The Beginning of My Haunted LIfe

I can't recall how old I was when I had my first encounter. All I can remember is that I was too young to start school.

My mother was in the habit of taking noon naps. Each afternoon, after lunch, she would take me by the hand and lead me to her bedroom. For reasons, I can't recall, she preferred to take naps on my father's bed. Perhaps it was her way of preventing me from becoming distracted looking out the bedroom window. Because her bed was on the opposite side of the bedroom from my father's bed, pushed up against the long Miami style windows. She was careful to lay me closest to the wall, so I wouldn't fall off the bed. I was laying there trying to fall asleep. She had already been asleep for a while. I had my eyes closed, trying to fall asleep. But as most children do, I spent a great deal of time growing tired and bored from staring at the wall and ceiling. I remember turning to face my mother. I watched as she laid there so peacefully sleeping. My mother's hair was cut short and kept it curly. I remember taking my fingers and playing with the locks closest to her ears. They were tiny and tight wound. My fingers fit perfectly in to the curls, like a tiny ring on my finger. My mother seemed so unaffected by my playfulness.

The next thing I knew, my attention was quickly drawn away from my mother and to the space on the floor next to her. I could hear what sounded like slow, dragging, almost scraping-like sounds. The sound migrated from the head of the bed, slowly to the foot of the bed and then appeared to turn around and retrace it's steps. Each step seemed so meticulous and careful not to wake my mother as it attempted to sneak past us. Curious, I sat up on one arm, and as I began to lean over my mother to look beyond her to see what was on the floor, moving around.....the sound abruptly stopped. It was as if, what ever was there, knew I was aware of it's presence. I was now more curious than ever. As I complete sat up, and leaned over my mother and looked downward toward the floor....what I saw, has forever impacted me. I was looking at this creature, bearing three horns. I can remember, the center horn was much taller than the two horns on each side of it. They had a dirty tinge to them, almost like very old, aging ivory. Each horn seemed to consist of two horns twisted tightly together, similar to a twisted strand of rope. Each horn peaked in to a point. The center horn I would estimate was about twelve inches in length and the outer two about nine to ten inches. As quickly as it had stopped long enough for me to observe it and become aware of it's presence, it then turned away and began pacing back and forth again. Petrified at what I had just witnessed, I began clawing at my mother, violently grabbing and shaking her to wake up. When she woke up, it must have been visibly obvious to her something was seriously wrong. I could barely spit out to her what I'd seen. And by this time, what ever this creature was, was now gone. She rushed me into the kitchen, insisting that I tell my father what I'd seen. I remember my parents trying to calm me down so I could explain in detail what I'd experienced. I then immediately retreated to the living room to hide behind the wall. I stood there, listening to my parents discussing my ordeal. My father's words have forever haunted me. He said "Judy, what that child saw was a demon." I wasn't the same after that. I became deathly afraid of the dark and never allowed myself to ever be alone in the house, while a child. I remember after my ordeal how hard it was to fall asleep with my head pushed tightly in to my mother back or hiding beneath the blankets, only coming out long enough to get a fresh gasp of air.

Years later, a conversation with my mother revealed a memory I had long forgotten. I can only assume that the reason I'd blocked these details was my psyche attempting to protect myself from further fear. My mother vividly recalled that afternoon. She said not only did I describe in great detail something with three horns, but I'd also told them the creature bore the body that was half goat and half man.

I never witnessed the demon again, but had many strange things happen after that for the next twenty-four years, while I lived in that house. My sister Toni moved into the bedroom, directly across the hall from my parent's bedroom. Toni was off with her friends one afternoon. One of my cousins was over visiting. We decided to sneak into Toni's bedroom to go through her things while we had the chance. We were in the closet going through her albums when suddenly my cousin grabbed my arm, not saying anything. I turned to look to see what she wanted when I saw her looking towards my sister's dresser. On Toni's dresser was a clear, square paperweight with a small globe in the center. It was levitating a few inches off the dresser. I remember gasping at the sight of this paperweight floating a few inches mid-air. After a few seconds, the paperweight then flew across the room. It hit the wall behind one of the headboards and lodged itself between the bed and wall. We took off out of the room as fast as our legs could carry us. We never went in that room again, alone...with or without permission.

My sister Toni always seemed to get her hands on the neatest gadgets on the market. I can recall a small plastic monkey she got out of a bubble gum machine. You had to place a tiny paper cigarette in to its mouth and light it. The monkey would then appear to puffing away, smoking. Another item she was fond of owning was Mexican jumping beans. She kept the beans in the hall desk, sealed in a small box. One night after she had gone to bed, I was walking to my parent's room and heard the clickity click sound they made as they jumped around in the clear plastic box. I immediately tippy toed to the desk, hoping I could sneak the box out and take the jumping beans to my room, before anyone caught me. But I was stopped dead in my tracks by the sound of a low brisk voice coming from my sister's room. It was saying "I hate you" over and over again. At first I thought she'd caught me trying to sneak into the desk...but the longer I listened to the voice, the more apparent it became that I weren't hearing my sister attempting to scold me for getting into her stuff. I walked up to her bedroom door and peeked in...it was dark. I flipped on the light and discovered her fast asleep; obviously unaware I had even turned on the light. I ran back to the living room where my parents were watching television and didn't return to that area of the house until my parents went to bed.

