Since the woman had suffered a miscarriage only recently, she thought she was reeling over her loss and hallucinating. However, when she heard the giggling sound several days in a row and happened to check her backyard one early morning, she discovered something shocking.
Melanie and Drew Brooks had been trying for a child for years, but unfortunately, every time good news knocked on their door, the bad news followed soon after. Melanie had had several miscarriages over the years, and at one point, Drew had lost faith they could ever have children.
As a result, Drew tried to persuade Melanie to consider adoption, but Melanie’s answer was a flat no. She said that she wished to experience the joys of parenting and the warmth and love of a new life growing within her. And she was adamant that she would wait for it to happen and give birth one day.
Meanwhile, Melanie, who was naturally superstitious, reasoned that their house was bad luck for them, which was why they conceived so many times but never had children. So one day, she suggested to Drew that they move to a new house and start over.
Drew was hesitant, claiming that he was too busy with work and didn’t believe in things like bad luck, but Melanie persuaded him, and they began looking for new houses.
Fortunately, not long after, they came across a gorgeous white house in a neighborhood near Drew’s office with a beautiful garden and a cute wooden swing in the backyard. Melanie fell in love with the house, and she and Drew eventually bought it.
One day, Melanie was assisting Drew in packing their old stuff before they moved out to the new house when she suddenly felt nauseous. She doubted that she could be pregnant and happened to have a pregnancy test kit at home, so she took the test to be sure. When it showed two lines, Melanie couldn’t believe her eyes. She dashed over to Drew and hugged him.
“DREW, I AM PREGNANT!” she cried, screaming at the top of her lungs.
“What? What did you….” She showed him the test kit, and Drew started crying. “OMG! This is so hard to believe. I hope everything goes well this time!”
“It will, Drew!” Melanie assured him. “We’re moving to a new house, and the positive energy of a fresh start has already begun to bear fruit. Let’s keep it up, okay?”
Drew hugged her again and kissed her forehead. Later that day, they went to Melanie’s gynecologist for a regular checkup. Dr. Smith confirmed Melanie’s pregnancy, but the most reassuring news for the pair was that both the baby and the mother were okay, and the reports were normal.
Melanie and Drew were over the moon! While looking for new furnishings for their new house, they decided to refurbish one of the bedrooms as their future kid’s bedroom, and Melanie began shopping for all kinds of stuff she wanted for their baby. They had sold their former flat and were staying with Drew’s parents at the time. The grandparents-to-be were equally excited about the arrival of a newborn, and they were all hoping it’ll go well.
But unfortunately, when Melanie was 19 weeks into her pregnancy, she experienced a sharp pain in her abdomen one day. At first, she dismissed it as a regular pain and took a pain-killer. But the medicine didn’t show any effect. The pain got worse, and by the time Drew’s parents took her to the hospital, they found out that Melanie had experienced a miscarriage again – for the fourth time.
This time her condition was worse, and she was admitted to the OT. When Drew arrived at the hospital from work, Melanie was in her ward after surgery, unconscious. The worst part was that their children’s room, which they’d been planning for months, was almost finished, but no child was coming home with them.
After getting discharged from the hospital, Melanie told Drew that she wanted to live alone in their new home and that she didn’t want to see or visit anyone, including Drew’s parents. Drew agreed to whatever Melanie asked, and when they moved into their new home, the first thing Melanie did was go to the room where she’d imagined herself singing lullabies to her baby and spending countless hours with her child.
She couldn’t stop crying as she gazed around the room, reminded that her baby daughter was no longer alive. She’d even chosen a name for her – Mia. But baby Mia was no longer with her, and she could do nothing to bring her back.
Melanie couldn’t stop crying that night as she lay on the floor in her baby’s room next to the crib she and Drew had purchased for the newborn. Melanie was jolted awake early in the morning by a giggling sound. When she concentrated her attention on the sound, it sounded like children were laughing and playing on the swing in the backyard.
The grieving woman ran to the backyard, terrified to see what the children were doing there early in the morning, but she didn’t see anyone. The entire backyard was deafeningly quiet, and the swing swayed gently in the cold breeze.
Melanie returned inside, sobbing uncontrollably. She believed it was all in her head and hallucinated because she couldn’t get over her baby’s loss. But she heard the sound again the next day, early in the morning. It happened again the next day, at the same time, early in the morning, and this time Melanie felt as if the sounds were too real to be in her head. So she awoke Drew and asked if he heard the sounds too.
