𝘽𝙇𝙐𝙀, colby brock.

009.

bell witch.

not many people know the story of the bell witch or kate batts. its a mystery to most, but not in adams, tennessee. most grew up with the wild stories of the witch who haunted a family enough to kill a grown man. wild stories that kept kids from running off and getting hurt, or worse. some didn't listen.

the witch has been known to be malevolent, pure evil. it all started two hundred years ago, 1817 to be exact. the bell witch, also known as kate, was reportedly the bell family's neighbor. she was an outcast, poor and widowed. kate always wanted to be the center of attention despite the hatred the town carried toward her.

the hauntings began when john bell allegedly saw a strange animal lurking in his farmland. a black dog with the head of a rabbit. suddenly, the family started hearing pounding noises outside of their cabin. the two occurrences had to be tied together, and they were.

pounding escalated into voices later to be identified as a "spirit" from the local preacher. suddenly the spirit began lashing out, throwing pillows across rooms, tugging on the kid's bed sheets, and even physically assaulting john bells daughter, betsy.

the family kept the hauntings to themselves, maybe in fear. maybe to keep the town out of their business. eventually, john shared the occurrences with a close friend and the two went to a preacher for help. the three swore to keep it a secret, but then people started flooding down. making the hauntings worse. it fed off of people's fear.

the hauntings got worse, beating the kids, and tripping adults and the entity's voice even became clearer. it announced its plan: kill john bell.

it claimed that mr bell was a bad man, for what? reasons were unknown. the entity had made itself clear and its reasons are known. the kids had claimed the entity to be a native american, whose grave was disturbed. another claim was that the entity was kate batts, a neighbor of the bell family. the witch often referred to this name. kate had denied any connection with the incidents, only for the entity to continue referring to itself as kate.

after four years of dealing with the witch, john bell fell ill. john struggled to eat, claiming he couldn't swallow, he also suffered from seizures. the witch laughed at the man. john bell died at age 70 in 1820.

john bell jr. had found poison next to his father's bed. kate's batts were believed to poison the man. she even laughed, danced, and sang during and after his death.

the hauntings had died down after johns death, until his daughter, betsy, was newly engaged. the hauntings had encouraged betsy to break off their engagement, leaving her ex to move to west tennessee. he died wealthy at 84.

disappearing again, the witch had claimed to come back in seven years. and she did. in 1828 the entity returned to haunt john bell jr. telling him about his past, present, and future in three separate nights. she then claimed she would return to john bells most direct descendent in the never 107 years, in 1935. but no claims had been made of the witch returning.

john's direct descendant, lucy had claimed that the witch had favorites. the witch was jot confined within the walls of the cabin or the cave. she and her daughter have reported seeing the same dog john had described before the hauntings. when lucy's daughter was frowning up, she had claimed to see and a little girl running around giggling, maybe it was the sweet side of the bell witch.

that was it, the story of the bell witch. some believe that kate had stayed at the cabin until the last hauntings in 1828. others believe the witch never left and still resides in the forest to this day. maybe the witch is still there..

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word count - 666

maybe this isn't the end 🙀