My son Sam was a long-awaited blessing for my husband and me, and when he finally arrived, we did everything to keep him safe and comfortable. But then anxiety hit hard when my husband’s grandmother took one look at Sam and screamed, “He’s got the LOOK!” She added, “His eyes, they are the color of the moon! You’d best watch out that the fairies don’t steal your baby and leave a changeling!”

Her words sounded like pure nonsense, but they lingered with me all day. When the guests left, my husband got called to work, leaving me alone at home. After putting Sam to bed, I kept the nanny cam monitor close to keep an eye on him through the night.

As I was sorting out the presents, I heard a noise from the monitor. It was a soft rustling sound, like someone moving around. I glanced at the screen and my heart skipped a beat. The screen showed an unknown baby lying in the crib next to Sam.
I immediately bolted to his room, my mind racing with fear and confusion. I burst through the door and flicked on the light. My eyes darted to the crib, expecting to see something inexplicable. But there was only Sam, sleeping peacefully, his tiny chest rising and falling with each breath.
I checked the room thoroughly, under the crib, in the closet, even behind the curtains. There was no other baby. My mind must have been playing tricks on me, perhaps influenced by the old woman’s eerie words. I took a deep breath and decided to stay in Sam’s room for the rest of the night, just in case.

The following days were a blur of paranoia and sleepless nights. I couldn’t shake the image from the monitor. Every night, I watched Sam’s crib like a hawk, but the strange baby never reappeared. I tried to convince myself it was just a trick of the light, a figment of my tired imagination.

But then, one evening, as I was feeding Sam, I noticed something odd. His eyes, which had always been a soft blue, seemed to shimmer with a silvery hue, almost like the color of the moon. My heart pounded in my chest. Could the old woman’s words hold some truth after all?

Desperate for answers, I turned to the internet, searching for stories and folklore about changelings and fairy abductions. The more I read, the more anxious I became. It seemed ridiculous, but I couldn’t dismiss the nagging fear in the back of my mind.

One night, as I was dozing off in the rocking chair next to Sam’s crib, I heard the rustling noise again. My eyes snapped open, and I grabbed the monitor. There it was – the unknown baby, lying next to Sam, its eyes closed, its tiny hands curled into fists.

I didn’t waste a second. I jumped up and rushed to the crib, my heart in my throat. But as soon as I reached it, the strange baby was gone. Only Sam was there, staring up at me with those eerily shimmering eyes.

I decided to confront my husband’s grandmother, hoping she could provide some clarity or at least some peace of mind. When I told her about the strange occurrences and the shimmering eyes, she looked at me with a mix of pity and fear.

“I hoped it wasn’t true,” she said quietly. “But it seems the fairies have taken an interest in your Sam. They sometimes do that, you know, when a child is particularly special.”

Her words sent chills down my spine. “What can we do?” I asked, desperate.

She handed me a small, worn-out book of fairy lore and whispered, “Protect him. Keep iron near his crib, sprinkle salt at the windowsills, and never leave him alone at night.”

That night, I followed her instructions to the letter. I placed a small iron horseshoe under Sam’s crib and sprinkled salt at all the windowsills and the threshold of his room. I stayed by his side, determined to protect him from whatever supernatural force might be at play.

The nights that followed were tense, but the strange occurrences stopped. Sam’s eyes eventually returned to their normal color, and the unsettling feeling that had gripped me began to fade.

I never saw the strange baby again, but the fear lingered, just beneath the surface. I couldn’t help but wonder if the fairies had truly taken an interest in my son and if they might return one day to claim him.

But for now, Sam was safe, and that was all that mattered. I would do whatever it took to keep him that way, even if it meant believing in things I had always thought were pure nonsense.