Forbidden Confessions of a Dream Walker - Notes on The Gateway Process

The U.S. government's information on the Gateway Process became widely known when the CIA declassified a document called:

"Analysis and Assessment of The Gateway Process"
(Document originally from 1983)

The document was produced by the U.S. Army and analyzed by a Lieutenant Colonel named Wayne M. McDonnell.
It was declassified and released to the public in the early 2000s (around 2003), but it didn't really become famous until much later when people started digging into it, especially around 2020.

The CIA posted the declassified files in their online reading room, and you can find them directly on the CIA's website.
Here’s the official government link where they made the documents available:

👉 CIA Reading Room —
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210016-5.pdf

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210023-7.pdf 

(Those are the primary documents, though there are others connected to it.)

---

Quick overview of what's in the document:

• It discusses techniques from the Monroe Institute (Robert Monroe’s research).

• It describes how using audio stimulation ("Hemi-Sync") could help synchronize the two hemispheres of the brain.

• It outlines altered states of consciousness where a person could leave their body, move through different planes of reality, and access the "universal hologram."

• It even discusses things like astral projection, remote viewing, reaching higher dimensions, and communication with other beings.

• The report blends scientific theory, quantum physics, consciousness research, and mysticism in a way that is almost surreal to read, knowing it came from official sources.

Important:
The full Gateway Process itself — the training and all the steps — wasn't fully declassified, and some documents are still missing or heavily redacted.

 

Forbidden Confessions of a Dream Walker - Part 8: A Final Revelation

For most of my life, I thought I was completely alone in what I had seen.
The dream world.
The beings — both good and evil.
The war that rages beyond what most people will ever know.

But a few months ago, I discovered something that shook me almost as much as the forbidden knowledge once had.

The U.S. government — through something called the Gateway Process — had studied the same hidden truths I had lived through.
They knew that consciousness could travel beyond physical reality.
They knew there were other planes of existence.
They knew there were other beings out there.

The Gateway Process was a method of using altered states of consciousness — not unlike dream walking — to explore these hidden dimensions.
It spoke of realities beyond matter, of a holographic universe shaped by thought, of the human mind as a traveler through unseen worlds.

And it confirmed something I had long suspected but had never dared to fully believe:
I was never imagining it.

Everything I experienced — the battles, the beings, the lessons — they matched far too closely to what even the government had secretly discovered.
The only difference was that I lived it long before I ever knew a name for it.

Still, doubt lingers.

I sometimes wonder if I’ve lost my mind.
If everything — the fear, the victories, the teachings — was nothing more than the lonely fantasies of a broken soul.
If the cracks in me ran deeper than I know.

Maybe I’ll never have an answer.
Maybe no one will.

All I know is this:
There are worlds beyond this one.
There are battles fought that most will never see.
And somewhere, even now, in the silence behind your dreams — the war still rages on.

---

THE END

 

(Next week I am going to give you a special add on to this story. I will share with you some more information and a link to the U.S. Government's website about the very real Gateway Process.)

Forbidden Confessions of a Dream Walker - Part 7: Exile and Healing

At first, I couldn’t go back.

The dream world that had once opened itself to me now felt distant, sealed off.
When I did manage to slip into it, it was empty — silent where it had once been alive.
The others were gone.
The Angels, gone.
Even the familiar sense of purpose was gone.

My waking life had never been easy.
Even before the banishment, I struggled to live like others did — to connect, to succeed, to build anything lasting.
Maybe it was because part of me had always been somewhere else, preoccupied with the world behind the veil.

But after the banishment — after being touched by that forbidden knowledge — everything became worse.
The cracks widened.
The loneliness deepened.
The sense of alienation from the waking world grew heavier than ever before.

Even though I was intelligent, I drifted through manual labor jobs, unable to find a real place for myself.
It wasn’t just sadness anymore.
It was a kind of fracture — a feeling that part of me had been severed from the rest of the world, and maybe from myself.

