by AndyAfro
As the days passed Laura began to believe that her boyfriend's best friend, Donald, had caused their separation. An intense hatred of Donald grew inside Laura. In fact, the hatred became so intense that she decided to kill him. She warned Donald of the consequences if he continued to interfere. He would not listen.
The wolf-demon appeared again in Laura's mirror and she asked it to help her. Under its guidance, she began to work on an obscure voodoo rite.
With a pail of water in front of her, Laura concentrated on making Donald's face appear on the surface of the water. When she saw his face clearly, she stabbed it again and again with a large kitchen knife. The demon had told her that if she concentrated hard enough, the water would turn to blood and Donald would die. It didn't work.
Laura knew that Black Magic, if performed properly, would work. She decided to try again, this time intent on killing herself after she did away with Donald. Immediately after that decision, the wolf-demon appeared and demanded that she forget both her boyfriend and Donald… there were better things for her to do in the service of her new-found lord, Satan. She took the advice and eventually did forget them. She redirected her love in a new, unfortunate direction.
It is interesting to note here that during Laura's first interview with Ed and Lorraine, as she told them of the wolf-demon, Ed began coughing. A strange, sulfuric odor filled the room and irritated his lungs. Laura was obsessed and the entity which attacked her made its presence known to Ed.
For the next few weeks Laura glorified in the feeling of power which she had gained and, searching for more, she asked for additional demons to enter her body.
Near midnight on the second day of a vacation on Cape Cod, Laura felt a strong urge to leave her friend's house and go for a walk. With a blanket wrapped around her for a cape, she made her way through the dark, narrow, winding streets until she arrived at an ancient cemetery. There, she threaded her way around the worn stones. She enjoyed herself immensely, Laura felt quite at home. She came back out through the old wooden gate and sat down on the stone wall that bordered the old burial place. Soon, a young man about twenty years old, who was slightly drunk, came wandering by. He saw Laura sitting there and asked if he could join her. She neither encouraged him or discouraged him so he sat down and engaged her in small talk. Slowly, without saying a word, Laura wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him closer. He stopped talking and, pleased with his success, moved closer to her, closed his eyes and prepared for the coming kiss. It never came. Instead, Laura suddenly jerked him to her and, baring her teeth, she sunk them deeply into his throat and drank the blood that spurted out. The young man suddenly became sober. He managed to break away from her and, pressing his hand to his neck to stop the flow of blood, he ran off into the night. He glanced back over his shoulder once as if he expected all the spirits of Hell to be after him.
Laura didn't know what had come over her. She was ashamed of what she had done and began to think that she really was insane.
Laura became the high priestess of a satanic coven which held its rituals in the deserted sand pits at the bottom of the valley. While they were practicing their ceremonies one moonlit night, they were discovered by the police.
Laura had just finished the invocation to Satan and, as the others watched, she made ready to slit the throat of the rooster in order to drain its blood into the chalice. As she raised the dagger, two blinding shafts of light focused on her and three policemen jumped out of the car. Two of them stood guard, making sure no one escaped. The third rushed to the altar in an attempt to find out what Laura was doing.
By the time the officer got to Laura's side, she had hidden the knife. When he asked why the rooster was there, she told him that it was their pet. He was not fully convinced but he had no knowledge of witchcraft, so that thought didn't enter his mind. Since there was no evidence of a violation of the law, the police left.
Laura developed an incredible lust for blood. It was so intense that at times she couldn't avoid the strong urge and found herself doing whatever she could to satisfy it.. including drinking her own blood!
Laura wasn't alone in that inhuman lust. Kathy, a close friend whom she had introduced to black magic, also shared the ghoulish desire. Many times when they were unable to find a rooster or other appropriate sacrifice, they would draw blood from their own arms with a hypodermic needle and then, mixing it with wine, would indulge their craving. Eventually this practice caused Laura to be hospitalized with an infected arm. Doctors even considered amputation. Until that time she had no qualms about slicing her arm in any manner necessary to draw out more and more blood.
At this point in the second interview with Ed Warren, when she discussed her hospitalization, Ed produced a cup of liquid that looked remarkably like blood. He handed it to Laura and asked her to drink it. She became suspicious at first, thinking it might be medicine. When she realized that it wasn't, she drank the liquid. This proved to Ed that she would drink blood without a moment's hesitation. After she drank it, she said that it could not have been blood because it didn't taste like it.
Soon Laura became fascinated with cemeteries and the dead. She spent practically every night wandering around the old graveyards in her area. She and Kathy made plans to dig up a body but at the last minute decided against it.
Laura's thirst for blood increased. She allowed herself to be picked up by young men who were looking for sex. She directed them to the sand pit area and when they became involved in a heated embrace, she sunk her teeth in their necks, drinking their blood.
More black masses were performed in honor of Satan. Both Laura and Kathy stole religious articles from local churches. They burned Bibles and contaminated holy water. At every opportunity they defiled the word of God.
Laura could no longer understand what was happening to her. She felt great happiness and power while performing her ugly deeds, but afterwards she felt guilty and ashamed. She began to believe that she was going insane, but she couldn't stop herself. The entity that she had called had actually taken control of her life. She began to see the face of the wolf-demon in strangers on the street. Even when she looked at her friend Kathy she was horrified to see that face. Laura was beyond the point of return.
Candlemass, a Christian holy day, was coming and Laura and Kathy made plans to defile it. They would hold a mass and offer a human sacrifice this time to the devil. Kathy asked Laura to open her arm once more so that they could use her blood but it was badly absessed again and Laura turned her down. They would have to look elsewhere.
At first they thought that they should kidnap a baby for the sacrifice but Kathy came up with a more evil plan.
