The Disappearance of Annabelle Johnson

As soon as the lights turned out, Annabelle sat up in her bed and looked at the closet. Her heart raced deep in her chest, and she felt as though she couldn't breathe. For the first time in her eight years of life, she was afraid for her life.

Every night, after her mom had kissed her goodnight and her dad had turned off the light, the little boy who called himself Luca had come from the depths of her closet to play with her. However, she knew better than to do so, especially when he invited her to see the one he called “Papa.”

Luca was roughly her age, but there was something off about him. His skin was deathly pale, and his eyes were black and soulless. Whenever he entered her bedroom, he always stayed in the dark, avoiding the faint ring of light indicating where the reaches of the nightlight ended and the darkness began. Whenever she talked about him to her parents, they both grew quiet and told her to stop making up such stories.

But, Annabelle knew they weren't just stories…

From the first night, he climbed out of her closet and into her new bedroom, she knew better than to climb out of bed and interact with the little boy. She had no idea who he was or why he only came out at night, but she did know this: anyone who couldn't stand in the light of her favorite nightlight couldn't be trusted.

Nervously, she glanced across the room, where little Katie was fast asleep in her crib. The little baby was barely two years old and was finally ready to sleep separately from her mother, but she only slept in the safety of the nightlight. As much as she loved her little sister, Annabelle knew she had an impossible choice to make.

You or your sister, Lucas had warned the night before. One of you will go to Papa. Choose, or I will choose for you.

Of course, Annabelle had already made her choice, and she planned on sticking to it.

“Annabelle,” came the creepy whisper from inside the closet, cutting off Annabelle’s train of thought. “Anna…” A shiver ran down Annabelle's spine as she looked to the end of her bed and watched as the closet door swung open, moving soundlessly in the dark.

Stepping from the shadows was Lucas, looking even more terrifying than ever. His lips looked torn to shreds, and his fingers looked more like claws than actual fingers. The pitch black of his eyes absorbed what little light landed on him, and the room grew heavier as the nightlight seemed to grow dimmer. Approaching the line of light around the room, Lucas smiled at Annabelle, looking more and more menacing by the second.

“Come play with me, Annabelle,” he called to her, reaching out his hand so she could take it. “Papa is looking forward to meeting you.” Taking a deep breath, Annabelle shook her head.

“No,” she replied, her voice strong and absolute despite her harsh response. “Go away and leave us alone.” Staring at her for a moment, Lucas sighed and shook his head.

“I thought you were better than that,” he said as he looked back up at her, his smile growing wider and sharper by the second. “I told you, it's either you or her.” Panic overtook Katie as Lucas rushed across the room and, without hesitation, pulled the beautiful nightlight from its socket, plunging the room into total darkness as Katie woke to the crashing sound of the nightlight hitting the floor.

Click…

Having pulled the massive flashlight out from her covers, Annabelle shined the light directly at Katie's crib, praying that her little sister was okay. The baby had barely stood up and was clinging to the railing as she wailed, clearly startled by the noise. The white bulb of the flashlight lit up half the room, making it so that there was no way Lucas could reach her or her little sister, but the light flickered slightly, almost as if it would give up at any second.

Where is Mom and Dad? she thought to herself. They should have been here by now… Katie whimpered as she slowly found comfort in the beam of the flashlight.

“It's okay, Katie,” Annabelle said as she carefully climbed out of bed, watching for any sign of Lucas and his attempt to attack them. “Everything's going to be okay. I won't let him hurt you.” While she sounded confident and brave, she felt the exact opposite as she looked at her bedroom door.

She had to reach the light switch and turn on the lights. It was the only way to banish Lucas from the room for the night. She had seen it happen multiple times over the last few nights since they moved into this house when her parents came in to see why she was playing in the middle of the night when it had been Lucas who had grabbed the loudest toys from her toy chest and been as disruptive as possible to get her to leave the safety of her bed.

If she allowed the light to follow her across the room so she could turn on the light, Lucas might make a run for Katie. If she stepped out of the light…

“Come on,” she told Katie as she carefully lifted the baby out of the crib and balanced her on one hip, just as her mother had done countless times before. “Let's go turn on the light.” Katie quieted down, and Annabelle took the first step toward the door, making sure she and her sister were in the light of the dying flashlight.

