[ WP ] You 're babysitting an infant and you 're getting irritated because it kept staring at you the entire time . but when its gaze changed slightly , you realized it was n't staring at you , it was staring behind you .

I looked at him; `` Gorgeous!'' I said; and hummed a sweet little tune I had heard another child's mother sing to it from last week's sit. What are behind those little glistening eyes I wondered, and felt the incoherent sounds dribble out his mouth and into the room. 
 It was an odd night in the standard three bedroom family home. The parents called me on last minute's notice and did n't have time to say any more than `` Keep the doors locked while you're inside''. Maybe the baby was full of mischief? It seemed like an ordinary request. 
 I had set myself up in the living room next to the hallway opening as it was well lit and I liked hearing all the sounds around me. It had a nice armchair which was positioned well to the TV, and gave me plenty of room to put the baby on some blankets. 
 I had been seeing a new boy and he had been texting me the whole time. He did n't know I was a babysitter so I told him I was working. `` Do n't assume the clown in the bedroom is a statue'' he texted with a teasing smiley. We'd all heard the fable of the clown murdering the unsuspecting baby sitter, and it honestly shook me a little. Remembering what the parents said to me, I shuddered at the thought that there was a more fearful reason for the request. 
 I got up from the chair, and with a bit of rummaging I found the TV remote. I sat back down and tried to turn it on. It was an old TV, a body twice as large as the screen. When I hit the power button, it turned on to static for an instant, and then right back off again. I tried this a few more times but it would n't work. I'd forgotten to bring a book or anything, so this really bothered me, but I resolved to just play with the baby. Sometimes they can be fun. 
 I picked him up and sat him on the chair with me, holding him arm's reach forward and wobbling him around. He did n't seem to care, but after a while he started to form a grin. He was looking right at me, and I smiled back. I remembered my English teacher once telling me that babies were very adaptive creatures, and they would sometimes smile if they felt threatened, because people were less likely to hurt a child that was smiling at them. I do n't remember if he cited any proof, but it was interesting nonetheless. While I was thinking to myself, the baby continued to smile, unrelenting. I was still holding him in front, and a sudden outside windy clang reminded me there was a hallway behind me. 
 Suddenly, my eyes widened and the ice cold prickle of my hairs standing up shot through me. The baby was n't looking at me and I was frozen. I felt a presence looming over me and I could n't force myself to move. Fear was all I could feel and I could n't bring myself to look away from the baby's eyes and grin. 
 For what felt like an eternity, but was possibly five minutes, the silence broke the fear. I could n't accept a murderous clown would wait so long to end me, and turned to follow the gaze of the baby. My heart sunk and I felt stupid. Relief washed over me, the kind I'd feel at the end of a horror movie when I was young. 
 There it was, the baby was staring at a photo of his parents on hung on the wall, and all he did was miss them. I smiled back.
