staying here. Who knows when we'll get to spend so much time together once Matt gets another job and the lockdown is lifted." I accepted defeat and promised her I would make more of an effort to spend time with Akira. I felt something rising in the pit of my stomach, even as the words came out of my mouth.

The next morning, after breakfast I decided to fulfill my promise. I cooed over Akira and tickled her tiny feet, even as my fingers trembled. I tried to keep a smile on my face and play the loving aunt. Gillian looked pleased at this. I was baby talking to Akira as Gillian exited the kitchen to go talk to her husband. As soon as she was out of earshot, Akira spoke. She uttered an almost adult sounding "*you think you're funny?*". I recoiled. I decided to speak to this *creature* and asked her what the hell she wanted. Akira just smiled. That same cryptic smile. Then she blurted out *"Screw..screw….screw".* She said it over and over while cocking her head from side to side, in a singularly unsettling fashion. I stood up and decided to go get Gillian. I had just had a dialogue with what was supposed to be a new born baby and I needed to lie down.

That night as I sat in my bed with Nova at my side. I searched the internet for symptoms of mental illness that might be causing me to see and hear things. While on another tab I searched for unusual behavior from babies. On yet another I was looking for myths and legends about "evil" babies. At this point, I honestly was losing my mind. But, it turned out that I would not have to wonder whether I was crazy or not for too long.

At around 2 in the morning, I heard shuffling noises from downstairs. I wondered if it was a burglar. I quietly went downstairs wilding a sledgehammer in one hand and a can of pepper spray in the other. What I saw was scarier than any intruder could ever be. It was the baby. My sister's barely a month old baby. She was crawling on the wall from the living room to Gillian and Matt's room. She looked like some kind of fleshy spider. She certainly moved with the speed of one.

The thing crawled back into the room without making a sound. I stood there. I couldn't feel my hands and feet and felt dizzy after what I had seen. I collapsed right there on the staircase. I sat there for a while, before it struck me that I should check to see what the thing had been doing in the living room. I investigated every electrical appliance; I went into the kitchen to check for a gas leak. Everything seemed as it should be. I went back to my bedroom, but sleep was elusive. Even though my door was locked, I kept thinking I would see that thing crawling on my ceiling. I was insanely grateful to be able to cuddle with my beloved dog for comfort.

The next morning, I looked like hell. Not only was I awake all night, I was also spent the last few hours gripped in overwhelming fear. My sister asked if I was feeling OK. I told her I was fine and that I just couldn't sleep. As if on cue, the reason for my haggard appearance was brought into the living room by Matt. Little Akira. Blood curdlingly scary baby Akira was in her little bassinet, looking as harmless as any newborn. After breakfast, we all sat in the living room to watch some TV. Even as we chatted and laughed, my eyes were constantly drawn to the "baby". I kept looking for any more signs of the evil I had caught glimpses of. Nothing. She just gurgled and cooed.

Matt got up to get some water from the kitchen and as he was coming back, he suddenly stopped and yelled at all of us to get up and away from the sofas. He was so hysterical that we did what he asked immediately. Our confusion lasted but a few seconds, when the chandelier just above the couch fell and shattered into a thousand pieces. Glass shards flew everywhere and while no one was harmed, little Jared was clearly terrified and began to cry. While Gillian attended to him, Matt and I tried to figure out how the hell this had happened. The chandelier had been there ever since I bought the house three years ago and never even looked like it was unstable or poorly attached. Matt told me he saw it just hanging on for dear life when he told us to get away. Then I remembered what Akira had said the day before. "Screw". I remembered what I had seen last night and I put two and two together. This chandelier weighed about fifty pounds and was suspended fourteen feet above the ground. If it fell on any of us it could have done some serious, even permanent damage. I shuddered when I considered that it could have fallen on Jared. I was now well and truly terrified of what Akira was capable of doing.

Later on, after everyone had calmed down and we had vacuumed the entire living room to get every tiny piece of glass off the floor, I asked Gillian if she heard any movement the previous night or if she saw something unusual. Of course she said she didn't she was fast asleep. I don't know what I expected her to say. Matt was holding Akira trying to get her to burp. His back was turned towards me, but Akira looked right at me. Once again she gave me that toothless grin, as if daring me to say something. To tell my sister and brother in law what I had seen last night.

I decided to take Nova outside for her business. Though I was almost convinced that Akira was doing all of this and that what I had seen last night was real, I wasn't free from a sliver of doubt that I may have hallucinated and was mentally ill. I both hoped and feared that that was the case. Because I hated to imagine what it would mean if the other possibility was true. If Akira was some kind of *being*. What it would mean for my family.

As Matt and I made dinner and Gillian did the dishes, the "baby" was on the kitchen table in her bassinet. We suddenly heard Jared scream from his bedroom. He was jumping on the bed and just beneath the cover was broken glass. The same broken glass that we had thrown in the trash that very morning. It had pierced his skin and pieces were lodged in his flesh.

"What is happening in this house" Gillian yelled at no one in particular. She and Matt wondered out loud how the hell had the glass gotten there. They asked Jared if he did it and he said no, through sobs. Matt went into the kitchen to get his cell phone. He came back into the bedroom and asked if anyone had moved the baby. Gillian and I exchanged looks and sad no. Matt said the baby wasn't in her bassinet. Gillian rushed to their bedroom, I suppose to check in the crib, if the baby had somehow gotten in there by herself. Unbeknownst to them, that was certainly a possibility. I stayed with Jared and tried to comfort him while trying to get the glass pieces out of his feet. A few minutes later, Gillian and Matt reentered the room and asked if I had opened the kitchen window. I told them I hadn't. Gillian called 911 as Matt ran outside. She told the dispatcher that someone had broken into the house and stolen her baby. She finished the call and asked me, in a state of hysteria, if I was sure I hadn't opened the window. I once again told her I hadn't. She broke down and started crying, she wondered out loud what was happening to her family. I didn't know if I should comfort my sister or her son who was still crying. Matt came back in, out of breath and said he hadn't found anything.

Of course he hadn't. That thing moved fast. I had seen it with my own eyes. The cops questioned all three of us. They said something along the lines of how the abductor couldn't have gone far, but I blocked it all out. All I could think was that, now that thing was out there. It was in the form of the most harmless thing in the world and could use that to it's advantage. It's been a week since the incident. Matt and Gillian have been alternating between blaming and comforting each other. Jared spends most of his time with me. I've been keeping a keen eye on the local news. There has been a marked increase in people dying in house fires and freak accidents in the city. Anytime I read about them, I can't help but wonder if the last thing those people saw was a tiny baby crawling all over their walls.

To all those who are reading this, if you see a baby that looks a bit too aware, if it smiles in a way that babies just shouldn't, run. If you don't have the heart to kill it, just get the hell away from it. You don't know what it's capable of. And to be honest, neither do I.