Beware the Night (37 page)

In another call, Mike asked a question that was totally out of the norm: “Does Donna love me?” A melodic chime proclaimed that she did. For once the demon wasn’t lying: These spirits will tell the truth when it advances their cause. “I’m going to take her out of her house,” Mike announced, only to be dissuaded by a double beep for no. The demon wanted Donna right where she was, so it could insidiously break down her will, opening the way for possession. Donna then suggested that they call in psychic researchers, receiving another dismissive double beep.

“Are you afraid of them?” she asked, and heard a brief, timid beep. Damned right, “Isabel” was afraid of us—if we came to that house, the spirit would be exposed for what it really was. Here was another parallel with the Westchester case, where the demon insisted that “holy ones must not come!”

Not seeing the incredible illogic of a spirit who claimed to need help yet objected to getting it, the couple became consumed and enthralled by the events the “poltergeist” described. Communicating with it became such an obsession that Mike actually took a vacation from work so he’d have even more time to pursue his investigation of the spirit’s claims. The mystery fueled his cop’s curiosity. He and Donna began combing through phone books, trying to identify what town the two dead kids might have come from. The spirit beeped no to each possibility but remained strangely silent when towns that ended with the word “brook” were brought up.

The couple’s confusion only added to the creature’s credibility. Using this clue, Mike combed old newspapers at the library, looking for stories about missing children from a town whose name ended in “brook.” Of course, he found nothing, but being a cop, this only intrigued him even more. He began keeping case notes of what he’d discovered so far. One entry he showed me read:

Isabel, age 6. Comes from Brook? Broadbrook? Foster-brook? Potterbrook? Blue car; two males. Remains: located in swamp. Sexually molested, then killed. Deceased, 50 years. States that she had blond hair and green eyes. She also states that her brother has blond hair. It is my opinion that due to the age at which she was killed, she has a very limited vocabulary. We are dealing with the mentality of a 6-year-old. We have to speak in words she understands.

Intensely curious about the spirit, Mike invited it to reveal more of its powers. “Isabel, can you move things?” After an agreeable beep was heard, Donna shouted in astonishment. A cloth heart she kept on her kitchen wall had just tumbled to the ground on its own! She picked it up and put it on the kitchen table, but when she turned around, the heart was back on the wall in its usual spot. “Isabel, did
you
put the heart back?” she asked in bewilderment, and the phone chimed affirmatively.

On the other end of the line, Mike had more suggestions. “Can you turn the water on?” Nothing happened. “She can’t do it,” he said sadly. A kitchen faucet gushed in response.

“The hell she can’t,” Donna gasped.

To me, this was further proof that the culprit in this case was a demon: Ghosts are much weaker spirits and don’t have the ability to move anything but the lightest objects, so they couldn’t possibly turn a faucet handle. It’s also debatable whether a human spirit could make a phone beep: I’ve never heard of a case where this happened, but if several ghosts were in the house, they might be able to pool their spirit energy to accomplish this feat.

“Isabel, can you touch Donna’s arm?” Mike asked twice, but got no response—until he heard a blood-curdling shriek from Donna.

“Never do that again!” she cried, sobbing so hard she was choking.

“What happened?”

Unable to find words for the indescribably icy terror of that touch, she just sobbed. “Oh, shit! Never, ever do that again.” Angry and afraid, she finally caught her breath and railed at her lover for putting her through such heart-stopping horror. “What the fuck are you trying to do to me?”

Mike reminded her that the spirit wasn’t out to hurt her and had helpfully warned them about the “big one” in her house. His remarks were punctuated by soothing single beeps of agreement, which calmed Donna considerably.

Her kitchen was suddenly filled with brilliant flashes of light. Each of them appeared at the very edge of her peripheral vision, so she stood there, turning her head from side to side in astonishment. Although she didn’t know it, she was seeing what we call “ghost lights,” bursts of energy from either human or inhuman spirits. Hardly daring to ask, she whispered into the phone, “Isabel, was that you?” A long, triumphant tone echoed through the phone, and Donna hung up, too upset to talk further. The spirit, however, had something else to say; it gave Mike a quick beep of farewell.