“We will have one of you,” called Lucas from the darkness, sending more chills down Annabelle’s spine. “The second you step out of that light, I’m taking one of you to Papa… He demands a new soul.” The voice grew deeper and more distorted as he spoke, and, for the briefest of seconds, Annabelle was terrified until she looked down at Katie's frightened, tear-streaked face and knew now wasn't the time to be afraid.

“Leave us alone,” she commanded to the dark room as she made her way to the light switch one step at a time. “Neither of us is going with you. I refuse to let you take us.” Somewhere in the darkness, there was a deep chuckle.

“Make sure you don't fall,” he taunted, seeming amused by the situation. “That flashlight might not survive.” As if having waited for him to finish his thought, something lashed out of the darkness and wrapped itself around her right leg, pulling her to the ground.

All it took was a single split-second decision to save Katie from the fall, but that decision also cost them the only safety they had: the flashlight. Having let go of Katie, Annabelle fell on the light and cried out as the room fell to darkness once more. Immediately, Katie cried in indignation as Annabelle struggled to her feet, raced across the last few feet, and flipped on the bedroom light, hoping that she wasn't too late.

The room was completely silent, and there was no sign of Lucas anywhere. However, Katie was nowhere to be seen, either. Tears formed in Annabelle's eyes as she raced around the room, looking for her little sister.

“Katie?” she called out, no longer caring if she woke her parents or not while wondering why they had yet to respond to any of the noise coming from her room all this time. “Katie? Katie, where are you?” Seeing that she was alone in the room, Annabelle raced to the closet, hoping that her fears for her sister were unfounded.

The closet was empty.

Nothing, not even her clothes or her toy chest, remained in the closet. There was no sign of her sister, either. Tears spilled down her face as Annabelle looked around the room, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what to do.

“Give her back!” she wailed into the brightly lit, empty room. “Give me back my sister! Take me instead!” When she received no response, she remembered that Lucas couldn't exist in the light and hurried to turn off the light once more.

Nothing.

She stood there in the pitch-black room, waiting for Lucas’s taunts once again, but once more, she was greeted by silence. No cries from a frightened Katie, no demonic-looking boy afraid of the light…

Just nothing.

“Come on,” she breathed as she looked around, trying to see into the darkness. “Take me already. Just give me back my sister…” Hopelessness started to set in until a deep, heavy sigh echoed through the room, making Annabelle's entire body tremble.

“I already gave you your chance,” the new presence whispered into the darkness, and Annabelle had to bite down on her tongue to keep herself from crying in fear. “It was going to be you or your sister, and you thought you could fight it. It's your fault Katie's gone.” Tears streamed down Annabelle's face as she covered her ears and shook her head.

“No,” she whispered back, not caring who heard her from this point on. “No, it's not my fault. I told you to leave me alone, and you didn't… It's your fault. You took Katie.” The more she spoke, the more her courage returned, and she stood tall, glaring into the darkness defiantly. “Give me back my sister right now!” The eerie silence that followed was deafening, but Annabelle stood strong, refusing to budge until she got what she wanted.

“Annie-bee?” called out the small, frightened voice of little Katie from somewhere in the darkness. “Scared…” Both relief and sadness filled Annabelle as she turned to locate the source of the sound.

“It's okay, Katie,” she whispered back. “I'm here, and there's nothing to be afraid of.” Somewhere to Annabelle's right, Katie gave a whimper, and Annabelle started towards the sound without thinking about it.

If she had, she would have realized that it wasn't actually Katie's voice and that what she thought was her little sister was leading her into the closet, where two bright red eyes waited patiently for her.

No one ever knew what happened to Annabelle. When her parents opened the door the next morning after the best sleep of their lives, they were stunned to find Katie asleep on Annabelle's bed with no sign of Annabelle anywhere. They looked for months before the police finally gave up, and, soon after, her family moved away, too haunted by the mysterious disappearance of Annabelle Johnson to stay in the house where their daughter had disappeared.

However, as Katie grew up, she became even more aware of a dark presence in the closet of her room that only appeared after the lights were out for the night.