The Schuylkill Haunting

The following is my family's documentation of the spiritual battle we have been induring in our home in Schuylkill County for the past year. Until now, we have been reluctant with sharing this with anyone other than those close to us, but now felt it was time to share our experiences with others. Please keep us in your prayers.

Introduction

As the oldest of 5 boys, our childhood was like most others. We played in the woods, climbed trees, and we even dared each other to see who was brave enough to jump off from the roof of our father's barn. We were always getting into trouble, whether it was jumping off of bridges or running from a local farmer's dogs who caught us eating some of their berries. They were the typical child-hood adventures that most families laugh about years later at family gatherings. But, not all of our child-hood memories can be looked at as typical.

Hardly spoken of now were the events that had frightened us in our younger years. Stories of a child-hood house in New Jersey that our father had bought for his growing family. We all remember times when we had seen shadow-figures running down hallways or past doors or windows. Often taunting us, letting us know that it was there, but never long enough for us to actually see what it was.

This shadowy figure became so common in our home that we had even gave it a name… the Specter. For years it would frighten us, especially when we were home alone. Could it had been children's imagination getting the best of them? Maybe… but then again, how could we all have had memories of the same entity always running past us when we least expected it.

As the years had gone by, we moved from that house, and soon the Specter had become nothing more than a memory. We grew up, and eventually had families of our own. Life for our kids appeared to be normal, like most other families. That is, until we moved to a house in New Boston.

A New Beginning

At last the day arrived. We were moving into our new home after being displaced due to a house fire the autumn before. We had lost everything… that is, all except for 3 things: a bible, a statue of the Blessed Virgin, and a portrait of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each were against the very wall where the blaze had penetrated our home, and yet miraculously survived with only minor smoke damage.

After the fire, my father traveled to Pennsylvania to help us locate a new home. Eventually we located a home and purchased it off of eBay for a mere $7,000… a total steal, except for the fact that the house was condemned and was in very bad shape. None-the-less, we purchased the house and by the summer of 2009 (and months of renovations and a blessing from our local priest) we were finally moving in and ready to turn this house into a home.

As the years progressed, it soon became apparent that something was amiss in this new house of ours. At times the children would tell us of a woman they would sometimes see in the windows watching them as they played in the yard. Other times my wife Amy would confide to me about the sounds of footsteps above her when she would go in the basement to wash the laundry.

We decided it was time to have the house blessed again after my wife refused to go into the basement anymore. She insisting that she heard one of our children call her. The problem with this was that all 4 children were at school for the day and she was home alone.

Indeed, our new home had its share of spooky occurrences. But never did we really feel that we were in any real danger… at least, not until the summer of 2013.

The Unwanted Guest

Five years had passed since that horrible fire swept thou our lives. Our children were entering their teen years now and our life appeared to had returned to normal. It was summer, 2013, and my wife and I were enjoying a quiet evening together. We sat to watch a documentary about a family whose lives were turned upside down after one of their boys had dabbled into Satanism. I felt such sorrow for the family as the show portrayed the events they went thou. It started out of curiosity, but eventually took on a life of its own as the dark powers demanded more from the child. Horrible memories swept through my mind reminding me of how as a child I was lured into the occult so many years earlier. I quietly grabbed the cross from around my neck, reminding myself how the Lord had rescued me from the occult so long ago.

The story continued. At one point the child revealed how he was introduced to the occult. The show abruptly turned to a re-enactment as the child described what he was doing. Caught off guard, we found ourselves momentarily watching what this child's ritual consisted of: pentagrams, candles and satanic chanting. It almost appears to be too accurate.

Instantly my wife and I sat right up. Something was wrong, horribly wrong, as if someone had entered the room with us just outside of our sight. The momentary silence was broken when, without turning her head, Amy asked is something had just entered into the room. I hesitated to reveal to her that I had the same premonition. In my heart, I knew that this ritual we unexpectedly watched was a more accurate portrayal of a satanic ritual than it should had been for a TV show. Naively we changed the channel in an effort to dispel the strange feelings we had just experienced.

A few days later we invited some guests to our home, our niece and nephew from New Jersey, Nick and Shyann. Six children under one roof for an entire week, we knew we were in for a tough few days, but nothing would prepare us for what was about to begin.

As night fell on their first evening with us, laughter and games gave way to yawns and exhaustion. And in our house we have a simple rule: all kids upstairs after 9pm. As the children settled into their rooms Amy and I relaxed in the living room discussing the plans for the next day. A piercing scream broke the silence, echoing through the house. Leaping to our feet, we ran up the stairs to find Brooke leaping out of her room onto the floor in terror protecting her head from an unseen assailant. From within the bedroom shrieks of horror melded into sobbing as Shyann hid herself under her covers. A quick glance around the room revealed nothing out of the ordinary, all was where it was supposed to be. Gradually we calmed the girls enough where they were able to explain what had happened.