Eventually, I left the city and moved to the country.
Life was slower there.
More bearable.

In time, the wounds inside me began to heal — not completely, but enough.
Enough to dream again.
Enough to walk again.

Slowly, almost without realizing it, I began encountering my old friends in the dream world.
The dogs came first, wagging their tails, welcoming me without question.
Then came a few of the other Dream Walkers.
And finally, after many years, even the Angels — though they came more rarely now, and always at a distance.

I still go on occasional missions.
I still find myself standing against the darkness when I am needed.
But I am never as active, or as fearless, as I once was.

Some scars never fully heal.
Some knowledge, once touched, never fully fades.

---

NEXT - Part 8: A Final Revelation

 

Forbidden Confessions of a Dream Walker - Part 6: The Fall

It didn’t happen during a battle.
It didn’t happen because I failed a mission.
It happened because of knowledge.

One night, I was approached by another Dream Walker — a woman I knew well, or thought I did.
There was something different about her.
A crack in her spirit, a trembling in her voice.
Something broken.

She had been touched by something forbidden — some terrible truth about human existence that we were never meant to understand.
She tried to tell me about it.
I didn’t understand the words — not really.
But even hearing the edges of it, even brushing against that knowledge, changed me.

It was like a crack forming inside my mind.
A tiny flaw that hadn't been there before.

At first, I didn’t realize anything was wrong.
But soon after, everything began to change.

The others — the Dream Walkers — grew distant.
Not out of betrayal, but because something had shifted.
They could feel it too, even if they didn’t understand it.
They didn’t have the power to banish me, and I never blamed them.

I knew, even then, where the judgment had come from.

It was the Angels.

They had seen the flaw.
They had judged me dangerous — not because I had done something evil, but because I had been touched by forbidden knowledge.
A disease of the mind, a madness that could not be allowed to spread.

No explanations.
No forgiveness.

One day, I belonged.
The next, I was utterly alone.

---

NEXT - Part 7: Exile and Healing

 

Forbidden Confessions of a Dream Walker - Part 5: Years of Purpose

For a long time, life in the dream world settled into a kind of rhythm.

I would find myself drawn to people in need — usually those being tormented by demons, just as I once had been.
Sometimes I arrived alone, piecing together the situation slowly, like waking up halfway through a story.
Other times, fellow Dream Walkers appeared — friends I recognized, even if I couldn’t always remember how or when we had first met.

There were no maps. No formal orders.
We acted because we knew we had to.
When the darkness gathered, we were drawn to it like sparks to dry tinder.

Sometimes the Angels gave me missions directly — appearing in dreams, cloaked in brilliant light, teaching me how to protect those I found.
Other times, the dream world itself seemed to pull me toward trouble.

The work was simple in principle, if not in practice:
Find the demon.
Resist its fear.
Command it to leave.

Demons have no real power of their own.
They feed off the power we give them — off fear, weakness, hatred.
If you stand firm, if you invoke God or Christ, you can banish them with little more than a word or a gesture.

I saw things during those years that most people could never imagine.
I fought creatures twisted and furious.
I stood alongside dogs and humans alike, battling to free the lost and the broken.

And sometimes... sometimes I was granted glimpses of deeper truths.
The Angels didn’t just send me to fight.
They also taught me — strange, holy things about existence itself.
Once, they showed me a vision of the Garden of Eden: a place of pure, luminous white, a silent mist, a path leading toward vibrant, living forests.
A beginning before beginnings.

They gave me pieces of a puzzle, but never the whole picture.
There were always things they held back.
Secrets I wasn’t ready — or maybe not allowed — to understand.

Still, for a time, I belonged to something greater than myself.
I fought for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.
I had purpose.
I had a place.

And then, one day, it all ended.

---

NEXT - Part 6: The Fall

 

Forbidden Confessions of a Dream Walker - Part 4: Allies and the Hidden War

At first, I thought I was alone.
But as I wandered the dream world, testing my abilities, I began to realize something:
I wasn’t.

