At 3 in the morning I was awoken by what sounded like a cough. To be more precise it sounded as if a man was dying from emphysema right in my bedroom. Laying there stunned I struggled to focus my eyes. Once focused I could make out what seemed to be a transparent figure standing the corner. The more my eyes adjusted the clearer the figure became. It was an old man. He was standing the corner coughing and holding the back of his head. Again I was paralyzed with fear, I couldn’t speak. The old man looked at me with look of excruciating pain on his face. He opened his mouth to speak and out came the loudest high pitch scream I had ever heard. The scream was followed by blood flowing from his mouth. Then he collapsed onto the floor.

I laid there for a few minutes not able to move. When my legs finally felt like they would support me, I sat up. Bringing myself to my feet I cautiously walked around the bed. There was no sign of the old man. A small sense of relief was soon interrupted by a sinister laugh. The laugh seemed to be coming from behind me. Slowly I turned around to see the old man sitting on my bed still holding the back of his head. It felt as if I was wearing concrete shoes. I could not move again. The old man looked up at me with what only I can describe as hell in his eyes. His hand slowly moved from behind his head. It was covered in blood and what seemed to be brain matter. I felt as if I was going to pass out. Staring at me he said “you’re going to die here just like I did.” All of a sudden the light headedness got worse, I felt flush. I must have passed out right the floor.

I was awoken by rays of sunlight through my bedroom window. Still in the floor I looked around for any remnants of the old man. There were none. I thought to myself maybe I was going crazy and if not whomever I told surely would believe that I was going insane. I had to do something though so I decided that I would try to speak to a preacher that I knew. As I have stated in the past I am not all that religious. I hadn’t attended church in many years.I got up showered and got dressed. For some odd reason I felt a sense of tranquility come over me. Maybe it was because I thought I was safe from harm in a church. At that point I realized that good had to exist because evil was residing in my house.
On the way to the church I started to feel nauseous. I hadn’t eaten anything, I thought to myself that had to be why I was feeling sick. The feeling got worse the closer that I got to church. By the time I got to the parking lot my head was swimming and my stomach was tied in knots. I opened the car door and became violently ill. There was no way that I could go into the church.

I headed home and as soon as the church was out of my rear view mirror I started to feel fine again. Hopelessness overwhelmed me. I had never felt so alone. Then my cell phone rang. It was Jess, calling to tell me that she had a few days off and wanted to come to town. I hadn’t told her of the things that had been happening at the house. I assumed she figured everything was normal. I took this as a sign that I was not alone so I welcomed her visit like never before.

Once home, I entered the house to that familiar smell of sulfur again. Nothing seemed out of place until I went to the kitchen. Written on the refrigerator in red was a passage from Matthew 8.

^Matthew:8Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs."

I felt a cold rush over me. Looking out the kitchen window I saw what appeared to be two pigs in the yard. Then came the evil laughter again.

-William