Fighting Malevolent Spirits: A Demonologist's Darkest Encounters (5 page)

Interestingly enough, almost all of the paranormal incidents only occurred on the children’s side of the trailer. Betsy did witness unexplainable events in the children’s area so she knew the children weren’t fabricating anything. It didn’t matter what time of day or night, there was seemingly always activity. A lot of our cases would have the client waking up nightly at around 3:00 a.m. or in the wee hours of the morning to experience the haunting, however, for Betsy’s family, some of the most violent episodes happened during the daytime.

The same week that Bryan was lifted off the floor, Bryan’s best friend Jeff had been visiting the house one day at about eleven or noon. He was punched in the stomach so hard the wind was knocked out of him. They found old skeleton keys in their new home that seemed to belong to the farmhouse. Soon a pile accumulated.

The family relayed their stories to me in almost an immune tone, as if they had experienced so much terror they no longer showed emotions—it was their new normal. I would soon find out why the entire family was emotionally shut down and stonewalled.

I felt that the dark entity lurking inside the home likely influenced the previous owner of the farmhouse and then attached itself to Betsy’s family once they moved in, but I wanted to check other possible sources. I began asking about the psychological and physical health of the family to see if some incident happened that enticed the demonic force. “Can you think of any problems you’ve experienced with substance abuse, alcoholism, sexual assault, depression, domestic violence, and so on?” After a long pause, the father, John, quietly stated that everyone in the family, aside from the youngest son, Collin, had been sexually or physically assaulted at some point in their lives. My heart sank and I told the family that I appreciated them sharing this with us, as painful as it might be to discuss. I discovered that they had not received counseling for their past traumas and I considered the abuse as a possible entryway for the demonic as well. The phrase “
The demonic prey on the weak and the ill
” has always stuck in my mind and is an accurate explanation for most of my cases.This entity was preying on victims.

“My grandpa used to beat the living shit out of me and assaulted me when I was little,” John said. “I would try to defend myself, but I was too small. One day I was bigger than him, I grew up, and finally fought back.” John had tears in his
eyes but shared his story with a sense of dignity. Betsy
squeezed his hand to reassure and comfort him. This family clearly had been to hell and back.

Betsy spoke up and began sharing her past as well. Betsy’s mother abandoned her in California when she was about fourteen years old, taking Betsy’s siblings and leaving Betsy to fend for herself. She got a job and enrolled in a self-defense class because Betsy was terrified that her trailer would be broken into and she wouldn’t be able to defend herself. Despite Betsy’s best efforts at a normal life, she soon battled a drug addiction, was sexually abused, and was swallowed by darkness and depression. Thankfully, years later she would recover and start a beautiful family of her own. She was a strong woman and knew the hardships of life but overcame them. Now the paranormal realm was biting at her heels. Betsy also shared that she had gone through several recent surgeries, lost her job, and that the family’s health, finances, and happiness were starting to deteriorate, all of which were very characteristic of a demonic haunting. They filed for bankruptcy.

John and Betsy then moved on to explain Bryan’s history. “When Bryan was little, his best friend’s parents used to force him and his friend into performing theatrical plays, but the plays were sexual and perverse in nature. The parents would make them touch each other and do other horrible things. But, through all of that they still remained best friends for a long time.” Betsy paused to collect herself. By the time they wanted to press charges, it had been over seven years and the police said it was too long ago for them to do anything about it or to charge the parents.

I couldn’t help but feel anger and sadness for Bryan. I really wanted him to experience that feeling of justice being served and that karma had paid forward his friend’s parents’ behavior, but there wasn’t anything I could do. Betsy explained, “We felt terrible when we found out. We had no idea that his friend’s parents were doing that. No idea.”

I tried my best at reassuring Bryan, apologizing that such a traumatic thing had happened to him. I gave Bryan my deepest condolences and reminded him that it was not his fault. There are some really ugly people in this
world. I was really proud of Bryan for wanting to press
charges and coming forward about his experiences; that takes a lot of strength and courage. I explained to Bryan that I lacked that same courage to press charges after I was assaulted in high school, and that he should be proud for pursuing justice.

