Tales To Tell In The Dark

Painting with Scars

The following is an interview conducted by the Union Parish Police Department with Jake Welling, concerning the events that occurred on the night of July 13, 1990:

I don't know how it happened.

I don't know why it happened.

I'm not even entirely sure what happened.

But I was there when it happened.

We were just hanging out at a friend's place, there were a few people there, maybe ten or so, but not too many. We were all laughing, having a good time. Some of us were drunk or stoned, but I stayed sober. Someone had to. I'm not sure if that made what happened better or worse.

Then this girl, Sandra, mentioned she had some of her sister's stuff, who was a practicing witch... was... Sandra had some witchcraft material in her car she had taken from her sister's room. With everyone there but me either drunk or stoned, some both, the general consensus was that messing around with this stuff was a good idea. This wasn't helped by the fact that it was Friday the 13th either. I was the only objector. I had done some research into voodoo, witchcraft, Satanism, you know, that sort of thing, before, because I always thought the paranormal, supernatural, whatever you want to call it, interesting. I just never thought... I knew it could go terribly wrong.

Sandra went and got the stuff out of her car. There was the usual stuff you'd expect to see, like incense, an Ouija board, stuff everyone knew what it was. But then she pulled out this book. I could tell it was old. It was written in some old language, too, though not Latin. It might have been some ancient Celtic language or something, I just knew it was old and it wasn't Latin. That book just made me feel so... uncomfortable. No one else seemed to notice how creepy the thing was, they were just giggling away about demons and how they aren't real and all.

So, Sandra proceeded to set up her sister's stuff, I was sitting on the other side of the room watching as she lit up the incense and started messing around with the Ouija board. Some of them jumped when it started moving. The board told them to get the book. The board told them to open it. To a specific page. The board told them to do the ritual on the page. It was a possession ritual.

They were convinced that one of them was moving it around and messing with them, that there wasn't anything weird going on. The idiots took... One of the guys pulled out his pocket knife, but he wasn't about to be the one to do it. Sandra said she would do it. She had gotten the stuff after all. Drunk idiots...

She started saying the words. Chanting that dead language. She couldn't have been able to say it that well. When the time came, she cut her hand with the knife. That's where it went wrong.

The blood coming from her palm cut every piece of skin it touched.

She panicked, bad. I think the same thing was happening to her on... In her veins.

She flailed her arm and her blood spattered everyone else.

It got them, too.

The alcohol must've thinned out their blood so they could... They all bled to death. Their bodies were covered in scars. And the scars made some kind of... They made pictures. They... I....

Welling went into shock at this point. It was decided to not question him again.