The Story of Abigail- as told by King Diamond

The story of Abigail as told on the album 'Abigail' and it's follow up, 'Abigail 2' by the amazing King Diamond are not only masterpieces in music but in storytelling.  I often have trouble explaining the story line to people without the music accompaniment, but Ill give it a try.  I highly suggest you listen to the albums.  You won't sleep well after, but it's so worth it.

 Abigail tells the story about a young couple, Miriam Natias and Jonathan La'Fey, who move into an old mansion that La'Fey inherited. It takes place in the summer of 1845. At their arrival they are warned by seven horsemen not to move into the house because if they do "18 will become 9." They do not heed the warning and proceed to move into the mansion. During their first night, Jonathan meets with Count La'Fey, the Family Ghost, who is a deceased relative. The ghost shows him a casket in which a corpse of a stillborn child, Abigail, rests. The ghost informs him that Miriam is carrying the spirit of Abigail and that the child will soon be reborn. He insists that Jonathan must kill Miriam at once to prevent the rebirth.  The narration then relates the story of what happened to the Count and his wife: on 7 July 1777, the Count had discovered his wife had been unfaithful to him, and was pregnant with an illegitimate child. Enraged, he threw the Countess down the stairs, breaking her neck and causing the child to be stillborn. The Count had the body of the Countess cremated, and the stillborn fetus he named Abigail and had mummified and laid to rest in a sarcophagus, the Count having an inexplicable urge to preserve Abigail for the future.  The narration then returns to the summer of 1845, during which Jonathan and Miriam are beset by a range of omens; the church bell rings despite nobody being inside to ring it, flowers die, unwholesome stenches fill the house and in the dining room the table is discovered set for 3. In one incident an empty cradle is discovered by Jonathan swaying in the air, with both him and Miriam insisting that they didn't bring it with them. The next day, Miriam is clearly pregnant and the fetus develops quickly; Jonathan realises that the family ghost was speaking the truth.  The fatal crisis begins when Jonathan accuses Abigail of possessing Miriam, and Abigail (through Miriam) admits it. Jonathan is terrified and considers getting a priest to exorcise Miriam - Miriam, however, exercising a moment of control, urges him to cast her down the stairs to kill her just as the Count had slain the Countess and Abigail's original incarnation. Therefore, Jonathan pretends to give in to Abigail's demands, and suggests to Abigail (once she regains control of Miriam) that she should come down to the family crypt so she can be reborn where she died. However, as the couple stands at the top of the stairs, Jonathan is distracted and the possessed Miriam throws Jonathan down the stairs.  Miriam gives birth to Abigail, but dies shortly afterwards, her last sight being of Abigail's "yellow eyes"; supposedly her ghost can be heard screaming on the stairs in July ever after. The seven horsemen arrive at the mansion and discover the baby Abigail in the sarcophagus, eating something too horrifying for the narrator to mention (though the fact that it is found in the sarcophagus suggests that Abigail is eating her own previous body). Appalled, they take her away to bury her in a hidden chapel in the forest with seven silver spikes driven through her body ( burial heard as the intro to the album), in the hope that this will prevent a further resurrection. 

 Abigail 2
  The plot correlates with that of the original album Abigail, and the listener discovers that she is actually the half-sister of O'Brian (the mysterious leader of the Black Horsemen from the original album), and is kept alive by his intervention (the Horsemen having originally planned to nail her into a coffin with silver spikes to prevent her emerging again). The year is 1863, and Abigail has just turned 18 years old. While out walking in the forest, she is caught in a storm that takes her by surprise, causing her to lose her way and stumble upon the LaFey Mansion, the gates to which are locked tight. Certain that she will succumb to the elements, Abigail is surprised to see 'Little One', the ghost of the original Abigail from 1777, unlock the gates and disappear into the house. Abigail enters the mansion and is greeted by Jonathan's imposing and shaven-headed servant, Brandon Henry. It is revealed that Jonathan did not die after he fell down the stairs, but is mostly confined to a wheelchair and must walk with a cane. He has not moved on from Miriam's death and now calls himself Count de LaFey. He greets Abigail, calling her Miriam and believing she is his beloved, who died while giving birth to Abigail. He coaxes Abigail into sleeping with him in his bed, where he rapes her in an attempt to "produce an heir". Abigail, fueled with vengeance, goes to the crypt to see her past incarnation. Brandon Henry, who had warned her to never go into the crypt, finds her there; Abigail takes a sharp necklace from the mummified baby's neck  and slits his throat. She puts broken glass in Jonathan's food, beats him with his cane while he chokes on his own blood, and then sets him on fire, the flames finally killing him. The fire spreads from Jonathan to the window-curtains and finally to Abigail's dress, and she and the mansion are consumed by the flames. As the fire cannot reach the basement, and is therefore unable to destroy the crypt, the spirit of Little One is unable to pass on and is bound forever to the world of the living, crying out for her mother.