The Ghostly Chronicles: Chapter 13 Auf Wiedersehen Henry
My mom rented a Uhaul truck, and they would go to the house early in the morning to start moving all of our possessions out. Everything would be stored in my aunt's garage until a new place to move to was found. Their goal was to have everything out of the house to not have to come back once the investigation was concluded.
On Sunday, my family arrived at the house around 7am. They wanted to have everything out of the way and loaded into the truck before the parapsychology team arrived. Most of our belongings were upstairs, but a few things remained downstairs, like the flour-covered floors. They decided that mess would be the last thing they would bother with.
All four of them went into the basement together to gather things up and box them. After a concise period of time in the basement, the activity started. It was daylight out, but the basement was always dark and gloomy. All of the walls were paneled in a dark stain. The only window was the patio door and a small window in the smallest utility room. Even with all of the lights on, it was still dimly lit. Banging in the laundry room was the first noticeable distraction. They said it sounded like the washer or dryer was under attack. They tried to ignore it. They had started at the basement's furthest end to work, saving the activity prone laundry room as the last destination to be packed.
They said it seemed like the family downstairs was irritated at them either for being in their space or moving things around and packing them. It seemed that the decision to try and work without paying attention to the noises was futile. When they didn't react to the laundry room banging, the noises moved out into the family room. Clicking and popping noises were everywhere. The sitting room door was slammed shut. That was the next room to be packed because it was attached to my brother's bedroom. A decision was made for two of them to stay together and pack one room, and the other two would work in a different room. If the two in the bedroom were shut in by the two doors, the other two could render aid if needed.
Their plan didn't really impact the action. they said it was moving in all areas so fast that they couldn't keep up with it. It was on top of them, and in the blink of an eye, noises would begin in a different area. And then it would be right on top of them again. The finger-snapping sound was right in their faces, and then they said they felt like cobwebs were being draped across their arms and faces.
Right before they finished the last load to transport upstairs, Henry appeared at the bottom of the stairway. It was as if he was daring them to walk towards him or through him. My uncle had bought the wood pieces before I left for Ohio and was turned into a cross by him. A big wooden cross on a platform. My uncle had brought it to the house in the Uhaul truck. It had never been seen or used before; nobody even knew it existed. I guess he was saving it for a special occasion.
Everyone was afraid to approach the big, black mass of Henry. They were totally intimidated by it. They didn't know what might happen. My uncle approached it, and it became larger and blacker. He backed away from it, and then he took off running for the patio door. He ran around the house and took that cross out of the truck. He entered through the kitchen and carried it to the top of the steps. Henry was swirling like a big dark cloud in a supercell. Uncle Jerry slowly walked down the stairs with the cross, stepped into Henry's form with it, and Henry vanished. Was it a coincidence, or did that thing have some fear of it? Whatever it was, it worked.
My family had been mesmerized in fear standing there with that big black cloud standing in front of them. They said they felt like they were stuck in that spot. Fear or the thing itself was not going to allow them to pass. When it was over, they were all sick at their stomachs and shaking like a leaf. Even my uncle. He actually did get physically sick, he had to run to the bathroom to vomit, and then he sat on the steps for a while, trying to regain his strength. They were all huddled at the bottom of the steps together. Once he regained his composure he ordered everyone up the steps, and he followed them carrying that cross. He sat the cross down at the top of the steps, and that was where it stayed.
Once they were safely all upstairs, my mom asked my uncle where he got the cross. He told her that he had bought the wood and made it down in the basement several days earlier. On one of his trips to pick my mom up from work, he took it to a Catholic Church and had it blessed. He said the priest looked at him like he had lost his mind but never asked him any questions about it. At the time, it seemed like one of the smartest moves that my uncle ever made. They were able to finish packing and moving everything upstairs except for the TV without further incidents. They locked the truck and left to get chips and sandwich bread and meats for themselves and the Duke people to eat for the long night ahead.
They returned shortly before the visitors arrived. Nobody was sure of what might transpire after they arrived, so they ate a late lunch and made additional sandwiches to eat later that night. The people arrived from Duke right on schedule. There was a total of eight of them, the two professors and six students. They brought in cases and cases of equipment to be used. And then they all sat down and wanted specific details about the events happening in the house. They were deciding on the most active areas of the house to decide where to place equipment and people. Then they wanted a tour. The first thing they saw was the big cross at the top of the stairs. My uncle was kind of embarrassed about it; he didn't want them to think he was silly, so he moved towards it to move it. They stopped him and asked him why it was there, and he told them what happened earlier. They told him to leave it there. And then began the rest of the tour.
