03x05 - Deliver Us From Evil

[bunniefuu]

Lord, we come to you, humbly asking for your protection.

I had a lot of faith in my father.

He was like God to us.

He nurtured us kids in the Bible, and he nurtured us as a father.

I knew that it was something in the house.

[Gasps]

It resented my dad's faith and his strength in his religion.

[Dog barks]

[Screams]

When the day of evil comes...

Stand your ground.

It is a Demon.

It feeds on your fear.

[Screaming]

[Bell tolls]

[Haunting music]

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.

Lean not into thine own understanding.

In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

God, forgive us our sins and protect us from evil.

It was very exciting moving into the new house for me and my twin sister, Lisa.

Please watch over our family.

I felt very happy to be in a new neighborhood, in a new house.

And I had, you know, high hopes.

My father was like God to us.

That's how we came to understand God, was through watching our father.

I really idolized my dad.

Dad exuded joy, happiness...

Positive thinking.

And protect us from the wiles of the Devil and the evil that surrounds...

Roger, my husband, felt that God was calling him to return to Kokomo, to work in the church and to be near his family.

God bless our house.

Amen.

All: Amen.

[Drill whirring]

My dad was gonna take a job working in a church.

And he was gonna be running their Sunday School Department.

He had brought a lot of his Seminary books home from college.

They covered every inch of the Bible, every verse.

The books held such a high value to my dad, he had wanted to build a bookshelf for those books.

Damn.

The bookcases were too tall.

He could not get those bookcases in.

Hand me that hammer, James.

My dad was hammering...

Pushing.

[Hammering loudly]

It took all night to get those bookcases in.

Good night, dad.

Good night, dad.

Good night, girls.

[Wood creaking]

[Crow cawing]

The next day, I went into the kitchen...

And was washing dishes.

I was alone in the house.

[Soft rattling]

I heard a very strange noise coming from the living room.

[Rattling continues]

One of the books was hanging halfway off the bookshelf, about ready to fall onto the floor.

[Screams]

This was a thick, heavy book.

There was no reason for that book to be off the shelf.

[Fans whirring]

It was summertime.

In Indiana, it can get up to about 100 degrees.

Summers in Indiana are hot...

Very warm, humid.

I was on the top bunk, and I woke up.

And it felt cold in my room.

I noticed something on the wall.

Lana.

Lana, come look at this.

Lana, get up, get up.

What is it?

Look what's on your wall.

What is it?

It seemed unreal.

It looked like snowflakes, little snowflakes.

It was June.

There should not be frost on the wall in June.

Go get mom.

There was no wet or ice or anything whatsoever on the wall.

And the frost was gone.

Didn't know where it went.

It disappeared.

One afternoon, I was sitting in the living room, studying.

Lisa was with me.

[Loud thud]

And James came in the door wearing her roller skates.

Without her permission...

White skates with pink wheels.

[Laughs]

Hey, you, get 'em off. They're my skates.

I demanded that he take those girly skates off.

And they were special to me. They were a birthday present.

She was mad at me. She wanted her skates back.

[Low growling]

What's that?

I heard the most deathly moan that I could ever imagine.

[Growling continues]

It came from under the floor.

[Room rattling]

The moan grew.

It vibrated the floor.

It was a voice.

And that's what was shaking underneath our house.

[Growling continues]

This was no earthquake.

[Distorted voices]

[Growling stops]

It stopped.

[Loud growling]

I felt like something was gonna hurt us.

[Loud rumbling]

[Grunts]

I didn't know what to do except...

Panic and run.

[Rumbling continues]

We would not go back in the house until my parents came home.

We were too scared.

They're here. They're here.

And all of us kids, we're still, you know, shuddering.

What's going on?

They were shaking. They were scared. I could tell something had frightened them.

[All talking at once]

Slow down. Slow down. Slow down.

What happened?

There was a really loud growling noise.

Come on. We'll go back in the house. Come on. Let's go.

I'll check first.

I didn't want to approach the door. I didn't want to go in the house.

It was too scary.

I needed him to believe me.

It's all clear.

It was probably just an animal or a truck backfiring.

And he tried to explain it away.

Yes, Lisa, what is it?

Please believe me.

Go to bed, Lisa.

It wouldn't work.

He just dismissed everything that happened.

[Loud creaking]

That night, I went to bed.

I was trying to sleep.

[Light scratching]

I heard this scratching noise.

[Scratching continues]

It was coming from the glass, from the window.

[Scratching continues]

I thought the scratching noise might be a bush.

Maybe a cable wire hanging off the side of the house.

[Screaming]

[Screaming]

I saw...

This hideous face...

