1 A grandmothers retelling

My mother always said she didn't believe in things like psychics,

who could read people's minds and things like that, but she did believe some people were gifted

And she didn't believe in religion but she did believe in god,

her faith was unshakable,

she just didn't believe in following a set of rules set by any particular religion with

which she had to live her life in order to be a good Christian,

She believed that god was god regardless of religion,

he was a being who was there, he had created us,

and the world, he deserved our faith, our love, and ultimately our respect,

and in exchange he would watch over us and protect us, and guide our lives how he saw fit

she didn't believe in committing ourselves to a particular church and its rules or beliefs

So as a result she never insisted on us going to church

she said there were many religions and many manmade rules and rituals set by those religions,

but there was only one god so there was no point,

it was enough to just believe and have faith, love and respect for him for ourselves and for others too,

This story begins when I was about eight years old,

this is when I started to believe in things like demons and spirits and even angels and oddly enough

people who might have mind reading abilities,

By the time I was eight years old my mother had four children,

myself my little sister and two younger brothers,

I can't remember where my siblings were at this first unnatural experience,

all I can say is that they weren't home, neither was my dad, so I guess they must have been with him,

Despite being the oldest i was always the quiet shy one in the family,

I didn't make friends very well I preferred books a quiet corner, music and my own imagination to keep me company,

So I was often left at home with my mom while my siblings went out and I really couldn't have been happier with that arrangement,

I loved nothing more than to be left alone in the quiet of the house,

it always felt like my siblings crowded me too much,

never giving me enough personal space and to this day I am still the same,

I'm an oddly solitary person who tends to not like having many people around me all the time,

On this particular afternoon I was in the living room,

and I was reading as usual and I can't describe really what I felt,

other than I was suddenly disturbed and I closed my book and set it down and then I heard,

A very precise and sharp knock on the front door rap rap rap,

it didn't sound like an ordinary neighbor knocking to get your attention,

it sounded like someone was downright demanding entrance

At first I didn't answer, but then I heard it again,

rap rap rap so I got up slowly and went to the door,

I opened it and standing on the step was this older gentleman,

he was dressed in a pressed black pants a white buttoned shirt tucked inside,

with a black belt and he wore a white hat with a black band around it,

he stood with his hands clasped in front of him and on his hand I noticed a gold ring with a black symbol on it,

I couldn't tell you what that symbol was because I can't remember what it looked like,

all I knew was that it wasn't good at all

I looked up at him he was really tall but when our eyes met,

I felt frozen all over my body went cold down to my bones

his eyes were black and glittering and filled with so much malice hatred anger and darkness

And at that moment I felt this presence it was dark and heavy and it surrounded me

it felt like it was draining my energy out of my body

and I was helpless utterly petrified with fear I felt this all consuming darkness sucking me in

And then he said "child is your mother home?"

I nodded because my vocal cords wouldn't work I couldn't speak or scream or move it was the scariest feeling like being being paralyzed on the spot

this being looking at me like I can't describe like a predator, like something waiting to harm me

Then he said "child you will fetch her for me" he wasn't asking me it was a flat out order

I nodded again but instead of turning around to go get my mom like normal

I very strangely started to walk backwards from the door I couldn't tear my eyes from his the whole time,

I felt the darkness all around me it was oppressive, and I couldn't breathe, like there wasn't any air in the room I felt like I was suffocating very slowly,

And then I saw him start to come inside he got his foot in the door,

and that's what drew me up short i stopped and I instantly froze again

He stopped and cocked his head studying me and he wasn't pleased and he said slowly and very precisely

"I said child go and fetch your mother"

But I still couldn't move, that's when it started,

I began to hear this sound in my head like a great rushing that was coming swiftly towards me, from behind,

