Annie

ByCreepypasta.com
9 minute read
Rating: 8.65/10. From 1.01K votes.
Ranked #559 of 5,628 stories#82 in Madness, Paranoia, and Mental Illness
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Annie ran away again the other night. It took me hours to find her in the park, going back and forth on the swings without a care in the world, like she had every right to be there. And she dyed her hair again, blonde this time. I didn’t want to make a fuss with all those people around, so I caught her on the backswing and dragged her home kicking and screaming like a lunatic. It was humiliating: I had to smile and shrug at all the people staring like it didn’t bother me.

As soon as we were home, I sent Annie to her room. She just sat there on the bed, crying and crying. The way she carried on, I didn’t have the heart to yell at her for running away. I guess that’s the real problem, this lack of discipline. I’ve never been good at tough but fair. I’m always going too far one way or the other.

Like a few months ago when she came at me with the kitchen knife. For a minute I really thought she was trying to hurt me, my own sweet angel. But afterward she just lay there in my arms so quiet, letting me stroke her hair and sing her a lullaby, like nothing had ever happened.

But then there was that other time when she started messing around with my doll collection. They’re such fragile things, my dolls, and Annie was playing so rough like she wanted to break them. I love those dolls: they remind me of when everything was easier, when I wasn’t stuck in this house all day long with Annie’s tantrums and Bill’s moping. I got upset, and I hit her. I was so ashamed, when she ran away that night I didn’t go after her right away. I just stayed there, crying and feeling like the worst mother in the world.

I tried to be gentler after that, more understanding. So instead of getting cross with Annie, I let her stay in her room and cooked her some dinner. I turned up the TV real loud so I wouldn’t hear the racket she was making in there. She makes such a mess sometimes, and it makes me so angry, the way she breaks her things like she doesn’t even care about them anymore. I bought her a puppy once, but she wouldn’t even touch it, like she was scared of it. The very day I decided to take it back to the pet store, it vanished. I found Annie in the backyard, holding a little trowel, sitting on a pile of dirt. I helped her wash up and never mentioned it again.

I made her favorite food, macaroni and cheese, hoping it might calm her down. But as soon as I opened the door she slammed into me, trying to get past. I almost dropped the food everywhere wrestling with her like that. She had this wild look in her eyes, like an animal. It scared me, being alone in there with her when she was like that. I put the food on her desk and gently pushed her toward the chair.

“I made it just the way you like,” I told her, smiling and trying not to look as afraid as I felt.

She stared at me like she didn’t understand a word I was saying.

“Will you eat some of it?”

“I don’t want to,” she said. Her voice sounded strange, different than I’d ever heard it before. I hope I didn’t shudder. I didn’t want to upset her.

“Please, Annie, I’m very worried about you.”

“That’s not my name.”

She likes to change her name sometimes. It worries me. One day she’s Beth, the next day Irene. It’s just like her hair, she changes it every time she runs away. I get so scared that one day I won’t be able to find her, and the police won’t be able to help because I won’t know what she looks like or what she’s calling herself.

“Sweetheart, I’d really like you to eat a little bit. Just a little, please, for mommy.”

And then she said, with the meanest look on her face, “You’re not my mommy.”

It hurt so much. It felt like a stab to my heart. Tears welled up in my eyes before I could stop them, so I turned away. I heard her scramble onto the bed, her fingernails scratching like little claws on the posts. When I looked back, she had her back pressed against the corner of the room, legs drawn up to her chest, rocking back and forth. Staring at me with those wild animal eyes.

“I love you, Annie,” I said with as much dignity as I could manage. “But sometimes I just don’t know how to deal with your behavior.”

She screamed. Just this one long, loud, echoing screech, like a siren. Her mouth was wide open, but her face was blank. I covered my ears, got out of the room and closed the door behind me.

I had to collect myself before I could go see Bill. He’s been so odd lately, I don’t want to worry him anymore.

I got a second plate of the macaroni and brought it to the bedroom. That’s where he spent all his time, lying in bed.

“Honey, I made dinner.”

He didn’t answer, didn’t even roll over to look. I picked up the plate from this morning, the food on it untouched, and put the new one down where he could reach it.

