Case 13: Marie’s House
After what transpired at the Green Rock Corners Schoolhouse, we were all worried about Marie. It seemed as though whoever had attached itself to her in Leesville had returned with a vengeance. What happened two days later confirmed those suspicions, and led to the rest of us coming together to take on our most dangerous investigation yet: Marie’s own home.
You see, Marie woke up with three scratches running down her back, something that terrified her and her entire family. While they had dealt with the occasional bump in the night or shadow, this was activity that was unprecedented in their home. It was clear that in this case, it was not the house itself, but Marie that was the focal point of the haunting. A week after the investigation at the schoolhouse, her father, named Richard, felt a hand on his back. Assuming it was his wife, he turned around, only to find nobody there. Less than a day later, her mother, named Margaret, woke up from a nap on the couch in her living room to find a black shadow figure with white eyes staring at her, causing her to panic and run out of the house for a few minutes before she returned.
With activity building up, Marie called me one night about three weeks after the Green Rock Corners Schoolhouse case and begged me for help. The final straw, apparently, was when Marie’s ten-year-old brother, named Tyler, woke up with an unexplained red mark on his forehead, also telling his sister that he had seen a man sitting on a chair in his room near his bed the night before the red mark appeared. She was terrified of what this spirit could do to her family, and she clearly needed help.
I got the team including Marie together, and we made a plan: The rest of the family would stay over at Richard’s parents house for three days, and then we would document activity in the house before an exorcism would be performed on Sunday, just two days before Halloween. Already by this point, the house had already been looked at by a representative of the Catholic Church after the priest of the church they attended passed their concerns up the proverbial food chain. Due to the overwhelming evidence, it did not take long for an exorcism to be approved. In fact, it was reportedly one of the fastest approvals in modern times for the church in the entirety of the state. The exorcism process would take a while, and that Sunday would only be the first of several sessions to rid both the house and Marie of all of the spirits within.
…
On Day 1, we got our equipment ready and prepared ourselves mentally for whatever would come. “This is the big one, guys,” I told the team. “This might be our last hunt, at least for a while. I don’t know about you, but I feel like taking a break from ghost hunting after this. It won’t be forever, but it will at least be for the rest of the year.”
“Agreed,” Ashley nodded. “After what happened last time, I think we all need a break.”
“I don’t think I want to even look at ghosts in movies and shows at this point,” Marie sighed. “I’m cool with taking a break from the paranormal after this. I just want this Leesville spirit to go away and leave my family alone. After what happened to Tyler, I’m pissed off, I’m sad, and… Fuck, man, I just want some peace and quiet for once.”
“I don’t blame you,” Jared replied, comforting her with a pat on the shoulder. “I feel terrible for what you’re going through, Marie.”
“Let’s give this guy what for,” Yukiko then chimed in. “Let’s show him that you don’t mess with us and get away with it.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” I chuckled, patting my sister on the back. “And you’re right, Yukiko. We’re gonna teach whoever this asshole from Leesville is to not mess with us.”
Marie and I shared a fist-bump. She told me with determination in her voice, “You’re damn right. I’m ready to get rid of this guy once and for all.”
“To think,” Ashley then pointed out. “It all started here. This house was where you and I first ran into ghosts directly, Takeo.”
“Yeah,” I remembered, recalling my first ever personal experience with the paranormal when I had been house-sitting with my girlfriend. “It’s come full-circle.”
…
Upstairs in Marie’s room, we all gathered around to conduct an EVP session to begin the investigation formally. We turned on all three digital voice recorders and the EMF meter and began asking questions, with me, Ashley, and Marie all taking turns. “Is there anyone in this room with us now?” Pause. “Can you tell us your name?” Pause. “Who are you?” Pause.
“I’ll go next,” Ashley then said, taking over for the time being as I grabbed a photo camera to take pictures. “Can you give us a sign you’re here?” Pause. “Did you used to live here?” Pause. “Are you from somewhere else?”
It was at this point that all of us began to feel the room getting colder despite the heat obviously being on given it was later October. “Dude,” Jared said to the others. “I got chills running all the way down my right arm.”
“Yeah,” Marie nodded. “I noticed that too. It’s getting colder here.” She looked at the EMF meter and saw it registering spikes in readings. “And the EMF meter’s going off, too. Look.” She showed us the meter, which was bouncing up and down. “It’s not staying in one spot. It’s all over the place.” She then asked the spirits around us, “If you’re attached to me, why did you do it? Why go after me specifically?”
We all then heard what sounded like three distinct knocks on the walls out in the hallway. Yukiko turned the camera to the door and remarked, “Three knocks.”
“That’s not good. We’ve heard knocking like that ever since I got back from the Green Rock Corners Schoolhouse.” Marie then opened the door to the hallway, and just as she did, we heard the same three knocks again, but this time from the ceiling, almost as if they were coming from the attic.
Curious, I asked Marie, “Hey, do you know where we can get access to the attic?”
“Down the hallway,” she explained to us. “There’s a hatch you can open with a foldable ladder. It’s a bit cramped up there, though.”
“Why don’t we head up there?”
“I guess that’s not a bad idea.” Marie then walked down the hallway and pulled down on the cord to open the hatch up. She then reached up and pulled the ladder down. “Here you go.”
“I’ll head up there,” Jared volunteered.
“Me too,” I replied. “You guys stay down here in case anything happens, okay?”
“Got it,” my girlfriend replied with a thumbs-up
As me and Jared made our way up into Marie’s attic, we knew immediately that she was not kidding when she said it was cramped. Various boxes and other household items were stacked from floor to roof. We had just enough room to stand, albeit slightly hunched over due to how low the roof was. “She wasn’t kidding, huh?”