Others were out there.
Some were humans like me — though they came in different shapes and strengths.
Some were not human at all.

Not all were friendly.

There were demons, like the Hag — hateful things that fed on fear and suffering.
But there were also beings of light — the ones I would later understand were Angels.
And there were dogs.
Faithful, joyful companions who moved through the dream world as easily as they did the waking one.
They became good friends — loyal allies in battles that most people would never even know existed.

I don’t remember exactly when I first met the Angels.
Dream memories are slippery that way.
I only know that before I met them, I encountered other human Dream Walkers.
Or, as we sometimes called ourselves, Demon Hunters.

The human Dream Walkers were generally welcoming.
Meeting them felt natural — like running into old friends you didn’t remember you had.
We didn’t always have formal plans.
Sometimes, we stumbled onto each other in the middle of a mission.
Other times, we worked in groups when the job was too big for one of us alone.
The dream world was chaotic, fractured — and yet, somehow, we found each other when we needed to.

The Angels came to me not as soldiers, but as teachers.
One at a time, they appeared — guiding me, showing me glimpses of deeper truths.

It was through them that I first learned about the hidden war.

There were three sides, they told me:
The Angels.
The Demons.
And a third, more mysterious faction they would not fully explain.

Humans, they said, were central to the war.
But whether we were pawns, prizes, or something more — they wouldn’t say.

Some knowledge, it seemed, was too dangerous to share.

---

NEXT - Part 5: Years of Purpose

 

Forbidden Confessions of a Dream Walker - Part 3: Awakening to Power

After that night, everything was different.

In my very next dream, I could feel it — a courage I had never known before.
At the time, I thought it was the light I had received, some gift from above.
Now, I wonder if it was simply the realization that fear no longer ruled me.

I discovered that the dream world wasn’t just a place of helpless terror.
It was a world of thought.
A place where belief and will shaped reality itself.

I tested my newfound strength.
I flew.
I shifted my form — turning into a dog, a bird, anything I could imagine.
I sent blasts of energy from my hands, defeating enemies I created just for target practice.
I learned I could move instantly to distant places just by willing it.

I realized something else, too — something important.
Anyone can travel in dreams.
Sometimes people get lost — find themselves in strange, distant places without understanding why.
If it ever happens, all they have to do is close their eyes and wish themselves awake.
It really is that simple.

For the first time, dreams were not a prison.
They were a playground.
A training ground.

I didn’t know it yet, but I was becoming something very rare.
A Dream Walker.

---

NEXT - Part 4: Allies and the Hidden War

 

Forbidden Confessions of a Dream Walker - Part 2: The Turning Point and Discovery of Powers

Everything stayed the same for years — the fear, the battles in the dark — until the night something changed.

It happened in a dream like so many before.
I was in the kitchen of my childhood home.
I remember the lights dimming — that was always the first sign she was coming.
The Hag would usually enter from the back porch, and I would scramble toward the living room at the front of the house, desperate to escape.
But it was always the same: as soon as I tried to run, reality would thicken around me. Moving felt like crawling through tar, like something unseen was pulling me backward.

This time started no differently.
I was on my hands and knees, dragging myself toward the living room — when something inside me snapped.

I thought, "I'm sick of this."
I stopped crawling. I stood up.

And instead of fleeing, I turned and marched straight toward the back porch door.

As I moved, a brilliant, sparkling light poured into me from above, entering through the top of my head. It filled me with a strength I'd never known before — not just strength of body, but strength of soul. Somehow, I just knew what I needed to do.

I flung the door open.

The porch beyond was dark, but I could see her — the Hag — cowering in the back corner, huddled in the deepest shadows. She knew. She understood that I wasn't afraid anymore.

Without hesitation, I spoke:
"Leave me and my family alone. Leave, and never come back."

And that was the end of her.

I never saw the Hag again.

---

NEXT - Part 3: Awakening to Power

 

Forbidden Confessions of a Dream Walker - Part 1: Introduction and Childhood

I don't know if anyone will believe me.
Sometimes, even I don't believe myself.

