03x18 - The Harpy

[bunniefuu]

I'd noticed something that struck me as odd.

There was something very wrong.

[Childlike voice] I want to play.

[Pleasant melody]

[Demonically] Let's play.

[Glass shattering]

[Screams]

Bam.

[Yelps]

She's here.

I thought I was in hell.

[Groaning]

His life was in jeopardy.

We have to stop right now.

[Tires squealing]

Tony?

What the hell was this in our house?

[Gasping]

[Haunting music]

I was ecstatic when I found out that I was pregnant.

I had been married before and had tried before and was not able to.

I guess it just took the right person, and it worked.

We were together for about a little less than a year when Deb found out she was pregnant.

We were super excited.

It's probably one of the best times of my life.

Everything's looking just fine.

The image on the ultrasound made it so real.

Hey, is, uh... is that his...

All I can remember is Tony trying to figure out whether it was a boy or a girl.

[Laughs]

No, that's an arm, Tony.

[Laughter]

God, he's beautiful.

Finding out that we were pregnant, we needed to find a bigger home.

[Crow cawing]

We found a house.

It was 128 years old when we moved in.

The house seemed ideal for raising our family.

Hey.

This was where we were gonna begin the grown-up part of our life.

It had a room we could turn into a nice nursery when the baby was born.

I do a lot of drawing on the side, and Deb's one of the most creative women I know.

I remember a lot of laughing when we...

When we were working on the nursery.

It was really special.

[Dog barking]

[Ominous music]

Dog's name was Sasha.

Just the gentlest dog I've ever seen.

[Dog barking]

When we moved into the house, she, for some reason, had a really hard time with the nursery.

[Dog barks]

Sasha.

It was so unlike her, because she was such a good-natured dog.

And for some reason, she'd stand in the doorway of that room and just growl.

[Dog barking]

[Sighs]

It's an empty room. Let's go. Downstairs. Come on. Downstairs.

I thought, perhaps the people that lived here before, maybe they had pets, you know, it's picking up the scent of a cat.

[Crow caws]

The whole idea of a family was just great to me.

It's... you know, it's like God smiling on you.

But I can remember coming home with this...

You know, this little baby, and it's not like they give you an instruction manual when you walk out of the hospital.

You look at each other and say, okay, now what do we do?

[Baby crying]

[Groans]

[Groans]

We noticed that our son was having a hard time sleeping.

Hon, it's your turn.

Every night, we were up every hour.

[Groans]

[Sighs]

Everybody tells you, well, it's a newborn baby you know, this happens a lot.

But it just seemed to happen more often than it should, I thought.

[Baby crying]

What's wrong?

Come on, Taylor, huh?

I can remember a time when we were sitting on the couch.

We were the most tired people on the face of the Earth, and all I could think of was, what am I doing wrong?

[Electricity buzzing]

The lights flickered and then went real dim.

Usually if there's an electrical problem, it cuts out completely.

And you lose other things in the room, the television.

That wasn't the case.

[Dog barks, growls]

[Dog barking]

[Baby crying]

Oh, Taylor, please.

Go back to sleep.

[Groans]

Shh.

What's wrong?

I was missing something big, because this isn't how it's supposed to work.

Shh, shh, shh.

[Baby crying]

What am I doing wrong?

[Crow cawing]

One particular morning, I come downstairs.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice something's different.

It's perfectly straight but completely turned upside down.

Did I do something to make Deb mad, and she's just giving me a little message?

Bye, hon. I love you.

Have a good day, hon. Bye.

[Ominous music]

At the base of the stairs...

I felt a coldness.

As I got to the top of the stairs...

[Girl giggles]

[Breeze rushing]

A rush of air passed me.

Almost...

Almost as if a child is running up the stairs next to you.

[Crow cawing]

[Vacuum whirring]

Deb was at work, and I happened to have the day off, so I thought I'm gonna, have the house nice and clean for her when she gets home.

[Rumbling]

[Vacuum powers off]

The, uh, vacuum started to shut off.

[Vacuum whirring]

[Rumbling]

[Vacuum whines off]

I tried to start it again with the button.

I noticed the cord was unplugged, and it wasn't because I had pulled it or too tight or anything.