“No she wasn’t,” Jared chuckled. As he filmed the cluttered interior of the attic, I began to take photos. Due to how dusty it was up there, it would be harder to find anomalies in the pictures due to the increased risk of false positives.
Meanwhile, Marie decided to play back the recording from earlier to see if she got any voices. Sure enough, she got three: First, a male voice who said something indiscernible when asked to give a name, followed by a female voice that said ‘yes’ when asked if they used to live here, and finally, the same male voice from before saying ‘now I am here’ when asked if they lived somewhere else. Ashley pondered as they listened to the recording, “I wonder if that female spirit was the one me and Takeo saw.”
Marie replied, “The woman who hanged herself here before my family moved in?”
“That’s the one.”
“I wonder if she’ll appear at 3:22 like in the past. I haven’t woken up at that time a lot recently. It has been a while since I attempted to kill myself, so maybe the activity from her is dying down.”
Yukiko then asked Marie, “If, uh… If it’s not too personal, where in the house did you try to kill yourself, Marie?”
“In my bedroom,” she pointed. “It’s right across the hall from the spare bedroom where that old woman hanged herself. After I attempted, the activity was pretty high for a bit, but it tapered off after a while.”
“And now it’s back up again?”
“It’s even worse than before, actually.”
Then, they heard the sound of Jared shouting in the attic, prompting them to look up at it. Ashley asked, “Jared, what’s wrong?!” I had a momentary memory blackout around this time, and did not remember anything until I climbed back down.
According to the others, this is what had happened in the attic. I was walking around and had made my way to the far end facing towards the road when both me and Jared heard someone snapping their fingers three times. I apparently could hear it the best, as I told Jared, “Dude, someone just snapped their fingers next to my fucking head.”
“I heard that too,” he replied to me. “What was tha-?” Suddenly, an unseen hand grabbed my neck and pinned me to the wall, causing my head to thump on the wood rather loudly and drop my photo camera. Jared yelled out, “Holy shit, Takeo!” I struggled against the unseen force for a few seconds before I felt a small cord wrap around my neck and get pulled, strangling me further. I apparently reached out and tried to call for help, but I could not make any discernible sounds due to being choked. Jared ran over and then pulled me away from the wall, releasing the grip the cord and the unseen hand had on my neck. “Come on! Come on! Let’s go!”
As Marie opened the hatch, I regained my memory, and I could remember being led to the hatch by Jared. “What… What happened?”
Marie looked up as Jared came down first, asking him, “What the Hell happened up there?”
“Takeo got attacked,” he replied as I began to come down, sweat pouring from my face. “Look at the cord on his neck!”
“Holy shit,” Ashley shouted as she noticed the cord. “What the Hell is on his neck?!”
“Takeo,” my sister said as she ran over to me to look at my neck. “What happened?! What’s with that cord on your neck?!”
“I don’t know,” I replied, unsure of what had transpired. “I was talking about snapping sounds, and then I just blacked out.”
“I got it all on camera,” Jared told me. “I’ll show you guys the footage.”
“Hang on,” I then realized when I tried to find my own photo camera. “God damn it, I left my camera up there.”
“I’ll get it,” Marie said, quickly running up the ladder and going into the attic to retrieve it.
While she was looking for the camera, Ashley looked at my neck and noticed red marks that seemed to resemble fingers. “Takeo, it looks like someone strangled you. You don’t remember anything that happened?”
“No,” I shook my head. “How bad is my neck?”
“It’s pretty red. Whoever did this had a really tight grip on it.”
Marie then came down with the camera. “I got it. Let’s go back downstairs and see what happened.”
As we walked down, Ashley reached up and untied the cord, carrying it down with her. She was visibly disturbed by what had happened to me, and asked me, “Takeo, are you sure you’re alright now?”
“I’m fine,” I assured her. “Thankfully, Jared stepped in and pulled me away before I really got hurt.”
…
Downstairs, we began to review our evidence, and we found that of the photos I had taken upstairs, one of them showed an anomaly. A photo I had taken of several boxes piled near the roadside end of the attic showed what seemed to be a face peeking out from behind the boxes, almost as if it was someone crouched down and getting ready to jump out. This was also the last photo taken before I was attacked, too.
We then watched the footage Jared had captured. “Holy shit,” I said in disbelief. “You… You can see the cord go around my neck. I got pushed up against the wall and choked, and then the cord goes around like that.”
“Oh my God,” Yukiko sighed. “Takeo, this is bad.”
“No kidding. This is the most severe attack anyone has ever had. This is worse than my possession.”
“And mine, too,” Marie pointed out. “That has to be the spirit from Leesville. It really doesn’t want any of you here.”
Ashley asked her, “Why?”
“Because it knows you’re trying to get rid of it. I’ve tried telling it so many times to leave, but it won’t.” Marie sighed, feeling terrible for what had happened to me and thinking it was her fault. “I’m sorry, Takeo. I shouldn’t have had to drag you into this.”
“It’s fine,” I assured her. “This is a risk I accept. I knew going into this that one day we’d get physically attacked. Hell, it’s already happened before.”
“Fair point,” Jared agreed. “What time is it anyway?”
“A little past midnight,” I replied, pulling out my phone to check the time. “We’ll take a break for a bit and see what happens at 3:22. If you want, we can leave the extra video camera running in the attic to see if anything happens for those three hours.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
…
We all retired to the bedrooms in the house to rest up, with me and Ashley taking the spare bedroom, Marie and Yukiko taking the former’s bedroom, and Jared taking her brother’s bedroom. For the next three hours, the third video camera recorded constantly in the attic, and it captured several entities.
