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3 Hour Marathon Of Paranormal And Unexplained Stories · Mystery Archives Episodes

• 0:04
  Evil doesn't always announce itself.
• 0:07
  It is instead silent and insidious, like a predator
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  waiting for an innocent soul to invite it inside so it can
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  devour. When a young boy unwittingly
• 0:20
  stumbles upon a relic of darkness, he opens a doorway to
• 0:25
  terror that will haunt him for years.
• 0:29
  His life will become a battle for his very soul.
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  Will he survive or will he be consumed by the darkness he's
• 0:38
  unleashed? This is the true account of John
• 0:42
  Drenner Junior's terrifying battle with a demonic force.
• 0:46
  The case is known as The Devil Inside Me.
• 0:50
  This video is a documentary style chronicle of real events
• 0:55
  told through those who lived them.
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  It is a story of innocence corrupted by an ancient evil, of
• 1:02
  a family's fight for survival, and of a young man's journey
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  through fear, torment, and ultimately, well, you'll see
• 1:14
  prepare yourself for a descent into a living nightmare 1 you
• 1:19
  might not want to face alone or in the dark.
• 1:24
  Please make sure to like, hype, share and subscribe.
• 1:29
  All those things help me out tremendously.
• 1:32
  Thank you. To tell this very interesting
• 1:37
  and complex case, let us first start at the beginning.
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  Our story begins in Odenton, MD, a place famous for several
• 1:47
  things. It is home to the headquarters
• 1:50
  for the National Security Agency, or NSA, and home to the
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  Army's Fort Meade. It is also known for having many
• 2:00
  forests that one can explore. This was particularly ideal for
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  a young boy named John Drenner Junior.
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  In 2003, a 12 year old John, along with his 14 year old
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  sister Cheryl, were exploring the woods behind their
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  grandmother's house. 1 summer day.
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  Cheryl, who seemed more gung ho so to speak, was leading the way
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  while John trailed behind her, not wanting to seemingly get
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  left in the dust. The two were known for being
• 2:33
  extremely close, with Cheryl clearly being the leader whilst
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  John was the follower. We loved going on nature hunts,
• 2:43
  looking for animals and things like that together.
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  We like to. Explore, Cheryl would say in
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  later interviews. While the two trail blazed,
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  little did they know that something lay undiscovered
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  before them. Something that perhaps was
• 3:00
  better left buried. After nearly an hour of
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  wandering, the two noticed unnatural shapes emerging
• 3:07
  through the foliage ahead. They began to see what appeared
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  to be weathered wooden planks and a rusted tin roof.
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  It was indeed a shack, hunched and forgotten among the Pines
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  and oaks. Vines curled up its walls.
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  The door hung slightly ajar, creaking softly as it swayed in
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  the faint breeze. Butterflies danced uneasily in
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  both John and Cheryl's stomachs. Together they began, sensing an
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  odd silence surrounding them. There were no birds singing or
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  insects buzzing. The woods had gone dead quiet.
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  Cheryl didn't want to venture any deeper, but John, being an
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  adventurous boy, decided that he wanted to see is what could be
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  inside the old building stores. As he neared closer to the
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  threshold, fear began to well up inside him, but pushing it down
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  and deciding to be brave, John pushed the door open and stepped
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  inside. The floorboards groaned under
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  his weight. Dim light seeped through cracks
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  in the walls, barely enough to see.
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  As his eyes adjusted, he realized that the shack was
• 4:27
  littered with strange remnants of something.
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  In one corner, a circle of melted wax and blackened
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  candles, and another animal bones eerily arranged into a
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  crude symbol. The air smelled of soot and
• 4:45
  something foul, like burnt hair or rotten eggs.
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  John's heart thumped. He knew immediately that
• 4:54
  something was very wrong here. This wasn't a fun hideout or a
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  forgotten clubhouse. It felt like he had stepped into
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  a den of darkness. Still, he was a curious kid, and
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  against his better instincts he crept further in, drawn toward a
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  crude wooden table at the center of the shack.
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  On it lay an old looking book, thick with a cracked leather
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  cover and Yellow Pages. Dust swirled in the air as he
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  picked it up. The cover had strange markings
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  etched into the leather. They were symbols that John
• 5:34
  didn't recognize. The very touch of the book made
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  the hairs on his arms stand straight up on end.
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  He gently opened the book. Inside, the pages were filled
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  with spidery handwritten text and unsettling diagrams,
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  Inverted pentagrams, sketches of goat headed figures, lists of
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  what appeared to be rituals and incantations in a language that
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  John wasn't familiar. With but despite this.
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  He understood enough to realize that this was some kind of
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  ritual book. With this realization, a deep
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  chill ran through him. Despite the warm, musty summer
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  air that surrounded him, John's hands trembled.
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  He suddenly felt as if he were being watched from outside the
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  shack. A twig snapped.
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  John was startled by this and nearly dropped the book.
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  The silence of the woods had given way to a gathering chorus
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  of whispers. At first it seemed like the wind
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  in the trees, but no wind was blowing.
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  By this time. They began to grow louder,
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  circling him, saying words he couldn't quite make out.
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  The fear that he had stuffed down earlier bubbled to the
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  surface and he slammed. The book shut.
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  It was at that moment that a shadow flickered at the edge of
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  his vision. He spun towards the doorway, but
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  nothing was there. John's instincts finally
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  screamed at him to run, so clutching the old book tightly,
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  he bolted out of the shack into the daylight.
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  Upon exiting back into the dense woods, with the sun beginning to
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  near the horizon, he realized that his sister was nowhere to
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  be seen. She must have gotten spooked and
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  headed back home, he thought. Then suddenly, from behind him,
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  he hears a low growl. Jonathan ran as fast as he could
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  through the brambles and trees as his legs carried him.
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  The forest seemed alive with noises now.
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  The whispers seemed to be within mere inches of his ears.
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  There was rustling in the brush on either side of him, twigs
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  snapping just out of sight, as if something unseen was chasing
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  him like a rabid dog and nipping at his heels.
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  Panicking, John stumbled over roots and nearly fell.
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  He could hear his own heartbeat thudding and under.
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  It. That insidious, whispering
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  voice, growing louder and clearer.
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  It sounded like words in a foreign language, spoken just
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  inches from his ear in a rasping hiss.
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  John slapped at the empty air beside him, as though swatting
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  away an invisible pest, and forced himself to run even
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  faster. At last, the tree line broke and
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  he burst into the backyard of his grandmother's property.
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  The whispers ceased abruptly upon his exit, like a radio
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  being switched off. In the golden afternoon light.
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  Everything looked normal again, the old tire swing hanging from
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  the oak, the distant hum of a lawn mower in a neighbor's yard.
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  Gasping for breath, John leaned over, bracing his hands on his
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  knees. The leather book dangled from
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  his grip. He felt a trickle.
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  Of something warm on his upper lip and wiped it with the back
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  of his hand. It was blood.
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  A thin Nosebleed had started to drip.
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  He stood there, shaking with blood, spotting the grass at his
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  feet. He didn't understand what had
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  just happened. Did I imagine it, he wondered.
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  The oppressive silence of the shack, the foul smell, those
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  whispers that seemed to follow him.
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  Surely it was just his mind playing tricks on him after
• 10:03
  reading that creepy book. Perhaps he had spooked himself.
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  He was just a kid after all. Still, a sense of dread hungover
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  him as he tucked the mysterious book under his arm and hurried
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  toward the house. He wasn't about to tell.
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  Grandma, what he had found. He feared he might get into
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  trouble for snooping, or worse, scare her with talk of devil
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  worshippers in her woods. Maybe, he thought, he'd just
• 10:36
  hide the book somewhere and forget that this ever happened.
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  Maybe it was nothing. However, John could not have
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  been more wrong. In the quiet shadows of the
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  trees at the edge of the yard, something watched him.
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  He had taken more than an old book from that shack.
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  That evening, the summer sun dipped low over Odenton as dusk
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  settled in inside his grandmother's cozy home.
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  John tried to go about the normal routines of a weekend
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  visit. Dinner at the table with Grandma
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  and his older sister Cheryl, watching a little TV before bed.
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  He had stashed the leather bound ritual book in his duffel bag,
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  intending to examine it later when alone.
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  But all through dinner he felt distracted.
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  He couldn't shake the sensation that lingered from the woods,
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  like a pair of eyes still peering over his shoulder.
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  Cheryl noticed her little brother's nervousness.
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  John, are you OK? You've hardly touched your food.
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  She said whilst furrowing her brow.
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  John managed a weak smile. I'm fine, just tired from
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  exploring outside today. He replied.
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  He wasn't about to tell her what he had found.
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  Cheryl was 14 and fiercely protective of him.
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  If he mentioned the shack or the book she would drag him straight
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  to grandma and that would be the end of it.
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  No more adventures, maybe no more weekends in the woods at
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  all. So he pretended everything was
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  normal and eventually everyone retired for the night.
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  But that night was anything but normal.
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  John lay in the guest bedroom he shared with his sister when they
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  stayed over. Cheryl was asleep in the twin
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  bed across the room from him. Moonlight cast a faint glow
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  through the sheer curtains, striping the floor with pale
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  light and shadow. John couldn't sleep.
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  His mind kept drifting back to that book.
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  It was tucked under his bed now. He almost felt like he could
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  sense it down there, radiating some kind of weird energy.
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  Maybe I should never have taken it, he thought.
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  He resolved that tomorrow you would throw the book away or put
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  it back where he had found it. With that decision easing his
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  conscience slightly, John finally drifted into an uneasy
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  sleep. Sometime after midnight, Cheryl
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  was woken by a soft sound, a muffled voice.
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  Disoriented, she blinked in the darkness.
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  The sound was coming from John's bed.
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  At first she thought he was talking in his sleep, but the
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  tone was rhythmic, repetitive, almost like he was chanting.
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  She sat up, groggy. John, She whispered.
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  There was no response. The low chanting continued.
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  Cheryl squinted through the dark until her eyes adjusted.
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  John was sitting upright in bed. The sheets had slipped off his
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  torso, and he was facing the wall with his back to her and
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  his shoulders oddly rigid. His voice, if it was his voice,
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  was issuing forth in a low, monotone incantation.
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  The words were utterly foreign to her ears, some strange
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  language as she had never heard before.
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  It didn't sound like the playful gibberish of a child or a bad
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  dream. It sounded deliberate,
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  ritualistic. The hair on Cheryl's neck stood
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  up. She swung her legs over the side
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  of the bed, art beginning to pound.
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  John, wake up. She hissed a little louder, and
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  still he droned on, oblivious to her.
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  Cheryl approached slowly. In the slivers of moonlight, she
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  could now see her brother's profile.
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  His eyes were open, glassy and unseeing, staring at the blank
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  wall. His lips moved, forming those
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  uncanny syllables in a steady rhythm.
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  It was as if he were reciting a prayer and some ancient tongue
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  or a curse. Cheryl's mouth went dry.
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  Something was extremely wrong. She reached out and touched
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  John's shoulder lightly. John, wake up.
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  She said, shaking him. Suddenly, John's chanting
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  stopped. He fell silent and slowly turned
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  his head towards Cheryl. In the gloom, his eyes met hers,
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  but it was like he wasn't really there.
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  For an instant, Cheryl felt as though she were looking at
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  someone or something else wearing her brother's face.
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  Then John's body tensed and he let out a gasp.
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  As if realizing he couldn't breathe, blood began trickling
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  from his nose in a thin stream. Alarmed, Cheryl grabbed a tissue
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  from the night stand and pressed it to John's nostrils.
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  John. She whispered urgently.
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  He blinked hard in the spell. Whatever it was seemed to break.
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  His eyes suddenly regained. Focus.
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  He recoiled, looking around in confusion.
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  Cheryl, what's happening? John mumbled, still in a daze.
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  He felt the wetness on his upper lip and touched it, seeing blood
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  on his fingers. You were sleep talking or
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  something, chanting in some weird language.
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  Cheryl said, trying to keep her voice steady.
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  You wouldn't wake up and then your nose started bleeding.
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  John's heart lurched. He remembered the whispers in
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  the woods, the voice he couldn't understand.
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  Had he been speaking those words?
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  He wiped his nose, embarrassed and frightened.
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  I, I don't know. I was having a bad dream, I
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  guess. He lied.
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  In truth, he couldn't recall any dream.
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  The last thing he remembered was falling asleep thinking about
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  the book and now this. Cheryl helped tilt his head back
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  slightly to stop the bleeding. We should get.
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  Grandma, She said no. John snapped, more forcefully
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  than intended. I mean, I'm OK, it's just a
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  Nosebleed. Please don't wake her up.
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  She'll worry. John hated making his
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  grandmother worry, and truthfully, he was terrified of
• 18:01
  explaining what might have caused this.
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  He still wasn't sure himself. Cheryl hesitated, but she
• 18:09
  relented. She fetched a cold washcloth,
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  and soon the bleeding subsided. John insisted that he felt fine,
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  though he was shaken to his core.
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  Eventually, Cheryl returned to her bed, casting concerned
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  glances from across the room. If you start doing that again,
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  I'm waking her. She warned softly.
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  John nodded, clutching the washcloth like a lifeline.
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  Sleep did not come easily for either of them.
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  That night, John lay awake, body rigid, ears straining for any
• 18:48
  hint of a whisper or movement within the darkness.
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  He felt humiliated that his sister had seen him like that,
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  but also he was terrified. What is happening to me?
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  He wandered over and over again. He didn't dare retrieve the book
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  now. It sat under his bed like a
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  poisonous thing. It did somehow 'cause this or
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  had something from the shack followed him and taken hold of
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  him when he let down his guard. The long night had finally gave
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  way to a pale dawn. John was exhausted, eyes red
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  rimmed and burning. At breakfast, Grandma clucked
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  over his tired appearance and the tissue he held to his nose,
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  which had bled a little again in the early morning hours.
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  Sheryl had kept her promise not to alarm Grandma during the
• 19:47
  night, but she insisted on telling her now.
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  John, she said, was talking in his sleep and had a bad
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  Nosebleed. It scared me.
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  I've never seen him do that before.
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  The grandma's face grew concerned.
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  A deeply religious woman, she immediately sensed something was
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  off. Perhaps it was just a nightmare,
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  she said carefully. I'm John, but I'll call your
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  parents and let them know, and tonight we'll put a blessed
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  crucifix in your room just for Peace of Mind.
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  John didn't protest. In fact, the idea gave him
• 20:29
  comfort, a crucifix, a symbol of protection.
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  Maybe that would help chase away whatever darkness he felt
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  creeping at the edges of his world.
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  He still hadn't confessed about the book or the shack.
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  Fear and guilt gnawed at him, but he remained silent.
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  He spent the rest of the day in a numb haze, helping Grandma
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  with chores, avoiding Cheryl's probing looks.
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  The leather book stayed hidden in his bag.
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  He resolved to rid himself of it at the first opportunity.
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  True to her word, that evening Grandma produced a small wooden
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  crucifix that had hung in her own bedroom.
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  She gave it to John to keep by his bedside.
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  She also quietly murmured prayers as she sprinkled holy
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  water around the guest room, lingering at the windows and
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  corners, asking for God's protection over her
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  grandchildren. John watched her, feeling a
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  swell of gratitude and a pinch of shame.
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  He still hadn't told her why such measures might be
• 21:40
  necessary. He wasn't even sure himself.
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  If they were. But part of him still hoped that
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  this was all just a bizarre coincidence, or a fleeting scare
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  that would fade away. That night, John held the
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  crucifix in his hand as he lay in bed.
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  Cheryl was already asleep, seemingly at ease after
• 22:03
  Grandma's blessings. For a while, John stared at the
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  cross's form in the dim light, tracing it with his thumb.
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  He whispered A shaky prayer of his own.
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  Please, whoever's listening. Keep me safe.
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  Don't let anything bad happen. Eventually, sheer fatigue
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  overtook him and he finally slept.
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  No chanting disturbed the darkness this time.
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  The household remained quiet until morning, when John.
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  Awoke, he felt. Groggy but relieved?
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  Perhaps Grandma's protections had done the trick.
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  The terrifying episodes seem to have passed, but little did he
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  know. The true horror.
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  Was only just beginning. A week later, John and Cheryl
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  returned to their family home in Pasadena, MD.
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  Summer break was winding down, and soon they'd be back to
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  school. John was almost relieved to
• 23:08
  leave Grandma's house and the strange events of that weekend
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  behind him. He had disposed of the ritual
• 23:15
  book, tossing it into a dumpster behind a gas station on the
• 23:19
  drive home. As the garbage bin swallowed the
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  leather bound tome, John imagined he was throwing away
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  whatever bad luck or evil that had clung to him.
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  He tried to convince himself it was over.
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  The Driner's home was a modest suburban split level filled with
• 23:39
  the normal bustle of family life.
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  John's parents noticed he was a bit withdrawn after summer
• 23:45
  vacation, but they attributed this to the looming school year
• 23:50
  or normal adolescent moodiness. Cheryl occasionally studied her
• 23:55
  brother warily. She hadn't forgotten what she
• 23:59
  had witnessed, but since then, John seemed OK.
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  Maybe she thought it truly had just been a freak nightmare.
• 24:09
  But as the days passed, John began to sense of familiar dread
• 24:13
  creeping back, especially after sunset.
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  It started with small things. At night, as he lay in his own
• 24:23
  bedroom, he sometimes heard faint scratching sounds, like
• 24:28
  nails dragging lightly across his bedroom wall or along the
• 24:32
  floor under his bed. The first time it happened, John
• 24:37
  froze. Holding his breath, he peered
• 24:40
  into the darkness, the hairs on his arms prickling.
• 24:45
  The sound stopped when he had turned on his lamp, revealing
• 24:49
  nothing but his posters and furniture.
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  He tried to shrug it off as mice in the walls or the house
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  settling. Then there were the whispers.
• 25:02
  On a few occasions, just as John was on the edge of sleep, he
• 25:06
  heard a voice murmur right next to his ear.
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  The words were too soft and quick to understand, but the
• 25:15
  tone was malicious and mocking. Each time he would be jolted
• 25:20
  awake, this heart hammering, only to find his room empty and
• 25:26
  silent. These incidents left him
• 25:29
  trembling and drenched in sweat. He started keeping a flashlight
• 25:34
  and a Bible, which was a gift from his mother, on his night
• 25:38
  stand, hoping that they might ward off whatever was happening.
• 25:43
  Within a month, however, the situation escalated.
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  The demonic torment that had begun in Odenton had followed
• 25:51
  John to Pasadena, and it was seemingly growing bolder.
• 25:57
  Almost every night, John was jolted awake at 3:00 AM, the
• 26:01
  so-called witching hour, by something.
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  Sometimes it was just the bed itself, shuddering as if someone
• 26:10
  had kicked it violently. Other times, he'd awaken to find
• 26:15
  his blankets yanked off him and flung onto the floor.
• 26:19
  Once he woke up, paralyzed, unable to move or scream, as a
• 26:26
  dark, shadowy figure loomed in the corner of his room, watching
• 26:30
  him with glowing, faint red eyes.
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  That night, he squeezed his eyes shut, silently praying until the
• 26:41
  paralysis lifted and the shadow, whatever it was, was gone.
• 26:48
  In the daylight, John tried to rationalize these occurrences.
• 26:53
  Perhaps he was having intense nightmares or episodes of sleep
• 26:56
  paralysis. He knew such things were
• 27:00
  scientifically documented, but deep down he felt a cold
• 27:04
  certainty. Whatever this thing was, he
• 27:08
  considered. It to be evil.
• 27:11
  That same presence he'd felt in the shack, the whispers in the
• 27:15
  woods, had latched onto him, and they weren't going away.
• 27:21
  In fact, this thing seemed to only be gaining in strength.
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  For a long. Time.
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  John didn't tell his parents the full extent of what was
• 27:31
  happening. He was afraid of sounding crazy.
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  How could he explain that an invisible force was tormenting
• 27:39
  him? He worried they'd send him to a
• 27:42
  psychiatrist, or worse, not believe him at all.
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  Instead, he confided a little more in Cheryl.
• 27:51
  She'd already seen him chanting in a trance once, so she took
• 27:56
  his concerns more seriously. Some nights when John was too
• 28:01
  afraid to sleep alone, Cheryl would let him sleep on the floor
• 28:05
  of her room. One of those times, John woke up
• 28:09
  screaming as 3 long scratch marks appeared on his back,
• 28:15
  burning as if freshly carved by claws.
• 28:19
  Cheryl turned on the lights to find her brother curled on the
• 28:22
  rug, sobbing in pain. His shirt was ripped and three
• 28:28
  red gashes were across his skin. There had been no one else in
• 28:33
  the room at all. In the morning, their parents
• 28:37
  demanded to know what had happened.
• 28:39
  John, through tears, finally spilled a part of the truth.
• 28:44
  Something is hurting me at night, he cried.
• 28:47
  He showed them the scratches, which looked like an animal's
• 28:51
  work, perhaps grasping for a logical explanation.
• 28:56
  His father theorized that it could have been John scratching
• 28:59
  himself during a nightmare, or perhaps a prank by a classmate
• 29:05
  that got out of hand earlier, though the latter made little
• 29:08
  sense. John's mother was horrified and
• 29:12
  would take him to a pediatrician.
• 29:15
  They would only say that the marks were consistent with
• 29:17
  scratches and offered an antibacterial cream.
• 29:21
  The family, even. Checked the house for a wild
• 29:24
  animal. Or a stray cat that might have
• 29:26
  snuck in but found nothing. That incident deeply frightened
• 29:31
  John's parents. They started praying with John
• 29:34
  before bed, something they admittedly hadn't been doing
• 29:38
  regularly. They also placed a small night
• 29:41
  light in his room, thinking that it might ease his fears.
• 29:46
  John appreciated their concern, but he knew a night light wasn't
• 29:50
  going to stop but lurked in the dark night after night, John was
• 29:56
  worn down further. The demon increased its
• 29:59
  harassment methodically. Loud bangs would echo through
• 30:04
  his bedroom as if something was pounding on the walls from
• 30:07
  inside them. His bed would sometimes jolt in
• 30:11
  the middle of the night, as if kicked by an invisible mule.
• 30:16
  Once the lamp on his desk slid off and shattered while he was
• 30:20
  doing homework, sending shards flying.
• 30:24
  John knew that he hadn't touched it, and another time he awoke to
• 30:29
  the horrifying sensation of invisible hands gripping his
• 30:33
  ankles and yanking him halfway off the bed before letting him
• 30:38
  go. He would land on the floor,
• 30:42
  bruised and terrified. There were also episodes when
• 30:47
  foul odors would suddenly fill his room, the suffocating stench
• 30:51
  of sulfur and decay that would vanish after just a few minutes,
• 30:57
  leaving him gagging. And always those hateful
• 31:01
  whispers Slytherin into his ears when he was alone.
