-In This House-
(Prologue)
The real-estate agent sighed as he looked upon the degraded victorian house. Once, back in it’s prime, it must have been a wonder to behold. But now after years of neglect, it looked like the stereo typical haunted houses that were in all the movies. He reached into his briefcase to pull out the paperwork to read up on the history of the house when he heard another car approach his. He quickly put the papers back into his case and fixed his hair. Turning around, he put on his smile and waved enthusiastically at his clients.
Two people got out of the car, a young couple who, by the looks of her tummy, were expecting. “Hello hello!” the real-estate agent shouted as he stepped from behind his car to great his clients. The couple greater him as well as the man used over to help his pregnant partner out of the car. “I’m glad you found it. I almost got lost.”
“Yea,” the man said, “we almost missed the turn off, but Jessy here has sharper eyes than I do.” After they all laughed at the little joke, Jessy looked at the house.
“My, that is pretty big.” She said as the smile started to wash out of her face.
“Yes,” Said the realtor, “Big and ready to house a big family. It’s an old house too, and needs a little bit of work…”
“A little bit?”
“Well, more than a little bit, truth be told. But that is one of the reasons why it is such a steal. What you save on purchasing this house, you could use that money to really fix it up and give it more of a modern feel to it.”
“What do you think, Travis?” Jessy asked
“Well,” Travis said as he held Jessy close to him, “Let’s take a look inside.”
The realtor let out a little laugh of relief and patted his brow. “Yes! You’ll see that even though it is a little run down, the actual structure of the house is very solid.”
As they walked towards the front door, something behind the house catches Jessy’s eyes. “Who is that?”
A small hooded figure steps from behind the house. Hunched and fragile, she turns to the strangers.
“Hello, Ma’ma?” Said the relator. “Can I help you?”
There is no response.
“My name is Jeff, and these are the Jeffersons. They are interested in buying this old house. Do you live around here?”
The hooded figure raised one hand and pointed at Jessy. The hand was old and skeletal with lose skin clothing the bones. “Your baby.” an old breathless female voice echoed from the dark hood.
Taken a bit back, Jessy moved closer to Travis and hugged her belly. “Yes, we are expecting.”
“Yes…” The hooded woman hissed. “A boy.”
“Oh, we don’t know yet”
“Yeeeeeesssssss… You have a little boy in there.”
Jessy smiled down at her belly as Travis wrapped her in his arms. “You think so?” Jessy asked as she beamed with joy.
“Yes. A little baby boy.”
The couple started to sway with joy thinking about their baby. “How can you tell?” Asked Travis.
The hooded woman’s hand moved to where her mouth would be if it wasn’t shaded by her hood, and stood there silent.
“Well,” The realtor said trying to break the silence as politely as he could. “Do you live around here?”
“Yes.” The hooded woman whispered.
“See, look at that.” The realtor said to the couple, you have already met one of the neighbors.
“A little baby boy.” She said still in a whisper as she turned her head towards the windows of the upstairs of the house.
The three other people slowly looked up to see what the hooded woman was looking at, but they saw nothing. “Ok, then.” The realtor said trying to keep the unsettling feeling that the hooded woman was giving him, and he assumed his clients, “I am going to take the Jeffersons inside to take a look at the house. It was nice meeting you, Mrs…? I’m sorry, but I didn’t get your name.”
They stood there for a second watching the hooded woman, but she was unmoving. Still looking up at the house.
“Right, well, we will see you later then.” They all turned to walk towards the house.
“She loves babies.”
They all stopped in their tracks. Jessy turned and asked, “What did you say?
The hooded woman starts slowly walking towards them. “She loves the little babies.”
“Who loves babies?” Asked Jessy.
“She loves all the babies.” The whisper in her voice was growing into a full volume as she continued to talk and approach Jessy. “She loves all the babies.”
Travis steps from behind Jessy to get in front of her as their realtor starts to step back in fear. “Who are you talking about” Travis demands. “Who loves the babies?”
“Travis, she is getting close.” Jessy whispers in his ear to show her fear.
As the hooded woman gets closer she repeats, “She loves all the babies” getting louder and louder. Until she finally backs the three to the foot of the stairs of the porch. The hooded woman quickly shoots out her bony finger in Jessica’s face and slowly moves it to point at her pregnant belly. Through the rest of her face was still covered by the shade of her hood, Jessy could make out a smile as the hooded woman said in a cold gravely tone, “She is going to love your little baby too.”