First, at around 1 in the morning, footsteps were heard going away from the camera, followed by it temporarily glitching out. When the picture came back on, a white mist flew across the room and disappeared. Then, at exactly 1:57, a man’s voice was heard saying ‘Came up here.’ This was followed at 2:40 by a black shadow figure emerging from behind several boxes for a few seconds and then disappearing. Finally, at exactly 3:22, a woman’s voice was heard saying ‘Help me.’
Also at 3:22, me and Ashley woke up despite not setting an alarm. I began recording on my phone and turned my head towards my girlfriend, who also turned towards me, and asked her, “Did you wake up, too?”
“Yep.” She looked around the room and remarked with a chuckle, “No old ladies in nightgowns this time, though.”
“And we got actual clothes on, too.” I rubbed my eyes and got up, stretching my arms and yawning before walking out of the bedroom, my girlfriend close behind. As I walked out, the door to Marie’s bedroom also opened, and out stepped Marie. “Did you wake up too?”
“I sure did,” she replied with a yawn. “Yukiko’s getting a video camera ready.”
“I wonder if Jared woke up.” I walked down to the bedroom he was in and knocked, asking, “Hey, Jared, you awake?”
“Hang on,” he groggily replied as he got up and then opened the door with a yawn. “Yeah, what’s up?”
“We all got woken up around the same time. We gotta get the camera from the attic.”
“I’ll go up there,” he replied as he walked over to the hatch and pulled it down before folding down the ladder and climbing up.
Yukiko asked me, “Did you guys see the woman again?”
“Nope,” I shook my head. “No woman in a nightgown this time.”
“I can feel her presence,” Marie observed. “So she’s gotta be around here somehow. Maybe we’ll find something on the camera that’s from her.”
Ashley asked her, “Do you feel the presence of the spirit from Leesville?”
“Oddly enough, not really.” Marie shrugged, unsure as to why the other spirit was seemingly away for the time being. “Maybe he’s taking a break.”
“Man, this night’s been crazy,” I yawned. “I still can’t believe I got fucking choked by a ghost. Like, I knew some kind of attack would probably happen during these next three days due to what’s been going on with Marie and her family, but I didn’t expect one so soon.”
Jared then came back down with the camera, albeit in a hurry. He stammered out as he did, Guys, there’s something up there that wants us out!”
“What happened up there?!”
“Look,” Jared then said as he pulled up his right sleeve, revealing three scratch marks on his upper right arm. “I felt these as I was about to grab the camera.”
“Oh shit,” Marie remarked. “You got scratched.”
“I felt a burning sensation on my arm, and when I went to take a look, this third scratch right here was still forming.” He pointed out the third scratch, which indeed seemed to be the newest. “I saw it go down my fucking arm, dude.”
“This is getting freaky,” Ashley commented, sufficiently terrified. “And we’re here for another two days.”
“Yeah,” Marie acknowledged with a sigh. “This is really only the beginning. The exorcism won’t be until Sunday, so we’ll have to tough it out until then.”
…
Thankfully for the rest of the early morning, we were not disturbed by spirits. We woke up and made ourselves breakfast before going over what the plan would be for the daytime before night fell.
“We got plenty of time,” I told the others. “So we’ll just do our homework now and we could go out and do something. I don’t feel like being cooped up in here all day.”
“Same here,” Marie nodded. “I could use a break from this place for a few hours.”
Yukiko suggested, “Why don’t we go see a movie? The Volendam Theater has some new ones out.”
“Not a bad idea,” I nodded. “We’ll head into the village after breakfast and homework and go from there. In the meantime, I want to leave the cameras behind to see if anything happens while we’re gone.”
Ashley asked me, “Where would you leave them?”
“One in the attic, one in Marie’s bedroom, and one down in the living room.”
“I’m not going back up into that fucking attic,” Jared insisted, clearly afraid of going back into the space where he was scratched. “Not after what happened to you and me.”
“No one said you have to,” I assured him. “If you don’t want to go up there anymore, that’s fine.”
“I’ll go up there to leave a camera,” Marie volunteered. “It’s my house, after all.”
“That’ll work,” Yukiko replied to her. “When we’re all done here, I’ll get the cameras all charged and ready. The batteries should last for a while before they have to get swapped out.”
“Unless they get drained by a ghost,” Ashley pointed out. “That is a risk. They’ll still save what’s being recorded if they die, right?”
“Yeah. If a camera dies, we won’t lose the footage.”
…
After we had left the house, activity in the house slowed down dramatically, proving once again that the attachment Marie was suffering from was the main culprit behind the haunting, and not the preexisting spirits within the house. However, the camera in the living room did manage to capture one piece of evidence in the form of what sounded like a conversation going on nearby in the kitchen despite no one being present in the home at all. The ghostly conversation went on for about a minute before it faded out, and not much could be discerned from it aside from a select few words here and there.
We got back to Marie’s house around 5 in the evening, and we proceeded to review the cameras, finding no other evidence besides the ghostly conversation in the kitchen. We ordered a pizza and had it delivered, and as we were eating in the kitchen, Marie noticed something odd about the refrigerator.
“Yeah, the movie was alright, I guess,” Jared said, the rest of us deep into conversation about the movie we had watched in the main village. “It’s not the greatest I’ve seen. Not by a long shot.”
“I thought it was pretty good,” I replied. “You only thought it was okay?”
“Yeah. That’s just me, though.”
“I’m siding with Jared on this one,” Ashley then informed me. “Sorry, babe.”
“Aw man, not even my girlfriend’s on my side,” I chuckled.
“I’m on your side, oniichan,” Yukiko then jokingly told me in a yandere-like voice. “In fact, I’ll always be on your side, oniichan…”
All four of us broke into laughter, amused by her bit. “You really nailed that yandere voice,” I joked with her. “I’m telling you, you should go into voice acting or something, Yukiko.”