• 31:06
  Now he could understand what they were saying.
• 31:08
  John, we. See you, John.
• 31:18
  Exhaustion took its toll. At school, John struggled to
• 31:22
  stay awake in class. Dark circles carved themselves
• 31:27
  under his eyes. Teachers noticed and asked if
• 31:31
  things were all right at home. He nodded and lied that he was
• 31:36
  studying hard or not sleeping well due to teenage insomnia.
• 31:40
  His friends drifted away as he became more withdrawn and jumpy.
• 31:46
  However, there were a few moments of respite.
• 31:50
  The presence somehow seemed mostly confined to night time,
• 31:55
  but John could never fully relax.
• 31:57
  Even in the daylight, he always felt it watching and waiting.
• 32:03
  The psychological strain was immense.
• 32:06
  John lived in a state of constant dread.
• 32:09
  He started fearing nightfall entirely.
• 32:13
  Even as evening came. He'd pace his room, double check
• 32:17
  the closet and under his bed, arms trembling as he tried to
• 32:22
  brace himself for whatever the demon would do next.
• 32:27
  He often prayed fervently, clutching a rosary Grandma had
• 32:31
  given him, begging God or any force of good to protect him.
• 32:37
  Sometimes it helped momentarily. There were nights he'd say
• 32:41
  prayers aloud and the room would remain still for a while, but
• 32:46
  inevitably the disturbances would start up again later in
• 32:50
  the night, almost as if the entity was enraged by his
• 32:54
  prayers. 1 autumn evening, About a year into his torment, John
• 33:00
  experienced one of the first direct encounters that left him
• 33:03
  truly shaken. To his core.
• 33:07
  By this point, he was 13, and the demonic presence had worn
• 33:11
  him thin. He found himself extremely
• 33:14
  depressed as he became more and more isolated.
• 33:19
  The night of this particular encounter, he had fallen asleep
• 33:23
  at last, out of pure fatigue. He was suddenly startled awake.
• 33:29
  The room was frigid, far colder than normal.
• 33:34
  His breath fogged in the air. Instantly John knew that it was
• 33:40
  here with him. He reached for his bedside
• 33:44
  cross, but to his surprise, he couldn't move his arms.
• 33:49
  He couldn't move at all. He was completely paralyzed.
• 33:53
  Lying on his back, all he seemed to be able to do was move his
• 33:58
  eyes. In the corner of the ceiling, he
• 34:02
  heard a soft chittering sound, like claws skittering across
• 34:07
  plaster. Fear surged within him.
• 34:11
  He sensed something gather at the foot of his bed, though he
• 34:15
  couldn't turn his head. His eyes strained downward.
• 34:20
  In the darkness, a shape coalesced.
• 34:24
  It was darker than the shadows, a hunched black silhouette
• 34:30
  slowly rising before him. John's mind screamed, but his
• 34:35
  body remained rigid. The figure moved alongside of
• 34:39
  his bed. He could feel weight shifting
• 34:42
  the mattress as it crawled up, inching closer and closer.
• 34:50
  When it reached his face, John's whole body erupted in
• 34:53
  goosebumps. He felt hot, rancid breath waft
• 34:58
  over his cheek. The creature was right beside
• 35:02
  him, yet he could still only make out an anamorphous
• 35:07
  darkness. Suddenly, in a guttural whisper,
• 35:12
  it spoke his name. The voice sounded like many
• 35:19
  voices layered together as it slithered through the air.
• 35:24
  With tremendous effort, John managed a whimper.
• 35:29
  This thing, this demon laughed. A horrible cackling sound.
• 35:37
  Then, as abruptly as the episode it began, the pressure holding
• 35:41
  him down released. John immediately sat upright,
• 35:47
  gasping and sobbing. The room is now empty, yet it
• 35:54
  lingered with the odor of sulfur and rot, indicating to him that
• 36:00
  something unholy had been there just moments before.
• 36:04
  On his night stand, the crucifix lay toppled, as if knocked over
• 36:10
  by an unseen hand. That was the first time the
• 36:14
  entity had addressed him by name, and in the flesh.
• 36:19
  It left John shaking uncontrollably, unable to sleep
• 36:24
  the rest of the night. By morning, he was sick with
• 36:28
  dread and exhaustion. His mother kept him home from
• 36:32
  school that day, thinking that he had the flu as he was pale
• 36:36
  and vomiting from stress. John didn't correct her.
• 36:42
  How could he explain the sickness he felt?
• 36:45
  How could he explain that it was stemming from pure terror?
• 36:50
  Over the next several years, the demonic harassment continued
• 36:54
  relentlessly. It became the horrific
• 36:57
  background of John's life. By the time he was 16, he had
• 37:03
  experienced countless inexplicable phenomena.
• 37:07
  Objects flying off shelves, doors slamming shut on their
• 37:11
  own, disembodied growls in his ear.
• 37:14
  At random times. His family struggled to
• 37:18
  understand and cope. They did bring in a local pastor
• 37:23
  to bless the house once, but aside from a temporary calm that
• 37:27
  very night, nothing really changed.
• 37:31
  The entity had remained. If anything, it grew more
• 37:37
  furious. Sometimes it even tormented
• 37:41
  other members of the family. A whisper here, a shadow siding
• 37:46
  there. But it focused the brunt of its
• 37:49
  malice on John. He was the target.
• 37:54
  He had been marked, yet John survived each night.
• 37:59
  Somehow he learned to live with the terror as a grotesque
• 38:04
  normal. By age 18 he was finishing high
• 38:08
  school and aching to move out, hoping desperately that maybe
• 38:14
  distance would weaken the demons hold.
• 38:17
  He had grown used to the attacks, as strange as that
• 38:21
  sounds. The fear was still there, but he
• 38:25
  had built a scarred shell around it.
• 38:28
  What he hadn't realized though, was that the demon had no
• 38:32
  intention of letting him go so easily.
• 38:36
  It would follow him. It would never stop as it
• 38:40
  promised, until he was dead. 1 humid summer night.
• 38:47
  Everything reached a horrific crescendo.
• 38:51
  Earlier that day, John had dared to feel a glimmer of hope.
• 38:56
  He and a couple of his friends had gone to the beach, and for a
• 39:00
  short while under the sun, he'd almost felt like a normal
• 39:04
  teenager again. Laughing, joking, forgetting the
• 39:09
  darkness that waited for him at home that evening.
• 39:13
  He even managed A genuine smile at dinner with his parents and
• 39:18
  sister. For once, he thought maybe
• 39:22
  things were quieting down. It had been about a week since
• 39:26
  anything major had happened, and maybe, just maybe, the entity
• 39:31
  was losing interest or power. He couldn't have been more
• 39:36
  mistaken. That night, as John drifted off
• 39:41
  in his bedroom, his mind replayed happy memories of the
• 39:44
  beach. But the darkness had been
• 39:47
  waiting. For exactly such a moment of
• 39:51
  lowered guard, John awoke to a sudden crack of Thunder.
• 39:57
  Being shaken out of a sound sleep, he jolted upright as if
• 40:01
  his heart had leapt into his throat.
• 40:04
  Quickly turning on his lamp, his eyes frantically screened the
• 40:08
  room if he rained, then began assaulting the roof and pelting
• 40:13
  his windows as he tried to calm down.
• 40:17
  A flash of. Lightning illuminated the rest
• 40:19
  of his room for just a moment, albeit unnerving.
• 40:25
  He didn't see anything out of the ordinary, however, for he
• 40:29
  could ponder further, assuming he had just been startled by the
• 40:33
  storm outside. The lamp in his room flickered
• 40:38
  and then turned off. He tried flicking it on and off,
• 40:42
  but the power seemed to be out. John now sat near total
• 40:46
  darkness, except for sporadic flashes of lightning casting
• 40:51
  warped shadows on the walls. Finally, he was able to fumble
• 40:56
  for and find his flashlight in his night stand.
• 41:00
  As he clicked it on, the beam cut a shaky circle through the
• 41:03
  room. He slid out of bed, intending to
• 41:07
  go to the door and open it, maybe call out to see if his
• 41:11
  family was all right, but as soon as his bare feet touched
• 41:15
  the floorboards, a wave of static electricity hung in the
• 41:19
  air. John felt the hair on his arms
• 41:23
  rise up as it had many times in the past, and alongside this,
• 41:28
  the return of a sickening feeling in the pit of his
• 41:31
  stomach. Simultaneously, his flashlight
• 41:35
  flickered as if it was dying. Confused, knowing he had just
• 41:41
  replaced the batteries in it mere days ago, he attempted to
• 41:44
  turn it on and off while he was preoccupied.
• 41:49
  There was a lightning strike that lit the room in a blinding
• 41:52
  white flash, quickly followed by an accompanying crack of Thunder
• 41:58
  that shook the house once again. And that split second, John saw
• 42:03
  something that made his blood run cold.
• 42:06
  A figure was standing in the doorway directly in front of the
• 42:10
  closed door, tall and humanoid, but grotesquely wrong.
• 42:18
  Its skin was black, seeming to glisten with a leathery texture.
• 42:23
  The thing had a vaguely human shape, but its proportions were
• 42:28
  off. Its limbs were too long, its
• 42:32
  posture hunched and predatory. Worst of all was its face.
• 42:40
  When the lightning flashed, John saw an empty darkness where the
• 42:44
  eye should have been, hollow sockets, and below them, a wide
• 42:50
  grin of jagged, rotten teeth. And that brief illumination.
• 42:56
  The creature's head seemed to tilt towards him, and John could
• 43:00
  swear it was smiling. He screamed, dropped the
• 43:06
  flashlight, and the room plunged back Into Darkness.
• 43:12
  In the feeble light of the next flicker, the figure was gone
• 43:16
  from the door. John's pulse pounded in his
• 43:19
  ears. Had he really seen it?
• 43:23
  Was his mind playing tricks? He had never before seen the
• 43:28
  demon so clearly with his own eyes.
• 43:31
  It was real, Oh God. Summoning courage born of sheer
• 43:37
  panic, John snatched the flashlight off the floor and
• 43:41
  shown it frantically around. The beam danced across his desk,
• 43:46
  his closet, the empty corner, but no sign of the black figure.
• 43:53
  Breathing hard, he took a step towards the door, and the moment
• 43:57
  he did, a sound came from directly behind him.
• 44:02
  A low, guttural growl. He then felt hot breath at the
• 44:10
  back of his neck. Something was right behind him.
• 44:15
  John froze. A crackling current of
• 44:19
  adrenaline and terror spiked his nervous system.
• 44:23
  He didn't want to turn around, but some primal instinct made
• 44:28
  him whip his body to confront whatever this thing was.
• 44:32
  Standing nose to nose with John was the demon it had moved
• 44:38
  impossibly silently to within mere inches of him.
• 44:43
  In the flashlights quivering glow, John got a clear look at
• 44:47
  this nightmare made flesh. The demon's skin was indeed
• 44:51
  black, appearing charred and slick.
• 44:55
  Its form was masculine but twisted, as if agony was edged
• 45:01
  and to every sea knew. It had no visible eyes, just
• 45:06
  deep sunken pits oozing shadow. Its mouth hung open and that
• 45:13
  horrible grin revealing gnarled teeth like broken glass.
• 45:20
  It was so close that John could feel its breath now on his face,
• 45:26
  the scent putrid and haunt smelling of decay.
• 45:31
  John's mind went blank with terror.
• 45:34
  He thought he might faint on the spot.
• 45:37
  Somehow, he managed to croak out a single question, his voice
• 45:43
  barely above a whisper. What are you?
• 45:47
  The demon's chest vibrated with a chilling laugh that didn't
• 45:51
  sound entirely audible. It resonated inside of John's
• 45:55
  head. Then it spoke, and it's voice
• 46:00
  was a legion of voices, almost as if multiple people and
• 46:05
  animals were intertwined in a dreadful harmony.
• 46:10
  We are legion, It rasped, each word crackling with ancient
• 46:15
  malice. You belong to us.
• 46:20
  In that instant, John felt a violation deeper than any
• 46:24
  physical wound. A sudden blackness swarmed his
• 46:27
  vision. The last thing he remembered was
• 46:31
  a powerful blow. He felt himself hit the floor
• 46:35
  hard, and then nothing but the void after.
• 46:40
  John lost consciousness, and when he finally woke, it was
• 46:44
  morning. Weak sunlight peeked through the
• 46:48
  curtains. He found himself sprawled on the
• 46:51
  living room floor downstairs. How he got there, he had no
• 46:56
  idea. His entire body ached as if he
• 47:00
  had been beaten, and slowly memories of the previous night
• 47:05
  began to trickle back. The storm, The figure, that
• 47:11
  face, and that voice. John's stomach churned with fear
• 47:16
  and disgust at the recollection. For a moment he hoped that it
• 47:20
  was just some kind of hellish nightmare, but as he sat up,
• 47:25
  pain lanced through him. He looked down to discover that
• 47:29
  his shirt was torn and stained with blood.
• 47:34
  With trembling hands, John lifted the fabric.
• 47:38
  His torso and arms were covered in fresh scratches and bite
• 47:42
  marks, angry red gashes Criss crossing his skin and Oval
• 47:48
  bruises ringed with deep indentations of bite wounds.
• 47:54
  He let out a strangled SOB. This was no dream.
• 47:59
  The demon had manifested, physically attacked him, and
• 48:04
  declared its claim on him. You belong to us, it had said.
• 48:11
  The words echoed in his mind, filling him with further
• 48:16
  despair. It was a miracle that John's
• 48:19
  parents hadn't found him first. They were still asleep upstairs
• 48:25
  and unaware of the struggle that had happened under their.
• 48:28
  Roof. John got to his feet, wincing.
• 48:34
  He felt violated and utterly alone.
• 48:38
  He limped to the merest mirror in the hallway and saw how
• 48:43
  haggard he looked. His face was drawn, his eyes
• 48:49
  haunted. There was dried blood at the
• 48:52
  corner of his mouth. He cleaned himself up as best as
• 48:56
  he could, not wanting to alarm his family, and pulled on a
• 49:01
  fresh long sleeved shirt to hide his injuries.
• 49:05
  In a daze, he returned to his bedroom.
• 49:09
  The door was wide open, though he remembered it slamming shut,
• 49:13
  and aside from the shattered lamp and fallen crucifix,
• 49:19
  everything looked disturbingly ordinary.
• 49:23
  The storm had passed. Sunlight made the space seem
• 49:28
  almost normal. It felt like an insult, given
• 49:32
  the nightmare that had unfolded mere hours ago.
• 49:36
  Sinking into his bed and shaking uncontrollably, he thought to
• 49:41
  himself, never before had the demon shown itself so
• 49:45
  completely, His fragile bulwark of denial crumpled.
• 49:51
  This was no mere haunting, no trick of the mind.
• 49:56
  A literal demon was after him, and by calling itself Legion, it
• 50:03
  suggested that perhaps there were many demons, or at least
• 50:07
  one powerful one that aligned with a demonic horde spoken of
• 50:13
  in the Bible. The weight of the realization
• 50:16
  was crushing. How could anyone fight such a
• 50:20
  thing? When his family woke and went
• 50:24
  about their morning, John stayed quiet about the details of what
• 50:28
  had happened. He only mentioned that he had
• 50:31
  fell and broke his lamp and got a little scratched up.
• 50:36
  His parents eyed the marks on his neck and the way he winced
• 50:39
  to moving, and they knew that he wasn't telling the full truth.
• 50:44
  But by now they were out of their depth.
• 50:47
  They had tried doctors, they had tried prayer.
• 50:51
  What more could they do? His father just muttered that
• 50:55
  maybe they could see a specialist.
• 50:59
  His mother gently suggested therapy once more, and John
• 51:03
  agreed to whatever they wanted. But inside he fell hollow.
• 51:09
  After that night, something and John changed.
• 51:13
  Fear curdled into resignation. He truly believed what the demon
• 51:17
  had told him, that he belonged to it, that it wouldn't stop
• 51:22
  until he was dead. Waking up bloodied on the floor
• 51:26
  became a new morbid normal. Whenever a particularly vicious
• 51:30
  attack happened, John would simply clean himself up, hide
• 51:35
  the evidence, and endure the day.
• 51:39
  What else could he do? No one could protect him, And
• 51:44
  every night, the demon came. Sometimes it was minor scratches
• 51:49
  or just a whisper. Other times it was brutal, a
• 51:54
  bite on his leg or even the sensation of being choked by
• 51:58
  invisible hands until he nearly blacked out.
• 52:01
  By the time he was 19, John felt more like a ghost than a living
• 52:06
  person. The demon had stolen his
• 52:09
  adolescence, leaving a shell of a young man.
• 52:13
  He graduated high school barely, with grades far lower than his
• 52:18
  early potential, and found a low paying job to keep himself
• 52:22
  occupied. He rarely smiled.
• 52:25
  He seldom prayed anymore. It seemed pointless.
• 52:30
  In fact, he felt a deep anger at God for allowing this to happen.
• 52:36
  He stopped going to church with his family, finding no solace
• 52:40
  there. If God cared, why would he let a
• 52:43
  child suffer years of demonic torture?
• 52:47
  John's faith was in tatters and that left him spiritually
• 52:51
  vulnerable. Perhaps that's exactly what the
• 52:55
  demon wanted. To numb his constant anxiety and
• 52:59
  pain, John began to self medicate.
• 53:03
  It started with alcohol. The few beers at a party made
• 53:07
  him feel, for a short time, less afraid.
• 53:11
  Drunk, he could almost forget the demon waiting for him in the
• 53:14
  dark. Soon he was drinking nightly.
• 53:19
  When alcohol wasn't enough to blot out the terror, he turned
• 53:23
  to pills. Vicodin stolen from an old
• 53:26
  bottle in the medicine cabinet after his dad's surgery.
• 53:30
  The opiates gave a blissful apathy.
• 53:33
  He could sink into a stupor and not care if something scratched
• 53:37
  or whispered to him. At night, he'd wake with new
• 53:40
  bruises and barely react. It was a dangerous path, John
• 53:47
  knew it deep down, but by that point he didn't much care if he
• 53:51
  lived or died. Dying might even be a relief, he
• 53:56
  thought bitterly. Suicidal thoughts had long since
• 54:00
  become frequent companions. Twice he had tried to end it.
• 54:06
  The first time he had swallowed a mixture of painkillers and
• 54:09
  sleeping pills with a bottle of whiskey, he truly intended not
• 54:13
  to wake up. The wake up he did.
• 54:17
  Hours later, he'd be puking violently on his bedroom floor.
• 54:22
  This head feeling like it was going to explode was as if his
• 54:26
  body rejected the escape, Or perhaps he wandered grimly.
• 54:31
  The demon kept him alive to continue its torment, not
• 54:35
  allowing him the easy way out. The second attempt was more
• 54:40
  direct. One night, after a vicious
• 54:43
  attack that left 4 deep scratches across his chest, John
• 54:48
  sat on the bedroom floor and held a razor blade to his wrist.
• 54:52
  Tears streamed down his face as he whispered.
• 54:56
  He pressed the blade into his skin, drawing a thin line of
• 54:59
  blood. At that very moment, the
• 55:03
  bathroom light flickered and went out, plunging him Into
• 55:06
  Darkness. In the Black Mirror, he thought
• 55:10
  he saw a pair of red eyes glaring behind him.
• 55:13
  A familiar whisper swirled around his head.
• 55:23
  John snapped. He hurled the razor away and
• 55:26
  screamed, a raw, Primal Scream that echoed in the tiny
• 55:31
  bathroom. He slammed his first into the
• 55:34
  floor tiles, sobbing. Whether it was the demon goading
• 55:38
  him or his own tortured psyche, he realized that he was
• 55:43
  teetering on the edge of oblivion, and the demon was
• 55:46
  eager to push him over. If I die, he.
• 55:50
  Thought it wins. Even in his despair, a spark of
• 55:54
  defiance glimmered. He didn't want the demon to have
• 55:58
  the satisfaction of destroying him completely.
• 56:02
  Not yet. He bandaged his wrist, stumbling
• 56:06
  back to bed in the dark. That night, he didn't sleep at
• 56:10
  all. He just laid there with his eyes
• 56:13
  open, staring at the ceiling with tears drying on his cheeks
• 56:19
  and a rare moment of vulnerability, he later
• 56:21
  admitted. I felt worthless as a person.
• 56:25
  I felt like I had nothing. And yet, fate had not abandoned
• 56:30
  John Drenner Junior. Unknown to him, events were
• 56:35
  aligning to bring a glimmer of hope into his darkness.
• 56:39
  The catalyst for that hope would be love and a fierce desire to
• 56:44
  protect someone other than himself.
• 56:47
  At 19, John's life took a small upward turn.
• 56:52
  He fell in love. He met Mary.
• 56:56
  A kind and lively young woman at the hardware.
• 56:59
  Store where he worked. Mary was drawn to John's quiet,
• 57:04
  gentle demeanor. She sensed he carried deep
• 57:07
  wounds but didn't pry. She simply offered him genuine
• 57:12
  friendship and eventually affection for John.
• 57:18
  Mary was a ray of light piercing the gloom around her.
• 57:23
  He felt almost normal. She made him laugh again,
• 57:27
  something he thought he had forgotten how to do.
• 57:31
  John was terrified of dragging Mary into his nightmare, so he
• 57:35
  kept his dark secret from her. Initially, when she asked about
• 57:39
  the faint scars on his arms or the tiredness in his eyes, he
• 57:44
  deflected with half truths, saying that he had had a sleep
• 57:49
  disorder or a rough childhood. Mary, not wanting to pressure
• 57:54
  him, accepted these explanations, though she was
• 57:58
  worried about him. Within a year, their
• 58:01
  relationship blossomed. Mary became a source of strength
• 58:05
  for John. He found himself looking forward
• 58:09
  to spending time with her, and for the first time in ages, he
• 58:13
  imagined a future, perhaps even a happy 1.
• 58:18
  He could just rid himself of this demon.
• 58:20
  Somehow, his love for Mary rekindled a will to fight that
• 58:25
  had nearly been extinguished. In quiet moments, he dared to
• 58:30
  pray again, not for himself, but for Mary's safety and happiness.
• 58:38
  Eventually, they decided to move in together.
• 58:41
  Mary had a small rental house not far from John's parents and
• 58:45
  it seemed like. A perfect fresh start.
• 58:48
  John hoped privately that maybe leaving his family's home or so
• 58:53
  many traumatic events had occurred might weaken the
• 58:56
  demon's hold on him. Perhaps the entity was tied to
• 59:00
  that place. It was a feeble hope, but he
• 59:04
  clung to it. The first few nights after John
• 59:08
  moved into Mary's house were peaceful.
