Fighting Malevolent Spirits: A Demonologist's Darkest Encounters

by Samantha E. Harris

  One day Shannon was getting changed in her room when she heard some noises on Holly’s baby monitor. Shannon continued dressing herself and ignored the white-noise sounds until it grew louder. It was difficult to ignore. As she listened more closely she heard a distinct voice come over the receiver and say, “Touch her!” It was a deep, gravelly voice that sounded rough. Shannon, in a moment of panic, ran from her room without the rest of her clothes and began sobbing to Kacey.

  “I remember that day very well,” Kacey confirmed. “I was hoping that Shannon had just been hearing noises and mistook it as something else. But things continued and the house began to feel different.”

  Shannon also heard conversations on the baby monitor. When she and her mom tried listening to the discussion, it sounded like two men talking about something in a low tone. Kacey and Shannon sat there listening to the baby monitor and after a few moments, a growling sound began in the room they were standing in. The growling was not on the baby monitor. Shannon said it was like “it” knew they were listening to the conversation. It became angry and came in to the room growling at them. Both Shannon and Kacey agreed it sounded like a dog or some kind of animal.

  Shannon shivered with chills when retelling their accounts. I had seen so many clients share similar reactions—these people were truly afraid for their safety on a daily basis and their lives were forever altered. Whether the spirits and entities were removed or not, the experience of a haunting changes people.

  As the two women continued sharing their stories I began to mend together facts and incidents that pointed towards the possibility of a demon being present in their home. Growling sounds have always indicated a dark and evil entity in our cases and is a phenomena that people should be cautious of. I have yet to experience a “human haunting” in which the spirit growled.

  Whenever Shannon would visit her father’s separate house, the entity would follow her to his home. On one occasion both Shannon and her father witnessed what appeared to be a dark, hooded creature floating out of the house. They refused to go inside for several hours and instead they drove around in their car debating what to do next and where to receive help. “How do you get rid of something when you don’t even know what it is!” Shannon explained. The entity was tall, extremely dark, had no face and seemed to glide above the ground as it moved. It made Shannon’s skin crawl and its presence emanated the feeling of evil.

  Black orbs were frequently seen in Kacey’s home, and even their family dog took notice. About three weeks prior to our visit, their dog Bonnie tried eating one of the orbs that flew past her face. Everyone who was present saw it. Kacey insisted that there was no possibility those “things” were bugs or just a light reflection.

  Orbs are interesting phenomena. Some paranormal researchers believe that the color of “orbs” is indicative of their nature—black or dark orbs consist of negative energy. In my experience, this theory seems to hold true in that many black masses and orbs have been seen with demonic cases.

  The light anomalies became more common and Kacey’s family could no longer ignore their presence. They tried capturing a photograph of the orb. Instead of an orb appearing in the picture, they discovered that a foreign and “alienlike” silhouette was reflected in the mirror.

  I examined the image thoroughly and determined that it was not a double exposure, the image was also in the negative, and it was not the reflection of someone in the room at the time the photograph was taken. At first glance, the picture seemed to be legitimate. Had I more time, I would have loved to take it to a specialist for examination. For now, it was just additional evidence that Kacey’s family was experiencing something not of this world.

  The sounds of growling pervaded throughout the home for weeks on end and the family even hired a pest control company to inspect their home for any wild animals in the attic. Nothing was found during the pest control’s exploration of the home and Kacey and Shannon were left without answers. Nothing seemed to make sense in their home anymore—paranormal incidents were becoming a weekly occurrence and it was taking a toll on the family. As with many cases, they began to doubt their own sanity and started to hate the idea of being in Kacey’s house.

  One evening Shannon was playing with her daughter Holly when suddenly the child became distracted and gazed up at the stairwell. Holly ran to her mother and cried out in a frightened and trembling voice, “I’m scared!” Shannon tried comforting the girl in her arms and asked what she was afraid of. Holly pointed up the stairs and Shannon was horrified to see blue smoke drifting in the air.

  At first Shannon thought her eyes were tired, but confusion quickly followed. A few feet off the top step, a mass of swirling blue “mist” was hovering. Within seconds the cloud evaporated into thin air as if some invisible vacuum had cleared away the image. Shannon hastily grabbed her child and ran outside until Kacey returned home from work. Shannon didn’t know how to explain to her mother what she and her child had seen. Again, it was unnatural and the feeling of it was malicious.

  Throughout random hours of the day and evening, both women would find themselves running to the kitchen to see if something had caught on fire. Nauseating smells of burning rubber and sulfur were permeating throughout the house without a viable cause. I have yet to explain why demonic cases incorporate such foul smells, other than to offend and confuse the victims into a further state of fear.

  In addition to the odors, Shannon began experiencing strange mood swings and bouts of depression. The haunting was escalating.

  Shannon recalled an experience in which she became severely depressed for three days. She wasn’t upset with Holly or her mom, and it wasn’t because of any relationship issues with her boyfriend. Shannon was just extremely sad for three days and she could not figure out why. Even her dreams were macabre and disturbing. She did not want to live anymore and was happy with the idea of being gone from this world. It seemed as though the demonic entity was not only influencing her emotions but also beginning to have an effect on her thought process and decision-making. The demon’s ability to manipulate Shannon was becoming stronger.