“Annie’s back. I found her in the park. She’s pitching a fit in her room already.”

He must’ve heard the screaming. I always tried to keep her quiet, told her that daddy needed rest, but she never listened. Sometimes I wondered if he could even hear her. He never got up to see what was wrong.

I knelt beside the bed and looked into his eyes. He stared back at me, not saying a word. He’d been like ever since the first time Annie ran away. They’d been alone together. Then she had run off, and he’d stopped talking. He lay down in bed and never got up again. Lost his job, lost so much weight. He hardly even looked like the man I’d married.

I kissed him on the forehead and left. As I closed the door behind me, I thought I saw him start to get up, but I guess I must have imagined it.

Annie kept on with that awful screaming for hours. I stayed in the living room, sitting on our big three-person couch alone. I turned up the TV as loud as I could, played music, turned on the blender, tried everything I could to drown out the awful screaming. It was like nails being driven into my ears, like spiders crawling up my neck, like ice water splashing on my legs.

Finally it stopped. I thought maybe she’d finally tuckered herself out, but then the scratching started. That was almost worse. It started out quick, rhythmic, but it got slower as time went on. Sometimes Annie would make a noise, like she was crying again. I started to worry that she might be hurting herself, but I couldn’t get that awful thing she had said to me or that wild look in her eyes out of my head. I just stayed in the living room and tried to sleep.

I don’t know how it got to be like this. I’ve thought about taking her to a doctor, but they always give her these strange looks. It’s gotten to where I don’t dare to go to the same doctor twice: I’m afraid they might be thinking of taking her away from me, of doing something awful to her.

I’ve thought about calling in a priest. I know that must sound crazy, but the way she gets sometimes, like she doesn’t even know me, it scares me so much. She’ll call out to people who aren’t there, shout names I don’t know like they’re real people. And there was that business with the kitchen knife. It wasn’t the first time she’s tried to hurt me. She smuggles rocks into the house and tries to hit me with them when my back is turned. When she gets really wild she’ll bite and claw at me. Some days I start to wonder if she’s really my little girl, or something else, wearing her face, haunting me.

After a long time the scratching stopped and everything got quiet. I sighed with relief. The house is so much nicer when it’s quiet.

I looked at the clock and could hardly believe how late it was. She must have finally fallen asleep. When I looked over at her door, I saw the light still on through the cracks. Quiet as I could, I tiptoed over. I would just peek in, turn off the light. Maybe give her a little kiss good night.

I opened the door just a crack, but that was all it took. She slammed through, knocked me to the floor, and scrambled away.

“Annie stop!” I shouted. She was going right to our bedroom, making so much noise I was sure it would wake Bill up.

She shoved through our door and I ran after. But inside she was just standing there, staring at the bed.

“Sweetheart, daddy’s sleeping,” I hissed.

She started screaming again, even louder than before. She pointed at Bill and screamed and screamed. I shushed her, tried to tell her he was sleeping.

But she wouldn’t stop. She screamed and screamed. The sound pierced through me, tore apart every nerve in my body. I covered my ears and scratched at my face and soon I was screaming too, just as loud as she was. I took her up in my arms and we screamed together. I hugged her as tight as I could, squeezed her to me, wishing I could do something, anything to make it stop. I held her so close I could feel her heartbeat, how soft and quiet it was, growing quieter and quieter.

She stopped screaming, there in my arms, and soon I stopped too. I sank to my knees, holding my little girl in my arms, stroking her hair.

I don’t know how long we stayed like that. It was so dark in the bedroom.

I looked down at Annie, but it wasn’t Annie at all. I was holding one of my dolls.

I must have fallen asleep, holding her there, and she snuck away and put a doll in my arms instead. It was a funny doll, one I didn’t remember having. It had such lovely blonde hair.

I felt so silly, holding that doll like that for who knows how long. I got up and carried it to the closet where I keep the other dolls and laid it there. There were so many dolls, and they were all so big, I was starting to run out of room. But I couldn’t throw them out. They were so pretty, such lovely little dolls. They all looked different, but every single one reminded me of Annie.

I checked around the house, but she was gone. She must have been very upset, to run away twice in just two days. I got my coat on and got ready to go look for her again.

