Haunted Part 3

That weekend, after the encounter with the red paint, I went back to the haunted ranch house as planned; this time with my friend, J, and my roommate, P. We pulled up to the circular drive in the inky blackness of night. Once out of the car, eyes adjusted to the dark, and able to take in the full view of this massive and eerily quiet house, P seemed hesitant to enter. J pulled out a digital video camera, and said that he would try and capture what happened once we were inside. A moment later the frogs began their usual chorus, and P looked at me and said, "Nu-uh. There's no way I'm going in there. I'm staying right here. Have fun, kids."

J and I entered through the front door, quickly realizing that we had no source of light. "Here, we'll use the light from the camera for now," he said as he switched the camera from on to stand-by. The screen turned blue and suddenly became our flashlight. As we walked through the great room, the quiet was so quiet that it was loud. It was too quiet. And still. And dark. We walked down one of the halls, and J felt the icy air as we passed the women in the closets, which I told him about when he began to shiver. We walked through various bedrooms, many of which were attached to each other through bathrooms. I didn't see the little girl who I usually saw first. She was nowhere to be found.

I offered to take J through the little door that led up the wooden tunnel and into the cylindrical room which then led to the tower, but his response was simply, "oh fuck no." We walked through the kitchen and past the meat locker and walk-in freezer, and this time I felt another icy blast and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. From there on out, I had the feeling that we were being watched. I think J felt it, too, because I noticed that his breath had become shallow and quick. We weren't welcome there. And it was obvious.

We then walked down the second long hallway and felt a draft. A cold breeze ran through the house, though I couldn't tell where it was coming from. When we reached the end of the hall, I thought I heard someone breathing that wasn't us, and footsteps making the old floor creak. I told J to point the blue light of the camera back down the hall. We both squinted for a moment....then...

PPUUUWWAAAAAAAMMMMM!

What sounded like a giant mallet hitting a huge gong coming from one of the rooms we had just been inside rang through the hallway. It made me jump about 3 feet backwards, and a moment later, my friend went sprinting to the end of the hall and out the door of the last bedroom, carrying his camera, the only light we had, with him.

I felt the icy blast of air again, and froze. The ghost of one of the women was floating down the hall in the darkness, her pale iridescent body racing toward me with an arm in front of her, as if to push me out. She passed right through me, sending an icy sensation to every cell of my body, and I fell to the floor, crying.

"I just want to know what's really going on here...I want to help you!" I yelled.

I got up, and as I did, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. The woman ghost, who was standing right behind me, urged me to leave again, as I saw 3 dark figures moving down the hall toward me, accompanied by a growling, rumbling sound. The ghost woman moved so that she was floating in front of me, and I realized that she was protecting me. I thanked her and ran out the same way J had.

"So you just leave me inside with no light?! What the fuck, J?" I said, panting and out of breath.

"I'm sorry, I just freaked and had to run," he explained nervously.

"It's time to get the fuck out of here, don'tcha think?" P said, getting into the car, more than ready to never set foot there again.

I departed that night with an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Neither my friend or my roommate ever returned. And I took a break from it as well. I needed to come up with some way I could help, but lack of experience left me feeling inadequate. I had prayed about it, and asked for the ghosts and dark entities trapped there to be sent Home --- but it just wasn't enough. I especially couldn't stand the thought of the children spending millennia trapped there, until they felt like only an empty shell, if they didn't already.

I spent the next several weeks in a stupor of booze, cocaine, and meaningless sex, feeling more depressed every day; like nothing I did could resolve either the haunted ranch situation, or my own pain and life. I felt like a waste of space, and like no one would ever truly love and desire me for me. I felt trapped in a hell of my own making, and realized that I wasn't nearly as trapped as these women and children must have felt. So I asked for guidance...

I asked for the right tools to help these beings return Home.

Shortly thereafter, my friends A and M joined me once again at the haunted ranch house. It was just after dark. I sat with them in the car, and we smoked tobacco, and I asked for God and my Spirit Guide, Helen, to use me. I asked Helen to do whatever she needed to do to help these women, children, and men who had fallen into darkness.