[Screaming]

Like it was going to come through the glass.

Dad! Dad!

Lana just couldn't speak.

I couldn't say anything. I couldn't breathe.

What is it? What is it? What happened? What happened?

My father looked out.

There was nothing there.

[Indistinct police radio transmission]

Dad thought that this could be a perv or something like that.

And he was very fearful for us girls.

We thought, because they were young girls maybe um...

Someone was watching them, like a Peeping Tom.

There were no footprints, no sign of anyone being in the backyard.

I was frustrated. I felt like, I'm watched.

Somebody's trying to hurt me.

Somebody's trying to possibly violate me.

And I can't prove it.

[Bell tolling]

The day that Lisa and I got Baptized was a very special day.

We were a devout Baptist family.

You need to be Baptized in order to show the church of your faith.

That you gave yourself over.

So we followed through with that tradition.

This is Lisa.

Lisa, do you profess your faith in Christ as your savior?

I was crying because it was my babies getting Baptized.

This baptism symbolizes your faith in Christ and your choice to follow him.

I felt exuberant.

I felt excited and brilliant.

I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And he put me under.

And then I entered into the water.

Lana, do you profess your faith in Christ as your savior?

The sermon ended, and all of us kids packed ourselves into the car.

We were all in a good mood.

We were planning our dinner.

And the door would not move. We could not get into the house.

And I'm watching my dad, who was a pretty big man...

Push that door.

Push it hard.

I'm thinking he's gonna break the door off the hinges.

It won't open.

Something large was blocking that door.

He asked my brother to go around the back of the house...

James, go around the back.

See if he couldn't climb in the back window and open the front door.

He pried on one of those panes of glass.

Just enough to open the window.

And I remember thinking, it's quiet.

James?

Why isn't he at the front door?

Come on, son.

I found the bookcase laying in front of the door.

As if it was barricading the door.

The first reaction was that someone had broken in and robbed our house.

What was bizarre about this was, it was only the bookcase that was affected.

These bookcases had to have been lifted up...

And flown across the room.

We were all in shock.

Dad? Dad, look.

Dad?

Dad, look.

My father's Bible commentaries were piled on the floor.

These books, books that he based his spirituality on...

And his faith on.

There's no way that it was an intruder.

And I knew that it had to be...

Something else.

Whatever it was, it resented my dad's faith and...

And his strength in his religion.

[Sobbing quietly]

I noticed him shaking.

It was a very frightening moment for me to see him that way.

[Vacuum cleaner whirring]

Dad tried to act like nothing happened.

This is really freaking me out.

This is real, isn't it?

Dad whipped around...

No more!

I don't want to hear you talking about this.

It is a Demon.

And it feeds on your fear.

He, my protector...

Was finally acknowledging...

That this was a Demon in our house.

Do you hear me?

I said, do you hear me?

My dad couldn't deny...

That something was going on anymore.

I knew now that all of the things the kids had been telling me.

They hadn't made it up; It was really true.

Something was taking over my home.

We were very low-income, and we just could not pick up and leave.

We had no money.

My father came to the decision that...

He needed to do something.

He decided he was going to have the house blessed.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...

So he called over a preacher from our church.

Seek to make this home, before all else, a dwelling place of love.

He was gonna go from room to room, and he was gonna read from passages out of the Bible.

I've completed the blessing. Now let's share a prayer together.

And as a family, we...

Bowed our heads and prayed.

Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

I felt very hopeful that this was helping us and that it would end it.

Amen.

All: Amen.

For the first couple of days, I felt like, everything's normal.

And there's nothing here.

[Music box plays]

There was one day that I was sick.

My sisters, they all went to school, and I stayed home.

[Loud creaking]

It sounded like footsteps walking in the attic.

[Creaking continues]

It was one after another after another.

[Creaking continues]

It was a heavy sound.

There was nobody in the house, and it was just me.

There was something else making that sound.

And I couldn't see anybody.

[Creaking]

[Loud thud]

Calm down.

James called me at work, and he was very excited.

I'll be there as soon as I can.

He was scared.

I felt threatened and very terrified.

James was crying. He was scared.

We were waiting, anxiously.

And this was... this was unsettling for me.

My husband went up to the attic.

There was nothing there.

There was something there.

My dad, he was shocked.

And baffled, unable to explain it.

Bringing a preacher in the house, I believe, just...

Escalated everything we tried to...

Stop.

I'd come home from school and walk in the door, and the first thing that hit me was...

This heaviness...

Something so heavy about the air.

It was very oppressive.

I remember coming out of my bedroom one morning...

[Thud]

When I heard this sound.