• 59:11
  John still lay awake for hours, tense and waiting for the
• 59:16
  familiar disturbances, but none came.
• 59:20
  For an entire blessed week, John experienced quiet on an erupted
• 59:25
  sleep at Mary's side. He began to believe that he
• 59:29
  might have escaped the demon. At last, Mary noticed his
• 59:33
  improved mood and was delighted. She had no idea why John's
• 59:38
  nightmares, as he called them, had apparently stopped, but she
• 59:43
  was relieved for him. The reprieve did not last,
• 59:46
  however. Evil as patient, and it had
• 59:51
  followed John to his new home. It was simply lulling him into a
• 59:56
  false sense of security before delivering its next cruel blow.
• 1:00:03
  One warm summer night, Mary was awakened by a strange sensation.
• 1:00:08
  The bed was vibrating. At first she thought it might be
• 1:00:13
  an earthquake trimmer, but nothing else in the room was
• 1:00:16
  rattling. She then realized that John was
• 1:00:20
  shaking. He had been the source of the
• 1:00:23
  movement. He lay beside her, eyes shut,
• 1:00:28
  but his body was shaking uncontrollably, as if having a
• 1:00:32
  seizure. John.
• 1:00:34
  Mary whispered urgently, sitting up.
• 1:00:37
  She gently shook him, and his eyes flew open, wild and
• 1:00:42
  panicked. He sucked in a huge gasp of air,
• 1:00:46
  as if he had been drowning. Then he stared at Mary with an
• 1:00:49
  expression of pure terror. It was here, he panted.
• 1:00:55
  In the dream it Mary's blood rang cold.
• 1:01:00
  Who was here? John, what happened?
• 1:01:03
  John pressed a hand to his forehead.
• 1:01:06
  He was drenched in sweat. I saw a woman, he stammered.
• 1:01:10
  A horrific old woman. She was in our room.
• 1:01:14
  She crawled onto the bed and and into me.
• 1:01:18
  I think I was dreaming, but it felt so real.
• 1:01:21
  His voice broke. She was choking me from the
• 1:01:24
  inside. Mary's eyes widened in alarm.
• 1:01:29
  She didn't fully understand, but she could see John was deeply
• 1:01:33
  frightened. So she embraced him, rubbing his
• 1:01:37
  back and told him. It's OK, it's just a nightmare.
• 1:01:42
  John nodded shakily, clinging to her.
• 1:01:45
  He didn't tell Mary that he recognized the Crone like woman
• 1:01:48
  from his dream as just another form of the demon.
• 1:01:53
  It often tricked him with disguises and his nightmares,
• 1:01:57
  this time an old witch like Hag, but it was the same entity, it
• 1:02:02
  was sure, and the way it felt crawling into him it.
• 1:02:07
  Was. Possessing him in the dream, he
• 1:02:10
  hadn't experienced that before. It terrified him much more than
• 1:02:15
  any. Scratch or bite could.
• 1:02:17
  Mary eventually calmed him and they went back to an uneasy
• 1:02:21
  sleep, but the demon was done hiding.
• 1:02:26
  The next evening, as the couple ate dinner together, Mary's
• 1:02:30
  bookshelf suddenly toppled over without warning, crashing to the
• 1:02:34
  floor, Books and ornaments scattered.
• 1:02:39
  Startled, Mary assumed it was an accident.
• 1:02:43
  Maybe it was off balance. But John's face went pale.
• 1:02:47
  He recognized it as a warning. He helped Mary clean it up, all
• 1:02:53
  while his heart was pounding and full of dread.
• 1:02:57
  Later that night, Mary experienced her first directly
• 1:03:02
  inexplicable occurrence. She had gone into the bathroom
• 1:03:06
  to brush her teeth while John was locking up the house.
• 1:03:09
  As she stood at the sink, something flickered in her
• 1:03:13
  peripheral vision. She looked up at the mirror and
• 1:03:18
  screamed, and the reflection standing directly behind her was
• 1:03:24
  a towering dark figure with hollow eyes and a predatory
• 1:03:29
  grin. Mary spun around, but nothing
• 1:03:34
  was there. The bathroom was empty, yet the
• 1:03:38
  image had been unmistakable. John burst into the bathroom to
• 1:03:43
  find Mary backed against the counter, trembling.
• 1:03:47
  Mary, what happened? He demanded, though.
• 1:03:51
  He could guess. Mary's voice shook.
• 1:03:55
  I thought I saw someone behind me in the mirror.
• 1:03:58
  She clutched at John's arm. It looked horrible.
• 1:04:02
  John's heart sank. There was no point in denying it
• 1:04:06
  now. The demon had revealed itself to
• 1:04:10
  Mary. This meant now that she was part
• 1:04:13
  of its game and potentially in danger.
• 1:04:17
  He felt a surge of guilt and fear.
• 1:04:21
  He had hoped to spare her from this horror, but this entity was
• 1:04:25
  not going to allow that. That night, John finally
• 1:04:29
  confessed everything to Mary. They sat on the couch and in
• 1:04:34
  halting words, he recounted the whole ordeal since he was a
• 1:04:38
  child. The shack in the woods, the
• 1:04:42
  chanting, the nightly torments, scratches and attacks.
• 1:04:48
  The demonic apparition calling itself Legion.
• 1:04:52
  Mary listened with her eyes wide and brimming with tears.
• 1:04:57
  She understood the full scope of trauma that John had been living
• 1:05:01
  with. It was almost too fantastical to
• 1:05:04
  believe. Yet what she saw in the mirror
• 1:05:08
  and John's absolute conviction left no doubt that something
• 1:05:12
  supernatural and evil was at work.
• 1:05:16
  Oh, John. Mary whispered, holding his hand
• 1:05:18
  tightly. Why didn't you tell me sooner?
• 1:05:21
  You've been carrying this alone for far too long.
• 1:05:25
  I didn't want to scare you or think I was crazy, he said.
• 1:05:29
  I thought maybe I could handle it or it would go away, and for
• 1:05:33
  a moment I thought it had once I'd moved here.
• 1:05:38
  But I was wrong. It followed me, and now it's
• 1:05:41
  showing itself to you. I'm so sorry, Mary.
• 1:05:45
  I never wanted you to be involved in this.
• 1:05:48
  Mary wiped her tears, trying to be strong.
• 1:05:51
  We'll deal with this together. She said, though her voice
• 1:05:54
  trembled. You're not alone anymore.
• 1:05:58
  A resolved bolster, John. And for the first time, he had
• 1:06:01
  an ally who fully believed him and was in it with him.
• 1:06:06
  That night, however, the demon escalated its campaign as if
• 1:06:11
  enraged by Mary's involvement. In the darkest hour of the early
• 1:06:15
  morning, around 3:00 AM, they were jolted awake by a loud bang
• 1:06:20
  in the kitchen. They rushed out of the bedroom
• 1:06:24
  to find all of the cabinet doors flung open and all of their
• 1:06:28
  dishes tossed to the floor. Many of them were broken.
• 1:06:33
  The whole house vibrated with a palpable anger.
• 1:06:36
  Mary yelled as she felt something scratch her leg.
• 1:06:39
  There were three shallow cuts that seemed to appear out of
• 1:06:43
  nowhere on her calf. John quickly pulled her behind
• 1:06:47
  him, furious and terrified. He shouted into the empty air.
• 1:06:54
  Leave her alone. It's me you want, not her.
• 1:06:59
  His voice echoed. There was no answer, but an
• 1:07:03
  oppressive presence pressed down on them.
• 1:07:06
  Mary clutched his arm, shaking. They barely slept the rest of
• 1:07:11
  that night, jumping at every Creek.
• 1:07:14
  Come morning, Mary had made the decision.
• 1:07:18
  She said. John, we need help.
• 1:07:21
  We can't go on like this. John, exhausted and desperate,
• 1:07:26
  agreed. He had reached the end of his
• 1:07:28
  rope. The demons bold attack on Mary
• 1:07:31
  was the last straw. If he didn't find help, he
• 1:07:35
  feared it would truly kill them both.
• 1:07:38
  But who to turn to? They'd seemingly tried
• 1:07:42
  everything. The local pastor's blessings
• 1:07:45
  hadn't worked in the past. They needed someone experienced
• 1:07:49
  in spiritual warfare, someone who understood demonic
• 1:07:53
  oppression first hand. That afternoon, Mary got in
• 1:07:57
  touch with a friend of her family who was active in a
• 1:08:00
  nearby church. Through a chain of referrals,
• 1:08:04
  they were given the name of a man who might be able to help
• 1:08:08
  Bill Bean, a spiritual deliverance minister known in
• 1:08:13
  Maryland for confronting dark entities.
• 1:08:16
  Bill had a reputation from local media.
• 1:08:19
  He had even been featured on TV for his work.
• 1:08:22
  Supposedly, he had battled demons before and won.
• 1:08:27
  John was hesitant at first. After years of feeling abandoned
• 1:08:31
  by God, he wasn't sure that a church man could do anything.
• 1:08:37
  But Mary insisted that they at least try.
• 1:08:40
  What have we got to lose? She said, placing a hand on his
• 1:08:44
  cheek. At the very least, you'll have
• 1:08:47
  someone who believes you and has seen this kind of thing.
• 1:08:51
  Looking into Mary's hopeful eyes, John realized that he owed
• 1:08:55
  it to her and to himself to try everything to rid their lives of
• 1:09:01
  this evil. If he did nothing, Mary could
• 1:09:04
  end up seriously hurt or worse. He couldn't allow that.
• 1:09:10
  So, with a shaky sense of resolve, John agreed.
• 1:09:14
  Mary made the call, and Bill Bean himself answered.
• 1:09:19
  The moment Mary mentioned the situation, Bill's tone grew
• 1:09:23
  serious. He said he could meet them the
• 1:09:25
  next day at a small prayer Chapel in nearby Hanover, which
• 1:09:30
  was Bill's base of operations. John's stomach fluttered with
• 1:09:34
  nerves when Mary relayed this. Could this finally be the end of
• 1:09:38
  his nightmare? He hardly dared to hope, but for
• 1:09:42
  Mary's sake, he mustered some optimism.
• 1:09:46
  That night, the demon made one more brazen attempt to cow them.
• 1:09:51
  John awoke around 2:00 AM to find Mary missing from the bed.
• 1:09:55
  Panicked, he jumped up and ran through the house, calling her
• 1:10:00
  name. He found her in the hallway,
• 1:10:03
  standing rigid and facing the wall.
• 1:10:07
  Her eyes were closed and she was whispering something under her
• 1:10:11
  breath. Rapidly, John's blood turned to
• 1:10:14
  ice. Mary was chanting, just as he
• 1:10:18
  had done as a child. He rushed to her and gently
• 1:10:22
  shook her shoulders, asking her to wake up.
• 1:10:25
  She kept whispering the strange words and her voice was not her
• 1:10:30
  own. There was a deeper timber
• 1:10:33
  beneath her natural tone. It was as if something else was
• 1:10:37
  speaking through her. John's heart pounded.
• 1:10:43
  Was the demon possessing her? He shouted her name again, and
• 1:10:49
  this time she jolted awake. She looked around in confusion
• 1:10:54
  and then at John. What happened?
• 1:10:57
  She asked, realizing that she was in the hallway and clutching
• 1:11:01
  her head. I, I think I was dreaming.
• 1:11:05
  I dreamed that someone was calling me out of the bed.
• 1:11:09
  John held her tightly. I think it's trying to use you,
• 1:11:12
  Mary. It knows that we're going for
• 1:11:15
  help, but stay strong, we'll get through tonight.
• 1:11:20
  They retreated to the bedroom, terrified that the demon might
• 1:11:23
  attempt something even worse, but aside from an oppressive
• 1:11:27
  feeling and faint scratching on the walls, no further incidents
• 1:11:32
  occurred before dawn. Still, by morning they were both
• 1:11:38
  pale and exhausted. It was time to face this evil
• 1:11:43
  once and for all. John and Mary drove to Hanover
• 1:11:47
  on a cloudy afternoon with their hearts heavy with a mix of fear
• 1:11:52
  and hope. They pulled up to a modest
• 1:11:55
  Chapel building adjacent to a Community Center.
• 1:11:59
  Waiting outside was Bill Bean. He was a tall, solidly built man
• 1:12:05
  in his 40s with a calm but serious expression.
• 1:12:10
  As John stepped out of the car, Bill's eyes locked on to him and
• 1:12:16
  John saw a flash of concern and determination there.
• 1:12:21
  Bill greeted them warmly, but with gravity.
• 1:12:24
  John, Mary, I'm glad that you came.
• 1:12:28
  We have a lot to talk about and not much time to waste.
• 1:12:32
  His voice was steady with the kind of authority that put John
• 1:12:37
  a little more at ease. Inside the Chapel, they sat in a
• 1:12:41
  small side room with chairs arranged in a circle.
• 1:12:45
  A large wooden cross hung on the wall, and the faint scent of
• 1:12:50
  incense lingered. John recounted his story to Bill
• 1:12:54
  in full detail this time, holding back nothing as he
• 1:12:59
  spoke. Bill listened intently,
• 1:13:03
  occasionally nodding, his brow furrowed.
• 1:13:07
  Mary chimed in about the recent activity and how it had
• 1:13:10
  escalated when John described the demon at its words.
• 1:13:15
  We are Legion, you belong to us. Bill visibly stiffened.
• 1:13:21
  He seemed to recognize the gravity of that claim.
• 1:13:25
  Legion. Bill repeated.
• 1:13:28
  That's a name straight from scripture.
• 1:13:30
  The demons of Godarenes refer to themselves as Legion, meaning
• 1:13:35
  many. It implies a very powerful
• 1:13:38
  demonic presence, possibly multiple entities working
• 1:13:43
  together. John swallowed hard.
• 1:13:46
  Hearing it confirmed by an expert made it even more
• 1:13:49
  frightening. Can you help us?
• 1:13:52
  He asked in a plea. Bill looked at John with
• 1:13:56
  empathy. I'm going to do everything in my
• 1:13:59
  power, with God's help, to free you from this.
• 1:14:03
  I've encountered demonic forces before, and I know the toll that
• 1:14:07
  they take, but you must be an active participant in your
• 1:14:12
  deliverance. I need you to have faith at
• 1:14:15
  least a mustard. Seed of faith.
• 1:14:18
  That this thing can be defeated. John glanced at Mary, who
• 1:14:22
  squeezed his hand encouragingly. He thought about all the years
• 1:14:26
  of terror, the hopelessness that had engulfed him, but here was
• 1:14:31
  someone extending A lifeline. He had to grab it.
• 1:14:36
  I'll try, John said quietly. I don't want to live in fear
• 1:14:40
  anymore, and I need to protect Mary.
• 1:14:44
  Bill gave a reassuring nod. Good, he said.
• 1:14:47
  Now, I can already sense a heavy oppression around you.
• 1:14:52
  When you walked up, I felt an intense hatred and hostility in
• 1:14:56
  the air. That's the demon.
• 1:14:59
  It knows I'm a threat to it. It's likely very angry right
• 1:15:04
  now. As if on cue, a light bulb in
• 1:15:07
  the ceiling popped, making Mary jump.
• 1:15:11
  A flicker of a smile touched Bill's lips.
• 1:15:14
  Temper tantrum already, eh? That's all right.
• 1:15:18
  It's expected. They prepared for the
• 1:15:20
  Deliverance session. Bill's approach was not a formal
• 1:15:24
  Catholic exorcism per SE, but a deliverance prayer, a
• 1:15:29
  coordinated series of prayers, scripture readings and commands
• 1:15:34
  in the name of Jesus. To expel the.
• 1:15:36
  Demon. He explained briefly that while
• 1:15:39
  exorcism is a specific Catholic rite, deliverance is often more
• 1:15:44
  conversational and prayer driven, but has the same goal to
• 1:15:49
  cast out the evil spirit. The power isn't in ritual items
• 1:15:54
  or Latin phrases, it's in faith and invoking the authority of
• 1:15:59
  Christ, he said. John nodded, though he still
• 1:16:03
  felt unsure of his own faith. Bill had John sit in a chair at
• 1:16:07
  the center of the room. Mary sat a few feet behind him,
• 1:16:12
  observing nervously but praying silently.
• 1:16:16
  Bill fetched a small bottle of holy water, anointing oil, and a
• 1:16:21
  Bible. He placed a hand on John's
• 1:16:24
  shoulder and asked him to close his eyes and pray along in his
• 1:16:29
  heart. The deliverance began calmly.
• 1:16:34
  Bill prayed aloud, inviting the presence of God and asking for
• 1:16:39
  angelic protection. Then his tone shifted.
• 1:16:43
  Growing firm and commanding, he began directly addressing any
• 1:16:48
  unclean spirits that might be attached to John.
• 1:16:52
  In the name of Jesus Christ, I command any demon afflicting
• 1:16:56
  this child of God to reveal itself and depart.
• 1:17:02
  Bill's voice rang with authority.
• 1:17:04
  In the small room, John sat tense with his eyes shut
• 1:17:09
  tightly. At first, nothing happened.
• 1:17:14
  Bill continued praying Psalm 23 and Psalm 91 passages about
• 1:17:20
  protection. As he spoke, John felt a sudden
• 1:17:24
  pang of nausea. A wave of dizziness hit him and
• 1:17:29
  he swayed. In his chair.
• 1:17:32
  The air in the room grew thick and stifling.
• 1:17:36
  Mary gasped softly. She later said she saw a dark
• 1:17:40
  mist gathering in the corner behind John's chair.
• 1:17:45
  Bill noticed John's discomfort and pressed on more forcefully.
• 1:17:50
  I bind and rebuke the spirit of Legion tormenting John.
• 1:17:54
  Drinner, by the blood of Christ, you have no authority here.
• 1:18:00
  You must leave John now. Bill declared.
• 1:18:05
  John's head rolled back. He felt an overwhelming surge of
• 1:18:09
  anger welling up, but it wasn't his own emotion.
• 1:18:14
  A deep guttural sound rumbled from his chest.
• 1:18:18
  A growl that. Shocked Mary to hear coming from
• 1:18:21
  the man that she loved. John's eyes remained shut, but
• 1:18:27
  his lips curled into a snarl. Gravelly voice, not entirely his
• 1:18:32
  own, spat out. Mary stifled a cry.
• 1:18:43
  It was the demon speaking through John.
• 1:18:46
  Bill didn't flinch. You have no claim on him.
• 1:18:49
  He responded firmly, holding a Bible up.
• 1:18:52
  John has renounced you. He belongs to God, not you.
• 1:18:58
  John's body suddenly convulsed, nearly toppling the chair.
• 1:19:03
  An unseen force seemed to be struggling within him.
• 1:19:07
  Mary rushed to steady John, but Bill motioned for her to stay
• 1:19:11
  back as he continued the prayers.
• 1:19:15
  By the authority of Jesus Christ, I cast you out.
• 1:19:18
  Every last demon, every unclean spirit.
• 1:19:23
  Legion, I command you. Depart.
• 1:19:27
  And never return. Bill's voice was like Thunder in
• 1:19:31
  that room. John let out a cry, a mix of
• 1:19:35
  pain and fury. The lights flickered violently.
• 1:19:40
  Mary clung to a small cross pendant around her neck, praying
• 1:19:44
  desperately. And Bill continued to pray,
• 1:19:48
  attempting to cast the demons out.
• 1:19:51
  What happened next was something John would later struggle to
• 1:19:54
  describe. He felt a pressure.
• 1:19:57
  Rising from deep in his core, as though something were being
• 1:20:02
  forcefully drawn out of him. It burned and writhed inside,
• 1:20:08
  trying to cling to whatever part of him it held.
• 1:20:11
  John felt his mouth open and an inhuman shriek tore out of it,
• 1:20:17
  echoing off the Chapel walls. Mary covered her ears with tears
• 1:20:23
  streaming down her face at the sound.
• 1:20:25
  Bill stepped forward and placed the Bible on John's chest and
• 1:20:30
  his hand on John's forehead. Holy Spirit, fill this man, he
• 1:20:34
  said. Drive out every last remnant of
• 1:20:37
  evil. John's eyes flew open for a
• 1:20:40
  moment. They were completely bloodshot,
• 1:20:44
  almost solid red, as if hemorrhaged.
• 1:20:49
  Mary would later say that it was the most frightening sight, as
• 1:20:53
  if another entity was glaring out through John's eyes.
• 1:20:58
  But then abruptly, John's body went limp, A final guttural hiss
• 1:21:05
  escaped his lips, and a heavyweight seemed to lift from
• 1:21:10
  the room. The oppressive atmosphere
• 1:21:13
  lightened and the flickering. Lights steadied a.
• 1:21:18
  Profound silence then fell upon the room.
• 1:21:23
  After several moments, John slumped forward, sobbing softly.
• 1:21:29
  Bill caught him and eased him back into the chair, while Mary
• 1:21:33
  rushed to his side. John looked up at her, his eyes
• 1:21:38
  back to their normal Hazel color, brimming with tears.
• 1:21:42
  His eyes, however, were clear and present, no longer looking
• 1:21:47
  distant or haunted. It's gone, he choked out.
• 1:21:53
  He was almost afraid to say it, but he felt an immense peace
• 1:21:57
  flooding into the space that the demon had occupied in him for so
• 1:22:01
  long. For the first time in nearly a
• 1:22:04
  decade, his mind was quiet. There were no whispers, no
• 1:22:10
  lurking dread in the pit of his stomach now, just a calm
• 1:22:14
  stillness. He gasped, as if breathing fully
• 1:22:19
  after years of shallow breaths. It's really gone.
• 1:22:23
  I can't feel it anymore. Mary broke into relieved sobs
• 1:22:27
  and threw her arms around him. John held her and both of them
• 1:22:32
  cried together. Bill stepped back quietly,
• 1:22:37
  thanking God under his breath, looking tired but pleased.
• 1:22:42
  The deliverance was successful. The Demon Legion had been cast
• 1:22:47
  out, but Bill wasn't finished guiding them.
• 1:22:51
  After John had a moment to recover, he was weak and
• 1:22:56
  trembling as if he had run a marathon.
• 1:23:00
  Bill sat with him and Mary to discuss how to stay free of the
• 1:23:05
  demonic influence. He explained that John needed to
• 1:23:08
  reclaim his life and spirit, to fill the void with positive,
• 1:23:14
  faithful things so that the darkness couldn't sneak back in.
• 1:23:19
  Bill spoke with such a gentle earnestness.
• 1:23:23
  An exorcism or deliverance is not the end.
• 1:23:27
  It's the beginning of a new fight, one to keep yourself
• 1:23:31
  fortified. You eliminate fear.