What happened next was kind of a blur. I remember getting out of the car, and walking to the front door. I opened it, and walked inside. I felt a heat wave moving across my whole body. I saw light and heard sounds even though I was aware that I was standing in the silent grand entrance in the dark. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks, and I felt the presences of the women and children. They were standing in a circle with me. I felt the low growling vibrations of the 3 dark entities close by. And the next thing I knew, I was lying down in the back of the car, with A and M's faces looking down at me, shouting, "Jewels!"

"What happened?" I asked.

"You walked into the house by yourself, and we didn't know if we should come with you," M said.

"I saw a little purple light trailing behind you, and I just knew it was a faery," A said, his blue eyes looking awestruck. "Like an actual faery."

"You were yelling something...you said something about going Home. You said something about a tunnel of light. And you called yourself 'Helen'," M said, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You chanted something, and then you were yelling again."

I started to cry, and goosebumps were travelling down my body from the top of my head. In my mind's eye, I saw the 7 women, 3 children, and the baby smiling at me, glowing and free, and radiating the light of the Other Side. I saw 2 of the 3 dark entities smiling at me also -- one older looking man, and one who must have been in his 20's. They were also glowing, and bowed formally, as though in thanks. They were free! They had gone Home! I scanned the house with my mind, and couldn't find the 3rd entity. I didn't know what happened to him. I told my friends, and M began to sob, with a deep sense of relief washing through her --- her children from that lifetime had been released.

We left that night in a daze. I didn't fully know what to make of it, or if I could fully trust what I believed had happened.

The next morning, I received a phone call from my roommate, P.

"Dude --- aaaahhhhhhh! Oh-my-God-oh-my-God-oh-my-God! The haunted ranch has a name. I just found it online. It is registered as a national haunted site. It's called the 'Marr Family Ranch'. Before the Marr's lived there, it was a Pentecostal Christian Commune. Seriously got the heebie-jeebies over here!"

Ok, we had confirmation of something. I didn't know how it all lined up, but it felt like closure...

Only it wasn't.

A few months later, the Marr Family Ranch was demolished to make way for another sub-division of homes. M and I went there one last time to say goodbye. Already bulldozers were in place around the property. We held hands for a moment and sighed. This was the most powerful experience either of us had ever had, and it was over. I wondered darkly about the 3rd dark entity who hadn't crossed over, but couldn't really feel him there. I prayed that no one who moved there would be haunted in their new home. About 2 months after that, I moved away, and back to my parents'. I knew I had a problem with all of my risky behaviors, and I needed a clean slate.

Shortly thereafter, I met my twin soul, Z (that's a whole other story.) He was psychic like me, had healing abilities as well, and we spent much of our time together. One night, after making art for the better part of the afternoon, I told him the story of the Marr Family Ranch, feeling a pit in my stomach as I finished, like maybe I should have put up some protection before opening that door again.

We fell asleep soon after that, only to be awakened by something falling --- a piece of art we had just created and had set against the wall. It was on the floor, and the pit was back in my stomach. We both seemed to realize that something was off, but tried to go back to sleep. As I began to fade, I was aware that building up and becoming louder, was the uncomfortably familiar growling vibration. I took a deep breath and tried to shake it off. The next moment, a hand was on my foot, trying to yank me out of bed. I screamed and told Z what had just happened.

He held me and began to pray, saying, "You can't have her. You can't take her. You're not welcome here. Go Home!" At that moment the entity grabbed his ankle, and he kicked it off, his voice commanding, "Out! You're not welcome here. Go back Home!"

The energy then shifted and I felt the dark entity leave. A few days later, both Z and I received the information that the 3rd and final entity had finally gone Home. And I had gained a world of knowledge, realizing that my purpose here was so much more than drowning my pain in addictions --- my purpose was to bring forth the Love of God, and the Light of Consciousness and Healing, even to the darkest of spaces. it would be a long and winding road, but it would be worth it.

And finally, years later, my old roommate, P, admitted to me that someone had written "Save Us" with red paint as a prank that day. I told him I was confused because we would have seen a car coming or going as we approached. He didn't know how to answer. When I asked him if the pranksters had also left the baby footprints (and what kind of jerk would do that to a baby?), he had no idea what I was talking about...

THE END