I froze. The voice wasn\u2019t mine, and it wasn\u2019t my husband\u2019s. My heart pounded as I crept to the nursery door. Michael\u2019s cries stopped, and the silence that followed was worse than any scream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I pushed the door open just enough to peek inside. The rocking chair was moving \u2014 slowly, rhythmically \u2014 but no one was sitting in it. My son lay in his crib, calm and quiet, staring upward with wide, unblinking eyes as though he was watching someone I couldn\u2019t see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I rushed to him, scooped him up, and whispered, \u201cWho\u2019s here?\u201d My voice cracked in the stillness. The chair stopped moving instantly. The air turned cold, and I swear I heard a faint whisper: \u201cDon\u2019t worry. He\u2019s never alone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I stumbled back, clutching Michael, my legs shaking. No one was there, but the scent of lavender \u2014 my late mother\u2019s favorite perfume \u2014 lingered in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m terrified\u2026 or comforted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I froze. The voice wasn\u2019t mine, and it wasn\u2019t my husband\u2019s. My heart pounded as I crept to the nursery door. Michael\u2019s cries stopped, and the silence… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}