WICKED TALES

TEN

My daughter had awakened me from my sleep to come and check her room because she was hearing voices somewhere. She was four years old and seen me as her hero so of course, I had to save the day. I checked her closet, underneath her bed, and behind the curtains. After assuring her that there was nothing in her room I tucked her in, kissed her goodnight, and made sure her light night was on.

The next morning she told me she heard voices say that they lived there first. I'm not going to lie, it brought goosebumps on my arms when she said they lived here first. I told her other people lived here before we moved in but we are the only ones living here now. She shrugged it off and gave me a sarcastic okay.

My wife was on a business trip so my daughter and I had a daddy and daughter night. I ordered pizza, made popcorn, and baked cookies. We watched the new SpongeBob movie and a lego movie until we both passed out. I woke up to a loud thumb that frightened the hell out of me, it was a full soda can that hit the floor. Since I was up now I scooped up my daughter and took her to bed.

That night I could have sworn I heard someone say something but it was in a very low whisper. It gradually grew louder so I searched everywhere in the room for the noise. Maybe my daughter was hearing voices, but where. I had a gut feeling it was coming from the walls or vents but as I was listening the voices stopped.

The next morning my wife had woke me up, I had slept until ten o'clock and I did that before when it was just my daughter and I. I apologized over and over, feeling like the world's worst father. My wife told me it was fine and our daughter was fine, the thing she was worried about was the drawing she found our daughter with. I looked at the picture, dumbfounded and a little worried. If our daughter drew this then she would need immediate help. It was a family of six, mom and dad, two girls and two boys. The dad and boys wore blue shirts and black pants, the females were in black dresses. All of their faces were scribbled on in black and a bright red line was across their necks like their necks were cut.

My wife and I went into our daughter's room to ask her if she drew the picture and I was hoping she found it or something other than her doing it. We found our daughter talking to a wall and listening. I asked her who she was talking to, she pointed to the drawing and asked us if we heard them. My and I looked at one another, I knew she was getting scared and I already knew the answer. I looked at the drawing again to read the words 'we live here too'.