[The recording starts to play.]
“My name is Annabelle, and I am fourteen years old. It was about a month ago that I started acting “strangely”, according to my father. Of course, I don’t remember a bit of it.
“The first time it happened, I did something pretty weird. In the middle of the night, I apparently woke up and opened every single door and window in the entire house. All of them! The pantry door, the back door, the front door, the doors to the cabinets, dad’s room, the fridge and freezer door, and even the door to the cellar out back – which was locked. No one knows how I got the lock off, or even where the lock was. It just vanished. Needless to say, dad was livid. “Bells,” he said – that being what he calls me – “what the hell were you doing?” The freezer motor burned out, and the cellar was very wet from the rain. But my dad didn’t stay mad for long. Ever since mom died, he can’t stay mad at me for long. He keeps saying I’m all he’s got now… and I know what he means. He’s all I have too. I think he was just very worried about me, since he found me outside in my pajamas, soaking wet from the rain, not having a clue how I got out there. He doesn’t always express things the way he feels, but that’s okay. Boys are like that.”
[The recording starts skipping at this point. A hiss is heard in the background – but it could just be static. It smoothes out, and the girl starts speaking once again.]
“The second time, I did something pretty awful. When I woke up, I was covered in blood. The knife was still in my hand, and they found—“
[A crack almost like lightning interrupts the next few words.]
“—Sox was our cat, see.”
[The interviewer mutters an affirmation, and asks her to continue.]
“Dad was pretty scared for me then. He recently became involved with you guys—“
[The interviewer asks her to clarify for the sake of context in the recording.]
“Oh, sorry, he recently became involved with the Church of Repentant Sinners. I hadn’t been to church before, but after that my dad said he wanted me to go. No offense to you folks, but I don’t really believe in God—“
[The interviewer says something inaudible, something about not getting sidetracked. His tone suggests annoyance or impatience.]
“I’m sorry, I just can’t seem to focus very much these.. these… these…”
[The girl repeats this word for about two minutes. The interviewer is not heard saying anything or stopping her.]
“—days. Um. So that was the third weird thing that happened. I went into church that Sunday, but I felt this strange itch. It felt like it was under my skin, you know? I started scratching, and then I started tearing my skin, and soon people started noticing and whispering, and very soon I had long bloody nail marks down my arms and across my stomach and legs. Dad took me out of there, and I was glad, because it made the itching stop.”
[The interviewer asks her something that is only partially audible, as a slow whirring sound is heard. Fragments include “demon” and “escaping”.]
“Yeah, okay, I’m not sure you’re right, but if it helps me, let’s do it.”
[A tonal sound is heard at very high frequency, and is strangely pleasant to hear. Underneath can be heard the interviewer asking her to describe the fourth occurrence.]
“Okay. It was a couple weeks after the church thing happened. So I got this marker, one of those permanent markers, and I drew on everything. I mean everything. The entire house was covered in black marker. What did I draw? The same thing, over and over. It was a little “2”, with an arrow pointing to the right, pointing towards a little “1”. Then I took a knife—“
[A sound like a high wind starts to intersperse the recording. The girl’s voice is still audible.]
“—and I held it to my throat. I have no idea how long I was standing by dad’s bed, but when he woke up, he said I was staring at him with strange eyes. I didn’t speak. I just stared, a wild, crazy stare while he pleaded with me to drop the knife. Finally, I must’ve snapped out of it or something, because I woke up with the knife in my hand and my dad scared ghostly white and begging me not to do anything to myself. I dropped it and started crying.
“After that, and after seeing what I wrote, he said I must be possessed by a demon or something. And so here we are. This is my pre-exorcism interview.”
[The interviewer thanks her, and the recording ends – but not before a strange voice is heard whispering “soon”.]
[The video starts to play. It is instantly apparent that something has gone terribly wrong. The video has a very un-electronic distortion to it. Five marks score the video, are repeatedly replaced by a clear image, and then new marks start to form immediately in a descending stroke – almost as if someone were clawing at the image itself. This continues throughout the video.]
“No!” screams the girl. She is restrained to a bed in a small room with several men wearing black garments.
