The Waiting...

We had the day off from filming so we spent the day at home just trying to catch up with life.  Our producer had already given us the schedule for The Reveal.  It going to be filmed the next day, Thursday night.

To say we were anxious about the Reveal would of been an understatement.  We're excited to hear the outcome but also scared as to what would find out.  Jennifer and I talked about the possibility of being told our only solution would be to move.  We talked it over with the girls and decided if that's the only thing we could do, then we would leave that night.

Unlike several of the other clients who had been told to leave but couldn't do so because of financial reasons, we were lucky enough to have built enough equity in our home to make moving a little easier.  The only problem would be finding a place that was similar enough to support our ranching operations.  After a quick look on the internet, we thankfully found enough places that we could relocate to if it came down to that.

We still had all the dogs at my mother's house and needed to keep them there until after the reveal.  So, even though we were at home, we didn't plan on staying too long.  Just long enough to grab a few things and look around.  It was amazing for us to see that Matt and the crew had put everything back in it's place.  The only evidence that they were even there was some left behind tape over certain logos and some tape on the walls where they may have hung some covering.

Another thing was they left some ruts on the west side of the driveway.  It happened on the night of Amy's walk and it's a funny story too.  If you remember it poured down rain that night.  One of their vans got stuck in the mud and couldn't get out.  They actually had to call a tow truck to come and pull them out.  The tow-truck driver apparently found out that they were filming a Dead Files episode and he then told his wife.  She was a fan of the show and posted something about it on Twitter.  Needless to say, our producer wasn't too pleased as they still had the reveal to film.  The last thing they wanted was word getting out that they were there, so he contacted the tow-truck driver.  Within an hour, the Tweet had been deleted.

The house still felt heavy, like there had been some sort of fight or argument.  We could feel the conflict as well as some confusion.  There was silence for the longest time, no TV, radio, or music playing and a slight smell of cigarette smoke was in the air.  Finally, the crazy woman must had mustered up the strength and a scream came down the hallway.  It was as if she was running toward us.  Even though we had heard her scream at least a 100 times, this one sounded different.  It was angry, frantic, and lost.  It sounded like a scream similar to a child who's lost in a store.  As she appeared to run past the entrance to the open bedroom, a picture fell off the wall and slammed onto the floor.  It was like it had been taken off the wall and thrown down as if she was having a temper tantrum.

We decided it was time to leave since crazy woman was getting all wound up and active.  Her screaming made uneasy and just increased our anxiety about the upcoming reveal.

Not a lot of sleep that night in anticipation of meeting Amy and hearing what she had to say.

Semana de los Muertos - Primera parte

A few members of the crew had been out to the house taking still shots and scouting places to set up.  Our producer had been in contact with us nearly every day checking on us.  So far our experience with The Dead Files had been great and a source of relief.  We weren't well but we were getting better.

However with all the good that seemed to be surrounding us, there was bad too.  At times the house felt heavy along with a feeling of anxiety that was overwhelming at times.  Those feelings manifested themselves into activity.  Doors would slam, silverware would crash onto the floor, we would hear heavy footsteps, light bulbs burned out despite being recently changed, and the scream...the scream became louder, stronger, and more terrifying.

The voices in my head were overwhelming.  They talked over each other and I couldn't make out what any of them were saying.  I wasn't sleeping well and felt nauseated every day.  It seemed like I had a never ending pounding headache that wouldn't responded to anything I took.  My joints were hurting so badly that every move I made felt like a new experience in pain.  Despite it being late May, I was cold most of the time.  I was falling apart piece by piece.

As I laying in bed one night in excruciating pain, I could hear the crazy woman whisper.  I couldn't make out what she was saying as it was a soft whisper.  The pain was overtaking me and I  prayed for relief.  Sadly the only way I thought to get relief was to have God take me.   I heard her whisper "finally" in my ear but then I heard someone else say, "keep fighting."  I'm not sure if that was just my inner voice or if someone was there taking care of me.  I finally drifted off to sleep.

My peaceful sleep didn't last long.  Out of nowhere I was awakened by a burning pressure on my chest. It felt the same as the when the medium from that paranormal group had her hand on me.  My initial thought was heartburn from something I had eaten however when I tried to get up I couldn't.  Something was holding me down and I felt the pressure increase on my chest every time I tried to move.  I tried to talk but couldn't and my breathing began to become painful.  Out of nowhere, I was slapped across my face.  After that, the pressure on my chest went away and I was able to get up.  I made my way to the bathroom and I notice my face was red where I had felt the slap.