Once encouraged to get physical, Isabel intensified the attack. First, she started intruding into Mike and Donna’s phone conversations uninvited. In one call, Donna wondered what they should do. Should they contact psychic investigators about the strange events in her home? “I don’t even believe in this stuff,” she grumbled. Mike got mad. “How much more proof do you need? We know you have the spirit of a little girl who was six and a little boy who was eight. We know they came from a ‘brook’ somewhere, and were murdered. And we know their remains are in your damned swamp! Did we make all this up?”

“Maybe the little girl did,” replied Donna, closer to the truth than she realized. Beep, beep, denied the spirit, then went into a frenzy of tones up and down the scales.

“Don’t worry, little girl,” Mike said. “We believe you.”

That wasn’t the only time the spirit sparked a lovers’ quarrel. In subsequent tapes, it showed a real talent for stirring up trouble. No strategy was too petty, if it helped drive a wedge between Donna and Mike. In one call Mike, who was extremely health-conscious, innocently asked his girlfriend if she’d taken her vitamin pill that day. Yes, she lied, only to have the ghost tattle on her with two beeps. “She’s giving you up, babe.” Mike laughed; he thought the whole thing was pretty funny. Donna didn’t—and they got into a heated argument about it, much to the delight of the spirit. Divide and conquer—that’s the favorite M.O. of the demonic.

Soon, however, they both started to suspect that the allegedly friendly ghost had a dark side. When Donna mentioned contacting the Warrens, the spirit revealed a creepy new power: The woman was immediately hit with a blinding headache. Within days she was a virtual hostage in her own home, since every time she tried to go out, she’d suddenly feel extremely tired and get an excruciating headache that sent her straight to bed. These killer headaches, marked by a powerful feeling of pressure on her temples, never let up, and her whole body ached right down to her bones. Donna began sleeping more and more, as the demon drained her of energy.

The next time she called Mike, there was a lot of static on the line but no beeps, until she said she’d like to go over to his house. That provoked a frenzy of shrill tones—clearly Isabel wasn’t pleased with this idea. “I think she has a mean streak,” Mike remarked, while Donna complained that her heart was pounding. “Is that your doing, Isabel?” With a firm beep, the spirit said yes.

“I really want to leave here, and come to your house,” Donna pleaded. Before Mike could say a word, two more beeps followed: Donna wasn’t going anywhere if the spirit could help it.

Mike, however, still didn’t want to blame the little girl he called “cutie” for this. “Is the big one around today?” he asked. Three long tones followed, implying that the evil force had made three appearances so far. That number was yet another clue to the spirit’s true nature, since, the demonic love to do things in threes, to mock the Christian trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Isabel was quick to offer an alibi, a little later in the tape. Again, Mike asked the questions.

Do you love Donna?
YES

Then why are you hurting her?
N/R (NO RESPONSE)

You don’t hurt people you love.
N/R

Will you make Donna’s headache go away?
N/R

Is there some reason why you want her to stay home?
YES

Do you feel you are protecting her?
YES

I can protect her.
NO

Is somebody in the family in danger?
YES

Is there going to be an accident?
YES

Will somebody die?
YES

Is it going to be Donna’s brother?
N/R

Donna’s father?
N/R

Her mother?
N/R

Is it going to be Donna or me?
N/R

Do you know who?
YES

If I guess, will you tell me?
NO

If Donna stays in the house, will she be okay?
YES

When Mike begged it to please cure his girlfriend of her horrible headaches, within seconds the pain vanished. He began bargaining with the so-called little girl: Would the spirit stop giving Donna headaches if she’d agree to stay home? Okay, it beeped. And how about lifting the relentless fatigue she was afflicted with? Absolutely not, Isabel replied. It was essential to keep Donna tired, for her own good, and that meant her body would keep on hurting. This was obviously another demonic tactic to isolate the young mother, by keeping her apart from her friends and lover.

Nor could Mike come to her house, as Donna’s parents, who lived upstairs, had taken a mysterious dislike to him and invariably started an argument with him whenever he dropped by. Clearly, the evil spirit was doing its utmost to separate Donna from her support system, all the better to break down her will.

