R/Nosleep (Get Spooked)

We're Not Supposed To Watch The Local Broadcast Channel (Pt 3 - Final)

By: u/RobertMort

I leapt across the room, burst out the back door. "Nathan?" I shouted into the darkness. "Nathan!"

"He couldn't have gone far. He was only gone for a few minutes," Ben said behind me.

"All it takes is a few minutes!"

Motion caught my eye. I looked down to see the orange tabby cat, poking around the side of the house. Mreow, he said, plaintively. I ran towards him. Around the side of the house.

And then I saw Nathan.

He stood there in the front yard, perfectly still. Staring into the street as if hypnotized. And there, parked by the curb, was a dented white van. Complete with antenna and other broadcast equipment on the roof. Peeling navy letters read: Channel 13.

"Nathan!" I yelled. "Nathan, don't!"

He slowly turned around. "He found the green truck I left at the park," he said, simply. "Can we go get it, Mommy?"

I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "He does not have your truck! He's lying to you! And I told you not to talk to strangers!"

Vrrrrm. The engine rumbled to life. Slowly, the van pulled away. I watched, staring at the man's silhouette in the driver's seat.

I pulled him back inside. Then I wrapped my arms around him, sobbing, as Ben and Melinda locked the house back up. The orange cat brushed against us, nuzzling his face against Nathan. For a while I wasn't even coherent. Just holding my son, so thankful that he was here, and not in the newscaster's car.

What would have happened, if he went?

Would I have ever seen him again?

I didn't want to think about it.

***

I sat on the floor, in Melinda's daughter's room.

We'd put Nathan to sleep an hour ago. He didn't seem too disturbed by everything that happened; he seemed calm, even, laughing at how Melina's daughter had decorated her room head-to-toe with Hello Kitty paraphernalia. I was thankful for that. We could explain to him tomorrow how serious it was, how we'd almost lost him.

Soft footsteps sounded in the hall. Then the door creaked open, and Ben emerged.

"Can we talk?" he whispered.

Nathan stirred. I got up, went out of the room, and shut the door behind me. Then I sat on the floor, and he sat next to me.

A heavy silence fell over us. I could feel the question lingering in the air, but I didn't have the courage to ask it. That would only make it more real.

Ben spoke first.

"We should talk."

I turned to him. He was staring straight ahead, not meeting my eyes. "Yeah, we should," I whispered. "What did the newscaster mean? Not a 'happy accident'? Are you not happy, or... was it not an accident?"

He looked up, his eyes finally meeting mine.

"It wasn't an accident."

"What do you mean, it wasn't an accident?"

"I wanted a kid. So I... I tampered with the condom. But what does it matter, now?" he stuttered. "You love Nathan. Don't you?"

"Of course I love Nathan," I said, my voice trembling.

"So you—you should be happy it happened."

I balked. "What?"

"I mean, you love him, and if I hadn't done it then Nathan wouldn't—"

"You're right. I am happy it happened, because I love Nathan, and I can't even imagine a world without him." My eyes met his. "But that doesn't change the fact that you betrayed me."

"Rebecca, I'm sorry—"

And then it happened.

My phone, laying on the floor. The screen blinked on, and there it was. Channel 13. Broadcasting to my phone.

"No," I whispered.

I grabbed the phone and pressed the power button. Once, twice, then held it down. Nothing happened.

Wait—where is he?

This time, the newscaster wasn't at his desk. He was somewhere dark, and the camera was zoomed way up on his face, so it filled the screen. A bright light shone across his features. His makeup looked even more fake, his hair even more greasy.

And then he spoke.

"Here we are, live, at an active crime scene."

My heart plummeted. Active crime scene? Wha—

The camera began to zoom out. And then, in the darkness, I could make out shapes. Boxes on the ground. Clothes hanging in rows.

And a familiar shape. A little stuffed animal, right above his shoulder.

A Hello Kitty.

I leapt up. Grabbed the bedroom door, yanked it open. Relief flooded me as I saw Nathan's little silhouette on the bed. Still fast asleep. "Get him!" I yelled to Ben. He hoisted him up and we ran out—just as the closet door began to swing open.

"He's in here!" I screamed, to Melinda. "He's inside the house!"

She darted out of the kitchen, grabbed her car keys. The four of us ran out the front door. Piled into the car. As we pulled out of the driveway, motion caught my eye.

Every window in the house was lit with an eerie, flickering blue light.

The silence pressed in as we flew down the road. Melinda finally broke it. "We'll be safe as long as we're out of town. As soon as we're out of the channel's radius, he can't get us. I know that much."

I held Nathan tight against me. Ben glanced at her, skeptically. "If that's true, why haven't you moved away?"

"I don't know. You convince yourself you'll be careful, you'll be safe. It's like all those times you see a murder on TV and you say to yourself, if that were me, I would've gotten away. When Jeremy... when his body was found, that should've been my warning. But I told myself it wouldn't happen to me. That I wasn't careless, like he was."

"So the newscaster... killed him?"

Melinda glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "No. His wife did. Poisoned him after the newscaster told her about his affair, twenty-some-odd years ago."

Melinda turned onto the highway, and we flew down the road, approaching the city limits.

***

We moved away after that. So did Melinda—she decided it was too risky to remain there, no matter how careful she was with the cable.

Ben and I separated for a few weeks, but we're trying to work through things. I don't know if I can ever trust him again after what he did, but we're going to try. For Nathan's sake.

Most of the neighbors I met, though, are still there. Donna, of course, but strangely most of the others, too. Ben and I visited, several months later, to try to warn some of them. Like Geri. But she assured me she was perfectly happy where she was.

"I love it here. I love the neighbors, the houses, the whole place. And have you seen the local broadcast channel?" She grinned, broadly. "It's incredible! Y'all should watch it with me, sometime."