I guess that even though most of the events that have occurred to me take place in Baton Rouge, La. I feel that it is important I start my story from when I was a child and lived in Mexico.
As far as I can remember, I've always been a little different from everyone else. I really can't remember much from when I was a kid, but my mother always talks about how creative I've been since I was a little girl. She tell stories from when I was a kid, of how I would sit myself and talk and talk for hours. Carrying on conversations with myself.
She says that at first she just thought I was lonely due to the lack of friends. She thought it was a good thing that I let my imagination fly. Most six year old have an imaginary friend, so she didn't give it much thought. Until one day I came to her and told her that I wanted her to meet my friends. She asked where they were and I look at her with a big smile and told her they were right there next to me. Of course she didn't believe me, and told me that they were only in my head and that she thought it was time I started spending some time with other kids my age. She says that I started crying and repeated several times that I wasn't lying that they were right there. After some months, she says that I still had my "imaginary friends" and even though she repeatedly tried talking to me of how my friends didn't really exist, nothing changed.
After some time she decided that a change of environment would be good for me so she filed for our visas and two years later we came to the United States. We arrived at Louisiana in the year 2000 and I was now eight years old. I started school and was giving my best to get accustomed to my new life. My mother pretty much worked all day and so I didn't really get to see her much. And even though we lived with my cousin and her son (we're the same age) I spent a lot of my time by myself. In that Angel is a boy and I am girl so we didn't really get along well back then.
So I spent most of the time watching TV, doing homework, and playing with my dolls. Everything that a normal eight year old girl would do. Months went by and we got accustomed to our new lives. At that point my life was normal. Nothing weird happened. No voices. Nothing. My "imaginary friends" were long gone and I was truly a happy child despite the fact that I didn't get to see my mom a lot due to her job.
Every Friday though, I would stay up late and wait for my mom to get home. But, there was one specific Friday that I can remember clearly. I was in the living room watching cartoons and eating popcorn. When a noise caught my attention. I looked towards the hallway but didn't hear it again, so I continued watching TV. Minutes later I heard the noise again so I looked in the direction I thought it came from and saw a small shadow in the hallway. At first I freaked out, but then curiosity got the best of me so I got up to see what it was. To my surprise it was my new porcelain doll. It was just laying there outside our room (I still slept with my mom at that time).
I remember asking myself if I forgotten to put it up. But I hadn't played with her that day. I came to the conclusion that my cousin Angel was trying to scare me, so I just put my doll back in the room and returned to watch TV. After that incident every Friday I would hear the same noise. I just tried my best to ignore it. But then it wasn't just on Fridays. I started feeling scared. I would hear the doors creek and I didn't know if I was just imagining it or if I was really hearing it.
It got to the point where I didn't want to play with my dolls anymore. At night I would grab a blanket or towel and put it over the shelf where I kept my dolls in that I had a creepy feeling of them watching me. My mother noticed this and asked why I did that. I told her everything but she didn't really believe me. She told me I was imagining things and that I wasn't allowed to watch horror movies anymore (I was a huge fan, until I started experiencing weird things). I told her that I wanted her to take me to church every week (I come from a very religious Catholic family) but since she worked every day, she made arrangements for her cousin to take me. After I started attending mass every week everything went back to normal. Months later I did my communion and my mom was able to spend a little more time with me. I was happy once again.
Everything stayed normal for some years until I was 14. By this time my brother (23 years old at the time) had finally gotten his visa and was living with us. My mom rented a two bedroom apartment and it was just three of us (I shared the room with my mom).
One day my brother and I went to Walmart to buy a chess game. While we were in the game isle we found a Ouija Board game. We thought it was interesting and bought it. We went home and our cousins were there. My brother showed them what we bought and they immediately wanted to play with the game. The instructions said to concentrate but instead they just moved the pointer themselves. So I just watched the boys be boys. When they got bored of it, I took the game to my room and decided to give it a shot. I didn't really believe in that sort of thing at the time. But I was very curious to see if it really worked. So I did a session. At first I got no answer. But I still kept my fingers on the pointer and concentrated really hard. After some minutes the pointer move to "yes" (I asked if anyone wanted to talk to me). I couldn't believe that it actually worked.
I asked it some questions and it gave me answers (that years later came true). I was fascinated! But then I remembered my experiences from when I was eight. I didn't really want to get harm or anything so I went online and researched on how to properly use the Ouija board. I learn prayers to say before every session to protect me, of how NOT to ask any spirit to move things in your home to prove they're truly there (never do this, for you are giving it power to move freely in your home and the spirits are not always nice spirits), etc etc. So once I learned everything I needed to know, I did another session. To me it was just a game despite what other people thought.
