Giggles of the Ghostly Baby

Sunlight poured into 16-year-old David Emerick III’s room as he lie in bed, a cold fear freezing him motionless as he slowly realized he was not alone.

“I have never felt so helpless,” Emerick said. “I felt afraid for my life.”

And he couldn’t move.

“I had a total paralyzing feeling on my entire body,” he said. “I couldn’t get up or move any part of my body no matter how hard I tried.”

He tried to scream for his mother, but his lips couldn’t move.

“I was aware of my surroundings and it was during the day I could see everything limited from where my head was pointing,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t a dream but it seemed like my hearing was amplified.”

His heart beat in his ears and the sound of a bath running came from somewhere in the room. Then he heard something laugh.

“The noises seemed confusing at first until I was terrified of a clear sound of giggling like a little kid laughing at me in the room,” Emerick said. “I felt very fearful and this is where I began to try and struggle and fight out of the state I was in. I heard the giggles right next to me I knew the direction in which they came.”

Emerick forced his eyes toward a small couch next to his bed and saw his unwelcome visitor.

“It was a ghostly figure of a pale baby and its head was bigger than normal,” Emerick said. “I was able to snap myself out of the state I was in. I got up sweating bad and shook up and confused. I then looked at the couch again; nothing was there and everything was back to normal.”

Although Emerick never saw the giggling, ghostly child again, this wasn’t the last encounter with the unknown in his parent’s house.

“This was the first and only time I could clearly make out the figure in detail and actually hear it,” he said. “I don’t understand why my episodes continued but they did in that house. Just the same paralyzed feeling and unable to get up or call for help plus my hearing would be amplified.”

A few years later, Emerick slept the night in a friend’s guest room, whatever tormented him when he was young came back with fervor.

“It was a violent episode for me where I actually felt the presence angry, or where it actually felt like it was doing something to me,” Emerick said. “One thing that caught my attention during my paralyzed state was my friend’s dogs; they were going crazy scratching on my window very loud with their paws and whimpering.”

From his spot, frozen in bed, Emerick could see the ceiling and details of the room from the light of the moon.

“Then suddenly I felt like my body was floating above the bed slowly, and then it started to get violent. It felt like my body was going in all kinds of directions,” he said. “I could clearly see the ceiling up close, then I would be dragged back down to the bed and I remember [being up to] the ceiling again.”

Emerick was helpless as something shoved his body toward the ceiling then dragged it back to the bed. Then he stopped moving.

“It was a very violent episode,” he said. “I was able to get a view of a dark figure near my bed. I felt the presence was not good and its presence was a feeling of hatred.”

The thing disappeared and so did Emerick’s paralysis.

With the dogs still jumping on the window and barking, Emerick turned on all the lights in the room and looked in the closet and under the bed. No one was there.

“My fear quickly turned to anger,” he said. “I was sick of being harassed and attacked by whatever was causing my episodes.”

Emerick spent the rest of the night on the couch in the living room. That was three years ago, and he hasn’t experienced anything as intense since. He still feels the paralysis, but knows how to combat it. He just wants to know what’s causing it.

Copyright 2010 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.

Ghost Hunt Gone Wrong -- Part 2

Author’s note: This is the second of a two-part story of a ghost hunt gone wrong.

The group of ghost hunters returned to Vandalia Cemetery in Porterville, Calif., Christmas night. Five days before, Tammy’s group had picked up an EVP there telling them to leave.

So, of course, they had to go back.

“We went at [midnight] and from the minute we walked in nothing felt right,” Tammy said. “This time the air was heavy and extremely cold and it just felt bad – and I mean in an evil way.”

Tammy said a prayer of protection and the group split up. It wasn’t long before the evil materialized.

“We heard a whistle,” Tammy said. “It was nearby but sounded far away.”

They pointed their flashlights toward the source of the whistle and saw a black figure.

“We saw a dark shadow move from one headstone to another,” Tammy said. “We continued watching but didn’t see it again.”

As the black figure moved from sight another figure, glowing and white as though wearing a long flowing gown, stepped into their field of vision. A few seconds later it disappeared and the black shadow came back.

“[The shadow] moved away from us and toward the other side of the cemetery,” Tammy said. “Adam (a newcomer to the group) said he had heard some noises like something walking across the ground.”

The feeling of evil grew as they watched the black thing begin to circle them.

“As we stood watching it move I felt someone touch me on my back,” Tammy said. “At first it was like someone had tapped me on the back with their finger but when I turned around there was no one there.”

A few minutes later it happened again, but more forceful.

“I asked whoever it was that kept touching me if they would like to say something,” Tammy said. “I thought that they were trying to get my attention and so took a few pictures and tried to get some more EVP.”

Both cameras stopped working and fear grabbed hold of the group, so they got into their car and drove away from Vandalia.

“We left the cemetery and came home and that should have been the end of it,” Tammy said. “Unfortunately it was not. In our haste to leave we forgot to say the closing prayer and to tell the spirits not to follow us home.”

That, Tammy and her friends discovered, was a mistake.

“That night we were all spooked but thought it was due to the events we had gone through at the cemetery,” Tammy said. “My daughter and I are a bit sensitive to the presence of spirits and we both felt as though something or someone had followed us home from the cemetery.”

And not just Tammy and her daughter – something followed them all.

“We began experiencing knocking on the walls inside our homes,” Tammy said. “My daughter lives around the corner from me; she called that night after she went home and said that she had a very strong feeling of being watched.”

On Dec. 27 or 28, something visited Adam as he slept at Tammy’s house.

“Adam was asleep in the bedroom and was awakened by someone slapping him in the mouth,” Tammy said. “I had just walked into the room and was nowhere near the bed when he suddenly jumped up and said that something had just smacked him in the mouth and asked if I did it. I didn’t do it and he and I were the only people in there.”

Tammy’s family has also heard the sound of children running around the outside of the house laughing between midnight and 2 a.m.

“It can’t be human children as they would have to pause long enough to open the gates at both sides of the house and these children seem to go right through the gates,” Tammy said. “But when they look out to see who it is there is no one there.”

Whatever is in Tammy’s house has tried to communicate with her.

“I started hearing someone or something knocking on the wall in the kitchen,” Tammy said. “I went and looked thinking someone was doing something outside but there was no one there. It happened again so I asked if there was someone here with me. There was two more knocks. I told who ever it was that I was busy trying to type and they were disturbing me and I want them to stop knocking.”

Her house was quiet the rest of the night, but the activity has not stopped.

“Since our last investigation at Vandalia Cemetery we have experienced a lot of strange occurrences,” she said. “I just want to tell those people out there who don’t know what they are doing but are thinking about going on a ghost hunt, to please be careful. Try to go with a professional paranormal investigation group but be aware that the spirits in cemeteries and haunted houses or anywhere there is paranormal activity can and will follow you home.”

Tammy’s unwanted visitors are still making themselves known.

“We are experiencing the strange noises and the knocking and the children running around the house at all hours,” she said. “But so far no one else has been hit or even physically touched by a spirit. We are hoping that it will stop on it’s own soon.”

Copyright 2010 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.