The crew brought in and set up various equipment including a laser grid, a REM pod, and an IR digital camera, all of which contained motion sensors to detect spiritual activity, if any.
Cables extended from a van parked by the garage and snaked through the front door into various parts of the residence. A reel with cables lay in the living room. Two sets of monitors had been set up for viewing the investigation.
Josslyn, Nathan, and David stood with the crew around the van.
“Everything’s set,” Robert said. He pointed out the live feeds on the monitors and explained that several cameras would monitor the rooms which had paranormal activity.
“That’s why he’s the best tech manager in our organization,” Eric said to Nathan and Josslyn. “Okay, we’re ready to begin. Now, Robert will man the monitors here in the van. Me, Josslyn, and Nathan will investigate the ground floor with David interpreting. Barbara and Colleen will investigate upstairs. Then, we will switch places and later on, some of us will take turns going outside to check the grounds. All right, everybody, let’s go dark.”
The interior and exterior lights were turned off, the only light the glow of the equipment.
Nathan and Josslyn followed Eric as they conducted a baseline reading in the living room with David in tow. Barbara and Colleen started in the upstairs hall.
Eric lifted his digital audio recorder. “Let’s do an EVP session,” he said to Nathan and Josslyn. “This way, if we get any responses to our questions or comments, we will hear disembodied voices or other sounds on the recorder that we don’t hear with our natural hearing.”
He spoke into the recorder. “This is Eric, founder of Skylar and Associates and lead investigator, Bryants’ residence, living room, with homeowners Nathan and Josslyn, and David, their sign-language interpreter, commencing at 8:45 p.m.” He waited fifteen seconds, then asked the first question. “What is your name?” He gazed into the thermal camera’s screen, which showed normal heat and cold signatures in a range of colors from dark blue to deep red. He waited fifteen seconds before he asked another question. “Are you here, in this room?” Fifteen-second pause. “Why are you here?” He paused for fifteen seconds.
He looked at the K2 meter in his other hand. “I’m getting a reading of point-oh-two on the meter. Either a very high level of electricity did a blip or there is a spirit present.” His walkie-talkie crackled.
“Eric, this is Barbara in the upstairs hall. Colleen and I just heard a low guttural sound for two seconds on the audio recorder. She said it sounded like a growl. There is no reading on the K2 meter, though.”
“Okay. Save that for the analysis. Anything else?”
“Yeah, I asked how did it come to be here and what brought it here. At first, it sounded like a very faint whisper. After playing it back, it sounded like a chuckle, an evil laugh or chortle.”
“All right. Good work.”
Two hours later, both groups converged in the living room and held a briefing.
“I picked up on a presence,” Colleen, the psychic medium, said, “of an evil spirit, a demon. Actually, there are two of them. One is here 24/7 while the other comes and goes whenever it pleases.”
“Is it here in the living room now?” Josslyn signed as David translated. “Right here in this spot?”
“Yes and no. It’s constantly moving about. That’s why some of them are called restless spirits, because they don’t stay in one place for too long.”
“I see,” Nathan signed. “You mean it doesn’t stay in one area, in one room, or do you mean it doesn’t stay in one residence?”
“I mean in one area, in one room. It’ll stay in a residence for as long as it can—years, even decades, until it’s forced out by a cleansing or an exorcism.”
“Do you know what it wants or what they want? Has it said anything to you?”
Josslyn liked Nathan’s line of questioning, then turned to Colleen. “Is it targeting the baby? Threatening it?”
“Uh . . . not exactly, but I have a general idea of what it is doing. More than anything else, it’s targeting the whole family, particularly the parents, but in different ways.”
“At one point,” Barbara said, “the K2 meter spiked to three-point-seven. This is not something I see often because I’m usually behind the desk at the office, managing and researching cases prior to investigations.”
“When the K2 meter spiked, that’s when I knew there was a presence right then,” Colleen added. “I asked why it was here. It said, ‘Let me put it into terms you can understand—I like it here.’”
“I was wondering since you can hear it,” Josslyn asked, “I’m curious to know if you can see it as well?”
“Oh, yeah. I can even describe what it looks like. It has a dragon-like head, though not the kind you see in movies or at annual Chinese New Year parades. This one is beyond evil-looking and it gives me the creeps. More importantly, dragons are symbolic and represent fierceness.”
“The word ‘dragon’ is mentioned a few times in the Book of Revelation,” Josslyn signed as David translated, “with one instance of ‘red dragon’ mentioned as well.”
“Right you are. This one in particular has a pair of horns like a ram’s. It’s so mean and vicious-looking with evil eyes, an odd, pressed-in nose, and a toothy grin.”
“All right,” Eric said. “Good work, everybody. Let's continue.” Everyone returned to their original places.
Eric’s walkie-talkie crackled. “Robert, here. Just wanted to let you know right away that on one of the monitors showed a shadow move down the second-floor hall. It went from the head of the stairs toward the back.”
“We’re checking it now. Thanks.” Eric pocketed the walkie-talkie. “Let’s head upstairs.”
Barbara and Colleen gauged for the presence of a spirit in the hall. They looked around and pointed the full-spectrum digital camera, thermal camera, and K2 meter in various places. None of the devices detected electromagnetic waves or spiritual activity.
