Whispers on the Street

Based on a true event…
Emma sighed as she walked sullenly to the door to leave. She was supposed to be babysitting her cousin Adeline this afternoon, and she hated babysitting, especially when it was Adeline. She was so annoying, and never listened to anyone except her mother. Emma pulled her hair into a messy ponytail and gritted her teeth. It’s just one afternoon, she told herself firmly. You can do this.
When she arrived at Adeline’s house to pick her up, the little girl was wearing an enormous pink winter coat, even though it was only September, and a knitted hat that fell all the way down to her waist. Aunt Sofia, Adeline’s mother, walked her to Emma’s car.
“Thank you so much for doing this, Emma,” she said as she helped Adeline into the child seat Emma had put in. “You can’t find anyone who’s willing to babysit with the big game coming up.” Aunt Sofia was going to watch the local college football game, along with everyone else in the state, it seemed.
“No problem,” Emma smiled. The more excited she seemed for this job, the more she would get paid.
It only took three minutes to get to the church, where there was some big event going on for the kids to get together and play while their parents were at the game. Why Aunt Sofia didn’t just take her daughter here, Emma didn’t know.
As soon as they got out of the car, Adeline sprinted to the bouncy house in the church courtyard, and Emma smiled. Perhaps the afternoon wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Emma went inside the church to read for a bit. She walked past the sitting area, where they were playing Finding Nemo for the kids who didn’t want to go outside, and settled near the back of the church. Finally, some time to myself she thought as she began reading.
~~~~~
After a couple hours, Emma decided to check on Adeline. She hadn’t seen anyone for a while, and it made her a little nervous. But when she got out to the church courtyard, there was no one there. The only sound was the wind howling through the trees and leaves scraping against the sidewalks. Maybe they’re just hiding, Emma thought dubiously, and moved to look inside the bouncy house. But as she approached it, the whole thing collapsed with barely a whisper. Definitely no one there, Emma thought.
Since it was getting colder outside, Emma reasoned that they could have all gone inside to watch a movie, and so she made her way back to the church. Where there used to be a multitude of children watching movies, only deflated cushions and a few lonely-looking blankets remained. Emma turned to go back to her corner, speculating that one of the adults could have taken them to the library, when she heard a loud, hair-raising noise from the TV, and finally noticed what was playing. It definitely wasn’t a children’s movie; in fact, it looked like a horror film that she had seen in a movie theater poster. That can’t be right, she thought, and decided that since all the kids were gone, she would just go home. The last thing she remembered was walking out of the church before everything went black.
~~~~~
When Emma finally came to, she was in a dark, hot bedroom. It looked a little like her friend’s room. When Emma got out of the creaky old bed, she noticed an iPhone laying on the messy floor. Emma’s apprehension turned to fear. Nobody just left their phones laying around in a random room. Emma also noticed that someone had set out clothes as if for the next day. Someone has obviously been here before her, and probably didn’t make it out. The darkness seemed to press on Emma, suffocating her, trapping her in this strange room. She needed to leave this place. Now.
Emma used the flashlight on the phone to find her way through the hallways, silently praying that no one would notice the flare of the light as it passed through the cracks in the doorways.
She managed to make it out of the house without any obstacles, which she found extremely odd. Once she was outside, she realized that she was on the same street as her aunt’s house, in town. At least she knew she was close to home.
Emma knew that she needed to get back to the church to make sure Adeline was okay. Once she got there, maybe she could find a way to contact her parents (she had left the iPhone behind in case anyone used it to track her). Emma began walking, and almost immediately, all the street lights went out. Emma was so startled that she heard whispering from the darkness, as if she were in the middle of a circle of old people. The lights came back on, and Emma breathed a sigh of relief, then whispered “Oh come on,” when the lights turned off again. She could hear the whispers again, and realized that they weren’t just a figment of her imagination. There were actual whispers floating around her, taunting her, even though she was alone on the street.
When she had cleared the block, she chanced a look behind her. Exactly one block away from her, a man with a clown costume, complete with face paint, was grinning at her and holding a long, bloodstained knife. Emma quickened her pace, now thoroughly terrified. Every time the lights came back on, the man was a little closer to her. Meanwhile, the whispers were getting more intense, and although Emma couldn’t make out what they were saying, she heard enough to know that whoever was speaking was becoming more and more agitated.
Deciding that she couldn’t take it anymore, Emma ripped open the door of the nearest house and immediately scampered into a small room to the right of the entryway. When she gathered her bearings, she noticed a hunched figure in the corner of the living room directly opposite her. It appeared to be a child, and at first Emma thought it was crying, but upon further inspection, she realized that the child was just sitting there, as if awaiting punishment.
The poor thing reminded Emma of her cousin, still at the church. If Emma was scared, Adeline must be terrified. Emma set her jaw. She would get to that church, even if she had to endure ominous whispers and a creepy clown to do it. As Emma stepped out of her hiding place, she saw the silhouette of a tall, fat man standing in the kitchen with another child. Almost immediately after she noticed him, a bright blue light started spilling from the windows of the house. The man started toward her, and Emma suppressed a scream and bolted out the door. Before she could reach the sidewalk, however, she tripped on the stairs and fell. She was out before she hit the ground.
~~~~~
Emma woke up back in the church, lying on the couch. She could hear a commotion outside, so she got up and went to check it out. It was her family, all dressed in black, and they appeared to be comforting each other. Emma saw her mother holding a sobbing Aunt Sofia, and her father stood talking with her grandparents, discussing some morbid event with them, if their faces were any indication. Emma shook off her confusion and started across the grass to ask her family what was wrong. However, something small and disfigured stopped her in her tracks. Emma let out a sob, and fell to her knees.
There, lying in the grass, looking as though she had been thrown in a meat grinder, was Adeline’s dead corpse.

Author's Note