According to them, they were laying on their bed watching television when they took notice to an odd shadow at the upper corner near them. They curiously watched as this shadow slowly moved away from the corner along the wall toward the doorway. As it stopped, it stretched, taller and wider, until it began to take the shape of a person. Then, to their horror, it began to come off the wall. Without a second thought, my daughter ran right past it, out the door into the hallway, leaving her cousin to fend for herself. And as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.

Although no further disturbances had occurred for the remainder of the week, the kid's never returned.

As the summer gave way to the cool breezes of autumn, the disturbances continued to escalate. Several evenings each week our daughter would run down the stairs frightened because of voices in her room. Night after night my wife and I would inspect the bedroom, but never heard anything, that was, until we began recording them. After numerous attempts to find the source of the sounds (and questioning our daughter's own sanity) my wife had decided to use our cell phones to records the silence. In one instance the silence was broken by the whispers of a young boy claiming “I have a secret”. We were a gasp as we were finally forced to concede that our daughter was in-fact hearing someone talking in her bedroom.

Over the following few weeks, we often would find Brooke the following morning sleeping at the foot of her brother's beds, refusing to sleep in her own room. It was obvious that a form of depression was beginning to take its hold onto her that she refused to talk about. After numerous attempts, she finally revealed to me that she was too frightened to sleep in her room anymore because the whispers had been replaced by a man standing in her room at night. At first she thought it was me standing in her room in the dark watching her, but quickly realized that it was not.

She exclaimed that this man would wake her almost every night. He would tell her horrible things that she was not allowed to repeat to us or he would hurt us all. He usually appeared in a business-like suit, but his eyes were completely black and frightening. It had become apparent that whatever this thing was, it was attracted to our little girl.

Soon Christmas had come and past, and yet the occurrences continued, increasing as the weeks went by, always centered around that one bedroom. One evening, shortly before New Years, I found Brooke on the staircase terrified at something and refusing to make a sound. She kept peeking through a doorway into our kitchen and then hurriedly back away. I walked up to her and quietly ask what was wrong. She trembled as she asked me if I seen the little girl in the kitchen. Looking around, there was no one downstairs but the two of us. I shrugged my head toward her: "sweaty, there is no one in the kitchen". She peaked again and quickly backed away. "She's sitting next to the oven. She's looking at us, but she doesn't have eyes."

I decided I was going to try something. Using my adjacent hand away from my daughter's view, I slowly made the sign of the cross in the direction my daughter said she seen the entity. Instantly, she peaked back in the kitchen and began looking around. "It's gone" she exclaimed, confused as to where it went. I, on the other hand, realized exactly what it was… a demon.

Demonic Oppression

With the start of the new year, we had decided that we would begin documenting the disturbances in our home. The following is a culmination of what our family had endured during the year 2014:

January 8th, 6:00pm
Amy was cooking dinner for the family when suddenly a black figure appeared next to her and flew above her and out of site.

January 9th, 1:00pm
Amy had woken up from a horrible nightmare. In her dream she was holding a baby when suddenly an invisible force tried to pull the child from her arms. It was so real to her that she woke up terrified that her assailant was still attacking her. As she tried to calm herself from the night-terror, she began hearing a vibrating sound coming from the floor above us, from the children's room. Quietly she made her way upstairs to investigate. All the lights were out and children were still asleep in their beds, but the vibration continued. As she crept near Tyler's room, she found Ty's vibrating chair had suddenly turned on by itself. A sense of terror filled the room as she felt that she was not the only one standing there. She remained awake for almost an hour before being able to calm down enough to fall back to sleep.

January 10th, 8:00am
Amy woke the kids up for school, but noticed that Brooke was not in her room. Searching from room to room she finally found her sleeping in her brother's bed. Waking her up, Brooke said "Mom, you woke me up in the middle of the night and told me to go sleep in Vincent's bed." Perplexed, Amy told her that she never woke up last night and would never tell her to go into someone else's bed for no reason. (Amy doesn't sleepwalk either.)

January 13th, middle of the night
Mitchel explained to us that in the middle of the night he woke up to go to the bathroom. When he had passed by the stairwell he heard a lady calling his name. Frightened, he asked who was calling him, but no response. He hurried his way back to the safety of his bed.

January 14, 10:25pm
As I was in the basement doing laundry, I heard Brooke yelling "Dad, are you down there?" I said "yes", when she instantly ran back up the stairs in almost a panic. I followed her to the kid's rooms to see what was the matter. Frightened, she exclaimed that she had seen me standing in front of Tyler as he laid asleep in his bed, staring at him. She went downstairs to ask her mom why I was up there, but was startled when she told her that I was in the basement. After she heard me down there, she had ran as fast as she could back to Tyler's room to make sure he was ok.

*Note: Amy and I had just gotten into an argument a few minutes earlier for no real reason. It just seemed as if the there was tension in the air.