• 1:23:36
  You starve the devil out of your life.
• 1:23:39
  John nodded, absorbing every word Bill gave him.
• 1:23:44
  Practical steps, regular prayer, meditation on good things,
• 1:23:50
  keeping blessed items or scripture around, and
• 1:23:54
  importantly, not giving in to fear or negative emotions that
• 1:23:58
  could invite the entity back. Walk in strength and courage,
• 1:24:03
  Bill said. If you do that, nothing can
• 1:24:07
  stand against you. The moment you allow fear or
• 1:24:11
  despair to take hold, you crack open a door for the enemy.
• 1:24:17
  Don't let that happen. You have authority over your own
• 1:24:21
  life now. John took those words to heart.
• 1:24:25
  He promised himself that he would never let that darkness in
• 1:24:28
  again. The difference in how he felt
• 1:24:31
  was night and day. He hadn't realized how heavy the
• 1:24:35
  weight on his soul had been until it was gone.
• 1:24:39
  In its absence, he felt. Light.
• 1:24:42
  Buoyant free Mary too was advised on how to protect
• 1:24:48
  herself, though Bill believed the demon had only targeted.
• 1:24:51
  Her to get. To John With John free, Mary
• 1:24:56
  should be safe, especially if they kept their home spiritually
• 1:25:00
  cleansed and their lives positive.
• 1:25:04
  He offered to come bless their house, and a few days later he
• 1:25:09
  did just that, walking through each room with prayers, holy
• 1:25:14
  water and salt, declaring it a place of peace.
• 1:25:20
  John attended that house blessing, reciting prayers
• 1:25:23
  alongside Bill, feeling stronger in faith than he had in years.
• 1:25:30
  The nightmares, scratches, and whispers did not return.
• 1:25:36
  For the first time in so long, John slept deeply and soundly
• 1:25:41
  through the night with Mary curled at his side, both of them
• 1:25:47
  untroubled by dark dreams. It felt like a miracle.
• 1:25:53
  John Jenner Junior's life transformed after the
• 1:25:56
  deliverance. At age 21, he finally knew the
• 1:26:00
  taste of peace. The scars on his body remained,
• 1:26:05
  but the wounds in his spirit began to heal.
• 1:26:09
  In the wake of his ordeal, John found a renewed sense of
• 1:26:12
  purpose. No longer a victim cowering in
• 1:26:16
  the dark, he felt empowered by surviving such evil.
• 1:26:21
  He made a promise to himself that he would never let fear
• 1:26:25
  control him again. In the months and years that
• 1:26:28
  followed, John strengthened his faith and took care of his
• 1:26:32
  mental and physical health. He quit drinking and pill
• 1:26:36
  popping completely. He no longer needed those
• 1:26:39
  crutches to face the night. With Bill Bean's mentorship, he
• 1:26:44
  even learned how to help others who were suffering.
• 1:26:47
  Bill often said John had a knack for discerning demonic presence.
• 1:26:51
  Likely due to his long trial and under Bill's guidance, John
• 1:26:56
  apprenticed in performing House blessings and offering counsel
• 1:27:00
  to the frightened. John's journey was not without
• 1:27:04
  lingering shadows, however. Occasionally in the quiet of the
• 1:27:08
  night, he would wake from a mild nightmare or catch a glimpse of
• 1:27:13
  a dark shape in his peripheral vision.
• 1:27:16
  His heart would stutter with the old fear, but he would take a
• 1:27:20
  steady breath and dispel the fear with a prayer or a flick of
• 1:27:25
  the light. The shadows would retreat,
• 1:27:29
  revealed his only tricks of the mind.
• 1:27:33
  Still, John would never forget about the demons final promise
• 1:27:37
  that it wouldn't stop until he was dead.
• 1:27:41
  John understood enough about the paranormal to realize that all
• 1:27:45
  the demon had been cast out. Such entities lurk, waiting for
• 1:27:50
  moments of weakness to try to slither back in.
• 1:27:54
  He had to remain vigilant, not just for himself, before his
• 1:27:59
  loved ones. Fortunately, he no longer lived
• 1:28:03
  in fear of that possibility. Instead, he lived in
• 1:28:07
  preparedness. He fortified his life with
• 1:28:10
  positivity, love, and faith. He married Mary not long after,
• 1:28:16
  and together they built a family grounded in hope rather than
• 1:28:20
  fear. They hung a crucifix in every
• 1:28:23
  room of their home, not solely to ward off evil, but as a
• 1:28:28
  reminder of the light has saved John from the darkness.
• 1:28:33
  News of John's story quietly spread in paranormal circles and
• 1:28:37
  in time even agreed to share his experiences publicly, both as a
• 1:28:42
  cautionary tale and a testament of overcoming evil.
• 1:28:47
  His account was featured on a television series known as A
• 1:28:50
  Haunting, which is one of my all time favorites, and by sharing
• 1:28:55
  his story, he felt that he was allowing others to learn of the
• 1:28:59
  horrifying ordeal that he had endured, that of the power of
• 1:29:03
  deliverance that freed him. Standing in the warm light of a
• 1:29:07
  new dawn, John Jenner Junior reflected on his journey.
• 1:29:11
  With hard earned wisdom. Evil is real, but so is courage.
• 1:29:17
  Fear is powerful, but so is faith.
• 1:29:21
  He learned that even in the darkest night, one must never
• 1:29:25
  surrender. Hope for the darkness feeds on
• 1:29:28
  surrender. And he learned that sometimes
• 1:29:32
  the greatest weapon against the devil is simply refusing to be
• 1:29:36
  afraid anymore. So if you ever find yourself
• 1:29:40
  haunted, oppressed, craved by the dark and the demonic, just
• 1:29:46
  remember John's words of wisdom. I'd originally come across
• 1:29:51
  John's story from his episode On a Haunting, probably back in
• 1:29:55
  2014 or 15. I remember it gripping me and
• 1:29:59
  reminding me a bit of my own struggles dealing with the
• 1:30:02
  paranormal growing up. I also remember coming across
• 1:30:06
  Bill Bean from this episode, and he would also tell his own story
• 1:30:10
  across various mediums and shows over the years.
• 1:30:13
  And his story is certainly intriguing as well.
• 1:30:17
  I'm sure I'll cover it at some point.
• 1:30:20
  While looking for an update on John, I made the unfortunate
• 1:30:23
  discovery that he actually passed away last year in 2024.
• 1:30:28
  I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I hope that he
• 1:30:32
  rests in peace. In the quiet rural town of
• 1:30:37
  Lamar, AR, tucked among cotton fields and crumbling barns,
• 1:30:42
  stands a white colonial farmhouse that once promised a
• 1:30:45
  dream life for the Shea family. Instead, it delivered something
• 1:30:50
  else entirely, something cold, intelligent, and malevolent.
• 1:30:57
  For months in 2002 to 2003, this unsuspecting home became the
• 1:31:03
  stage for one of the most terrifying and well documented
• 1:31:07
  hauntings in modern American history.
• 1:31:09
  A descent into chaos, violent manifestations, shadow figures,
• 1:31:16
  and so much more. This is the terrifying story of
• 1:31:20
  the Shea family Haunting, also known as a haunting in Arkansas.
• 1:31:24
  And this is not a story you want to listen to alone or in the
• 1:31:28
  dark. A home is supposed to be a
• 1:31:40
  sanctuary, but what happens when it turns on you?
• 1:31:46
  The Ozark River Valley was once considered the gateway to the
• 1:31:49
  West, perhaps more so now it is a gateway to the great beyond, a
• 1:31:56
  place where life and death collide and sometimes, just
• 1:32:00
  maybe, don't always stay separate from one another.
• 1:32:04
  In October of 2003, hard working couple Ben and Jamie Shay
• 1:32:10
  searched for a new place to live.
• 1:32:12
  Originally from Little Rock, their search takes them to
• 1:32:16
  Markham, Arkansas. They're hoping to find a house
• 1:32:19
  that they can make a home for themselves as well as their
• 1:32:22
  young children. As the couple drives to look at
• 1:32:26
  their next prospect purchase, they are taken back by what they
• 1:32:30
  see standing before them. There, in front of their eyes,
• 1:32:34
  lies a historical home, in Jamie's words from later
• 1:32:38
  interviews. The house was absolutely.
• 1:32:40
  Beautiful and large, it had old trees all around it and it was
• 1:32:46
  just the picture of the house that I had been wanting all my
• 1:32:49
  life. The house.
• 1:32:51
  The couple. Is Looking at Buying is indeed
• 1:32:53
  old. Built in the 1700s, it is one of
• 1:32:56
  the oldest in the state. Together, Ben and Jamie seem to
• 1:33:01
  collectively fall in love with it.
• 1:33:03
  They can already imagine raising their three children upon its
• 1:33:07
  grounds. Ben, who had grown up playing in
• 1:33:10
  the woods, truly wanted to share that with his children as well.
• 1:33:15
  The house was in the perfect location for the couple,
• 1:33:18
  directly in between two towns the two separately worked in.
• 1:33:22
  If they lived here, their commutes would be significantly
• 1:33:25
  reduced and therefore they could spend more time together as a
• 1:33:30
  family. Deciding to take a closer look,
• 1:33:34
  the Shays step inside the home. But as their feet cross the
• 1:33:38
  threshold, little do they know that something else is taking a
• 1:33:42
  closer look at them as well, perhaps from the protection of
• 1:33:47
  the shadows. Regardless, the couple loves
• 1:33:51
  what they see, and the words of Jamie Shea and later interviews.
• 1:33:56
  I knew as soon as I saw that house that we had to have it.
• 1:34:00
  It seemed as if it spoke directly to their souls, almost
• 1:34:05
  as if something supernatural was drawing them in.
• 1:34:09
  Together, they continue to examine the rest of the home
• 1:34:12
  before fully committing to purchasing.
• 1:34:15
  But as they ascend the stairs and take a look inside the first
• 1:34:19
  room, they perhaps aren't quite as sure as they once were.
• 1:34:24
  Inside the bedroom lies something strange.
• 1:34:27
  There's a fireplace at its center, and on and within it are
• 1:34:32
  all sorts of strange markings in graffiti.
• 1:34:35
  A local boy named Clayton, who had passed away in an accident's
• 1:34:40
  name, was spray painted across the stone.
• 1:34:43
  Pentagrams were carved and painted on it, as well as the
• 1:34:47
  names the couple didn't seem to recognize, names that appeared
• 1:34:52
  to be in a language that neither of them knew.
• 1:34:55
  But despite being creeped out at first, the two thought that
• 1:34:59
  perhaps some teens had broken into the property at some point
• 1:35:02
  during its vacancy and committed the defacing.
• 1:35:06
  So with that conclusion, they decide that the deal is too good
• 1:35:10
  to pass up. They decide to make an offer on
• 1:35:13
  the home, and to their surprise, it's accepted almost
• 1:35:17
  immediately. The couple are absolutely
• 1:35:20
  elated. The deal they got on the home
• 1:35:23
  seems to be too good to be true, and perhaps for one reason or
• 1:35:27
  another it truly was. Within several weeks the Shays
• 1:35:34
  wife Jamie, husband Ben and three young children, 8 month
• 1:35:39
  old Jackson. Five year old Bridger.
• 1:35:42
  And 11 year old daughter Tori move into their colonial home to
• 1:35:46
  begin a new chapter in their lives.
• 1:35:49
  But little did they know that something else, something much
• 1:35:53
  more sinister, may just be beginning.
• 1:35:56
  The family quickly settles into a busy routine.
• 1:35:59
  They decide to hire an experienced and well reviewed
• 1:36:02
  babysitter to watch Jackson during the day, A woman named
• 1:36:06
  Molly Ben, who works third shift, sleeps throughout the
• 1:36:09
  morning, then wakes up to attend class and then heads to work
• 1:36:14
  after. One morning, as he sleeps in his
• 1:36:17
  bed shortly after hiring the sitter, he is suddenly woken up
• 1:36:22
  by the sound of his baby son screaming through the baby
• 1:36:25
  monitor he's placed beside his pillow on his night stand.
• 1:36:30
  As he sleepily calls out to Molly to take care of Jackson,
• 1:36:34
  he is met with no response from her.
• 1:36:37
  Meanwhile, the screams of the child only continue to grow in
• 1:36:41
  intensity. Growing frustrated, Ben sits up
• 1:36:45
  to go and see just what exactly was going on.
• 1:36:48
  He continues to call out to Molly but is met with no
• 1:36:52
  responses as the infant screams erupt out of the baby monitor.
• 1:36:57
  Ben seeks out Molly within the house, but his calls are only
• 1:37:02
  continuing to be in vain. Molly's seemingly not around and
• 1:37:07
  is not answering him, yet his son's cries grow ever louder as
• 1:37:12
  he makes his way into the nursery.
• 1:37:13
  Whilst carrying the monitor, the screams suddenly stop as he
• 1:37:19
  breaches the room's doorway. Then a deep chill manifests down
• 1:37:24
  his spine. The room itself is empty, the
• 1:37:29
  crib is barren. There's not a single soul
• 1:37:32
  dwelling within the room. Something was very wrong here.
• 1:37:37
  Confused and a bit freaked out, but not one to be the
• 1:37:41
  superstitious type, Ben then heads downstairs and continues
• 1:37:46
  to call out for Molly to try and get to the bottom of whatever
• 1:37:49
  was going on. It's when he gets into the
• 1:37:51
  living room that he finds a note on the coffee table.
• 1:37:55
  The note reads. I went shopping and took Jackson
• 1:37:58
  with me. Will be back soon.
• 1:38:01
  In later interviews, Ben would say that I knew for a fact that
• 1:38:05
  I wasn't dreaming. There was a baby crying on that
• 1:38:08
  monitor, and yet there was nobody else home.
• 1:38:11
  It was a very creepy moment. Unsure what to make of the whole
• 1:38:15
  event, he decides to keep things to himself.
• 1:38:19
  Several nights later, as Ben heads to work at the hospital
• 1:38:23
  and a large harvest moon hangs high over the Shea residence,
• 1:38:28
  something not of this world seem to be permeating the air within
• 1:38:32
  its walls. Bridger Shay is suddenly woken
• 1:38:36
  up out of a sound sleep by a chorus of strange voices
• 1:38:41
  emanating from nowhere, yet they seem to be everywhere.
• 1:38:45
  A cold gust of wind accompanies them, seemingly also with no
• 1:38:50
  origin. The young man is absolutely
• 1:38:53
  terrified. His things are blown around his
• 1:38:55
  room. He gets up and begins running
• 1:38:58
  towards his parents room. Jamie too is suddenly woken up
• 1:39:03
  but by the fear stricken pleas of her young son.
• 1:39:07
  Believing that perhaps he had just had a nightmare, she brings
• 1:39:10
  the scared boy into bed with her to console him.
• 1:39:14
  Trying to quell his fears, she gets up out of bed and decides
• 1:39:18
  to take a look around the house. Her first thought was that
• 1:39:22
  perhaps one of the other children had left the television
• 1:39:25
  on in the living room, but upon examining it, it was turned off.
• 1:39:30
  She listens for any other signs of activity, but doesn't hear
• 1:39:34
  anything. Tired, she returns to bed and
• 1:39:38
  attempts to get more sleep. The night, however, her what
• 1:39:43
  dwelled within it seemingly had other plans.
• 1:39:47
  Tori Shea is woken up by the sound of toys being played with.
• 1:39:51
  Confused, she glances around her room as her clock reads 3:00 AM
• 1:39:57
  on the nearby night stand. The sound seemed to be
• 1:40:00
  originating from her brother Bridger's room just across the
• 1:40:04
  hallway from hers. Calling out to him, thinking
• 1:40:08
  that perhaps he had woken up and was entertaining himself, but at
• 1:40:12
  her expense, she tells him that he needs to go back to bed as
• 1:40:17
  she opens the door to the young boy's room.
• 1:40:19
  She sees what appears to be practically any and all of his
• 1:40:23
  toys on the floor, and all of them are acting on their own
• 1:40:27
  accord and operating as if unseen hands are meddling with
• 1:40:31
  them. What strikes fear under her
• 1:40:34
  heart, however, is that her brother is nowhere to be seen.
• 1:40:39
  Stepping back into the hallway, she's met with a rush of cold
• 1:40:43
  wind and hears a chorus of voices.
• 1:40:46
  Voices that she doesn't recognize.
• 1:40:49
  It was as if multiple people with differing tonalities were
• 1:40:53
  speaking over one another, and the concophony enveloped the
• 1:40:57
  atmosphere around her. Unsure and freaked out to say
• 1:41:01
  the least, she decides to run back to her bedroom.
• 1:41:05
  Shutting the door behind her, she runs to her bed and quickly
• 1:41:09
  hides underneath the covers. It takes her quite some time,
• 1:41:14
  but she eventually manages to fall back asleep.
• 1:41:18
  The following morning, as the children wait outside to head to
• 1:41:21
  school, they begin to talk among each other about the previous
• 1:41:25
  night's events. Tori, who perhaps was initially
• 1:41:29
  trying to rationalize what she had seen, had thought that
• 1:41:32
  Bridger had hid from her when she had come to confront him
• 1:41:36
  about playing in the middle of the night.
• 1:41:38
  When she asked the young boy why he hid and why he had been
• 1:41:42
  awake, he seems confused. He quickly tells her that he had
• 1:41:46
  slept with their mom and father and hadn't been in his room at
• 1:41:50
  all at that time. Further confused, Tori asks him
• 1:41:55
  just why he had gone to sleep in their mother's bed and hadn't
• 1:41:58
  stayed in his own. With this question, the boy goes
• 1:42:02
  silent. Upon further prodding, he tells
• 1:42:06
  his sister that he had heard lots of scary voices and that it
• 1:42:10
  had got windy, so he ran. Being a good older sister, Tori
• 1:42:16
  decides not to further add to her brother's fear.
• 1:42:19
  She can tell that he genuinely meant what he was saying.
• 1:42:23
  She doesn't tell him that she too experienced the very same
• 1:42:26
  things he had just described during the night.
• 1:42:31
  Later that evening, before heading to work, Ben spends
• 1:42:34
  quality time with Bridger. The two lay in the boy's bed as
• 1:42:39
  Ben reads his son a children's book to relax him.
• 1:42:43
  For now, Ben is stuck working later hours while he earns his
• 1:42:47
  degree. He hopes that in due time, once
• 1:42:50
  the process is over, that he'll be able to adjust his hours so
• 1:42:54
  he can spend more time with his family.
• 1:42:56
  As he heads back out into the darkness of night to provide for
• 1:42:59
  them, something lurks within the shadows of the Shay household.
• 1:43:05
  As the children sleep, Jamie is busy crunching numbers and
• 1:43:10
  budgeting. As she clicks.
• 1:43:12
  Away on her calculator and jots down notes in a notebook, her
• 1:43:16
  concentration is abruptly broken by the sounds of children
• 1:43:21
  giggling. Considering the hour, she knows
• 1:43:24
  that her children should not be awake, let alone playing, so she
• 1:43:30
  sets things down and decides to investigate.
• 1:43:34
  Glancing towards the stairs from the kitchen where she had been,
• 1:43:37
  she continues to hear her children giggle and laugh and
• 1:43:41
  then also begins to hear loud thumping sounds as if they were
• 1:43:45
  running up and down the stairs in rapid succession.
• 1:43:48
  She calls out to them multiple times, yet is meant with no
• 1:43:52
  response. Finally deciding to get up and
• 1:43:56
  go scold her children for not only being up past their
• 1:43:59
  bedtime, but also for running around the house like gremlins,
• 1:44:03
  Jamie heads towards the stairs where the sounds are originating
• 1:44:06
  from. However, instead of coming face
• 1:44:09
  to face with ornery children, she's instead met with nothing
• 1:44:13
  but the now cold dead silence of the house.
• 1:44:17
  The thumping, giggling and horseplay sounds have seemingly
• 1:44:21
  ceased out of nowhere. Finding this unnerving to say
• 1:44:26
  the least, Jamie then quietly makes her way upstairs to check
• 1:44:30
  on them. She's very surprised, given what
• 1:44:33
  she had just heard, to find them all asleep in their beds.
• 1:44:38
  With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach growing, the
• 1:44:41
  concerned mother decides to double check the house for
• 1:44:44
  safety. All windows and doors are
• 1:44:47
  locked. There are no other souls present
• 1:44:50
  within the house. This very creepy happening would
• 1:44:54
  be far from the last. In the coming days and headed
• 1:44:58
  into the following weekend, Jamie and the children have
• 1:45:01
  continued to experience strange activity in the home.
• 1:45:06
  Jamie decides that she can no longer keep the details to
• 1:45:09
  herself, and although she doesn't want to add anything
• 1:45:12
  further to her husband's already full plate at this point, she
• 1:45:16
  feels like she must talk to him about what's been taking place,
• 1:45:20
  beginning to share the various occurrences, including one that
• 1:45:24
  had taken place that very day. Their babysitter had heard
• 1:45:28
  crying on the baby monitor, and upon checking it, there was no
• 1:45:31
  child weeping. Ben looks up from his studying
• 1:45:35
  and freezes as he hears his wife's words.
• 1:45:38
  He then tells her that several weeks ago, he too had heard the
• 1:45:42
  cries of a child, and upon checking, discovered that his
• 1:45:46
  child and their babysitter weren't even physically in the
• 1:45:49
  house. And what puts a chill shivering
• 1:45:52
  down his spine is that he had kept the experience a secret
• 1:45:56
  from everyone. Almost as soon as the words
• 1:46:00
  leave his lips, the sound of banging starts to fill the
• 1:46:04
  stillness of the house. Thinking at 1st that it was
• 1:46:07
  their children, but quickly realizing that the sounds were
• 1:46:10
  coming from downstairs, then springs into action and begins
• 1:46:15
  heading towards where the sounds are coming from.
• 1:46:18
  The sounds themselves cease upon his approach.
• 1:46:22
  Then, to add to his suspicion, he goes and checks on the kids
• 1:46:28
  and finds each one's sound asleep in their beds.
• 1:46:32
  As he descends the stairs and approaches his wife in the
• 1:46:35
  living room, he seems visibly stricken and confused.
• 1:46:40
  He seems to know that something deep down is wrong with the
• 1:46:43
  entire situation, but tries to take a rational approach.
• 1:46:48
  He starts trying to explain away the sounds as an old house
• 1:46:51
  settling. Whether this was a way to help
• 1:46:54
  calm his wife or himself is unclear.
• 1:46:57
  It at least works for Ben in the short term.
• 1:47:00
  He somewhat convinces himself that it was indeed the house
• 1:47:04
  settling and starts to head off for bed.
• 1:47:07
  Jamie, however, is feeling very differently about the situation.
