by AndyAfro
Almost as if to confirm her suspicions, the day after Ruth had made the shaky connection between that man and the attacks on her, a woman who lived in the apartment downstairs, came up to see her. She told her that she had been told of Ruth's misery and wanted to help her. She said that she had known the man and he had, indeed, put a curse on her. The woman said that the only way that Ruth could lift the spell was to perform some counter-magic. She suggested that they go to. a cemetery and cast the counter-spell. Ruth thanked the woman for her concern, but said that she did not think that she cared to use something that she did not believe in.. the supernatural.
She almost reconsidered the woman's offer after the entity struck again, this time endangering her sister as well.
Ruth was driving home one night, her sister was in the car with her, when she heard those strange, whispering sounds again warning her. She forced herself to concentrate on the road, praying that her concentration would not allow the entity to take hold of her. In spite of her effort the warm, numbing feeling began making its way over her back, running its unearthly fingers through her hair. It began edging around her sides, crawling over her waist, making it more difficult for her to drive. Her fingers were becoming numb, she could hardly hold onto the wheel. Her foot was becoming heavier, weighing down the gas pedal, the car began racing faster and faster swerving wildly over the road. Ruth's sister could not see the entity but she could see, in Ruth's eyes, that something horrible was happening to her. She drew her breath and began to scream and at the same time reached over and held down the horn. The entity could not fight Ruth's intense concentration, the screaming of her sister and the blowing of the horn and it retreated to its murky world of nowhere.
Ruth was now at the point where she could not go out in public, she had to have a person at her side at all times. She could not be left alone or she would be attacked. It was at this point that she contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren. Their in vestigation revealed that a spell had, indeed, been cast on Ruth. As time passed, it strengthened its hold on her. Was it too late to help Ruth? Ed and Lorraine decided to send her to an exorcist whom they felt could help her. After spending many days learning the exorcism rites, Ruth came away with the first feeling of peace she had known in weeks.
Her feelings of contentment were short-lived, though. The attacks came back with even greater force. Attack after attack came upon her with incredible intensity. Hysterical, frustrated beyond endurance, Ruth began to feel that every hope had deserted her. She began to consider that last despairing act.
One last hope remained for Ruth. The Warrens knew a high spiritual yogi who offered his help on Ruth's behalf. He had her come and stay with him so that he could offer protection to her whenever an attack came. After violent fights with the entity, the attacks diminished. As of this writing, Ruth has spent much time totally free of her demonic entity. The curse has been turned back, hopefully, to its sender.
CHAPTER VII
To Dwell With A Devil
Tangled black oaks frame the ancient, dingy white farmhouse. Its windows seem to be staring back at you, inviting you to enter. The inside can best be described as turn of the century. Drab, faded religious pictures hang where they have hung for years. Starched white doilies which have undergone thousands of washings and careful ironings now sit on the arms of colorless overstuffed chairs. From the outside the house is deceptive, its many angles give the impression that the house has many rooms, yet it has only seven. The sagging wood frame dwelling, houses memories of many generations. The present generation consists of sixteen year old Kathy, her mother Irene, her father Fred and her sister Pat. Her older brother died by drowning in 1970.
The haunting was first discovered on a cool fall morning. When Irene awoke that morning she discovered that the fringe on her bedspread had been tightly braided during the night. Pairs of stockings and slip straps had also been braided. Irene was upset to think that someone had come into her room while she was sleeping. Why would anyone do such a silly thing? The braiding happened again the next night, then again each night for about a week. Irene couldn't stand it any longer so she cut the fringe off the bedspread.
That night Irene awoke from a sound sleep with the uneasy feeling that there was someone else in the room. She felt someone lift the covers and climb in bed with her. It was a young girl. As the girl's body moved closer to her a biting, piercing cold turned Irene to ice. She reached for the light hanging on the wall just above her head. As she did, she could feel the girl slip out of bed. By the time she had turned on the light the room was empty, the girl had disappeared.
For days afterward rooms, which were known to be empty, echoed with the sound of pacing feet on wooden floors. Doors were heard opening and closing even though no visible person was there. All members of the family heard these eerie sounds. None wanted to believe it!
Not long before he died, Kathy's brother had witnessed the terror hidden in the house. One night he was awakened by the terrible feeling that he was being crushed. When he opened his eyes, he could make out what seemed to be a man lying on top of him, smothering him. Just as he was about to cry out for help, the man rose from the bed and walked into infinity.
