How To Baby-sit Your Grudge

A/N Here we go~ I finally finished the story I promised my hundredth reviewer, miss Hadies baby girl. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing whatso ever. Heck, I don't even own the title, a friend made it up for me.

Katherine Krueger massaged her temples as she finally stretched out on her bed. She had just finished moving into her new apartment, far away from Springwood and Elmstreet and that man. Even if they had blown him up, she still wasn't sure if he had really and truly died. It seemed likely that he would manage to somehow come back again. She wanted no part of that.

The only problem she was having so far was work. She couldn't, for the life of her, find a job. Her resume didn't have much other then her job as a child psychologist. For whatever reason, not many businesses wanted to hire her with only that job. She'd have to get a job at a fast food restaurant or something at the rate she was being turned down.

The woman covered her eyes, trying to just relax for one night before she had to jump into the stress of getting a new job. Stress was bad, stress was very bad. Especially when it made her start to. . . Was that a. . . Just what kind of noise was that? It sounded like a creaking, but it was more living, almost. More like a frog croaking, really. It was disturbing, yet somehow familiar.

She removed her hands and screamed at the pale expressionless face that hovered about her. A hand quickly covered her mouth. The woman struggled, kicking against the spirit. No, if she got away from Freddy, she'd get away from this thing to! Damnit what was with everything trying to kill her.

Then, just as fast as she had appeared, the Grudge was gone, on the foot of her bed, chattering at her. She felt something in her hand, and when the woman looked down she found a crumpled piece of paper. She looked up and then hesitantly unfolded it.

I heard you needed a job Nightmare Kitty. What the hell was up with that nickname? Why was she being called that? Either way, she kept her mouth shut and kept reading. I have one for you, if you are interested.

The woman was hesitant, to say the least. After all, it wasn't normal that normally bitchy and murderous spirits would offer people jobs. She hoped it wouldn't be murdering someone or something.

"What. . . What kind of job are we talking about?" Okay, so she was desperate to not flip burgers, but if it was murder she was opting out. The Grudge made a sort of gurgling laughing sound and pointed off to the side. Katherine hesitantly followed the finger, and blinked when she saw a young boy there, the same skin tone and expression as the Grudge, though much less intimidating.

Now, Katherine was smart, and it didn't take her long to figure out what the other woman wanted. ". . . A baby sitting job? That's it?" When she got a jerky, almost spazzy nod, she let out a sigh of relief.

Baby sitting was easy, after all. She could take care of the kid easy. She looked back up to the woman and smiled. "I'm in. . . but how much do I get paid?" She was answered with more croaking and another note. Katherine looked at the note and laughed a bit.

Your expenses will be taken care of. All of them. Just keep him out of trouble. Well, that seemed easy. After all, he was just a kid, and she was a child psychologist? How hard could it be?

If only she knew.

Tip Number One: Grudges are very picky eaters.

After the woman left, the boy immediately looked up at her with his wide eyes and placed his hands on his stomach. It was clear he was hungry, at least she thought so, but she didn't know what to feed him. She went to her fridge and rifled though it, jumping when she turned and he was seated at the table, staring at her. She sighed, though, and set the first thing down, some cookies. The boy sniffed at them, then shook his head.

Katherine frowned a bit, but put them back. Okay, so he didn't like cookies. Maybe ramen?

And so it went. She would set food in front of him and he would deny it. Some foods would appear in the garbage when she turned around, but others were just left there. It was fairly off, but she didn't question it.

Her creations began to get more and more wild. Soon she was offering him ice, cereal, condiments by themselves, condiments on everything else, bones, even going so far as to set a few bowls of random toppings in front of him. He denied everything, and pretty soon her fridge was near empty, save for one thing.

She pulled out the package of hamburgers she had been saving for dinner for herself and turned to him.

"Do you like burgers?" She set them on the table and went to grab a pan, turning quickly as she heard a ripping sound. The burgers were gone, the mangled wrapping on the table, and blood around the boy's mouth. Well, okay then. She sighed and grabbed a paper towel, putting some water on it and walking over to him.

"Well, now I know what you eat. . . But what do you want to do now?" She patted at the blood, rubbing it off after a few minutes. The boy yawned sleepily. Okay. . . Looked like it was nap time.

Tip Number Two: Grudges need sleep. Only one thing gets them there.