• 1:47:12
  In later interviews, she would say it was at that moment that I
• 1:47:16
  truly began to feel like we might be living in a haunted
• 1:47:19
  house. The following morning, consumed
• 1:47:23
  by a newly found interest to discover just what she and her
• 1:47:26
  family might be dealing with, Jamie decides to visit the local
• 1:47:30
  library. While browsing the aisles, she
• 1:47:33
  accumulates a good amount of books on ghosts and hauntings.
• 1:47:38
  As she checks out at the front, the librarian who's assisting
• 1:47:42
  her can't help but notice just what she's interested in.
• 1:47:46
  She then tells Jamie that she herself grew up in a haunted
• 1:47:50
  house when she was younger. Jamie then asked the woman if
• 1:47:53
  the home was there in the local area or somewhere else.
• 1:47:58
  The woman, whom she had never met before, then tells her that
• 1:48:02
  it was indeed in her town. She then tells her the address.
• 1:48:07
  Jamie's eyes swell larger than the harvest moon when the words
• 1:48:11
  leave the woman's lips. It is the very same address that
• 1:48:15
  she and her family now live in. The woman then begins to fill
• 1:48:20
  Jamie in on the conclusions that she and her family had come to
• 1:48:24
  while living in the residence. They had believed that a young
• 1:48:28
  boy had accidentally fallen to his death from the second room
• 1:48:33
  in the middle of the upstairs section of the house, The room
• 1:48:36
  now that her son Bridger occupies.
• 1:48:40
  The drive home for Jamie is surreal.
• 1:48:43
  The following morning, as she waits for her husband to get
• 1:48:46
  home so she can tell him what she had been told regarding the
• 1:48:50
  house and their situation, she begins to worry just how living
• 1:48:54
  in such an environment could affect her children.
• 1:48:57
  Upon Ben's arrival, she begins to divulge to him just exactly
• 1:49:01
  what she had learned. Ben began to believe that
• 1:49:05
  perhaps if this haunting was indeed real, that it would quiet
• 1:49:09
  down eventually and wouldn't have a large impact on their
• 1:49:13
  lives. As the Christmas season
• 1:49:15
  approaches, the paranormal activity within the Shea
• 1:49:18
  household seems to dwindle to a drop of its former self. 1 cold
• 1:49:23
  and snowy night. As Jamie researches on the
• 1:49:26
  family computer, she suddenly begins to feel as if she's being
• 1:49:31
  watched. Out of the glare of her monitor,
• 1:49:34
  she sees a dark, shadowy figure linger behind her.
• 1:49:39
  Startled, she turns around almost as quickly as it appeared
• 1:49:44
  it vanished. Mortified, Jamie rushes out of
• 1:49:48
  the room and runs to the nearest phone to call Ben.
• 1:49:52
  As he picks up on the other line, he is hearing his wife be
• 1:49:56
  hysterical. Becoming frustrated because he
• 1:50:00
  can't simply leave work on a whim.
• 1:50:02
  Ben is saddened about the whole situation.
• 1:50:05
  In later interviews, Jamie would say this.
• 1:50:09
  That was the first time I ever truly felt scared or threatened
• 1:50:13
  by whatever was in the house and most certainly did not feel like
• 1:50:17
  the energy of a small child. The following day, Jamie would
• 1:50:22
  return to the library, seeking the woman that she had spoken to
• 1:50:26
  in regards to her current predicament and happening within
• 1:50:29
  the house. But as she glances around the
• 1:50:32
  library's front desk, she doesn't see her.
• 1:50:36
  She asks another library in just where the woman was.
• 1:50:40
  She was then informed that she no longer worked for the
• 1:50:42
  library. Digging further as to what
• 1:50:45
  happened, Jamie is told that the woman left with no warning and
• 1:50:50
  no contact information and no forwarding address.
• 1:50:54
  Albeit it could have been a very unfortunate coincidence, the
• 1:50:58
  timing of it all just seems to add to the suspicion that
• 1:51:02
  something otherworldly was influencing the situation.
• 1:51:06
  The family now found themselves in something dark.
• 1:51:11
  Over the next several weeks, the presence within the Shea home
• 1:51:14
  has seemingly continued to go dormant, yet the heaviness of
• 1:51:18
  its existence continued to plague Jamie.
• 1:51:22
  In another interview later on, she would say that I really had
• 1:51:26
  an eerie, sick feeling in my stomach.
• 1:51:29
  I really dreaded going home and it was starting to not feel like
• 1:51:33
  my home anymore. One day after picking up Tori
• 1:51:37
  from a friend's house as she's driving through a construction
• 1:51:41
  zone, Jamie suddenly sees a flash before her eyes within the
• 1:51:46
  blink of an eye. She hits a pothole.
• 1:51:49
  And crashes her vehicle. Upon coming to, she begins to
• 1:51:54
  panic. She sees that her daughter is
• 1:51:57
  pinned face down underneath the minivan.
• 1:52:00
  Emergency personnel rushed toward the hospital after
• 1:52:03
  arrival on the scene. She's in critical condition.
• 1:52:08
  Ben soon arrives to greet his wife at the hospital and the two
• 1:52:11
  weep and hold each other. The doctors believed that Tori
• 1:52:15
  had a broken back, but to what extent was yet to be seen.
• 1:52:20
  They were unsure if she would survive, and if she did survive,
• 1:52:25
  they weren't sure if she'd ever be able to walk again.
• 1:52:29
  In a miraculous turn of events, just two weeks after the
• 1:52:32
  accident, the hospital releases Tori just in time for Christmas.
• 1:52:38
  Although she will be bedridden for several months, she's
• 1:52:41
  expected to make a full recovery.
• 1:52:44
  Several more weeks pass, and with them, the holidays.
• 1:52:49
  Jamie, who had taken a leave of absence from work to be able to
• 1:52:52
  care for her recovering daughter, barely notices any
• 1:52:56
  paranormal activity taking place in the house.
• 1:53:00
  As she gets. Tory to bed one night.
• 1:53:03
  She's called to by her son. Standing at the bottom of the
• 1:53:06
  stairs. He tells his mother that people
• 1:53:09
  are talking in his room and it's keeping him from sleeping.
• 1:53:14
  Jamie goes to check on baby Jackson.
• 1:53:17
  She soon finds him fast asleep in his crib, fortunately
• 1:53:21
  unaffected by the sounds or people talking.
• 1:53:26
  However, upon exiting his room, she makes her way towards
• 1:53:30
  Bridgers as she gathers some stuffed toys for her son to
• 1:53:34
  sleep with that night. She can't shake the eerie
• 1:53:37
  feeling as if someone or something is watching her as she
• 1:53:42
  makes her way back into her and Ben's bedroom.
• 1:53:46
  She tells Ben that she no longer feels safe within their home.
• 1:53:50
  The couple are torn though, because they know that they
• 1:53:53
  can't go anywhere until Tori is fully recovered due to her
• 1:53:57
  condition. That before anything was their
• 1:54:00
  number one priority. They didn't want to have to
• 1:54:03
  focus on selling and then buying a home amidst her healing
• 1:54:07
  journey. After drifting off to dreamland
• 1:54:11
  as a large amber moon hangs in the sky overhead, something
• 1:54:15
  sinister stirred within the walls of the Shea family home.
• 1:54:20
  Jamie is woken up to the strange sensation of her hair being
• 1:54:24
  pulled and toyed with. At first, thinking it was her
• 1:54:29
  husband, she asked him to please knock it off.
• 1:54:32
  Her words then wake Ben up, who has no idea what she's talking
• 1:54:36
  about. Then, as if invisible hands are
• 1:54:40
  grabbing it, she feels her hair being toyed with yet again, but
• 1:54:45
  this time she's staring directly at her husband.
• 1:54:48
  She knows for a fact that it's not him.
• 1:54:51
  Then all hell seems to break loose.
• 1:54:55
  The entire house begins to shake.
• 1:54:58
  Picture frames begin falling off walls, the bed itself rocks back
• 1:55:03
  and forth, and the lights flicker as if toggled on and off
• 1:55:07
  by unseen forces. Bending grabs Bridger and Jamie
• 1:55:12
  grabs Jackson and all together they rush downstairs to be with
• 1:55:17
  Tory. The only way the chaise feel
• 1:55:19
  safe now is to collectively sleep in one room, and with this
• 1:55:24
  realization, Jamie says out loud that they have to find some kind
• 1:55:29
  of spiritual help. The family then tries to salvage
• 1:55:33
  any rest that's left through the night, despite various bangs in
• 1:55:38
  the ominous presence that seemed to bear down upon the mall.
• 1:55:42
  In the days to come, the family contacts the Central Arkansas
• 1:55:46
  Society for Paranormal Research. The group agrees to come to the
• 1:55:50
  house as soon as Tory is well enough to be moved, and within
• 1:55:55
  the next several weeks. The day finally comes.
• 1:55:59
  After getting the children a sitter for the night, the Shays
• 1:56:02
  are then greeted by the paranormal team.
• 1:56:05
  It takes some time, but they quickly set up their equipment
• 1:56:09
  and prepare for the night to come.
• 1:56:11
  The group includes a family, Alan Lowe, whose primary goal is
• 1:56:16
  gathering physical evidence alongside his wife Angela and
• 1:56:20
  daughter Violet, who are both sensitive to the supernatural.
• 1:56:25
  The presence within the home makes almost an immediate
• 1:56:27
  impression upon Angela and Violet.
• 1:56:30
  In later interviews, Violet would say that I felt a heavy
• 1:56:34
  and depressing vibe almost immediately.
• 1:56:38
  Within the group is another woman by the name of Karen
• 1:56:41
  Shillings. Her job is to try and connect
• 1:56:44
  the paranormal happenings with historical factors such as the
• 1:56:48
  house's history. Through her research, she's able
• 1:56:52
  to determine that the home itself was built in the year
• 1:56:55
  1780 and was once a Stagecoach and hotel.
• 1:57:00
  It then later became a jail. As part of the group's routine,
• 1:57:04
  Angela and Violet begin a walkthrough of the home to see
• 1:57:08
  if they can sense any entities that could perhaps be lurking
• 1:57:11
  inside. Going room to room, the two
• 1:57:15
  sense the same dark and depressive energy.
• 1:57:18
  They also start sensing the spirit of a small child who's
• 1:57:22
  too scared to approach them. They then also pick up on not
• 1:57:27
  one, but many entities. It's as if a sea of spirits
• 1:57:32
  surround them and they are not happy in the slightest.
• 1:57:37
  As the two continue to explore, they would pick up on something
• 1:57:41
  else. Amidst the sea.
• 1:57:43
  They begin to sense a dark and foreboding presence that seemed
• 1:57:48
  to permeate the air around them. Something that wasn't human, and
• 1:57:53
  perhaps never was, as Angela would describe in her later
• 1:57:58
  interviews. I hadn't been scared of a spirit
• 1:58:01
  since I was a small child, but this one truly scared me.
• 1:58:06
  While walking, the two simultaneously see a brief
• 1:58:10
  apparition of the creature. It's skin is dry and dead, it's
• 1:58:15
  eyes hollow and soulless. It's as if it thrived on pain
• 1:58:20
  and misery. This thing, whatever it was, had
• 1:58:24
  never experienced A singular breath of humanity.
• 1:58:28
  As they finished their walkthrough, the mother and
• 1:58:31
  daughter then head back down to the base level of the home to
• 1:58:34
  tell the chaise what they had discovered and felt.
• 1:58:38
  They tell them that they believed a small boy was present
• 1:58:41
  within the house, as well as a multitude of other human
• 1:58:45
  spirits. They believed that these were
• 1:58:47
  the ones frequently speaking and were responsible for keeping
• 1:58:51
  their son up late at night. They then informed them of the
• 1:58:55
  very dark energy that they had felt and seen.
• 1:58:59
  The two were unsure of exactly just what the creature was, but
• 1:59:03
  asked for the family's permission to try and attempt to
• 1:59:07
  contact it. The Ouija board.
• 1:59:10
  The chaise reluctantly agree and soon the team lays out the board
• 1:59:14
  within the dining room of the house.
• 1:59:17
  Then who is unsure about the Ouija board method is in control
• 1:59:22
  of the planchet alongside Allen. The group then begins to ask
• 1:59:26
  questions as they attempt to speak with the negative entity.
• 1:59:31
  Upon asking for its name, the planchet begins to move.
• 1:59:36
  It then, letter by letter, spells out Seth when asked when
• 1:59:45
  it was alive. The planchette, again letter by
• 1:59:48
  letter, spells out the word never.
• 1:59:52
  The answers seem to confirm everyone's worst fears.
• 1:59:56
  They believed that they had been dealing with a demon.
• 2:00:00
  Then the planchette, without any assistance from Alan or Ben,
• 2:00:05
  starts moving erratically across the board.
• 2:00:08
  To everyone's shock and horror, it then flies off the board.
• 2:00:13
  And towards the crew's cameras, feeling like this was a sign,
• 2:00:18
  the group then reviews the footage and to further horror,
• 2:00:22
  everyone sees the grotesque figure on the monitor as it
• 2:00:26
  floats eerily down the hallway and then dissipates into
• 2:00:30
  nothingness. Asking the Shays just what could
• 2:00:34
  have perhaps summoned a demon into their home, they are at
• 2:00:37
  first at a loss for words. However, Ben and Jamie quickly
• 2:00:41
  remember that when they had first seen the house, there had
• 2:00:46
  been strange symbols and pentagrams within its walls.
• 2:00:51
  Could this have perhaps been the cause?
• 2:00:54
  The group concludes that even if it was some teens experimenting
• 2:00:57
  with the occult as first thought, that they still could
• 2:01:01
  have opened up a gateway or a portal to the other side and
• 2:01:05
  allowed this entity to come in and infest.
• 2:01:09
  Angela believed that the family was in imminent danger, and if
• 2:01:13
  something wasn't done immediately, that this demon
• 2:01:16
  could inflict very real harm upon them, as shown with the
• 2:01:20
  potential tie to the previous car accident.
• 2:01:24
  She then suggests A ritual cleansing of the house.
• 2:01:28
  Almost as soon as the words leave her mouth, the planchette
• 2:01:32
  begins to violently move in a Figure 8 motion, whipping back
• 2:01:37
  and forth with rage. Then, in a ritualistic fashion,
• 2:01:42
  Angela begins to burn sage within the home, attempting to
• 2:01:46
  cleanse it of any and all negative forces.
• 2:01:50
  As the smoke and prayers fill the air, the windows open and
• 2:01:54
  close by themselves, the lights flicker, and almost everything
• 2:01:59
  it seems like within the home begins to move and shake with
• 2:02:03
  energy. Violet sees visions of all the
• 2:02:06
  souls that appear to be within the house itself or bound to the
• 2:02:10
  land. She now believes that the entity
• 2:02:13
  set was perhaps drawn to their energy and has been feeding upon
• 2:02:18
  it as a source. As well as the turmoil being
• 2:02:21
  caused to the Shea family following this aging, the raging
• 2:02:26
  atmosphere continues like a storm.
• 2:02:30
  Angela and her daughter then make their way outside and begin
• 2:02:34
  pouring a ring of blessed salt around the property, creating a
• 2:02:38
  barrier to protect the home and all who dwell within it.
• 2:02:43
  With the circle connected around the home, almost the minute the
• 2:02:47
  granules meet one another, the movement within ceases.
• 2:02:53
  In her later interviews, Jamie would say this in regards to
• 2:02:56
  this very night after the cleansing I felt an immediate
• 2:03:01
  change. Instead of feeling a sense of
• 2:03:03
  evil, I felt a sense of peace in the air.
• 2:03:07
  I felt that the sense of evil had been lifted.
• 2:03:11
  Following these nights events, the next several months life of
• 2:03:15
  the chaise returns to normal. Tori makes a full recovery and
• 2:03:20
  the family seems relatively happy all things considered.
• 2:03:25
  That was until one very strange evening.
• 2:03:29
  As Ben and Jamie discuss things they needed to take care of
• 2:03:32
  their son, Bridger walks into the room.
• 2:03:35
  However something seems very off about the young boy.
• 2:03:40
  He's just standing there and staring at them, almost in a
• 2:03:45
  trance like state. He then opens his mouth and
• 2:03:49
  begins to speak, but what comes through him is not his own
• 2:03:53
  voice. Instead, a dark, raspy and
• 2:03:59
  menacing tone comes through, 1/2 laughing, half wicked sound that
• 2:04:05
  deeply disturbs his parents. Jamie runs up and gives him a
• 2:04:10
  small shake, trying to get her son to come too, and thankfully
• 2:04:16
  he does. However, he doesn't remember
• 2:04:19
  wandering into their room at all.
• 2:04:21
  Freaking out as anyone would, Jamie then asks her son to stay
• 2:04:26
  with his father as she quickly runs to grab baby Jackson.
• 2:04:31
  Upon picking him up out of his crib, she begins to hear 2 very
• 2:04:35
  distinct voices floating around her.
• 2:04:38
  They seem to be getting louder and louder as she makes her way
• 2:04:42
  back towards the bedroom door, headed out of the room into the
• 2:04:46
  hallway. She then finds a scared looking
• 2:04:49
  Tori standing before her as she asks her to quickly come with
• 2:04:54
  her. Tori points to the end of the
• 2:04:56
  hallway behind them. There mere feet away.
• 2:05:01
  It's large and robed, with the same cracked skin and glassy
• 2:05:06
  black pits for eyes. Screaming and grabbing her
• 2:05:10
  daughter as well, Jamie then runs them all down the stairs
• 2:05:15
  and back towards Ben and Bridger.
• 2:05:18
  These series of. Events left the chaise with
• 2:05:20
  seemingly no other choice. Out of fear for their lives,
• 2:05:24
  they would jump into the family minivan and leave behind what
• 2:05:28
  was once their dream home. As a result of this, they would
• 2:05:32
  quietly put their home upon the market and move to a nearby
• 2:05:36
  apartment. Ben would Graduate School in the
• 2:05:39
  months to come, and upon the sale of the house, the couple
• 2:05:44
  would take the money and move to a brand new town where they
• 2:05:47
  started life anew. Before we go, I wanted to share
• 2:05:51
  my thoughts on this case and some of the details that I
• 2:05:54
  noticed. The whole ordeal, contrary to
• 2:05:58
  what most typically occurs, seemed to make the Shays a much
• 2:06:01
  stronger family unit instead of tearing them apart, which is
• 2:06:05
  always a positive thing to see come out of these hauntings.
• 2:06:08
  From what I could find, it seems that the Shays are still
• 2:06:11
  thriving, and thank God for that.
• 2:06:14
  Given all that they've been through, this case strikes me as
• 2:06:17
  more genuine compared to many others that I've seen.
• 2:06:21
  I've drawn those conclusions not only from the Shea's actions
• 2:06:24
  throughout their story, but from listening to interviews years
• 2:06:27
  after. They seem like very credible and
• 2:06:30
  decent people, to me at least. Did a portal exist within the
• 2:06:35
  Shea home? I certainly think that it's
• 2:06:37
  possible considering they found a coal related symbolism and
• 2:06:41
  other ritual items within the home before they even officially
• 2:06:44
  lived there. It's hard to tell if it was some
• 2:06:46
  kids playing around or something more methodical.
• 2:06:50
  Regardless, a door could have been opened, inadvertently or
• 2:06:54
  otherwise, allowing these entities to come in and wreak
• 2:06:58
  havoc upon lives upon having the paranormal research group come
• 2:07:02
  in and attempt to communicate with the dark entity within the
• 2:07:05
  home. It's interesting that the name
• 2:07:08
  that came out of the Ouija board session was Seth or Set.
• 2:07:12
  Interestingly, those names are the same names for the Egyptian
• 2:07:16
  God of Chaos. This figure is also known as a
• 2:07:20
  trickster figure at times. Could the entity and the God be
• 2:07:24
  1 and the same? I mean, it's certainly possible,
• 2:07:27
  albeit unlikely in my opinion. But I found this element pretty
• 2:07:32
  interesting and I needed to share it with you all.
• 2:07:35
  They also mentioned that the plane shed on the Ouija board
• 2:07:38
  moved in a Figure 8 pattern. This is also very interesting
• 2:07:42
  because it's also a characteristic of the demon
• 2:07:45
  Zozo. I think this is the first case
• 2:07:47
  outside of that original story and the first hand accounts of
• 2:07:51
  interactions with said demon that I've heard of this
• 2:07:54
  phenomena manifesting. And I do have to say, all
• 2:07:57
  seriousness aside, this case is covered on one of my all time
• 2:08:00
  favorite shows which is called A Haunting.
• 2:08:03
  And I went back and rewatched the episode that features the
• 2:08:06
  story which is called Where Evil Lurks.
• 2:08:09
  And dude, the acting, the parts that feature the creature's
• 2:08:12
  betrayal on the show are absolutely hilarious.
• 2:08:29
  Like what even is that? Like come on guys, you could
• 2:08:32
  have done better. I'll be it.
• 2:08:33
  I always enjoy the show and the stories being told.
• 2:08:37
  That part was just way too funny for me.
• 2:08:39
  Not to mention now saging is a very ancient and useful
• 2:08:42
  practice. I've seen it work with my own
• 2:08:45
  eyes and one of the most disturbing and violent hauntings
• 2:08:47
  that I've ever experienced and it literally forced the entity
• 2:08:51
  outside where then proceeded to bang on the walls and windows
• 2:08:55
  and occasionally the floor and ceiling.
• 2:08:58
  It's a whole saga of the story. If you guys aren't familiar with
• 2:09:01
  it, maybe I'll go into it more so here another day, but that
• 2:09:05
  convinced me that saging can very much work.
• 2:09:08
  The particular cleansing ritual that was used in this case
• 2:09:11
  combined saging with Christian prayer, which I'm sure could be
• 2:09:15
  effective. However, if the portal was left
• 2:09:18
  open, which I think it was, the entity just made its way back
• 2:09:22
  into the home and or another or multiple other entities made
• 2:09:26
  their way back in. Because the chaise.
• 2:09:28
  Continue to be haunted and it was that that ultimately led to
• 2:09:32
  them leaving. I also can't judge them for
• 2:09:34
  selling the house as it was. They tried to handle things the
• 2:09:37
  best way that they knew how, and I hope whoever ended up with it
• 2:09:41
  after and up to present day were able to get things more
• 2:09:45
  spiritually calmed down, so to speak, and weren't nearly as
• 2:09:49
  haunted and plagued as the Shays were.
• 2:09:52
  I hope wherever the Shay family is today that they're happy,
• 2:09:55
  safe, and thriving. And I always mention this just
• 2:09:59
  to be on the safe side. Please respect their privacy and
• 2:10:03
  anyone else's privacy of stories that we've covered here.