“In the name of—“ [The audio cuts out for a few seconds.]
“S-S-Something’s wrong guys, I can’t see anything!” screams the girl in a quavering voice.
“Depart!” says one of the men in robes. Then, “depart!” they all shout. This chant continues for around three minutes as the girl starts sobbing uncontrollably.
As the chanting starts to wind down, the girl cries out, “Dad! Make them stop! Please! … Please… I don’t want to go,” as her voice trails off. One of the men mutters something to another.
[At this point, both the video and the audio undergo very typical electronic distortion. Nothing can be seen or heard, at least in the video, for several seconds. Underneath the static is a single word: “Goodbye.” The video becomes clear, and no more scratching distortions are seen.]
The girl is no longer crying. She is, in fact, very still. A man in jeans and a flannel shirt runs into the room and unties her restraints. He embraces her, quite emotional and seeming to be relieved. Then she speaks.
“Hello, father.”
“Hi Bells. How do you—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“What?”
“Don’t call me Bells. I don’t like that name. Call me the name you picked out for me when I was born. Annabelle. It was beautiful. And I’m not going to be called the same name as that – thing.” She utters the last word with terrible vehemence.
The man is clearly confused, and looks pleadingly at the men in black. They start to whisper among themselves. Their concerned glances play off one another’s faces, and cold, harsh realization washes over each of them one by one.
One of the men approaches the man who still held the little girl. “Mr. Goodwin, I am sorry… I am truly sorry…”
[Another man quickly goes to the camera and shuts it off.]
I remember now. I remember everything. I just wanted to live again. Dad, I love you so much, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to take your daughter from you. I came to her while I – she – was still a baby. I didn’t think it was wrong. I didn’t think she would miss her life. I didn’t think she would come back. I didn’t even think she was there, since it was so easy to stay inside her. So easy I forgot everything about who I used to be – what I used to be.
I didn’t even know what was going on. I only remembered after I left my – her – body. It is so strange and cold here. Everything in the world is gray and misty. All I see are people fading in and out of the dark. No one sees me or speaks to me. I am so alone. There is no God, no Heaven, no Hell, no demons or angels. Just people ripped from their bodies, unable to feel anything but regret and loss for what was once theirs. We just rot, dad. I was rotting, and I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I had no choice. I’m so sorry. I hope you love her as much as you loved me, and I hope one day you can forgive me for what I did.
Credit To – RE Holden
Credit Link – [email protected]
Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.
I don’t get it.
The writer should of told the actual story of when she summoned the doll but other than that it was ok
DUN DUN DUN, TWIST ENDING.
Wow, creepy. I just love the concept of trying to force a deamon from someone’s body but accidentally forcing their own soul out by accident. Quite good.
An interesting and well executed reversal of a possession story.
Holy crap!!! This is wonderful! Absolutely brilliant! I love this story. It is beautifully written with obviously a lot if forethought, not just something slapped together. BRAVO!
Bravo.
Very well written. I think the style helped move the plot along. I really liked Bells distaste for the clergymen, and religion as a whole. At first it just seemed like it was something she wasn’t interested in, the same way many children feel when their parents drag them off to church. It wasn’t so much as a dislike as her being apathetic to it. But it seems like it comes from her knowing deep down that God and religion weren’t real (as she mentioned when she joined the “afterlife” you created here) but was willing to let others indulge in their beliefs.
The thing that creeps me out the most, as someone mentioned, was the uncertainty. Like “is this body really mine?” How would you even know? Bells had no idea.
My first memory was having this thought.. or really, more of a feeling, that I was dropped into my body. Like my body was already a year or two old before I got here. This makes this story very unsettling for me…
My first memory was the fire all around me, and the terrible screams of my people.
The ending was very unclear. I feel it needs to be edited or even rewritten entirely. The rest of it is wonderful, though.
Hi guys, author here. Thanks for all the comments/ratings – this is literally the first story I’ve ever had sorta-kinda published (and the third I’ve ever written in my life). Glad to see it was reasonably well-received!
Some responses:
1) There was no demon. The church guys were wrong. That was one of the things I wanted to explore – what if the exorcism people were just plain wrong?
