Evil Whispers From The Pines

Settling In

When we first moved in there was a bit of a honeymoon period because nothing too alarming happened those first weeks.
Within days of us moving into the house, I was already rethinking my choice of room. I unpacked my stuff and hung all my pictures and things on one wall. Suddenly the walls started shaking violently and half of the items I hung on the wall were now on the floor. That whole mountain has a high degree of seismic activity. So, I figured it was an earthquake that happened and shook all those items off the wall. But, when I asked, no one else in the house or even the neighbors down below felt an earthquake. And if it was an earthquake then it was contained only to that wall. I don't know, it could have been an earthquake, maybe a minor tremor. But I thought "oh great" not only are we in the middle of nowhere in a big old drafty house but my room is some kind of epi-center. That room also had a bank of windows that looked over the canyon. At first I thought "what a view" but quickly decided it felt like being in a goldfish bowl. As I started feeling creepy vibes in that house and around it, having those windows in my room went from being a positive to a negative really quick.

The time between first moving in and my sister arriving was a bit of a blur because nothing happened. It just seemed like a big, old, quiet house. With some really odd features. The living room had a high ceiling and there was a light that hung down from the top rafter. Over the doorway leading from the living room into the dining room there was an inscription that said "sine of light" and what we thought looked like an upside down cross. My mom asked the realtor about it and she assured her it was not upside down and that the people that lived there previously were the hippie type that put all kinds of inspirational sayings and symbols around. We didn't like it but figured we would just scrub it off. A Pagan I knew said she thought it was a protective saying and wondered if it was actually an upside down cross or more of an ankh. When I think back I am not sure. I know in Christianity "sign of light" is often associated with a Christian cross. If what my friend says is right then it was a protective saying and the cross was just an Egyptian ankh. But, the more I think about it I think the misspelling was deliberate and the cross was upside down in a deliberate bastardization of a Christian symbol. That would make more sense in the context of all that was to come. During those first weeks mom and I grabbed a pail of soapy water and some scrub brushes and set to work trying to scrub that inscription off. We scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed some more and finally had it so you could only faintly see the words and symbol. Then mom took a Christian cross and hung it up over that area. That "held" for a while. She also took out all the bibles and left them laying open about the house. None of that was completely unusual for us. Mom always had open bibles in all the houses we lived in. But she did go a bit beyond her norm in this house, there were multiple bibles and religious symbols placed around. I think my mom was nervous and wasn't quite sure why. Maybe it was the dead cats, the weird bumpy carpet in the basement, the remoteness, and/or the creepy saying over the door in the living room. It could have been some or all of that which spoke to her to have additional Christian symbolism throughout the house.

No matter how often or how much we scrubbed the area with the inscription and the weird cross, it would leach back out and become more prominent. It wasn't our house so we did not want to sand it or do something that would have been more definitive in removing that symbol, so we would scrub a bit and it would seem to seep back out of the wood. We gave up after a few attempts as there was no way to remove it without damaging the doorway. Mom put some things over it. That was the best we could do.

I remember the old vampire movies where the person holds the cross and the creature of the night shies away. I thought that was silly. Why would the vampire care about a crossed piece of wood? Well, if you ever want to be a believer in the power of Christian symbolism, live in a place where the opposite energy exists. I am not saying we could grab a cross and ward off all evil but it was noticeable that things never happened in the immediate area of the open bible or cross. We should have wallpapered that house in crosses. Wouldn't that have looked crazy? It's like the people that lose their mind and write things all over their walls. But if I thought it would have worked I would have been that crazy person. I think it warded things off to a degree. You might have less crazy episodes when the Bible is open and the cross is displayed but it doesn't completely stop it.

Paranormal experts contend that you do not experience full paranormal activity in a "haunted" place immediately. That is why some shows on paranormal occurrences have the investigators stay several weeks or a month. I cannot speak to all places that have such activity but, what I experienced in this location was there wasn't much activity at all the first days to weeks we lived in that house, and events happened for longer duration and more frequently the longer we lived there. But there were definitely signs even on the first day.