• 2:10:07
  With that being said, unfortunately sometimes when we
• 2:10:11
  think we've found our happily ever after, it ends up being
• 2:10:14
  nothing more than a trap. Allured false sense of security
• 2:10:18
  that when our guard is finally down, the monster within the
• 2:10:22
  darkness strikes. Like a Viper.
• 2:10:24
  From the shadows. So be wary and take precautions
• 2:10:29
  and don't let this be you. We all seek a respite from the
• 2:10:34
  current, a shelter from the storm.
• 2:10:38
  But what happens when that warm place of rest becomes part of
• 2:10:42
  the storm itself? Does one get dragged underneath
• 2:10:46
  by the raging current? I mentioned in my last video,
• 2:10:50
  which was the haunting of the Shay family in Arkansas, that I
• 2:10:54
  had personally experienced Sage working against a dark entity
• 2:10:59
  and a lot of you asked me to elaborate on what I meant by
• 2:11:02
  that. Following story not only goes
• 2:11:04
  into detail on that in particular, but everything else
• 2:11:07
  that I experienced and what I would consider to be arguably
• 2:11:11
  most haunted place I've ever personally experienced.
• 2:11:15
  And in all honesty, I still get chills talking about it even
• 2:11:18
  now. So I speak these words into my
• 2:11:20
  microphone to share with all of you because this was not an
• 2:11:24
  experience I was expecting to have when it happened.
• 2:11:28
  Please like, share, and subscribe, and consider checking
• 2:11:31
  out my Patreon and merch store links below.
• 2:11:34
  Thank you for your time, and now let us begin.
• 2:11:48
  December of 2023 I found myself in Appalachia with at the time
• 2:11:53
  were my 2 best friends, another couple named Bob and Brittany
• 2:11:57
  and my now ex-girlfriend Megan. I was lucky enough to have been
• 2:12:00
  successful during that time and had the means to travel and
• 2:12:04
  explore the country a little bit.
• 2:12:06
  I had been visiting them at their house in Missouri prior to
• 2:12:09
  our trip in Kentucky, and we'd been conducting various
• 2:12:12
  paranormal investigations, spirit box sessions, and other
• 2:12:16
  coal related activities before and throughout the time frame in
• 2:12:20
  which this particular event takes place.
• 2:12:22
  I feel like it's important to mention this because although I
• 2:12:25
  don't think it was the main cause of the haunting, it
• 2:12:28
  certainly could have been a contributing factor.
• 2:12:31
  We decided to venture from Missouri to Kentucky not only to
• 2:12:34
  continue our investigations, but to explore various caves within
• 2:12:39
  the larger Mammoth Cave system that spans all throughout
• 2:12:42
  Appalachia. Being one of the oldest places
• 2:12:44
  in the world, I feel like it carries its own kind of ancient
• 2:12:48
  and energy and this could certainly be why Appalachia of
• 2:12:51
  all places has such a haunted reputation.
• 2:12:54
  And being in a position to be able to step foot within the
• 2:12:57
  system itself, among many other activities, I wanted to see it
• 2:13:01
  all. Considering it was my first time
• 2:13:04
  not only doing longer term traveling and investigations,
• 2:13:07
  but spelunking as well, I was nervous but excited.
• 2:13:12
  Prior to our arrival, Bob had booked us an Airbnb located in
• 2:13:16
  Nancy, KY. Having had a long drive down
• 2:13:19
  from where we were in Missouri, but eager to explore, we had
• 2:13:23
  visited a few caves and spots before heading to our main
• 2:13:26
  destination cave. Prior to this, we arrived at the
• 2:13:30
  Airbnb, which at the time was called Royce Place according to
• 2:13:34
  the sign out front, to load our things in and get ready for the
• 2:13:38
  exploration that evening. The house itself was fairly
• 2:13:42
  unassuming. It was a fairly normal looking
• 2:13:44
  house all things considered. It was located kind of in the
• 2:13:48
  middle of nowhere. There was a large swath of land
• 2:13:51
  between any of the homes, so albeit people were nearby ish,
• 2:13:56
  they were spaced out pretty far. The house had a wrap around
• 2:14:00
  porch and a white shop building that was located next to the
• 2:14:04
  driveway of the house and the yard.
• 2:14:07
  We first noticed things were slightly strange when upon
• 2:14:09
  following the directions which said to use the back sliding
• 2:14:13
  door to enter the home, that the sliding door which led to a
• 2:14:16
  sunroom of sorts was unlocked and so was the door leading from
• 2:14:20
  that room into the house. Despite there being a keypad
• 2:14:24
  with a code. Because this isn't normally the
• 2:14:26
  case when you check into an Airbnb.
• 2:14:29
  You know typically you would use that code to get in or there'd
• 2:14:32
  be a key stash somewhere or the person would meet you there.
• 2:14:35
  So at least from my experience I can't say that that's a normal
• 2:14:38
  thing. Me and Bob who is ex military
• 2:14:42
  then swept the house and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
• 2:14:46
  We thought this was odd to say the least and messaged the owner
• 2:14:49
  of the property and asked if this was normal for them.
• 2:14:52
  They responded by saying that their mother lived nearby and
• 2:14:55
  occasionally cleaned the property prior to arrival and
• 2:14:59
  that she had probably just left things unlocked for us.
• 2:15:02
  Thinking that answer was fair enough, we let things be and
• 2:15:06
  little did we know that it was an omen of stranger things to
• 2:15:10
  come. We left the property after
• 2:15:12
  gearing up for our escapades and had quite the interesting time
• 2:15:16
  to say the least, with our adventure that night in The Cave
• 2:15:19
  on our way out. We weren't sure how we didn't
• 2:15:21
  notice it before because this information wasn't listed on the
• 2:15:25
  Airbnb listing whatsoever, but there was a Civil War Memorial
• 2:15:29
  located like half a mile from the house, and upon closer
• 2:15:33
  inspection, it was not only a memorial, but a mass grave in
• 2:15:37
  battlefield. It was dedicated to the
• 2:15:39
  Confederate soldiers who had died there, and besides the
• 2:15:42
  numerous graves, we noticed that the battlefield itself actually
• 2:15:47
  spanned up to and possibly past the property line where we were
• 2:15:51
  staying. Being a huge fan of history, I
• 2:15:53
  thought this was extremely cool. To be honest, I'd never until
• 2:15:57
  that point visited any Civil War battlefield or graveyard or
• 2:16:01
  memorial or anything, so I was pretty excited to experience
• 2:16:05
  that. And it was even more interesting
• 2:16:07
  to imagine the battle itself taking place where I was
• 2:16:10
  standing at the time and where I'd be laying my head down to
• 2:16:13
  rest. We went and explored our caves
• 2:16:16
  for hours. We ended up going miles into a
• 2:16:18
  particular cave opening and well, it was interesting to say
• 2:16:22
  the least. After our adventure was said and
• 2:16:25
  done, we were pretty exhausted and decided to head back to the
• 2:16:28
  house to relax for the rest of the night.
• 2:16:31
  Upon arrival, as all four of us got out of the car and headed to
• 2:16:35
  the back door to head in, having had secured the house prior to
• 2:16:38
  leaving as well, we noticed that yet again the sliding back door
• 2:16:43
  and then the door headed into the house or unlocked.
• 2:16:46
  Me and Bob sent the girls back to the car and decided to sweep
• 2:16:49
  the house yet again, feeling much more apprehensive this time
• 2:16:53
  because surely this woman's mother had not randomly come
• 2:16:55
  back and left things unlocked again.
• 2:16:58
  Upon entering the home, we noticed that not only were these
• 2:17:02
  doors unlocked, but every window we could see was unlocked and
• 2:17:06
  open as well. The doors leading to the rooms
• 2:17:09
  were mostly open and the front door itself was also unlocked.
• 2:17:14
  Going room to room, following one another and searching for
• 2:17:17
  someone or a reason as to why things were the way they were,
• 2:17:21
  we began to notice some very bizarre things taking place.
• 2:17:25
  Now me and Bob and all of us really have a good sense of
• 2:17:28
  humor, but pranks weren't part of what we did or how we vibed.
• 2:17:33
  As we entered the room where Bob and Brittany would be sleeping,
• 2:17:37
  which was the master bedroom which had its own bathroom, we
• 2:17:40
  noticed that things were placed in different spots where they
• 2:17:43
  had been before versus our first sweep of the house.
• 2:17:46
  The mirror in the bathroom, which was a large Oval mirror
• 2:17:49
  that had been on the wall, was not only off the wall but it was
• 2:17:53
  laying on the floor and it was facing upright in the opposite
• 2:17:57
  corner and to the left of where it should have been.
• 2:18:00
  That alone freaked us out because the odds of it falling
• 2:18:03
  and not shattering and ending up not only face up but completely
• 2:18:08
  not broken in any fashion like that threw our minds for a loop
• 2:18:13
  in and of itself. Then there were these decorative
• 2:18:16
  glass leaves that had been on the dresser and they were moved
• 2:18:19
  into different spots on the dresser itself.
• 2:18:22
  And creepily, a statue of Jesus and Mary which had been on
• 2:18:26
  another table, was turned backwards when it had been
• 2:18:29
  facing the entrance to the door it had originally been on, which
• 2:18:33
  was the position it had originally been in.
• 2:18:36
  At a loss for words, we vaguely discussed things and continued
• 2:18:39
  to look around the house. Inside the room where me and
• 2:18:43
  Megan would be staying laid one of those glass Leafs on the
• 2:18:46
  pillow side of the bed where I would be sleeping.
• 2:18:49
  What made that in particular beyond strange is that door had
• 2:18:54
  been closed, and that was one of the only doors that was still
• 2:18:57
  closed when we got there and did the sweep the second time
• 2:19:00
  around. So that's also an anomaly that I
• 2:19:04
  can't truly wrap my head around because.
• 2:19:07
  The door was. Closed.
• 2:19:08
  I mean, I don't know how else the leaflet would have gotten in
• 2:19:11
  there unless someone grabbed it, opened the door, set it down on
• 2:19:14
  the pillow, and then closed the. Door or it?
• 2:19:16
  Was something else, something I can't explain within that same
• 2:19:20
  room. And this was the exact thing
• 2:19:23
  with a lot of other things. In other rooms, the closets were
• 2:19:27
  wide open and all of the everything that was within the
• 2:19:30
  closet, all the belongings such as towels and blankets and extra
• 2:19:34
  pillows, et cetera, were all tossed out onto the floor as if
• 2:19:38
  someone had like dragged them out or thrown them out in a fit
• 2:19:41
  of rage. This was also the case within
• 2:19:44
  the bathroom as well-being freaked out to say the least,
• 2:19:47
  but no strangers to the paranormal, we decided to go and
• 2:19:50
  get the girls and explain just what was going on.
• 2:19:53
  We hadn't found anyone, but something was just not right
• 2:19:57
  about this place. Upon bringing the ladies inside
• 2:20:01
  and all sitting in the living room together, we decided to
• 2:20:04
  discuss what was happening. We decided collectively to try
• 2:20:08
  and do a spirit box session to see that if there was something
• 2:20:11
  there, whatever it was, to see if it wanted to communicate.
• 2:20:15
  As we gathered the things from our bags to try and initiate the
• 2:20:18
  session, walking back into the split level from the kitchen
• 2:20:21
  area from the back entryway, we all began to hear a tapping
• 2:20:25
  sound and to explain where I was standing was within the kitchen
• 2:20:29
  area at this time and I was looking towards everyone who had
• 2:20:33
  made their way to the living room.
• 2:20:35
  And I kid you not, and this is a promise, on the window above the
• 2:20:40
  sink I saw a pale looking hand is the best way I could describe
• 2:20:45
  it, and it's nails were tapping on the glass.
• 2:20:50
  As soon as I could voice what I had just seen, that there was a
• 2:20:53
  hand there, everyone rushed over to see what was happening and
• 2:20:58
  with the scream, me, Brittany and Bob ran outside.
• 2:21:02
  We rushed towards that side of the house and not only was there
• 2:21:06
  nothing there, but where the window was, was at least 15 to
• 2:21:10
  20 feet away from the ground because there was a descending
• 2:21:14
  staircase that went into that basement at the split level of
• 2:21:17
  the house, which was not occupied.
• 2:21:19
  By the way. We were also supposed to have
• 2:21:22
  full access to the basement because I guess there was
• 2:21:24
  supposed to be like a pool table down there and other activities.
• 2:21:28
  But that door in particular was not only locked, but it was like
• 2:21:32
  chain shut. And the basement door, which
• 2:21:36
  I'll get to shortly, which was basically in between where the
• 2:21:40
  living room was and the hallway that led to the bedrooms and the
• 2:21:43
  bathroom and all of that was completely locked as well.
• 2:21:46
  And it was not only locked at the handle level, but it was
• 2:21:49
  dead bolted too. So there's no way that anyone
• 2:21:53
  could have been pranking us. It was quite literally a
• 2:21:56
  physical impossibility, albeit at the time we thought someone
• 2:22:00
  had to have been messing with us.
• 2:22:03
  I mean, Bob is a real, he's a pretty tall guy.
• 2:22:05
  I mean, he's like 6465. And he stood where someone would
• 2:22:10
  have had to have been to reach up.
• 2:22:12
  And unless they were able to maneuver a 20 foot ladder from
• 2:22:17
  where that was and be pretty tall themselves, they would not
• 2:22:20
  have been able to put their hand up on that window.
• 2:22:23
  And by the time we saw the hand to the time we ran outside to
• 2:22:26
  see what the hell was going on if there was someone somehow
• 2:22:29
  messing with us, I mean we would have seen them running off.
• 2:22:33
  So after coming to this realization, we started walking
• 2:22:37
  back towards the front door and Brittany saw what she believed
• 2:22:41
  was a person at the edge of the driveway next to the trash cans
• 2:22:44
  and barefoot. Mind you it's it was really
• 2:22:47
  cold. I don't remember the exact
• 2:22:49
  temperature but it high. It couldn't have been more than
• 2:22:51
  like 20° outside. She's out there basically in in
• 2:22:55
  shorts and AT shirt and no shoes and just runs towards this thing
• 2:23:00
  with 0 hesitation only for there to be literally nothing there.
• 2:23:04
  Again thinking someone or a group of someone's are messing
• 2:23:08
  with us we decided to sweep the property and with our anxiety
• 2:23:12
  high now we all three saw a tall shadowy figure standing towards
• 2:23:18
  the back end of the shop building that I had previously
• 2:23:20
  mentioned was on the property. Me and Brittany then at the same
• 2:23:24
  time ran opposite sides around the building thinking that if
• 2:23:29
  someone was there that we would corner them and catch them and
• 2:23:33
  and instead we just met one another in the middle on the
• 2:23:36
  other side. Utterly flabbergasted.
• 2:23:39
  Now Brittany went back towards the front of the house while Bob
• 2:23:42
  swept the backyard. So basically there was a little
• 2:23:46
  garden slash backyard area that wasn't very big that was behind
• 2:23:50
  where basically that back door into the sun room and then the
• 2:23:53
  back end of the house was so he was back there and where that
• 2:23:57
  was just a large open field. So if someone had been messing
• 2:24:01
  with us and they took off that away with all that open space on
• 2:24:05
  all sides and no hiding spots, there's no foliage or anything,
• 2:24:09
  we would have seen them. I was standing towards the back
• 2:24:12
  door facing where the shed was on the wrap around porch and
• 2:24:16
  with no wind Mind you the wind chime about 10 feet away from me
• 2:24:20
  began to Jingle. And I don't think I've shared
• 2:24:23
  this but I hate wind chimes. I don't know why they just creep
• 2:24:28
  me out. It's there's something unnerving
• 2:24:30
  about them to me. And when I heard this Jingle, I
• 2:24:33
  then looked back towards the shed and I again, and I kid you
• 2:24:38
  not, I saw the same tall shadowy figure standing there that all
• 2:24:43
  three of us had seen previously. I feel like it was staring into
• 2:24:47
  my soul, and it began to glide backwards towards the field
• 2:24:51
  until it just dissipated fully into nothingness.
• 2:24:55
  At that moment I knew that without a doubt, whatever this
• 2:24:59
  thing was or these things were, that they were paranormal in
• 2:25:02
  nature, that something that we couldn't see was messing with us
• 2:25:07
  and I wanted to know why. Heading back into the house, I
• 2:25:12
  convened with everyone in the living room and they began to
• 2:25:15
  inform me that things had continued to move on their own
• 2:25:18
  accord when we had all been with one another or within view of
• 2:25:21
  one another the entire time. Still in semi denial at this
• 2:25:25
  point. We even tried to contact the
• 2:25:27
  local police but there was no one at the office.
• 2:25:31
  Like that's how. Rural we were.
• 2:25:33
  Which to me is a wild concept considering I've always had law
• 2:25:37
  enforcement available to me if I needed them.
• 2:25:40
  With items continuing to move and the mood being
• 2:25:42
  overwhelmingly negative and frankly pretty terrifying,
• 2:25:47
  Brittany ended up initiating a cleansing of the home using sage
• 2:25:51
  and sigils. Upon lighting the bundle of
• 2:25:54
  herbs, the activity seemed to kick into OverDrive.
• 2:25:59
  Then a massive series of bangs came from that locked basement
• 2:26:03
  door. Feeling a personal challenge,
• 2:26:07
  Brittany then drew a sigil onto the basement door and then onto
• 2:26:10
  the front door of the house itself and ordered the entity to
• 2:26:14
  leave the home. This whole experience was insane
• 2:26:19
  to see happen in real time to say the least.
• 2:26:22
  I mean this was and I think aside from maybe one other
• 2:26:27
  experience that I'll go into another time as well, which was
• 2:26:31
  at the Sally house, has to be the most aggressive haunting
• 2:26:35
  I've ever experienced. I mean the things that were
• 2:26:38
  happening and and how fast they were happening were mind
• 2:26:42
  boggling. Following this, things seem to
• 2:26:45
  calm down within the house itself, at least where we were
• 2:26:49
  at. However, it wasn't the end.
• 2:26:52
  Knocks and bangs continue to surround us, but they all came
• 2:26:56
  from outside of the house or from that basement door.
• 2:26:59
  By this point it was really late, like probably 3:00 to 4:00
• 2:27:03
  AM from what I can remember. And what's crazy is that Bob and
• 2:27:08
  Brittany, who were well versed in the occult, certainly much
• 2:27:11
  more than me and Meg were at the time, decided to do of all
• 2:27:15
  things, go to sleep in the haunted ass house in the back
• 2:27:19
  bedroom where the mirror, the glass leaves thieves and the
• 2:27:23
  Jesus and Mary statue kept moving because.
• 2:27:26
  Of course they. Would it actually became an
• 2:27:28
  inside joke between us because the Jesus statue in particular
• 2:27:32
  kept moving positions throughout the night?
• 2:27:34
  I mean, it moved, I want to say like a good four or five times,
• 2:27:38
  several times of which the door had been closed and we'd all
• 2:27:42
  been together prior to checking. We ended up calling it Break
• 2:27:45
  Dancing Jesus to make light of it all later.
• 2:27:48
  Now those 2GO lay down and I'm like I cannot wait to get the
• 2:27:52
  hell out of here. But also I was exhausted and not
• 2:27:57
  wanting to lay in the bedroom that was meant for us, I instead
• 2:28:00
  decided to go try and doze off in the living room.
• 2:28:04
  Meg who could sleep through a cyclone was able to fall asleep.
• 2:28:08
  But with me, every single time I started to doze off I got a bang
• 2:28:13
  from behind my head on the wall from outside of the house whilst
• 2:28:18
  on the couch and then move to the.
• 2:28:20
  Floor. And I'm not exaggerating when I
• 2:28:23
  say this, that thing knocked on the basement ceiling where my
• 2:28:28
  head was and I tried moving it, I want to say at least two other
• 2:28:32
  times and it would just follow me.
• 2:28:34
  And it seemed like every time I dozed off, it would just, it
• 2:28:38
  would just mess with me. It would bang on the floor or
• 2:28:42
  the wall or wherever and just keep me awake.
• 2:28:45
  Once the morning sun pierced the sky and tapped out from lack of
• 2:28:49
  sleep and my adrenals running on high all night, Needless to say
• 2:28:54
  I was ready to get out of there. I went and woke everyone back up
• 2:28:59
  so we could figure out another Airbnb to go to.
• 2:29:02
  We had originally decided A2 night stay at Roy's place but I
• 2:29:07
  decided to say screw it and take the loss on the second night
• 2:29:11
  because after messaging the owner and telling them what had
• 2:29:14
  happened all night she completely denied everything and
• 2:29:18
  said that we were trying to scam her despite just asking for a
• 2:29:22
  refund for the second night which we absolutely were not
• 2:29:26
  staying for. So how that's a scam?
• 2:29:28
  All I I can't do the math it's a mapping.
• 2:29:31
  So with our bags packed. We moved to another Airbnb that
• 2:29:35
  I believe was near or end Lexington, KY and the vibe was
• 2:29:40
  entirely not weird at all. And the place, thank God for the
• 2:29:44
  sake of my sleep that day, was not haunted.
• 2:29:48
  Now what's funny is that we had booked the Airbnb through Bob's
• 2:29:51
  account on the Airbnb app, and the lady ended up leaving him a
• 2:29:55
  terrible review saying that we were crazy and we were trying to
• 2:29:59
  pull some kind of a scam. Which is hilarious mind you.
• 2:30:03
  But the irony is that despite this, and despite the positive
• 2:30:07
  reviews which I'm honestly convinced are fake at this
• 2:30:10
  point. The property itself was
• 2:30:12
  delisted. As an Airbnb within about a
• 2:30:15
  month following our stay. Now considering how haunted the
• 2:30:19
  house was, the owner had to have known.
• 2:30:22
  Dude, I have no clue how you wouldn't.
• 2:30:26
  Also the confederate burial ground and the civil war
• 2:30:29
  battleground. None of that was listed as being
• 2:30:32
  attractions or anything. And considering it was that
• 2:30:35
  close, I mean up to and possibly past the property line, we
• 2:30:39
  thought that was weird too. Now I have no idea if anything
• 2:30:44
  entity wise had followed us from prior paranormal investigations
• 2:30:48
  or spirit box sessions or the caves we had visited or anything
• 2:30:52
  previously. I have no idea if the haunting
• 2:30:55
  had anything to do with the civil war battleground or
• 2:30:58
  memorial or what have you. Those questions I don't think
• 2:31:01
  I'll ever get answers to, but what I do know?
• 2:31:05
  Is that it? Very much was one of the most,
• 2:31:08
  again, if not the most aggressive, haunting or
• 2:31:12
  manifestation of the paranormal that I've ever seen.