We could just feel things getting worse and the house was heavier than it ever had been.  No one was sleeping and we were at the point of physical exhaustion.  There was also a lot of tension between all of us.  We were arguing and fighting between ourselves over the smallest things, things that never bothered us before or were trivial.

We were working as quickly as we could to get ready for the filming.  Working around our exhaustion was hard enough but trying to work around the activity made it even harder.  Things would disappear and then reappear.  They would return in a form of some kind of cryptic message; clothing folded in the form of an upside down cross, silverware pointing in certain directions, and drinking glasses turned upside down.  The smell of cigarette and pipe smoke was nearly constant smell throughout the house.

I knew things were getting worse, I could feel it.  I tried to remain strong but it was taking a very hard toll on me.  The voices were overwhelming and I couldn't keep them straight.  One afternoon, I heard one voice come through louder and clearer than the others.  It repeated over and over again.  It sounded like Spanish.  I grabbed a piece of paper and did my best to write down what was being said.  I got enough of the message before it faded away.

'No son los demonious parecen, solo una linea de almas perdidas, algunos fieles algunos no mas estan llegando'  (Click on text to see translation)

The translation was rough but I got the message...the week ahead was going to be a long one.

The Cavalry is coming to the rescue!

It's late March 2016 now and our lives had not only become distant from the outside world but from each other as well.   We couldn't stop or control anything that was happening. It had finally started breaking our souls.  Living the way we were living was a tragedy in itself.

The constant screaming of the crazy woman, the man laughing and yelling anytime he wanted,  things breaking down for no reason, things disappearing or flying through the house, and the smell of tobacco smoke were now a part of horrifying daily life.  It seemed there was always something new to add to the list happenings.  One evening I came back into the house from taking the trash out and found one of our dogs on a shelf above the kitchen cabinets.  It was impossible for him to have done this on his own, something helped him.  He was terrified and it took awhile to calm him down.  He also developed a self-protecting trait as sometimes he would refuse to come back inside the house.  It wouldn't make a difference if it was freezing, snowing, or raining he didn't want to come inside. 

Everything about us now was broken.  We were past the point of asking anyone for help or telling anyone about what was happening.   Everyone had looked at our situation as a novelty or something fun.  To them it was like something that they would see on television but to us it wasn't a made for TV movie.  It was the reality of living in constant fear, exhaustion, and chaos. 

My phone rang late one afternoon but since I didn't recognize the number I didn't answer.   I pushed the call the voice mail and forgot about it.  Later that evening I checked the message and it was Desma from The Dead Files!  Her message said the show had been renewed and she wanted me to call her if we were still interested.   Thankfully she was still in the office when I called back.   Jennifer & I spoke to her on speaker phone.  She asked if we were still having issues.  We quickly replied "yes and it's gotten worse!" 

"Would you still consider being on the show?  We want to use your story as a season premier.", she said.

We didn't hesitate and said, "Yes we do!"

She seemed just as excited as we were as she went through a timeline & deadlines of the show's production.   At the very end she asked if we sure we wanted to do this.  "You're at the point of no return now, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?  Doing the show will make everything public and people may judge you, so are you ready for that?"

We told her that we are living in constant fear and lives are nothing but a shell of what it was before all this started happening.  We were at the point that we didn't care what anyone else thought because we knew if we didn't get help we were going to lose everything.   So, yes...we were ready to do it and to finally get some help that we felt we could trust.

She told us who our producer would be and that he would contact us within the next couple of days to schedule times to come to meet with us.

We finally felt a sense of relief that we hadn't felt in years.  We were going to get help...real help.  All the sudden our moods stated to change and the house was quiet for a few days. 

However, things were about to take a very scary turn.  It's always darkest before the dawn is just a saying but it was about to become our reality.

At the end of the rope with nowhere to fall

If you have been an reader of our blog, you realize that our slow demise mentally & physically is an ongoing up to this point.  Now it's beginning to hit a climatic breaking point.   Jennifer's health continued to deteriorate.   She experienced stomach issues and had to have her gallbladder removed   She's tired and beginning to show signs of depression.  The younger girls, Heidi & Emi, have illnesses on a daily basis.  Despite constantly going to the doctor they have no answers on why they are sick or what could be causing it.  They prescribe antibiotics & other medicines but those only seem to slow it down but not cure it.  Chloe has become distant and less involved with the family.   We are slowly being torn apart, one thread at a time.    Bad days far out number good days now.

