My Second Official Exorcism
My second exorcism, in May, with Father Ryan, kicked ass. I fasted for two days beforehand. Additionally, I pioneered yet another strategy:
"Keeping Demon Awake"
It was a hilarious experiment, actually. He was one crotchety son of Satan. I don't know how much of this grumpiness was an act; but it was funny, nonetheless.
I'd noticed that demon would sometimes get quiet for a period of time; and sometimes he'd even answer me groggily, as if he was "tired." Perhaps "weakened" would be the more accurate word. Anyway, I didn't really know whether or not tiredness was a real concern for demons; but, since he'd never flipped the switch and attacked me harder during these periods, I ventured to guess that it might be.
So, I played my exorcism prayers CD on repeat 24/7 for the week preceding this exorcism. Of course, demon probably "drifted away" and rested --or pestered someone else-- while I was sleeping at night; but I wanted to make sure that he would not rest easy at my house. I let the CD play during the daytime also, just to make my home as intolerable as possible for him.
During the day, for that entire week, every time he'd go quiet, I'd call out,
"Ohhh, demon? Demon? Whacha doin'? You ain't asleep, are ya?"
Or,
"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!"
He'd respond, grumpily,
"Yass, bitch! This demon is still in you!"
Or,
"Yass, bitch! This demon is awake as fuck and mad as fuck."
Having read Matthew, chapter 18, verse 20 (NABRE), which tells us:
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,"
I decided to ask all my friends and family to pray for me at the approximate time of the exorcism. I don't know how many people actually did so, but at least a few confirmed that they did.
Additionally, I'd been building up a small arsenal. When Father Ryan arrived, I had a tray of sacramentals waiting for him to bless.
Father Ryan brought an assistant with him this time, and Lee accompanied them as well. We all sat down, as before, to chat for a while first; Father Ryan dutifully taking notes about the developments in my case. I probably told them mostly the same things I've already written about. There are only two things that I specifically remember telling them about; the rosary incident, and the comment about Matt Damon and the platypuses. Their jaws dropped at both of those revelations. That's why I remember it.
We talked for about an hour. During this discussion, I told Father Ryan for the first time about Stephanie's similar experiences, and our theory that these demons met us at Aunt Nell's. When I mentioned that Aunt Nell had died on Easter, he interjected,
"Wait... Easter Sunday? She died on Easter Sunday?"
"Yes," I said, "...Why is that significant?"
"Well," he explained, "some cultures believe that the 'veil' between worlds is thinner around Easter. You always hear that said about Halloween; but some believe it's that way at Easter too."
I don't necessarily think that's the truth, and he didn't either. It was merely something he'd learned about during his studies, and possibly something worthy of mention. It seems to me that the veil is pretty damned threadbare all the time.
Lee asked --as politely as one can ask such an impertinent question-- if I was absolutely certain that this whole thing was not just in my head. I could have slapped him. Instead, I replied,
"If these voices I'm hearing are something that I'm making up in my head, then how did I record them?"
He tilted his head thoughtfully, and then finally conceded,
"Okay. Good point."
Father Ryan said,
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me. I never could get them to play."
I'd sent him the files after our first meeting. It's awfully strange how electronics seem to mysteriously malfunction when they're being used against demons.
I remember Father Ryan asking, near the end of our conversation, if the demon was currently present. Demon had gotten quiet when they arrived, as he usually does whenever I'm around others. I was sitting beside Lee on the sofa. Just a few seconds after Father Ryan asked that question, my right hand, which had been resting on my lap, jerked involuntarily. I said,
"Yeah."
Lee said,
"Oh my God! It just moved your hand!?"
I shrugged and said,
"Yeah."
Father Ryan said,
"O-kay, then. Let's get started."
We went outside, Father Ryan, his assistant, and I. Lee stayed in the house. I don't remember if he burned sage this time or not.
Father Ryan lit some blessed candles and frankincense, using a large stone in my back yard as a table. When he turned his back to me and bent down to light them, I saw a rather large white cloud of mist come from his mouth. It looked as if he'd taken a hit off a vape; and for a second, that's what I thought he'd done. Then he said,
"Whoa. Was my breath visible before?"
He turned around as he said this, and both the assistant and I witnessed his visible breath, as if it were a cold day. It was early May, and 55 degrees. I checked later.
"No," we both replied, noticing that our breath was not visible.
"That's odd," Father Ryan said, in a cloud.
He began the Roman Ritual. While he spoke, I kept my eyes closed and my feet firmly planted on the ground, trying to focus on casting the demon out. As the ritual continued, I felt myself swaying, back and forth. My feet were planted, but I felt like a tree in the wind. It was uncontrollable. I felt as if something was trying very hard to knock me down; but I was a tree, a mighty oak.
