Pizza Face

I am 19 now, and I was probably about 16 when this happened, yet I remember it all very well, and to this day it still gives me the shivers. I will probably freak out as I type it, considering whenever I relay it verbally, I do!

I was babysitting a little girl named Alyson, who was about four at the time, to earn some extra money. I had watched her on several occasions, and she was my then-best friend's cousin, so I saw her all the time. During all the time I had spent at her house, I never had any overly creepy feelings, save the fact that I was alone in a house with a little girl who was my sole responsibility, sometimes late at night. I also never got the impression that she had an invisible friend...

One night, I was watching her. It was dinner time, but it was already dark out, as we live in Maine and it is often dark by 6 p.m. during the winter months. I had cooked her a Kid Cuisine (a child's T.V. dinner) for a special treat and had just settled her into her booster seat with her meal in front of her.

We had been watching one of her movies, The Fox and the Hound, and it was still playing in the living room. I left it on, mostly for background noise, as I am not a person that likes a lot of quiet. In fact, I even have my television set on right now.

Anyway, where she was sitting, the living room was behind her. The wall was divided in a unique way, and the best way to describe it is that the wall only goes up halfway to the ceiling, and there is a part in the center for the doorway. So you can see into the living room from the dining room- it's nice and spacious.

Their large screen T.V. was in the corner of this divider, and the screen was facing away from the dining room. Because of some of the plants sitting on the divider, I couldn't even see the top of the huge T.V.

Sorry for all the details, but they are important.

Anyway, she started to eat her dinner and I sat across from her, facing the living room. We started to have one of our normal conversations, probably about her day or something. Nothing unusual.

Then, all of a sudden, the movie stopped and began to rewind. This may not sound strange to people who have a new VCR, as most of them rewind the movie on their own when it is done. However, it wasn't done. There also wasn't a glitch or wrinkle in the tape. As the tape rewound, the television set shut off by itself- not something ANY T.V. does. There wasn't power failure or a light flicker or anything. Several other things were plugged in and weren't affected.

But that's not the worst of it... This is the part that truly gives me the chills.

As soon as all of this happened, Alyson abruptly stopped talking. She became totally serious and gave me an exasperated look, much like a mother would when she is upset with her belligerent child. She slammed her fork down on the table, turned in her booster seat so that she was facing the living room, and said, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT AGAIN!"

She then turned back at me, rolled her eyes (a popular thing to do at her age) and said, "He never listens to me."
I thought I was going to puke, I was so scared.
"Who?" I asked.
"Pizza Face."
Again, the pukey feeling.
"Why do you call him Pizza Face?"
"Because," she said, making a disgusted look and touching her face, "his face looks like pizza."

We're talking about a four year old, who most likely hasn't heard of the term "pizza face" as related to pimples, and who probably wouldn't equate the two considering it's pretty advanced thinking. The only idea I had was that his face had been burned or was rotting or something equally disgusting.

Then she leaned toward me and said, "He told me I could tell you about him, but you can't tell Adie (her cousin) or Mom."

I agreed.

I don't know anything about the history of the house and who lived there before, or even who lives there now. Alyson and her family have since moved out of state and I haven't, unfortunately, spoken to her in a long time. I am not sure if anything strange happened there in the past, or if anything is going on now. All I know is this is probably the creepiest thing that ever happened to me. I stayed up with all the lights on until Alyson's mother came home that night!