-20 minutes later
Amy and I were downstairs when Brooke came walking down the stairs. She asked why we were calling for her. We explained that we didn't call her and sent her back to bed. As she walked up the stairs, she let out a scream. We ran up the stairs, finding her kneeled down on the staircase holding her head. Through her cries she insisted that someone had just brushed their hand through her hair and she even felt their fingers touch her.

January 18th, 11:00pm
All children were asleep. Amy was sitting in the living room as I worked on my computer. As I was typing, I suddenly heard Tyler upstairs. "Mom" he called. A moment later, and he called her again, more stern this time. "Amy, Ty is calling you" I said as I turned toward her. She went upstairs, and then called back down to me. "No one is awake up here" she said. I followed her up the stairs because I myself heard him calling her, and it was not a sleepy call from someone who was asleep, but was someone right at the top of the stairs. To my surprise, he was just as she had said, asleep in his bedroom.

January 22nd, during the night
During the night, Brooke found herself woken by Vincent. He quietly whispered "he's here" and then walked out of her room. Frightened, she rushed out of her bedroom to her brother's bed. In the morning, Vincent insisted he never woke her up.

January 23rd, 8:30pm
As Brooke was taking a shower, a burn began to streak down her leg. As she got out, she found 3 long scratches down her inner-left leg.

February 8th, 9:00am
Last night Amy and I had gotten into a very bad argument. Oddly enough, it wasn’t even something worth fighting over, and the argument should never had gotten as bad as it did. In the midst of us arguing, Amy found a small stone cross laying on the floor. She picked it up and placed it on the coffee table before heading to bed. I myself slept in the dog-house, aka the couch, and my daughter slept with her mom.

In the morning Amy woke me up to show me what they had found. Under Brooke's pillow was the cross Amy had found the night before, broken in 3 pieces. Having our senses again, we both wondered if this was a sign as to who, or what, was causing us to argue so badly.

*Over the next 4 weeks we repeatedly came home to find our house light all on when-ever we left. And in the middle of the night we would often wake up to find Brooke's TV on. More frightening though was how our hanging house plants would randomly swing in circles as we sat as a family with no logical explanation. We searched for every possible explanation, from slamming doors to jumping in the floors above, we ran past them and even walked up and down the stair case, but we could never get any of the plants to sway. Day after day this occurred with no explanation.

February 26th, 10:00am
Brooke laid in her bed sick today. Amy, keeping her distance so not to catch her cold, stayed downstairs. The silence of the morning was broken when Brooke ran down the stairwell gasping for air. Through her tears she explained how, as she laid in bed, something she couldn't see pinned her arms down and began to choke her. Unable to move, she feared she was going to loose consciousness, when suddenly it released her.

March 8th, 9:00pm
We had a guest stay the night. My oldest son's best friend Jay was well aware of what had been happening in our home, but had decided he would try to be brave for my son and stay the night. In the evening he began his normal routine that he always did when he slept over, he'd begin harassing Brooke. As he teased her about a show she was watching, from the corner of the bedroom a purse flung itself at him, startling both of them. (How quickly his bravery vanished.)

March 9th, 11:00-11:30pm
It was a war-zone tonight. Before heading to bed, Amy had gone upstairs to check on the kids when she noticed that Brooke's television was left on. Turning it off, she went into the bathroom to prepare for bed. As she left the room, she noticed that Brooke's TV was on once again. Turning it off, she came down stairs to inform me what had happened. We decided that we did not want her sleeping in that room tonight, and so I went up to the kid's rooms to move her. As I approached her bedroom, I realized that her TV was on, again, and this time it was much louder. I quickly moved her into her brother's bedroom and turned everything off. All else appeared quiet, so I went down to my wife.

As we sat back down, the silence was broken by a sudden crash from the kid's bedroom. We ran up to the boy's room and found the closet door had been tossed into the middle of the room. The kids all sat up in shock as to what had happened. (The closet door was not anchored properly due to a broken hinge, but it had never fallen out of the closet before.) We re-assured the kids that it had just fallen and, picking it back up, I wedged it into the closet to ensure that it wouldn't simply fall out.

We had hardly gotten down the stairwell when again another crash rang through the house. The kids huddled in their covers as we entered to find the closet door jammed against the window and through the screen. The kids each insisted that the door simply came out of the closet on its own.

It was obvious that fear was in their eyes, so we decided to move all the kids downstairs for the night. Only our oldest son Mitchel insisted that he wanted to stay in his bed. (The idea of 4 kids huddled on a single pull-out couch didn't sound appealing to him.) As we left him, I turned on the bathroom light for him in the hopes that the little bit of light would somehow offer him some protection.

As I headed down the stairs, Brooke needed to use the bathroom, so Amy followed behind her up the stairs. As they made their way up the staircase, Brooke abruptly stopped. There, at the top of the stairs, was one of Brooke's snow globes from her bedroom. Her voice trembled as she asked "why is that there?" since no one ever touches her globe collection. And I being the last person down the steps just a moment earlier, I knew it was not there when I came down the stairs. And Mitchel had not gotten out of his bed at all.