I remember looking up at the ceiling.

I was in my bedroom, and we heard James shouting.

Lisa, come look at this.

Lana. Lana!

Those scissors were stuck, right above the area where my dad would sit and read his Bible every morning.

It's not possible to throw a pair of scissors up and both prongs stick, dead into the ceiling.

If those scissors could be thrown with that kind of force by something.

It could also throw it at us.

And he shall direct thy path.

God forgive us our sins and protect us from evil.

My dad was sitting there...

Please watch over our family.

Reading his Bible.

Protect us from the wiles of the Devil and the evil...

Trust in the Lord with all my heart...

And I heard this noise...

[Light thumping]

This thumping noise.

[Thumping continues]

Thump, thump, thump.

He shall...

Thump, thump, thump.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.

Lean not into thine own understanding.

[Loud crashing]

Dad!

The first thing that came to my head was, my dad has been k*lled.

Dad?

Dad?

Dad!

He wasn't moving.

[Echoing] Dad?

Dad!

Dad was completely bleeding.

His face was scraped.

He was really hurt.

I thought that something evil wanted to hurt my dad.

My dad was under att*ck.

Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.

Then to the evil spirit in the house, he said, as a child of God, get thee behind me, Satan.

I knew what my dad was thinking.

His faith taught...

That...

This kind of activity was demonic.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

You're led to believe...

Church is gonna provide all the answers.

Therefore, put on the full armor of God.

God's gonna provide all the answers.

The Bible will provide all the answers.

It doesn't.

So that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.

And it was sad seeing him come to that realization.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Amen.

All: Amen.

Lord, father in heaven...

We couldn't get the answers about what was happening.

We come to you, humbly asking for your protection.

My father's answer was...

To continue to pray...

For protection.

Amen.

Both: Amen.

That night, I went to bed.

It was about 3:00 in the morning.

[Knocking]

It sounded familiar.

It sounded like my father's knock.

There was nothing there.

[Loud pounding on door]

It came again.

I did go out into the hall...

To see if anyone was there.

The house was quiet, and everyone was asleep.

I was scared and believed that...

Something was playing with me.

Then I went back to bed.

I woke up.

I was turned away from my window.

[Soft swishing noises]

I could hear footsteps.

Softly on the carpet going like this.

[Footsteps shuffling]

I was terrified.

Something's coming.

I was on the top bunk.

I felt her fear.

That's when I started to pray.

[Whispering indistinctly]

Listened to it as it slowly approached my head.

God is here. God is our protector.

God is here. God is our protector.

Closer and closer.

God is here.

And then it stopped.

[Breathing heavily]

[Music box playing]

Its teeth, like animals' teeth...

[Growling]

It suffocated me.

I couldn't scream.

I wanted to jump down there so bad to help her...

But I couldn't jump out of my bed.

I was frozen.

[Dog barking]

[Snarling]

[Muffled screams]

[Screams]

[Dog barking]

[Screams]

[Glass shatters]

[Glass shatters]

[Dog whimpering]

And then I realized Sam wasn't in the room.

He was gone.

Stay here.

The first thing I thought was that he's out there.

Slowly dying.

Whatever was in the room had to have picked my dog up, and thrown him through the window.

[Dog whimpering]

It was terrible to watch your dog in pain and...

And suffering.

[Dog whimpering]

He was shaking, trembling.

Something had terrified him very badly.

[Dog whimpering]

This was the last straw.

And me and my sister, we wanted out of that house.

I had to get out of the house.

That's what my heart told me, get out.

Lisa and I knew that the only way we were going to get out of that house.

Is if we were to marry.

That's what my dad would want us to do.

I had my high school sweetheart.

He was my knight in shining armor.

He was the one that would provide me that escape route.

And give me a way out of that house.

And...

He did that with my father's blessing.

Okay.

Lisa and I married about a year apart.

We were both 19.

You look beautiful, Lisa.

I didn't marry for love. I married for freedom...

Everybody smile.

My freedom, to get out of that house, get as far away as I could.

I believe that the house affected my father's health.

I believe that it made him more vulnerable, dragged him down.

He wasn't the same man.

He used to be strong. He used to be...

A very charismatic man.

He lost a big part of himself.

We just were tired of it.

We really felt that it was time to get out of there.

He wanted to start over and make a new life.

Are you ready?

Yes.

[Engine turns over]

He tried as hard as he could when he was alive to protect his wife and his family.

He nurtured us as a father.

And he did the best he could.

I do believe that the evilness that was in that house, over years it took a toll on my dad.

And it affected him, and broke him down.

It destroyed his life, it destroyed his health.

It destroyed my dad.