Author’s note: This is the last of a four-part story on the haunting of Sheryl Rackliff of Rockland, Maine. Rackliff’s troubles began by using a Ouija board at a friend’s apartment and, when she went home, something followed her.
What’s in my home? Sheryl Rackliff wondered during the days and weeks after she investigated her friend Alicia’s haunting. She felt drained, emotionally and physically.
But more so, she felt she was not alone.
“I blessed myself with holy water, sage and strong prayers for protection from this thing,” she said. But her energy was gone, and a creeping sickness had gripped her. “I feel as I no longer have an immune system as I am always getting sick now and I got worse after I started investigating her home.”
As she sat at her 18-year-old daughter Amanda’s computer before bed one night, she heard someone say her name.
“I heard my daughter and her boyfriend and my stepdaughter and her boyfriend call my name quietly,” she said. “I listened to be sure it was them calling my name because I hear my name called in here often. I then heard my daughter’s boyfriend say ‘no one is in the kitchen,’ then they called my name much louder.”
As Rackliff approached the kitchen, she heard the cupboard doors and silverware drawer opening and closing loud and fast. When she arrived, no one was there – but Rackliff felt there was.
“I kept feeling like someone is watching me,” she said.
Soon, as the boyfriends prepared to leave, the noises began again.
“I was standing near my basement door and we all heard the sound of someone playing pool on my pool table,” she said.
“Oh, my gosh,” Rackliff later wrote in her journal about that night. “I hear footsteps coming down or going up stairs right now! Sounds like it is upstairs as I can hear walking. I still hear it, now it's coming back down!”
Exhausted, Rackliff soon went to bed, but her sleep was restless. The sound of pots and pans banging rang from downstairs. Amanda heard it, too.
“It seems to be moving all around this house,” Rackliff later wrote. “What type of spirit or evil am I dealing with? This has done it tonight as to putting fear into my daughter big time. Everything that has happened here this night has her very scared.”
Night after night the cupboard doors and kitchen drawers slammed open and shut, and something pushed Rackliff’s boyfriend’s daughter to the floor. Lights started going on and off, latched doors opened and the mouse on Amanda’s computer moved on its own.
Then Rackliff’s world exploded.
Amanda’s friends stayed the night to get up early for a trip when Amanda began pounding on Rackliff’s bedroom door. One of her friends was acting strangely.
“Jen had woken up and looked at Jofi and started talking about her grandmother saying (she) hated her, then Jen's eyes closed,” Rackliff said. “They assumed that Jen was sleep talking until then she opened her eyes again and started to growl and hiss.”
Jen kept growling and hissing and began pulling her hair. By the time Rackliff reached the room, the others were holding Jen down.
“I ran to her side knowing that she was being possessed,” Rackliff said. “I started screaming her name.”
When Jen pulled her eyes open, Rackliff could only see the whites.
“Her eyes were so evil looking,” she said. “They were … very bloodshot, they were very glassy and her pupils were very small. I started screaming for whatever was doing this to her to get the hell out of her body.”
Then Jen fell forward. They laid her down and Rackliff demanded to know what happened.
“I said ‘Jennifer,’ do you know where you are and tell me who is with us in the room,” Rackliff said. “She said in her own very weak, frail voice ‘Sheryl,’ then her head turned up towards Jofi. She stared at him and her eyes were creepy looking again then her fists tightened and she started to growl and hiss again and then in her own voice but more so like she was a man she said, ‘I am going to (expletive) kill her.’”
Jen began fighting but couldn’t break the hold. Rackliff demanded whatever had Jen to release her and Jen collapsed. After the girl awoke, the teens left Rackliff’s house and slept somewhere else.
“I am scared and scared very bad,” Rackliff said. “What do I do? Whatever I am dealing with – evil, possibly demonic – I honestly feel it wants me dead.”
Rackliff’s house is still active. She’s contacted people familiar with hauntings and hopes they can rid her home of whatever is terrorizing her family.
“Nothing evil will shake my faith in God,” she said. “Please pray I get my strength back and have the power to quiet it down until the team comes.”
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. 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.
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7 comments:
Thanks Jason for the story. Very compelling. For what it is worth, one time I too felt the presence of evil in my home.
It's a long story as to why this presence made itself known (it wasn't a ouija board) - but it was distinct and unmistakable.
I wasn't a religious person and hadn't said a prayer in over twenty years, but after feeling this presence - I prayed for "good spirits" to watch over me and my family. The next day, we had confirmation that good spirits had indeed heard my prayer in the form of "circles of light" all over our front lawn.
See this link for an example of what I mean by 'circles of light':
http://www.taracanada.com/CircleofLight.html
If I may, I recommend this woman find a Native American shaman to help her with her problem (some research and prayer will be required to find a good one). Also, burning sage throughout the home is good, but it should be accompanied with prayer as well.
She should check out a root Dr. (hoodoo) in sweden named Dr. Johannes. google his name with .se instead of .com
she can send her info to him and he'll send back a price to her.
I recomend him cause he deals with this sort of stuff.
Another very good Root Dr. by the name of Dr. Kioni (he's in florida) might be able to help as well.
suspend disbelief (god knows you've been getting some horrible practice) give them a try, they will be able to help.
Hello, this is Sheryl Rackliff, I am no longer in my home, things went crazy there. I can not say for sure if this was paranormal or not but I do know the prior owners of the home who were very much in love with two small childern ended in divorce. I strongly believe there was something there before I investigated Alicia's home however it was not too bad until what ever followed me home from Alicia's.
What ever it was it left such a negative vibe.
This home was my first home,a beautiful home and a dream I waited all my life for.What ever was there it appeared to not like my fiancee or hios daughter very much as it would push his daughter Ashley around,throw things at her and a very dark blob or shadowish thing was seen several times over his head. I had the A&E Channel at my home and the producer also saw this over his head but for some strange reason I never could see it.
