The Terror Next Door (Based on a True Story)

3)Crazy

"Creep" by Michelle Branch
*********************
There were glossy wood floors and spotless paintings and vases all around. Granite counter tops and backslash were all over the kitchen. It was enough to prompt Sophia to flash back to childhood memories of being in fancy places. Her mother would scold she and her siblings to keep their hands to themselves. Museums. Aquariums. Her grandparents house. The same no-touching policy always applied.
As the short tour -that Sophia provided herself - commenced, the teenager was completely satisfied upon realizing there would be no better babysitting job than this one. She was granted permission to the nicely stocked refrigerator and mini-juice bar. The Bradshaw's even allowed her  access to the sixty-inch flat-screen TV with surround sound in the family room. The DVD shelf was so nicely stocked, Sophia was certain if was even better equipped than a movie rental place.  It was only as she lead herself through the living room and to the TV room that she stiffened at the sight of something odd.

Horror movie memorabilia.

There were miniature statues, posters, pictures, stuffed creatures, and even mugs with pictures of monsters or serial killers on them. There was a very large majority of clown memorabilia around the entire area causing Sophia to momentarily break out in laughter. It seemed like a joke.

"My family enjoys horror movies," a voice said, causing Sophia to jump. She never heard someone descend the staircase let alone enter  the room. The youngest son, Blake, was standing beside her. He closed the door to the room Sophia was standing near, not allowing her to see anything further.

It was standing beside Blake that Sophia realized the reason why her family assumed the boy was in elementary school. He was scrawny and his face looked very young. Blake's chestnut brown hair was a wispy Justin-Bieber-2009 haircut while his face looked as though it had only recently lost puppy fat. Slight acne covered his face as well. He held extremely boyish features that made him resemble at oldest, a  twelve-year-old. But however young and skinny he was, the boy was taller than Sophia's five-foot-six height by four inches.

"You could have given me a heart attack," Sophia chuckled, shaking her blonde head.

"Doubtful," said Blake. "Even though heart attacks can occur at any age they're more likely to happen to men after age forty-five and women after fifty-five, and that's after menopause," the boy answered, looking a tad bored.

Sophia awkwardly stood in place, not really understanding the need to say such a thing. What she had stated was merely a figure of speech. "Er. Well, hi. I'm Sophia-"

"I'm already aware of who you are, Ms. Summers, you're my babysitter," Blake interrupted, his piercing blue eyes watching her with a blank stare. The way his voice wrapped air quotations around his last word made Sophia see he didn't necessarily care to have a babysitter. 

She ignored the weird feeling she received from his still staring to clear her throat. "So, if I may ask, why did your parents hire me? I mean, we're practically the same age."

"I suppose you should ask my parents such a question," Blake responded. His eyes were almost cold, distant. There was something off about the boy. Something not quite right as he watched her. To Sophia she felt that Blake was suddenly looking at her for flaws. Analyzing. As if he was looking for any little thing to hold against her or maybe even judge her on it. It made Sophia momentarily feel the boy could stare right through her soul completely. The impromptu staring contest stopped. Blake then turned on his heel and started heading towards the stairs, not returning her another glance.

"Er...Do you need any help on homework..?" Sophia asked stupidly, truly unsure why she was called to babysit a fifteen-year-old boy.

A soft chuckle escaped Blake as he cast her an amused look. "I guarantee there is positively nothing a girl like you could teach me." With that, he continued up the stairs and did not look back.
****

Was that an insult? It felt like it. The longer Sophia stayed at the Bradshaw place the more she concluded she was never doing this again. Being nearly alone inside of the large house gave her  the creeps. Sophia nearly felt like she was being watched even though Blake was upstairs.
There was something strange about that boy and it had nothing to do with his chilly demeanor or creepy stare. About an hour after her conversation with Blake, Sophia had started on some math homework she had due for the following week. It was the shrill sound of a cat hissing on the floor above the kitchen that had her jumping in place.
She recognized the sound. After escaping the house one night, her family's calico cat Pepper had gotten pregnant. She had eventually given birth to four kittens. Since no one in the family wanted to separate the small family, they kept all of the cats after getting them spayed or neutered.  Nowadays, Sophia and her family were practically experts in all things cat related. The sound in particular was an annoyed hiss, Sophia knew this with certainty.

