The Demonic Dead

The following account details a series of unexplained happenings that occurred on Tuesday 18th September roughly between the times of 8 pm and 10. 20 pm in Northern Ireland. For those of you who remember, I am a Journalism student with a special interest in the paranormal.

My mother is a medium of sorts and I am a consummate sceptic, however as circumstances have shown I may have limited abilities myself. However, my mind remains open, to such an extent that this occurrence was witnessed by me first hand.

For the last year, a close friend of mine named Petra has requested mine and my girlfriend Jessica's assistance in child minding her ten year old child, Leon, while she went to play music. They are German immigrants. Petra has limited yet understandable English, Leon has perfect English. I will quote Petra exactly, so take note it may seem unclear.

Unfortunately, our initial meeting transpired merely months after her husband Ian died suddenly from cardiac arrest. Ian had a poor reputation with anger, alcohol and abuse. However negative this may seem, nobody was in any doubt that he loved Petra unconditionally. It was clear even to young people like Jessica and I with little experience of life could understand that she deeply loved him regardless of his faults.

Ironic it may seem, but on the day of his death, he appeared to know that he and Petra would not speak again. They had been arguing throughout the days previous. In the morning the fighting climaxed, she said, "If you be drinking, coming home drunk, you not come back again!" To this Ian replied, "Alright, you will go your way and I shall go mine."

Accepting this as nothing other than his anger she let him go to cool off. She then left to visit her older son Max (Who despised Ian, they had different fathers) who lived in a local "Simon Community." He was put there due to an anger management issue, and that he and Ian couldn't keep their hands off each other. Petra's visit went on without incident.

She returned home to find him lying on the floor. Barely breathing, she said, "There he was, in the middle of living room floor, his phone on table, he was trying to call emergency service, I gave him heart massage, CPR, I gave it, he respond not!". Petra summoned the ambulance. His heart effectively shut down. He was very overweight and a chronic smoker and a diabetic. He died in his wife's arms, in his own home. Something he had previously said he wanted to do. Most people assumed his general poor health was the cause of death. However, in the mind of the Pathologist he may have deliberately taken his own life or at least by accident. The evidence was that there were multiple fresh needle marks on his right arm where he injected his blood sugar regulating needle. He overdosed.

The months passed and Petra had to deal with her grief. The process seemed to be taking its predicted course, as time went by, it got easier. However things began to behave most abnormally indeed. The first occurrence was roughly three months after his death. Leon came into Petra and said "I just saw Ian walking across the hall." Petra is a Wiccan, a neo-pagan. So after hearing this, she performed some type of smudging ritual on the house, something she often did from then on in.

And hence fourth with chaos, he often knocked things from the walls, moved things, you smelled Ian's favourite cigarettes quite regularly and one visitor, Leon's previous child minder saw something in the hall, and fled. He refused to return to the house, and he was true to his word. What he witnessed, he refused to disclose.

Now this is where I come in. 18/09/2012 8 pm. I, Petra, Jessica, my friend Orrin, and Petra's friend Sabin (also a Wiccan) were talking, laughing, watching YouTube videos and generally having a bit of craic. I went to the bathroom to relieve myself. I returned to the sitting room of Petra's well kept home. The atmosphere was poison. Petra is one of these people who keeps the house HOT, she always has the heating on. It was cold. It was bluntly and solidly cold. Yet, only half of the room was affected. One half was its usual sweltering self.

Petra was crying, shaking and her hands were turning a violent shade of blue. Jessica and Sabin sat either side of her. I must have looked laughable, I stood there, and mouth opened gawking at this scene. She started to hear Ian. She said, "Ian says he wants to protect me, he promised, always protect me." She said, "He thinks Richard is bad, and his sister, she bad too." (Richard was her record producer; they had fallen into a romance after Ian's death). Petra was in an inconsolable state.

I began filming with ¾ full batteries on the camera. The cold intensified. Sabin and Jessica claimed to be experiencing electric shocks of some pulsing kind, sudden bouts of weariness and other anomalous symptoms.

During a nine minute period of filming (I will put this on YouTube and provide a link later), Petra spoke to Ian, Sabin chastised him saying he had to move on, go to the light. These encouraging words seemed to enflame Ian's anger. Every time Sabin told Ian to leave Petra alone, the three of them would jump as if in pain. Jessica would explain that the electric feeling would increase.

I then said to them, could you describe what you are experiencing for the camera. It suddenly died. After nine minutes of filming and almost full battery, it died. My reaction was exactly: "How the f**k did that happen?" I admit to being concerned. Then the smells began.

The first was, in Petra's words: "That smell, from the coffin, when it was taken to house for wake." It was an odd sickly sweet oak like smell. It came, strong, and instantly disappeared. It did not fade, it vanished!

Suddenly Petra cried out, "He is trying to take me out of my body." She properly screeched out loud and then stopped. Her head was now between her legs, Jessica and Sabin looked terrified. Petra's head then slowly rose to look right, smack into my eyes. Her face was malevolent. She wore a glare, a sneer and a darkness that this kind woman never had. (I caught a picture of it will be up on YouTube). She moaned again and it was gone. It was Petra. Relief cascaded over me. I wasn't afraid, but my adrenalin was screaming RUN!

Then the smoke, the smell that seemed to warn me of danger. I didn't want to smell it but Jessica said "Niall you have got to come over here and smell this!" So I tentatively approached the area and whoosh! Strong and concentrated and icy cold wind hit me in my face. It was targeted at just my face, a very small area. There was throbbing pain in my face. Before I could say a word about it Petra shouted at me, "Watch out, he swung at you with his fist, he burnt you with his cigarette too." I would rate the pain at 6 out of 10. It was a throbbing, enflamed sort of sensation on my upper cheek bone and the right side of my face. This pain continued until about 11pm before fading.

Petra said "You are a man, in his house, with his wife, he thinks you Richard, he jealous!"

I was frantic, I was on a mission to rationalise this, I ran about checking for drafts, securing windows, even looking up the chimney, there was no draft! But then, why the hell was I in such profound pain?

Jessica has polycystic ovaries and was in a lot of pain that night. She claimed then he punched her too, while I was fool proofing the room, right in the back, the pain caused her to start retching.

Then it stopped.

The room had risen back up to its boiling hot normality. Petra said, "His energy is gone."

With that the Wiccans, as fast as they could, ran to the kitchen to garb themselves in all of the amulets of the day, bags of spices and precious stones for protection and such like. I thought they were wasting their time. I was correct.

The cold returned with frightening haste. This time it occurred in the kitchen. Petra shouted at thin air "Why you do this? I need this not!"

Then I felt a burning pain on my chin, like razor burn, I still feel it itchy now as I write this. He scratched me. I felt it from below my ear to under my chin. Petra screamed, "Leave him alone! How you protect me when you hurt my friends? He is not Richard!" A mark showed up, but faded too soon for me to photograph it. Orrin was there, he had fled to the kitchen with Leon in fear at the very start, but he witnessed that too.

Then it stopped again. Warmth returned, and Petra could no longer sense his presence.

I put my foot down and declared that we were leaving. I returned to living room to get my things and then I smelt the smoke! My immediate reaction was to shout,"Oh sh*t!" Then I felt a sharp and fast stabbing feeling like a nail digging into me on my back. It felt it fading for a while. I called out, "Jess look at my back!" I rolled up my jumper and she saw a red mark, the size of a thumb. I felt it itch for two days. It was photographed.

With that, I left, I returned on the 20th to do my child minding duties, no more activity occurred.

It was traumatic. It was terrifying. I am humbled at my ignorance of these things and their obvious influence on the physical reality. Opinions and comments are welcomed.