“Eh, I don’t know. I don’t think I’m all that gre-“
Marie then screamed and retreated from the refrigerator, slamming the door shut as hard and fast as she could. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!”
We all got up from the table, worried about what had happened. I asked her, “Marie, what the Hell happened?!”
“There’s something in that fridge,” she yelled out as she pointed at the door, visibly shaken by what she had seen inside. “It looked at me and opened its mouth!”
“Opened its mouth? What was it? A head or something?”
“It was a head,” she told us as she hid behind me and Ashley. “It fucking stared at me, Takeo!”
“Hang on,” Jared then said, walking over to the fridge and opening it up. “Let me see…” He looked around, even peering behind several bags and cartons inside, and found nothing resembling a face or head inside. “I don’t see anything like that in here.”
Yukiko then picked up the one video camera rolling at the time from the table and walked over, taking a look in the fridge. “Whatever it was, it’s gone now, Marie.”
“I swear, it was right there,” Marie insisted. “I saw it with my own two eyes!” We then heard what sounded like footsteps from the living room, causing us all to turn towards the doorway to it. “Oh no… He’s… He’s here again…”
“The spirit from Leesville?”
Suddenly, the door to the living room flung open, startling all of us before a vase on the table we were eating on was picked up and thrown at a wall, smashing into many pieces that scattered all over the place. I yelled out, “Oh no, it’s attacking us!”
Jared grabbed the pizza box and ran upstairs as the kitchen cupboard began to rapidly open and close, slamming loudly every time they did so. We all followed him, leaving the rest of our equipment behind minus a digital voice recorder that was in my pocket. As Marie made it up to the top of the stairs, the last to do so of the group, a picture frame containing a family photo of the Desmonds was thrown at her, barely missing her head before it crashed into a wall and shattered. “Move,” she screamed as it hit the wall. “Go! Go! Go!”
We all barricaded ourselves in Marie’s bedroom, locking the door from the inside and even putting several heavy school textbooks and a bookbag in front of it to prevent it from being opened. As we all caught our breath and attempted to process what had just transpired, Yukiko was the first to speak up about it, saying, “That scared the shit out of me.”
“That scares the shit out of all of us,” I replied. “I think it’s over now, though. I don’t hear any more banging noises from downstairs.”
“I hope it’s over for now,” Marie replied, clearly frustrated with how much activity was going on in her home. “I just want this shit to be done, guys. I don’t feel safe in my own home. My parents don’t feel safe. My little brother doesn’t even feel safe. This piece of shit hurt him. It pisses me off so much. I keep telling this guy to leave my family alone. I don’t even give a shit about if he torments me anymore. I just want him to not touch my family.” She then punched the wall several times in anger before screaming at the spirit from Leesville, “GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HOUSE! LEAVE MY MOM AND DAD ALONE! LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE! HE’S ONLY TEN FUCKING YEARS OLD, GOD DAMN IT! WHAT DID HE EVER DO TO YOU?!” She then sunk to the floor, beginning to cry. “Please… I know I intruded on your home, okay? If you’re mad about that, go after me. I’ll take the abuse. I’ll take all of it. Just leave my family out of it. They don’t deserve to suffer for my actions.”
Feeling bad for Marie, we all gathered around her. I put a hand on her shoulder and told her, “Marie, look, we don’t want you to fight this by yourself. We’re gonna be with you every step of the way, no matter how long it takes for this bastard to be exorcised.”
“But this is my problem… None of you would have been involved if it weren’t for me.”
“I don’t care,” Ashley then told her. “I know I said I wanted to take a break from ghost hunting after this, but I’m so glad we got to do this together as friends. Even with all the scares and horrors and whatnot, it’s still worth it. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Maybe we’ll go back to doing it in the future once we take a break. I’d like to.”
“Marie,” I said as I got rather close to her and held both of her shoulders. “I love doing this with you, with my girlfriend, with my sister, and with Jared. You guys are all the best friends I could ever have. I don’t regret one bit of this. You shouldn’t, either. We’re gonna stick by you, because God damn it, that’s what friends do!”
“He’s right,” Jared nodded. “I may not know a lot about ghosts, even after everything that’s happened, but I know enough that you can’t take this one on by yourself. We’ll need to work as a team to overcome it.”
Yukiko then set her camera down on a dresser and told Marie, “We can do this. We’ve faced down tough spirits before, Marie.”
After wiping away her tears, Marie took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right… I shouldn’t be doing this on my own. I need your help.”
“That a girl,” Ashley said as she patted her on the back. “Let’s go out there and confront these guys.”
Marie then looked over and noticed the pizza box on her bed. “Well… Let’s wait a bit. I haven’t even gotten a chance to eat yet.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah. I was so busy getting plates and stuff I forgot.”
“We haven’t really been using plates,” Jared replied. “We’ve just been sort of eating right out of the box. There’s half a pizza left.”
“Good, because I’m starving,” Marie replied as she opened up the box. Lightening the mood a bit, she joked, “If we’re gonna confront this piece of shit, we shouldn’t do it hungry.”
“You’re right,” I chuckled. “We shouldn’t do it hungry.”
…
We emerged from Marie’s room about fifteen minutes later, ready to confront the spirit from Leesville once and for all. By now, it was seven in the evening, and as we walked down the stairs, we found that not only had the picture frame and the vase been broken, but so had two plates and a glass Marie had pulled out earlier. “I’ll clean this up,” Marie said as she opened up a cabinet and pulled out a dustpan and a broom. “You guys can go grab the equipment and get ready.”
Armed with three cameras, three digital voice recorders, two photo cameras, and an EMF meter, we were ready to document every little thing in the house now. Me, Yukiko, and Jared all recorded on the video cameras, while Marie and Ashley held the photo cameras. We began our hunt in the basement, which we had not fully explored up until then, and we would then work our way up until Eustace was stopped.
