We Don't Talk About Anna

I sincerely hope that I have done an accurate job of relaying the events that occurred under the Harris’ roof in those few short days that I first knew Anna. I’ve tried my best to hold on to the memories in that house, but I find that some have become a little fuzzy or have even slipped my mind entirely. My therapist says that it’s better to forget the things that happened back then, but I’m not so sure. I still have yet to see Anna, and yet, I still believe that she is real.

But I suppose that I should probably continue with my story, so that you understand completely why after all these years away, I want nothing more than to go back to the Harris house and find Anna.

Everyone has stopped talking about her, even Tammy and Katherine. But not me. I still need answers.



“Don’t look at her.”

The chilling message rang through my head for about the millionth time that evening as I sat hunched over my untouched dinner.

“Aren’t you going to eat something Lou?” my mother asked, resting her hand on my shoulder gently, “I made your favorite pasta from scratch.”

I could hear the slight tinge of hurt in her voice and so I picked up my fork and shoveled some of the food into my mouth. She shook her head disapprovingly and walked back into the kitchen to help my sisters with the cake that they had started for their school’s bake sale. I wasn’t hungry and I immediately felt sick as the slimy noodles wound their way down my throat.

“Can I go see Katherine after dinner?” I had asked the same question for the past ten years.

“Not tonight Lou, I need help with your sisters and your dad isn’t getting home until late tonight.” And I had gotten the same answer for the past ten years, seven months and twelve days.

“Fine.” I huffed, finishing the rest of my pasta without another interjection.

However, I sat at the table that night while my mom and sisters baked their cake and hatched a plan to sneak out to the Harris’ house in hopes of seeing Anna that night. I needed to get out and see her. I need to apologize for not bringing her the light like I promised. She’s been sitting in darkness for ten years, waiting. I can’t make her wait any longer.


“Goodnight Louis.” My mom called through the closed door, her voice muffled through the wood, but I could tell that she was leaning against it, waiting for my answer.

“Goodnight mom.” I heard her drawn out sigh and her footsteps retreating down the hall to my sister’s rooms. She was gone. This was going to be too easy.

I slowly rose out of my bed, careful to miss the floorboard that creaked to my right. Placing one of my pillows on the mattress, I pulled up the sheets and comforter over it, making it look like a body was still lying underneath them.

I walked over to the window and cracked the shutters open, pulling the rope that I had found in the garage earlier that afternoon from my clothes hamper. I tied one end around my bedpost and let the other dangle freely out the window of our two-story home. Slowly, I lowered myself out of the window, my sweaty hands making it difficult to hold on to the slippery cable.

After almost slipping and falling for times, my feet finally met the ground with a large thud and I let go of the rope, letting it hang freely against the side of the house.

Now, to go see Anna.
I remembered the flashlight, a small one that I had tucked away in pocket so as not to forget it in all of my planning. She needed this light, more than I probably could even fathom. I just couldn’t imagine, being locked up in a pitch black room your whole life with no human contact.

And she was scared. Oh, she was so scared of whatever she thought was in that room with her. And I didn’t blame her. Something about that house just wasn’t right. Maybe that’s why Katherine always went out with friends and wanted to come to my house to hang out instead of hers.

I wondered if Anna would even want to talk to me, after all these years…she’d probably lost hope that I’d ever come. Then again, I’d almost lost hope too.

I was almost to the Harris’ house when I felt a cold chill run down my spine that made me shiver. It was cold in Doncaster tonight but still, this was something different. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand completely on end.

An overwhelming feeling of dread washed over me accompanied with that sinking feeling that I was being watched. I turned over my shoulder, daring to look behind me and saw a man standing just down the block from where I was, only about ten feet away. He started to move forward in this odd, sickening walk of his and stepped under a streetlight, and that’s when I saw his face.

His lips were drawn up like a cartoon character, his face tilted back like he was looking up at the sky. And all of a sudden he shot his head straight down, his glowing red eyes staring straight at me. And he still had that shit-eating grin on his face. Then he leaned forward and started running as fast as his bowed legs would carry him.

I turned and ran too, my adrenaline kicking in and carrying me down the block faster than I’d ever ran before. I leaped up the steps to Katherine’s house and pounded on the door furiously, too scared to look behind me and see if the man was there anymore.

The door opened quickly, much to my relief, to reveal Katherine, already in her night clothes.

“Louis, I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow.” She laughed, opening the door further so that I could come in.

It was then that I looked behind me. The smiling man was gone.

“I just couldn’t wait, Kat. You know me.” I joked, trying my best to cover up my irregular breathing.

“You know Tammy and Mom wouldn’t like it if they knew why you were here…” Katherine trailed off, starting to walk up the grand staircase as I followed after her, “And frankly I don’t either.”

“I just want to talk to her Kat, I have to. I owe her something.” I sighed, “I have to tell Anna I’m sorry.”

“Louis!” Katherine yelled, clapping her hands to her face, “You know we don’t talk about her! You could…upset something, I don’t know.”

“She’s a person Katherine, and she’s scared. I don’t care what is keeping her in there, and why your family was so ready and willing to subject her to such torture, but I’m the only one here that cares about her anymore. And I’ll talk about Anna all I want to!”

“Fine Lou fine.” She sighed, “Just don’t come crying to me when one of those…things in there with her comes after you.”

Katherine walked away to the right, down the wing that her room was on. I heard her door shut as I turned down the hall to the left. Anna’s hall.

I was met by the cold chill that I remembered when I reached the old door with the fancy little padlock on it. The door had aged some, the paint had chipped off in places on the bottom, like something…or someone, had tried to get out. And the padlock had started to rust and was no longer the shiny gold like I remembered.

“Anna…it’s-”

“Louis!” I heard her small fragile voice crack from behind the door, “I thought you’d never come. I’ve been waiting a very long time.”

“I know, I’m so sorry Anna. My mom wouldn’t let me come. I-I had to sneak out.” I stuttered.

“Sneaking out, huh?” she almost laughed, “Shouldn’t be getting in trouble over me now.”

It had been so long since I’d heard her voice. It was softer and more hoarse than I remembered, like she hadn’t used it in a very long time. I wondered how long it had been since she’d talked to anyone beside herself.

“I brought you something though.” I took out the flashlight that I had stuffed in my pocket. It was a little one that hung on a keychain, one like you would take camping or something of the sort. But it was small, just small enough to fit under the door.

“Just like you promised.” I heard her gasp, like she was marveling at the small little gadget that was now in her hands. “Thank you. No one has ever kept a promise to me before.”

“Well, I’m sorry that I was so late.” I laughed lightly so as not to wake anyone, “Why don’t you turn it on and see how it works?”

“Oh I can’t do that now! They’re most active at night and they know you’re here. It’s upset them terribly.” I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up again, “I’ll have to wait until the morning.”

“Anna, something followed me here.” I blurted out much quicker than I planned. I was still scared about the smiling man and if Anna said that ‘they’ knew I was here…

“Oh Louis, you can’t come see me anymore after this. They’ll surely hurt you too.” She sounded upset, like she had caused this. There was a definite amount of guilt in her voice. “ I don’t want you to end up like…”

“Like who Anna?” I questioned, almost regretting that I asked. It would probably lead to another one of her chilling stories.

“They told me the story about what happens t those who try to mess around in this sort of thing. And then they gave me a journal that the victim wrote about it. It’s here somewhere…” I could hear her rummaging around in the room, shifting things lightly against the floorboards.

“Here it is.” She finally said, her voice louder as she scooted closer to the door so that I could hear her better., “Maybe if I keep the light dim and close to the page I can keep it on long enough to read it to you without them getting upset.”

“I’m here Anna, whenever you’re ready.” I assured her, wrapping my arms around my torso to try and feel safer. Something told me that I wasn’t going to like this story. At all.



It was a Wednesday, somewhere between one and two in the morning, and I was walking near a police patrolled park quite a ways from my apartment. It was a quiet night, even for a weeknight, with very little traffic and almost no one walking around on foot. The park, as it was most nights, was completely empty. I was alone.

I turned down a short side street in order to loop back to my apartment when I first noticed him. At the far end of the street, on my side, was the silhouette of a man, dancing. It was a strange dance, similar to a waltz, but he finished each "box" with an odd forward stride. He was headed straight for me as he danced down the sidewalk.

Deciding he was probably drunk, I stepped as close as I could to the road to give him the majority of the sidewalk to pass me by. However, the closer he got, the more I realized how gracefully he was actually moving. He was very tall and lanky, and wearing an old suit. He danced closer still, until I could fully make out his face. His eyes were open wide with a wild sort of spirit, head tilted back slightly, looking off at the sky. His mouth was formed in a painfully wide cartoon of a smile, like the Cheshire cat for Alice in Wonderland. Between the eyes and the smile, I decided to cross the street before he danced any closer.

I took my eyes off of him to cross the empty street. As I reached the other side, I glanced back... and then stopped dead in my tracks. He had stopped dancing and was standing with one foot in the street, perfectly parallel to me. He was facing me but still looking skyward. Smile still wide on his lips.

I was completely and utterly unnerved by this. I started walking again, but kept my eyes on the man. He didn't move. Once I had put about half a block between us, I turned away from him for a moment to watch the sidewalk in front of me. The street and sidewalk ahead of me were completely empty. I was alone again. However, still unnerved, I looked back to where he had been standing to find him gone. For the briefest of moments I felt relieved, until I noticed him. He had crossed the street, and was now slightly crouched down. I couldn't tell for sure due to the distance and the shadows, but I was certain that he was facing me. I had looked away from him for no more than 10 seconds, so it was clear that he had moved fast.

I was so shocked that I stood there for some time, staring at him. And then he started moving toward me again. He took giant, exaggerated tip toed steps, as if he were a cartoon character sneaking up on someone. Except he was moving very quickly.

I'd like to say at this point I ran away or pulled out my pepper spray or my cellphone or anything at all, but I didn't. I just stood there, completely frozen as the smiling man crept toward me.

And then he stopped again, about a car length away from me. Still smiling his smile, still looking to the sky.

When I finally found my voice, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. What came out was a whimper, "What the fuu…?"

Regardless of whether or not humans can smell fear, they can certainly hear it. I heard it in my own voice, and that only made me more afraid. But he didn't react to it at all. He just stood there, smiling.
And then, after what felt like forever, he turned around, very slowly, and started dancing away. Just like that. Not wanting to turn my back to him again, I just watched him go, until he was far enough away to almost be out of sight. And then I realized something. He wasn't moving away anymore, nor was he dancing. I watched in horror, as the distant shape of him grew larger and larger. He was coming back my way. And this time he was running.

I ran too.

I ran until I was off of the side road and back onto a better lit road with sparse traffic. Looking behind me then, he was nowhere to be found. The rest of the way home, I kept glancing over my shoulder, always expecting to see his stupid smile, but he was never there.

I should have listen to the voices in the darkness when they told me not to leave. They said they would follow me.

The smiling man was one of them.