In normal circumstances if something is rushing at you,

what happens is you feel the urge to move out of the way

but I couldn't, I was rooted to the spot and then suddenly the rushing sound stopped,

for a few seconds all I could hear was my own frantic heartbeat in my ears,

and my gasping breaths my whole body was shaking under the strain of an unseen pressure

and I was still very scared to my soul I could taste it in the back of my throat

I could feel this unbearable pressure pushing me to the floor

and then suddenly that pressure lifted I felt the force of it like it was shoved off me,

and I felt like I was wrapped in a warm safe blanket

except this blanket wasn't made of soft fluffy anything,

this blanket felt solid and strong as reinforced steel,

it felt like it was powerful and immovable,

and I remember thinking I can breathe again and the darkness is fading,

the light is coming back because that's what I felt

The oppressive darkness that was consuming me,

had released me and was retreating I opened my mouth to speak and I thought I can't do this I'm scared,

But then I heard something but I didn't hear it, at all not like an actual voice,

but more like.... a presence in my mind like a silent thought,

like if someone had thought it right into my head and it said

Fear not he cannot hurt you now for I am here ill protect you, you are safe,

And then I felt the strangest thing like a gentle hand on my shoulder,

and I could feel as if someone was standing right behind me and they bracing me with their hand on my shoulder

This person was very powerful and strong and they were protecting me,

and giving me strength all the energy I felt draining out of me earlier,

was pouring back in and I began to feel very warm almost hot but it wasn't painful it just felt a bit odd,

like it was something I would get used to feeling I felt stronger and my fear was melting away

And then I opened my mouth and said

"Do Not Come In You Are Not Welcome Here"

Except it wasn't my voice,

this voice sounded like me but it was older too powerful and commanding almost too superior to be me!,

He took his foot out of the door and his eyes widened slightly as if he just realized something else was with me now,

I took a step forward and repeated the words again

He took another step back and I continued forward,

one step at a time, and he was going back,

until he was standing all the way at the bottom of the steps,

the presence with me, had been able to help me force him out,

along with whatever dark entity he had brought with him to try to get into my home,

I stood in the door way now and I reached out and pulled in the door gently as I can, because I was still a bit intimidated,

but the door flew out of my hand and came in so hard it slammed

The loud sound startled me back to reality,

I mean not that what I experienced wasn't real,

but i somehow felt strange un realness like i had been sleeping and having a bad dream,

the entire time and the slamming door suddenly woke me up, it startled me very much

and yet I knew he was out there still waiting I knew it had happened, i knew it was real

My mother heard the slamming door and rushed into the room

I said "mom there's a man wearing a white hat and a black and gold ring waiting for you"

She got really pale she knew exactly who that man was,

and I could have sworn I heard her think,

"why is he here? what does he want with my family? why can't he leave us alone!"

I have no explanation for why I could hear that in my head

because she hadn't said it out loud to me I was not hearing it with my ears

But rather with some special place inside my head like some inner hearing

Like I could hear her thoughts or something I was a bit freaked out,

"Did he speak to you?" she asked

I nodded "he just said to fetch you and he tried to come in but I said

Do not come in you are not welcome"

She gave me this look like she was surprised and then she took my hand,

and she closed her eyes and I felt this little warm jolt and then I could see what she was seeing,

what happened everything I saw felt and heard,

like she was reading my memory and reliving it and I was watching her do it inside myself at the same time,

I know, I know, it sounds really crazy and it doesn't make any sense, and I can't explain it logically I can't even begin to try

And then she released my hand, and she hugged me and said,

"I know you're confused right now but you're a very brave girl so much stronger than I thought,"

she then kissed me on the forehead, and went outside to talk to the man

I remember the same silent voice telling me

"go to the window and watch"

And...I went to the window it was like this being that's with me

was showing me all the signs to recognize someone who was like this man,

who seemed to travel with darkness or with something evil inside of them, it set them apart from normal people,

My mother was the type of woman who had a lot of body language,

when she talked she would gesture with her hands,

You could see her face expressions change, and I was used to this in other people,

Regular normal people, everyone has body language,

It's something that creates the base for communication,

It's how you can tell that person is angry, or that person is very happy,

Or that other person is unhappy about something,

Just by looking at that person and being able to read their body language and expressions.