What had momentarily spooked her was not having known a cat was here. She scribbled down her math equation, rolling her eyes at her own silly fear. Her nerves were on edge courtesy of being around the strange Blake as well as glancing at the room with the horror-movie theme. Being alone just tripled her fear.
Up the stairs the cat started hissing again. It caused Sophia to glance upwards towards the ceiling. The hissing was loud, scratchy. It sounded once more before a very loud BANG happened. It sounded like a box of books being thrown onto the ground or something similar. The impact of whatever happened was so very strong, it rattled the ceiling above the kitchen as well as shook the light fixture dangling in the kitchen where Sophia was.

Sophia immediately went to the staircase that led to the second floor. "Blake? Everything all right up there?" She started up the staircase, strangely having a feeling she shouldn't advance. "Blake...?"

"Everything's great," said Blake, exiting a nearby room and chuckling. He was now shirtless. The polo he had been wearing was bundled into a tight ball that he held. His pants had droplets of red on it. It was Blake's expression that had Sophia wondering why he looked so happy. The boy was now beaming as though he just won the lottery. "So, how is your night going, Ms. Summers?"

Sophia could not help but watch the fresh red spots on the knees of his khaki pants. Was it blood...? It couldn't be, he didn't look injured. Besides that, he looked too happy to be hurt. But what if that was why the Bradshaw's wanted Sophia to watch their son? What if he was mentally impaired and injured himself frequently? But shouldn't that have been something his mother or father had told her about before allowing her to watch him...?
There was no time to further think these strange thoughts. The front door soon opened after that, revealing both Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw. The couple barely acknowledged Sophia upon entry, both busy with having what seemed like an argument. By the time Sophia looked back at Blake he was no longer standing by the railing. The boy could move swiftly when he wanted to.

After a few more minutes of arguing that consisted of Mrs. Bradshaw complaining that her husband not allowing her to pay for the meal was offending to her as a woman, that caused Mr. Bradshaw to roll  his eyes. "How is my simply paying for dinner offending you...?"

"You're acting as though I don't have money to pay for myself."

"I know you do, I wasn't trying to be offensive, I merely forgot..."

"Yes, I'm sure you did," Mrs. Bradshaw responded coldly, moving past her husband before shoulder checking him. Given she was a twig in size and maybe barely a hundred and fifteen pounds, the move didn't effect him. It still came across rather rude in Sophia's mental opinion, but she didn't react. The teenager simply watched the arguing couple, almost wishing she could melt into the flooring to avoid feeling the awkwardness she felt for being apart of this.

"Here you go," Mr. Bradshaw said, handing Sophia three twenties. She nearly felt obligated to point out he didn't need to owe her that much, but she kept it to herself. This house was giving her the creeps and it wasn't only because  of Blake. The parents were weird, too. All Sophia wanted was to quickly leave ASAP. "So, anything exciting happen while we were gone?" Mr. Bradshaw asked politely, almost as if pretending the small spat with  his wife never occurred.

"Er, no...Blake was great," Sophia replied, leaving out the fact that the man's son gave her a serious case of goosebumps.

Mr. Bradshaw nodded, offering out a polite 'say hi to your parents for us' as he held open the front door. Even while exiting, Sophia felt compelled to point out what she heard earlier. "Before I forget, you might want to check on the cat. He was making some noise literally right before you came home, I think it might have knocked something over," Sophia admitted, feeling guilt she hadn't ventured upstairs to check on what the cat might have broken.

Mr. Bradshaw's brows knitted together. He suddenly looked perplexed. "I don't understand what you're saying..." before Sophia could explain further, Mr. Bradshaw continued, "we don't have a cat."