For Kathy the haunting had just begun. She was alone one evening, in the living room, reading. Slowly, she became aware that she had been hearing, in the back of her mind, a voice calling to her from somewhere else in the house. It was almost muffled as it called out her name. She began to listen for the voice now.. it seemed to be coming from the cellar. Her heart began pounding wildly. Kathy was not a particularly brave girl but, for some reason, got up and headed for the cellar door.
Kathy's trembling hand reached for the doorknob. She forced it to grasp the handle. Almost automatically it turned slightly and the door opened.
A child's voice could be heard teasingly calling Kathy's name. She wanted to run out of the house and call for someone to join her in the search of the cellar. Something forced her to the basement. The voice could be heard very clearly now, it seemed to be right next to her. She groped in the dark for the light, touched the cord and pulled it on. The room was flooded with light, there was no one there.
Kathy never seemed the same after that experience. The entity began to obsess her and she became the victim of almost nightly horrors.
A few nights later a strange uneasiness came over Kathy and woke her. Still half asleep, she glanced quickly around the room, as if to assure herself that all is well. When her eyes came upon her sister's bed, she saw the answer to her uneasiness. A tall erect figure, pure white in color and holding a trident, stood next to Pat's bed. As she watched, a host of vague, white apparitions entered through every conceivable opening in the room, each bearing a great knife. The hordes continuously advanced on the bed, maki
ng repeated attempts to attack her still sleeping sister. The great white spirit guide stood guard over the girl, fended them off and sent them back to where they came from. Kathy watched the silent ghostly battle, too stunned to cry for help, too weak to run away. Moments later she slipped into unconsciousness and slept until morning.
As the weeks went by, all of the family heard the nightly crashes of heavy objects downstairs. Investigation revealed that nothing was ever out of its place or broken. AH were unnerved by the sounds of whispering voices that carried up from the cellar, faintly echoing throughout the rooms in the dead of night.
Kathy soon found strange thoughts entering her mind, thoughts of despair and destruction and even suicide. She felt that she was the cause of the unearthly occurrences. She must be punished! Over and over again, the voices in her mind told her that she was evil. One night she couldn't resist the compelling urge, and she was drawn into her bedroom for penance. Once alone, she took a large metal cross and began heating it with a lighter. When the crucifix had absorbed as much heat as it could from the flaming lighter, she pressed it against her upper arm, branding her skin and burning it deep into the flesh. Four times more she repeated this until her upper arm was a mass of hanging flesh. The entity was gaining its hold of Kathy, her punishment was finished - for now. She was losing control, and she didn't know how to stop it.
Kathy's desire to punish herself was foremost in her mind. She knew that her entity was responsible for this torture. She decided that the only way she could rid herself of this evil was by suicide! The malign spirit could not have been happier - that was precisely what it wanted her to do. She locked herself in her room and prepared to set it on fire. She felt that the fire would destroy the evil with her. At the moment she struck the match her sister knocked on the door. The suicide was put off, for now at least. The entity lost a minor battle, but there were more to come.
Disturbances continued. On her way to bed one night, Kathy found herself following a woman with a long white veil up the stairs. As the woman near-ed the top of the stairs, she just faded away!
Later that night Kathy was awakened by the sound of a light switch being snapped on and off. Although she could hear the switch, the lights did not go on or off. This too, happened night after night. The entity had found yet another way to torment Kathy. Once again she felt that she must punish herself for being evil, this time the sharp blade of a razor resulted in her hospitalization.
Alone in the silence of her hospital room Kathy heard voices. They sounded like the droning chants of many nuns and monks who she felt surrounded her. They kept telling her to go home where she belonged.
When Kathy returned home she continued to be driven by the entity. Apparently it was no longer satisfied with having her harm only herself. Kathy now felt the need to do physical harm to others. The world was evil and the people in it must be punished. At that point Ed and Lorraine Warren were called in to investigate.
Lorraine could feel an entity in the house, particularly in one of the upstairs bedrooms. This one seemed evil, as if it were lying in wait. There were other vibrations in the house, almost as if more than one unearthly inhabitant lived there. She could feel the childish, playful spirit that Kathy could hear whispering and calling her name. The upstairs demon was the one that utterly took pos session of Kathy's mind.
