Author's note: This story is intended to be disturbing. Trigger warnings are available in a separate "chapter" at the end of this story (you can navigate directly to that chapter if you'd like to view them). Trigger warnings contain spoilers, but I think they're extremely helpful.

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My mommy calls me Annie Roberts and says I'm 7 years old. I look almost exactly like the real Annie Roberts.

Actually I think I look exactly like the real one but it's hard to get everything right. One time I missed a dimple. That was a big mistake because people notice dimples, but I was young. I'm more careful now. I still know I missed something because nobody is perfect on God's green Earth, even when we want to be real, real bad, even when we take our time to do everything right. We all mess up, and

                                                                 that's okay.

What's left of the Old Annie Roberts is buried near the Mother of Thousands plants in the backyard. The Mother of Thousands drops all these little plantlets all over the place and grows really fast, especially when it has good soil! It has really good soil now and I go out on weekdays after I get home from school to pick up the little plantlets and throw them in the neighbor's yard. The real Annie did that, so I do it, too, because I want to be just like Annie Roberts.

I used to watch Annie every day whenever I could. She had long red hair that shined in the sun and it was so beautiful to watch. I loved her hair so, so much, but I couldn't just watch it bounce off her shoulders, even though I wanted to, because Annie had a lot of freckles. I almost didn't choose her just because of the freckles. There were so many and it took me a real long time to memorize all of them.

I might have missed one or two, but freckles can change over time, so I'm not going to worry myself over that! Nobody is perfect

I memorized the freckles for weeks and weeks and weeks, and I memorized her hair, and I memorized her legs and her eyes. The eyes are sooo hard. You have to get near them to see the eyes — you have time afterwards to get them just right, but you've got to get as close as you can in the meantime, 'cause if you mess up the eyes, you'll get caught quick.

I think I waited longer than I needed to. I was just so, so nervous! I wanted that beautiful, shining red hair so bad. I felt like I couldn't wait, so I waited extra long to make sure I was waiting long enough.

One day, Annie came home from school early. Mommy and Daddy weren't home yet (they were just her Mommy and Daddy way back then). They had argued for a week and a half about letting Annie ride the bus from school instead of just waiting for Mommy to pick her up, but the bus stop was only a block from our house, and Daddy didn't like it but Mommy knew that Annie was old enough.

Plus, they had Mrs. Davis from down the street. Mrs. Davis is old and her husband is dead. She loves Annie and she loves me and she told them she'd walk Annie to the house every day and that was good enough for Daddy.

For the first few days, Mrs. Davis had stayed with Annie until Mommy got home, which didn't take too long, but Mrs. Davis is so old and I don't think she thought about how walking Annie home would change her daily routine. She watches Jeopardy every night and she missed the first segment one night, so for the week or so before I got Annie, she would just bring her inside and make her a snack and then leave. Annie would only be home alone for 15 minutes or so most days. Some days, though, she was alone for longer.

And that day was a Wednesday and a really good day for me because Mommy left Annie alone for about an hour. I'd heard Mommy talking about how she had a meeting the night before. I was crammed up tight in an air conditioning duct (no fun!) and I heard her telling Daddy about how good Annie was and how it was just one day and how it wasn't a big deal.

Well, it was a big deal to Annie! She ran outside as soon as Mrs. Davis left and she walked around the backyard with her beautiful red hair bouncing on her shoulders. She was humming a song, so I started humming it to make sure I could do it the right way, and I hummed too loud and she heard me and got real quiet. I knew I had to do it that day, but I didn't really want to. When she heard me though, I didn't have much of a choice.

Snap!

I made it really quick. I don't always make it quick, but I really liked Annie and her beautiful red hair.

I can move so fast when I want to. All of us can but I'm way faster than the others. So I moved fast, snap, and then I studied Annie for as long as I could. I took her clothes off and made sure I knew every mark before I started eating. I looked at her eyes for a long long time, until I was sure that Mommy would be home soon.

We don't have to eat them except the brain, because we eat other stuff, but the more we eat, the less we have to clean up, and I ate everything I could except her hair and some other stuff. I didn't want to eat her hair. I wanted to keep it but I put it in the ground instead.

My mouth gets really, really big. My teeth are sharp, too, but I can't eat everything, and I get full after a while, even with the small ones, so I put the rest under the Mother of Thousands and I said a prayer because I know that's what Annie did when she buried her pet rat last summer.

The brain gives you so much good stuff! You know how they talk (like this) and you know how they feel. You can't really feel what they feel, not really, but you know how, and that's good. You know what words they know and what words they don't know, and you know their favorite colors (purple) and what time they need to go to bed and how much you should say I don't wanna go to bed before you give up and go to bed.

I also know that Annie loves writing! Her teacher says she's so good at it. She was so young but she showed a real talent for it, and that makes me want to write. Annie even kept a diary so I am too! I've never done it before.

Hugs and kisses,

Annie Roberts, Age 7