At first, the parents thought it was normal. Babies cry at night. They wake for feeding, for comfort, for reasons no one can explain. But soon, they noticed a pattern.
Every night, at exactly 10:17 p.m., their newborn let out a sharp, piercing cry. Not 10:16. Not 10:18. Always 10:17.
They checked everything — temperature, feeding schedule, colic, even the noise of pipes in the old house. Nothing explained it. The baby would sleep peacefully until that precise minute, then wail uncontrollably until the clock turned 10:18.
Neighbors began to whisper when they heard the story. One older woman swore something terrible had once happened in the house at that exact time. Another suggested it wasn’t the house at all, but the child himself who was connected to something unseen.
The father tried staying awake, watching the clock as the minute hand crept closer. When 10:17 struck, the baby cried out — and for a split second, the father swore he heard another cry too, faint, distant, coming from somewhere beyond the walls.
The family even tried moving. A new apartment, new neighborhood, new crib. But on the very first night, as the clock turned 10:17, the child screamed again.
To this day, the baby — now a toddler — still wakes at the same time, his small face pale and wet with tears. When asked why, he only mutters the same chilling phrase:
“They don’t want me to sleep.”