And so, months went on without me "playing" with my Ouija board. One day shortly after the 2006 school year started I decided to play with the board after all my chores where done. So after everything was done, I took the game from under my pants in the closet. I went to the living room, lit some white candles for the mood, said a prayer of protection and started the session. But, this session was different from the other two I had done before. I started communicating with a spirit but it didn't really last more than two minutes. The pointer stopped moving so I asked again, if there was anyone that wanted to talk to me. No answer. I waited and asked again. The pointer moved to "yes" and I asked what was it's name. It move to D,I,E and stopped. For some reason my brain was in Spanish mode even though I was asking in English. Since the pointer didn't move I sat there trying to figure out what name it was, I thought Diego (I truly wasn't thinking of something negative). Then it hit me, DIE. I immediately dragged the pointer to "GOODBYE", flipped the board, put in it's box and stored it.
I knew that one should never burn or throw away a Ouija board. In that if something did come into your home, how would you get it out if the door was broken (remember the Ouija board is a portal). So it stayed at the bottom of my closet. Days went by and nothing seemed to have changed. But it wasn't until a couple of months later that things started happening. I started hearing the doors creek, weird noises, and I got paranoid. I told myself that it was the air conditioning making the doors move when it came on. So I started to make sure every door in the apartment was shut (I still do this), specially the closet door where I kept the board. It creeped me out at night if my mom left it open even if it was just a little crack. I got up and closed the door shut.
By this point, I hated being alone. My room felt weird so I spent most if not all of my time in the living room. I only went into the room to go use the restroom and to sleep. Other than that I stayed in the living room area. Well one day as I mopped the living room floor, the microwave turned on. I thought my brother had used it in the morning and didn't let the timer go off, so I simply turned it to zero (it was an analog microwave). I finished mopping and as I was washing the mop the microwave went on again. This time I freaked out a little but thought that maybe there was some electrical surge or something. So I disconnected the microwave, then took the mop out to the balcony. I went back in and turned the TV on. Then I heard the microwave's turntable spinning, again. I went to the kitchen and I was simply astonished!
I had disconnected the microwave but somehow the turntable was spinning. The light inside wasn't turned on, but the turntable was spinning as if the microwave was being used. I got scared to the maximum level and started crying. I ran next door to my cousins house and waited until my brother or mom got home from work. I went home and decided not to tell anyone about the incident. For the next year or so weird things kept happening but I did my best to ignore them.
On January 2008 we decided to move, and I was really happy with this decision. I packed my belongings and didn't even think of the incidents I had experienced in the past. All I could think of was how excited I was to move to a new apartment and go to a new school. As we were unloading our things to the new apartment I remember I had the Ouija board in the closet (like I said, I couldn't throw it away even though it crept me out). I asked George (my boyfriend at that time) to drive me to the old apartment. But when I got there the Ouija board wasn't in the closet. I asked my mom if she hadn't seen a box in the closet and told me "Oh you mean that Ouija board? I threw it away."
The first thought that came to my mind when she told me this was, "Let it be known that I didn't do it!" But, besides that I was super happy I didn't have it with me anymore. I thought I had been really silly for believing something bad would happen if I threw it away. I was happy. I was starting fresh at a new school, new apartment, and living just with my mom. Things were at peace.
We settled very quickly into our new apartment and soon we had returned to our daily routines. Everything was normal. But I guess that in my life things can't stay like that. At the beginning of my 2008 winter break I was home alone doing my chores and listening to music. I was in the kitchen washing the dishes and heard that the jukebox had stopped playing. I figured the CD had finished playing so I dried my hands and went to put on another one. As I was going to take the CD out I noticed that the CD hadn't finished playing, it was paused. I tried thinking of a logical explanation for it, but deep down I had a feeling that there wasn't one. I simply didn't give it much attention and just unplugged the jukebox. I turned the TV on and went back to the kitchen to finish washing the dishes.
When I had finished with all of my chores I sat on the couch to watch TV. Then my mom called and asked me if I could look and see if she had forgotten her glasses in the room, so I did. It probably took two to three minutes for me to go in the room and come back out into the living room. To my surprise when I came out of the room, the TV was turned off. I freaked out and started crying. I called Jean (my current boyfriend) and told him everything or at least I tried to tell with what ever words came out between my sobbing and stuttering. It took him a few minutes to calm me down and then told me to pray, so I did. He said he would come over as soon as he got off work. But meanwhile I didn't want to be alone so I went over to my friends house. Months went by and nothing weird happened. I tried really hard not to think of the past incidents, and tried to simply go on with my life as normal as as possible.
