Annabelle's Locket

No one knew who the corpse was, all anyone could say for certain was that they were an annabelle.

Though even that had raised some doubts over the years, for anyone could place a heart shaped locket on a corpse and shout “hey, see that morty!? See that locket around their neck!? They must be an annabelle!” They had no ID, or a corporate identity code tattooed on their ear, so the narrative of this person being some worthless annabelle was easy to believe; plus they had no dental records, and a DNA test gave similar results.

Yet like a lot of things in the neutral zones, narrative and truth was a fickle thing, given that hackers and internet trolls could easily manipulate someone’s life feed. Maybe at one point or another this person had been somebody--a writer, astrologer, geologist, porn star, an oracle, or even an idealized scream jubber… whatever the hell that even meant anymore… if it ever had a meaning.

Take the word “Annabelle” for instance, what does it even mean? An outcast? A con-artist? A pedophile? Is it just a vague term for someone unwanted somebody…

Whatever the case, that’s what this person was at the moment of their death, whether they wore the locket for most of their life, or someone placed it on the corpse. It mattered not to the police, since even the most extensive search turned up nothing. Well… extensive is such a strong word, but it was extensive for an annabelle at least.

The internet took up the case though, and Annabelle obituary forums were buzzing with excitement over the new annabelle; and for reasons no one could fathom this corpse was the most popular in the obits. With each passing day the theories grew more and more outlandish, one saying that the corpse was a spy from the Second Soviet Union, or that the annabelle was a street artist turned serial killer. Whatever the case, the only thing anyone could agree upon was the trolls had made this annabelle.

It was a favorite pastime of theirs in the neutral zones--just pick out a random person in the crowd, spend days or weeks planning out their death, and then erase any trace of their existence before the kill. Or if they wanted to be really cruel, the trolls would force the would be annabelle to watch as they erased their SSN, and their bank accounts; and their birth certificate, mother’s maiden name, mothers place of birth, father’s sire name, his place of birth, their dog’s vet records, and their sister’s scholarship application.

If there’s one thing the trolls couldn’t be faulted for, it was lack of efficiency.

Then, five years later, the annabelle’s popularity began to fade at the same time world wide interest began to fade in England’s third civil war. Hour after hour, minute after minute, the obits grew quiet over this annabelle, and soon everyone was talking about an enslaved annabelle in NZ USWCH,KS--formerly known as Wichita, Kansas.

In fact some users began deleting their posts about the annabelle, wanting the corpse to fade into obscurity either out of a warped sense of pity, or cruelty. Some stayed on the hype train for as long as they could before moving onto other topics in the post annex United States, till the only people interested were amatuer detectives, and private investigators.

This spread to the real world as well. Where once groups of friends excitedly talked about that dead annabelle found behind a coffee shop, now they talked about how bitcoin was once again illegal; where once bored teens would sit in their rooms for hours on end speculating on this annabelle, now they began to speculate which team would win the 2112 Nuclear Holocaust games.

All in all it took five years, ten months, and one-hundred and twenty five days for the annabelle to finally suffer its second death.