Holding on until the help arrived.

The news that The Dead Files was coming to our rescue had really lifted our spirits.  Our mood finally swung to one of hope.  For the first time is a very long time, we felt we were on the offensive.

When talked to The Dead Files in the Fall of 2015, it triggered some negative experiences.  It was like we were punished for contacting the show. (see Nice Trick, Now for Your Punishment).  This time around, Jennifer & I decided to take precautions.   We would try our best not to talk about the show or the fact that Amy & Steve were coming.  Granted, this was an extremely difficult task as we would get calls and emails from the show's producers.  However, thankfully it seemed to be working.  We could actually feel an air of confusion, not from us, but from the entities in the house.  We had a secret and the spirits couldn't figure out what it was.

Our assigned producer, Jeremy, from Painless Productions called to introduce himself.  Nothing earth shattering just a nice introduction and to schedule a time for all of us to talk.  During the next call, all of us shared our experiences and what had happened in the house.   He didn't want us to get into too much detail or for us to speculate what we thought was causing the experiences.  He just wanted a "guide" or "path" on where to start.  The call was really more about us and getting to know us as a family.

Jeremy told us that he would be flying in a couple of days prior to the production crew arriving.  He would be coming to the house taking pictures and getting an idea of the layout of house and land.  We also reviewed the production schedule which was daunting.  Filming was scheduled to begin in late May 2016.  There were a couple of days/night that we could not be at the house.  To further complicate things for us, we had to move ALL the animals off the property.  Amy is a huge animal lover and they were afraid that if the animals were there it would distract her during her walk and thus she wouldn't get a good reading.

Nothing makes you panic more than having your home about to be shown on national TV.  Our house had fallen into an unkempt disaster.  Our hearts, energy, and health weren't strong enough to keep our home up to the standards we were accustomed to in the past.  However, the thought of being on the show and finally getting help inspired us to at least get to the point of making things look better.

Jeremy's visit was somewhat overwhelming & emotional because for the first time someone really wanted to learn about our struggles and was willing to help.  So we poured out our hearts to him.  We told him everything but were able to keep things suppressed at his request.  The two younger girls, Heidi & Emi, were excited to share things with him.  Chloe was somewhat reluctant.  She was still in denial of some of the things and was upset that the experiences were taking away from her Senior year of high school.   She did speak with Jeremy but at her request did so privately.  Londyn, our oldest daughter, was still attending school in Nashville and would not be able to come home for the filming.  She was willing to do Skype but she wanted to do it anonymously.  The show's executive producers said no to that so that's the reason Londyn was not in the episode.

While Jeremy was talking to Emi in the the doorway of her bed something happened.   The crazy woman figured it all out and let a very loud and very angry scream.  It wasn't as much of scream as it was a yell.  Like a parent yelling at a child who was in trouble.

The look on Jeremy's face was shocking.  I said to him, "Surely something like this has happened before."

"No...no, this is the first time ever....that's a first", he said.

Our hopes of keeping this a secret from the entities that were torturing us had come unraveled.

The battle had begun and the spirits were turning the dial up to ten.  They wanted to stop Amy from coming and it came down to whoever was stronger...us or them.

The Cavalry is coming to the rescue!

It's late March 2016 now and our lives had not only become distant from the outside world but from each other as well.   We couldn't stop or control anything that was happening. It had finally started breaking our souls.  Living the way we were living was a tragedy in itself.

The constant screaming of the crazy woman, the man laughing and yelling anytime he wanted,  things breaking down for no reason, things disappearing or flying through the house, and the smell of tobacco smoke were now a part of horrifying daily life.  It seemed there was always something new to add to the list happenings.  One evening I came back into the house from taking the trash out and found one of our dogs on a shelf above the kitchen cabinets.  It was impossible for him to have done this on his own, something helped him.  He was terrified and it took awhile to calm him down.  He also developed a self-protecting trait as sometimes he would refuse to come back inside the house.  It wouldn't make a difference if it was freezing, snowing, or raining he didn't want to come inside. 

Everything about us now was broken.  We were past the point of asking anyone for help or telling anyone about what was happening.   Everyone had looked at our situation as a novelty or something fun.  To them it was like something that they would see on television but to us it wasn't a made for TV movie.  It was the reality of living in constant fear, exhaustion, and chaos. 

My phone rang late one afternoon but since I didn't recognize the number I didn't answer.   I pushed the call the voice mail and forgot about it.  Later that evening I checked the message and it was Desma from The Dead Files!  Her message said the show had been renewed and she wanted me to call her if we were still interested.   Thankfully she was still in the office when I called back.   Jennifer & I spoke to her on speaker phone.  She asked if we were still having issues.  We quickly replied "yes and it's gotten worse!" 

"Would you still consider being on the show?  We want to use your story as a season premier.", she said.

We didn't hesitate and said, "Yes we do!"

She seemed just as excited as we were as she went through a timeline & deadlines of the show's production.   At the very end she asked if we sure we wanted to do this.  "You're at the point of no return now, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?  Doing the show will make everything public and people may judge you, so are you ready for that?"

We told her that we are living in constant fear and lives are nothing but a shell of what it was before all this started happening.  We were at the point that we didn't care what anyone else thought because we knew if we didn't get help we were going to lose everything.   So, yes...we were ready to do it and to finally get some help that we felt we could trust.

She told us who our producer would be and that he would contact us within the next couple of days to schedule times to come to meet with us.

We finally felt a sense of relief that we hadn't felt in years.  We were going to get help...real help.  All the sudden our moods stated to change and the house was quiet for a few days. 