Because I still had plenty of slack in the cord.

Couldn't figure it out, so I plugged it back in.

[Vacuum whirring]

I started vacuuming...

[Vacuum powers off]

And it shuts off again.

[Music box playing]

I hear music.

You know, I couldn't figure out what it was at first.

[Tense music]

[Music box melody continues]

I see the baby's mobile over the crib just kind of turning real slow.

It wasn't playing the whole time I was in there vacuuming.

[Music quickens]

It just kept picking up speed.

All the little teddy bears were like; Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.

I just had a cold chill just go all the way down my spine.

From that point on, he did not sleep in that crib.

My sister Karen was my confidant.

She had had her first child about a year and a half before Taylor was born.

Her being a new mom, and me already having a child, she would vent a little bit and tell me just in the beginning how tough it was.

She knew we were just utterly exhausted.

I offered to come over because she was not getting much sleep, and neither was Tony.

She suggested...

Why don't I come and visit with you for a week and see if I can help?

And I thought, oh, my God, that's amazing.

[Insects chirping]

[Door creaks]

[Dog panting]

After we came home from Tony's parents' house, we were gonna settle in, watch movies.

I'll make us a few sandwiches.

[Ominous music]

I'd gone upstairs to take the baby's bag and put it away.

[Dog growling]

I'd noticed something that struck me as odd.

Here's these teddy bears just sitting in the center of the floor, and they all looked like they'd been arranged that way.

Hey, why'd you put the bears on the floor like that?

And I looked at him, and I said... what are you talking about?

Well, all the bears are on the floor.

And again, I looked at him, and I said...

What do you mean?

You know.

Let's go see.

I stormed off and went upstairs, and sure enough.

All the animals sitting on the floor...

Organized.

Well, I didn't do it.

And he said, well, then, who did?

We were looking at each other saying, okay, well, how did they get there?

I looked back up the stairs, and the light in the nursery was back on.

The light is on.

[Childlike voice] Please play with me. I want to play.

One bear...

Please play with me. I want to play.

Was in the center of the room.

I want to play.

I got the chills.

I want to play.

Please play with me. I want to play.

I want to play. I want to play.

Okay, it's got to be something supernatural, because there's no other explanation.

I want to play.

Let's... [demonically] Play.

[Whispers]

[Baby crying]

That would be so cool if we had a ghost.

It was just too bizarre for me. I... I couldn't take it.

What do you think happened to them?

Deb was kind of, "oh, that'd be so cool if we had a ghost".

[Baby crying]

Hey, it's okay.

I was hoping that maybe that would be the last...

Last, uh, thing I would actually witness in the house, but...

It... it was just the beginning.

[Car horn honks]

Thank you again.

It was my pleasure.

Say bye, Taylor.

Have a safe trip.

[Ominous music]

Enough.

I was in the living room strapping Taylor into the car seat.

We decided to go ahead and pack the baby up and go over to my parents' house.

Just... just to get away for a while.

Quit fidgeting.

[Fluttering]

[Crows cawing]

[Baby crying]

Taylor...

Please.

Ah! Man!

Honey, what's wrong?

Ah...

I felt, like, a really sharp pain in my back.

Come here. It's really burning.

Let me take a look.

[Baby crying]

Be careful. Ah.

I almost dropped to my knees.

What?

It was scratches probably five inches long in the center of his back.

[Baby crying]

Look...

[Inhales sharply]

[Gasps]

[Baby crying]

This was uncharted territory for us.

Please come in, Barbara.

We were put in touch with a psychic, one that was fairly local.

This is my husband, Tony, and our son, Taylor.

I didn't want people to think I was crazy.

To invite a psychic in was just, to me, almost like a circus show.

I feel it's a little girl.

We invited Barbara over so that she could give us some insight on...

What to expect and how to handle it.

Hello.

My name is Barbara.

What's yours?

It just felt a little silly, you know, asking something that...

You can't even see, you don't know for sure is there or not, asking it questions.

Barbara, I'm gonna take some photos if that's all right.

[Gasps]

It was very hard to breathe for her, and she labored.

She's standing over there.

[Camera shutter clicks] She says...

She says there are too many people here.