Amy and I both followed Brooke to the bathroom and stood outside the door. As she was walking out of the bathroom, a glass cup that had been sitting on the sink flew just past her head, smashing into the bathroom door throwing glass all over.

We quickly got her and Mitchel down stairs with the rest of the kids. Fear had gripped our entire family. Unable to protect ourselves, we resorted to the one thing we should had started with, prayer. We prayed the 'Our Father' and 'Hail Mary' together as we tried to regain control of the shaking in our voices. Silence fell once again upon the house. All except for the swaying of a plant.

The following are pictures from this night.

Brooke's snow globe found at the top of steps after we fled down stairs.

Where we found Mitchel's closet door after we moved Brooke into her brother's bed.

Glass on ground after being thrown across room.

March 10th
This morning we sent the kids to school, although it was obvious that no one had slept. I myself took off from work, and we called our local priest asking if he would bless our house immediately. Despite having only 1 hour of sleep, we spent all morning cleaning each room. By 11:30am Father Gallagher arrived and went from room to room blessing them. After he had left, Amy and I sat down in the living room, wondering whether the blessing would remove this horrible entity or embolden it. As we laid down to rest from the night before, we noticed one of the hanging plants once again spinning on its own.

Soon the kids came home from school and Brooke went up to her room. A moment later she came down asking who had messed her room up so badly. Puzzled, we told her that we had cleaned her room just a little earlier. Entering in her room we found that everything was thrown about. Makeup equipment pulled out of their cases, cleaning towels pulled from their bottle, clothing and covers yanked from where they were. Fear swelled up in Amy as she wondered if the blessing worked. As for me, anger began to fill me. How dare this thing destroy her bedroom after I spent an hour cleaning it!

After I cleaned her bedroom in preparation for the house blessing.

After Brooke went upstairs to get her things before going to babysit our neighbor.

The things along the ground were in containers on her little dresser. Makeup tools were pulled out of their cases, cleaning towls pulled out of their bottle, clothes and covers were yanked off of her bed and out of her dresser.

March 11th, 10:30pm
As Amy left the bathroom, a pungent odor hammered her senses. It was a horrible sent like rotting egg or rotting flesh. The smell moved away from her and then passed by Mitchel sitting his room before vanishing.

Since most of the occurrences appeared to be centered around our daughter and her bedroom, we had decided to reveal this problem to one of our neighbors, asking them if she could stay at their house for a few night. Fortunately they were understanding and let her stay for a few nights.

March 12th, 9:00pm
Brooke needed to use the bathroom, but after all that had occurred the past few days, she was too frightened to go upstairs alone. So I went up with her and stood guard outside the bathroom door. While standing there, I took notice to a photo on the floor that was originally hung on Brooke's bedroom wall. It was a picture of a birthday party a few months earlier, but Brooke's face had been scratched out of the photo. We questioned everyone in the house, but it quickly became obvious that it was none of the kids in the house.

Calming Brooke down, we walked her to our neighbor to stay the night.

Image with Brooke's face scratched out.

March 14th, 6:30pm
Today I had secretly completed a 3-day fast, eating only bread and water when-ever possible. Once completed, I quietly went upstairs to pray, asking Jesus if he would grant me permission to command the spirit in our home under his name and authority. After asking for permission, I then commanded that the spirit that had terrorized my family for the past few months to be brought before me. Waiting a moment, I then said the one thing the spirit would not expect me to say… "I forgive you." I then commanded, in Jesus' name, that it leave our home and not return. I concluded by thanking and praising Jesus for his mercy and goodness.

There was no visible evidence that anything had changed, but there was a sense of peace that had been absent in my home for so long.

March 16th, 1:00pm
We had sent Mitchel into the basement to change the laundry. A moment later he ran as quickly as he could back up the stairs, leaving the laundry behind. Insisting that he was not going back down there, we calmed him down enough to ascertain that while he was switching the laundry, he suddenly heard someone whisper into his ear. Although he couldn't make out what it said, it frightened him enough that he dropped everything and ran.

March 25th, 11:00am
While I was at work, the coal stove went out at home. The temperature quickly began to drop, so Amy asked if I could come home to relight it, but due to various deadlines I was responsible for, I couldn't leave. Unexplained anger erupted from her, cursing and screaming uncontrollably. Later on she explained that it felt like something else was inside her and was not sure why she was even getting angry. She repeatedly called my cell just to scream and hang up again, but only returned to her senses when one time she dial my number, but instead of me picking up the phone, she heard a deep, frightening voice on the phone. Although she couldn't make out what it was saying, it scared her to her senses.