My name doesn't matter. I'm not telling this to become some kind of hero, or to prove anything. I'm just here to tell you what happened to me, the way I lived it. As best as I can, anyway. Dreams are strange things — hard to hold onto. Some details stayed with me, sharp as broken glass. Others slipped away like smoke the moment I opened my eyes. But I’ll give you everything I can.

I am — or at least I was — a Dream Walker.

It started when I was very young. Night after night, something terrible came for me in my dreams. I called it the Hag. She wasn't just a nightmare — I could feel her hatred, her rage, her hunger. She would isolate me from my family, trapping me alone with her. She would scream at me, threaten me, try to wear me down. I think now that she was trying to break me — to make me give in to her somehow. Maybe to open myself to possession. Maybe to something worse.

I never gave in.

Sometimes I would curl up into a ball on the floor or press myself into a corner while she towered over me, shrieking.
Other times, I would just endure it, silent and shaking, waiting for the dream to end.
Always afraid. Always alone.

I told people a little about what was happening. But not much.
The Hag threatened me — told me she would hurt my family if I spoke out.
And she proved she could.
After one threat, my mother suffered a medical emergency so severe she was technically dead for a time on the operating table. I learned then that the Hag's reach wasn't limited to the dream world. She could touch the waking world, too.

I grew up afraid, living with a terror I couldn't explain. My only real goal as a child was simple:
Resist.
No matter what, resist.

---

NEXT - Part 2: The Turning Point and Discovery of Powers

 

Entry from the Journal of a Dream Walker: The Revelation

I wasn’t sure I wanted to ever share this with anyone. Most of what I’ve seen belongs to a world that slips away the moment the sun rises. But this... this has stayed with me. And I think it always will. So I write now, not to remember, but to understand.

It happened on a night like any other. I had just entered the dream world. There was no mission waiting. No call to banish anything. I was alone, standing in a space I hadn’t yet shaped. A blank canvas, still dark and mist-choked. The kind of place that feels like the edge of something vast and unfinished.

That’s when I felt her.

Not saw. Not heard. Felt. A presence I knew, as familiar as any coworker. We’d fought side by side on occasion. She was always calm. Clear-eyed. Competent. One of the few you could rely on in a nightmare. But as soon as I turned to face her, I knew something was wrong.

Her appearance was disheveled, like someone who had wandered too far for too long. Clothes torn, hair wild, eyes too wide. There was a crackling energy around her—not magical, but mental. As if her thoughts were trying to escape faster than her mouth could keep up.

"They won't let me say it," she said, words tumbling out in a frantic rush. "They know. They know I know and they’re coming. I have to tell you before they stop me."

I raised a hand. "Calm down. Just breathe. What are you talking about? Who's coming?"

She laughed. Then whispered. Then screamed. Her voice modulated wildly—laughter turning to sobs, then back to panic.

"It's not what we think!" she gasped. "None of it! Not demons, not angels—not us! We’re not what we think we are."

I tried to steady her. I reached out, gently. "What did you find? Tell me. One thing at a time."

She looked at me, pupils dilated, lip trembling. She lowered her voice to a whisper so soft it barely brushed the air. "I found out why we exist. Humans."

The mist around us thickened, as if the dream itself was listening.

"They kept it from us," she hissed. "The angels. They guard the truth. They bury it. Because if we knew, if any of us knew..."

She looked over her shoulder. There was nothing there. Still, she trembled like something was watching. "I thought it was beautiful at first. But it’s not. It’s not. It’s horrible."

And then she said the word.

Just one word.

I will not write it here. I cannot. To speak it, to read it, to even hear it... is to begin unraveling. That is what happened to her. And what almost happened to me.

The moment she said it, I understood. I felt it. The weight of truth crashing down on a mind not built to carry it. My vision blurred. My knees gave way. My heart raced with an emotion I couldn’t name. Fear, yes. But something deeper. A kind of existential vertigo.