They started setting up equipment everywhere there had been an incident. Then each family member was placed with a group of their people. There would be no lights on in the house that night. That would have been enough to make me abandon ship, but they said they felt safe with the Duke people. They were advised not to have any interaction with anything that might happen unless they were asked to. They did not even want them to make any comments unless they were asked a question.
Darkness was almost upon them, and everyone took their places. They had asked why the floor had flour on it, and my uncle told them it was there to rule out that humans were coming into the house by the patio door and causing the problems. They told him that they would often do or have the homeowners do to rule out human invasion.
It was not a disappointing evening for the Duke crew. All night long until dawn, there was constant activity. Every area that was being monitored had action. Tapes were made, pictures were taken, we couldn't have asked for more material than what was provided. The two professors roamed the house, experiencing the full spectacle of common events to the family. Henry performed as if he were the star of a show, and in reality, he was. He was taller and had a bigger black area around him than he had earlier in the day. The woman and the girl were very active but much lighter in color than they had been; Henry seemed to be absorbing their energy. There was a major showdown at one point. Henry shuffled through the kitchen and came out, heading for the top of the stairs. His two friends were behind him. They were trying to go downstairs but wouldn't go past the cross at the top of the steps. The three of them stood there with their feet constantly moving but going nowhere. Hovering, but not hovering. shuffling but not moving. The low-pitched noise was deafening; they just stood in the same place for a while. Then the woman and girl moved so fast down the hallway towards my room that they just looked like a fast, foggy blur. Henry's darkness grew wider and taller; he just hovered in mid-air. Then he quickly disappeared and reappeared next to the TV, which was against the wrought iron railing, and dropped, flew, dropped, himself through the railing and down the stairway drop off by the basement door and vanished. He chose to do that instead of walking past the cross. The female professor thought that was amazing. He never came back up the steps past the cross, but he stayed visible at the bottom of the stairs for a long time. And then he vanished, and it was over. It was almost daylight.
The Duke folks began wrapping up all of their equipment and putting it away. When they were through, the male professor and his wife wanted to talk to my family. They told them it was the most impressive haunting that they had ever witnessed. They said they had gathered a huge amount of evidence to study. Dr. Joyner asked them if they had ever understood the voice on the tape, and said no. He told them that Henry spoke in German and was constantly ordering them to leave his house. They asked if my family would be coming back to the house after they left. My mom said they needed to clean up the flour. He told them to do it as soon as they left and to make sure they were out of the house in an hour and not to come back for any reason. He told them that the black thing was very powerful and evil and capable of harming someone or making them harm themselves. They said he would always be there, that they thought he was bound there for some reason. They explained that the darker the entity, the eviler they are. They had no way of knowing why it was there, but they said areas with historical violent events are common areas to have phenomena. They said the DC, Maryland, and Virginia areas were ripe with death and battlefields and that the theory was that those violent events were somehow imprinted on the present and would always be there. They explained that perceptive people are frequently aware of things that nobody else would be bothered by. They also said it was a big mistake to ever play with a Ouija board. They advised that they send a letter of their findings to the homeowners to let them know their findings. They said the owners would never hold us to the lease because there was a weird clause in it about being guaranteed a happy and healthy living environment. Our family would never be happy in that environment.
I never had to set foot in that house again. When I was given all of the details of the events that happened while I was gone, I was horrified. It was too much for my brain to absorb. When the letters came from Duke University, I was relieved that we had been given justification for leaving the house and at the same time astonished that anything so horrible could have happened to us.
I have spent very little time dwelling on these events during my life. I have tried to push them as far away as possible. Writing about these events has given me terrible nightmares, and I am glad that this awful chapter of my life is over. Now, I will go back to writing about normal occurrences in my life.
I have often wondered, though, about the effect that staying in the house up through the horrific parts of activity might have had some effect on my family. All four of them, mom, uncle, aunt, and brother, had terrible health later in life, and they seemed to be plagued by bad luck repeatedly. But not me or Glen or Mike. For whatever reason, we left when we had to and were not supposed to be a part of that evil. And whether it is true or not, I am eternally grateful that we left when we did.
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