March 27th, 1:00pm
Amy had gotten a phone call from the school today and felt she needed to pick Brooke up and bring her home. Before leaving, she went through her normal routine of ensure that all lights and heaters were turned off. But upon returning, all the upstairs light were once again on. Surprise, surprise. (sigh…)

March 30th, 9:30pm
A half hour after putting the kids in bed, Brooke came down insisting that she didn't want to sleep in her room tonight. She explained that there was a horrible odor in her room, similar to rotten eggs or decaying meat, emanating from behind her. Amy and I turned to each other, knowing what the other was thinking. We didn't tell her that the same thing happened just a few days earlier, nor the fact that such odors are often a sign of the demonic. (Lord I hope it's not that.) To reassure her that there was a logical explanation, we asked her to take any dirty dishes out of her room and that should get rid of any odors As she went back to her room, Amy and I looked at each other knowing that it was not dishes that had caused the odor.

March 31st, 8:30pm
This evening Brooke took a bowl of blueberries to her room to snack on. After realizing she forgot something of hers outside, she left her bowl on the bed and ran outside to get it. But upon returning, the bowl of blueberries were missing. She asked her brothers if any of them had taken her blueberries, but they were all busy playing videogames. After searching, she eventually found the bowl hidden inside her dresser.

April 23rd, 9:30pm
The boys were in their bedroom watching TV when suddenly Brooke leaped into their room startled. She exclaimed that as she was laying in her bed, a man entered her room. He was an old man with a grayish beard and a dark suit on. His eyes were solid black and, although he didn't say a word, he stood there staring at her. She was so frightened that she leaped out of her bed and down the hallway to her brother's room. Once again, she was not going to be sleeping in her room.

April 24th, 11:00pm
This evening I was working on the next update to my website, when suddenly I heard a crash form upstairs. Instantly Mitchel began yelling for me. Entering his room I found Mitchel on the top of his bunk bed and the closet door laying on the floor. I reassured him that everything was ok as I picked it up and placed it back into the closet. As I put it back where it belonged, I decided to wedge it in the closet in such a way that it would have to be physically picked up and yanked out in order to get it out of the closet.

I had hardly sat back down at the computer when again I heard a loud bang. Mitchel began yelling that the closet door was trying to come out of the closet again. Upon returning, I found Mitchel sitting up frightened in his bed as he pointed to the door. I waited for 10 minutes, but no further movement occurred.

Brooke had woken up from the commotion and came into the bedroom to see what was going on. Frightened, she laid in bed with her younger brother. Again I waited for 10 minutes to see if anything else would occur. But as soon as I stepped out of the bedroom, "BANG", the other closet door rattled on its hinges.

As I stood in the hallway for the next few minutes waiting for the next crashing sound, I noticed that some kind of fluttering shadow kept appearing from behind me, but when ever I looked, I found nothing out of the ordinary.

May 17th, 2:45pm
It was a beautiful day, so I had decided I was going to plant a lilac bush in our front yard. As I was tending to my garden, Amy rushed outside. She said that as she was sitting in the living room, she suddenly heard Brooke say "Mom" from the next room. The only problem though was the fact that Brooke was at a friend's house for the day.

The door was thrown out of the closet.
(Excuse the mess. Kids were cleaning, but didn't get very far before bed time.)

June 8th, 3:30am
I was awaken as Brooke entered our bedroom. She was frightened because as she was sleeping, she was suddenly woken up by a whisper insisting that she needed to wake up. She thought it was Vincent at first, but quickly realized that Vinnie was asleep in his own bedroom. As I went to her room to investigate, I found her TV was on, but with the volume off. She said that she thought I turned it on, but I told her that every night before I go to bed I turn off her TV and turn on the lights in the bathroom as a nightlight for her. And tonight was no different.

For tonight, I asked her to go and sleep with her younger brother in their room.

August 13th
The past few months have been quiet, but we feel it's because no one has been sleeping in Brooke's bedroom lately. During the summer months Brooke has done everything she could to sleep at her friend's houses. In fact, she has been gone so often that it's weird when she's home for the night. And although we miss her, we know that this break from the nightly disturbances was exactly what she needed.

Unfortunately, for the past 2 days we have heard unexplained knocking, as if someone was knocking 3 times. Every time we heard the knocks, our dogs would begin barking at the front door, but no one was there. It wasn't the door though that was being knocked, but something made of solid wood. We never found what was making the knocking sounds.

-11:30pm
Tonight Brooke was home and had gone to bed early. As I checked on the kids, I found Brooke's TV still on. So I turned it off and went to bed. By 3:30am Amy had woken up to use the bathroom and found Brooke's TV was again on. She turned it off and went to bed. As soon as morning came, we found that the TV was once again on.

August 18th
Almost every night for the past week we have found Brooke's television on after we had turned it off before going to bed. So this time we decided to try an experiment to prove whether or not it was Brooke turning the TV on in the middle of the night. Once Brooke was asleep, we quickly raised the volume of the TV to 100% and then turned it off. Then, we put duct tape over the TV's controls and then smoothed a layer of silly putty over the tape. The idea was that if she tried to turn the TV on in her sleep, she would leave her finger prints in the silly putty, and the blaring TV would wake me up so I could quickly investigate the silly putty for indents. (I tested this to ensure that there was no way of turning the television on without leaving a mark.) And to ensure that there was nothing else cause the TV to turn on, we plugged it into a surge protector, removed the batteries from her remote, and put black electrical tape over the TV's sensor.

