Case 13-1: Marie's House Part 1

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.”