Bogleech.com's 2017 Horror Write-off:

Babysitter Bait

Submitted by Nick Noir

So Lindsey was gonna babysit the Haarman-kids, a boy and a girl, on saturday night.


There was nothing special about it, really. Just an ordinary job for an ordinary teen and the Haarmans seemed like a nice enough family. They had just moved in a couple of months before and hadn't made all that many contacts in the neighborhood yet, but what the heck. When they put out the notice that they were looking for a babysitter Lindsey didn't hesitate to take the job.


I was a bit bummed out, because we were planning to have a movie night with a couple of guys that same evening, but Lindsey said no worries, she'd join us later. She reckoned it wouldn't take her all night. Get the kids to bed in time, wait maybe an hour or two for their parents to come home and that's it.

Anyways, Lindsey was off to the Haarmans by six pm while I was starting to prepare the popcorn. She texted me almost immediately when she got there.

„parents just left. the place is mine hehe"

„what's it like? what are the kids like?" I inquired.

„they're total sweeties, this is gonna be a piece of cake!"

So that was all well and good, I guess she was sitting them down in front of the TV to watch some kids show of their own while I waited for my guests to arrive.

A while later everybody was present and we were about to start the first film. I texted Lindsey one more time.

„How's it going? Can u finish upn soon?"

„Not yet. It's not bedtime for them for another hour and then I have to wait for their parents."

Bobby wanted to know who I was texting so I told him. At the mention of the Haarmans he frowned.


„Where did she say they were going tonight?" he asked.


„Not sure" I said, „Some kind of charity event or something I think. Why?"


„That's weird" he said. „I saw the Haarmans on my way here, they were parked beside the road by that little stretch of forest to the north."


„Really? What were they doing there?"


„Nothing. Like literally nothing. They both just sat in their car with a thousand-yard-stare and didn't move a muscle."

I told Bobby off for trying to scare me like that, but I gotta admit it kinda got to me.

I texted Lindsey again to ask if everything was alright and she said yes and to prove it she sent me a selfie, happily waving into the camera with the kids still watching TV behind her.

But there was something weird, it looked like Luke, the boy, was just about to turn his head as she took the picture, and there was something off with his face. I can't really say what exactly it was, I mean it was just very small on the screen and the light wasn't great, you know, but somehow it just didn't seem like a normal face.

Now I was getting a real bad feeling about this. I wanted to tell her to get out of there as fast as possible but I couldn't really explain why. I mean, what was I gonna say? So instead I told her to get someone else to fill in for her and just come watch movies with us already.

„no way" she replied, „I need the money" then: „hang on, I think the kids want something"

After that I waited a couple more minutes for her to text again but she didn't, so we finally started the movie. I couldn't really enjoy it though, because I was so damn worried, and the fact that it was a horror movie didn't exactly help.

I tried texting Lindsey several times while we were watching, which I guess was really annoying the others but I couldn't help it. There was no reply anyway. I didn't even get the little blue marker thingies that tell you your text has been read.


When the movie was over I went out back and tried to call her, but she immediately declined the call.

We watched two more movies that evening, but Lindsey never showed up or answered her phone.

I know it couldn't have been her phone being out of power though, because the next day I had a voicemail from her number, sent at, like four in the morning. At first I was relieved that she had finally attempted to call me back. But when I listened to it it just freaked me out even more. It was just a bunch of noise, tapping and rustling, almost like a butt-dial, but beneath it there was something else, something weird that sounded kinda like ...slurping?

A little while later Lindsey's mom called, asking if Lindsey was staying at my place because she hadn't come home. When we went to the Haarman's place to look for her it was completely empty and there was a guy attaching a 'for rent' sign to the front gate. He said the Haarmans had moved out a week ago.

And that's all I know, really. That was when we went to the police.