• 2:31:16
  It not only was aggressive, but it seemed intelligent and
• 2:31:20
  calculated and unyielding. You know, I grew up in 2 haunted
• 2:31:24
  houses, which those stories I've shared in their own video, which
• 2:31:28
  I'll link below, as well as in my second book, which is Stories
• 2:31:31
  from the Archives, Volume 2. And with those experiences,
• 2:31:35
  albeit there were many terrifying manifestations, they
• 2:31:39
  were much more spaced out. I definitely experience what I
• 2:31:42
  would consider long term hauntings in this place.
• 2:31:46
  AKA Royce Place was something else entirely in a league of its
• 2:31:50
  own. And I've experienced a lot of
• 2:31:53
  other places since then, and this one still prominently
• 2:31:57
  stands out anytime I think of a haunted place now, those I've
• 2:32:02
  talked to about this story have asked me if I'd ever return, and
• 2:32:06
  honestly, I had the time and resources and ability.
• 2:32:10
  I'll be it. It's not an Airbnb anymore.
• 2:32:12
  I think I would, despite being so scared the first time.
• 2:32:16
  At that point, I hadn't been out in the field very long.
• 2:32:20
  I was pretty new to the occult and paranormal, investigating
• 2:32:24
  and all of the above. Certainly not necessarily the
• 2:32:27
  paranormal, but I wasn't nearly as desensitized as I am now, so
• 2:32:32
  if I did go back, I definitely think I'd have a better handle
• 2:32:36
  on things emotionally and maybe not be as scared, and I'd
• 2:32:40
  definitely be anticipating activity now.
• 2:32:43
  I have reached out to everyone who was involved and asked them
• 2:32:46
  to share if they want to, but with it being the holidays and
• 2:32:50
  the fact that we all have different schedules and whatnot,
• 2:32:52
  it may take a while if anyone does share.
• 2:32:55
  And what I'll probably do is gather those testimonies of
• 2:33:01
  either Bob, Brittany or Megan and basically do a follow up
• 2:33:05
  video so they can share their perspectives on what happened
• 2:33:09
  and hopefully I'll be doing that in the near future.
• 2:33:12
  So yeah, that was my story to finish up the year.
• 2:33:16
  And let me tell you, it's taken quite some time to come to terms
• 2:33:19
  with those experiences. Because they were, truly.
• 2:33:22
  Scary, and I do not scare easily, that I can assure you
• 2:33:27
  of. In the lush mountains of Taiwan,
• 2:33:30
  beneath the constant veil of mist and rain, a beautiful
• 2:33:35
  mansion promised comfort and prestige to an American family
• 2:33:40
  starting a new chapter abroad. But behind its glass walls and
• 2:33:45
  marble floors, something ancient was waiting.
• 2:33:50
  They were not alone. What began as whispers in the
• 2:33:54
  night soon grew into footsteps, voices calling from the dark,
• 2:34:00
  and finally violent attacks no skeptic could dismiss.
• 2:34:06
  The bishops had unknowingly stepped into a battlefield
• 2:34:09
  between the living and the restless dead spirits starved of
• 2:34:14
  offerings, bound by tragedy and hungry for the energy of the
• 2:34:20
  living. This is their story, true,
• 2:34:24
  terrifying and unforgettable. In the humid nights of Taiwan,
• 2:34:31
  when the summer rain swell rivers and missed coils through
• 2:34:35
  the valleys, there is a month that no family dares to ignore.
• 2:34:41
  Lanterns glow at doorways, incense smoulders on sidewalks,
• 2:34:48
  and baskets of food are left on Stoops.
• 2:34:52
  Not for the living, but for the dead.
• 2:34:56
  This is Ghost Month, the time when the gates of the underworld
• 2:35:00
  are said to open, releasing the restless and the hungry into the
• 2:35:06
  world of men. In Chinese belief, these are not
• 2:35:10
  the honored ancestors who received reverent offerings at
• 2:35:14
  family altars. These are the forgotten dead,
• 2:35:19
  the souls of those who perished violently or without descendants
• 2:35:24
  To honor them, they wander, haunt and hollow, tormented by
• 2:35:31
  insatiable appetites that rice wine and paper money can only
• 2:35:37
  briefly ease. They are known as the Uruguay,
• 2:35:43
  the hungry ghosts. To neglect them is to invite
• 2:35:47
  disaster. Fire start without cause.
• 2:35:52
  Illness takes root. Misfortune stalks a household
• 2:35:56
  until it buckles under the weight of unseen company.
• 2:36:01
  So each August, families appease the hungry dead with careful
• 2:36:05
  rituals, the living light, the path of the forgotten, hoping
• 2:36:11
  that food and flame will buy peace for another year.
• 2:36:16
  But what of those places where violence left a scar so deep the
• 2:36:21
  earth itself refuses to forget? What of homes raised on soil
• 2:36:27
  blackened by tragedy, where spirits were never guided
• 2:36:31
  onward, never offered release? It was in such a valley that the
• 2:36:38
  Bishop family would come to live.
• 2:36:40
  An American father, his wife and two daughters, strangers to
• 2:36:47
  Taiwan's ancient customs, arrived with optimism and
• 2:36:52
  curiosity. They believed the house they
• 2:36:55
  were given was a gift, a token of success.
• 2:37:00
  They could not know that it was already claimed by others, souls
• 2:37:06
  that had not left and perhaps would never leave without taking
• 2:37:13
  something in return. The bishops would learn, as
• 2:37:19
  countless Taiwanese had whispered for centuries, the
• 2:37:23
  hungry dead do not sleep. They linger, waiting for the
• 2:37:28
  living to feed them. And in the mountains outside
• 2:37:31
  Taipei, in a mansion gleaming with glass and marble, those
• 2:37:37
  spirits had waited long enough. The year was 1984.
• 2:37:43
  An opportunity had knocked for Dennis Bishop.
• 2:37:47
  After years of grinding the corporate ladder, he had finally
• 2:37:52
  been promoted to a senior position with his company, a
• 2:37:57
  posting that would take him and his family halfway across the
• 2:38:01
  world to Taipei, Taiwan. To Dennis, it was a dream.
• 2:38:08
  To Candace, his wife. It was a.
• 2:38:10
  Step into the unknown. For their daughters, Stacy, who
• 2:38:16
  was 16 at the time, and Marissa, who was just 12, it was an
• 2:38:22
  adventure waiting to unfold. The company spared no expense.
• 2:38:28
  A driver was provided, as well as housing befitting Dennis's
• 2:38:32
  new stature as ACEO. The Bishops, accustomed to
• 2:38:38
  modest suburban living in the States, were stunned when they
• 2:38:42
  were taken to see the house that would become their home.
• 2:38:47
  It sat at the base of the misdraped Yangming Mountains,
• 2:38:51
  massive and imposing, far from the bustle of Taipei's crowded
• 2:38:57
  streets. The road curved past rice
• 2:39:01
  paddies, scattered cemeteries and the ruins of farms until the
• 2:39:07
  driver slowed before the gates. Beyond them, the mansion rose
• 2:39:14
  like a fortress, it's large windows reflecting the Gray sky.
• 2:39:20
  For Marissa, it was breathtaking.
• 2:39:23
  The biggest house I'd ever seen, She whispered, her eyes
• 2:39:27
  sparkling with excitement. After years of cramped
• 2:39:31
  apartments, here was a palace, complete with a swimming pool
• 2:39:35
  shimmering in the humid air. She imagined running through its
• 2:39:39
  endless rooms, swimming until dusk, and playing in the gardens
• 2:39:44
  that seemed to stretch forever. Stacy, ever the skeptic, wasn't
• 2:39:49
  so easily charmed. She looked up at the upper
• 2:39:53
  windows, at the way that the mist pooled along the roof line.
• 2:39:58
  The house loomed too heavily, she thought, as though the
• 2:40:02
  mountain itself pressed down upon it.
• 2:40:04
  Something about it unsettled her and Candace.
• 2:40:10
  Candace's unease was immediate. As the front door was opened and
• 2:40:16
  the family stepped inside, a heaviness settled on her chest.
• 2:40:21
  The air felt different, colder, though outside the heat was
• 2:40:27
  oppressive. She trailed her fingers along
• 2:40:30
  the wall as she moved through the entryway, and that was when
• 2:40:34
  it struck. An unseen fist, sudden and
• 2:40:40
  violent, slammed into her back. She stumbled forward, catching
• 2:40:46
  herself against a column, her breath ragged.
• 2:40:50
  Dennis turned around, alarmed. Stacy froze.
• 2:40:54
  Marissa giggled nervously, thinking that maybe her mom had
• 2:40:58
  tripped. But Candace knew better.
• 2:41:02
  She hadn't tripped. Something had chuffed her.
• 2:41:07
  She turned, eyes wide, but no one stood behind her.
• 2:41:12
  The cavernous foyer was empty. Her skin prickled.
• 2:41:18
  She forced a. Smile for her two daughters, not
• 2:41:21
  wanting to frighten them. The company representative
• 2:41:25
  talked about all of the amenities of the property, about
• 2:41:28
  its prestige and how lucky the bishops were to have it.
• 2:41:33
  The Candace's mind was elsewhere.
• 2:41:37
  It kept replaying that moment over and over again, the blow,
• 2:41:43
  the cold, the feeling of being watched the instant she crossed
• 2:41:48
  the threshold. For two weeks, she begged Dennis
• 2:41:52
  to reconsider. They toured other homes, and
• 2:41:57
  those homes were smaller, more humble, but were tucked in
• 2:42:00
  crowded neighborhoods. Nothing seemed to compare to the
• 2:42:05
  mansion. Nothing impressed Dennis the way
• 2:42:08
  the estate did. He saw in his success stability
• 2:42:14
  and a future for his family abroad.
• 2:42:17
  Candace, however, only saw shadows.
• 2:42:22
  In the end, her protests were drowned out by reason and
• 2:42:25
  responsibility. With Dennis's career on the
• 2:42:29
  line, she relented it would move into the mansion.
• 2:42:35
  She told herself she would. Find a way to make it work.
• 2:42:39
  Yet even as boxes were carried in, even as Marissa danced
• 2:42:44
  through the hallways, Candace felt the mansion looming around
• 2:42:48
  her. The bishops believed they were
• 2:42:51
  settling into a home, but in truth, they had crossed into a
• 2:42:56
  domain that did not belong to them.
• 2:43:00
  The first weeks in the mansion were filled with contradictions,
• 2:43:04
  opulence and unease. Beauty and menace to Marissa.
• 2:43:11
  The place was enchanted. She wandered its halls with awe,
• 2:43:17
  exploring room after room as though she had stumbled into.
• 2:43:21
  A fairy tale palace. She swam in the pool until her
• 2:43:25
  fingertips wrinkled, delighted to finally have space to breathe
• 2:43:31
  and play. But to Candace, every corner
• 2:43:36
  whispered discomfort. The jungle pressed close to the
• 2:43:40
  estate, humidity clung to every surface, vines crawled along the
• 2:43:47
  outer walls, and each night the air rang with the buzz of
• 2:43:53
  cicadas and the calls of unseen creatures.
• 2:43:59
  The house seemed less a sanctuary than a fortress
• 2:44:03
  standing against a wilderness that wanted to creep back in.
• 2:44:08
  It was during one of those early evenings, while the family
• 2:44:11
  unpacked, that the jungle showed its teeth.
• 2:44:16
  Stacy's scream rang down the staircase.
• 2:44:20
  Dennis and Candace rushed upward, only to freeze at the
• 2:44:23
  sight of a giant spider. Its body thick and black, it
• 2:44:31
  clung to the wall near Stacy's door.
• 2:44:34
  Its long legs twitched as it crept slowly and deliberately.
• 2:44:40
  Marissa shrieked and left onto a chair.
• 2:44:44
  Dennis cursed under his breath, and Candace's skin crawled as
• 2:44:49
  her chest tightened. Their driver, HN, hurried in,
• 2:44:55
  wielding a shovel. With one brutal strike, he
• 2:45:00
  smashed the creature and its body crumpled to the floor.
• 2:45:05
  He stood over the remains, his expression grim.
• 2:45:10
  These spiders, he said softly. They go in pairs, so if you kill
• 2:45:16
  one, the other is always nearby. Candace felt a chill race down
• 2:45:22
  her spine. She found herself glancing
• 2:45:25
  toward the shadowed. Corners of the hallway.
• 2:45:28
  Half expecting to see another set of legs scuttling towards
• 2:45:32
  them that night, she lay awake imagining the mate's spider
• 2:45:38
  creeping silently into a bedroom.
• 2:45:42
  The pests were not the mansion's only gift.
• 2:45:46
  The rains came heavy as they did in Taiwan's monsoon season.
• 2:45:52
  Water streamed down the mountainside and into the house
• 2:45:55
  itself. The walls began to drip, then
• 2:46:00
  the bedrooms. Streaks of moisture traced
• 2:46:03
  downward, like tears soaking carpets.
• 2:46:07
  Candace wrapped towels around the bases of the doors to hold
• 2:46:10
  the water back, but the mansion seemed determined to drown
• 2:46:15
  itself. Then came the electricity.
• 2:46:19
  At first it was little shocks, light switches that snapped with
• 2:46:24
  static when touched, and it grew worse.
• 2:46:28
  A flick of a switch sent painful jolts through fingertips, strong
• 2:46:32
  enough to leave Candace afraid of the lights themselves.
• 2:46:36
  She kept lamps unplugged and would sit with her daughters in
• 2:46:40
  the dark. Yet despite this, the power
• 2:46:44
  bills rose inexplicably far beyond what they could explain
• 2:46:49
  with normal use. Dennis grew frustrated,
• 2:46:54
  convinced the family was careless with the electricity.
• 2:46:58
  Candace argued back furiously. The house was draining them in
• 2:47:04
  ways that he couldn't or wouldn't see.
• 2:47:09
  And still, stranger things crept in.
• 2:47:14
  Late at night, Stacy swore she heard footsteps in her room,
• 2:47:19
  soft and deliberate, as though someone circled her bed in the
• 2:47:24
  dark. She pulled her covers tighter,
• 2:47:28
  her heart pounding, too afraid to cry out.
• 2:47:33
  And as too felt it, the faint whisper of her name in an empty
• 2:47:39
  hall, the flicker of a light at the edge of her vision, She told
• 2:47:45
  herself it was exhaustion, stress, the strangeness of life
• 2:47:51
  abroad. But deep down, she knew she was
• 2:47:55
  being watched. The house, it seemed, had opened
• 2:48:00
  its eyes. Night fell differently in the
• 2:48:04
  mansion. The jungle pressed against the
• 2:48:07
  walls, the screaming of cicadas giving way to stillness that
• 2:48:13
  made every Creek echo louder than it should.
• 2:48:17
  It was in this silence, but the first true whispers began.
• 2:48:23
  Marissa noticed less, at least at first.
• 2:48:26
  She still tried to find wonder in the house, though even she
• 2:48:31
  began to ask strange questions. One evening she peered out a
• 2:48:37
  window toward the dark yard and asked her sister.
• 2:48:42
  Is a Chen here, referring to their driver?
• 2:48:47
  But the yard was empty. There was no footsteps in the
• 2:48:51
  gravel, no sign of anyone. Stacy shivered at the question.
• 2:48:59
  The mansion was vast, but it never truly felt empty.
• 2:49:04
  It was as though the family had become guests in their own home,
• 2:49:09
  moving through rooms that belong to someone or something else.
• 2:49:15
  Candace's instincts screamed that something was wrong.
• 2:49:19
  She began to listen more carefully at night, to pause
• 2:49:23
  when the air shifted as though someone unseen had passed by.
• 2:49:28
  She didn't tell Dennis. He was already frustrated with
• 2:49:32
  the leaking roof, the electrical shocks, and the constant bills.
• 2:49:38
  To him, these were solvable problems.
• 2:49:42
  To her, they were symptoms of something far deeper, something
• 2:49:48
  alive in the walls, but for the sake of her daughters, she kept
• 2:49:54
  her fear tucked away. She smiled when she needed to,
• 2:49:59
  laughed when Marissa showed excitement.
• 2:50:03
  Yet each time she closed her eyes at night, she felt it.
• 2:50:08
  The weight of unseen eyes staring at her from the
• 2:50:12
  darkness, and in silence. The house grew bolder.
• 2:50:18
  For weeks, Stacy had grown accustomed to hiding her fear.
• 2:50:23
  She heard footsteps that had no source, whispers that carried
• 2:50:27
  her name through the dark, but she kept it all inside.
• 2:50:33
  She told herself that it was stress or imagination, and if
• 2:50:38
  she spoke, she feared she'd sound crazy.
• 2:50:42
  Her solace was Thomas, 16. Like her, it was a local boy
• 2:50:48
  with an easy smile, he offered an escape from the mansion's
• 2:50:53
  suffocating atmosphere. Whenever she could, she spent
• 2:50:58
  the evenings at his home, laughing, listening to music and
• 2:51:03
  forgetting the dread that seemed to hang like smoke over her
• 2:51:06
  family. 'S new life.
• 2:51:09
  It was on one such evening, after Thomas dropped her off at
• 2:51:12
  the gate, that the house revealed itself.
• 2:51:18
  The night was humid, the jungle thick with the sounds of frogs.
• 2:51:24
  Thomas waited at the end of the driveway as Stacy slipped
• 2:51:28
  inside. He glanced back at the looming
• 2:51:31
  structure, it's dark windows glinting faintly under the pale
• 2:51:36
  moon. And then he froze.
• 2:51:40
  At the top floor, a light flickered to life.
• 2:51:44
  Behind the glass, a woman's silhouette stood, her hair long,
• 2:51:49
  her figure motionless. She looked out into the night.
• 2:51:55
  To Thomas, she looked exactly like Candace.
• 2:51:58
  Bishop, alarmed, jolted through him.
• 2:52:03
  Something about her stillness, the way she stood in the shadow,
• 2:52:08
  that was wrong. He started the car, then
• 2:52:13
  hesitated. A cold dread whispered through
• 2:52:16
  him. What if she's in trouble?
• 2:52:19
  After rushing home, he quickly grabbed his family's phone and
• 2:52:24
  called Stacy. Stacy answered, surprised.
• 2:52:28
  Stacy. He said quickly with his voice
• 2:52:30
  shaking. Go check on your mom, please,
• 2:52:34
  right now, just please. I I saw her upstairs at the
• 2:52:37
  window and she didn't look right.
• 2:52:40
  He said. Stacy's stomach dropped.
• 2:52:44
  With her heart pounding, she raced through the mansion's
• 2:52:47
  halls, calling out for her mother.
• 2:52:50
  Marissa, alarmed followed, became frightened as well.
• 2:52:55
  Their voices echoed off. Marble and tile became
• 2:52:59
  increasingly desperate and urgent.
• 2:53:02
  Room after room lay empty, no movement, no sign of her.
• 2:53:09
  The house seemed to swallow their cries, as though mocking
• 2:53:13
  their search. Finally, a door opened and
• 2:53:18
  Candace stepped out of the master bedroom, startled by the
• 2:53:21
  commotion. She looked perfectly fine.
• 2:53:25
  Stacy stopped dead, her breath catching.
• 2:53:29
  Thomas's sighting replayed in her head, her mother's figure
• 2:53:33
  standing upstairs in the window, watching.
• 2:53:37
  When she had been here all along, her realization washed
• 2:53:41
  over her like ice water. It hadn't been her mother.
• 2:53:46
  It had been something else. That night, the fragile silence
• 2:53:50
  between mother and daughter cracked, trembling.
• 2:53:55
  Stacy confessed. The footsteps, the voices, the
• 2:54:01
  nights she felt something circling her in the dark.
• 2:54:05
  Candace's eyes widened, tears forming as she admitted the
• 2:54:10
  same, that she too had heard whispers, seen flickers of
• 2:54:15
  light, and felt the eyes of something unseen.
• 2:54:20
  They sat together in the heavy stillness, clinging to one
• 2:54:24
  another, no longer able to deny it.
• 2:54:27
  The house was haunted. The night after Thomas's
• 2:54:31
  sighting, silence weighed heavy on the House.
• 2:54:35
  Candace could feel it in her bones.
• 2:54:38
  The walls were watching them. The air was listening.
• 2:54:43
  The admission she and Stacy had shared only sharpened the
• 2:54:47
  tension. They were no longer keeping
• 2:54:50
  secrets. Now they knew they weren't
• 2:54:53
  alone. But knowing did not bring peace.
• 2:54:58
  It brought fear. Stacy drifted uneasily into
• 2:55:01
  sleep, her mind tangled with dread.
• 2:55:05
  In her dream, the mansion's corridor stretched endlessly,
• 2:55:10
  their walls slick with rainwater.
• 2:55:13
  She wandered, crying out for her mother.
• 2:55:17
  In the air smelled of smoke. Then she saw her.
• 2:55:22
  Candace was standing in the kitchen, her face pale and
• 2:55:26
  hollow. In her hands, a butcher's knife
• 2:55:30
  gleamed. Her eyes flicked upward, not her
• 2:55:34
  usual gentle gaze, but something feral, driven mad by terror.
• 2:55:41
  Without warning, Candace raised the blade, and Stacy's heart
• 2:55:46
  froze. She tried to scream, but no
• 2:55:50
  sound left her mouth. The nightmare shifted in jerks
• 2:55:54
  and flashes. Her mother was stalking her
• 2:55:58
  through the halls, knife in hand.
• 2:56:01
  Her father was crumpled in a corner.
• 2:56:04
  Marissa screamed as Candace's shadow loomed.
• 2:56:08
  Stacey then woke with a jolt, her body slick with sweat.
• 2:56:12
  The image of her mother holding the knife clung in her mind like
• 2:56:15
  a stain. She sat up, trembling, realizing
• 2:56:20
  that the dream had not been random.
• 2:56:22
  It had been a warning, a premonition of what the house
• 2:56:26
  could drive them to. While Stacey was tormented by
• 2:56:30
  dreams, Candace waged her own battle against the dark.
• 2:56:36
  With Dennis away on a business trip, the weight of protection
• 2:56:40
  fell solely on her. Every night, she gathered her
• 2:56:45
  daughters into the master bedroom.
• 2:56:48
  They slept together in one bed, the girls pressed close while
• 2:56:53
  Candace kept her eyes open, listening to the house.
• 2:56:59
  She had placed a butcher's knife and a baseball bat under the
• 2:57:02
  mattress. If the spirits came, if anything
• 2:57:07
  tried to touch her children, she would fight.
• 2:57:11
  The hours crawled. Shadows stretched and moved
• 2:57:15
  across the walls, twisting with each flicker of the storm
• 2:57:20
  outside. Sometimes she swore she heard
• 2:57:24
  someone standing just outside the door.
