Attacked By Spirits

From the author: This is the second of two parts about Linda Jessogne, who found the doorway to the other side opens, it doesn’t shut.

Linda Jessogne’s father visited her the night he died. Since that evening, as then-five-year-old Linda lie in bed listening to her dead father’s footsteps echo up the steps, she’s been able to sense the presence of the departed.

About six months after her father’s death, he mother and eight of Linda’s 10 older brothers and sisters, moved to a home in a different part of town. But Linda knew they weren’t alone in the house.

“From the day we moved there until the day I moved out, I could sense at least five spirits that lived in the house,” she said. “At least three of them were bad spirits, only one was out to harm … There is one at the top of the stairs; that one I know well.”

As Linda grew older, she became determined to find out who was haunting her family’s home.

“From doing research about the house; about 10 years before we moved there, there was a family that lived there with two kids,” she said. “One night a robber broke in and held the family hostage for about 12 hours until he was shot by a sniper.”

The thief died at the top of the stairs, where he remains today.

“The second one lives in my bedroom; I also know his story,” she said. “He was addicted to drugs and one night he thought he could fly and went through the bedroom window, landing on his head and breaking his neck.”

That’s where Linda’s knowledge about these homebound spirits ends. She wished she had more information – especially about the one she calls evil.

“I've never found anything out about it except for one thing,” she said. “He, or it, lives near the pantry.”

The only information she could glean from the previous owners was about a water heater.

“The previous owners had always said the floor was weak by the water heater, and one day the man was going into the pantry and he felt like something pushed him and he fell into the water heater and fell through the floor,” she said. “That one, I believe, is very evil and dangerous.”

So much so she grew to hate going into the room.

“Every time I had to go back into the pantry I was always afraid of what it would do,” she said. “Granted, nothing ever happened except the light would go out on occasion when I was back there, then it would come right back on.”

Since Linda moved from the house, spirits continue to haunt her.

“When I met my boyfriend about two years ago, the first time I went into his house I felt them,” she said. “I walked into the room and was immediately met with the spirit. It seemed to be a younger man, probably in his early 20s. He was a curious spirit and he was very much into the electronics in the house.”

Her boyfriend and his roommate experienced many unexplainable electronic problems in the house.

“The spirits were so active at that house that they sometimes scared me,” she said. “A few months later, my son and I moved into the house. One night, while we were laying in bed, I felt something different enter the room.”

This spirit was angry – and visible.

“For the first time, I actually saw it,” she said. “It was a shadow, yet it had glowing green eyes and was watching us. It really scared me, and my boyfriend told it that it wasn't welcome there and to go away, which it did.”

But not for long. Unlike the spirits she had experienced before, this spirit wandered the home inside and out. But there was something else in the house, something darker, more malevolent, and it didn’t like Linda.

“One night my boyfriend was out with some friends,” she said. “My son was asleep and I had to do some laundry, which was in the basement. Normally basements really freak me out, and this one was no different. When I went down, I could tell something was wrong. “I could see my own breath.”

Linda started the laundry and turned toward the stairs when she saw the black figure near a wall.

“Thinking that it was the wander(ing spirit), I stopped and began to tell it to go away, and suddenly, it's eyes glowed red and it charged me,” she said. “It almost looked like an enormous black dog with huge white teeth. In my head, I kept thinking to run, yet I was frozen to the spot. I kept telling it in my head to go away. When it reached me it jumped up, teeth barred, it disappeared right before it bit me.”

Linda ran upstairs and turned on every light in the house, woke up her son, and barricaded them in her bedroom until her boyfriend got home. He didn’t believe her encounter until the next morning.

“When he went to change loads and found the pipes frozen,” she said. “It was warm in the house, yet the pipes had frozen.”

Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.