To my surprise, my plan worked perfectly. AT 5:30 in the morning I was woken by the blaring volume of her television. I ran as quickly as I could to her room, but found Brooke still sleeping despite the loud noise. Inspecting the putty, there was not a single mark on it. It was the same as how I left it.

October 11th, 10:30pm
It was Saturday evening, and I was developing the new version of my website as Amy sat in the living room and Vincent was trying on his new Halloween costume. As I continued typing, I noticed a black figure to the right of me, looking at a rosary that I had hanging on the wall. I thought it was Vincent so I ignored it at first. But then, the rosary fell off its hook landing on the ground as the figure vanished. Turning to the rosary, I noticed that it wasn't Vincent because he was still behind me.

October 28th, 3:30am
As usually, Amy had gotten up to use the bathroom when she found Brooke's TV on again. This has become such a common occurrence that we simply just turn it off now without thinking much more of it, and tonight she did the same thing before going into the bathroom. But, as she was in there, she suddenly heard the TV turn back on, but then Brooke's phone began playing music as well, something it had never done before. All she could think to herself was "well, this is new".

Conclusion

Although most of the disturbances have subsided, we still at times see things occurring. The television continues to turn on, especially if the bathroom light is not left on. Items periodically vanish for a time, just to reappear right where they were originally. And our dogs will, at times, begin barking at a wall or a corner, as if warding off something we ourselves cannot see.

We still live in the same house despite the insistence from close friends and family that we should had moved a long time ago. (Affording a house that can fit 4 children and 2 adults can be pretty difficult on a single income.) But through it all we have learned the importance of praying together as a family, especially for protection, and being sensitive to each others fears when wandering through the house, especially at night. Fear still creeps in when we least expect it, but every night I pray for Saint Michael to send a battalion of angels to our home to protect our family and neighbors, and through their help we find the nights to go a little more peaceful, because we know that we are being watch over by some powerful friends.

A Final Note:

As I was finishing this documentary, I was suddenly interrupted by someone calling me from upstairs. I went to find out who had called me, but found only Mitchel still awake. He said that it was Brooke calling me, and that she was whispering for him just a moment earlier, but he was in bed and didn't want to answer her. I closed my eyes for a moment and, with a quiet sigh, I turned to him and said, "Brooke isn't home tonight Mitch. She's sleeping at a friend's house." For the record, it's 12:30 at night, October 31st, 2014… Halloween.

Occurrences Since Writing this Documentary

December 22nd, 2014
For the past few months everything had been quiet. But last night my wife woke up and swore that someone was standing at the foot of our bed watching me angrily, his arms crossed in front of him. As quickly as she shook herself awake to see who it was, the man vanished.

In the morning we woke up to our home being semi-cold.  We found Brooke's bedroom window wide open.  (We know it was not her because she NEVER opens her window, even in the summer when it's too hot to sleep in her room. Yet she and her friend woke up this morning to a very cold room. Very strange.

*Note: Tonight was the first night we had a consecrated chalice in our home.  Our church allows families in our parish to bring home the chalice for a week and then pass it on to the next family the following sunday.  And this week was our turn.

*Also: The night before Amy had woken me up from a night terror.  I was screaming for her, something I had never done before.  I was dreaming that I was in a house with my dog when suddenly something dark appeared to had invaded my dream.  I found myself being pulled into a dark room by a force I couldn't see, and when I pulled myself out of the room, I found myself covered in blood.  I screamed so loud for my wife that I literally was screaming while I was asleep.  Never before had I experienced something like this that felt so real, I was completely terrified.  My wife noted the time, it was 3:00am.  Coincidence???

December 28th, 2014
This evening Amy and I had gone out to do some grocery shopping, leaving our oldest to watch his siblings. We returned to find out youngest son Vincent shaken. He explained to us that he was watching television alone in the livingroom while everyone else was upstairs.  Suddenly someone began whispering in his hear.  He couldn't make out what it was saying, but the fact that he couldn't see anyone frightened him enough where he bolted up the stairs yelling for his older brother.  Mitchel ran down but found no one else but them downstairs.

June 1st, 2015 @ 7:00pm
I arrived home to find my daughter asleep and my wife cooking dinner. My boys each on their PC, a typical evening. I went outside to cook some steaks on the grill when I began hearing my wife inside talking to the kids. Every few minutes I'd hear her repeat "What?..." and "Who's calling me?...". Over and over I heard this, till finally she yelled out to me to come inside a moment.

As I went inside, I found Amy and my youngest son Vincent together in the kitchen, and something had obviously startled them.