With Ashley taking photos of the musty and undecorated cellar, Marie began an EVP session to confront the spirit from Leesville. “Okay, if you want to keep tormenting us, you’ve got another thing coming. You’re going to reveal yourself to us and stop bothering me, my family, and my friends. Who are you? Give us a name.” Pause. “Why are you attached to me?” Pause. “Did you even live in the house in Leesville?”
We all then heard the sound of a door being slammed shut down in the cellar, but we stood our ground. I told the group, “Don’t be afraid. We’re in this together!” I then challenged the spirit from Leesville myself. “You can’t scare us anymore, buddy! You can try all your little tricks, but it’s not gonna work!”
Yukiko turned to the other end of the cellar and saw a door to a storage room that slowly opened by itself. “Woah, look! The door’s opening!”
“Huh?” I turned to the now-open door and aimed my camera down it. As I did, I noticed what seemed to be two glowing lights. “Wait, what is that?”
“It looks like eyes,” Jared then realized. “Those are definitely eyes.”
We got confirmation that they were eyes when we heard what sounded like a growl come from the room, prompting Marie to look over and admit, “That’s him. That’s the spirit from Leesville.”
The eyes then seemed to fade away, leaving us all puzzled as to where the spirit might have gone. My heart was racing with fear and anticipation as we all looked around in silence, standing still but moving our heads to see if we could find anything. After standing still for about a minute, Ashley said to the group, “I think he’s go-“
A disembodied roar of rage then filled the basement, coming from the same storage room. Marie yelled out, “Shit, that’s him!”
“Come on out,” I challenged the spirit. “Tell us who you are! Don’t run from us!”
“Hang on,” Marie then said as she stopped the recording on her digital voice recorder. “Maybe he gave us an answer on here.” Sure enough, when she played the recording back, we got an answer to perhaps the most important question we had been asking the spirit, that being its identity. When pressed to give a name, it gave us the name of ‘Eustace.’
“Eustace, huh,” I remarked. “Eustace…” I turned back to the storage room and asked, “Is your name Eustace? Why are you obsessed with Marie?”
Getting no response, Ashley suggested, “Let’s head to the first floor. Maybe he moved up there.”
“Or he’ll follow us up,” Marie pointed out. “Either way, we probably shouldn’t stay down here.”
When we made our way to the first floor, we were immediately hit with a blast of cold air. Additionally, just as Jared made his way up, his camera was drained of energy. “Ah shit, my camera just went dead.”
“I ran out of spare batteries,” Yukiko replied to him. “We’ll just have to rely on two from now on.”
“Have mine,” I told Jared as we swapped cameras, with me putting the dead camera on the table.
Ashley then turned on her digital voice recorder to begin a second EVP session. “Did you follow us upstairs? Do you want to say anything to us now?” Pause. “Why did you break things upstairs? We saw you smash that vase and that picture frame.” Pause. “Can you give us a sign you’re upstairs with us?”
As soon as she finished saying her last question, we all heard a man’s indiscernible voice from the living room, the same voice heard downstairs in the basement. “He followed us,” Marie realized. We then heard footsteps from the living room walking towards the stairs to the second floor of the house. “And now he’s going upstairs.” She aimed her photo camera into the living room and took several photos, eager to catch Eustace visually.
“Eustace,” I called out. “Don’t try to run away from us now. If you go upstairs, we’re just gonna follow you up there.”
It was at this moment that Ashley decided to review some of the photos she had taken in the basement, and when she did, she saw something in one that she immediately showed Marie. “Look at this. Is that what Eustace looks like?”
The picture showed a man standing in the doorway to the same storage room where Eustace had been heard, with the man seeming to be wearing overalls of some kind and leaning on a wall. It was the clearest picture we had ever taken of a ghost, and when Marie looked at it, I could tell her blood ran cold. “That’s him… That’s the spirit from Leesville. That’s exactly what he looks like.”
We then heard what sounded like something being toppled over upstairs. Worried about what Eustace was potentially doing, we all raced up the stairs to find that a mirror in the hallway had fallen off the wall and shattered. “A broken mirror,” I commented. “You couldn’t get creepier if you tried.”
“Eustace,” Marie then said, finally calling the spirit by his apparent name. “You need to come out! You need to leave! You’re gonna get exorcised soon anyway! If you don’t want that to happen, leave on your own terms right now!”
Almost on cue, the door to her bedroom flung open, and out from the bedroom came a large shadow figure. In contrast to what Ashley had photographed, this figure had no discernible features. As it entered the hallway, we heard a male voice speak from the entity: ‘You are mine!’
“Holy shit,” Jared yelled out. “There he is!”
Recalling what I had done in Harukawa, I began to use religious provocation to try to keep the spirit back. “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I command you to leave this house and leave Marie Desmond alone! You are not welcome here!”
The figure stood still for a few seconds, seemingly pondering what to do next, before it began to charge towards us. I closed my eyes to spare myself from what was to come as the rest of the team began to run back downstairs. Ashley called out to me as she grabbed my shoulder, “Takeo, get down here!”
As I was practically dragged down the stairs and into the kitchen by her, the figure seemed to vanish almost as soon as it had appeared. We all stopped and caught our breath, but as we did, we noticed something was off about Ashley, who was now blankly staring into space as she leaned on the kitchen table. Marie asked her, “Hey, Ashley, are you okay?”
“Ash,” I asked her. “Hey… What’s going on?”
