The Walkie-Talkie

      Tucking my 8-year-old son into bed I leaned down and kissed him goodnight, He quickly grabbed the Walkie talkie off of the bedside table and spoke into it. "Goodnight." he was met with static.

     "Who's on the Other end?" I asked switching on his nightlight. He placed the device back on the stand and replied "Alex" "Ok, well no more for tonight" Once again I kissed his forehead and closed the door. Alex must be a new friend from school because I never heard Matthew talk about him before.
          As I got Settled into the tub for a much overdue bath a noise caught my attention. it was someone talking followed but giggles, I got out and put on my bathrobe. "Matthew, it's time for bed" I called tapping on his door. "He keeps talking to me, he won't let me sleep." "Tell him you will see him at school tomorrow and turn it off" I walked off before he could make up any more excuses. The water was still warm, I emerged everything except my head and tried to relax, Working two jobs was taking its toll on my body. "You need to let me be," Matthew said in a loud whisper that carried through the thin walls.
            Now I was angry, I stormed into his room without knocking and ripped the walkie talkie from Matthew's hand. "He's done talking for tonight, Goodnight" I spoke firmly, "Don't go" Alex called out followed by static, The sound of his voice gave me chills, it was distant and sad. I switched the walkie talkie off and to be sure he wouldn't be using it again tonight I took the batteries out and placed them in my robe pocket. "You can have these back tomorrow when you finish your homework."
           I gave up on the bath and decided to take a quick shower instead, I was too wound up right now to relax. As I stood in the shower a shadow caught my eye from behind the curtain."What are you still doing up?" I pulled the curtain aside enough to poke my head out, but no one was there. Dismissing the figure as my imagination from being overly tired I finished up and dried off."Why did you go in there?" Matthew said softly, I placed my ear aginst the wall so I could hear the reply. 'She's mean" Came the voice of Alex followed by "we need to get rid of her", 'How?" Matthew asked now sounding frightened of his friend.
         Before I could hear a reply I went back into Matthews room, grabbed the walkie talking and chucked it aginst the wall The back flew off revealing an empty battery holder. "Listen, I need you to tell me who Alex is, What he is saying is bad and I need to tell his parents." "He doesn't have any parents" Matthew replied staring at the remains of his new toy. I lifted Matthews face to look at me."Well, then who does he have taking care of him?" "He lives up in the attic" He pointed to the ceiling. My whole body went numb as I asked the question I didn't really want to be answered. "Why does he live there?" The shattered walkie-talkie began making static noises and Alex spoke softly "Because I'm dead" I grabbed Matthew from his bed and ran to the car. I only set foot in that apartment once more to get a few personal items, we never returned.
             We got settled into our new place quickly, it was in the same neighborhood so Matthew would still have his friends. "Ok, let's open presents," I say handing Matthew gift after gift until we were widdled down to the last present. He read the card out loud. "Happy Birthday from your friend Alex. Fear shot through my body but was relieved when I saw a shy looking boy in the corner of the room put his hand up. Matthew paid him no mind as he ripped open the paper to reveal a single walkie-talkie. and with that, the boy in the corner was gone but he wasn't really gone. he would never go away. End