"We have a problem..." my wife began exclaiming. She had my full attention as she tried to calm down. She explained to me that several times someone had called "Mom...." from upstairs. She thought it was Brooke, but every time she went up there, Brooke was asleep. Since her TV was still on, she turned it off, just to be certain it wasn't that.

"Mom...." it again called her. Over and over it called her from the staircase. Repeatedly she yelled back to the kids asking them why they were calling her, but the boys would simply tell her they weren't calling her.

Then, the voice changed. This time, it was Vincent calling her. The only problem, Vincent was right next to her on our home PC in the dining room. "Mom..." the voice called again, but this time it didn't come from upstairs, but from the living room, a part of the house that no one was in and was right across from both of them. At this point Vincent was frightened and Amy called me inside.

As she explained everything to me, Vincent exclaimed that the TV was back on. I went upstairs and found Brooke still asleep, and her TV back on. I also felt the hair on my neck standing on end.

July 28th, 2015 @ 10:15pm
For the second time this month Tyler found himself locked into his bedroom when no one locked him in.  About 2 weeks ago we added a simple sliding bolt lock to the outside of his bedroom door so that he could lock the door when he left to keep the dogs and cats out.  (We have new baby chicks in his room and both the dogs and cats figured out how to open his bedroom door to get to the chick's cage.)  Later that week, just as happened tonight, he was in his bedroom when he found the bolt lock had been slid from the outside locking him in.  We questioned everyone, but just like last time no one had locked the door, and someone had to come to Ty's aid.

July 29th, 2015 @ 10:00am

Things appear to be picking up again, but coincidentally they aren't centring around my daughter any more, but my youngest 2 sons.

This morning my youngest son Vincent was alone upstairs playing games on his computer when suddenly he ran down the stairs and into the living room. Visibly shaken, he insisted he was no longer going to play upstairs by himself. He explained to us that he was playing an online game with his headphones on when he noticed someone was calling him. He took off his headphones and looked to see who was calling him, but no one was around. He continued playing, leaving his headphones off this time, when suddenly he heard Brooke calling from right behind him. The only problem though was that she was not home at the time, and he was all alone upstairs. As he stood up, the PC suddenly shut down. Feeling threatened, he hurried down the stairs to where everyone else was.

August 19th, 2015 @ 5:00pm

Today I was working from home and was just about to go into an on-line meeting when Brooke rushed down the stairs. She exclaimed that as she was sitting on her bed she felt something brush against her back. She thought it was a cat, but turning around she found no animals in her room.

As she was walking away, she felt something bothering her where she was brushed against. We lifted her shirt and found a series of scratch marks down the centre of her back.

While looking into this, Amy informed me that the previous night she swore that Brooke had called her. But, Brooke was not home at the time.

Brooke's back after being scratched.

August 20th, 2015 @ 11:30pm

Tonight was an unsettling night. I was on my computer updating my website when I began feeling something was amiss. I sat up, unable to identify what was wrong.

I decided to go upstairs to Brooke's bedroom to see if I could find what was troubling my spirit. As I entered her room, I began feeling a sense that something was not right. The hair on my arms began to stand on end, and I had a sense that I wasn't alone. I said a prayer and then sat on her bed to wait and see if anything would happen.

After a few minutes, I returned downstairs as Amy began trying to wake Brooke up. (She had fallen asleep on the couch next to her friend and appeared to be having a nightmare.) Amy started shaking her, but as her nightmare appeared to continue Amy became concerned and began shaking her even harder. "Brooke, wake up..." she continued to exclaim.

I turned on the light to see what was going on and notice she was twitching as if she could not wake herself from the nightmare. (It was very frightening to see her doing this.) Amy pulled her up and yelled for me to grab the holy water. Before I could get the holy water, suddenly the twitching stopped and she took a huge deep breath and then began to cry. She explained that she heard us but was unable to move or communicate.

(Her friend was so frightened that she called her mother and had her come to pick her up. I tried to re-assure her that everything was OK and that Brooke was simply struggling with "sleep paralysis", but neither of us really believed that.)

January 28th, 2017 @ 12:30am

It's been a year and a half since we've had any disturbances, but it appears that streak has come to an end.  The past 2 nights the Lord has placed in my path 2 people who profess to be witches.  Attempting to open the door for more dialog, I gave both of them my story about my own conversion from the occults.  One unfortunately never responded, the other said they would pray for me to their god/goddess.  (That's not the words a former witch wants to hear, having horrifying memories of the night the Lord revealed to me the true creature behind the mask of this 'god' and 'goddess'.  It was so angry, seeing what God was doing in me even before I did, that it tried to kill me.)

Well, tonight while I was working late my oldest son came to me and asked why I thru his hat at him.  Puzzled, I explained that I hadn't been in his room and no one else in the house was awake except for the 2 of us.  Apparently while he was laying on his bed watching tv his top-hat he keeps on his desk was thrown at his head.  He never seen who thru it but assumed it might had been me.  

