On October 31st, I was sent to the Kingsley mansion to look after a child named Lilith. I had been looking for a job for months when I came across an ad in a local coffee shop in Birmingham, England. Having just moved to Birmingham from Galway, Ireland, I never expected my life to change so drastically. After escaping a miserable house that no longer welcomed me, I had used every last drop of my emergency fund. This ad was recently posted and was untouched. The Kingsley family is looking for a babysitter while they go on a romantic getaway for Halloween. The child was named Lilith and is said to have been a well-balanced, easy-going 8-year-old child. No experience was necessary, and the ad contained little information other than a phone number and a family portrait with the couple and Lilith in the center. She was staring far ahead, her mother’s hand on her shoulder. A short brown coil grows from her head, topped with a sweet, innocent bow. The paisley dress and white skin made her look like a porcelain doll.
After receiving the flyer, I walked to a nearby phone booth. After a few rings, the phone was connected immediately. In a deep, monotone voice, he said, “Hello, Dorian Kingsley is answering. How may I help you?”
What a strange name for my father, I thought. I took a deep breath and confidently answered: “Hello, I’m Alice Buick and I’d like to talk to you about babysitting Lilith for Halloween.”
The phone went silent for a moment, and I heard a voice murmuring. The phone appeared to be covered by the man’s hand. After coughing, he said: “Yes, thank you for calling. Lilith is a special child and will only be entertained by you all day long. The address is 13 Collinswood road, Kensington. We expect her to arrive at 7am sharp.”
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He hung up without a proper goodbye, but I needed a chance, so I made sure to tell him.
I woke up at 4am to get ready, but my commute was an hour away. I wore my best black stockings and paired them with a short black skirt and white peplum blouse. I paired the outfit with a black Mary Jane and combed my blonde hair. Her hair flowed smoothly, falling over her sternum. I quickly applied my makeup, applying blush to my face, darkening my eyes with smoky shadow, and applying my darkest lipstick to my lips. I smiled in the mirror and looked polished and sophisticated, but no amount of blushing could fix my pale skin. When the time struck 5:30am, I grabbed my bag and ran out the door to catch a nearby taxi. Fortunately, I managed to find a taxi and headed to Kingsley’s mansion.
When I arrived, the road turned to dirt, then gravel, and a black iron gate with gold decorations appeared. The gate had an intricate pattern, and when I tried to touch the stationary gargoyle, I saw the gate open with an eerie screech. Beyond this was a path that led to a Gothic mansion that I could see in the distance. As I walked down the street, a chill ran down my spine as I heard the caws of crows surrounding me above. I heard a faint whisper, which startled me, but I had no choice but to keep walking.
“Alice,” I heard it hiss.
When I turned around, all I could see was the mist and the crows overhead.
After only a moment, I was greeted at the entrance to the grounds. And it was the most eloquent infrastructure I’ve ever seen. It was made of weathered stone and had rose vines twining around it just below the arch. There were black pillars on either side of the entrance, and a cobblestone path. There was a garden along the outside edge of the property, but the flowers were dead. I knocked on the arched wooden door and was greeted by a butler.
“Hello, Mr. Buick. We’ve been waiting for you. Here you are.”
He led me to the front door, which was filled with ornate antiques. The walls are lined with gold leaf and decorated with paintings dating back to the 17th century. The ceiling medallion of the angelic sky had a chandelier, and to its right was a wooden spiral staircase with an emerald carpet. The floor was a black and white checkered pattern, and I could see the kitchen with black paint on the walls. The air was stale and I felt like something was brushing through my hair.
A husband, wife, and child came down the stairs wearing the same clothes I had seen on the flyer.
My father approached me, holding out his hand. “Welcome, Mr. Bewick. Thank you for coming at a time like this. All we need is entertainment and food for Lilith. We expect her to be in bed by dark. But it won’t happen any later.”
His face was serious and emotionless. It is suspicious that I was given so little information, and if I had known then what I know now, I would have fled before entering the mansion.
There Lilith was standing in front of me, very meekly and quietly.
