Horror 100 Volume 2

Undiscovered

           

A door closed noisily. With a lazy start, Greg Norton woke up. Even in the dark, he squinted as he propped himself up on one elbow, listening. Had the door been one of those inside his apartment? Or even the front door?

It took him a moment to remember that he wasn't home alone as he normally was. Tonight he was babysitting his best friend Gina's son Adam. Maybe the kid had gotten up and gone to the bathroom. Only, it didn't look like the living room light was on. If it were, he could see it under the bedroom door. Surely Adam would need to turn a light on in order to find his way to the bathroom. The layout of Gina and Adam's apartment three floors above Greg's, 602, was the same as his, so maybe not.

Greg listened for a minute or two, waiting to hear the toilet flush, or any other sound. But after a few minutes, there was still nothing.

He clicked his bedside lamp on, and the room was filled with a golden light, throwing deep, black shadows to all corners. He pushed the sheets behind him and got out of bed, picking up a T-shirt that he'd dropped onto a chair.

Greg put the shirt on and stuck his head out the bedroom door. From there, he could see the rest of the apartment. The bathroom door was ajar and the light wasn't turned on. In the living room, the fold-out bed was indeed empty. There was no one in the kitchen. "Adam?" he called, stepping toward the bathroom door.

He leaned in and turned on the white light. Nobody there. He rushed into the living room and turned on the nearest lamp. The kid was gone.

"Shit," Greg said aloud, throwing a glance at the front door. The bolt was unlocked, and the chain was hanging loose. He'd locked them both after he'd put Adam to bed.

He jogged to the front door and opened it. He called Adam's name again, looking side to side down the pale green hall. He didn't see anybody. "Fuck. Adam?" he called more loudly, stepping out and closing the door behind him.

Greg suddenly realized that he wasn't wearing anything on his feet, and he didn't want to leave the apartment unlocked if he left to go looking for the kid. With another curse he returned to the apartment and put his keys in the pocket of his sweat pants. He sat on the edge of the fold-out bed and put his shoes on.

While he tied them, he thought back to the previous day, Saturday, when Gina had first asked him to baby-sit Adam. When he'd hesitated to say yes, Gina had said, "Please? Come on, there's no one else."

"But I don't like kids." Out of range for Adam to hear it of course.

"It's just for one night. I'm not leaving until seven, he goes to bed at eight, and I'll be back the next morning to take him to school. Just watch TV with him or something. Find a kids' show."

Adam was only six (or was it five?) and Greg had never spent any amount of time in charge of anyone under fifteen since he was that age himself. Dealing with kids wasn't his strong suit. But he and Gina had been best friends for almost eight years, since they'd met at a play that a mutual friend was acting in. She wasn't married and hadn't had a boyfriend since a year after her son's birth, and there really was no one else in the building that she knew well enough to trust. But when Greg had given in and agreed to babysit, his first thought was, I just know this kid's going to find my porn.

That was the least of his worries now. All he needed was to find the child.

Shoes sloppily tied, and with his keys, Greg hurried out the front door and locked it behind him. "Adam," he called, jogging left down the hallway. When he reached the end of the hall, which came to a corner leading to the garbage chute, he stopped and saw that nobody was there. He turned and went the other way.