PART 1
I am a supernatural author but quite honestly, I’ve had very few supernatural experiences in my own life and would certainly never fabricate a tale to get attention. But there was this one time…
When my wife and I were early in our relationship we were living in a building in downtown Peoria, Illinois that should have been condemned. Seriously, the building was crumbling around us. Well, as it turned out, my wife’s father, Eric, owned a property just across the river, a house in East Peoria. It was on the county line (basically in the country), sitting just off a road where people drove much faster than they should, and he offered it to us. We took the offer and moved in in 2013. Things began happening… very dark things…
But that’s not where the story begins…
When my wife was 12 years old, her mother became pregnant and her family moved into that particular house on Upper Spring Bay Road with her father, mother and her younger sister. My wife lived most of her young life in an airstream trailer, her dad, a mason worker, hauling the family to wherever the work ended up being. So, I can only imagine it was a good feeling to finally settle and be grounded. (even if it was in Illinois)
Whatever spirit (or spirits) also resided on that property, it almost always manifested itself in very subtle ways as if, like many spirits, it didn’t want to give too much away. I asked my wife about her experiences early on in that house really hoping she’d give me an Amityville-type account, but it wasn’t quite that dramatic. (I guess if it had been, she wouldn’t have agreed to move back in later in life.)
It started with her reading light at night. The switches in the rooms were the push-button type and hers would turn off as she was getting into her book. She would hop out of bed and turn the light back on only to have it repeated over and over. She also said that things often disappeared and reappeared. One example of this was (again during her pre-sleep reading time) her glass of water that was on her nightstand next to the bed. She would reach for it and it would be gone. She never saw it floating away or anything astounding like that. She’d get back to her reading and the glass would eventually, mysteriously be back, again without her noticing the movement.
Subtleties!
Her sister, however, seemed to have a relationship with one of the spirits… an “imaginary” friend named Jenny Mulassa. (I’m doing my best with what I think would be the spelling of the last name…). Jenny Mulassa and the younger sister played together all the time. In fact, she was around so much that the others in the family would often greet her daily, just to be polite. They were told she had curly hair and big glasses, wearing jeans or, as the sister put it, “pants like a boy.”
It’s important to point out here that my wife and her sister were vey (VERY) sheltered. They were homeschooled, didn’t play with other children and were, to all intents and purposes, in their own little world. Her mother, apparently thinking life was just like ‘Little House on the Prairie’, forbid the girls from ever wearing pants (only dresses) and did not allow haircuts, so their hair grew by the minute down to their rumps. This is why the younger sister said Jenny Mulassa’s pants were “like a boy” or “like dad wears.” She never knew girls to wear anything but dresses. Ever.
The sisters also did not play with other kids and did not watch television other than muted snippets they snuck when no adults were around. Again, there were not a lot of outside influences. They hadn’t seen scary movies or anything that would cause their minds to wander. However, in regards to the television sneak-peeks, the younger sister would often call out what commercial was on the TV before it was turned on. It became a game they played and sure enough, when the TV was flipped on it would be exactly what she said it was. This happened repeatedly.
In my mind, this makes the ongoing interactions with Jenny Mulassa that much more interesting. The younger sister seemed to have a sixth sense about things. (My wife certainly does.) One night, the younger sister had a dream about an extended family member. She saw the woman hovering over a cauldron, surrounded by dead birds and other nasty, disturbing things. The witch, however, was not alone. She was being hovered over by a dark, misty, demonic form that eventually disappeared into the woman. After that dream, the girl was terrified of the real-life version of that person.
Jenny Mulassa continued to be a part of the family for years. Well past the age when most children would abandon their “imaginary” friends, the sister kept up the friendship. My wife said that one day, per usual routine, she called out a greeting to Jenny Mulassa as she went outside. Her sister informed her that Jenny went home and said she wouldn’t be returning and that she was really sad about this.
The least subtle event in this pre-haunt (because the good part is coming next) happened in the kitchen of the old farmhouse. The children were given chores to do and my wife was told to do the dishes that day. She said she was standing at the sink in front of a window that overlooked the front yard. Suddenly, from behind, she heard someone running towards her. She was going to turn to scold her younger sister but before she could, she was thrust violently against the sink. When she recovered, eager then to confront her sister, she turned around and found no one else in the kitchen. She left her post and went to find the girl who, she discovered, was clear out in the back field… playing.
Perhaps Jenny Mulassa wasn’t such a nice girl after all and was giving my wife a parting gift? Or, maybe it was another entity all together. There seemed to be several in that house... later anyway.
These are the accounts given to me by my wife and I’m sure there were more, knowing the spirits involved. These are just the highlights of her memories. Later, her father would get a copy of an aerial view of his property. He was shocked and disturbed when he zoomed in on the house. There was, what he called, a demonic face floating just above the house itself, as if laying claim to the property. (I searched for this image with no success. Sorry.)
Like I said, these are just some little tales from childhood. Take it or leave it. Little kids do have imaginary friends, right? And maybe the child who is now my wife just slipped on the floor and thought she was attacked? I’m not asking you to believe it or not. BUT…
I was there for Part 2 of this story and that’s when it really gets juicy good! There was a darkness that settled on that house and interacted with us on the daily before we finally moved out. There also were paranormal investigators we called to the scene. And… there’s pictures!
Don’t miss the next part of the story!
It’s not quite as subtle.