She can't talk to us.

Are you being serious?

Go, go, go.

She was so happy that this thing communicated with her that...

It was almost fear for me, because I didn't know what to expect.

This is her corner.

Barbara said, "this is her corner".

She is happy here.

She feels safe, at home.

I thought, oh, she's close. She's wanting to be close.

And this is her room. She's comfortable here.

And I'm getting the name.

Sallie.

[Whispers] Sallie.

And I'm getting the name Sallie.

Oh.

You should buy Sallie some things of her own.

And give her a part of this room.

Make her feel loved.

Sallie?

Would you like me to buy you a doll just for you?

I had already planned, I'm gonna get her a baby doll.

It was very exciting. It was like learning about somebody you really care about.

But, Debra, remember.

She is like any other little child.

She needs to be reprimanded if she does something wrong.

Barbara told us to treat Sallie as if she was physically there with us.

Scold her and give her consequences.

Thank you so much, Barbara.

I'll let you know how it all goes.

Bye-bye.

Good night.

I had this helpless baby.

It's my job to protect him, and...

How can I protect him from something I can't even see?

It didn't seem natural, the way Deb wanted to invite this little entity to be...

Almost part of the family.

It broke my heart to think of this little spirit alone and lost in our home.

[Camera shutter clicks]

I wanted to be there for her.

Sallie?

I want you to know that I'm here to help you.

What she needed was someone to look out for her, and I thought that could be me.

I didn't realize that...

What seemed to be such a benign, loving, caring, good start...

[Camera shutter clicks]

Could turn so bad.

[Ominous music]

[Whispers]

I was working third shift.

I was getting off at 7:00 in the morning.

That particular morning, I was pouring a glass of orange juice, just to have something to drink before I went to bed.

[Tense music]

I am seeing a ghost.

[Panting]

Chills went up my spine.

[Glass shattering]

As soon as the glass hit, she was gone.

I will never forget it.

I woke to Tony just bursting in the room...

What's wrong?

Out of breath and panicking.

[Panting]

I was on the verge of hyperventilating.

I saw... her.

All he said was, I saw her. I saw her.

Saw who?

Sallie.

Sallie.

Sallie?

The first thought in my head was, why did you get to see her?

I was so jealous.

I draw a lot, portraits, so her rational thinking, she said, here.

You can't tell me what you saw. Draw it.

For about ten minutes, I sit there and just sketched what I saw.

I don't think that Tony realized how much...

I wanted to be in his shoes.

How much I wanted to be the one to see her.

And I thought, maybe next time.

I was in high hopes to give her things to call her own...

So she would feel a part of the family.

[Chair creaking]

Sallie?

I brought you a present.

I got her a little baby boy doll that was just like Taylor.

I was wanting to ask her questions.

[Ominous music]

And I waited...

[Clock ticking]

And waited...

And I would check every day. Every time I passed the room, I would check.

[Girl giggles]

[Music swelling]

In the crib was the baby doll.

Little Taylor baby doll.

Sallie?

Are you here with me now?

She was just here.

When I saw that she had answered the question that I had posed to her on that paper...

I mean, a big smile came across my face, and I said...

Thank you, Sallie. Thank you for writing back to me.

You did so good.

[Sighs]

It was perfectly intact, just the way I had wrapped it originally.

There was nothing in the box.

But it also had not been opened from the outside.

[Crow cawing]

My mother had known about things that were happening in the house.

I don't think she quite wanted to accept it.

She just wanted to distance herself from it.

[Girl giggling]

[Baby crying]

He really let out a scream.

Don't you dare hurt this baby, you devil!

Mom!

[Glass shattering]

[Screams]

I saw the oil lamp lift up off the end of the table...

And just sh*t at my mother, just like it come out of a cannon.

It stopped just like it hit a wall.

You okay?

Something was warning her, don't mess with me. I can hurt you.

It scared the hell out of me.

We're dealing with something way beyond a little girl.

[Baby crying]

This vicious little demon is trying to hurt us.

We can't go on like this.

Don't call her that.

What I was going through was really starting to create a conflict between me and Deb now.

I'm sure she just misunderstood.

She thought you were being nasty to Taylor or something.