However, things were about to take a very scary turn.  It's always darkest before the dawn is just a saying but it was about to become our reality.

A Major Case of Phasmophobia

Feeling lost and alone in our situation is now the norm.   We had nowhere to turn or no one to turn too for help.  The religious community dismissed our claims as unfounded, paranormal community just made our situation worse,  help from unconventional sources proved futile, and we hadn't heard back from The Dead Files.   We were living in our own Hell and were prisoners in our own home.

So many things were happening to us that we began to suffer from paranoia and a severe case of Phasmophobia.   Everything that happened in our house at that point caused us to take a second look.  Somethings were easily explained but some things had no explanation at all and just caused the fear to grow.

One evening while I was in the bathroom changing a light bulb in a vanity light fixture, the burnt out bulb just shot of the socket.  It flew out the door and smashed into the wall in the hallway.  Even though I was terrified I tried my best not to show it, I just kept doing what I was doing.  The remaining bulbs started to come out of their sockets and flew out.  Jennifer heard the noise and came into the hallway as the last bulb crashed into the wall.  "What happened!?!", she asked.  "Ghost", I said as I walked out.  I was trying to be strong and not show fear but I broke down when I was alone.

The screams, the spoon, the health issues, the mental torture, the shadow figures, and apparitions were breaking us.   At the time, we thought it had to be the house.   We decided we should consider moving and started our search.  However, everything we find was out of our price range or wouldn't work for us.  It was like something was keeping us in our house; we were trapped.

We stopped watching most of the paranormal shows.  We felt that nothing could help at this point and anything we felt we could try would just make the situation worse.  No one was sleeping and the younger girls wouldn't go into their bedrooms.  Chloe slept over at friends most of the time and would come home sporadically.  Our health issue worsened and I started to hear the female voice again.  No matter what I tried to do to stop it, I couldn't.   She kept saying, "You can come to me, I can help you come to me."   I was beginning to break and thought if I would just give in to her all this would go away.  I felt that I was the reason for all our issues because I felt it was me she wanted.  If I gave up myself I could save my family.

She was breaking me.

The storm intensifies

Weathering constant attacks is beginning to wear on us.  We have become more withdrawn and more cautious of who we tell.  We have quit trying to find help as our attempts to get help from the religious community proved more challenging than anything else.  We were told that ghost & spirits don't exist.  When you die you move on to heaven or hell depending on how you lived your life.   Jesus Christ was the only person to die and to have risen from the dead.

That's hard to stomach as we have experienced so many things that have contraindicated everything they were saying.  I was insulted and angry as we went to them for help and they decided without any sort of investigation that we were crazy and needed to believe in the Bible more.

The attempt to get help from religion seems to only increase the activity and anger it.  It's as if we are being punished for our efforts to rid our lives of them.  They begin to attack with a vengeance.

One afternoon, I had to go down to the basement.  I wanted to make my trip quick so I made mental notes of what I needed and where it might be.  As I made my way down, I could feel my anxiety thicken and my chest began to feel tight.  I went to back of the basement and all the sudden the door slammed shut.  I ran to the door and couldn't open it, I was trapped.  Jennifer heard the door slam and ran down stairs.  She pushed and I pulled and we just couldn't open it.  I actually begin to take stock of my life, I felt that whatever was happening was going to be the end.  It was going to kill me.  Finally without warning the door swung open and I escaped.

I was beginning to see figures and hear them.  One day at dusk, I was on the back deck and heard sound of scream.  I wasn't sure if was animal or human and as I turned, I saw an Indian on horse slowly walking from behind the garage.  I was frozen and scared because the look on his face was one of angry.  All the sudden he charged and got me at the blink of an eye with his spear drawn.  I couldn't move and just closed my eyes.  I felt a coldness run through me and when I opened my eyes he was gone.  I made a bee line for the house.

Knives seem to be the weapons of choice for the entities.  We find them stuck in the ceiling, walls, and on the floor.  While cleaning the kitchen one night, a knife we used to cut up a watermelon flew off the counter and cut me across the arm.  For some reason, I wasn't as scared as I had been the past.  I was angry and I wanted to fight.  I felt it was a cowardly move and if they wanted to fight, they should fight me fairly.  That way I could see what I was fighting and could protect myself and my family.

One afternoon while I was in the back bedroom on a conference call, I heard someone in the kitchen.  I didn't think much of it as I just thought it was Chloe home for lunch.  I went into the kitchen but no one was there.  The silverware drawn was open so I closed it and went back to my call.   Soon I heard someone in the kitchen again.  I thought it was Chloe and went into the kitchen again but she wasn't there.  I checked outside and check if her car was there.  It wasn't.  The silverware drawn was open again so I closed it.  I went back to my call but this time with a very uneasy feeling.   I heard someone in the kitchen once again but stayed in the back bedroom.  I was finished with my call and went into the kitchen.  I noticed the silverware drawn was open.  This time I decided to video it, I'm not sure why but probably to provide some explanation for my fear and insanity .  The video below is the full version of what was The Dead Files.

I was very hesitate to give it to them to use as I knew it would bring criticism that it was staged and fake.  That was the last thing I wanted because we were already getting enough of that and it was wearing on us.  After a long discussion with the producers, I decided to let them use it.  They had their camera & video experts look at it, review it, and dissect it.   They came to the conclusion it was authentic and they said it was one the most amazing videos they had seen.  The drawers in our kitchen are old and they take a considerable about of effort to open them.  They just can't be opened with one finger.

Meanwhile, the storm of violence gains strength and begins to intensify.