After Toni moved out, the room became solely mine...not that I wanted it or anything. But it was nice to have a space to call my own. During this time, John and I became close friends with a woman named Pat who worked at the local Shop n' Go convenient store. When ever she had to go work early to meet the vendors, I would bring home her eleven year old daughter to spend the night. One particular night I had my brother Timmy sleep in my bedroom, while June and I slept on the hide-away bed in the living room. All was well, we stayed up watching TV and eventually we both fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning, I found June in the kitchen...obviously frightened and anxious for me to take her to where her mother worked. I sat her on the sofa to try and find out what had upset her so much. She said in the middle of the night I began talking in my sleep. She said suddenly my voice seemed to be drowned out by other voices coming from the direction of the front door. The voices made their way through the living room and up to the foot of the hide-away bed. They stood there in an obvious conversation about something....she couldn't make out what they were saying...only bits and pieces where she could hear my name being mentioned in the conversation. She said suddenly I sat up and looked straight ahead as if to be in a trance. The voices went quiet and I then lay back down and went back to sleep.

When my friend Pat got whiff of what her daughter had experienced in our home, she never asked me to baby sit her daughter again. While at her home one night she gave me a bible that had been in her family for years...a bible I still own and cherish. She highlighted several verses she wanted me to study and learn by heart. She told me if anything ever happened to me, to please begin reciting these verses out loud....they would one day save me. I took her advice and began to religiously study and memorize these verses. While trying to memorize the Lord's Prayer, I had another obvious negative encounter. I was lying on my bed, reciting the Lord's Prayer out loud when suddenly I heard what sounded like a cat hissing in the corner of my room...yet I didn't own a cat at the time. Trying to ignore it...I began reciting the prayer louder. The louder I got, the louder the hissing became...until I were to the point of screaming the prayer out loud at the top of my lungs. My heart was beating so fast, I thought I would drop dead from a heart attack.

Several nights following, I was again in my room, studying the bible verses when I was interrupted by what sounded like someone in my mother's closet, scraping the coat hangers along the closet bar. It was very late at night and my mother should have been already asleep. I got up to see why she was still awake. I opened my bedroom door, the hall was pitch dark...I walked up to her bedroom door, opened it slightly....looked in....she were fast asleep. My heart sunk....what I'd heard was not her. I took one giant leap towards my bedroom door, slammed it shut and locked it. The next morning my mother asked everyone who had been in her room that night. I told her I had looked in on her....she interrupted me by saying "Well, you left my light on". I hadn't even turned on her light...what light had shown in her room came from my bedroom....I don't know who were moving the hangers in her closet, but who ever it were...must of also turned the light on.

My brother Timmy and I were at the kitchen table playing a game of gin rummy. All of a sudden we heard what sounded like something very large made of glass smashing to the floor. We simultaneously jumped up from our chairs and ran to the living room to see what fell. We found nothing. We both looked at each other and asked "Did you hear that?" We both agreed it sounded like glass breaking...we looked all over the house, but didn't find any source for this sound.

Every night, I began hearing what sounded like shuffled pacing of slippers walking slowly up and down the hallway. When I first heard it, I got out of bed to go see who were up...and found the hall empty. The pacing continued over and over again....I never found a source for the sound. I later discovered other sisters had also heard the same sounds in the hall. It sounded like someone walking from the kitchen; down to the end of the hall....it stopped and paused for a minute, then turned around and headed back towards the kitchen....over and over again.

One summer, my cousins came to visit from out of town. My cousin Angie shared my bed with me. John and I had been out late on a date. I came home, grabbed a nightgown and went to the bathroom to change. I came back in my room, turned the light off....climbed over Angie and lay down to go to sleep. I hadn't even fallen asleep yet when I was frightened by Angie violently being shaken against me. Her body was rocking so hard against me that had my bed not been against the wall, I would have been knocked from it. I heard a man whispering to her "Angie, wake up" "Angie, wake up". She kept mumbling "No". Frightened that an intruder was in my bedroom, I began screaming at the top of my lungs for my mother. I heard the man run towards the closet and stop. When my mother flung the door open and yelled "What's going on?" I yelled back "There's a man at the closet...turn on the light....he's at the closet!" She quickly flipped on the light...nothing was there but a few laundry baskets.

My final encounter before moving out of this house happened one day while I was home alone. I was at the stove heating up a can of soup. Suddenly the room started to grow very dark. It was as if something were blocking the light. I went to turn around when I saw what appeared to be a black shadow reaching for me, as if to either engulf me or surround me. I closed my eyes and screamed at the top of my lungs...when I opened my eyes...it were gone. I quickly turned the stove off and ran for my purse. As I began to run out of the house, I shouted "Don't you ever try that again...don't you ever, ever touch me...in the name of God!" I moved out shortly thereafter.