She repeated it again and again, louder each time. And then she began to scream.

Not words. Just sound. Fury and terror and broken laughter all twisted together. And then she ran. Disappeared into the mist like a shadow losing shape.

And I was thrown out. Forced awake, gasping in my bed, soaked in sweat.

I remembered everything. That was unusual. Normally, waking erases the dream world like chalk in rain. But not this time. This time it stayed.

I tried to go back. Not to find her—I knew she was lost. But to find the angels.

They met me only once.

"You are no longer one of us," they said.

I asked why. I begged. They gave no answer.

Cold. Silent. Gone.

I was angry. I was confused. For years I carried that weight—this secret that I hadn’t even asked for. In the waking world, things became difficult. I could function, even thrive on the surface, but everything drained me. Even the simplest tasks felt like lifting mountains.

Eventually I left it all behind. Moved to the country. Found a quiet place far from crowds, from noise. From questions.

And that’s where I began to heal.

Over time, I understood. I hadn’t been punished. I had been protected. Removed from the fight not out of anger—but out of mercy. The angels had saved what was left of me in the only way they could.

Sometimes, they let me back. Briefly. But never for long. I’m not what I once was. I can’t be.

And now, I write this.

Not as a warning. Not exactly.

But you should know this: the world you know isn’t all there is. There are other truths. Other realities. Other meanings.

But be careful what you seek.

Some answers do not liberate.

Some answers only destroy.

A Light From Above

“Then I began to see, I just needed to believe in me.”

KISS – I

~

Many years had gone by in the boy’s life, and he was now a young man. He had lost most of his confidence after the demon hag had so convincingly threatened his mother’s life. And now, several years later, nothing in his life ever seemed to go right for him. The hag’s evil oppression seemed to be slowly destroying him.

He no longer wondered what he was going to do about the evil visitations or any of his other problems. He just accepted that they were never going to end. The hag never followed up on the threats to his family, and the young man knew that she really didn’t need to anyway. He felt as if he was already beaten and there was no longer any hope for him whatsoever. He was tired. He was tired of everything.

The hag had recently come back out of his dreams to terrorize him in the waking world once again. The young man knew that her power was growing stronger, and it meant that this was now the darkest time of his life. After washing his hands in the bathroom sink, he looked up into the mirror almost expecting to see the hag looking back at him, but he only saw his own sad face.

He was remembering his recent discovery that years ago his aunt had buried a Ouija board in the basement of the house he now lived in. His mother had always told him and his siblings to stay away from Ouija boards because they were evil. The young man wished they could dig it up and get rid of it, but there was really no hope of ever finding it. He had the strangest feeling that it had a strong connection to the hag.

With that thought he shook himself out of his daydream, then opened the bathroom door and stepped out into the kitchen. He had only taken a few steps towards the living room when he heard the low ominous humming that he had heard so many other times. It was the sound that announced the hag’s coming. Within a second the lights dimmed down to nothing and he felt a strong pull towards the back door. She was back there!

A terror that he was being pulled toward an eternal hell immediately overwhelmed the young man. He immediately went to his hands and knees trying to claw his way towards the living room as he had feebly done so many times before. So many times. It never seemed to end. As he slowly crawled, trying to overcome the strange pull, he wondered if this would keep happening for the rest of his life. He was so tired of this. And he knew that his destination held no safety for him. What was the use in this?

It was about the time that he got about a foot from the doorway to the living room that his defeated thoughts changed in a small way. He was tired of all of this. Tired of the evil games. Tired of so much fear. He knew this would never end, so he wondered why he was fleeing in terror? He was a man! He wasn’t going to face this on his knees any longer! With that thought, he leaped to his feet and spun around! He was going to face his fears!

Now facing the back of the house with all fear forgotten, in a fit of righteous anger he began to march purposefully towards the back door to confront the waiting demon. And then, as if it was always supposed to happen, after only a few steps toward his destination something miraculous happened!