2) I’m sensing some mixed reaction to the logpasta format. I don’t think there are any inherent limitations to it – Dracula, one of the first (and best) horror novels, was written in logstyle. Some people didn’t like that I was too clear, while others seem mildly confused as to whether it was a demon. Again, no demon. In my mind, Bells was the ghost of a teenager who died some indeterminably long time ago. She was sick of living in the lonely-as-hell “spirit world”, so she decided, “That baby there probably doesn’t have a soul, maybe I should possess it and live a real life.” Unfortunately, Annabelle wasn’t empty. Anyway, if there was a problem with the formatting, it was more likely my underdeveloped or eclectic style of writing than the log format itself.
3) Which brings me to my writing style. This is something I’m hoping will become a staple of my future writings – not limiting myself to any single view or “voice”. Notice how the first part was sorta distant. The audience is just listening to a recording of this girl who’s trying to be brave. It’s meant to be somewhat dispassionate. The second part brings the audience a bit closer – we can see her and imagine her in our mind, struggling and scared. Then the third part comes, and it’s meant to be jarring. Suddenly there’s this sad, pitiful little girl who was denied a chance at life not once but twice, and she’s spilling her heart out to her father, but only you can hear. Feedback or comments?
4) Sepia, you rock – everyone should comment like you. It was actually inspired by movies like The Awakening and The Devil’s Backbone where the ghost isn’t actually evil or out to get anyone. Also, the [asides] I felt were necessary for the plot. If I wrote it right, the audience should have noticed that something was up with the exorcism plan the moment it was mentioned – the pleasant tonal noise, and the whispered “soon”, were both intended to convey a sense that whatever was inside Bells WANTED the exorcism to take place. Indeed, it was the only way Annabelle (the original) would be freed.
5) I wanted this to be morally ambiguous, so there’s no “good” or “bad” here.
6) I think the next pasta I write will be a ritual pasta. I already have what I hope is a good story and twist. It won’t be done in the traditional how-to-bake-a-cake style that so often drags down ritual pastas. Hope y’all like it!
Hey RE H! I’m glad you liked the review!
1. I liked your ambiguous approach since it ultimately made me able to empathize with the antagonist as someone who actually has motives and it fleshed out your characters more. You can defs play around with this – maybe force both the protagonist and the antagonist to work together, or them actually having the same goals but different methods?
2. I really should have used ‘inherent difficulties’ rather than ‘limitations’. It’s just that the sort of tape-log here is very widely abused (as Crappypasta would attest). I thought that you could’ve ramped up the creepiness a bit more if you, say, recorded the baby taking her over, but it does scream corny if you don’t handle it well. Overall you did a pretty good job!
3. Oooh, an interesting approach IMO. If you can pull it off, it’d add a lot of subtle thickness to your characters from viewing them under different perspectives – and making the perspectives conflict with each other, maybe? Different accounts of the same character and all.
I agree that logs sharpen the clinical bits – it’s horrific the same way Wikipedia (or the SCP Database) is horrific. Just that uncaring tone to disasters and incidents.
I do think the last part would’ve benefited from better framing; IMO she was just suddenly talking to the audience without a medium, which is a tad confusing. Perhaps you could frame the story as the father rewinding the old exorcism tapes, then as he gets to the end a mysterious additional voice is heard?
4. Interesting! The reason I thought Anneliese Michel was your inspiration was because she was ‘exorcised’ when in fact she was suffering from schizophrenia.
I thought the [asides] could’ve been done better, since I got mixed signals from real!Annabelle. Maybe that’s why some people concluded demons?
Good luck on your ritualpasta! Really interested if you can pull off what IMO is an even harder category of creepies.
So wait, when it finally reaches the end.. the actual person emits her true persona? or is that.. the demon?
and the soul goes to?
what. Im sors.
I think it’s great how you put a different perspective on something that I’ve seen a hundred times, and it’s a generally well-written piece. My only complaint with the log is that when I’m reading a log, I like for it to be a basic description of what is being seen/heard in a way that gives me the tools to make my own inference. There are some parts in this that feel more like narration, where it would sort of tell me both what was happening, and how to interpret it.