  As Shannon’s personal experiences with the haunting became more severe, the fights between her and Kacey intensified. Surprisingly, Kacey did not call the police when Shannon hit and slapped her during their arguments. Kacey felt that whomever she was dealing with was not her daughter, and she did not want to see Shannon go to jail for something she might not be able to control. “She just did not look like herself when she was angry and trying to hurt me! It was not my daughter!” Kacey insisted that she never raised her daughter to hit anyone, and yet Shannon was beating her.

  I asked Shannon if she remembered these fights; specifically, hitting her mother and the things she said during the arguments.

  “No, not really. I remember getting upset, but after that point everything seems like a blur. I remember feeling rage and hatred and it would be over the dumbest things in hindsight, but I just could not stand to be around my mom.” Shannon blatantly stated, “I still can’t.”

  I explained that sometimes I see cases in which an individual is pitted against the person that loves them the most to break down that bond and relationship so that the family further deteriorates. I tried reaching Shannon on a personal level to see if I could still get through to her personal emotions, and not the emotions of a demon. I told Shannon that I couldn’t think of someone who loved her more than her own mother.

  Shannon seemed uninterested. Either she was putting on a facade of being tough or the demon had really shut off her emotions from the rest of the world and was controlling her greater than I thought.

  “And Kacey, you know that your daughter really does love you. Sometimes daughters and sons say terrible things to try to hurt us because they themselves are hurting inside. Even though you two are going through a tough time right now, who else would be here for you? Who else would be as supportive as your own famil
y?”

  I continued trying to rationalize with Shannon. “Your friends seem to be too scared to come over and visit anymore, Shannon. But you two have each other and surprisingly that will be the key to getting out of this whole mess in the end. That and asking God to help.” Shannon seemed to grow annoyed with my statement and rose from her chair while maintaining eye contact with me. She had a scowl on her face and went to the kitchen. After Shannon left, Carl, Kacey, and I decided to visit the basement to discuss one of the other active rooms. Kacey had been kind enough to begin refinishing a room for Holly—the renovation was also questionable in terms of what instigated the paranormal activity.

  In the corner of the basement, Holly’s playroom stood, and adjacent from it was a very odd and peculiar room. The door to the strange room was covered with blankets. I asked why it was concealed from view. “Oh, it’s because Holly and Shannon were seeing evil faces in the door’s window. So we covered it up,” Kacey explained. I asked if I could examine the room.

  Apparently, the room had previously been an underground garage but was now sealed in. I proceeded into the cement room. The energy of the room was imbalanced and there were no outside windows to lighten up the space. I felt that the demon likely resided in there, especially in such a dark room—demons love darkness and a lack of sunlight, much like cockroaches. I felt the strong presence, to a great extent the same as I did when walking into the home; however, it seemed more concentrated in this space.

  I agreed to take “extra special time” in that room during the blessing, a term I jokingly used when describing the dungeon-of-hell vibe I often felt in areas like this. Think of a cozy and quaint den that a bear hibernates in during the winter—except the bear is demonic and the den is really an ice-cold abyss that sucks the life and happiness out of its surroundings. The space desperately needed attention!

  I have always hated the anticipation and build-up of energy right before a blessing. It is similar to having an out of control child running rampant around the house waiting for me to enforce discipline. The demon was constantly moving around the house and sometimes I fantasized about having one of those child harnesses on the demon so it would just sit still during my assessment. But alas, it is never that easy to control an unseen force, let alone one that should not be taken lightly. These forces are capable of harming people, ending the life of someone, and greatly influencing others.

  I explored for more details and asked Kacey what kind of faces they were seeing.

  “This is what really scared me when Shannon told me. Shannon was playing down here with Holly one time and kept getting distracted. She kept feeling like something was terribly wrong but had no idea why. Almost as if someone was about to die and she was picking up on it with her sixth sense, I guess? Finally, she looked up and saw this creature’s face in the window to the garage room. She described it as having a really long giraffe’s neck but the face was ancient and reptilian looking. Almost a cross between a snake, alligator, and gecko’s face. She said that it had water pouring out of its mouth. I don’t know. I just hate that room with a passion. I never go in there, which is why it is completely empty. I won’t even use it for storage.”

  Everyone seemed to be severely uncomfortable with the room and I was now certain that the demon truly did reside there. Although we had found the most concentrated room, I still wanted to find out why the entity had come into their lives. We went back upstairs to escape the black void leaking from the garage room and met in the living room. The basement’s cold grasp was hard to shake off as we ascended the stairs. The negative energy emanating from it felt like a very icy, damp fog that clung to bones and flesh.

  I questioned whether or not Kacey was experiencing anything odd at her place of work or if any strange activity occurred. I wanted to see to what extent the haunting was affecting Kacey. In some difficult hauntings, the activity has occasionally taken place at the victim’s place of employment.