There was so much pain in this house that I wanted to just sit and sob for the family. I could feel their emotions and pain, so much so that at some points it became overwhelming for me; my eyes welled up and I had to choke back full tears while hearing their stories of suffering. The string of bad events and darkness in their lives could have easily attracted a demonic feature—
perhaps there were multiple reasons for this haunting
. The family continued with Bryan’s history of paranormal encounters. They amazed me with their strength and love.

Ever since Bryan was little he had experienced paranormal events. He described seeing “rain people,” which sounded very similar to silhouettes of ghosts. They were very foggy in appearance and Bryan remembered that it almost looked like rain. He stated that you could “kind of see through them.” As Bryan got older he began having increasingly intense encounters with the paranormal. After the family moved into their new trailer, Bryan even considered that he might be going crazy, losing his sanity. Both he and his father recalled a time when Bryan was tormented for three full days—every body of water appeared to be thick, red blood. Whenever Bryan or his loved ones spoke, it sounded like wailing and thousands of tormented souls to Bryan.

The family was baffled. Betsy took Bryan to have a psychological evaluation and found out that he was not suffering from any mental illness like schizophrenia, or any other catalytic disease associated with hallucinations. There was no valid medical explanation for what Bryan was experiencing. He would have uncontrollable bursts of anger—sheer rage—and he started to isolate himself more. Bryan would experience strange things on a daily basis and the family would experience events once a week or so. Things were escalating in the household.

Carl, Mike, and I asked if we could speak with Bryan separately outside as it seemed that Bryan was being targeted the most. We went around the corner of the house and began talking. I told Brian that I wanted to get his perspective on things and ask a few more personal questions in private so he didn’t feel embarrassed or pressured. “Do you ever black out after you get really angry or do you forget about things you’ve said and done during these outbursts?”

Bryan looked concerned, “Yeah, sometimes I don’t remember any of it or I get really angry for no reason at all. What does that mean?” Bryan asked. I feared that perhaps Bryan was experiencing demonic oppression to the point that it might lead to actual possession. Possession is extremely rare but Bryan was beginning to show some signs of being heavily influenced—losing control of his body and emotions.

I questioned if Bryan was having any recurring nightmares or hearing any voices telling him to do harmful things.

“Actually, sometimes I hear some spirit talking to me. They’ll say stuff like, ‘Just kill yourself. You’re worthless.’ Things like that.” Bryan was becoming anxious.

I then asked Bryan if the voice was male or female and if he heard it with his ears or inside his mind.

Bryan thought for a moment, “It was just a voice inside my head. I think it was male but almost unisex. I don’t know. It’s hard to tell.” Bryan stood in front of us trying to recall the incidents. I suspected that the telepathic and extremely nega
tive narration inside Bryan’s mind were the actions of a
demon.

In severe cases, a demon will sometimes begin a dialogue with the victim and start instructing them to do harmful things to hurt others or themselves. Usually the client won’t realize or comprehend that this is a foreign voice, and not their own conscience—they begin to believe that these comments are their own thoughts or don’t question their source, and sometimes they follow through with the instructions. Many serial killers and murderers have mentioned that the “voices” told them to do it, in detail and with specific requests, and they are found to not have schizophrenia or split personality disorder.

When I studied abnormal psychology, I wrote several long syntheses about the possible connection between assumed schizophrenia and demonic possession. I found some very interesting case studies that sometimes reminded me of clients I worked with, Bryan in particular.

“Bryan, since the demon might be focusing more on you, I want to make sure that we have you participate in the cleansing to help remove the entity. Is that okay with you?” I asked. Bryan agreed and we headed back to the house.

Bryan interrupted our return, “Hey, real quick before you go back inside. I didn’t want to say this in front of everyone because Sarah would kill me.” Sarah was Bryan’s girlfriend that now lived with the family. “But Sarah was sexually assaulted, too, when she was little … I get so mad when I talk about this … When she was six years old one of her relatives used to cut her genitals with knifes and then would play with the wounds.”

