A disturbing presence enters the lives of a young family - an entity that taught them to fear the darkness and the shadows. This is the true story of their nightmare
John V. thought his wife was imagining it all. The noises... the shadows... the voices. But he soon came to realize that there was something - some unusual, powerful force in his home in Cicero, Illinois that might be a threat to his children. He came to believe that it was evil. This is John's story:
I was not a believer in paranormal activity. In February, 1998, however, that all changed.
I moved into a first-floor apartment with my fiancée Kathy, who was pregnant at the time with the first of our three children. I also have two daughters from a previous relationship. It was my youngest daughter, who was three at the time, who was the first to experience something disturbing. She had an unnatural fear of the walk-in pantry in our kitchen. Every time we would sit down to dinner, she would point at the pantry and say it was "bad." She would never go into the pantry or even walk near it. At the time, we just brushed it off as nothing - a childhood fear. I work with children and know that sometimes their little imaginations just run wild.
But as I think back on it now, it might have been my oldest daughter Melissa and my niece who brought this "thing" into our home. One day I caught them playing with a Ouija board... in the pantry. I wonder if that is how all this started.
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
My son John was born in May of that same year. From the time he was born until about two years of age he could not sleep through the night. He would constantly wake up screaming and crying to the point where he didn't even recognize us, even with his eyes wide open; he always seemed to have a confused look on his face.
One night while he was crying, we went into the room to see what was wrong. Little John was pointing at the back of the door saying, "That's bad." Naturally, we were concerned and consulted a doctor about this behavior. The doctor said it was simply night frights. I, too, thought he was just having nightmares. But Kathy sensed something else was happening. She felt there was "something" in the house as she had previously lived in a house that was haunted. I didn't believe her.
From that point on, however, even stranger things began to happen in that house.
NOISES, SHADOWS... AND MORE
One evening we were all sitting in the kitchen for a normal family dinner, making everyday conversation. Suddenly, the entire kitchen started to glow blue, as if there were lightning inside our house. It just kind of flashed before our eyes. We sat there with our mouths open, looking at each other with confused expressions, wondering what the heck caused that.
On another occasion, I was out at night and Kathy was up alone watching TV in the front room. She heard footsteps coming from the kitchen, then saw small moving shadows. She thought the kids were up and running in the house, but when she got up to put them back to bed, she found them sound asleep in their room.
One night she was asleep in bed when suddenly someone pulled the pillow out from under her head, waking her up. She looked around, but no one was in the room. Yet another night she swore she saw the shadow of small child next to her, and when she turned to look again, it vanished.
From there the poltergeist activity increased.
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