But the way this person dressed and spoke so precisely,

And in an almost ancient way it didn't seem natural,

He held himself very straight and stiff and still, the man had no movements at all,

Not even his face had any moving expressions,

Except for his eyes that was where all the activity mostly was,

In his black glittering piercing eyes,

But it's like he was just an empty shell and not really alive at all,

Like watching a puppet but you couldn't see who was pulling his strings and controlling him,

He spoke to my mother the whole time with his hands clasped in front of him,

Standing very straight occasionally he would sort of cock his head

And I noticed that my mom would not look him in the eyes,

Like I had, like she knew what would happen if she did,

She was sort of standing off to the side looking up the street,

And she kept a certain distance from him as well,

While my mother looked scared and agitated,

He just didn't have any kind of expression at all

Not a single muscle was moving on his face or his body,

I have never seen anyone so unnaturally still at one point,

I didn't even think he was breathing,

Because I couldn't see his chest rising and falling it was frightening to see him,

But eventually he finished talking to my mother and left

I remember him leaving because I felt the most extraordinary sense of relief,

My knees turned to jelly and the dark presence that lurked on the edge of my mind was gone,

It seemed like it was attached to him or resided in him, so that when he left,

It left with him

My mom came in and took me to the couch and said "honey I have to talk to you"

But I'll be honest; I don't remember what she told me to this very day,

In fact I don't recall anything else about that day at all,

It was like someone had decided to erase my memories of that day,

I guess at the time they must have believed it was the only way I would be able to cope with everything I had just experienced,

and still continue to have a normal life because the only reason I can remember that day so clearly now,

Is because of something else that happened three years later and the memory was returned to me then

But after that day, my life returned to normal, like nothing had happened at all, i did not have anymore strange occurrences or encounters

I did not remember the scary man and my mother didn't mention him to me again.

It started the year I was eleven years old going on twelve,

And it was the summer time and that's when I would say things really began

My two brothers had by now become four brothers so now I was the oldest of six children

We were sitting in the living room watching TV my mother was holding my youngest baby brother he was just a few months old and adorable,

And I started to feel really tired suddenly all my limbs felt leaded and I could barely keep my eyes open

And I just fell asleep and had a strange and frightening dream.

I was standing in a graveyard and all my family was there and someone was being buried

I had no idea who it was we were all dressed in black and tombstones all around us

Everyone was crying and grieving and I could feel the trauma

Feel the loss and deep sorrow and I knew someone beloved to my family had died

I was certain it was someone in my family and I was watching them being buried

there was a big hole open in the ground in front of me and two men were digging in the hole

and there was a coffin and flowers

And I became very scared I needed to know who it was I decided to check everyone

I figured that if I checked then I could tell who was missing I would know who in my family had died

So I walked around and I checked you know counted heads pretty much

There is uncle so and so his wife aunt so and so and my cousins

You know like that on and on it went with me growing more worried and more scared,

Until finally I counted that everyone was present no one was missing,

It was impossible, if everyone in my family was here? Then who were they burying?

Who was dead? There had to be someone I was missing

I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up in alarm the coffin was being put into the hole and i didn't know who it was

Drawing my gaze across the cemetery a pair of black glittering eyes bore into mine and suddenly memory surged

He wasn't dressed that differently than last time except he was wearing a black jacket now

"You!"

I breathed in shock and darkness descended on the cemetery suddenly and then I woke up

Screaming and crying startling my mom and my siblings, the baby started squalling along with me,

My dad took the baby and my siblings out of the room while my mom comforted me,

Until I calmed down enough to tell her my dream

"It's alright honey it's just a bad dream"

She said soothing me but I knew she was lying

She took me to my room and tucked me into bed saying prayers for me

Before kissing me goodnight but there would be no sleep for me that night,

I stayed awake listening to the low murmurs of my parent's voices in the next room, and my mother made several phone calls

Which I strained to hear but barely caught snatches of words, that didn't make much sense at the time

In my worry of trying to figure everything out I let my mind become detached

In that odd way I had since I was smaller it's not something I can explain easily

It's just a feeling of drifting out of myself it's as close as I could imagine,

what being in outer space with zero gravity would feel like

Weightless and drifting in nothing,

I tried to put what I knew together pictures appeared,

In the nothing, like switching on a TV screen, my family was on one screen,

The scary man on another,

Myself on yet another,

This one was going in slow motion; it was of myself in the dream,

Having the dream, frame by frame I watched it play out,

Who was the man in my dream why did I recognize him? Why was I so scared of him?