Okay, the boy was in the bed. Now why wouldn't he go to sleep? He seemed tired, but he was looking around restlessly for something. Maybe he needed a teddy bear? She dug through the boxes, trying to see if she could find anything that he might be able to use as a teddy bear. She was an adult, though, and didn't have anything stuffed.

Her next search was for a small blanket. Maybe that would make him feel better about being there. She actually managed to find one, but he didn't seem to want it. He sorta threw it across the room, anyway, so she imagined that he didn't like it. She figured not anyway.

At about that time she stopped focusing on the 'something to snuggle' and focused on something else. She found a book of fairy tales, but he threw that too. She was a bit weary about getting anything that could be broken near the kid, as he seemed to like throwing things across the room.

Finally, she decided to go by an old saying her adoptive mother used to use. "Music sooths the savage beast." So she figured she could at least try. It took her a few moments on youtube to find a playlist of soothing songs, and when she set it down near him and started to play them, he actually yawned again and curled up. Huh. She hadn't actually been expecting that to work.

She decided to get a head start and finding things for play time.

Tip Number Three: When weird shit happens, just ignore it.

Katherine used the nap time to go sit down and try and figure out what the hell was going on. She was still recovering from figuring out more things then just her father actually existed, and she was baby sitting one of them. She spent a minute wondering if Freddy could somehow get into the Grudge kid's dreams when the light above her flickered.

The woman looked up at it, then flinched and covered her head as the light bulb literally blew up above her. She shook the glass off, looking back up to the light socket. What the fuck? She shook her head a bit and stood up, walking over to flick the light switch off. She had no idea what the hell just happened, but she was pretty sure it was dangerous to leave the light on like that.

She decided then that maybe it would be best to go check on the boy (she really needed to learn his name), when she felt something furry brush against her leg. She didn't have any pets, and the contact made her jump back with a small yelp. She looked down to see a cat. The creature looked at her for a moment, then darted off, vanishing. She looked, but she couldn't find it. And there was no way it could have gotten in her house.

When she got upstairs, the boy was still sleeping, so she turned her laptop and opened a new tab, searching up his name. "Toshio Saeki, huh? Alright then. . ." She hoped that was the right one, and at least she'd have something to refer to him now. She glanced over at the boy, nearly jumping again when she realized he was sitting up and staring at her.

"Um. . . Hi there. So what do you want to do now?" Which lead to. . .

Tip Number Four: When in doubt, bubble wrap.

As a fully grown woman with no children, Katherine didn't have toys children might like. She didn't have any actual toys at all, but she figured that play time came next, so she had to look around for something that she might be able to pass off as a toy. She was opening the boxes, digging around for anything at least somewhat distracting when she heard an odd sounds. It was a popping.

She had no idea what he managed to find, and only hoped it wasn't a string of fire crackers Tracy might have given her as a going away present.

What she found was much less sinister, though. Toshio was sitting on the floor, playing with bubble wrap. She couldn't believe she hadn't figure out that was all it was before. But, if that was all he was doing, then she guessed it would be okay if he played with it for a while. She sat nearby and watched to make sure he didn't eat it or anything.

With her luck he'd stop being picky about what went in his mouth the second he got something inedible in his hands.

Tip Numer Five: Avoid Water. At all costs.

Katherine really hoped that the kid's mom would be there soon. Even keeping up with four of her charges in Springwood had been easier then making sure this kid was taken care for. At least she knew how to take care of human kids, she was still trying to figure out how to handle this one. It was very tiring.

The woman reached into her fridge, pulling out a bottle of water. She was thirsty, and she hadn't really bought anything else. The woman opened the bottle and took a swig, walking out into the living room to check on the boy.

He peered up as she walked in. Suddenly there was a sound like a cat dying and he was behind the couch, trembling. She gulped and dropped the bottle. Once it was out of site, he crawled out, then started to hiss at the puddle of water on the floor.

Water. Bad idea.

And so the day went. She learned new things about the boy, how to take care of him, how to keep him from getting hurt, how to be sure he didn't hurt someone else while she was watching him, et cetera.

When it was time for him to go, she realized that, despite everything, it had actually been kind of fun to take care of him. She waved as his mom pulled him out, making her strange croaking noise. It wasn't until they were gone that she noticed the note on the floor. She quickly walked over and scooped it up. A fifty dollar bill fell out when she unfolded it, and she noted words on the inside.

See you tomorrow.

Oh, fuck.