Annabelle Comes Home (The Warren House of the Unholy)

Chapter 12 (If You Don't Pay His Toll, He'll Take Your Soul)

Okay it's December, I promised chapters and I haven't upheld that have I... I apologise. School is chaos, end of year exams are chaos, VCE is chaos. Update tho, my writing motivation finally decided to make an appearance. I will warn you, for those who have watched the movie, do not expect everything to be the same. There will be a few details i will skip over because 

1. I honestly can't be bothered 

and 2. Some details don't add any extra horror-ness anyway sooooo

Allon-sy, lets continue reading 

In the living area, Diana stayed up beside Mary-Ellen, her leg shaking as she sipped a cup of coffee. Mary-Ellen on the other hand, seemed unbothered by the revelation. After all, it was late in the night, and she simply believed she had been seeing things due to her fatigue. Instead, her time was spent rushing through an assignment due on paper, the tv running as background noise.

But Mary-Ellen's focus on her work was led astray, when an almost non-existent whisper echoed from beneath the dialogue of the scene playing on the screen. Diana remained oblivious, her senses tired and numb from her recent clairvoyant episode to the point that she hadn't noticed Mary-Ellen stand from the couch in her stupor.

Turning down the volume of the television, Mary-Ellen's ears strained themselves to hear the faint whispers of what seemed to be an interview. "He had silver coins for his eyes. She said his light shows you the way to the land of the dead. I just wanna find my sister," a girl's teary voice floated through the hallways of the house to the living room, slightly muffled as though played through a tape recorder. Mary-Ellen furrowed her brow, confused at where the tape was playing from.

"And where did she first see him?" the voice of Ed Warren questioned.

Mary-Ellen strayed from the living room, her footsteps light as she followed the sound down the stairs and into the room of files that the Warrens kept in the office.

"Not long before he took her." The girl's voice answered. "She said she'd wake up, and he'd be in her room, watching her sleep. The night she went missing, we both woke up to a noise. It sounded like a coin falling on the floor. She told me to wait in her room. So I did. She never came back. I went to look for her and ended up in a long hallway. Filled with coffins. Last night... I woke up to a noise. Another coin being dropped. It was like he was... like he was calling me," the girl narrated, the fear in her voice portraying just how terrified she was during the experience.

"Have you ever seen the Ferryman?" tape Diana asked in reply, light and caring.

"If you don't pay his toll, he'll take your soul," the girl on tape tearfully replied. The sound of the tape rewinding sent a mild chill down Mary-Ellen's spine. She didn't believe in ghost stories or demons in the dark, but it seemed odd that a tape would play out of nowhere. The tape began to play once more, the chant of the girl's words played over and over again in rapid succession, each sounding more demonic than the last.

'If you don't pay his toll, he'll take your soul.'

In finding the origins of the tape, the blond-haired girl reached out, stopping the tape before it continued. It was then she noticed the file that detailed the Ferryman case laid open upon the stacks of boxes, as though beckoning her to take a peek. They must've left it open when they were rushed out by Diana earlier in the day, Mary-Ellen rationalised to herself. The dim lights in the room were enough for Mary-Ellen to make out the grey and white pictures that filled the case file that depicted a man with two coins placed upon his eyes, as well as a detailed drawing of what looked like a reaper holding a lantern. Only Diana knew his name as Charon, the ferryman who ferried the dead souls across the river Styx and Acheron into the Underworld.