• 2:57:27
  Other times, Stacy would bolt upright, certain that she had
• 2:57:33
  heard the handle rattle. Candace would grip the knife,
• 2:57:37
  her pulse hammering, ready to face whatever endured.
• 2:57:42
  But nothing came. At least, not yet.
• 2:57:48
  Returning from work, Dennis found his wife strung thin, his
• 2:57:53
  daughter's pale and restless, their eyes rimmed with
• 2:57:57
  sleepiness. He listened, but struggled to
• 2:58:01
  reconcile their terror with his own rationality.
• 2:58:05
  What do I tell my boss? He snapped.
• 2:58:08
  That we have to leave because the house is haunted?
• 2:58:13
  Candace pleaded for him to understand.
• 2:58:16
  Stacy begged him to believe. Even Marissa, usually innocent
• 2:58:21
  and carefree, grew quiet and uneasy.
• 2:58:25
  The mansion had become a battleground, not just between
• 2:58:28
  the bishops and whatever haunted them, but between their
• 2:58:32
  instincts and Dennis's disbelief.
• 2:58:36
  And in that rift, the house thrived.
• 2:58:40
  It seemed to feed on fear and on doubt, on the slow erosion,
• 2:58:45
  their strength. For Stacy, the nightmare would
• 2:58:49
  not leave her. Each time her mother reached for
• 2:58:52
  the knife at night, keeping watch with trembling hands,
• 2:58:57
  Stacy saw again the image of blood and madness.
• 2:59:02
  The house wasn't only haunting them, it was turning them
• 2:59:06
  against themselves. The Bishop family had come to
• 2:59:10
  Taiwan full of hope, but now the mansion was unraveling them
• 2:59:15
  thread by thread. The Bishop home had become a
• 2:59:19
  pressure cooker of fear. Every shadow seemed heavier,
• 2:59:24
  every silence more oppressive. Candace did her best to keep her
• 2:59:29
  daughter's clothes, to shield them from what she could no
• 2:59:33
  longer deny, but the house was patient.
• 2:59:38
  It was waiting for the moment when one of them was most
• 2:59:42
  vulnerable. And that moment came for
• 2:59:46
  Marissa. It was evening.
• 2:59:49
  Rain tapped against the wide windows in the jungle outside,
• 2:59:54
  buzzed faintly in the humid dark.
• 2:59:58
  Stacy was away with Thomas, and Candace had agreed to accompany
• 3:00:02
  Dennis to visit a neighbor's house down the road.
• 3:00:06
  It would be just for a little while.
• 3:00:09
  Marissa nodded when her mother asked if she'd be all right, but
• 3:00:13
  as the front door closed behind them.
• 3:00:16
  The mansion seemed to exhale. The vast hall stretched around
• 3:00:21
  her, too quiet and too still. She turned on the television to
• 3:00:28
  Chase. Away the silence, but the.
• 3:00:31
  Sound only made the emptiness more noticeable.
• 3:00:35
  Shadows gathered in the corners of the room, deepening with each
• 3:00:40
  passing minute. Then came a sound door creaking
• 3:00:47
  open somewhere upstairs. Marissa's heart stuttered.
• 3:00:52
  She glanced towards the staircase, it's banister
• 3:00:57
  vanishing Into Darkness. She called out to her parents,
• 3:01:01
  asking if they had forgotten something, her voice trembling.
• 3:01:05
  But there was no answer, only the hollow echo of her own
• 3:01:11
  words. Then footsteps came, measured
• 3:01:17
  and heavy, descending the stairs.
• 3:01:21
  The young girl backed away, clutching the edge of the sofa,
• 3:01:25
  calling out again to see if it was her parents.
• 3:01:29
  The living room door swung open with a sudden force.
• 3:01:33
  A cold rush of air swept in, carrying with it the
• 3:01:38
  unmistakable presence of someone or something unseen.
• 3:01:45
  And then it was upon her. Invisible hands shoved her
• 3:01:49
  backwards. She gasped, stumbling to the
• 3:01:53
  floor, but it didn't stop there. Something pressed against her
• 3:01:58
  chest, heavier, stronger, until she couldn't breathe.
• 3:02:05
  Her body convulsed, as if this something was trying to force
• 3:02:10
  its way into her. Terror swallowed her.
• 3:02:15
  She felt her limbs go weak, her mind pulled into a darkness it
• 3:02:20
  was not her own. Whispers clawed up the edges of
• 3:02:24
  her thoughts, hungry, desperate, and human.
• 3:02:31
  For a heartbeat, she wasn't herself.
• 3:02:35
  She was them. And then, silence.
• 3:02:40
  Arissa collapsed onto the floor, trembling, covered in sweat, and
• 3:02:45
  the house loomed above her, silent once more.
• 3:02:49
  As those satisfied. When Candace and Dennis
• 3:02:53
  returned, they found their daughter sprawled on the floor.
• 3:02:57
  Candace dropped to her knees, scooping Marissa into her arms,
• 3:03:02
  asking Baby, what happened, what's wrong?
• 3:03:05
  Marissa's eyes darted around, wild and glassy.
• 3:03:09
  Her voice was hoarse. Someone came in and pushed me.
• 3:03:15
  She broke into sobs, clinging to her mother.
• 3:03:19
  Dennis's face drained of color. He had doubted, rationalized,
• 3:03:25
  resisted in every suggestion that something unnatural plagued
• 3:03:29
  their home. But this was different.
• 3:03:33
  His daughter's trembling, the sheer panic in her voice.
• 3:03:38
  He could not be dismissed. That night, the family huddled
• 3:03:42
  together in terror, with every light in the house blazing.
• 3:03:47
  Candace sat upright with a knife in her lap, too afraid to close
• 3:03:51
  her eyes. Marissa lay against her,
• 3:03:55
  shivering, whispering again and again that's something had been
• 3:04:01
  inside her. By morning, she seemed eerily
• 3:04:05
  calm. She insisted that she felt fine
• 3:04:09
  crushing off her mother's word questions, she said I, I don't
• 3:04:14
  want to worry or think about it anymore.
• 3:04:16
  Seeming detached, the Candace knew better.
• 3:04:21
  Something had touched her daughter and this was something
• 3:04:25
  that could not be undone. The attack on Marissa left no
• 3:04:29
  more room for denial for Dennis. Once the firm skeptic, he could
• 3:04:34
  not shake the image of his daughter trembling on the floor,
• 3:04:38
  insisting that something had entered her, a foreign entity,
• 3:04:45
  something not of this world. Candace's fear had now become
• 3:04:49
  his own. The house was not simply
• 3:04:52
  strange, it was dangerous. Candace reached out to a friend,
• 3:04:58
  Bob Patton, an American journalist in Taipei with
• 3:05:02
  connections deep into Taiwan's spiritual circles, if anyone
• 3:05:06
  could point them to help. It.
• 3:05:08
  Was Bob? And he did.
• 3:05:12
  He told Candace of a respected Taoist priest, a man experienced
• 3:05:17
  in dealing with restless spirits, a man he himself had
• 3:05:21
  interviewed years before. When the priest arrived at the
• 3:05:25
  Bishop home, he carried himself with quiet authority.
• 3:05:30
  He was elderly, robed simply, with eyes that seemed to Pierce
• 3:05:36
  through stone. From the moment he crossed the
• 3:05:39
  threshold, his demeanor darkened.
• 3:05:44
  He moved slowly through each room, pausing as if listening to
• 3:05:49
  something that the others could not hear.
• 3:05:53
  Finally, he gathered the family, and his words came, measured,
• 3:05:58
  deliberate. This house, he said through
• 3:06:02
  Bob's translation, has very dangerous Feng shui.
• 3:06:07
  No Chinese architect would design it this way unless he
• 3:06:11
  wished to curse the inhabitants. Dennis frowned, still unused to
• 3:06:16
  the concept. He asked.
• 3:06:19
  What do you mean? The priest gestured towards the
• 3:06:22
  open windows, the dripping walls, the unnatural damp that
• 3:06:27
  seemed to ooze from every corner.
• 3:06:31
  The mountains, water and wind bring energy, but this house
• 3:06:35
  does not flow with it. It traps it.
• 3:06:39
  It feeds yen the negative energy.
• 3:06:42
  It strengthens the dead. Candace shuddered, remembering
• 3:06:47
  the priest's choice words. It's been designed to kill.
• 3:06:53
  Then came the most chilling revelation.
• 3:06:56
  The priest closed his eyes, breathing deeply.
• 3:06:59
  When he spoke again, his voice was heavier.
• 3:07:04
  There are two spirits here, and they're hungry.
• 3:07:08
  A man and a woman. Candace gasped.
• 3:07:12
  Her mind leapt to the apparition Thomas had seen in the upstairs
• 3:07:16
  window. She turned to their driver, who
• 3:07:20
  had lived in the valley his entire life.
• 3:07:24
  Do you know what was here before this house was built?
• 3:07:26
  She asked. HN hesitated.
• 3:07:31
  His face tightened, as though even Speaking of it was
• 3:07:34
  dangerous. At last, he said quietly, A pig
• 3:07:40
  farm. It burned, and the farmer and
• 3:07:44
  his wife were trapped. They died in the fire.
• 3:07:49
  The words clung heavy in the air.
• 3:07:53
  Candace's heart sank. The flickering lights, the
• 3:07:58
  voices calling names. The woman at the window, all of
• 3:08:02
  it pointed to those lost souls. They had not moved on.
• 3:08:08
  They had remained hungry, angry, seemingly tethered to the land
• 3:08:14
  where they had perished. The priest face was grim.
• 3:08:19
  Hungry ghosts, he said. They do not have what they need
• 3:08:23
  in the afterlife, food, money or offerings, so they take energy
• 3:08:31
  from the living. They feed off of fear,
• 3:08:35
  particularly from your daughter. Marissa's face was pale with
• 3:08:40
  tears burning in her eyes. The family drew closer together,
• 3:08:46
  with fear thick between all of them.
• 3:08:49
  The priest rose. He said I'll help you, but you
• 3:08:54
  must understand what is bound here is strong.
• 3:08:59
  I will need some time to prepare, and even if I succeed,
• 3:09:03
  it will not last. And if you remain, they will
• 3:09:08
  return. This warning was clear.
• 3:09:11
  The house was not a home, was a trap built on ashes feeding the
• 3:09:17
  dead. For the bishops, the nightmare
• 3:09:21
  had finally been given a name. The night of the ritual arrived,
• 3:09:25
  heavy with anticipation. The bishops had spent the day in
• 3:09:29
  uneasy silence, waiting. Marissa had been sent to stay
• 3:09:34
  with neighbors. The priest would not risk her
• 3:09:37
  presence. The hungry ghosts had already
• 3:09:41
  singled her out once. If they were provoked again, she
• 3:09:45
  might not survive. Inside the mansion, the heir
• 3:09:50
  felt charged, as though the house itself knew what was
• 3:09:54
  coming. The Taoist priest returned to
• 3:09:57
  dusk robed simply carrying a bundle of tools, incense sticks,
• 3:10:05
  Joss paper folded into stacks of money, a basket of fruit.
• 3:10:10
  He instructed Dennis to open every door and window in the
• 3:10:14
  house. The spirits must have a way out,
• 3:10:18
  he said. As the last window was
• 3:10:21
  unlatched, a strange wind moved through the house, though the
• 3:10:26
  air outside was still. Curtains billowed.
• 3:10:31
  Candace clutched Stacy's hand. The priest lit incense, smoke
• 3:10:37
  curling upward into thin, wide trails.
• 3:10:41
  He began to chant, his voice low and rhythmic, filling the halls
• 3:10:48
  with words the family could not understand.
• 3:10:51
  Yet they felt their meaning deep in their bones.
• 3:10:55
  Almost immediately, the house seemed to react.
• 3:11:00
  Pressure settled on the family, heavy and suffocating, Candace
• 3:11:07
  later recalled. It was a force that shook our
• 3:11:10
  clothes and our hair. Everything was moving and it
• 3:11:15
  became hard to breathe. Lights flickered violently
• 3:11:20
  Upstairs, a door slammed shut with a deafening crack.
• 3:11:24
  The air was alive with unseen motion, as though invisible
• 3:11:28
  figures were rushing past and raged by the intrusion.
• 3:11:34
  Despite this, the priest did not falter.
• 3:11:37
  He raised his voice, commanding, demanding, calling upon heavenly
• 3:11:43
  forces to guide the spirits to peace.
• 3:11:48
  Then he turned to Stacy, and his hands was the basket of
• 3:11:52
  offerings. Oranges, rice, bundles of paper
• 3:11:58
  money, all burning slowly with incense smoke.
• 3:12:03
  You, he said firmly. You must take this to the back,
• 3:12:09
  to the graves. Terror gripped her.
• 3:12:13
  Her legs trembled. She didn't want to go.
• 3:12:18
  The priest eyes locked on hers, and he told her You must be
• 3:12:25
  brave. They will follow you, but they
• 3:12:28
  must be fed. Her mother's hand squeezed hers.
• 3:12:34
  Her father's nod was solemn. With a SOB, Stacy lifted the
• 3:12:39
  basket. The smoke curled into her face,
• 3:12:44
  stinging her eyes. She then stepped into the night.
• 3:12:50
  The backyard was darker than she had ever seen it.
• 3:12:54
  The trees loomed beyond the walls, and every step felt
• 3:12:59
  watched. She carried the basket toward
• 3:13:02
  the patch of earth the priest had identified, the place where
• 3:13:06
  the farmer and his wife had died.
• 3:13:11
  Her arms ached, her skin prickled as though someone
• 3:13:16
  walked just behind her. She fought the urge to run.
• 3:13:22
  At the edge of the yard. She set the basket down and
• 3:13:26
  whispered through her tears. Take this, please, and leave us
• 3:13:32
  alone. For a moment the air stilled,
• 3:13:36
  and then, as if an answer, the night swallowed the offering.
• 3:13:43
  Inside, the priest moved room to room, sprinkling holy water,
• 3:13:49
  chanting at each corner, and each time he entered, the lights
• 3:13:54
  would die slowly, flickering back on only as he finished his
• 3:14:00
  incantations. Candace and Dennis followed,
• 3:14:04
  their hearts pounding. They could feel it, the shift,
• 3:14:10
  the weakening of the presence that had plagued them.
• 3:14:14
  The chanting rose to a crescendo, smoke thick in the
• 3:14:19
  halls as a final prayer echoed through the house.
• 3:14:24
  And then silence. The wind ceased, the walls no
• 3:14:30
  longer seem to hum, and for the first time in months since they
• 3:14:36
  had arrived, the house felt still.
• 3:14:41
  Before leaving, the priest produced a Talisman, a mirror
• 3:14:46
  etched with the symbols of the AI Ching.
• 3:14:50
  He fixed it above the door, firmly patting it into place.
• 3:14:56
  This will keep harmony here, he said, but only for a short time.
• 3:15:02
  His eyes were grave. The hungry ghosts are appeased,
• 3:15:07
  but only for two, maybe 3 months, and after that they will
• 3:15:12
  return. You must leave this house or a
• 3:15:17
  great tragedy will come. The warning settled deep into
• 3:15:21
  their hearts. The house was calm now.
• 3:15:25
  The danger, however, was far from gone.
• 3:15:30
  The house stood unnaturally quiet in the aftermath of the
• 3:15:33
  ritual. For the first time in months,
• 3:15:36
  the oppressive weight had lifted.
• 3:15:39
  The walls no longer groaned, the air the longer pressed down on
• 3:15:44
  their lungs. Candace wept with relief.
• 3:15:49
  Dennis, exhausted, finally allowed himself to believe that
• 3:15:54
  what had tormented his family was real.
• 3:15:58
  He had fought against his beliefs, against fear, clinging
• 3:16:03
  to reason and responsibility. But now there was no argument
• 3:16:07
  left. He had seen too much.
• 3:16:11
  He knew the priest was right. In the days that followed, the
• 3:16:17
  mansion remained eerily still. Nights passed without footsteps,
• 3:16:22
  without whispers. Stacy slept without hearing her
• 3:16:26
  name being called. Candace no longer felt eyes
• 3:16:30
  burning into her back. And even Marissa, who had
• 3:16:34
  returned from the neighbors, seemed lighter, free of the
• 3:16:39
  strange detachment that had followed her from the attack.
• 3:16:44
  The Bogway mirror gleamed above the front door, a silent
• 3:16:48
  Sentinel. The family lived in its shadow.
• 3:16:52
  Aware that the peace was only borrowed time, Candace began to
• 3:16:57
  plan. She marked the months carefully,
• 3:17:01
  watching the calendar as though it were a countdown to doom.
• 3:17:06
  Stacy would finish her schooling by June, and by then they would
• 3:17:10
  be gone. Dennis made quiet inquiries
• 3:17:13
  about transfers, careful not to draw suspicion from his
• 3:17:17
  superiors. Every decision was guided by the
• 3:17:21
  priests, warning before the hungry ghosts would return.
• 3:17:27
  It was not an easy choice. Dennis's career had brought them
• 3:17:30
  here, had promised them prosperity.
• 3:17:34
  But what was a promotion compared to the safety of his
• 3:17:37
  family? Stacy finished her final term of
• 3:17:41
  school that June, and her relief mirrored her mother's.
• 3:17:46
  Dennis arranged their departure with quiet urgency.
• 3:17:50
  When the time came, the family packed their belongings into
• 3:17:54
  crates, and the rooms were emptied one by one.
• 3:18:00
  On their last morning in the house, the air was unnervingly
• 3:18:04
  still. The jungle outside shimmered in
• 3:18:07
  the heat, and for once no storm clouds gathered on the horizon.
• 3:18:14
  Candace stood at the front door, staring at the bog way mirror
• 3:18:18
  fixed above it. The Talisman glinted faintly in
• 3:18:21
  the light. For months it had kept the house
• 3:18:25
  calm, but she knew its power would soon wane.
• 3:18:30
  As she turned to leave, she glanced up at the 2nd floor
• 3:18:34
  window, the same place Thomas had once seen a figure standing,
• 3:18:40
  and for the briefest moment, she thought she saw something.
• 3:18:45
  The outline of a woman, her face hidden in the shadows.
• 3:18:50
  But a blink later, the window was empty.
• 3:18:55
  Candace shivered. She would not look back again.
• 3:19:00
  The bishops left Taiwan behind, returning to the United States
• 3:19:05
  with more than just suitcases. They carried with them the
• 3:19:09
  memory of the mansion, the unseen blows, the whispers from
• 3:19:15
  the darkness in the night. Marissa collapsed on the floor,
• 3:19:20
  seemingly invaded by something malicious.
• 3:19:25
  In interviews years later, Candace admitted that the
• 3:19:29
  experience had shattered the boundaries of her world.
• 3:19:33
  I had learned that there are powers that we don't understand,
• 3:19:37
  she said. Energies, spirits, things that
• 3:19:42
  can touch our lives in ways that you can't imagine unless it
• 3:19:46
  happens to you. The family never returned to
• 3:19:51
  that valley. They never sought the mansion.
• 3:19:54
  Again, whether the house still stands, whether others live
• 3:20:00
  there unaware. No one can say, but in Taiwan,
• 3:20:06
  where the Hungry Ghost Festival still burns bright each summer,
• 3:20:11
  the belief endures. The dead remain among us if not
• 3:20:16
  given rest. And in the shadow of the Yang
• 3:20:20
  Ming Mountain, where fire once consumed a farmer and his wife,
• 3:20:26
  where a foreign family came seeking a home and only found
• 3:20:30
  terror. The hungry ghosts still linger,
• 3:20:35
  waiting for the living to feed them.
• 3:20:43
  So it took some digging, but I was able to figure out what the
• 3:20:46
  bishops are up to these days. I haven't seen or come across
• 3:20:51
  any updates on them from other creators, so I decided to try
• 3:20:55
  and find out for myself. And to my surprise, I did indeed
• 3:21:00
  discover the details. The Bishops case was made famous
• 3:21:04
  by the TV show A Haunting, which is one of my all time favorites.
• 3:21:09
  Their episode was amply titled Hungry Ghosts.
• 3:21:12
  My version is essentially a retelling of their harrowing
• 3:21:16
  case with additional details that I could find.
• 3:21:19
  With that being said, what are the Bishops up to these days?
• 3:21:23
  Well, I'm going to tell you, but I will omit some details as to
• 3:21:27
  respect their privacy. It seems like Dennis and Candace
• 3:21:32
  are no longer married. I'm not sure what happened to
• 3:21:36
  Candace, but I hope wherever she is that she's doing well.
• 3:21:41
  Dennis has since remarried and is a COO of a major global
• 3:21:46
  company, Albeit I'm not sure if it's the same company that he
• 3:21:50
  worked for during the family's experiences.
• 3:21:53
  But he continues to work abroad in Asia and other parts of the
• 3:21:56
  world, and him and his wife seem to have adopted a son.
• 3:22:01
  Everyone, from what I can tell, has moved on and returned to a
• 3:22:05
  sense of normalcy and seems to be happy and prosperous.
• 3:22:09
  I truly hope that is the case. And I don't know about you, but
• 3:22:13
  I love a happy ending with me providing those details.
• 3:22:17
  Again, please respect the Bishop's privacy and that goes
• 3:22:21
  for anyone whose cases I've covered here.
• 3:22:24
  Be kind and be respectful and please don't bother anybody.
• 3:22:30
  Thank you guys so much for watching this new episode.
• 3:22:33
  I took a bit of a different writing approach with this one,
• 3:22:37
  but I hope that you still liked it.
• 3:22:39
  And if you did, please leave the episode a like.
• 3:22:42
  Let me know your thoughts down below in the comments and
• 3:22:46
  subscribe. If you're new here.
• 3:22:48
  All those things help me out a ton on the platform.
• 3:22:51
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• 3:22:54
  channel member by clicking Join Now here on YouTube.
• 3:22:58
  Or you can. Become a patron by visiting
• 3:23:00
  patreon.com/mystery Archives. If you'd like to check out my
• 3:23:05
  books, which each contain 10 real and haunting paranormal
• 3:23:09
  cases, including my own story, please visit
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• 3:23:19
  Other than that guys, I truly appreciate you all and your
• 3:23:22
  continued support to allow me to do what I do.
• 3:23:25
  I, as always, could not be more proud of how amazing this
• 3:23:28
  community has become and continues to be.
• 3:23:32
  I hope you all are doing well mentally, physically, and
• 3:23:36
  spiritually and I'll see you soon with another brand new
• 3:23:41
  episode. This has been Cody here at
• 3:23:43
  Mystery Archives. Remember to stay.
• 3:23:46
  Safe out there. From hungry ghosts and other
• 3:23:49
  spectres that may haunt the night.
• 3:23:52
  And take care, I'll see you next time.