  “Well that is something I wanted to talk with you about,” Kacey paused and stared at her feet beneath her clasped hands. “I would feel terrible if this was the reason why … but I work at a cemetery. You don’t think it could be the reason why things are so strange here, do you?” Kacey tried containing her tears. Her sense of guilt was saddening. How horrible it would be to feel responsible for a terrifying haunting that is scaring your daughter and granddaughter.

  “Kacey, no matter what job you have, no matter where you live, you are never solely responsible for a haunting.” I raised my eyebrows and lowered my head to meet her eyes. “Okay?” I explained that spirits and demons alike both have a mind of their own and if they decide to haunt a location that is their decision; it was not her decision or her responsibility.

  Spirits are everywhere, even at the grocery store or car wash. If they follow someone, that is something the spirit chose, unless that individual invited them. I told Kacey that I would like to teach her some techniques on how to protect herself more and how to keep out the bad things.

  Kacey nodded her head quietly and I hoped to calm her feelings of remorse and shame. It was possible that the entity followed Kacey home from work, but it seemed as though Shannon was feeding the entity and giving it a permanent reason to stay with the family. I had experienced demons at cemeteries before, although I did not realize it at the time.

  I began sharing my story with Kacey. One evening when I was in high school, my mother, boyfriend, and I decided that we wanted to visit a notorious cemetery nearby in Michigan in hopes of capturing an EVP. Concerned for the three of us and the possibility of getting arrested, my father insisted that he chaperone us to the graveyard and keep an eye out for us. My dad is a logical man. He is a retired engineer and inventor, has over sixteen international patents, and is a member of MENSA. At that time he was not entertaining the idea of ghosts and ghouls. But that would soon change.

  In the courageous minivan we made our way to the cemetery at around ten o’clock in the evening. My mother, hoping she could outsmart the possible dark entities there, placed the voice recorder on the tombstone of a reverend—praying his holiness would protect our asinine efforts. Boy, were we wrong! We left the recorder there for about two hours and returned around midnight after having coffee and some dessert. When we revisited that night, the entire feeling of the cemetery had changed and all of us had felt the transformation.

  My mom was incredibly nervous and dropped her purse; she scurried to gather the discarded items back into her bag before jumping into the car. We ran and grabbed the recorder and took off in the van. So brave.

  At around three in the morning, I woke up to the loud sound of something crashing on the floor. I went upstairs to investigate but did not find anything out of place or broken. I begrudgingly went back to sleep. Later that morning, over the conversation of breakfast, I asked if anyone else had heard that sound. My father paused from eating his pancake and put down his fork. “Oh my god, I completely forgot about that!” My mom chimed in and also declared that she had forgotten. Apparently, while my parents were sleeping, my dad awoke to his sleep apnea machine being thrown across the room. The machine weighed a considerable amount and was not within arms-reach of the bed. The device was thrown several feet across the room and it abruptly awoke my dad.

  My mother said she just lay there with her eyes shut and kept praying. “I apologized to the spirit and promised that I would never return to that cemetery if it would just leave and go in peace!”

  My father also found the event to be unsettling, especially since he was the one targeted in the attack and had forgotten to grab his crucifix necklace before driving us to the cemetery. I, of course, returned to the cemetery in the future to show others, but my mother kept her promise and none of us were bothered again.

  I did, however, encounter the same angry presence in that graveyard and, to this day, I believe it was evil in nature. Nearly eight years later my father now questions the experience a
nd his logical, engineer mind has determined that the event is explainable. However, I distinctly remember his reaction the morning after the event—it was genuine.

  Sometimes things follow people from cemeteries. As a lesson learned, I always advise people to protect themselves with prayers and the white light before and after dealing with compromising locations such as graveyards.

  “So it is possible that it did follow you, Kacey, but I think it stayed because it felt it could influence Shannon.” As if we had summoned her, Shannon returned from her absence and joined us back in the living room.

  I announced to both Shannon and Kacey that it sounded like the family was dealing with an inhuman entity, after hearing all of their accounts and personal experiences.

  “So you are saying that it is a demon?” Shannon inquired with a sarcastic tone.

  I confirmed with a solemn “yes.” The hooded figure she had been seeing, the reptilian face in the basement, the growling sounds, the inappropriate “touch her” statement on the baby monitor … all of these seemed to point towards a demonic presence. I proceeded to ask Shannon if she had heard any other voices, such as her child’s or mother’s voice when they were not home. Shannon paused in response to my question and then her eyes grew wider, her sarcasm gone.

  “Actually, I do remember something like that.” Shannon’s voice had changed to a more humble tone. “Kacey had left to go grocery shopping while I was home with Holly one evening. While I was in the kitchen preparing some food for Holly, I heard my mother calling me. I assumed that she had a quick visit to the grocery store and perhaps forgot her wallet and that was the reason she came home so early. I yelled back to her and told her that I was in the kitchen, and asked her what she wanted. She did not respond, so I went into the living room to ask her again what she wanted. No one was home. I went through the entire house and couldn’t find her anywhere. But it was my mom’s voice!”