February 6th, 2017 @ 3:48am

Brooke woke up in the middle of the night and found his brother's lights on while everyone was asleep.  Finding it odd since they never leave their light on, she shrugged it off and turned off the light.  As she turned it off, she started hearing someone walking downstairs.  Quietly she peaked down the stairwell into the hallway, but found no one awake.  All was silent again.  Frightened, she ran upstairs and into her bedroom.

The next morning her friend, who was sleeping downstairs on the couch, told her that she was awoken by our dog Precious growling at a corner.  Anoyed, she turned around to go back to sleep, when suddenly she heard multiple footsteps form the floor above her.  She said it sounded like little kids running around.  She was so frightened that she forced herself back to sleep.

*Note: this was the 2nd night in a row that our dog was barking at a corner in the middle of the night.  I have a feeling that spiritual warfare may be brewing in our home again.  I'll be keeping my ears open tonight.

April 25^th, 2017

For the past few days our bedroom window, which we leave open and in fact is very difficult to close, kept not only closing but locking.  Not spooky, but very odd.

April 26^th, 2017

In the middle of the night our dogs repeatedly growled at nothing.  Although we didn't see anything, Amy said she heard a light whistle in her ear.

May 8^th, 2017

Our daughter insisted that last night I had woken her up four times calling her name.  She insisted that I repeatedly said that I would call out "Brooke, Brooke... Wake up..."  When she woke up she found a rosary on her.  I insisted that I neither called her last night nor did I place a rosary on her.

Later that day I was working on the second floor when I heard the puppies crying in the living room.  Brooke was sleeping on the sofa next to the new puppies and heard me come down and calm the pups.  But when she opened her eyes I was not there.  I never came down.

July 8^th, 2021

Over the past few years we have heard various sounds and seen things out of the corner of our eyes, just to find nothing there.  But because we have numerous animals in our home along with neighbors with new children (we live in a duplex), we never could tell if it was really something paranormal or if it was an animal or children next door and so I hadn't added anything as of lately.  But that appears to had changed today.

Last night at around 12:30 at night Vincent anxiously woke us up.  He said that while he was playing on his computer in his bedroom his blanket suddenly dropped to the ground next to him.  It appeared for a moment like a tiny child was under his blankets acting like a ghost before suddenly dropping to the floor flattening itself as it came to a rest.  Quickly he rushed past his blankets, out of his room, and up to our room to tell us what happened.

To Be Added:

Spoke with old friend on phone.  she lives in Fl.  I was asking for prayers for my family.  I then started hearing demonic screams on phone drowning our voices out. I asked if she could hear that and if it was in her home.  she was hearing it, but it wasn't on her end, nor on mine.  Don't remember when this happened, but sure it was summer of 2016 or 2017.

2nd Week of August, 2022

Everyone was asleep.  it was past midnight and I was sitting on the couch with only a single light on while surfing on the web with my laptop on my lap.  Suddenly a series of crashes rang from right underneath me, sounding as if someone was playing the drums on the large heater pipes in the basement right beneath me as loud as they could... with hammers.  The banging was louder than anything I ever heard in the house and frightened me almost out of my skin.  It bangs for a few seconds non-stop and then went silent.  I ran upstairs to wake Tyler up and demanded that he get his gun and get downstairs with me right away.  We turned all the lights on as went room by room, revolvers by our sides, as we went throughout the house, the basement, and the outside.  Nothing was out of place.  I never heard that sound before, and hopefully never hear it again.

2022-10-12
9.15pm

For the past few hours our cat Pearl repeatedly sat in the kitchen entrance staring up the stairs.  We verified that none of the animals were up stairs, but he continues doing it.  Now Vincent stepped outside while Amy and I were sitting on the sofa.  After a minute he knocked on the door because it had locked behind him somehow.  Amy and I simply looked at each other in shock.  As he returned to his bedroom something began knocking under his floorboard from the basement.  We investigated but found nothing.  Upon returning Pearl was again sitting there staring at the stairs.  Yesterday Luna (our chihuahua) was staring at the same direction.

Just a note, for the past month or so we noticed odd things throughout the house but assumed they were from the kids or the animals.  But now we aren't sure.

2022-11-28
~3am

Vincent was asleep in bed facing away from the door.  He says he was awaken by someone stepping into the bedroom behind him.  He thought it was Amy or I by the weight of the shift on the floor.  But when he turned around he found that he was alone in the dark.  Suddenly his phone turned on as if someone touched it to turn the screen on.  He turned it off, but as soon as it was off it turned back on as if someone was swiping on the screen.  After a few attempts to turn off the screen he decided to just turn off the phone itself.  

2022-11-30
3pm

Amy was washing the dishes when she was startled by a huge 'bang' on the island as if someone slammed their fists on it in anger.  She looked around it but nothing had fallen and there was nothing that could had made that sound.