Before I left, I went back to the bedroom to check on Bill. Somehow all the noise hadn’t bothered him at all. I touched his forehead, but he didn’t seem any different. My fingers stuck a little bit, and there was some funny green stuff left on them afterward. I wiped it off on the bed and said goodbye.

It was such a lovely day outside. I took a deep breath of the fresh air. I love our house, but every once in a while I notice the worst smell in there.

Somewhere off in the distance, I heard the sound of children laughing. It was so nice to hear after all that awful noise last night. Maybe Annie thought so too. I followed the laughter.

Credit To – Gray

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149 Comments

  1. I get it, she’s like mental, and she thinks her dolls are Annie. Each doll is different, just like everytime Annie runs away, she is different. She is thinking that the Annie is the one misbehaving, but that’s the one part I don’t understand. Is the mother the one who is actually screaming or is it, the dolls?

    Reply

  2. I actually thought that the mother was a good mother and “Annie” was a spoiled brat. But after reading the comments, I stood corrected. Hahaha It was actually a bit opposite from what I thought. And I thought Bill had some disease or something XD Great story :)

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  4. This reminds me of house at the end of the street….she probably lost Annie a long time ago…and the dolls are all the dead girls shes kidnapped trying to get Annie back.Just like Ryan tried to get CarrieAnn back…it was pretty good…..

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  5. Took me a while to piece it together. I thought the dolls were coming to life and killed Annie. A Annie killed the husband and the dog. If I were the narrator I would pack some clothes and money and leave the house and never return. Let someone else deal with all the dead bodies.

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  7. I feel like the mom is a lady who stole Annie and had mental problems after her daughter died.she kidnapped the girls to raise them as her own,but when they disobeyed she locked them up,leaving them to die.the puppy was dead,thus the reason Annie buried it,and when she screams at the man,it is because the mother killed him and Annie was too scared to actually tell the mom.in the end Annie gets back to her real family.

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  9. I absolutely adored it. My thought on the dead puppy, however, is that the mother found (killed, perhaps?) a puppy and have this puppy corpse to Annie, who, when the mother was gone, buried said puppy corpse. That’s just my two cents.

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  11. The woman either had a daughter named Annie and she died or the woman is delusional. In either case, she abducts girls believing them to be Annie and then smothers them to death and refers to their dead bodies as “dolls”. Her husband’s rotting body remains in the bed, and the crazy bitch peels some of the skin off his forehead when her fingertips stick to it. She then goes outside to scout for a new “Annie” after she’s killed the blonde girl.

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  13. To those who don’t understand. The “dolls” are actually all the dead girls she’s kidnapped, thinking they are her Annie. I presume Annie was her daughter that died or ran away and never came back. Perhaps she had a miscarriage or something to that effect. That possibly drove her to develop schizophrenic symptoms like thinking the dead girls are “dolls” and her dead husband is just “sleeping”. The part about the dog was probably just emphasizing the fact that “Annie” is always rebelling. Most likely because she doesn’t like being kidnapped. TL;DR Annie isn’t her daughter, nor is her name Annie. Husband is dead. All the dolls are dead kidnapped “Annies”. Horrible smell is rotting flesh. Mother possibly has schizophrenia or some other mental illness due to a traumatic event in the past regarding the real Annie.

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    1. so that’s why she says every time ‘Annie’ runs away she dyes her hair and changes her name? And her flipping out and saying shes not her mother is because she really isn’t? >:? sorry for so many questions i’m just confused…

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  14. The first paragraph isn’t very subtle to anyone with half a brain. I knew how it was going to end immidiately.
    It was well written though, and I enjoyed it.

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  16. To my understanding, Bill killed Annie, and I don’t know, hid her body somewhere? and then committed suicide in his bed. His wife became mad, kidnapping little girls, convincing herself that they are her “Annie”, and then when they died keeping them in her room as her “dolls”. A very vague pasta, but it adds a nice touch to the mystery. 9.5/10 overall, just needs a bit more detail.

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  17. So, in my understanding Annie died along with her father. The mother went insane and abducts girls Annie’s age and convinces herself they’re Annie, and still believes the father is alive. But I still don’t get the part about the puppy.

