1.
The murder-suicide happened on a snowy night at 11:30p.m. on Christmas Eve. The suicide victim was a young woman wearing a blood-soaked wedding dress. The gown belonged to the young woman's dead mother, who passed away a month prior to the tragedy. Two of the young woman's friends heard the news on their televisions and drove to the scene of the crime just as paramedics were bringing out a stretcher, the body covered by a sheet. A headless corpse was found on the front yard, but the head was never recovered. A bloody butcher knife was discovered by the young woman and showed her fingerprints all over it. None of it made any sense.
The scene of the crime took place in the attic of a mansion over on Purcell Road. Nobody really knew what the young woman was going through at the time, but according to one man who knew her, she was struggling with depression and still coping with the recent death of her mother. The young woman inherited the mansion shortly after her mother died, and along with the mansion, she also inherited a mysterious piece of literature in the form of a children's book.
Her name was Constance Brown. And this is her story.
...
Constance was nineteen-years-old around the time of her death. She was beautiful, with long, raven black hair and golden brown eyes. Her skin was pale and she wore dark makeup, her lips were the color of red wine.
When she heard news of her mother's passing, Constance decided to quit college and move back to her hometown. She remembered the address and found her way back to the three story mansion, which looked smaller to her somehow. She remembered it being much bigger when she was a child. Constance got out of her car and took her bags out from the backseat and went up to the door, taking out the key from her pocket. She opened the door and stepped into the dark interior of the three story mansion. It wasn't anything grand or luxurious, but it was still her home.
Closing the door behind her, Constance placed her bags down on the floor and looked over at the staircase, then went into the living room. Nothing much had changed since the last time she saw it. She found a lightswitch and tried turning it on. Much to her surprise, the electricity was still working. She went into the kitchen and checked the fridge to see if there was any food in the house, but it was virtually empty. Constance closed the fridge door and turned to the sink and tried turning on the water. It was working, too. There was no cable or Internet, but it still had the basic utilities necessary to make it livable. That was good enough for her to start out with.
Everything seemed to be in order, but something still didn't feel right. From the minute she set foot into the mansion, Constance sensed a presence lurking somewhere in the house, as though a dark spirit were watching her.
Ignoring it, Constance walked out of the kitchen and went back to the front door to pick up her bags and headed up the stairs, which led down a long hallway. She went to her bedroom and unpacked, putting her clothes in the closet and drawer, then plugged in her cellphone to charge it. Her room was still the same from when she left home. Her pink teddy bear that was given to her by her grandmother was nestled right between two pillows.
Once she was settled in, Constance walked out of her bedroom and went down to the door at the end of the hall, opening it. The door led up another set of stairs and went up to the one room she had yet to explore: the attic.
Constance had never been up to the attic before. Not that she was forbidden to go up there, but there was something about it the attic that gave her the creeps. When she was a child, Constance believed that a monster lived up there, a horrifying creature that would stalk her in the dead of night and eat her up while she was sleeping. Her mother used to say that it was only the bogeyman and that nothing would ever hurt her, but that was all a lie.
Constance walked up the stairs and reached the attic, which was dark and spacious, everything dusted with cobwebs and covered by bedsheets. Most of the things in the attic were cardboard boxes filled with old family photos and stuff, antique furniture, a velvet painting of a soldier riding a horse into battle, trunks filled with Victorian style clothing, and an old music box that belonged to her mother. So many of these things had been handed down from members of Constance's family for generations. Her mother usually kept a lot of personal things in the attic, including the wedding dress she wore the day she married Constance's father.
While searching the attic, Constance looked through some of the boxes and found a beautiful Chinese silk kimono. Putting it on, Constance turned and looked at herself in the mirror and did a little twirl, a small laugh came from her wine red lips. She continued to look through boxes and came across one that had a lot of children's books. One of them was a red pop-up book that showed a shadowy figure with sharp claws on the cover. Mister Babadook, it read. There was no mention of an author or the company who printed the book, not even a copyright date. Taking a chance out of curiosity, Constance opened the book and started reading to herself:
If it's in a word or it's in a look,
You can't get rid of the Babadook.
The Babadook? Constance thought to herself. What's that? She turned the next page, which showed a dark figure poking its head out from behind a door.
If you're a really cleaver one,
And you know what it is to see,
Then you can make friends with a special one,
A friend of you and me.
Constance turned the next page.
His name is Mister Babadook,
And this is his book.
The next page revealed a scared-looking little boy staring up at a tall closet.
A rumbling sound then, three sharp knocks,
Ba Ba-ba DOOK! DOOK! DOOK!
That's when you'll know that he's around,
You'll see him if you look.
Constance never heard of something so whimsical and yet so confusing. This had to be somebody's idea of a joke. Turning the next page, she saw the funny-looking monster wearing a black top hat and smiling.
My name is Mister Babadook,
Do not be afraid of me,
Do not be worried and full of dread.
For I am a friendly kind of monster,
But I don't hide under the bed.
Yeah, right, Constance thought to herself. She turned the next page, in which a group of children were playing a game of Ring Around the Rosie. The Babadook was watching them from afar, looking sad.
I don't like the closet,
Or dark hiding places.
I'd rather be seen at parks and picnics,
And make children laugh by making funny faces.
Constance turned the next page and saw a tiny little girl looking up at the Babadook. She was wearing a yellow dress with pink flowers on it and offering him a present. The words on the page said:
I like to make friends and have fun, you see,
So what do you say? Would you like to be friends with me?
"Very cute", said Constance. She closed the book and set it aside, then went back to digging through boxes in the attic. In her search, Constance discovered a box of old VHS tapes. They were mostly horror movies, including almost all the Godzilla movies. Constance selected three VHS tapes and went downstairs to the living room. There was a VHS player hooked up on the entertainment center.
Calling out for delivery, Constance ordered a pizza and watched a couple of video tapes. The house was relatively quiet. Later on, once she finished taking a hot shower and brushed her teeth, Constance went to her room and got into bed, pulling the blanket up to her chest. She lied there for a while, listening to the calm and peaceful silence of the mansion. There was hardly a sound to be heard, except for the wind coming from outside. Her eyes started to turn heavy, but just when she was about to fall asleep, a loud disturbance made Constance snap her eyes open and sit up at once. She gasped in fright, staring up at the ceiling. The noise sounded like mice crawling around inside the wall and it sounded very much like it was coming from the attic. Somebody was in the house!