A baby pressed his face against the wall every hour, always in the same place. His father thought it was just a phase. But when the child finally spoke, he uttered three words that shed light on everything. And the truth was absolutely terrifying.
One morning, Ethan, a one-year-old boy, walked to the corner of his room and pressed his face flat against the wall. He remained there, completely motionless, without moving, without making the slightest sound. David, her father, gently pushed her aside. But an hour later, Ethan did it again, over and over again.
By the end of the day, this was happening every hour. Ethan would turn around, walk silently towards the wall, and press his face forcefully into it, as if he were hiding from something. No laughter, no games, only total stillness. Sometimes for a whole minute, sometimes until someone gently removes it.
David had been raising Ethan alone since his wife had passed away during childbirth. He tried everything to understand this behavior, but the doctors said it was nothing serious, just a phase. Still, it didn’t feel like a phase.
Over the next few days, David noticed something frightening. Every time Ethan approached the wall, it was always the same exact corner, the same precise spot. He moved all the furniture, looked for mold, checked for drafts, but found nothing. Something was wrong with this corner. Something cold and disturbing.
David began working in the child’s room at night, just to watch Ethan sleep. But the behavior facing the wall never occurred during the nap. Only when he was awake, only when David wasn’t looking closely.
Then came the frightful scream. It was exactly 2:14 a.m. The baby monitor suddenly burst out with a piercing, horrible scream. David jumped out of bed, his heart pounding.
When he arrived in the room, Ethan was back in the corner, his face pressed tightly against the wall, his little hands clenched in fists, his whole body trembling. David immediately seized him, murmuring:
“You’re safe. You’re safe.
But Ethan was scratching David’s chest, desperately trying to turn around to look at the wall again. That was the first night that David wept because of it. Something was really wrong. The next morning, he called a child psychologist.
“I don’t want to sound crazy,” David said, “but I think my baby is trying to tell me something.” Something he can’t express in words… and it’s terrifying.
The psychologist, Dr. Mitchell, came to see them the next day. She watched Ethan, played with him, spoke to him softly, and finally he walked to that same corner and pressed his face against the wall again. Dr. Mitchell seemed concerned.
“David,” she asked in a low voice, “has anyone else entered this house since your wife’s death?”
“No,” he replied, “only nurses, but none of them stayed more than a month.”
Ethan cried every time they entered the room. All of them have resigned. Dr. Mitchell asked if she could talk to Ethan alone for a few minutes, through a two-way mirror in his office. David hesitated, then finally agreed.
The moment David walked out of the room, the baby didn’t cry. He simply walked to the corner and turned his face back to the wall.
Several minutes passed. Then Ethan began to make small sounds. At first, no one understood what he was saying, only almost inaudible murmurs. Dr. Mitchell leaned forward in her chair, her mouth parted in amazement. When David returned, she was extremely pale.
“He spoke real words,” she said in a low voice.
David was confused.
“He scarcely speaks yet.”
“I know it,” she answered. But I’m absolutely certain he said, “I don’t want her back.”
David stopped moving completely.
“What did he say?”
“That’s exactly what I heard him say. I don’t want her to come back.
The room remained plunged into total silence. Ethan was sitting on the floor, still looking at the wall. David stared at his son, feeling a tight knot form in his chest. He knelt beside him, his hands trembling.
“Ethan,” he murmured in a scarcely steady voice. Who? Who do you not want her to come back?
The silence stretched interminably. The child turned so slowly that time seemed to stand still. His large, terrified, strangely serious blue eyes stared directly at his father’s. The tears began to shine there. David held his breath. The room seemed to become colder.
Then, in a voice so soft that it almost sounded like a phantom breath, Ethan uttered three words that would haunt David forever.
— The Lady of the Wall.
Every word fell like ice into David’s soul. The world was turned upside down. His heart didn’t just stop—it broke. The air seemed to leave the room. Time fractured. And in that moment, David knew for sure that his worst nightmares had been real all along.
David felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. Her baby, barely able to put two words together, had just whispered something that no child so small should know. The lady of the wall. The words echoed in his head like an alarm.
Dr. Mitchell was deeply upset.
“It could be a sign of a trauma he has suffered,” she said. You mentioned that there was a succession of nannies.
“Yes,” replied David slowly. All of them have resigned. Ethan cried when they entered the room, especially with one of them. Amélie… I hardly remember her. She only stayed for a week. Ethan didn’t sleep anymore, hardly ate anything.
Dr. Mitchell’s eyebrows furrowed.
— Do you have any video recordings from that period?
David’s blood ran cold. The baby monitor, of course. With trembling fingers, he rummaged through the old videos saved online. File after file was gone. Only one recording remained, dating back eight months. His cursor hung above it. Did he really want to see this? He pressed play.
The screen came alive in grainy black and white. A tall woman, dressed in a black sweater, entered the room. She was moving like a predator, too calm, abnormally calm. Ethan was playing on the floor with his colored blocks. The woman approached. And then everything changed. The exact second she approached, Ethan froze like prey. Every muscle in her little body stiffens.
Then, in a movement dictated by pure panic, he crawled to the corner and smashed his face against the wall, as if to hide, to protect himself. The woman stood there, watching, waiting. And David’s soul was broken. She smiles. Not a human smile. A smile belonging to nightmares.
But what followed was even worse. Amelie approached the corner where Ethan was hiding. She leaned over and whispered something directly toward the wall against which her son pressed his face. Ethan’s little body began to tremble.
Then she did something that made David’s blood run cold. She grabbed Ethan by the shoulders and forced him to stay in that corner for almost three full minutes as he tried to escape. When she finally released him, she patted him on the head like a docile animal and left the frame.
David’s hand shook so violently that he almost let go of the computer.
Dr. Mitchell finished her thought:
“It’s child abuse, David. It’s a trauma. You should report this immediately.
David takes himself.
“No. No one will ever hurt my son again.
He called the agency of nurses. They hesitated, then revealed that Amélie had used false papers. His number no longer worked. David contacted a private investigator who specializes in tracing people. Two days later, the investigator, a man named Laurent, returned with disturbing news.
Amélie’s real name was Amélie Judith Moreau. She had a criminal record. Three different families had reported her for aggressive behaviour towards children.
“She’s been doing this for years,” said Laurent gloomily. She changes cities, uses false documents, targets single parents.
The police were immediately alerted. Amélie worked for another family in a neighboring town. It was arrested in forty-eight hours.
The next night, Ethan refused to sleep in his room. David moved his bed to his own room. For the first time in weeks, Ethan slept peacefully. But at 3:07 a.m., David woke up. Ethan was no longer in his bed. He was in the hallway, his face against the wall.
— Ethan !
David ran to him. The child turned round, his lips trembling.
“She has returned,” he murmured.
David held him close.
“No, you’re safe with Dad. She will not return. The police took her away.
The next day, David made a decision. He completely transformed the room. New bright yellow paint, new furniture, new layout. The dreaded corner became the location of Ethan’s toy box, covered in dinosaur stickers and rockets.
Dr. Mitchell organized play therapy sessions. Little by little, Ethan changed. He laughed more. He was playing. He stopped going to the corners.
Three weeks after the arrest, David entered the living room and saw his son laughing as he built a tower of blocks. This time, Ethan was smiling. David’s eyes filled with tears of relief.
A few months later, the prosecutor announced that Amélie was charged with multiple counts of abuse. She would go to jail. David did not feel victorious. Only grateful that her son is safe.
On Ethan’s second birthday, David knelt beside him.
“You are the bravest child I know…” and you’re safe now.
Ethan laughed and ran to play. But sometimes, late at night, David still wakes up to check that everything is okay. Not because he fears spirits, but because he now knows that the real monsters are human… and that a father’s duty is to keep them at a distance.
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