Her eyes seemed blank despite being open, and it was as if nothing was behind them. She told us in a disoriented state, “Huh… I just…”
“This doesn’t look good,” Yukiko commented as she zoomed in on her face. As she did, her video camera captured a chilling EVP that we later found when reviewing our evidence: The voice of Eustace saying to us ‘Serve me’.
Suddenly, Ashley began to cough, and as she did, a black mist partially emerged from her back before re-entering her body. When it did, she screamed, startling all of us. “Out! Out! Get out!” She slammed her fists on the table and looked at Marie with almost homicidal intent in her eyes.
“Ashley,” Marie asked her. “Why… Why are you acting like this?!”
“Don’t tell me she got possessed,” I realized. “God damn it, don’t fucking tell me she got possessed by Eustace!”
As Ashley was resting her head in her hands, another EVP was captured on camera, this time saying to us ‘Just let go’, after which we all heard three knocks on the wall near her. Within seconds, it was as if a switch had been flipped, as Ashley blinked several times and looked around the room, asking us, “What happened? Did I pass out?”
Jared remarked to her, “You have no idea, don’t you?”
“About what?”
“You got possessed by Eustace, albeit briefly,” Marie explained to her. “You don’t remember anything?”
“Not really,” she sighed. “I remember pulling Takeo away and that’s it.” She then rubbed her forehead, clearly in pain. “Ugh, my head is killing me.”
As if there had not been enough surprises that night, the light in the kitchen suddenly turned on, only for the lightbulb inside the ceiling fan to then immediately explode and shatter as if it had been overwhelmed with electricity. This startled Yukiko, who quickly dodged the lightbulb glass as it fell to the floor. Immediately after this, something seemed to grab Marie and pull her to the floor, causing her to yell out in shock and pain when she hit the hardwood. “Agh, shit!”
Jared asked her, “Marie, what happened?!”
“Something pulled on my arm,” she told us as she got up. “It felt like a really cold hand. It just yanked on me and pulled me right down!” She then yelled at Eustace, “Stop it already! You’re not gonna win, Eusta-“ She was then cut off when she got slapped by an unseen hand, causing her to fall over once again as she yelled out in pain from how hard the slap had been, as evidenced by how loud it was for the rest of us.
“That’s enough,” I then exclaimed, putting my foot down once and for all. “This ends now! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you are to leave my friend Marie alone! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you are to leave this house and never return! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you are to leave the rest of us alone too! Get out!”
In response to my provocation, the kitchen cabinets once again began to open and slam shut repeatedly as they had done before. Instead of running away, however, we all stood our ground. Yukiko joined in, yelling at Eustace, “You’re not welcome here! Go back to Leesville and leave us alone!”
“Get out of my God damn house,” Marie chimed in as the cabinets got louder and louder, with one door even coming off the hinges and falling to the floor. “This is my family's house, not your! Get away from me and never return!”
Ashley meanwhile moaned in pain, her headache seemingly getting worse with every passing second. “Agh… Ugh… It fucking hurts…”
I turned to her and asked her, “Ash, what’s wrong?!”
“My forehead is pounding with pain. The banging noises aren’t helping.”
“God damn it, of all times…”
As the cabinets continued to open and slam shut around us, Jared was praying to himself, fearful of what would happen as the chaos continued. “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.” Given that none of us were particularly religious, to see Jared resorting to religious protection was an unusual sight brought about by even more unusual (and extremely terrifying) circumstances.
As if things could not get any crazier, Marie turned to Ashley and saw something we could not see. “Woah, hold on! Ashley!”
Still in pain from what had been happening, she turned to her and asked, “Ugh, what…?”
“Something is touching you,” she told her. “It’s a hand! It’s someone’s hand!” She took a photo camera and snapped a picture of her, eager to see if she could get it on film if the others could not see it.
Yukiko, confused, called out, “I don’t see a hand, Marie! Ashley, are you alright?!”
“My headache is going away,” she replied over the loud noises. “But it’s not really helping when all the fucking cabinets are still banging like crazy!”
I tried to hold a cabinet down to prevent it from shutting, but as I grabbed the handle and pushed down with all of my might, I felt a force suddenly pull me away, causing me to fall to the ground and strike my head on the refrigerator. “Agh, my head!”
“Holy shit,” Marie said as she ran over to me. “Takeo, are you alright?!”
I held the back of my head with my left hand in pain. “Agh… Shit, I banged up my head pretty good.” All the while, the kitchen was still going crazy, and we could now hear horrible, horrible peals of laughter echo throughout the house, all of which was captured on camera. “God damn it, now they’re laughing!”
After another few seconds of this madness, and seemingly having had enough now that I had been hurt, Ashley got up from the table and screamed at the top of her lungs with rage in her voice, “STOP!” With that, the disturbances immediately ceased. Somehow, she had been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, as Eustace seemed to have vanished, perhaps scared off by Ashley’s aggression.
As we all looked around, Yukiko cautiously asked, “Is… Is it over?”
“I think it’s over,” Marie replied, breathing a sigh of relief. “God, I hope it’s over.”
Jared asked Marie, “Do you feel any presence besides us?”
Marie paused to see if she could, taking it all in as she took a deep breath. “I… I don’t… It’s weird. I think he’s gone, at least for now. I can’t feel his presence anymore. I do feel another presence, but… This one feels more benevolent. It feels familiar, too…”
Cautiously optimistic, I smiled and told the rest of the group, “We did it… We beat him back…” To say I was relieved would be an understatement.
“You’re right,” Ashley agreed as we all began to hi-five each other and celebrate, relieved that the nightmare was finally over.
“Thank God it’s over,” Jared added. “I nearly pissed myself from how bad it got.”
“I think all of us almost did,” Marie chuckled. She then breathed a huge sigh of relief, almost getting overcome with emotion at the fact the torment had finally ceased. “This… This is the beginning of the end, isn’t it? Tomorrow, the first exorcism session will begin, and from there, this Leesville ghost will be forced out more and more with each session.”
