Chicken Dinner
A first hand report of the story originally reported in The Montréal Mirror in 1964:
A mother and father decided they needed a break, not having much alone time in the almost a year since their young son, Toby, was born. They wanted to have a night out, dinner, maybe a movie, and the honeymoon suite at a local hotel to possibly give Toby a little brother or sister. They called their most trusted babysitter, who unfortunately was already engaged for the evening. But she did refer a good friend of hers, Opal, who she swore could be trusted. They spoke with the new babysitter and agreed to have her arrive no later than 6:30 so the parents could get an early start.
As the parents got ready to paint the town red, Toby lay on the floor, gnawing on his teething ring in the den off to the back of the house. At shortly after 6:20 the father walked past the open doorway and saw an elderly woman sitting in the rocking chair facing the child, her back to the doorway. The father was slightly startled as his wife hadn’t mentioned the sitter had arrived. He spoke to her as he straightened his tie in the mirror on wall opposite the doorway.
“Oh my, I’m sorry I didn’t hear you come in. We appreciate you coming on such short notice. My wife put some a chicken in the oven for you. The numbers for the restaurant and hotel are on the counter if you need to reach us. We will be home around 9 tomorrow morning. Goodbye Toby, I love you.”
He hurried down the hallway as his wife was coming down the stairs, meeting her at the bottom his wife asked “What were you saying dear”
“Oh nothing, I was just giving the sitter instructions, now we should hurry so we can make our reservation on time.” he replied grabbing his coat as he unlocked the front door.
They went to the car and were in such a rush they didn’t notice the car pull into the drive way not 15 seconds after they pulled out. They proceeded to have the best night out they could remember. The wife become somewhat concerned shortly after arriving at the hotel when she called home and no one answered. The husband calmed her as he pulled her into bed, kissing her neck.
“Don’t worry dear, she’s an older lady and it’s almost 10, she must have gone to bed after putting Toby down.”
**************
The next morning after a nice breakfast they arrived home to find a note on the door. It read:
“I arrived at 6:30 as agreed but no one was home.
If you had made other plans I would have appreciated
if someone had called me.
Opal”
The husband gave his wife a confused look as she put a hand to her mouth and her face turned white. She threw open the front door calling out for her son. There was no reply, in fact there was no sound at all in the house, just the smell or some burned meat. She ran up the stairs as her husband raced to the back of the house the find the kitchen filled with smoke. He turned off the stove and used pot holders to grab the smoldering pan or charred meat and drop it in the sink. His wife came into the kitchen crying into her hands
“He’s not here! Toby’s gone! She took him!”
The husband then took her in his arms as she cried. It was then that he noticed blood on the lid of the trash can. A pit formed in his stomach as he left his wife and opened the trash can. He exhaled as he realized that it was only the chicken his wife had made. It was then that his eyes shot wide open as his wife let out a fresh scream of horror. As he turned toward her, he caught sight of the melted remains of the teething ring on the bottom of the open oven.
A nice take on this story. Usually the babysitter just gets high and roasts the baby instead of the poultry.
Jesus Christ! That’s messed up, even by creepypasta standards. Did not want.
First comment! :3
Nice pasta, stupid parents. Oh by the way,
WHO WAS CHICKEN?
Sorry, had to do it.
The way this story is written defies its claim that it was a first-hand account. A first-hand account would be written with more specific details and probably would contain less colloquialisms. It might have quotes from the parents about what they thought and their regrets, etc. It also probably wouldn’t end with the stinger. A more believable approach to the premise might have made this much creepier.
Ignoring that flaw, this story is still pretty lame.
The chicken-child oven switch is a really old trope. When I read the title and the beginning of this one, I thought I was getting set up for a retelling of the old story with the stoned baby-sitter who accidentally baked the baby and put the turkey to bed. This sets me up with expectations for something weak on the outset and I’ve already lost my suspension of disbelief.
The pacing is weak. There’s an absolute lack of cleverness. It’s crappypasta all over.
One more thing: The final reveal is fucking ridiculous. If the chicken had already been in the oven for as long as the story suggests, there’s little chance any remaining blood could be mistaken for human. The writer of this one needs more experience cooking meat.
I’ve heard this story before. Though this is more elaborate. I like it.
Knew it was coming, still shat a brick. Always epic when a child dies >_>
Silly parents dont know the delight of consuming children.