I disagreed with Tony almost on every point when it came, to dealing with Sallie in spirit.

This thing has you under some kind of spell.

I'm getting the brunt of it, and to Deb, it's still this little girl that couldn't cause any harm like that.

We have to get out of here, Debra.

Don't be ridiculous. We can't just leave over a few little things.

This is our home.

Are you blind? Are you not seeing this?

I'm scared to death.

Why aren't you scared?

I just couldn't understand it.

[Clock ticking]

[Sustained scratching across floor]

[Ominous music swelling]

[Whispers]

[Sustained scratching across floor]

I start hearing a faint scratching behind the bed.

[Sustained scratching across floor]

It was like... [imitates scratching]

Almost like you had an animal digging to get out of the wall.

[Sustained scratching across floor]

[Screams]

[Screams]

She was reaching for me.

[Gasping]

Ah!

She grabbed my wrist.

[Snarls]

[Yelling]

And I literally thought I was gonna have a heart att*ck.

[Yelling]

[Gasps]

Honey, you're having a nightmare.

[Yells]

[Yelling]

[Gasping]

What's wrong?

When I woke up in the morning...

Ow.

Jeez.

Deb, look.

I had, exactly where that thing had grabbed me, finger marks...

[Panting]

Burnt on my arm.

Ah...

Sallie did this. She grabbed me.

She isn't what you think she is.

I felt like for the first time, it's showing its true colors.

Maybe she was just trying to contact us or tell us something.

That hand would've been the first time that I... I questioned...

Something's wrong.

We're in real danger here.

It's tired of messing with me.

[Baby crying]

Taylor.

It's gonna show me what it is.

[Baby crying]

We want... we needed help.

At the time in 1994, Sightings was probably one of the...

First paranormal shows to ever air.

We had heard about this family in Kansas that was having some paranormal problems.

It was interesting, so we decided to... to look into it.

[Ominous music]

Did you see that?

What?

Come on.

Hi there, Debra. Hi, I'm Craig Armstrong. We spoke over the phone.

We had watched several shows where they, you know, helped other people, and we thought that they could help us.

Okay, guys, bring everything in, please.

When I got there is when it became real clear to me that we were in for something that we weren't prepared for.

Now, Debra, I know that you and Tony have both had contact with Sallie.

We set up her interview in the kitchen.

Have you seen her?

My husband's the only one to have actually seen Sallie.

She had a single rose that was on the kitchen windowsill...

He did a drawing of her.

And had a really good first interview with her.

And cut.

Great. There, that's great.

Thank you so much, Debra. That's very, very helpful.

Um, I think, Mark, what we should do now is talk to Tony.

Let's set up in the living room, and we'll get his...

Look at... look at this rose.

I'm sure we would've noticed that when you were setting up.

It was burnt in such a way that none of us could understand how it was possible.

That's so weird.

It's almost as if someone took the rose and just, you know, lit a torch...

And just kind of went shh, and just b*rned all the edges off.

When we rolled back the tape...

Stop.

That rose was not b*rned at all.

Now, look at that right there. Look at that.

Between the interview time and then the time she noticed it...

Something occurred.

Okay, Tony. In your own time...

We also wanted to get Tony in the chair because, he was getting physically impacted by what was going on in the house.

Um...

Small child.

Little girl around seven or eight years old.

I felt real nervous.

I had just got off the night shift.

I didn't want being the crazy guy in town, you know?

So I asked to be, you know, in silhouette.

And, uh, it was real early in the morning, so...

The interview's going really well.

I just grabbed...

Well, I was holding a thermal vision camera.

Something to drink before I went to bed.

It gives me a really good picture of what's going on temperature-wise in the room.

Um...

Sorry.

Go ahead. Uh, go ahead.

I feel something on my hand.

When I closed the fridge...

Sorry, I'm gonna stop you there.

I'm feeling an intense cold sensation running through my arm up into my chest.

She's here. She's here.

She's here. She's here.

She's here. She's here.

Oh, my God, here. Get this. Get this. Can see it right through my chest.

Down my other arm now.

It's heading straight for Tony.

Oh, God, that's horrible.

[Grunts]

Bam.