For a little more than a year nothing strange happened in my life. And the events from the past hardly crossed my mind. In the summer of 2010 I was now 18 and curious about many things. One of my curiosities was learning to read tarot cards. I had always been attracted to this sort of things in that I was told my father did something similar (though he didn't use it for good things). So I bought a deck of cards and a book to go with it. It turned out I was actually good, taking in mind that I was just a rookie. Every night I would learn a new card and try to connect to it. At first I did readings just for me then I started reading to my closest friends (for practice) and this went on for some months. But nothing strange happened. Then on January 2011 the scariest thing I've ever experienced happened.
It was around 2:30 AM and I was laying on the couch watching TV. I heard my mom's room door creek open. I thought it was my mom coming to tell me to turn the TV off because it was late. So I rapidly turned off the TV laid face down and acted as if I was asleep. A couple of minutes passed and I didn't hear anything else. So I figured it must have been the air conditioning and decided to go to sleep. As I cuddled myself into the couch I felt a grip around the back of my left ankle. I immediately screamed the way I had never screamed before. It wasn't a scream like the ones one makes while watching a scary movie. No, my scream came out of pure terror. I was horrified! In all of my life I had things turn on and off inexplicably. I had heard noises, but never had anything touched me before. It's hard to explain this, but in those few seconds between me screaming and getting up I thought of looking back to see what it was. But I was too horrified of seeing something horrendous. And in those seconds I guess my instincts of survival took over, because without me thinking of it I was trying to open my mom's room door. As I opened the door I saw my mom getting out of bed and asking me what was wrong. I was literally in shock. Everything happened so fast. All I could say was "something grabbed me" over and over as I sobbed.
Minutes later went by and she was finally able to calm me down and then I told her what had happened. She then started telling me that it was because I "played" with those cards (the tarot cards). That they were from the devil and not from God. She went on and on about how the cards were evil. But all I could think of was that grip around my ankle. I knew it couldn't be because of the cards, though I didn't discard the possibility. And as much as I tried to think of a rational explanation, I simply couldn't find one. I was so shaken up that I couldn't sleep, so my mom started to say prayers over my head until I finally went to sleep. That night was the worse night of my life. It is a feeling of terror that no words can describe. How to explain something like that? There are simply no words that can describe the feeling of that grip around my ankle. And the horror I felt for those few seconds.
After that I neither liked or wanted to be in the apartment so a month later I decided to move in with my friend and her girlfriend. And even though I had to sleep in an inflatable bed in the living room I was happy to move. I moved out in February and had moved back two months later because my mother got ill. I stayed three weeks and she got better so then I moved out again. But this time I moved in with my boyfriend. I thought things had gone back to normal but it didn't. I hated being alone. I hated taking a shower when I was home alone. It felt that every time I closed my eyes I was going to see something. I always had that feeling of someone or something looking at me. I don't really know how to explain it; it's just a feeling one can't shake off. Every time you turn, you move, you talk, you feel eyes fixed on you! I don't know if I was just paranoid because of everything that had happened to me before; I just felt surrounded. Sometimes I would just sit and cry my eyes out while Jean simply listened everything I felt. He was and still is a huge support to me.
And it was during the time we lived together that my insomnia started. It wasn't something that happened over night. No, it started with me just not being able to sleep some nights. I would feel something looking at me even when the room was pitch black. Sometimes Jean would go to sleep and I would just lay there trying to fall asleep; as much as I tried I couldn't. I would start hearing noises coming from the living room, then the bathroom in our room, and then the closet; I tried tuning them out, but most of the time I ended waking Jean up. I would ask him if he could hear the noises too, but he never did. He would just hug me and say a prayer and didn't go to sleep until he was sure I was asleep. I swear that at that point I really started questioning my sanity.
Then the worst thing that could have happened to me at that time, happened. My boyfriend had to work the night shift so I was left all alone in the apartment at night. I was so afraid of being alone I literally turned on every single light in the apartment. I made sure every door was shut and locked myself in my room. Since I couldn't sleep I would watch movies until Jean got home from work.
During that time I didn't read or even own tarot cards or anything of the sort. So I really didn't understand why things like that kept happening to me. I would tell myself that maybe I was just being paranoid and really tried to just ignore everything. The months went on and my mom got ill again. Jean and I talked and decided that it was best that I moved back in with my mom so I could watch over her; by November 2011 I was living with my mom again.