It was as if time had slowed to a crawl. A sparkling bluish white light poured down from above and into the young man through the top of his head. With that light came a knowledge and power the likes no other human being could have ever known. The young man at once felt as if he knew everything! Happiness and joy now filled every part of him. He knew his anger, contrary to what he had always been taught, was right now a very good thing. And he also knew exactly what he had to do now.

The glorious blue-white light now filled and surrounded him so much that it radiated out from every part of him and ate away the darkness beyond. He resumed his purposeful march to the back door and the darkness beyond in the back room where he knew the demonic hag now hid. Quickly reaching the door, he threw it open and took a firm step into the darkness!

The young man now filled with the fury from a lifetime of torture looked into the darkness where he knew the hag was hiding. There in the farthest corner of the pitch black darkness of the room he found the hag. She was crouched down in terror against the wall; the same position she had terrified his little sister into so many years ago. He felt her overwhelming fear of him oozing out from her like a dark fog. It came up against his powerful light of good and overwhelmed into nothingness. The young man knew in that moment that he could destroy this evil creature with only a touch, but he also knew that what he was to do now would be far more effective.

The young man looked directly into the face of the hag and declared, “EVIL DEMON! YOU PITIFUL WORTHLESS VERMIN! YOU ARE NOTHING! YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE! YOU NEVER DID! I CAST YOU OUT! GO BACK TO THE HELL FROM WHENCE YOU CAME! NEVER BOTHER ME OR ANY MEMBER OF MY FAMILY EVER AGAIN! YOU MAY NOT RETURN TO THIS WORLD EVER AGAIN! YOU ARE NOW BANISHED FOREVER FROM THIS EARTH! GO NOW AND NEVER RETURN!”

As the last of his words jumped from his lips, the darkness in the room began to lift, and the light that illuminated him now shined into every corner. There was no sign of the hag. She was gone, and he knew in the deepest part of his heart that she would never return. The young man had finally faced his fears, and he had won! He felt a triumph that he had never known before in his young life. He knew the hag would bother him no more. He never had to be afraid again, because he was free! As he turned to go tell his family, he realized he was now feeling a sense of great relief because his lifelong ordeal was over. It was finally over!

The End

<<< Episode 07

Episode List

A Threat Of Death

“Don’t close your eyes, don’t sing your last lullaby.”

Kix – Don’t Close Your Eyes

~

Several years had passed now since the demonic hag had come to the front door and frightened the children. The boy was now in his middle teen years and closer to being an adult than he was the very little boy that the hag had first visited. The visits had never stopped, but something about that front door incident had changed things.

Oh sure, the hag was still coming to the boy, but the terrifying visits were now in his dreams instead of the waking world. The boy guessed early on that her failure at the front door must have weakened her in some way. He just wished he knew how it was done. Maybe this was the way to finally get rid of her altogether.

The fact that she was now only in his dreams was no relief. Oh, far from it. The hag’s threats and evil promises made him as afraid as ever in the waking world because, even though she wasn’t in the waking world now, she knew things and seemed to be able to affect things there. But even though this torment seemed to be never ending, the boy was glad it was only in his dreams now.

The problem though was that he still had to go to sleep at night. The boy never tried to stay awake because there was no use. He wasn’t stupid. He knew that a person had to sleep sometimes. So now while he was in bed, even though the fear and worry were causing him to have trouble getting to sleep, he eventually would drift off to face the inevitable. The nightmare of the hag.

He found himself in a basement. It wasn’t his house. The boy looked around at this familiar place that he had never seen before, and knew he was in a dream. He also knew what was there waiting for him. He tried to find a way out, but there was only the stairs leading up, and they were somehow blocked by an invisible barrier. There was only one direction to go; to the back of the basement.

That’s where he found her, sitting in a big chair and surrounded by a dull light, waiting expectantly for him with a cruel grin on her face. “Don’t ever think you can escape,” she said in a mocking tone. “I always know where you are and what you’re doing. Come forward, boy!"

The boy knew there was nothing to do but to move towards the hag. But not too close. It was a compromise he had discovered long ago. He could appease her anger without giving in completely. He could never give in to that unasked question she always had. “Just say yes, boy. Then it will all be over with. You know you want to end it,” she told him.

The boy did want it to end, but not in the way she intended. He knew that giving in would be the worst thing he or any person could ever do. He wasn’t exactly sure why that was, but he knew it no matter how much she tried to hide just what would happen, or what that question was.

After a pause, the hag glared at him and abruptly said, “This little game is becoming tiring. It’s time I taught you a lesson in what I will do if you don’t give in to me. You know I can hurt your family, don’t you? I’ve been kind to you so far. Do you know that? Now I’m going to show you that I can make you pay for your hesitations.”

As soon as those words were out of the hag’s evil mouth the air just to the right of the boy began to shimmer and distort. Slowly an image of a person began to form in that spot. As it coalesced, the boy was shocked to find out that the image was now his mother! There was something different about her though. She didn’t appear to be quite really there. It was as if the boy was seeing her on a movie screen because she didn’t seem quite three dimensional, and her color was a little dull.

The boy tried to talk to the image of his mother, but even though she moved like a normal person, she didn’t seem to know he was there. Still, the boy knew this was not just some doppelganger; this shadow image somehow really represented his mom. The boy wondered what this was all about.

“I’m going to kill her,” the hag announced to the boy in a matter of fact tone of voice. “That should make you understand my power over you, dog!” Then there was a flash of red and yellow around the image of the boy’s mother, similar to a the way a match looks at the moment it has been struck. With that, his mother fell to the floor, dead in every appearance.

“NOOOO,” the boy screamed. He quickly knelt beside his mom to see if there was any way of saving her, but he knew there was no hope. The boy looked up at the hag and said, “Bring her back! You have to bring her back! Please!”

The hag gave an evil sounding chuckle and said to the boy, “Oh, she’s not really dead. Yet! This is just part of a demonstration to show you that I can really do it. You thought I was weakened, but I’ll show you that I’m as strong as ever, and I can hurt any one of your family if you don’t do as I say. And don’t you think this demonstration is over! This is just a dream right now. Just wait until you see the results of this.” Then the hag began to laugh.

As the boy looked on in horror at the evil hag, the image of his mother regained consciousness. Soon she was back on her feet. The hag looked straight at the boy and said pointedly, “Leave this dream! Take your mother and go! You will answer the question the way I want you to when I ask, because you will know my power!”

The boy found himself laying in the dark in his own bed. This had been the worst encounter with the hag yet, and it was because he truly believed her this time. He had no reason to doubt she could do this. The boy was terrified. He wasn’t able to get back to sleep that morning, and he went through the rest of the day tired, but wide awake and just glad this latest incident was over.

When the boy got home from school that day, he was greeted by his father, but his mother wasn’t there. Something had happened. His father told him that his mother had to be taken to the hospital. She was okay now, but it had been a precarious situation. She had, for some reason, had a seizure. When they got her to the hospital, her heart had stopped. It was all the oddest thing, but she was okay now. They could find nothing else wrong.

The boy’s dad explained that she would have to stay in the hospital for a few more days under observation to make sure she was really fine. But he made it clear that after they determine there’s nothing else wrong, she can come home. He said the doctors claim to understand the problem and think it’s all over.

The boy knew the real problem. The hag did this to her. And when his mother got back home the boy was very protective of her, staying by her side as much as he could, even though he knew he could do nothing. But eventually as time moved on things had to return to normal, even though the boy knew the hag might abruptly strike again at any time. He wondered if there was anything he could ever do.

<<< Episode 06

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Episode 08 >>>

How It Began

“When I was young it came to me.”