When Father Ryan stopped speaking, I opened my eyes. He and his assistant were both staring inquisitively at me.
"How do you feel?" Father Ryan asked.
"I... don't know..." I said. "I felt something happening. The swaying was uncontrollable."
"Uh huh," Father Ryan said to me. Then, to his assistant, he said,
"Go to that tray of sacramentals, and bring us a rosary."
While he was gone, fetching one of my rosaries, Father Ryan said,
"There were a few times during that, when you had your eyes closed, that we could see your breath, but couldn't see our own."
About that time, the assistant returned.
"Here you go," he said, handing me my rosary; and we could see his breath in a cloud as he spoke. Yet, again, we didn't see our own when we simultaneously said,
"That is so weird."
Father Ryan instructed me to pray the rosary quietly to myself, while he continued. I did so. At one point in time, an external voice whispered in my ear. It felt and sounded exactly like a living person leaning over my shoulder and whispering. The message was not very clear. I think he said,
"...hurting me."
The swaying began again, but it wasn't as forceful as it had been before. Father Ryan told the demon(s) as part of his "closing speech," that they were not to trouble me nor my cousin Stephanie any further; and that they should remember that their punishments in Hell would be greater if they continued to harass us.
By the time Father Ryan finished for the second time, I felt --and heard-- pretty much nothing, for a while anyway.
We went back inside to relax and socialize for a while, because this session had lasted about an hour and a half; and besides, Lee and Father Ryan are friends. I was more than ready to break my fast, so I dove into some blackberries I had in the refrigerator. They had me to text Stephanie and ask her if she'd experienced anything at her house while the exorcism was going on. It turned out that she had. She had seen a shadow, of a person who was not there, on her porch; and she had seen, for the first time, a creepy face reflected in her fish aquarium.
They wanted to listen to the EVPs from my phone, since they'd never been able to play the files I'd shared. I have over 60 clips, but I only played the "best" (or perhaps the "worst") few. All three men agreed that they plainly heard talking; although they disagreed with me and amongst themselves somewhat about what exactly was being said. There was no disagreement, however, that the recordings are creepy as fuck.
While they were discussing this, the demon chimed in, sounding very weak or distant. The first thing he said was a very sickly-sounding,
"Yeahhh, bitch... this is not that beautiful..."
When Father Ryan asked, after a bit, if I'd "heard" anything, I sadly shook my head yes.
"He sounds weak, though," I said.
Father Ryan had another appointment that evening, so he and his assistant left shortly after that; but not before scheduling a return visit with me two weeks hence. When they'd gone, Lee looked at me and said,
"I guess you're starving. Let's get you something to eat."
Lee took me to the same restaurant that we all went to after my last exorcism; the place with the great ribs. It was just the two of us this time, however. It was almost like old times. Sitting across the table from my ex-husband, however, I felt a deep sadness emanating from him. He was always a little on the depressive side, so this was not an entirely abnormal occurrence; but I knew that something was bothering him. Something to do with me.
"Is everything okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said, as always, and faked a sweet smile.
After a moment, I asked,
"You do believe me, don't you?"
He looked a little embarrassed, and smiled slightly.
"I... I don't know what to think exactly," he replied. "I believe that you're hearing something, I just don't know if it's... what you think it is."
Suddenly I knew exactly what the problem was; and that table might as well have been ten miles wide.
Lee is, as I've said, a staunch atheist. Lee, at least when we were together, would not attend a Christmas party --not even a work-related one-- because he refused to acknowledge a Christian holiday. He would not attend a funeral --not even a family funeral-- if it was held at a church, or even at a chapel inside a funeral home. I knew, at that moment, that the real problem was that I had become a Christian. This time when he'd come to my house, unlike the first time, I had a tray of sacramentals waiting to be blessed, had hung pictures of Jesus all over the walls, and was praying the rosary. I understood somehow that this was even harder for him to swallow than the fact that I now hear voices, or have demons, or any other way that anyone might describe it.
As if in confirmation of my thoughts, he glanced at my bracelet-rosary with my medallions of saints, and then looked away. Lee and I don't read each other's minds; but we know each other very well, and I always knew that we were both pretty empathic. Therefore, in response, since I had no words to say, I simply looked down, silently pleading,
"What do you want me to do, Lee? I have demons. You and me, we were always looking for proof. I found some. Why can't you accept that? We were supposed to love each other forever, no matter what. Don't let this be the thing that finally drives a wedge between us... Please..."
...to be continued
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