Showcase Magazine - Central and Southwest Virginia's Exclusive Entertainment Magazine

July 5, 2005

It felt like someone had taken all of the breath out of my lungs after Jeffrey's revelation about Mrs. Williamson's daughter. Jess had the look of sitting at the peak of a roller coaster about to plunge to the bottom. I could tell she felt the same way. She said that she didn't feel well and wanted to go home. Quite frankly, if she had not said that I would have. The atmosphere had suddenly changed from jovial to somber.

When we got home Jess barely spoke. I thought that we needed to talk about what had happened. It had become apparent to me that Jess had not been communicating with Mrs. Williamson. As I have stated before I have studied the paranormal a little. I knew that when Jeffrey said he spoke with Mrs. Williamson’s daughter that Jess was being lied to by some spirit that was using the Mrs. Williamson story to be invited in. The scary thing was Jess had invited the spirit in. I was afraid that the strange occurrences were just beginning. I was right.

That night as we tried to sleep there was a constant banging. It sounded like the clicking of pipes when the heat is about to come on. It was 88 degrees outside; I knew this was not possible. Neither of us slept that night. At one point Jess sat up screaming that something had brushed through her hair.

The next morning Jess decided that she was going to go home a day early. I can’t say that I was pleased with this but I understood. That morning we were having breakfast before she left. I mentioned that I thought a spirit had masqueraded as Mrs. Williamson to get close to Jess. Needless to say this freaked her out and rightly so. I was somewhat shocked to find out that Jess thought it was still Mrs. Williamson for some strange reason. There was a change in her behavior and she became defensive. This puzzled me because I knew after her reaction to Jeffrey’s statement that she realized she had been lied to. What happened next just floored me. Jess said that Jeffrey must have been mistaken, that there was no way that Mrs. Williamson would lie to her. Not wanting to upset her before her trip I just agreed with her. I knew there was a bigger problem arising, I just did not know how to go about tacking it yet.

After breakfast, I put Jess’s bag in her car and saw her off. I went back to the house and brainstormed. I had to try to figure out what the hell was going on and I had to do it on my own. There is no way that anyone would believe a story such as this. I thought about getting the Ouija board back out and trying to contact the actual spirit that had communicated with Jess. My better judgment won out and I decided against that. I ended up calling Jeffrey to see if he had any info on Mrs. Williamson’s daughter. I knew that her name was Cassandra but I had no clue of her married name. Jeffrey was not home and as I was about to leave him a message, I heard my call waiting click in. I looked at the caller id and it was Jess’s father. I did not leave a message and clicked over. Jess’s father told me that she had been in an accident on the way home. He said that she was fine but was the hospital in Denton as a precaution. I hung up and rushed to the hospital.

As soon as I left the city limits, I felt a sputter in my car. After I had been on the road for about twenty minutes my car just died. I had traveled these roads numerous times and always I had perfect cell signal. On this day I had no signal. I sat there for about 10 minutes constantly trying to start my car to no avail. Suddenly my car cranked and I looked at my phone. I had perfect signal. “What in the world is happening” I thought to myself. Not having the answer to that question, I cleared my thoughts and headed toward the hospital. Again, to be stopped by flashing red and blue lights, there was a wreck in front of me. I noticed that there must have been at least one fatality because of the white sheet covering the car. As I got closer, I could make out that a logging truck had hit head on with a car. An officer looked in my car and said you’re lucky that you weren’t here thirty minutes ago. I got that sinking feeling again. I realized that if my car hadn’t mysteriously stalled that I would have been at this very spot thirty minutes ago.

Finally, I made it through the crash scene and drove undisturbed the rest of the way to the hospital. I met her father in the waiting room. I asked him what had happened. He said, that some animal probably a dog had ran in front of her car. She swerved to miss it and ended up in a ditch. Her car was totaled but she only had a little scrape on her forehead.

I went into the room to see Jess. She seemed a bit disoriented but coherent. Her mother was in there with her at the time. I asked was she alright and she just nodded yes. Her mother said that she was lucky to be alive after seeing her car. Jokingly she said ‘that little dog is lucky my baby girl is an animal lover, too.” I looked at Jess and said “so a dog ran out in front of you?” Again she just nodded yes. Jess looked at her mother and asked could she have a minute alone with me. He mother obliged. As soon as she left the room, Jess sat up in the bed with a frantic look on her face. “What’s wrong” I said. Jess looked at me terrified and said” it wasn’t a dog.” “What was it then” I said. Jess paused for what seemed to be a minute. She looked at me with despair and said “it was a black cloaked figure that ran out right in front of the car.” Taken back, I said “are you sure?” “Yes” she said….”I drove right through it.”

-William