My stomach turned and I felt the pooling of saliva in my mouth from nausea. Visions of the assault flashed through my mind and I was sickened by the evil in some people. I still cry when I read this story to myself. I wasn’t sure if I was having a psychic vision or if my imagination was generating the images. They were so disturbing: flashes of knives, blood, a scared little girl, and the close-up perverse evil smile of a man flickered in my mind. His stained teeth and facial overgrowth wrinkled in the form of a grin. He clearly enjoyed it. I was brought back to the present moment by the sound of Bryan’s voice.

“She never will tell me which relative it was because she knows I would try to kill him. I would. I would fucking kill that bastard. I think I know who it is but I’m not sure.” I immediately hugged Bryan and my eyes started to well up again, my face hot with so many emotions. I didn’t know how this family made it through life with such terrible experiences, but they were still loving, good people. It was a miracle.

I apologized to Bryan—I was woefully sorry for what had happened to him, his family, and Sarah. There is no excuse for some people’s behavior, and I think sometimes it’s pure evil. Bryan was such a great person and I didn’t want him to let those memories ever ruin him. He was so strong and brave and I knew he could make it through anything. He already made it through the worst and it was going to get better. I promised him.

Bryan pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to conceal his tears by wiping them away. We made our way back inside and joined the rest of the family in the living room again.

Shortly after getting settled back in the chair, we heard a knock on the door. Betsy reminded us that it was prom night and the girls were coming by to meet up with Jeff before heading out to dinner. Blue and green fabric began squeezing through the front door and the two girls soon appeared in their prom dresses.

They greeted us cheerfully. “Are you guys the ghost hunters? Anything cool happen yet? I love watching those shows!” They seemed ecstatic to talk about the paranormal but were soon close to running late for their dinner and headed back out the door with Jeff, who had briefly introduced himself as well. I giggled to myself because sometimes the paranormal enables you to have a twisted sense of humor.
Demons and prom night
…
sounds like the next bestseller or blockbuster movie
, I thought to myself.
Why hadn’t anyone thought of this plot already?
I pursed my lips trying to hold back my smile and began “reviewing” the notes to get back in focus.

Betsy shut the door and returned to her seat. “While you guys were outside we remembered some other things that happened that you should know about.”

She explained that one morning Bryan’s girlfriend Sarah was taking a shower when she saw narrow fingers glide across the thin, white shower curtain, thinking Bryan was there. Sarah asked out loud if Bryan needed his razor. She unknowingly was alone in the bathroom while Bryan sat out in the living room. Hearing her talking, he made his way into the bathroom and asked her what she had said.

“I thought you were looking for your razor,” Sarah reasoned.

Bryan was confused, “Why would I need my razor, I was just sitting watching TV. What do you mean you thought …” Before finishing his sentence Bryan had glanced over at the bathroom mirror and stood in horror. Condensation from the hot shower had collected on the mirror. The word “DIE” was smudged on the glass in capital letters.

Sarah became angry and questioned why Bryan would write such a thing on the mirror. It was the third time she had seen threatening words written there and the joke was no longer funny to her. The energy of the bathroom changed.

“Sarah, get out now!” Bryan fumbled to grab a towel for Sarah as more lettering began to appear on the mirror. “N.” Sarah nearly fell out of the shower with soap still in her hair. “O.” The invisible hand seemed to move extremely slow but with perseverance. “W.” Bryan yelled for John to come to the bathroom as he helped Sarah leave the room. Most of the family gathered and quietly read the message out loud, “DIE NOW.” Even more strange, the letters were written backwards.

Betsy immediately became very frustrated with Collin and Bryan. She demanded that they stop with their supposed antics as it had truly gotten out of control. This time Sarah confirmed that the message was
not
written by anyone in the family, as previously thought, but by something they couldn’t see. Sarah finished washing her hair out in the kitchen sink and raced past the bathroom to get dressed in Bryan’s room.