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sp; Kathy hated her father. She knew that if she used him as their sacrifice, Satan would be satisfied. She described her gruesome plan to Laura in detail. She would stab him and then tear his body apart and gorge herself on his flesh. Kathy's eyes gleamed madly in her possessed state, her face contorted with the satanic laughter of the demonic entities which were taking complete control of her.
Laura fled the apartment half crazed with fear. She had never seen Kathy in such a state. She swore to herself that she would never see Kathy again and promised not to perform the profane rites which had become so much a part of her life. Within a week the two were together once more, their voices echoing in obscene worship from behind a mound in the sand pits.
A cacophony of violins, tambourines, flutes and drums created the absurd accompaniment to the lewd dancing at the devil's mass. The participants drank from a jug of wine mixed with wormwood, absynthe, morning glory seeds, nightshade, devil's nettle, laurel leaves and blood… a horribly potent witch's brew.
The full moon glistened on the naked bodies as they ran faster and faster in an ever expanding circle until, finally, they collapsed in a heap, too exhausted to move. Laura lay there panting heavily. Her ecstacy of the moment blanked out her memory of the letter that she had mailed that afternoon during a fit of desperation. It read:
"Help me please! I'm into black magic too deeply now and I'm afraid that I'll never get out. We're going too far… our Lord wants us to give him humans now, no more animals. I don't want to, but I can't turn back! It seems to be my whole life. I saw the wolf in the mirror again. He said that I would live only a little while longer. What can I do? I don't want to die! Help me!"
The coven continues with their grisly rites. They worship the evil which they called upon, never will they control it for they are no longer in control of themselves. In each, in the hidden recesses of their mind, a subconcious voice rebels and, unheard, screams in agony, "Someone, please someone, deliver us from this evil!"
CHAPTER XIII
The Case Of Douglas Dean
The secret church files of the case on which "The Exorcist" is based are open to very few people. One of those allowed to see them is Ed Warren, a demonologist, who is considered a leading expert on ghosts and spirits and who has investigated a number of alleged possessions. Warren has read the testimony by the many doctors and priests who were part of the "Exorcist" case.
To get a report of what those confidential files contain, I went to Ed Warren's home one warm, moonless night last summer. The house was shrouded by heat mists sifting down from the Connecticut hills. It seemed isolated, solitary. Inside the air was cool, almost chilly, despite the
summer heat. The soft fire-red glow of living room lights crept across crevices in dark wood walls. A strange mood - some warning vibrations -hit me but I shook it off as overactive imagination.
"You are being subjected to very bad vibrations in this house," Warren warned me at the door, "because below this level is a ceremonial room where magic is performed and where my collection of satanic articles is kept. Their vibrations affect this whole house.
With that cheerful introduction Warren ushered me into a chair, assuring me that I was in no danger if I would follow his instructions. I promised, crossed my fingers, turned on the tapr recorder, and asked him about demons.
"There is not one iota of doubt in my mind that devils and demons exist," Warren began. "They walk the earth only through possession of the physical body of a human being, when a person no longer has power over his body- the enemy just takes over. Spirits also appear through oppression, by telling a person what to do. Oppression occurs the moment someone gets the idea to delve into any kind of supernatural activity - using a Ouija board, holding seances, or practicing ESP. These activities are invitations to malign spirits, and to eventual possession by those spirits.
"I want you to understand, by the way," Warren said to me, "that because you are writing about this, you are already under oppression."
The words set the ends of my hair tingling. Bits of perspiration broke out on my back. For a moment, I considered dropping the whole subject. But if I went back without a story, I'd have a hard time explaining why. The choice was simple -demons or unemployment.
So I sat on the edge of my chair, kept my skepticism handy, and asked Warren to tell me about the case on which the story of "The Exorcist" is based, the possession of a boy to whom the Church has given the fictitious name of Douglas Dean. Warren's account is based upon his reading of Church records and is repeated here just as he told it to me.
The terror began for Douglas Dean on January 15, 1949, in Mount Rainier, Maryland. He was 14 when possession began, and the demons were invited in, we think, by his parents and aunt. They had used a Ouija board to contact the spirit world.
The first indications were scratching sounds in the house-in floorboards, ceilings, and walls. The family blamed mice and called in exterminators, which of course did no good.
Then the boy began levitating. Sitting quietly in a chair, he would suddenly be transported across the room. He'd lie in a bed that would then lift slowly into the air. Bed sheets rose as if they had been heavily starched.
At first, everyone thought the incidents were funny. But suddenly Douglas started yelling in foreign languages and screaming obscenities at his family.
At that point the thoroughly frightened parents called in their Lutheran minister. He suggested that Douglas be taken to Georgetown University, a Catholic school in Washington, D.C., run by Jesuit priests who had studied cases of diabolical possession. That advice was the first warning to the family that something supernatural had happened.
At Georgetown, Douglas was placed under observation in the university hospital. Priests wanted to see if there were physical causes for the boy's actions. Numerous doctors went over every inch of his body. Psychiatrists tried to talk to him. None of the doctors could find any medical reason for the weird occurrences. Testimony from these experts ife in the Church files as part of the evidence that possession did take place.
The symptoms became increasingly worse. Douglas described details of historical events he couldn't possibly have experienced. He also showed precognition by talking about events in the future.
He described places the demons took him, giving accurate details to prove he had been there. I can't tell you where they were or describe them, because if you knew, the demons could get you. Priests at Georgetown concluded that the astral, or spiritual body of the child had been taken elsewhere by the demons, since his physical body stayed in the room at all times.
Douglas continued talking i
n foreign languages to priests who questioned him in French, Latin, and Italian. Sometimes he even corrected their pronunciation.
He could levitate objects into the air and move them around. Once, when his mother called a priest at Georgetown, the possessed boy made the phone table explode in front of her through a process in which a high-pitched, inaudible sound makes things shatter.