And that's when it happened a tiny pin point of light appeared in the nothing

On another TV screen I focused on it,

And it grew getting bigger until a full memory began to play out on it,

A memory I didn't remember until now,

How could I have forgotten? I had met him before he had come to our house I returned to reality,

Like a rubber band snapping back and I sat up in bed with the stark realization

This man and I had met before, his being in my dream meant something very bad was going to happen to someone in my family, and I wouldn't be able to stop it.

After that is when the haunting began,

And I'm still not sure whether or not everything I experienced was real or just a product of my own imagination,

But it all started with the calling voice,

The house we lived in was built by my grandmother,

My father's mother she's currently still alive in New York with my dad's sister my aunt and her kids our cousins

My grandmother was fond of fruit trees we had a few around our home

A big mango tree in the back yard, which was the favorite haunt of a local troop of monkeys,

Who often disagreed with my dad about the ownership of the fruit

Once they even pelted him with green mangoes when he tried to chase them out of the tree

A lime tree, which my mother loved she used to pick the leaves,

Wash them and steep them in hot water with a dash of honey,

To make lime tea whenever one of us had a cold,

A mandarin tree,

My dad's favorite, he liked being able to just pick them right off the tree,

When they were ripe and eat them especially during the hot summers,

And my mom dried and saved the skins to make tea too sometimes,

She used the sweet sour tangy mandarin juice to marinate her meat when cooking which was delicious of course

The avocado tree which my siblings loved climbing,

And hanging out under it was the usual meeting spot of my siblings and other kids in the neighborhood

But the crowning jewel of my grandmothers fruit trees,

Was the big, sprawling, leafy, golden apple tree,

That grew on a plot of land all by its lonesome,

Right next to our house right in the middle of the space between our house and the neighbors next door

The apple tree seemed to bear year round, I can't remember a time when the apple tree weren't heavy with fruit,

And there was always my mom's homemade apple jam and golden apple juice in my home,

Not to mention freshly picked apples my favorite fruit to snack on

The apple tree was so big its roots grew above the ground,

And it was always cool and shady if not a little damp at times

And there was the tire swing my mom had put up too,

That was my favorite spot to read when the house felt too crowded,

Either tucked in between the roots of the tree or curled up inside the tire swing,

There was always a feeling of being in a forest safe and hidden,

With just the twittering birds and the pleasantly rustling apple tree to keep me company,

I had fallen asleep there many times only to be roused by my mother calling for me,

From in the house when she realized she'd missed me for a while,

And I would always come running immediately,

On this particular day, I was there as usual inside the tire swing,

I had one leg hanging out to keep the tire swinging nicely as I read

And then I swore I heard my mother screaming for me from inside the house,

Not calling as she usually would but screaming,

That immediately set my heart racing I was so badly shocked,

I fell out of the swing twisting my ankle but I ran inside to my mom to see what was wrong,

I was very frightened I had never heard my mother scream like that

When I got inside my mother was shelling tamarinds from a big bag of them one of our neighbors had picked for her from their tree and making tamarind balls on the kitchen counter

Tamarind Balls are a candy treat popular with children made from a very sour tamarind fruit rolled in brown sugar with a dash of cinnamon or pepper

she was also making Tamarind Syrup by boiling the fruit in water with sugar till it comes free of the seeds and turns to a tangy sweet dark syrup

can be eaten by itself as a treat or can spread on bread or biscuits like a jam

I was gasping and shaking with fright she looked at me and went,

"Honey are you ok? Did you fall and hurt yourself?"

I said

"Mommy why did you scream for me are you all right"

She shook her head and said

"I didn't call for you I knew where you were I saw you through the bedroom window"

I said "mommy you didn't call me you screamed like you were hurt it scared me and I fell

I heard you screaming for me twice"

She went pale and said

"I didn't scream I didn't call for you it wasn't me the next time you hear it don't answer it okay"

I promised her I wouldn't answer the voice that sounded like her but really wasn't

And then she iced my throbbing ankle and let me eat two whole tamarind balls

My ankle was tender for two days I was forced to stay inside,

But I wasn't the only one who had heard the calling voice

Over the next few days my sister heard it twice,

And twice she ran inside to mom swearing she heard her calling her

My brothers all three of them were outdoors,

Across the street playing cricket on the back lawn at one of their schoolmates

When they swore they heard our dad shouting for them,

From our house when he really hadn't,

The oldest of my brothers stopped the younger two of them from automatically running across the street to answer him

they both almost got hit by a passing car and he barely managed to grab hold of them and pull them back to safety in time the close call scared all three of them

Though most drivers would go slow coming up our street for some some reason that one had not at that time

Because there was always kids' running around on our street it was cul-de-sac and it was a pretty much a kid filled neighborhood,

With families that had multiple children as well as extended family members on other nearby streets,

There was one school in the area and everyone went to school there

So all the kids knew each other at home and at school everyone was friends with each other

And spent time at everybody else's homes at one time or another from special days like birthday parties

to the every day habit dropping by their friends home to ask them to come out to play,

or bringing home friends from school to play with or do homework together

The neighborhood was very closely knit everyone was very friendly,

It was more like a small community within the city,

After that my mother insisted on us staying inside,

But its summer so there is no way you can keep five active kids,

Locked up in the house all summer in a neighborhood like ours,

So all the kids started coming to our home and it was more crowded and noisy than ever,

My mother finally gave up and let them go out to play

And the calling voice continued,

Sometimes it sounded like my mom,

Other times it sounded like my dad and all of us kids were hearing it,

Multiple times a day it was very tiring

Until finally my mother made us start us attending Sunday school,

With some of the children from the neighborhood,

and the calling voice eased,

It started sounding like it was coming from further away each time

Until finally it completely faded away and we heard it no more

For while things were okay and our days returned to normal but then physical things began to happen.

Doors opening or slamming closed for no apparent reason

When no one was there lights switching on by themselves

Little things seeming to go missing from around the house

At first it was just annoying cause then the missing things would turn up in odd places

Like someone had put them there and forgot to put them back where they had been

Or someone would walk in the room and just switch the light off again

And not think too much about it to mention it being on in the first place

Or think it's just the wind blowing the doors open or closed or maybe there were just

Kids that left it open when they ran out of the house

Things that seemed odd but perfectly explainable and understandable

And it would then slip your mind until the next time,

But then things began to get worse at night we would all go to bed

But then we would hear footsteps walking through our house,

We would hear what sounded like someone knocking on the front door or the front windows,

But when we got up to check no one was there,

Then one evening a dreadful sound filled the air a loud eerie sound

Making all the children in the neighborhood freeze in their tracks, where they played

A huge black bull cow with massive horns appeared at the end of the street,

And galloped madly down our street

Everyone scattered for their homes frightened,

The cow rammed its horns into our fence gate made that awful bellowing sound

that was the creepy sound we had heard before it appeared it did not sound like a natural sound a cow made and it was so loud you could hear it bellowing from several streets away

and then pulled out it horns from our fence, and

galloped unto our neighbor's lawn and destroyed her lawn furniture,

Before galloping down the rest of the street bellowing and disappearing

This happened everyday for a solid two weeks no one knew where the cow had come from no one in our area even owned cows

it was very strange and the noise it made was very distinctive and frightening sound that carried through the air and gave everyone the creeps

Our neighborhood became deserted of children and adults alike at a certain time in the evenings because the cow would come at that time like clock work and rampage on our street

it would always ram its horns at our gate and it would trample through peoples gardens and any furniture that happened to be left outside would be rammed and tossed about

My mom made a phone call, and one afternoon during the second week of this rampage

A well known local church that was famous for its fervent followers walked through our street

Singing songs chanting psalms playing tambourines and ringing bells they carried in their hands

they burned incense from a gold burner swinging it on a chain everywhere till our entire street smelled of incense

and the pastor preached very loudly to everyone, and said prayers, for everyone's families and throwing holy water from a bottle and saying he was blessing our street in the name of god

Later that evening at the time that the cow usually came an old man appeared he walked quietly down our street not saying a word to anyone no one knew who he was we had never seen him before

When he walked back up our street he was leading the black bull away by a rope around its neck

It was no longer behaving demented or making that awful bellowing, it was docile and silent.

My dad began to get visits at night from something that would pin him to the bed so he couldn't move,

He said he would scream and scream for help and no one in the house would be able to hear him,

And I'll never forget the night I was visited I was asleep,

When I began to feel like something heavy was on top of me the uncomfortable feeling woke me up

But I couldn't move and I could barely breathe I tried to move my arms to push it off but I couldn't, move i was bound to the bed

I tried to scream and I couldn't do that either,

And my sister was in the bunk bed right below me

I remember feeling its presence something so dark and oppressive it felt like it was reaching deep inside me it was terrifying

I was terrified my heart pounding my lungs heaving for the air I couldn't get I squeezed my eyes shut and

I began to recite psalms 23 which I was learning in Sunday school at the time

And then whatever was on me was suddenly released me like it was repelled and so I continued to recite

too scared to move because I could still feel it in my room it was watching me it made my hair stand on end

And then I felt something like someone was dragging their finger nails down my feet

Slowly, painfully

I started to pray even harder, every prayer I could remember from school,

Or Sunday school bible verses

And then I felt that presence the dark oppressive feeling retreat completely

It left but I knew it had scratched me cause I could feel my feet burning

Where I had felt it digging its nails into me

I didn't move or make a single sound till the sun came up,

Then I crawled out of bed and examined my feet

There were three long red welts on my feet I ran to my parent's room

My mom was just waking up,

There were the same red welts on down the side of her face

I said "mom are you okay?"

She said "its nothing, I accidentally scratched myself when I was sleeping"

And then I said

"You're fibbing it scratched me too"

She sighed and got out of bed and took me into the kitchen

She made a pot of lime tea with milk and honey and she put two cookies on a saucer and set them in front of me

And then she sat down across from me and said

"I'm going to tell you a story

"This story is about the man in the white hat with the black and gold ring",

That man is your grandfather, my dad"

When she said that I was stunned completely floored

And then she continued

"He isn't a good man, he is evil, and he belongs to a secret group of people here it is known only as The Lodge and in The Lodge they mess around with

Witchcraft demons black magic and occult stuff, they have real power,

They can summon things that shouldn't be here

There are stories of some of the terrible things they've done

And because he has children some of his power trickled down to us

Not a lot mind you we don't have super powers or magic or anything like you might see in the movies,

But we have just enough to make us gifted

Some of the members of our family can see things before they happen,

They tend to come to them in bad dreams like warnings

But it doesn't always happen to say that they can definitely see the future

And sometimes the dreams aren't always clear

They're more like riddles and then we have to figure them out in order to perceive the warning

Or sometimes they have the dream but then forget it upon waking,

And it isn't until the event is about to happen that the memory of the dream returns

And when it's like that its usually something we can't prevent from happening

And some of us can read the feelings of others, and can tell when they are happy or sad or in trouble,

Usually they'll know if something is going to happen to one of us in time to call and warn us,

Or call someone and tell them to go to that person because they need help,

And most all of us can sense the presence of unseen entities or when someone near us uses power,

"Can anyone in our family hear the thoughts of others or the thoughts of these unseen entities can they talk to them?" everything she told me in her story sounded very familiar to my own experiences

I asked her

She looked at me and said

"You're different from us I've seen what happened to you three years ago when he visited here"

I was trying to read what you felt because that's my gift,

Instead you showed me everything using your own gifts

You're stronger than anyone else in this family most of us have only one ability

But you have all of them,"

"So what does that mean?" I asked

"You're special for some reason" she replied "and he knows it your abilities will show themselves strongest when you reach puberty"

"We still don't know why that is but I guess it's why he's sending these things to harass us now"

"You're getting close he's afraid of what you might be able to do"

"Three years ago you summoned something to protect yourself and our home when he came"

"Something that was stronger than his own power

I know you didn't understand then what had happened, then you were just a very scared little girl,

You could sense the evil and power within him and you instinctively protected us all

But at that age you shouldn't have been able to,

Summoning an entity takes a huge amount of power

It usually requires an entire group of people with power to do it but you did it all by yourself"

"So he's scared of me?" I asked in surprise

"I don't think he's ever been scared of anyone since he joined The Lodge,

I think he's scared of the entity you can summon though" she said

"Our gifts are from him which means they are derived from dark occult origins,

We suspect from some kind of pact with a demon,

"so it's more like a curse and we all feared the light had abandoned this family years ago because of it, but we still tried to make up for it anyways by doing good where we can and protecting this family and its children "

But that day you summoned a entity of light something so powerful the dark couldn't touch you anymore and

you forced him to retreat and get right out of the door it's given this family something akin to redemption like maybe there's hope for our family through you"

"But what about these things that are attacking us now? i asked

"Look what it did to you and to me and dad too there must be something to stop it"

"There is, next weekend you're all going to stay at your aunts while the house is cleansed and blessed"

She explained gently

"Everything should return to normal then"

"It had better" I replied

"I don't like this it's too scary for me I don't even know how to control this weird stuff and you're saying ill redeem the family"

She smiled "don't worry eventually your time will come"

I sighed "so why did your mom marry someone like him? and make the whole family have this trouble?"

"According to my mom, he was different back then not like he is now" she said

"He used to be a normal man before he got involved in The Lodge"

"Then why?" I asked

"The Lodge are very powerful they have connections and important people are in it too",

"And they use those connections to make things happen for its members and their families",

"They make sure they get everything they could possibly want",

"Wealth, success in business, nice homes, the best schools for the kids,

You name it they can make sure it happens for you as long as you do what they want",

"Or they can utterly destroy a person's life, tear them apart without mercy",

"Your granddad wanted the power and when my mom realized what he was doing, she left him and took us with her"

"He's been terrorizing us ever since, years ago before you were born your eldest uncle wanted to marry your aunt"

"And he didn't approve, but your uncle didn't care he went ahead with it anyways and married her,

A few days afterwards men wearing black robes came up your uncle's street

They stood in a circle and performed a ritual right there in the street something appeared,

They said it looked like a black donkey with chains bound on it hooves and glowing red eyes

The donkey galloped up the street and back again and then straight into your uncle's house,

Ramming it with its hooves

The men left and night after night the donkey came back,

The people on their street named it the Steel Donkey

Your uncle and his new wife were terrified they couldn't sleep they couldn't be at peace

The sound of dragging chains always heralded the donkeys return

And when it slammed into the house, it shook the house right down to its foundations"

"So what did they do?" I breathed

"Your uncle and aunt were forced to move and then someone in the neighborhood burned their house to the ground"

Your uncle and aunt wasn't the only ones being terrorized by the donkey,

It wasn't safe for anyone to be outdoors when the donkey came,

It would trample, kick or bite anyone in its path, regardless of if they were adults or children"

"Oh my gosh" I breathed in horror it sounded like a worse version of the cow that had rampaged in our street

"And that's just one story" she said "there's plenty more stories where that came from The Lodge is a well known urban legend

people hear the stories or rumors of the Lodge being seen somewhere men in black cloaks would circulate sometimes if they were being active for some reason

"But I think you've heard enough for one morning let me look at those scratches"

She tended my feet and then made me breakfast

After I had eaten she took me shopping with her,

She bought three big bibles and then eight small ones

When we came home she placed an open bible on top of the dressers in each of the bedrooms,

And then she went around and put the small bibles under each of our pillows

"That should keep it out till this weekend when the full cleansing is done" she explained as I watched her

I could only hope it worked but I sensed that it would,

Somehow the atmosphere in the house had changed,

Subtly, it felt lighter like a dark shadow or veil that we didn't know was there till then,

Hung unseen around us, had been lifted i could feel the difference

I felt like we had more breathing room but night would tell

That night we all went to sleep I held my little bible clutched to my chest

I was roused by the sound of angry stomping through the house

It was really loud, it sounded like my dad did when he was wearing his heavy work boots

The stomping was then accompanied by foul curses,

The likes I've never heard my whole life, and I have heard grownups use curse words before,