Our only recourse now seems to be to try to distant ourselves from the activity.   We feel we have a good idea of the hot spots so we make them off limits.   The back bedroom is now vacant.   No one is allowed in the basement.  Jennifer sleeps with the girls in the living room.  I sleep with Maya in what is now an open bedroom.  Everyone knows where everyone else is at all times.  Finally, under no circumstances is anyone allowed to stay home alone.

The holidays arrive but it means nothing to us.  Everything seemed to pile on top of us pushing us down.  It was a feeling that someone was slowly eating away at us; keeping us under their control. Nothing brought us happiness regardless of what we tried.  Compounding our problem was a strain of Canine parvovirus that ran through our kennel.  It killed 16 puppies in less than 10 days.  The virus was planted in our home but a careless individual who dropped off her sick dog in our kennel area in the middle of the night without telling us.  This does nothing but adds to Jennifer depression and makes her more vulnerable to attacks.  I feel as if she is slowly drifting away.

We started asking for things to be returned if they've been taken.   Sometimes things come back and sometimes they don't.   Case in point, it was our anniversary and Jennifer had laid an envelope full of cash on the bar for us to use on our night out.   It was in plain site and I remember seeing it setting there.   As we about to walk out the door, she goes to get it and it's gone.  We searched everywhere but it's nowhere to be found.   Finally Jennifer says, "It's our anniversary, please give my money back so we can celebrate."  Within in minutes it appears back on the bar like it had never been touched.

Things continue to happen despite our efforts to contain it.   Doors open and close, we hear voices, things disappear, and the screaming man and woman seem to be screaming at each other now with us being caught in the middle.  The smell of pipe and cigarette smoke continues to fill our house.   It's difficult for us to decipher what's good versus what has harmful intentions so we treat everything as hostile.  We have stopped talking to others about our issues because we feel it's counterproductive and doesn't serve a purpose but to make us some sort of novelty; like a freak show at a carnival.   We've become withdrawn and only venture out out of necessity.  We too tired to fight at this point.  We're helpless, lost, and have no one & nowhere to turn.  We're at the end of our rope but there's nowhere safe to fall.

You scream, I scream, but she screams louder

Until now, I was the only one who could actually hear the crazy lady scream.  However, that was about to change.

She is now screaming for all to hear on nearly a daily basis.   Her screams happened without warning and at anytime of the day.  They sounded as if they are coming from the back part of the house or in the back part of the hallway.  They were terrifying.

We were at a loss and even though we're scared at this new development; we're numb to everything that is happening around us.   The spoon is disappearing and reappearing as if it has a mind of it's own, she's screaming whenever she wants too, we're smelling cigarette and pipe smoke, and Jennifer & the girls are getting sick.   We're scared and feel hopeless.

Up to this point, the screams have only happened while it's only us in the house.  But one Spring afternoon that changed as she made her presence known to others outside the family.   It was Prom season and Chloe was helping other girls with their hair and make up.   There were a lot of teenage girls at our house and, as Chloe was doing a girls hair, it happened.  She screamed.  It was a longer scream than her normal one and sounded different.  It was like she was mad and jealous.  The look on the girl's faces were a combination of curiosity and horror. "what...was...that?" one asked.   So we had to explain and that was followed by about a 1,000 other questions.

It's was difficult to explain everything that we had been experiencing so we decided it was best to leave some of the details out.   We live in a small town so word of this getting out could have some negative effects on all of us as it could have turned us into a curiosity and novelty.  That was something we just didn't want to deal with.

Now that she has exposed herself to others, she started getting braver in her actions.  She was opening & closing doors, moving things, and was continuing to work on her trademark screams.  It had gotten to the point that Heidi and Emi would not sleep in their rooms and didn't want to be alone.

Even though others had heard it, it was still difficult for some to believe.  A witness is just someone who tells others what they experienced.  You can choose to believe or not to believe, it was evidence that we needed to truly get help but we were too scared to do anything for fear of just pissing her off more.

By complete accident we got what we needed one early Fall afternoon.  Emi was making homemade Reese's Peanut Butter cups and like all kids these days, she felt the need to document herself.   With Emi in the kitchen and Jennifer & I watching TV in the living, she screamed.  I immediately ran into the kitchen and realized that Emi was recording.   We played it back and there she was; the woman who has been tormenting us.  We could see Emi's reaction when she heard it.

I'm going to end this blog with the actual video from that day.  It's the same video we sent to The Dead Files when we submitted our story.   The scream happens at approximately the 10 second mark. This is what we were dealing with but it was going to get much worse.