A Dark, Angry Presence

The run-down apartment in Brisbane, Australia, always felt wrong to Kayla Griffiths.

“Numerous friends who would visit would sometimes have to leave certain rooms or sometimes the entire apartment because of these energies,” Griffiths said.

Strangeness began the first week she lived there – the apartment spoke to her and her flatmate. The voice told Griffiths to get out of bed.

“Me and my original flatmate experienced a voice speaking to each of us,” Griffiths said. “To me it sounded like her, to her it sounded like me.”

Griffiths walked into her flatmate’s room and found her still in bed. Neither of them had spoken.

“Her face dropped,” Griffiths said. “We both knew something weird had happened but had brushed it off.”

The strangeness continued, slowly at first.

“Things began disappearing then showing up in places we would clearly see it,” she said. “Once I walked past the fridge and a bottle off the top of the fridge flung to the ground and smashed on the floor in front of my legs; enough to have little cuts on my legs, but nothing serous.”

The negative feeling increased slowly, too. The feeling grew stronger the longer Griffiths lived in the apartment. Hatred, anger, self-loathing.

“The rage and anger we felt started off with little arguments and annoyance over small things, which we palmed off as stress,” Griffiths said. “And slowly things started getting more angry. It felt like there were constant tensions in the house.”

Griffiths’ flatmate – also her best friend – became so angry she moved out.

“We ended up not speaking anymore,” Griffiths said. “I had thoughts that were completely paranoid about her, thinking she was doing things to hurt me.”

Then Griffiths’ boyfriend, a devout Roman Catholic, moved in, and the negative feeling in the apartment grew worse.

“The anger then seemed to heighten between me and my boyfriend, starting off with big yelling matches, then throwing things, then pushing,” she said. “It became more and more violent where I would feel as if I had lost control of my mind.”

The anger would completly take her over. At one point she hit her boyfriend over the head, knocking him to the ground.

“It’s hard to explain, but it was like my eyes glazed over and I blacked out while this force of just anger and hate took over,” she said.

Then the anger and negativity became solid.

“I was in a pretty deep sleep when I woke suddenly, automatically looking at a corner of the room,” Griffiths said. “My eyes shot open and I was staring at this figure about seven foot tall, with some sort of robe or cloak-looking outline.”

The entity had no face; it was just a massive black mass.

“The even scarier thing is that it was pitch black in our room, and this figure was so black it was like I was seeing it in the sunlight,” Griffiths said. “I feel as if my soul or subconscious knew it was there before I even woke up, that’s why I was staring straight at it.”

Fear and panic racked Griffiths.

“I instantly knew it was evil,” she said. “I needed it gone; there was a sense of urgency to make it go away. I don’t know what this thing was, all I know is I have never felt so terrified in my whole, entire life.”

Griffiths lay there, the breath knocked from her lungs, trying to scream, but nothing would come out.

“All I managed to do was call my partner’s name out,” she said. “The way in which I did, he woke straight away and saw it. The figure was still just standing in the corner of our room.”

Griffiths buried her head under the covers, clinging to her boyfriend. He prayed until the entity went away.

“I am now convinced there is a God, because if there is something that evil out there, there’s got to be something that saved me from it that night,” she said.

However, Griffiths is concerned she was the cause of the negativity in the apartment. She and her former flatmate had often used a Ouija board before they moved into the apartment.

“I believe something followed us,” Griffiths said. “I honestly think my soul was somewhat in trouble until I met my boyfriend. I believe his religion and knowledge has saved me from whatever wanted my soul.”

Griffiths and her boyfriend moved out of that apartment and haven’t seen the entity nor felt the negativity since.

“Thankfully nothing has really happened here,” she said. “We actually left because it got to the point we were scared of killing each other. Since we’ve been in our new home we haven’t had one fight. I’m pretty certain it’s leaving me alone because my partner protects me.”

Copyright 2009 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, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.