Kathy still remains seized by obsession. The family's nights are filled with whispering voices and apparitions continue to walk the stairs and lurk in the rooms of the old farmhouse.
CHAPTER VIII
The Voodoo Doll
Mrs. C. bought another doll for her rather large collection. The doll was quite interesting. It was about a foot tall and had a cute white cloth dress, little shoes, long hair and a face made strangely frightening by brightly painted lips and cheeks and staring eyes that seemed almost too real. Tied tightly around its neck was a noose - the doll had been hanged.
Mr. and Mrs. C. owned and operated a rest home, they lived on the grounds. Mrs. C, who was the doll collector, placed the "witch doll" in a wooden box when she returned home with it. She said it was just a precaution, after all it was supposed to be cursed. She was not a superstitious woman, but it was best not to take any chances.
A few days later, after deciding there's no fun collecting if you can't show it off, she took the doll from the wooden box and moved it to the glass display cabinet where she kept her collection. The cabinet was always kept locked because many of the dolls were quite valuable. The only key was in the constant possession of her husband. In spite of this, by the next day the witch doll had disappear ed. A thorough search was made of the house and the rest home, the doll could not be found. Finally, because Mrs. C. had looked everywhere else, she searched her bedroom. There, in the bureau drawer, she found her witch doll. Many times since then her little witch doll has, for no apparent reason, run for the cover of her bureau drawer.
Mrs. C. loved to buy dolls at auctions. She felt that each doll had the secrets of its previous owner somehow within it. The doll that she bought in Jacksonville, Florida was one such doll. This one turned out to be a voodoo doll!
From the moment that she bought the doll, her peaceful life became just a pleasant memory. From that moment on, her life entered another dimension.
Even those who knew nothing of the doll's history felt a strange uneasiness when they saw it. They felt almost as if the doll were watching them. Many said that the doll was evil and they refused to even touch it. Mrs. C. decided to put it under a glass dome hoping that this would help to hold in what she thought might he evil vibrations.
When one of the elderly patients at the rest home saw it encased in its glass dome, he said that he got the eerie feeling that it was trying to get out, but it just couldn't. He said that it gave him the willies.
Mrs. C. decided, one day, that she was being foolish. That doll could not possibly be evil or harmful. After all, it is only a doll! She took it from under the glass and placed it on a table for display. Then her problems began. At the time, a one hundred thousand dollar addition to the rest home was being constructed. Work was progressing on schedule, completion was not far away. Less than one hour after the doll was removed from its glass dome, state inspectors discovered that the contractor had made a series of mistakes which forced officials to change the home's status from that of rest home to convalescent home. A costly, unfortunate change! Incredible other complications arose which began to be resolved only after the doll had been given to Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Mr. and Mrs. C. had a son who had always been a healthy child. Shortly after Mrs.C. had purchased the voodoo doll, the boy began to complain about feeling weak. Doctors could find no apparent reason for his condition. One of New England's leading pediatricians ran extensive laborato
ry tests on him, but could find no cause for his malady. His condition worsened. Doctors could prescribe no medication for him, there was no diagnosis. He became so weak that doctors gave up all hope, it was just a matter of time. It was for this reason the Warrens were called in. Lorraine could feel evil vibrations coming from the voodoo doll and advised that it be removed from the house. Once it was removed, the boy began to recover. To the doctors amazement, in a few days, he was completely recovered.
During the three years that Mrs. C. owned the dolls, she suffered spells of great depression. She did not realize that there could be any connection between the dolls and her mental suffering. Soon, Mrs. C. noticed that every time she spent any length of time near the collection she would suffer violent headaches. She decided that she would destroy the dolls and bring an end to their evil magic. The dolls meant a great deal to her, she had collected them from many parts of the country. She finally gathered enough courage to do what she really didn't want to do and picked up the voodoo doll to throw it in the fire. As she did, she could feel what seemed like hatred and sickness coming from the doll, flowing into her body through her hand. She quickly threw it on the floor. A minute later, after she told herself that it couldn't have happened, she picked up the doll to try once more to destroy it. Once again she was prevented from doing so. She returned it to the shelf. She was later to discover that dolls such as hers cannot be destroyed without first performing certain rites-over them. Ed Warren later explained: