|
Thursday morning I said my goodbyes and headed home. It was a beautiful
day right up until I drove into town. As soon as I hit the city limits,
the flood gates opened. I pulled into the driveway and sat there for a
few moments hoping the rain would let up. There was no end in sight. I
sucked it up, opened the door and ran as a fast as I could to the
porch. As soon as I stepped foot onto the porch I felt this feeling
come over me as if I were being smothered. I could not catch my breath.
“I need to start exercising again” I told myself.
I inserted the key and pushed the open to be greeted by the overwhelming smell of sulfur. Stepping into the living room I noticed everything was in shambles. Pillow cushions were strewn all over the room, picture frames in the floor; a lamp was shattered in the center of the room. Stunned, I knew this was not something that my cat could have done. Initially I thought someone had broken into my house. I ran to the other rooms to see if anything was missing. To my surprise, every other room was untouched, just as I had left them. In fact the cat was sacked out on the bed like he was every morning.
I walked down the hall back toward the living room. Slowly inspecting the damage from afar when something caught my eye, the Ouija board was laying on the coffee table. The feeling of getting the wind knocked out of me hit me again. I knew that it was not over. I gingerly walked toward the coffee table. My mind was racing because I knew I had put the Ouija board away weeks ago. Not only was it on the table, the oracle was placed over the letter H. I stood there for a minute almost afraid to touch it.
I picked up the oracle. There was a burnt circle around the H. Almost as if it had been branded. I grabbed the Ouija board, went outside, impervious to the rain and threw the board in the trash can. I was at my wits end.
Once I got back to the living room, the smell of sulfur was gone. In fact there was a feeling of tranquility. After cleaning the living room and exhausting my brain searching for answers to what was happening, I decided that there had to be some significance to the letter H. I went to the library to see if I could find any history on my house. After an hour or so of searching I found an old newspaper article dating back to 1928. A former owner of my house had committed suicide in the house. The article said that he shot himself in the head in the bedroom closet. His name was Daniel Hyler. My entire body started to visibly shake to the point that someone asked me was I alright. “Yeah, just hungry” is what I told them. I printed out the article and left the library.
All the way home my mind raced. I knew that the old man that I saw in my room had to be Daniel Hyler. I had no idea what I was going to do though. “Do I go to a priest?” I asked myself. Pulling into the driveway the rain stopped. I cautiously went back into the house, having no idea what I might find. This time there was a smell of roses in the living room. Nothing was in shambles but there was a book in the floor. I walked over to it and noticed it was the bible. It was opened to Matthew 17. I sat down in the floor and almost as if it were highlighted this verse stuck out.
17"O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." 18Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
-William
|
