THE BABYSITTER
The babysitter kept checking the baby monitor. It was an old house, the kind where every step made the floor groan like it didn’t want you there. The parents had just left, smiling, saying their baby never cried at night. That should’ve been comforting. It wasn’t. At first, everything was normal. The baby slept peacefully on the monitor, curled under a soft blanket. The sitter sat on the couch, scrolling her phone. Then the screen flickered. Just once. She frowned and looked up.