[Whispers]

Can see it right through my chest.

And down my other arm now.

Oh, God, that's horrible.

[Grunts]

Tony?

[Grunts]

Tony, what's going on?

Tony?

[Grunting]

It just feels like a...

A frozen arm going right through you.

Come here. You've got to get this.

Ah! Ah... it hurts. Ah...

[Grunting]

[Yelps]

[Grunting]

Oh, my God.

[Grunting]

Just huge claw marks.

[Grunting]

Because we were there...

It burns. [Grunts]

Because we were covering this story...

[Grunting]

His life was in jeopardy.

[Grunts]

All right, we got to stop. We have to stop right now.

For your sake, Tony, we're gonna stop. All right?

[Gasping]

Look at this.

[Somber piano music]

It was an extreme experience for everybody involved.

You two take care of yourselves.

Without a doubt, I knew it was not, uh, a little girl ghost.

You know, I was actually the one there...

God, those poor people.

Visibly seeing the pain in his eyes and the scratches on his body.

Let's get out of here.

Yeah.

I said to my bosses, I think we should not go back I think we should stop.

After the Sightings crew left...

It seemed almost that things intensified.

[Mister hissing]

[Ominous music swells]

[Electricity humming]

[Music stops]

[Music swells]

I had no idea that it was...

Ripping my husband apart emotionally...

Physically.

How alone he must have felt, and...

[Sniffs]

I realize more and more how just awful I was.

Our family was in danger.

I had to open my eyes and accept the fact that I could've been wrong all this time.

I was gonna research everything the library had.

I wanted to find out the history of the house.

[Crow cawing]

I'd finished my night shift at work.

I was very tired.

I really wanted to get some good rest.

Page by page in phone records...

Every newspaper I could find.

Church records, the deed records, the city records.

Who built it, who lived in it, how it changed hands.

Pulling out films out of the drawers for the microfiche.

I was going through everything I could possibly get a hold of.

[Music box playing]

I want to play.

I want to play.

Please play with me.

[Demonically] Let's play.

[Fluttering]

[Rapid muffled scratching]

I literally thought something was gonna come through the wall.

[Rapid muffled scratching]

[Hushed mumbling]

I start hearing all this whispering.

[Hushed mumbling]

Uh! Several people on each side.

[Grunts]

Right in my ear.

[Grunts]

[Hissing]

I was petrified.

No one named Sallie had ever lived in this house...

Much less d*ed there.

Tony.

What the hell was this in our house?

[Panting]

[Wood pounding]

The drawers were opening...

[Gasping]

Shutting...

Slamming...

[Yelps]

The bed started waving.

[Panting]

[Glass shattering]

I thought I was in hell.

[Glass shattering]

[Tires squealing]

What did I give control to?

I defended her.

I loved her.

I was wrong.

Sallie was a facade for something much darker.

[Yelping]

[Rumbling stops]

[Panting]

[Bird flutters away]

I start seeing these dust particles at the end of the bed.

It looked like a little swarm of bees almost taking shape...

The shape of this woman.

[Growls]

[Screams]

[Whispers]

[Growls]

[Screams]

[Shrieks]

[Choking]

[Dog barks]

Tony?

[Dog barking]

[Glass shattering]

Tony?

[Glass shattering]

Tony!

[Dog barking]

Tony!

Tony?

Tony.

Oh, God, Tony. What's happened to you?

[Whimpering]

Tony.

[Sobbing]

I'm sorry.

I didn't realize how alone he was.

I'm so sorry.

I didn't realize how much of an apology I owed him.

[Somber piano music]

It meant to do harm...

And we'd better get out of there...

Or we weren't going to get out.

This was not the spirit of a little girl.

This was uglier.

This was demonic.

[Door creaks]

All the things that I had bought Sallie or given Sallie, we boxed 'em up, and we moved 'em to the attic.

And that's where they stayed.

I swear to God, it just totally played us against each other.

It took on the form of a little girl, I think, just to try to win Deb over.

I realize the wool had been pulled over my eyes, that I was not seeing things for what they were.

Everything just completely stopped the moment we left.

[Childlike voice] I want to play.

I want to play.

I want to play.

Play... play... play...