“Drew, get up!” Melanie said desperately. “Please!”
“Ughhh….what is that noise? Good Lord, Melanie, why don’t you close the window?” Drew grumbled, half-awake in sleep.
“What?” Melanie looked at him, stunned. “You hear that too, don’t you? The voices of someone giggling?”
“Ugh,” he grumbled. “Of course, I do. That’s why I’m asking you to close the widow, Mel. Please, let me sleep!”
“Drew,” she whispered. “No, you can’t! Get up! This sound has been bothering me for days, and I believe it’s coming from our backyard. It’s almost as though someone else is using our backyard! Listen to it carefully.”
“What? No way,” he groaned and covered his ears with a pillow, but Melanie persisted. “Drew! Please!”
“UGH! FINE!” He sat on the bed, half-awake, rubbing his eyes. And as he concentrated on the voice, he realized Melanie was right. “Woah! You’re right! But who could it be?”
Drew dashed downstairs to the backyard, and Melanie quickly followed him. He opened the backdoor slightly and nearly slumped on the floor after what he saw. “Jesus Christ! There’s someone there! Hush!” he whispered to Melanie, who came running behind him. “I see them on the swing! There are two children on the swing!”
“What?” Melanie couldn’t believe her eyes when she glanced through the slightly ajar door. “Oh my God! It wasn’t all in my head!”
Suddenly, Drew swung open the backyard door. “Who are you guys?” he asked in an angry voice. “What are you doing here in my backyard?” The kids were terrified and jumped off the swing right away.
“Drew, what the hell! Stop scaring them!” Melanie glared at him. “Hey, we are not here to harm you. Don’t worry, okay? We just want to know what you are doing here at this hour,” she told them gently.
The kids looked at each other; then the boy spoke up. “Do you promise you will not report us to the cops?”
“Police?” Melanie wondered. “Ugh, well, no, we won’t tell the police, I guess,” she said, looking at Drew. “But be honest with us. Don’t two come here daily? I’ve heard your laughs multiple times.”
“I’m sorry,” the boy said. “I’m Luke, and this is my sister, Eve. I am the elder one. I am 8, and she is five. We used to live in this house, but we were sent to an orphanage after our parents died. We miss them a lot, and our rooms too, so we decided to come here. We…” he paused. “We run away from the orphanage every night when the nurses are sleeping to come here, and we go back before they wake up.”
“But guys,” Drew said. “That is not right. How about we….” He wanted to tell Melanie that they could adopt the children, but he knew she wouldn’t be ready for it. So all he said was, “You can come here and play whenever you want, okay? Right, Melanie? After all, it was once their home, and they miss their parents.”
“What, uh, okay, as you wish,” she said.
Suddenly, Eve approached them both and took their hands in hers. “Thank you for helping Luke and me! Mommy and daddy were just like you. They never stopped us from playing here.”
Melanie’s eyes welled up with tears as she watched the children leave that day. She wanted to take them in, but her heart wasn’t ready for it just yet. So every time the kids came to play, she would sit quietly in her backyard and watch them.
But by the month’s end, she grew to like them so much that she would join them in their games. One day, Drew noticed her happy and playing with the kids, and he proposed to her that they could adopt them. She immediately agreed, and Drew couldn’t believe Melanie had finally opened up her heart to Luke and Eve. He was glad she was finally over grief.
The adoption process began a week later, but it was extremely time-consuming. One day when they were in the middle of document verification, Melanie fainted in the office. Drew took her to the hospital immediately, and they found out she was pregnant again! It was revealed months later that they were expecting twins this time.
The whole thing was overwhelming for Drew and Melanie, and they again feared the worst. But somehow, having Luke and Eve around them gave them hope and positivity. “You have to have faith in the Lord’s plan, Mel,” Drew told her one night. “Don’t worry; it’ll all be okay.” And well, thankfully, that is what happened.
Melanie and Drew were eventually blessed with twin baby daughters at the end of 9 months. Luke and Eve were thrilled beyond words to see they were elder siblings now. Melanie kissed the babies and couldn’t stop crying as they were brought to her.
Later, when the babies were finally home after discharge from the hospital, daddy Drew added two more swings in his backyard for his two baby girls, Mia and Cindy.