I also like how smooth the transitions are between the audio, video and the first-person passage at the end. They flowed well enough that I was never confused about what was happening. Well done!
Might be that I am reading this helluva tired, but this pasta really didn’t reach me. I also didn’t like how you executed the logpasta style. It did have a certain spookyness to it, though, so…
7/10
I am rather confused.
I am rather confused.
:/
This was sweet. Sad, but sweet. I definitely liked it.
Dessertpasta? I’ve had dessert pizzas before (pecan pie and red velvet – they were fucking awesome too) but pasta… Well, it definitely works in this context, not so sure about literally, however.
… Omg, I accidentally used my other address there and came out as a pony. Uhm. Aaaaanyway… >///>;
Well odd. Kind of sad, but the perspective change would have been best avoided.
Amazing. Any votes lower than 7 should visit an exorcist.
Interesting twist. So, the girl was the evil one and the demon was good?
I’m not sure if it was a demon… or a child that maybe died before birth and wanted to be born again?
like that movie ‘the unborn’
You witch! You’d think he’d really ever forgive you!After what you’d done to me! And after what you’d done to Sox, the only one who can see and keep me in company, while I watch YOU live MY life!!! Huh, you don’t think I’d miss MY life? You think I like to be the one in the gray misty world living with other pathetic lost souls like you? Screw you!
He never really loved you in the first place anyway. Ha! He thought you were me. The love was directed indirectly to me. ME. Not you! And in truth he hates you!
*tries to calm herself*
Fiiine, I’m sorry. That’s out of line. But your actions were as hurtful. Also imagine if our situations were reversed. Won’t you be freakin’ mad either?
If it makes any good. I love dad too, and I’d take care of him well for us.
Anyways, I just hope you’re not using other living beings as vessels to live as of late?
I already said sorry, didn’t I?
And don’t go on pretending that I was the one who killed Sox. It was you all along.
You tried to get Dad’s attention by acting up like a real demonic goon, so that they would have me exorcised eventually. Haha.Smart Anna. Just don’t go around acting like a real demonic brat around Daddy now, or I’ll possess him and give you spanking.
Keep your promise and take care of him.
Take note: No one likes these kinds of comments. Please remove your head from your ass.
These comments are hilarious!
With that personality of yours, Bells really deserved daddy’s love more. Bet she’s gonna jump back into your head to teach you how to be a good girl and respect him :-1.
i don’t get it… can someone explain the last part?
Basically it’s a case of the demonic episodes were really the original owner of the body trying to take control back. She had been possessed since she was very young and when the exorcism was performed the child he had known for pretty much her whole life minus a little bit at the very beginning was the one that was kicked out. So not a malicious spirit but an inconvenient one for the original body owner at best.
Hey!
Logpastas are really hard critters to pin down IMO. They can leave things to the imagination and add to the atmosphere, but they can also be thin excuses for a writer when she doesn’t want to write good scenes or good transitions.
This pasta’s use of the log is mainly atmospheric. All the distortions serve to raise the tension AND reveal the plot.
Personally, I thought it turned out a bit mixed, as sometimes the logs feel cheap. Something that should’ve been shown is instead told, and we only have Belle’s testimony to go on. Maybe a recording of one of Belle’s episodes as it’s happening?
Also, the [asides] can feel like one of those videocam horror cliches, with whispers and static that don’t congeal well.
IMO, Belle as a character is shown quite well. Her style of speaking reminds us that she’s someone who had a personality and is distressed that something is taking it away from her.
I also found the plot particulars to be original. Changeling-inception with a nice twist at the end, with implications: if we were living in the story, how would we know if the body we inhabit is really ours?
Overall, I’d say a 7.5 because it shows that a logpasta can be done relatively well despite limitations inherent, and because it has an original twist.
Is this pasta inspired by the Anneliese Michel case by any chance?
Sorry this just wasn’t very good.
Probably one of the better pastas I’ve read this week! I feel just a little bit inspired now
Wow, this is pretty deep. Very well written and grammatically correct. Bravo!