R/Nosleep (Get Spooked)

We're Not Supposed To Watch The Local Broadcast Channel (Pt 1)

By: u/RobertMort

We're not supposed to watch the local broadcast channel.

At least, that's what my neighbor Donna says. "I hide the remotes. You can't be too careful with kids in the house, you know?" she said, as she leaned against the fencepost.

"You hide the remotes... so your kids can't turn on the local channel," I repeated.

"Yup. Works wonderfully."

I only moved in here a few weeks ago. So far, everyone was friendly and nice. But Donna... she seemed a little cuckoo. A house-wide ban on watching the local TV station? Really? I mean, I get it if she were talking about some adult program or something. But local broadcasting channels don't usually air sex and violence, do they?

"Um... why don't you want them watching the channel?" I asked.

She blinked. Then she laughed, throwing her head back. "Ha, ha, ha! Good one. I'll catch you later, Rebecca, okay?" She squeezed my wrist, smiled, and then headed off down the sidewalk.

I stood there, dumbfounded.

A few days later, I went over another neighbor's house for some tea. Melinda Patel, the woman in the blue colonial on the corner. After we'd talked for a while, I decided to mention it. "Do you know Donna?" I ventured.

Melinda nodded, taking a sip of tea. "Oh yes. We go way back. Both original owners!"

I glanced around, then I lowered my voice. "Don't you think she's a little... crazy, with the whole TV thing?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely."

I breathed out a sigh of relief.

"It's absolutely insane that she keeps a TV. With two little kids? It's too risky. Yeah, I know she says she hides the remotes, but you know how kids are. They find everything." She shook her head. "Insane."

I stared at her, at a loss for words.

"When my kids were that age I said no, no siree, not taking that risk." She took a sip of tea. "Gave me so much peace of mind."

"What exactly is on the channel?" I asked, with a small laugh. "Porn? True crime?"

Her eyes locked on mine. "Don't joke about it. Please."

She kept staring at me, with such an intense look that I fell into silence. I changed the subject to her flower garden, and her peppy personality snapped right back.

And then there was Geri. Around 4 PM she swung by our house, an hour after I'd returned from Melinda's. "Just wanted to see how y'all are settlin' in," she said, giving us a big smile.

"Yeah, we're good!"

She came in, all smiles and chit-chat. But when her eyes fell on our big screen TV, mounted over the fireplace, she froze.

"Oh. You have a TV."

"Yes, we do."

"Well, okay," she said, eyeing our five-year-old son playing in the corner. She lowered her voice. "Did you tell him not to...? No, okay, let me show you. You can actually program the TV so it can't go to channel 13. A neat little hack I learned the first few weeks here."

"That's okay," I said. "We don't need it."

Suddenly, realization swept over her face. "Ah! Y'all don't have cable. Good idea. You can get so much with streaming services and all. We've got cable, but we're sure to disconnect it at night."

"Ah, smart," I said, finally catching the gist. "So the kids won't sneak down and watch it while you're sleeping, huh?"

"No. We don't got kids. But you know, we don't want to end up like Jeremy. Waking up in the middle of the night to his TV on..." She shook her head. "So awful."