I got a free baby crib off Karrot and I think something came with it

Okay I wasn't going to post this but I need to get it out.

So me and my husband moved into this apartment in Dongtan a year ago and we just found out I was pregnant. We were LOSING IT. Shopping for baby stuff every night, screaming at cute onesies, the whole thing. But like. Babies are expensive. And I really wanted a wooden crib, the pretty kind, and every single one I liked was WAY out of budget.

Then I found it. On Karrot¹. FREE.

The listing said free giveaway and the photo looked almost identical to this designer crib we'd been eyeing. Barely used. Mobile still attached. And the seller? Literally the next building over in our complex. I was like this is fate. Messaged her immediately, she said come get it NOW.

We go over. She opens the door and. Okay. She looked rough. Like pale, exhausted, haunted-rough. Not "new mom tired" rough. Something else.

She wouldn't even make eye contact. Just goes "the crib is over there. please take it quickly." The apartment didn't even look like a baby lived there. It was BLEAK. She was rushing us out like the thing was on fire.

Whatever. Free crib. We hauled it home, assembled it in the nursery, high-fived like idiots.

That night. The sounds started.

Around 4am I hear it. Creak... creak... creak... like an old rocking chair moving on its own. I thought it was my husband. He was dead asleep. The sound was coming from the nursery. I cracked the door open. Moonlight, empty crib, nothing moving. I turn around and CREAK again behind me. I got full body chills.

This happened every night. My husband was like "it's just old wood expanding babe" which. Sure. Except wood doesn't creak on a perfect rhythm like someone is ROCKING it.

We set up a baby cam. Screen shows nothing. Empty crib, not moving. But the speaker? Creak. Creak. Creak. Clear as day. He said it was picking up another apartment's frequency. I wanted to believe him so bad.

Then one night there's a huge thunderstorm. I wake up, check the monitor. Screen is BLACK. I reset it and through the static I hear... humming. A woman humming. Soft, thin, somewhere between a lullaby and a funeral song. I shook my husband awake screaming and he goes "I don't hear anything you're being crazy" and rolls over.

Screen comes back on. Empty crib. And the mobile. The mobile is spinning. By itself. Slowly.

Next morning I LOST IT. Told him the crib goes TODAY. While he's disassembling it I open Karrot again and check the seller's profile. Every single item she'd listed was free. Baby clothes. Toys. Stroller. Walker. All posted the same day. Same hour.

I went to the neighborhood moms' forum and searched her username. Found a post from months ago. She was asking if anyone else heard weird sounds from their baby's room at night, if their baby cried like they were having seizures. Other moms from the SAME apartment complex had replied saying same.

And then a comment further down. Her baby had passed away not long after that post. SIDS.

I couldn't breathe. My husband goes "uh. honey. what is this." He'd lifted the mattress. On the wooden board underneath. Where nobody would ever see it. There were marks. Scratched in with something sharp. Symbols. Drawings. Letters I couldn't read. Like a talisman. Or a curse.

We didn't say anything. Just stared.

Next morning at sunrise we dragged every piece to the apartment bulk trash area and left it there.

[post cuts off here]

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¹ Karrot = 당근마켓, Korea's huge neighborhood secondhand app. You buy/sell with people in your literal apartment complex. Free giveaways are common, which is exactly why this is so cursed.