Shit. It isn’t creepy in the slightest.
How did she get inside?
meh a little disturbing but meh none teh less
Honestly, it was just too predictable. The old lady=not the babysitter part was the immediate conclusion I came to when the guy first saw her, and even though I hadn’t even heard of this stoned babysitter/baked kid cliche until I read the comments, I figured out the kid was in the oven when the narrator got to the part with the blood on the trash. There was no real build up in between, either, and if there had been it would give a person more time to doubt their initial conclusion. And if the lady had been more believable, instead of being creepy and mute, that would have made less red flags go up. Oh, and the car thing can just be omitted entirely.
Also, I sort of agree Brian Ross II, in that it didn’t at all sound like a first-hand account. I mean, who went following the couple around like a stalker? If it is first-hand, the narrator is scarier than the old lady who cooked the kid.
Knew how it was going to end the entire time.
I like to be surprized.
My rating: 4/10 mostly because of lack of originality
Emre = Fail on so many levels!
This story is so overdone it’s not even scary anymore; although the thing about the teething ring made it worse. I have a 9 month old myself and thusly I don’t like the thought of something like this happening to him.
i watched a show about this story yesterday! and ew. im freakin afraid of babysitters now.
The title gave away the whole story, really, if you’ve read enough creepypasta to know the generic plots.
But that doesn’t change the fact that this kind of story is always disgusting and enraging.
obligatory BUT WHO WAS OLD LADY?
I saw that coming ten miles away. As soon as I read the title and the part with the old lady, I knew what was going to happen. Blah. Predictable. Baby gets cooked in oven. Blah. Cliché.
I don’t like the name Opal.
Much better ending.
Brian Ross, you are the most annoying person on the planet. We all hate you.
I don’t get it. At least when the babysitter is on acid, there’s an explanation as to why the baby got cooked. There’s no explanation as to who the mystery lady is. Is she a ghost, a random psycho who wandered in, WHAT? And why didn’t the parents at least ask a question like ‘oh, are you Opal? How did you get into the house?’ My suspension of disbelief does not remain suspended,
I agree with the long comment. The grammar errors completely detached me from the tale, and it was just a stupid rehash of an old urban legend.
2/10. The 2 is only because I had high hopes for this.
this is like, the one horror story thats older than the “when a stranger calls” one.
no retelling can make it any better, either.
especially not this one.
(:
This tale is more depressing than terrifying…
This isn’t scary, it’s just gross and terrible, not to mention unoriginal.
Pretty lame. And the Montreal Mirror isn’t really a conventional newspaper. It’s an indie free paper.
balls mahoney does not like this pasta
-balls mahoney
Maybe this is a lame creepypasta, but I’d love to see a movie with this storyline.
Good thing my dad just left me home alone. And never with a so called “babysitter”. Om Nom Nom.
She went to all the trouble of cooking, and she didn’t eat it?
I hate it when good food goes to waste.
it wasn’t too original, I knew it was coming, but I still shat bricks. poor kid.
Ah-mazing.
Though it could have had a happier ending.
It made me lol, ending could be seen from 40 lightyears away.
even though it was completely obvious how it was going to end, it’s still really frickin disturbing.
I’ve never heard this story or any version of it, but I’m glad that the story wasn’t the babysitter getting high and putting the kid in the oven because that would just piss me off.
I’ve read enough stories with babysitters to know that babysitters alone with children always leads to bad stuff (either the babysitter/children dying from a maniac or the children dying from the babysitter).
Despite all that…
that is still some fucked up shit!!
predictable pasta was predictable.
It may be the oldest pasta in the world, but a nice retelling.
Now, I’m just kind of going crazy wondering what the old woman’s face looked like…
The ending was predictable, I agree, but it was really well written and still had a major creep factor (partially because of it’s predictability).
I think some people, like Brian Ross, forget that not everyone has been reading Creepypasta and urban legends as devoutly as they have for the better parts of their lives. Let the newfags enjoy the pasta for now if they like… if you really think about it, every pasta is cliche, hence the origin of the title Creepypasta: copy paste.
TL;DR - GrammerNazis and ClicheClaimers need to STFU and loosen up a bit, waaaay too up tight.
I have heard this before, as an urban legend. The babysitter was a hippie and she acccidentaly roasts the baby…
@Alice: Lolwut?
Do you know what site you’re on?
Nice twist on a classic legend..