To make a long story short, My fiancee Daren and I had lived there one year,everything was fine between us but a year ago today he walked out and never returned back. Story has it he was followed by something and everything quited down at the house. I swore what ever had been there left as it was a very peaceful feeling in my home.
As for me I was a mental reck,turned into someone I didn't know or want to know,nomatter how hard I tried to stay posotive something bad would happen.Alicia and Meredith swore I still had company but I was posotive I did not.2 months ago I told my daughter and her fiancee I couldn't keep trying to save the house, I had to give up,I had to get out. I packed up some stuff and moved to my parents home.2 days of being out of that house I was happy,posotive Sheryl, I felt as if I was reborn. I could sleep again as I had spent 3 months with chronic insomnia and nothing would put me to sleep in that house. I will alway question if what ever was in that house and still is in that house if possibly it turned me into the person I had or if it clearly was sever depression, what confuses me is how quickly I changed once I finally left. I am still doing great, have a new job,strong minded,simply wonderful. Guess it will always just be a big question.
As for the house now, it sits there pretty much empty. I gave pretty much everything away and now stuff I need to store remains there in boxes. The house is on the market right now and is questionable as to a new buyer.
One evening Alicia,Meredith and I decided to go in and light some candles in the evening, the power was shut off, we just sat on the living room floor with about 12 candles with only 2 burning and tell ghost stories. Meredith started complaining that it was hard to swallow and she wanted to go out side. I turned on the flashlight and blew out the candles and we headed out. as I was exiting the house I looked back and saw a candle was still burning. Alicia came back in with me as I thought it just didn't got out, I picked up the candle to learn it was not the same candle that had been burning as the wax had just started to melt. I blew it out and we left. Also a few times I had gone by my self to pack more stuff the door would slam closed. The last thing was Alicia,her boyfriend and Meredith had come over, I had a picture of my brother and I near the stairs, I had gone upstairs once and everything was fine, then a few minutes latter we all went up and the picture of my brother and I was laying on the top of the stairs. Several times while living there it would move personal things of mine such as photos.
Today I can not not even enter the garage alone once the sun goes down. I have a very uneasy,unsafe feeling and I am not one to scare easy but this feeling I get is of death.
Me again, I want to add that Jason could only take so much of my story however I learned the history of both my home and Alicias home, Alicia's was much more interesting as I had learned about murders of 4 childern there and much more which I'd be very happy to tell if I was not so tired but if you wish to know I'll tell latter.
Alicia's home also now remains empty as she just moved out.
Thanks for sharing the additional info Sheryl. For what it is worth, from my own study, many people have had their personality change when in the presence of evil. I feel that in reality we are all spirits - except our perceptions have been limited and we're not able to see things and entities existing all around us, but in other dimensions. And yet even so, they can affect us on more subtle levels.
I've known people who've seen dark shadows and even more. These people are what we might call psychic - personally I think we all are psychic, but some are more so than others.
Thank you so much. It is so very hard to explaine and so very confusing and honestly I pray it was the evil that turned me into the person I was, I wanted to die and tried 3 times I had no fight left in me. My doc said it was severe depression which I believed but at the same time I knew how strong of a person I am and the feeling of being pulled into sucide was so scary. Once I got out of there I was 100% myself again which leads me to believe it was the evil. I have had no relapses, I'm great!.
What ever this is I have delt with is not happy with me, I was uncovering a secret that had been burried for years
Sorry had to sign off fast and never got to finish.
When I captured evp's the thing would repeatedly say my name,when it was not saying my name it would growl and hiss. One evening I had been sitting in my office just off the livingroom, my cell phone a Razon was sitting on my desk. I had gotten up and was in the kitchen cooking supper. My daughter Amanda and my x's daughter Ashley called me in the livingroom because my phone was making funny noises, when I was nearing the living room I could hear it calling my name,the closer I got it started growling and hissing and the phone was closed and no number for received calls, once I picked up the phone it stopped.
Another thing that happened was I awoke one night, I couldn't talk or move at all, the same thing happened to my daughter but she felt as if there was someone holding her down.
So much happened at my home to even try to write about at once, the worst place was Alicias.
When the producer came to my home from the A&E channel he stayed in Maine for 4 days and had Meredith and I help him out, so Meredith and I went to do some research on the house. I can not remember the dates on when it was built as Meredith lost it all and I'd need to go back. As I was getting all the information a psychic friend of mine Shelly did her own research,her information was very interesting but she could not tell me who she found this woman or the womans name as the woman has a terrible fear of something?? i'm assuming the evil there.
This woman stated that a family of 7 moved into the house ( 2nd owners ). 5 children. Poltergiest activity was very bad there, the children were thrown all about by this. The mother tried everything to stop it and one day started listening to Christian music turning it on first thing in the morning and leaving it on all day. This seemed to have only made it worse and the father became possesed. The father locked 3 children in the basement and the two oldest in the bedroom above from the 3 in the basement and set a fire burning all children except the oldest girl as she escaped out the window never to be found.
Now I have a face in Alicias window of a young girl about 7 or 8 years of age with bangs and long hair. As I moved rocks in the basement just under the charred beams I flipped a rock which had a mans hand print on it either in blood or paint,under that rock was a little girls old white skirt with blood stains on it and burns which I have several pictures of. Finding that skirt was not a good thing as the activity picked up greatly so I put the skirt in a zip lock bag,tied it to a brick and threw it in the quarry.
As to the surviving daughter, I think she is very close to home, not sure if she is the old woman who lives in the upstairs apartment as she listens to Christian music every morning at 6:00AM or if it is the woman who refused to give her name?
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