“Hello Alice. It’s nice to meet you. I love your lipstick.” She ran and hugged me so tightly that I almost fell over.
After a little discussion, my parents left, leaving me with Lilith and my butler. We played in the garden for quite a while and I cooked her a meal. As time passed, I realized that the butler was gone. She gave me a tour of the house, but she didn’t show me the west wing.
“I might not go there, Alice. No one goes there. It’s been run down and dirty since before I was born.”
She spoke in a very unsettling and mature tone and I wanted to know why the West Wing was on lockdown. She held my hand the whole tour and something about her seemed so strange, but in just a few hours I realized that she had become like a sister. Until evening approached.
When I went to the bathroom and was washing my hands, I heard a rustling sound. I ran as fast as I could to the kitchen, where I heard a noise.
“Lilith, what’s wrong?” My hands trembled and my eyes froze as I saw the horror before me.
The butler’s throat was slit and he lay lifeless on the ground. Blood ran down my head, forming a puddle. Lilith looked from the depths of her soul at the corpse, which was holding a broken and bloody plate in its hands. There was blood dripping down her face and hands. Blood dripped from her mouth as if she had torn his carotid artery with her teeth.
I ran to a nearby phone for help, but the phone line was down. I went back to the kitchen to look for my phone, but when I arrived, my butler was gone. Lilith was eating sliced bananas with whipped cream on the same plate as the broken one.
I said at a loss for words. “Lilith, where is that guy? How clean is the floor? What’s going on?”
She giggled menacingly, “Alice, what nonsense are you talking about?” I made a snack while you were gone. The sun has almost disappeared. You should let me sleep. ”
She grabbed my hand and dragged me upstairs to get ready for bed. I was still stunned and speechless, and I thought I was imagining everything. Perhaps my family was right in assuming my insanity. But something about her face looked very different from the Lilith I had met a few hours earlier. His submissive sapphire blue eyes darkened, almost red.
As I was helping Lilith get dressed, I heard my name being whispered again. When I turned around, I still couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from.
It was night and I needed to put Lilith to bed. I read her bedtime stories and she fell asleep.
When I left her room, it was pitch black in the compound, so I lit a lantern. Curiosity consumed me and I ventured towards the west wing. The moment I opened the first door, I felt a rush of regret. Bodies were lying piled up on the floor. Each one seemed to be a reflection of myself: blonde hair, neat clothes, red lipstick. And the butler was in the corner of the room. The stench was so pungent that I felt nauseous. I heard a faint whisper before I screamed.
“Alice.”
When I turned around, there were two girls behind me who looked so much alike that I couldn’t tell them apart. Lilith wasn’t the only child I was responsible for tonight. She had twins. The twins’ eyes matched the way I looked in the kitchen. devil’s eyes
“What’s going on here?”
The twins surrounded me with perfect timing and so grace that I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I looked down and to my horror, I was stung. Jab after jab, they pricked me as they jumped up and down in a circle shouting “ring around Rosie”. My body was stung more than 20 times, and at that moment my skin was torn to shreds. It felt like a hot iron rod was being shoved through me, and I could hear my ribs cracking with each slice. I fell to the ground and the twins grabbed my legs.
Inside the room, my lifeless body joined the others. They threw me onto a pile of corpses with supernatural force. All I wanted was to make some extra money for a better place.
Lilith reached into my skirt pocket and grabbed my rouge lipstick. As she applied it, the twins yelled at her. They quickly closed the door, and the last sound I heard was a chuckle and their footsteps fading into the distance. My eyes closed and my heart stopped. My arms fell limply over the bodies around me.
A few hours later, I woke up and climbed down from the pile of corpses. When I look at myself in the mirror, my hair is messy with blood, my teeth are sharp and throbbing, and I’m thirsty. My kids don’t realize who I really am until they hear the door creak. Lilith and the twins stand next to me and hold my hand. They knew my little secret all along, and now I know theirs.
“Can we play now, Alice? I’m hungry.”
We really were like sisters.