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  18. K. I figured it all out as I was reading. Dead Bill, kidnappend Annie’s, dolls are dead, previous Annie’s, but can someon please explain the dog?

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  19. Okay, so this is what happened. The mom is crazy and the dad is dead. They one had a daughter named Annie, but the father and possibly the mother was abusive. One day, Annie snapped and killed the dad, then this happened. “Like a few months ago when she came at me with the kitchen knife. For a minute I really thought she was trying to hurt me, my own sweet angel. But afterward she just lay there in my arms so quiet, letting me stroke her hair and sing her a lullaby, like nothing had ever happened”. I’m guessing the mother choked her. Since the mom is crazy,she played it off as Annie running away and she would abduct girls who would look somewhat like her. The dolls are the dead girls corpses and I’m guessing the puppy was already dead when the mom tried giving it to ‘Annie’, which is why you read about her burying it.

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  21. Amazing pasta. I loved it.
    Everyone has already explained everything that needed explaining, except for one part. The dead puppy. I feel like there was no need for that in the story, since it has nothing to do with all of the “Annies”. But in my attempt to add some sense to it..
    The woman is crazy, as we can see, so maybe it wasn’t Annie burying a dog.. But really herself burying the original Annie. & in her head she copes by believing it’s Annie burying a puppy.
    Does that make any sense?

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  22. I understand this now! So the mom probably accidentally killed the first Annie and went insane, then she killed Bill too because he saw her kill Annie, then she went around stealing little girls about the same size as Annie, as hinted at with the different hair. I also think that she just found that dog on the streets, and it had rabies, which is why one of the Annie’s didn’t want to touch it and killed it. The other one saw Bill lying dead in bed, and she freaked out. The mom doesn’t like it when the girls scream because she thinks that the authorities will come and find the doll corpses, so then she hugs them to death and boom! A new doll is in the collection. This is my opinion, though.

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    2. To me there was no dog. It was the mother’s way of coping with the fact that she killed the original Annie. In her head, she sees Annie burying a puppy which suggests that she killed. However, since she is crazy, she is remembering that instead of herself killing and burying Annie.

      Or I’m just trying to find sense into this.

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  24. Okay, so from what I gather, The REAL Annie was a sociopath daughter. She was alone with the father and then killed him and ran off for reasons unknown. That’s why he stopped talking the first time she ran away. She’s been kidnapping girls and calling them Annie. When she kills them, she adds them to her “doll” collection or collection of corpses. The only thing I don’t really understand 100% is the puppy bit. Was that the sociopath Annie that killed her own father? Cause if it wasn’t foreshadowing to that, then I have no idea why a kidnapped child would kill a dog and stay in her captors backyard. So I’m thinking it was foreshadowing to the actual Annie’s sociopathy. That’s about it I guess..

    I loved picking it apart and putting together the pieces on my own. As some had said, it doesn’t really have the suspense vibe, but I think it’s creepy hearing the point of view of a psychotic madwoman. 10/10

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  26. It took me a minuet lol I even had to read the comments but I eventually found it out! Yummy pasta!! I hope Grey does some more~

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  27. Still not fully understanding the puppy part.. Did she give her a dead one or did she present it already burried..? Other than that, enjoyed the story down to the very last word. You sort of go ‘Ohhhhhh’ when you piece it together :)

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    1. I think that was a story from the original Annie.. the actual one. Considering she seemed to have killed her father, her killing a puppy and trying to hide it would be a good way to foreshadow the crazy daughter murdering Daddy and running away (“the first time”). Like Mother, Like Daughter I guess…

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  28. I’ve never read a pasta like this one, and the ending was DEFINENTLY a slap in the face. I was expecting evil possessed child – well written, tasty pasta. Great job.

    Reply

  29. The ending surprised me a bit, but good story :D I didn’t get it really until I read the comments. At first I thought “Annie” was going through an exorcism lol.

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  30. Honestly, this is one of my favorite pastas. Some say it was predictable, and it may have been, but I thought it was pretty well thought out. I LOVED the way it went inside the mother’s head, and you could just tell something was off. The way she told the story had just the right amount of mania, just the right amount off to know that the problem was caused by her all along. 10/10

    Reply

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