It was using my dad's voice and it was horrible, saying the most disgusting things in a guttural voice

that made my skin crawl and my hair stand on end,

The entity was pissed beyond all measure it seems that my mother's bibles had done the trick

It couldn't enter any of our bedrooms to disturb our sleep

It was restricted now to just the outer part of our home

This was the area that ran from the front door,

Past the living room, past the bedrooms on the right wing of the house

Through the kitchen and then ending finally at the back door

Which was where it was stomping up and down pacing and cursing relentlessly

Somehow though I could breathe easy knowing it couldn't come into my bedroom,

It didn't make me feel any less scared I just wanted it to go away, to stop and leave us alone for good,

I couldn't sleep the whole night it kept up its angry racket,

It only ended in the wee hours of the morning and then I was able to drift off to sleep

But as soon as I did my mom came in and woke me up she asked

"Did you hear it last night?"

I said "yes it was awful I couldn't sleep the whole time"

"Me either but at least you were safe in here that's a small blessing get some sleep love"

She kissed me on my forehead and went back to her room I drifted off to sleep again

I woke around midday I went to climb out of bed

Only to find my bedroom floor covered in big black spiders

I mean hundreds of them covering the entire floor crawling up through the floor boards

I started screaming and couldn't stop my dad rushed to my door,

Cursed and then ran out again

I still didn't stop screaming I'm badly arachnophobic Even the tiniest spider will scare the crap out of me and have my nerves shot for a few hours

The slightest touch I'd imagine was a spider crawling on me,

And I'd be jumpy and trying frantically to get it off me

Now imagine what looked liked hundreds of huge black hairy tarantulas, covering my bedroom floor would do to me

My parents came back with bug spray brooms and dustpans

They immediately started spraying them and sweeping them up by the time they were done

I was a sobbing hyperventilating mess curled up in the fetal position in the middle of my bed

My dad lifted me down from my bed because I refused to come down myself,

My feet were not going to touch that floor

My mother packed a bag with some clothes for me,

She wrapped me in a blanket and tucked me into the backseat of the car,

Still in my pajamas because I was too scared to be alone to even take a bath,

My dad drove me to my aunt's house and that's where I stayed for the rest of the week until the cleansing and blessing,

My siblings joined us for that weekend we had fun with our cousins

And then on Sunday night my parents returned to get us

My mother had new scratches on her but she said it was over the house was completely clean

They took us home and when I came inside I felt such relief

It was gone completely I couldn't feel the presence of anything anymore it really was finally over

Our lives returned to normal for a bit until one particular weekend nearing the end of summer,

One of my aunts had another dream my mother didn't tell me details,

But she said the warning was clear it was a really bad one,

That weekend we all got shipped off to our aunts again, even my month's old baby brother,

I was supposed to help my aunt look after him

But this time it wasn't just us and our cousins,

All of my other cousins from my other aunts and uncles had been sent there too,

They told us it was a kid's only weekend sleepover,

I guess so as not to scare us all with the truth,

Sunday night came and no one turned up to pick up anyone,

My aunt and uncle were worried they made several phone calls,

And tried their best not to let it show but my aunt wrung her hands when she was worried,

And she was wringing them a lot my usually jovial uncle fell silent he started pacing restlessly,

She put everyone to bed with fairytale stories but I stayed up waiting,

And then the phone rang in the dead of night I heard my uncle answer,

And then I heard my aunt crying softly and saying it's over, it's really over,

She kept saying that over and over again she sounded relieved and happy

I went to sleep.

The next morning our aunts and uncles returned to pick up their children,

Many of them covered in scratches, cuts, ugly bruises,

They looked like they'd been to war,

But everyone had survived in more or less one piece

Even my mom and dad looked like they'd had their butts kicked but my mother's smile was a face splitting grin,

She looked absolutely over the moon despite her injures,

She hugged us all and she hugged my aunt and uncle, and then she took the six of us home.

I never asked my parents what happened that weekend,

And they didn't tell me either but a week later in the newspaper,

Was a death notice a picture of the man in the white hat with the gold and black ring

The man who my mother said was my grandfather was dead he was going to be privately cremated.

No one went to his funeral.