Читать книгу Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Darkside - Brad Steiger - Страница 29

Paranormal researcher and author Angela Thomas is also executive co-producer and co-host of the P.O.R.T.A.L. Paranormal Talk Radio Show (http://www.oct13baby.com/). In this eerie account, she shares an encounter with a demonic entity which at first assumed the form of a black dog. Historically, as many readers are aware, the Black Dog specter has been commonly linked with haunting phenomenon and often as a precursor to werewolf or vampiric activity. The following is in Angela Thomas’s words.

The sun was setting when I arrived at the strange house my grandparents now called home. The house was nothing compared to the two-story, farm house they moved from that sat on two hundred acres nestled near the only lake in the area. It was plain with wide, white planks that resembled every other house on Second Street in Bloomfield, Indiana. There was something eerily different about it. I wanted to leave, and I should have left, but the others with me would not have understood. An uninviting aura surrounded the house, and it appeared to have a life of its own.

I quickly dismissed the thoughts when we were shuffled in the house, and led directly into the bedrooms we were to sleep in that night. Nothing looked unusual in the bedroom that my sister Sandy and I were to share except an antique, cast iron crib that had been passed down through several generations to my grandmother.

The rest of the evening was spent listening to my grandmother chatter about the move into town, and how my grandfather had taken ill shortly thereafter. He was not present in the living room among relatives. Instead he lay ill on his bed. The bedroom door was open, and I could see him lying there almost lifeless. The doctors have no explanation. “He has been like this for awhile,” my grandmother said. As she continued to speak, I saw what I thought was a large, black dog passing in front of my grandfather’s bed.

“When did you start bringing a large dog into the house?” I asked. I was concerned. After all, it was out of character for her to permit a large animal in the house. “We don’t have a dog. We gave all of the animals away before we moved here,” she explained.

I knew I had seen something in front of his bed, and I quickly followed the path of where I thought this “dog” had gone. I searched every room—nothing. Making my way back into the living room, I noticed the lights had dimmed, and the room seemed filled with a foggy haze. The lights blinked bright again.

“It’s an old house,” Grandmother said, looking directly at me. She must have sensed how uncomfortable the entire house made me. Her explanation, I assumed, was to reassure me that nothing was wrong with the lights, but I had a feeling her words meant a little more than the mere wiring functions of an old place. Old places typically did not bother me. In fact, I had an affinity to all things old. Perhaps it was due to my own intuitive sensitivity that made such things inviting.

For several years, I had experienced unusual things, and a special knowing which I automatically thought others shared. Holding items, touching walls and expecting things to happen before they happened were part of my abilities, but there was no control then, or any way for me to alter my experiences. If I had touched the walls within the old house, I may have known what would soon change my life, and influence my perceptions of the world.

In the true werewolf folklore, those cursed to become werewolves actually shape shift into the creature and do not become a wolfman—half human, half wolf (illustration by Dan Allen).

The feeling in the pit of my stomach was sensing fear, and yet nothing in the bedroom alerted me to anything abnormal. Two double beds with a nightstand in between them, a small desk, and the antique crib were all that filled the room. A small Gerber doll rested on the inside of the crib. I had not noticed it earlier. My sister who had traveled with me was already sleeping in the bed next to mine. By this time, I was eager for sleep to come. Sleep would be welcomed if nothing more than to relieve the feelings of the place.

Sleep would not come. I tossed and turned until I finally settled to the right side of the bed. The moonlight fell into the room providing the only source of light. Suddenly, a loud noise echoed from the other side of the room. Sitting up, I glanced in the direction of the crib, and saw a shadow of a large dog with its back hunched over. It appeared to be vomiting, and the noise coming from it was nothing like I had ever heard.

“Sandy, get up!” I called to my sister. No response. The dog was between the bed she was sleeping in and the wall that the crib was butted up against.

“Sandy,” I said loudly, but she did not hear me. I tried screaming, but nothing would come out. In a split second, the animal was beside my bed. I saw its shadow and heard the same noise coming from it as I had heard before. A rank odor filled the air. By this time, I felt light-headed, and paralyzed with fear. The moonlight crossed its face, and then I knew it was not a dog. It was a demon!

Its face was twisted and resembled half-man, half-beast. Instantly, I began to pray to God. Recalling the scriptures, I began to telepathically command the demon to leave:

In the name of Jesus, I command you to leave this place! The demon was still there. Hours seemed to pass, but I was relentless in prayer. The demon was inches from me and seemed to torture me with its presence. At one point, laughter filled the room, its sound bouncing from one corner to the next above me. With all of my conviction, I drowned out the sound with prayer in my head, and I closed my eyes so I would not see the demon any longer. Prayer was my only concern, my deepest conviction.

All at once, I heard my voice speak out loud, commanding the demon to leave. Opening my eyes, I saw that the demon was gone, and I could see the light from the sun coming up outside. With the light of day, I felt rescued. I jumped up, headed for the door, and looked back into the room to make sure it was no longer there. I was startled. There on the bed was the Gerber doll that had been in the crib the night before.

With my sister still sleeping, I tip-toed into the kitchen, and put on a pot of coffee. From the corner of my eye, I saw something moving. It was my grandfather making his way to the kitchen table. He was weak, but there was color and life in his face.

“I had a dream about you,” he said. “You were fighting with a dog that was trying to eat me alive.”

I tried screaming, but nothing would come out. In a split second, the animal was beside my bed.

Although I wanted to tell him desperately about the demon, I did not. He was too ill. It was not long before the others began to make their way into the kitchen, and the subject turned to breakfast.

Over the next couple of days, my grandfather gained strength, and sat with the family. We talked about God, hope, prayer and the ways of the world. Little did he know how my world had changed dramatically right there in his home. I no longer looked at the world the same way. There was definitely evil among us, and by the grace of God, I was spared from it. My prayers that night spared him, too.

As I was packing, my grandmother came into the bedroom carrying a small, wooden trunk. She unlocked it, and pulled out the Gerber doll and the clothes that she had made for it. She was proud of it, and said she thought it looked identical to the Gerber baby on the cereal box.

“Where’s the other one?” I asked looking around to see if it was back in the crib.

She matter-of-factly stated, “I have just one, and I keep it under lock and key so nothing happens to it. It’s a collectible!”

I told her that I had seen it in the crib the first night there, but she just shook her head, and told me it was impossible. It didn’t take long for me to gather up the rest of the family, and drive away. Looking into the rear view mirror, I saw my grandfather standing there waving one last, long good-bye. A part of me wanted to go back, and ask him what he had experienced while he was so ill, but I kept driving. A sense of relief came over me knowing he had been released from the bonds of evil that had brought him to the brink of death. As I rounded the corner, I waved back. We never saw each other again.

The young woman claimed to be possessed by the spirit of a wolf.