Opal.
That sounds like a name straight out of some babysitter porn.
Eh, it was ok. It kind of seems like you just mashed together a few classic babysitter stories, but it’s still well written and entertaining.
3.5/5? Is that legal?
Writer here. Thanks for all the comments, good and bad. This was my 2nd attempt at a creepy pasta ever. I wrote it really late/early 2 days ago in about 45 minutes. I really should have gone through and checked the grammar a bit more but I was half asleep.
I should also mention that this was intended to be a rewrite/mashup of the Angel statue story. Oddly enough I have heard/read the babysitter on drugs story but did not think of it once while writing this. so any connection to it is unintended.
In refference to the blood on the trashcan, very true, I actually changed the ending shortly before posting and forgot to fix that little mistake. I didnt put enough details in about how the chicken wasnt in there very long at all when the parents left.
About the old lady: I purposely made it so you couldnt tell if she was human, ghost, or demon. though I made an attemptto hint at her being supernatural with the line about the father unlocking the front door, I could have gone into more detail about it. I placed the story in the 60s because it was a more innocent time. Thats why the father doesnt wonder how she got into the house because he thinks his wife let her in and just forgot to tell him.
About the narrative: I MEANT to put a line or two in there detailing how this is a rough timeline constructed from the police notes regarding the interviews of both parents and Opal. which is why it gives details that shouldnt be able to be given by just one person.
and lastly, about the newspaper: thats just plain laziness on my part. I googled montreal newspapers and picked one at random.
I actually have a better ending to this that I was hoping to intercept this being posted with, but oh well. maybe I can get this replaced with my new version.
Meh. First hand? Not believable. Also, why the hell would some random old lady just come into the house & decide that tonight she’s going to cook a baby when his parent’s are out? Mmkay.
Not to mention, why wouldn’t the mother want to say goodbye to her son if she cared about him so much as well as speak with the babysitter?
Jeez. :3
it could use a bit of a fix up, but it has a LOT of potential. i like the idea that it was a deranged lady that roasted the baby instead of just a ghost or something.
Old premise is ooooold. I knew the ending from the first sentence.
moldy pasta
Sorry, but this was extremely predictable. When I read the title and then got to the part where it said “But she did refer a good friend of hers opal, who she swore could be trusted.” I sorta saw it coming, even though it wasn’t opal.
So, honestly, I’d never heard the stoned babysitter chicken/baby oven-switch before. The story reminded me of something that happened to me as a baby, so I was thinking of that and this ending was largely unexpected, but no less.. not great.
My story was that there was apparently an elderly woman’s spirit living in my old house. (Sometimes my mom or sister would see a woman with a grey bun walk down the hall from the corner of their eye; I would hear a piano playing at night while I was falling asleep, and after moving from the house, I learned my mom had heard the same thing. Stuff like that)
I shared a room with my older sister when I was a colicky baby (basically that means I cried a lot for no reason). One night after everyone had gone to bed, I started bawling, and my sister didn’t want to get up to deal with me. But then I stopped. She rolled over to see a woman seated at the end of her bed, cradling me, and she went back to sleep.
In the morning, she thanked my mother for coming in to silence me, but my mom replied, “What? I thought you had done it?”
I never entirely believed them, but it was a comforting story when I was a kid.
awww, poor kid.
Not creepy at all, I just feel bad for the kid.
0/10 pasta.
This one gave me a feeling between that slow crawling feeling up your throat when you’re about to cry and that sick feeling minutes before you throw up… But not quite that… Not fear, not chills, just… disgust… but not really. That was weird.
God damn old lady. Doesn’t she know there are people starving in Africa with no baby’s to eat. If your going to make food at least attempt to clean your plate.
nice twist on a classic legend
But the call was coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE.
Rehashed. It’s been done before so many times that I actually didn’t even bother reading the middle part, and I didn’t even need to read the ending because the first sentence gave it away. I read it anyway, just to make sure I was right and didn’t just sound like a ranting, uninformed douchecock at the end here. I also think that you should invest in a keyboard that has more commas on it so that you won’t be so stingy with them in the future.
Additionally, the word, “or,” is not an appropriate substitute for the word, “of.” It was done twice in a row, within like 2 sentences of each other. That annoyed me almost as much as the fact that you copy pasted this story out of one of those $7 “Creepy Ghost Stories III” books. Try harder.
Actually, I think I’d prefer it if you just never tried again.
1/10
Opal. Sounds like a name straight out of a babysitter porn flick.
predictable
yeah predictable but still…. who was the old lady? O.O
It’s a good story, creepy and kinda weird
But too predictable
Once it said “parents gone for the night with sitter” it was obvious
and the old lady gimmick was too easy too, why would a teenager recommend an old lady
Predictable, but still a decent pasta.
Baby roast! Baby roast!
It’s alllll riiiight.
Jeez, parents are so over-protective these days. I went out the back door for a smoke with the old lady!
So the kindly old woman decided to make me dinner, eh? I approve. They don’t call me the Feaster for nothing, you know…
Eh…. pasta was predictable, but a good second attempt at one. Roasted baby was a plus, but was more fucked up than creepy.
Way WAY too predictable. OP gives it away at multiple points, including the title.
what shit stupid parents. heeeey, let’s call a babysitter and then just assume that some old lady who magically showed up in the house is the babysitter.
didn’t like this pasta, would’ve preferred roast baby over this.
ohh i know this story
its a classic.
I bet they at least finished the baby. OM NOM NOM NOM
it’s the dad’s freaking fault for thinking that old lady was the babysitter. I’m assuming that the trusted babysitter who had plans that night was around 16-20 ish. She refered her friend not her grandmother lord.
Pasta was good, but I couldn’t take it seriously due to my own connection of the name “Toby” with Labyrinth. Damn you, Bowie.
A completely shitty story that’s just trying to disturb people. A Pauly Shore stand up routine is creepier than this.
The way this is written is extremely irritating and incorrect. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the person wrote it better. Ridiculous
I mean, I knew what was going to happen, but I still liked this take on it.
BUT WHO WAS ROCKING CHAIR?
I’ve watched a show about this.
i heard of this story before… lol but when i started to read this i know what was going to happen but still…i love this stories idea of the babysitter cooking the baby not the chicken
also in the version i heard the babysitter put the chicken in the cradle and the baby in the oven ……lol
Too Predictible D:<
That whole first part about being a newspaper is rather unnecessary, given the format of the main body.
Other than that, it’s reasonably interesting.
I love babies.
DO NOT WANT DO NOT WANT DO NOT WANT DO NOT WANT
BUT WHO WAS OLD LADY?
ah i thought it was really good…i kinda wish that you would given more of a story to the old lady but y’know what it doesn’t matter still good stuff anyways
“My wife put some a chicken in the oven for you.”
I remember reading a story similar to this one where the babysitter was some hippie chick that got high and put the baby in the oven and the turkey in the crib.
LOL The Montreal Mirror is a free monthly paper that has movie listings. This was so gay from the start.
Love,
a Montrealer
BUT WHO WAS CHICKEN?
Knew how this was going to end when I saw ‘wife put a chicken in the oven’.
Read it anyway.
Felt horrible as expected.
If I got it that fast, this was awful.
It was predictable, but still very disturbing.
lol’d at the title. Predictable even if I hadn’t heard a story like this before.
Well there’s a creepy old lady sitting in my house.
Must be the babysitter.
I really want a KFC.
“Toby! Throw the old woman out!”
The most disturbing thing is MY old babysitter was a fat old lady named Opal…
Dont listen to what the negative idiots say. i liked it. keep up the good work,man.
Very, very, creepy. The only problem was that it was also very predictable. As soon as the father mistook the old woman for the babysitter, I knew exactly how the story was going to end.
Good pasta but very cliche. I’ve heard this story twisted many ways and I honestly knew what the ending would be by the time she said “there’s chicken in the oven”.
I expected the random old lady to be a ghost or something, never really explained how she got there.
The montreal mirror didn’t exist until the 80’s.
failure.
the thing that makes this freaky is that it can actually happen.
Well played. Shortie but goodie.
Holy shit, Thats creepy
VelocityRaptor, you have no idea how to use the word “epic” correctly.
hahahahahaha dead baby.
hahahahahaha dead baby.
the fact that it was called chicken dinner instantly made me think mostly about the oven and cooking. and i kinda had the idea the baby was gonna be cooked as soon as she mentioned the chicken dinner in there (as i also knew this woman wasn’t the babysitter) and i knew for sure the baby was dead as soon as they got home. i knew it was in the oven.
DAMN! she fuckin’ cooked the baby. that’s fucked up.