We had these friends who lived up in Malibu on the cliffs in this gorgeous house. They were always asking us to come up for dinner, so we finally made the long trek over there and took them up on their offer. And the house was as beautiful as they described. Overlooking the ocean, this big airy kitchen. A huge swimming pool out back. It was a giant house and there were only three of them—mom, dad, teen daughter. They gave us a tour of the upstairs, the bedrooms and everything. They showed us the master bedroom. It was insane… wrap around windows, everything. There was this little room attached to it, kind of like the size of a closet. It had a big window that overlooked the backyard. And there was a crib inside and all these baby toys, clothes, a changing table. Their daughter was thirteen at the time, and all the baby stuff was meant for a boy. Little space ships on the walls, and a mobile over the crib with planets and rocket ships and stuff. So it wasn’t their daughter’s old stuff, and that would’ve been weird for them to keep for so long. They caught my confusion and explained. They were renting the house, and they got it for really cheap. The family who owned it moved out in a rush about three years before. They had a baby boy. Their only child. And the parents went to work one day, and left their son with his nanny. And the nanny brought the baby to the front of the house and was playing with him on the porch. She went inside to get a glass of water, and left the baby out front by himself. Well, he crawled over into the driveway just as the mom pulled in from work in her giant SUV. They lived on this steep cliff, and you really had to maneuver into their driveway. I remember being careful while driving in. You’re on an uphill climb, and then you have to turn sharply and start driving downhill through this narrow gate in order to get inside. Well, the mom didn’t see her baby in the driveway, and ran over him. And he passed away. And they couldn’t live in that house anymore so they moved out quickly and rented it out to our friends. Their only stipulation was they had to keep the baby’s room intact. Our friends couldn’t move anything—the crib had to stay there and everything. They said the door would crack open sometimes while they slept, or they would hear the baby mobile tinkling in the middle of the night. We lost touch over the years. And a few months ago I heard the house burned down. Not from a forest fire or anything, just burned to the ground. Eerie.

M experienced this story himself, and it is one of the only instances he has of interaction with the supernatural. He says he felt something in that baby room, and a sort of foreboding feeling while in the house—especially after hearing the story. He likes the story because it is creepy, especially since the house is no longer there.

This piece is creepy—the maintenance of how things were before the death of the little boy, as if he was still living in that room. I wonder why the parents kept it intact—maybe because they didn’t feel right throwing away his things, or they thought his spirit would still live on in that room?