I Am Haunted Part 2 - The Hag
So, a little bit ago I shared a bit about my life, talking about a bad dream that is still going on to this day. (Check out part one HERE and behind the scenes HERE) While kind of freaky, it has nothing to do with what I’m going to talk about now. This is probably one of the most disturbing experiences I’ve ever had with the paranormal that was sort of intentional. Yeah, you’re not imagining it, I really did something to purposefully haunt me.
It’s not the first time I’ve done something this stupid (I’ve messed with Ouija boards before, I’ve messed with places that are haunted, etc.) Like, I still experience the things I have messed with in the past, but nothing this extreme or violent. I hear voices, sinister laughs, growls, see shadows, things moving on their own, my pets freaking out…but this?
This time it physically assaulted me in more ways than one. This time it messed with my emotions to the point I wanted to get violent, and I’m a pretty big guy so there’s no doubt I’d do some damage had it gone that far. So, let me tell you about a little trip I took to Las Vegas, Nevada. Let me tell you about a museum just off the Strip. A museum that boasts an interesting collection of oddities and haunted artifacts. A museum where I brought something home with me…something that refuses to leave…until it has my soul…
Here’s the thing though, the museum itself is not…okay, yeah, it is an evil fucking place. Like, there’s so much bad shit in there, it’s no wonder something from there attached itself to me, and why my group and I had several really messed up experiences while we were in there. I’m not saying this to dissuade anyone from going, and I’ll name the museum in the next paragraph, because it really is a fascinating and interesting place to visit. There is a ton of history there and some crazy cool artifacts to see. Like, there’s some cool sections on serial killers, some sections where they have some personal objects of some of the owner’s favorite actors and singers, it’s just a wicked cool place. The actors and the staff are great, very knowledgeable and courteous to everyone, it’s just that the really fucked up parts of it are what you gotta worry about. Those are the parts of the museum that really got to me, followed me out of the museum, followed me back to my hotel, followed me back to home, and tried to fucking kill me. So, let’s talk about it…let’s talk about Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum…and the Hag that’s trying to swallow my soul.
For those of you that don’t know, Zak Bagans is a paranormal investigator. He has a reality paranormal investigative show on Travel Channel called Ghost Adventures, where he and his teammates (Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley) go to various haunted locations and investigate. It’s a fun show, sometimes creepy, sometimes just plain silly, but always entertaining. I especially love the history behind a lot of the places they go to. So, when I heard Zak was opening a museum in Las Vegas, I had to go there. Four years ago, I got my chance. I was in Vegas for a work conference and my wife, brother-in-law and I had some downtime. I bought the tickets online and away we went to check out this place of oddities and cursed objects.
When we got there, we were presented with a waiver. Like, this place isn’t screwing around. The waiver had some general rules and guidelines we were to follow (no photographs, all electronic devices turned off, etc.) but it also had a section on the spirits that could potentially cause us harm. These exhibits were marked as 18+ and the tour guide would notify us of what was in these exhibits. I’m not going to go into all the details of what specifically they have, because I want to focus on one exhibit in particular: the Dybbuk Box.
If you’ve seen the movie The Possession or the episode of SyFy’s Paranormal Witness, then you know of what I speak. This box supposedly has a demonic entity trapped inside. Anyone who owns the box or opens the box is attacked by the entity living inside. Well, this was one of the 18+ exhibits, and we were given the choice to go inside or stay out. Obviously, I wanted to see this thing for myself, so in I went. Guys, this isn’t just me trying to sound creepy or anything…I lost time while I was in there. Inside the room there is a Jewish prayer being recited on a loudspeaker on repeat that is supposed to keep the spirit at bay. The box itself sits in the center of the room, surrounded by salt from the river Jordan and is sealed under a heavy glass case. I walked into the center and stared at the box…that’s when time sort of stood still. I couldn’t have been in that room for more than three minutes or so, but it felt more like hours. I could also feel my mood changing. I went from being sort of relaxed and calm, to experiencing this fiery rage. I suddenly wanted everyone out of the room so I could be alone with it. I wanted to break the case and open the box. That’s when the emergency signals went off in my brain and I got the hell out of there. Even worse, my wife who was with me, upon exiting, broke into tears. Anyone reading this who knows my wife, knows that she does not get emotional over simple things and does not cry easy. For her, this was an especially messed up cursed object, one we vowed we’d never mess with again. The unfortunate part was, even though we left the museum a little after this, the horrific experiences were far from over.