Curious about what an exorcism would entail, Ashley asked her, “What’s gonna happen? How long will it take?”
“We don’t know how long. We do know it won’t be a one and done thing. We’ll be visited at least several times for the next few months by a priest to get rid of him permanently.”
…
Later that night, we all slept like rocks in our respective rooms, although, of course, we woke up at 3:22 AM like normal. Thankfully, nothing else happened, and the next morning, we all ate breakfast together and began to look over our evidence from the night before. “Man,” I remarked as I began to look through the photos we had taken. “It’s gonna be a pain in the ass to look all of this over. There’s a whole boatload of evidence we got.”
“Tell me about it,” Ashley replied before yawning. “I’m just glad we’re taking a break after this.”
“Yeah,” Marie nodded. “No more ghost hunting for the rest of the year.”
“In the meantime,” I explained. “I’m gonna start editing the videos we got and finally get around to posting recaps of our investigations online. I don’t know if we can publish all thirteen of them, but I can publish at least some of them.”
“Thirteen, huh,” Ashley pointed out. “Of course we end with thirteen investigations.”
“We could number this case as Twelve-Alpha,” Jared joked. “Thirteen is an unlucky number, after all.”
“Twelve-Alpha,” I laughed. “Maybe.” I then finished my breakfast, which was only a few pieces of toast, before downing the last of my orange juice and telling the gang, “We did good, guys. I’d say this past year’s been pretty productive.”
Marie remarked, “What, are you a CEO doing an end-of-year review or something?”
Realizing I did indeed sound like that, I played up the part even more. “I think our fourth quarter sales have been incredible this year, and I’ll be sure to give all of the other executives big bonuses as a result, while the rest of you get two whole pizza parties for free!” Everyone else broke down in laughter. “Come on, I’m being generous. Be lucky I’m not laying anyone off this year while I line my pock- I mean, ensure we stay afloat financially.”
“You know,” Yukiko then commented, panning the camera around the whole kitchen. “I’m glad we got to do this altogether. We had a lot of fun, even with all the crazy shit that’s been going on.”
“And I’m glad not only was I able to hunt with my friends and my sister,” I then pointed out. “But also with my beloved girlfriend.” Me and Ashley giggled as I gave her a kiss on the cheek, which she responded to by surprising me with a full-blown kiss on the lips. “I love you, Ashley.”
She told me with a smile, “I love you, Takeo.”
“Come on, get a room,” my sister jokingly scolded us. “We know you two did some stuff while you were house sitting here in January.”
Jared looked at us and remarked, “Really?”
“I don’t give a shit,” Marie shrugged. “They’re a couple. They didn’t make a mess, and the less my parents know about the sex lives of their daughter’s friends, the better.”
“See,” Ashley nodded. “Marie gets it. We all got our own needs, and I gotta say, Takeo takes good care of mine.” All of us once again laughed rather loudly. “When you guys find a boy or a girl you really like, you’ll understand. Naomi certainly did when she was alive.”
The laughter stopped, however, when Marie gasped as she looked at the photo she had taken of Ashley while she was dealing with the aftermath of her possession. “Guys, look!”
I turned and asked her, “What is it?”
“Remember that photo of Ashley I took right before Eustace left us alone? Well, look what else appeared in it.”
As she showed us the photo, Ashley’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Speak of the devil… I…I don’t believe it.”
“Oh my God,” Jared said in shock. “That’s…”
“It’s Naomi,” I realized.
The photo itself showed a figure standing behind Ashley laying a hand down on her head as if to comfort her. The figure was of the same height and build as our long-lost friend, and despite the fact we could not make out any facial features, it seemed like she was looking down at her. Had Naomi really visited us in a time of crisis?
Ashley admitted to us, “That… That would explain why the headache went away… I thought I could sense her watching over me, but I didn’t say anything. I was in disbelief. I thought she would never show herself like this.”
“Maybe she was a guardian angel for us last night,” I theorized. “Perhaps she saw that Eustace had possessed you and was trying to help, Ash.”
“That would explain it.”
Just then, the doorbell rang, and Marie got up to get it. When she opened the door, a priest was standing on the other side. “Good morning. Is this the Desmond residence?”
“It is,” she replied. “Are you Father Lawrence?”
“I am,” replied Father Michael Lawrence, the priest that had been sent to begin the exorcism. “It’s a pleasure meeting you, Miss Desmond. I’ve talked to your parents over the phone already, and I understand you and your friends have some photos and videos they want to share with me.”
…
Father Lawrence watched and listened to a digest version of the evidence we had gathered over the past two days, with me explaining what was going on as I played each of the clips, and by the end, he was clearly disturbed by what he saw. “Oh my… You kids are certainly brave. I would not have been so willing to confront a spirit at your age.”
“It was tough work,” I replied to him. “But it was all worth it. We hope you’re able to help our friend out. She’s been bothered by this for over half a year.”
“I was especially shocked that you were physically attacked in the attic. That video truly shook me to my core.”
I pointed out the mostly-faded red marks on my neck. “They’re fading away, but you can still kinda make out where the wire wrapped around my neck and where the fingers from that unseen entity choked me. I’m not sure if it was the spirit from Leesville who did it, but I wouldn’t be surprised, Father.”
“This spirit… He said his name was Eustace, correct?”
“Yes. After we got a name from him during an EVP session, he began responding to us calling him Eustace. We aren’t sure what kind of connection he has to the house in Leesville where we first encountered him. I can’t remember if any records I looked into mentioned a man named Eustace.”
“I’ll look into it,” Father Lawrence assured me. “You kids need a break. I can tell you’ve been through a lot this past year.”