When I moved back things were normal until the afternoon of December 11, 2011. Which is a day before devout Catholics celebrate the day that Our Lady Of Maria Guadalupe (Virgin Mary) appeared in Mexico. So every year we sing her "Las Mananitas" (Happy Birthday) exactly at 12 AM of December 12. At the time my Aunt Clara was staying with us for the holidays. Well on the afternoon of December 11, 2011 while she and my mom went out shopping I was told to decorate Virgin Mary's altar. So I put some fresh flowers and a couple of candles on the table. I went to the kitchen to get matches to light the candles and as was searching I heard a 'thump' sound come from the living room. I went to see what it was and saw that one of the candles was on the carpet. I had no explanation for it. I picked it up and put it on the table again. I sat on the couch just thinking to myself how could it have happened; I simply had no answer.
When my aunt and mom came back from the store I told my mom about the candle falling off the table and she said it was probably the wind. I was astonished with her answer. All the doors and windows were closed and even if they had been open; there is no way a simple wind could knock off a candle that size off a table. It just wasn't possible. I was frustrated that she didn't believe. So I did what I had done in the past, try to forget and move on with my life.
Things stayed quiet for around two weeks. It was around 3:40 AM on December 24, 2011, and I was picking up the mess from my mom's birthday party. I was almost finished cleaning and all I had to do was close the blinds of the balcony door. This had to be done one blind at a time in that someone broke the stick to close the blinds during the party. As I was finishing up I saw a shadow with the corner of my eye come from my mom's room toward the kitchen. At first I thought it was my mom so I asked what she was doing up and got no response. I looked up and saw no one. I went to her room and asked if either she or my aunt had gotten up to go to the kitchen; her answer was no. She asked why was I asking but I told her it was nothing.
Since I couldn't sleep I went to the living room to watch TV until I got sleepy. But of course that didn't happen. For some reason I can't sleep at night. I toss and turn and I can't go to sleep. Never in my life had I had problems sleeping well, in fact I've always been a heavy sleeper. But seems that lately I can't go to sleep until the sun rises. I just don't know what to do anymore. At first I thought that it was my old apartment that had some sort of bad energy. But it seems that everywhere I go something always happens.
For example, after the December 24 incident everything was normal until the end of January 2012. I was in the living room watching TV and playing chess in my laptop when I heard a noise from the kitchen. I looked toward the kitchen and saw nothing so I returned to my game and as soon as I took my eyes from that direction the noise started again. So I sat quietly trying to figure out where exactly in the kitchen was the noise coming from. And then I heard it again and it sounded as if someone was trying to start the blender. So I got up and went to the kitchen to see what it was and saw how the blender's blades spun and stopped. My first reaction was to unplug the blender but when I did this it sounded as if someone was pressing down the blenders buttons repeatedly.
I was really scared and didn't want to stay in the apartment a second longer so I grabbed my cell phone and went outside. I sat on the stairs crying and called my mom to see what time she was going to be home. I couldn't take it anymore and told her everything that happened. She said she would be home in around an hour and that I should go inside and say a prayer. But I had absolutely no intention of going back in the apartment alone, so I stayed outside and called Jean.
The past month was some what peaceful. I still can't sleep very well at night and I still feel like someone's watching me 24/7. I still hear noises but try to ignore them. My mom insist that I should start going to church again (I haven't been to a mass in years) but I really don't feel like going.
A couple of weeks ago a cousin came to visit from Houston, Texas. She is a very religious person and dedicates a lot of her time to church. We were talking and I thought that since she was very devoted to the church that maybe she could help me. So I told her of some of the things that I had experienced and to my surprise she didn't look surprised at all. She said that the first time she came into the apartment she saw a shadow pass in front of her and felt as if all her happiness had just left her. So she started praying in silence ordering whatever this thing was to leave at once. Minutes later she felt okay again but didn't mention this to my mom. In that she wasn't really close to us and didn't know how to explain things to neither me or my mom.
As she told me this I got goosebumps all over my body. For I hadn't told her about me seeing the shadow. I kept explaining everything and told her that lately sometimes when I was in the apartment I felt angry or depressed. She told me that I should stop reading tarot cards and start going to church. She said and I quote, "El malo te quiero agarrar" (The evil one wants to get a hold of you). She told me that if I started going to church again everything would be okay. But every time I want to go something comes up. So I still haven't been able to go and honestly I don't feel and urge to go. I know I should but I never do.
Other than some close friends no one knows of my experiences. And the reason I decided to post this is because I truly don't know what to do. I need help. I need an explanation. I hear all sort of theories; that maybe I have a gift, that it's because I read tarot cards, that it's because I played the Ouija board when I was younger, etc. But I'm not really sure they're correct. I still live in the same apartment I still hear noises from time to time. I hate going into my mom's room, and I still can't really sleep at night. If you have any advice or know what could be going on, please help.