That night I lay in the bed of our hotel room and I couldn’t sleep. My anxiety levels were through the roof. I kept seeing something moving just out of my field of vision. I got up and went to the bathroom, splashing cold water on my face. Maybe it was just my nerves because I never really could relax after traveling. I left the restroom and that’s when I saw it…a strange shadow in the corner of the room. It was dark, darker than all the other shadows in the room. I blinked…and it was gone. I rubbed my eyes and figured it was just my anxiety or a trick of light…I mean, we were in a room in Las Vegas that was overlooking the Strip. Not sure how many of you have been to Vegas, but that place never shuts down. The lights are always bright and they’re always on. Maybe a shadow was made by those very lights? I never saw that shadow again for the remainder of our trip, but I couldn’t sleep for more than an hour or two every night, and there was this feeling of dread every time I entered the hotel room. When the trip was over, I was happy and relieved we were headed home.
When we got home, I was still feeling anxious, but not as bad as when we were in Vegas. I was actually able to sleep that first night, getting a full eight hours in. But when I woke up, I didn’t feel rested, in fact I felt the opposite. I didn’t have any energy and didn’t want to leave my bed. I thought maybe I had gotten a spring/summer flu or a cold or something. I toughed it out, got out of bed, and tried to get back into my usual routine.
One night, while I was home alone, I was waiting for my buddies to get on Xbox Live. I had my headset on and everything when the hallway in my house got dark…like, it was darker than a normal kind of darkness…which is the best way I can describe it. The lights were on, and in El Paso the sun sets fairly later than a normal place. The sun was still up. It was still bright outside for 6 PM. At first, I was confused. My cats stared into the hallway, alert. One of my cats, Cicero, he almost never hisses unless he feels threatened…and he growled and let out the most ungodly loud hiss I had ever heard. My other cat, Mouse, was hissing and growling as well. I was freaking out and filled with this sense of dread I had never felt before. I just sat there, dumbfounded, unable to understand what was happening. I gathered my courage and got the fuck out of there, taking a walk around the block until my heart rate relaxed. Whatever that darkness was, it had gotten my already messed up heart to start beating at a rate that would’ve probably put a normal person in the hospital. My anxiety and fear levels were hitting astronomical levels and I couldn’t calm down. Eventually, of course, I did calm down.
After about two hours or so of sitting outside, I went back in. The darkness was gone. The house was calm. My cats were acting normal. What the fuck was that? What was it we all felt? Were my eyes betraying me, or did I actually see a shadow moving along the walls like a viscous liquid within that darkness…? The answer came to me about a month or so later.
It was late and I had gone to bed way after Kim, my wife. It didn’t take me long to fall asleep, but when I eventually did, I landed directly into what I would call one of the worst nightmares of my entire life. I was being chased by something. It was covered in this slick, oily skin that looked like tar. Its face was completely black, except for red pits for eyes, and a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth (think Venom from the comic books). Its hands ended in razor-sharp claws that reached for me, trying to grab me and tear me apart. In this dream, I fell…and it pounced on me, raising its claws in the air high and bringing them down to my flesh…that’s when I woke up.
My wife was stroking my hair and I had my head in her lap. She was whispering to me, telling me it was just a dream, I was safe, nothing could harm me. She leaned down to kiss me and that’s when I realized it wasn’t Kim, and her face had contorted and changed into a hag. She forced my mouth open and I felt my energy leaving me. I shoved her away and she was this disgusting creature who laughed at me. Just then, I woke up for real, screaming bloody murder. Kim woke up beside me and grabbed onto me, telling me, again, it was just a dream. I tried to explain what I had just experienced but my heart was going nuts and I couldn’t get the words out. I knew the truth right then. The Dybbuk box had followed me home. The things I had seen and experienced at the Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, followed me all the way home. The hag I saw? The demonic force that was covered in black, tar-like skin? They had attached to me.
To this day, the things are still here, they haven’t left. As a Catholic, I’ve begun to rely more on my Faith in God for protection, and in the prayers of others to help me cope with these entities. Since giving myself up to that Faith, things have quieted down tremendously. But, as seen within this article and the “Behind the Scenes” one I released before, it’s still there. It doesn’t really want me to tell this story. It fills me with dread just to type these words because I know it can see what I’m typing. But it’s like my good buddy Doug said… “Push it.” And that’s what I intend to do. I’m not going to stop talking about my paranormal experiences, I’m not going to stop raising awareness in the other worldly beings and entities that are trying to destroy us. I’m going to keep going on, because as God is my witness, I won’t let them win.
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