“We’re going on a break, in fact, Father. We’re gonna hold off on any further ghost hunting at least until early 2024.”
“I’d also be a bit more careful,” he advised me. “You’re dealing with some pretty dangerous entities, young man. I won’t stop you from ghost hunting, but I will say that you should consider using provocation a little less. The last thing I’d want is for any of you or your friends to get hurt.”
“I’ll admit, I’ve been aggressive at times. To be fair, it was only after we got attacked or because a spirit was actively harming the people who lived there, but I understand.”
Still curious about our exploits, Father Lawrence then asked me, “Have you guys been in contact with any other ghost hunters? You know there’s a whole community out there about it, right?”
“We haven’t really shared our evidence with anyone else besides homeowners,” I explained. “I am editing together a video to show off some of our evidence in some locations, but I’m not sure about posting all of our cases due to privacy issues, Father. Also, I do want to focus on school. Maybe next year we’ll link up with other ghost hunters after our little sabbatical from it all.”
“I see.” Father Lawrence then cleared his throat and shook my hand. “Thank you for showing me this. I’ll forward the evidence you sent me to the appropriate people. Are you sticking around for the first session of the exorcism?”
“Not this time,” I chuckled. “We’ve been cooped up in this house long enough.”
“Understandable. I’ll be sure to tell you guys what happens.”
…
After these two harrowing days in Marie’s house and a far more relaxing morning, we stepped aside and let the Catholic Church formally take over later in the day. That Sunday, Father Lawrence led the first of what would end up being six different sessions were conducted to exorcise both the house as well as the spirit attachment to Marie. By the end, even though Marie was still sensitive to the supernatural, no longer were she or her family tormented by ghosts.
In the end, we looked through the records of the abandoned home in Leesville once more, and Father Lawrence did indeed find a man named Eustace in them. Eustace was in fact the name of the son of the first owner of the house, who died at the age of twenty in 1917, just seven years after he moved in with his family. His cause of death was listed as a fall, although no further details about it could be found. The only other thing we found out about Eustace was a police report mentioning that he had been arrested twice for drunkenness and fighting. As for how he was as a person besides this, we may never know. Eerily enough, he died exactly forty years before the son of the next homeowners committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend.
To say our journeys were life-changing would be an understatement. They changed not only our lives, but the lives of those around us as well. Not only did these experiences scare us, but in some ways, they scarred us, too. Even so, I would not want to trade them for anything, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Everyone else, even Marie, agrees.
Shortly after the final investigation at Marie’s house, we all visited Naomi’s grave once more. We told her about our experiences, and we even took another group photo with her grave. This time, we did not capture any unusual anomalies in the picture, but we could still sense that she was watching over us from beyond the grave, perhaps even protecting us from the evil that lurks in the paranormal world.
Marie finally convinced the whole group to get into cosplay, even Jared, and we pulled off a group cosplay of Jujutsu Kaisen at a convention in the then-new year of 2024. She also began a part-time job at the Volendam Theater to help pay for her hobbies. Me and Ashley began discussing our long-term relationship plans, and committed to remaining together while we both pursued further education in college. Yukiko began to get serious about pursuing video production and filmography as a potential career, having found she had a knack for it while working with us. Jared began working with his father at a car repair shop, aiming to one day become an automotive technician.
I hope you enjoyed reading about us, and whether you believe in ghosts or not, just know that there are things in this world that we may never understand, and those are the things we look for. Even with the hauntings that follow us home in one way or another, we will never stop on our quest to find more of what we have seen and heard with our own eyes and ears.
…
One last thing.
After our visit to Naomi’s grave following the final investigation of the year, I decided to take a trip up to Marie’s attic once more while visiting her and her family. As I walked up, I took it all in, remembering what had happened to me and even stopping at the spot where I had been pinned up against the wall. Carrying a video camera with me, I filmed the entire attic in silence, not really expecting anything to happen but still prepared just in case.
Nothing had changed in terms of the contents of the attic. All of the same boxes from before were still there, as were the various other objects the family had no immediate use for. As I looked around, I unexpectedly stumbled on the cord that had been used to try to strangle me in that very attic. “Huh… I thought Ash threw this out… This is the exact same cord that got wrapped around my neck.” Just then, I felt a sense of dread wash over me as I looked up at the window to the road and felt a presence besides my own in the attic. “Oh no…”
This presence was not Eustace, but was in fact the woman I had seen in the beginning of the year. As I turned around, I aimed the camera down the opposite end of the attic, and I found myself confronted by a large shadow figure standing still and seemingly looking right at me. Although she had no discernible features, I could tell it was her.
Fearing for my safety, I ran down the ladder and quickly slammed the hatch closed. Once it was shut, I took a deep breath as my heart raced, having gotten up close and personal once more with the same spirit that had kick-started this whole journey. Marie noticed me from down the hall and asked, “Wait, Takeo, you were in the attic?”
“The woman’s up there,” I told her as I caught my breath. “I got it on film, too!”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, just got scared a bit.”
Marie then sighed and looked up at the attic hatch. “You know, honestly, I don’t really mind her. Sure, she can be creepy, but she doesn’t mean harm. As long as Eustace stays away, I guess she can stay.”
Pondering her words for a few seconds, I nodded and agreed. “Honestly, I gotta agree. She scared the shit out of me, but she isn’t harmful.” In a way, seeing her again was proof that perhaps no matter how much I said I needed a break from it, I could never bring myself to completely abandon ghost hunting. It was also poetic for my last (intentionally sought after) experience with the paranormal for the time being to involve the same spirit that had frightened me and Ashley all those months ago.
Unlike back then, however, I now had definitive proof of these hauntings.