So the young mother became a prisoner. One morning she tried to escape, calling Mike to say that she felt better than usual, was getting dressed, and would be over to visit him soon. Two furious beeps interrupted her. Putting down the phone, Donna headed out to her car, only to find that the battery was dead. A kindly neighbor came out in the pouring rain and tried to jump-start her car, with no success. Soaking wet, she trudged back to her house in defeat—and was struck by the worst headache ever. “Mike,” she said, weeping into the phone, “Isabel has killed my car.” A long, gloating beep echoed over the line, followed by a dial tone.

Mike quickly called back and began hinting around that he’d be by with his car. He was afraid to actually come out and say this, for fear he’d be disconnected again. Can you imagine a grown man and woman, each with children of their own, unable to see each other and too intimidated to talk plainly on their own phones? While the demon was finally showing its true colors, amazingly, this couple
still
thought they were dealing with the spirit of a six-year-old girl! Donna was reduced to asking Isabel’s permission to speak to her boyfriend in privacy. No, beeped the spirit, you can’t. “But I miss Mike,” she whined. “And I lo—” It seemed that the spirit could read her mind, since a soft tone signaled that it too “loved” Mike. “I need to be with him,” Donna pleaded. Two much louder beeps signaled that no trysts were allowed.

“That’s it,” shouted Mike. “I’m coming right over!”

The phone went berserk, letting out a mad cacophony of deafening tones, then disconnected. He tried to call back, dialing her number over and over, but got a busy signal each time. Just then
his
phone rang. Hesitantly he lifted the receiver—and was blasted by a long, furious tone that seemed to stretch on forever. “Okay, okay, I’m
not
coming!” he shouted. The wail immediately ceased. Again Isabel put a benevolent spin on things, telling Mike that if he came over, the “big one” would hurt him. Being only a little girl, the spirit contended it wasn’t powerful enough to protect both of them.

The last tape Mike made was the most disturbing of all. A series of up-and-down beeps that sounded like mechanical laughter answer his call, then Donna picked up. “Guess who just greeted me.” Mike chuckled.

“I’m not talking to
her,
” his girlfriend insisted. “I’m sore all over, feel sick to my stomach, and don’t want to talk on the phone anymore.”

Mike was so in awe of Isabel’s powers that he couldn’t resist going into a long question-and-answer session with the spirit anyway. “Am I going crazy?” he wondered. Two beeps assured him he was not. “You’re real?” That elicited louder beeps, as Donna’s breathing became slow and steady, as if she were in a trance. What an amazing power, he thought. She can make Donna go to sleep just like that! I wish I was over there, Isabel. I want to meet you, see your miraculous powers, feel your touch.

A moment later, at his request, the spirit woke up the young mother. “What’s happening?” she asked groggily. When Mike told her that she’d been fast asleep a moment before, she refused to believe it. “No way!” she argued.

As the tape played, Mike encouraged the spirit to show off its tricks. “Turn on the water,” he said, and the water went on. “See, if she can do that, Donna, she can put you to sleep.”

Sounding like she was about ninety years old and weary beyond imagining, his girlfriend implored him not to do this. She’d barely finished the sentence when Isabel thought of a new game. The spirit threw open a kitchen cupboard and made a box of saltines float over to her. Although Donna protested that she wasn’t hungry, the next sound Mike heard was his girlfriend obediently opening the cracker box and munching away.

It was as if Mike had been hypnotized himself; only now did he wake up to the full horror of the situation. The little girl or whatever was lurking in the phone was moving the woman he loved around like a marionette, opening and closing her eyes, forcing her to eat on command. Could Donna be possessed?

“What are you doing? Let her go!”

Three thunderous crashes resonated through the phone—and Mike found himself screaming at a dial tone. Engulfed with fear, he called Ed Warren, nationally renowned due to frequent newspaper and TV coverage of his cases. After hearing about “Isabel’s” terrifying powers, Ed instantly agreed to take the case.

Later that day Mike’s phone rang. “I just looked at it,” he told me. “Fear was building inside me. It was Donna”—or was it? “It didn’t sound like her at all—the change in her voice was incredible. I told her everything Ed had told me: This is no little girl—it’s a devil. No human spirit had the power to do these things. This creature has been keeping you prisoner so it can feed off your energy—that’s why you’re so tired!”