“It’s not here now,” Colleen said. “I don’t sense its presence in the hall, but it’s still somewhere in the house.”
Eric’s walkie-talkie crackled to life once again.
“This is Robert again. I just saw a shadow go across the grid that’s projected on the wall in the living room.”
“It’s playing games with us,” Eric said. “Thanks.”
“That’s why it constantly moves about all the time, rarely sitting still for any length of time,” Colleen said. “It has no peace and is never satisfied. That is the way of sin. After thirty years as a psychic medium, having been born with the gift, and continually learning as a demonologist, I know this. So far as I can tell, this is consistent with every investigation of a demonic haunting I’ve been a part of.”
Fifteen minutes later, the investigators conversed amongst themselves to determine the next steps to be taken. They had members switch places, two of whom were assigned to investigate the front yard and backyard.
Eric entered the dining room. “Get anything?”
Barbara shook her head but Colleen stated, “I felt like I was being drawn in here. I’m seeing events that happened recently.”
“Like what?” Joslynn asked.
“I see Nathan standing on the dining table and toying with the chandelier. It was rigged to come loose and fall.”
Josslyn raised her brows, surprised.
“I also see him in the laundry room, nailing shut the little window by the washer/dryer units.”
Josslyn remembered the day Trina was locked in the laundry room.
“Now I’m getting a vision of Nathan opening the front door,” Colleen continued, “to let the dog out very late one night . . . the intention was for the dog to get hit by a car coming over the rise.”
Josslyn looked at Nathan, dismayed. She shook her head. How could you? she thought.
“Soon after, later that same night, he ripped the security panel off the wall by the door.”
Nathan’s facial expression registered surprise and sorrow. “How was I to know? How could I remember? I’m so sorry, honey.”
Josslyn realized it had been the demon that used Nathan as a vessel to do these things. “Apology accepted and I forgive—”
The couch glided across the living room floor at a rapid pace toward the dining room with one side upending. It blocked the doorway between the dining room and the living room.
Everyone jumped back in surprise.
The kitchen table from the breakfast nook slid across the kitchen floor at high speed toward the doorway to the dining room. It became airborne and the top of the table slammed into the doorframe, which impeded their escape from the dining room. Four kitchen chairs slid across the floor from their respective places and slammed into the underside of the kitchen table.
Josslyn, Colleen, and Barbara screamed.
“Hand me the flashlight,” Eric said to Barbara.
As Barbara handed it to Eric, the beam of light swooped across Nathan’s face.
Joslyn flapped one hand to get David’s attention. “Point the flashlight at Nathan’s face!” she signed with urgency. “Point the light at Nathan’s face now!”
Nathan’s eyes were rolled back to show a pair of white orbs and his mouth hung open, slack-jawed. A low, guttural groan escaped his lips, then the eyes closed.
Josslyn tapped him on the shoulder. “Nathan!” She shook his arm to get his attention and to get him to snap out of whatever trance he was in. “Nathan, it’s me, Josslyn. Come forward, Nathan!”
Nathan’s eyelids flew open, and Josslyn saw that they were black orbs of nothingness. She felt chills run up her spine and goosebumps roll down her arms. “Nathan!” She shook his arm once again. “Come forward, Nathan!”
Nathan grabbed Josslyn in a choke hold and squeezed her neck with his strong arm.
“The Lord rebuke you, evil spirit!” Colleen said. “In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke you!”
A wine glass flew off the cupboard shelf, whizzed over the island into the dining room, and grazed Josslyn’s right ear before it smashed against the wall and shattered. Shards fell to the floor with a tinkling sound.
“Release her!” Colleen said as Josslyn struggled to break free from Nathan’s chokehold. “I command you in the name of —” She doubled over and groaned, gasped for air, then stood up. “I just got punched in the stomach.” She took a few breaths, then continued. “Get thee behind me, Satan! As one who is in tune with the Lord and having knowledge and understanding of the spiritual realm, I command thee in the glorious name, spirit and blood of the Lamb that ye depart from us at once! Away with ye, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord!”
Nathan’s arm relaxed and loosened its grip on Josslyn’s neck. She shoved Nathan’s arm away from her and huffed with anger. “Get out, unclean spirit!” she signed. “In the mighty, holy and perfect name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, and by the blood of the Lamb, we rebuke you! We loose the power of the Holy Spirit to convict you of your wickedness! We command you in the name of Jesus to depart from us, thou vile spirit!”
Nathan slumped against the wall. His knees buckled, and he sank to the ground.
Josslyn and Colleen lifted him up. They held him against the wall.
Nathan opened his eyes. They appeared normal. His eyes were blue. He shook his head to dispel the fog of confusion. “What happened?”
“The demon got inside you,” Josslyn signed. “I think it’s gone now. How are you feeling?”
“Weak, but I’ll be all right. Just need to sit for a few minutes.”
“Push the couch, the kitchen table and chairs away from the doorways,” Eric said, “so we can get out of here.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s 6:00 a.m. We’ve been investigating for nearly nine hours. This is a good time to stop. We’ll resume tomorrow evening.”He looked at everyone, pensive. “There are answers waiting to be found.”