Queen – The Night Comes Down

~

The hag had not been bothering the boy quite as much for the past few months now, giving him a little bit of a breather from the torment she had inflicted upon him. This change seemed to have started when his little sister and brother had a violent episode with her. The boy was guessing that the demonic witch’s appearance to his younger siblings seemed to somehow expend much of her energy for some reason. They said her big attempt at the front door had been directed towards him, but it seemed to have failed for the moment.

There were actually several things that had come out of that incident from a few months ago. His brother and sister had immediately told him what had happened, saying they were sure the hag was trying to get to him. The pair also told their parents about the incident when they got home that night. Soon the whole family began to understand what had been happening. The boy finally felt able to tell about what had been happening to him for as long as he could remember now. As his story unfolded, his mother began to think back to a related story of her own.

It all began when the boy was barely more than a baby. His mother’s younger sister, the boy’s aunt, had moved back from a place very far away, and she had brought something with her for her two sisters, one older and one younger. It was a game, she said. It was called a Ouija Board, and you could supposedly talk to spirits through it. It couldn’t really do that, she said, but it was fun playing with it and maybe trying to figure out how it really worked. Soon each of the three sisters had one.

The three sisters, becoming very close once again, used a board together many times with great success. They would ask the so called spirits their questions, and would be met with surprisingly accurate answers. The answers could also be amazingly helpful, telling them solutions to any of their little problems, and other positive things it added to the inquiries. At least two of the sisters suspected the others of manipulating the answers. The third sister oddly became silent about it.

Even though the sisters were very close, they couldn’t always be together. They each had their own lives to lead, and they each had their own homes, so they just couldn’t use a Ouija Board together as often as they’d like. Even though the rules on the box stated for some reason that the board wasn’t to be used by less than two people, the boy’s mother decided to try hers out while she was at home by herself. She was surprised to find that it worked!

It was shortly after that when the trouble started. At first the young woman began hearing strange, quiet voices in the house. She assumed they were from people outside, but there was something oddly different about them. Then one day the bathroom door had somehow become locked. They had to break in the small window from outside to get in. There they found a car key jammed in the lock from the inside. They suspected the baby, but there was no way he could have bent the key the way it had been when they found it.

One night shortly after that, the young woman and her husband began hearing strange knocking sounds on the walls. They would normally believe it was maybe the pipes or something, but this was a relatively new house. The knocking was clearly coming from the outside walls, but it was too late at night for anyone to be there. After that first night, the knocking continued from then on to be a problem on random nights.

On another night, not long after the knocking began, it was ended with a huge banging crash on the side of the house! It shook everything almost as if a car had crashed into the house. The woman’s husband went outside to see what had happened, but there was no sign of anything there in the freshly fallen snow.  The young woman had already been frightened by the strange things that were going on, but now she was absolutely terrified. She didn’t like being in the house anymore.

The knockings were just the beginning. The problems would now only get worse. Another night, the young woman was in bed sound asleep when she was mysteriously awakened. She opened her eyes to see a horrible apparition leaning over her by the side of the bed! It was the ugliest old hag she had ever seen! It’s malevolent face was glowering down at her as if in a terrible anger!

The woman instantly knew in her heart that she was looking into the face of death itself! She thought she was going to die! She was too afraid to move, speak, or call out to her husband, who was just inches away. The only thing she could do was close her eyes as tightly and as quickly as she could. After laying there expecting the worst, it never came. So she slowly opened her eyes wondering if the apparition was still there. It was gone.

The next day, finally realizing the source of all her troubles, the young woman took the Ouija board from the closet where she had been keeping it and took it out to the trash. She remembered then that her youngest sister had for some reason buried her board in the dirt floor at the back of the basement of her parents’ house. It must have been for a similar reason. She hoped this would end the terrifying problems, but there was still to be one more thing.

It happened the very next night when the young parents were in bed asleep. Their two year old son came in complaining of nightmares. The woman told him he could climb into bed with them, and so he slipped in at the edge and soon fell fast asleep. A little while later is when the incident was to happen.

The young mother was awakened for the second time in two nights. This time was different though. Something had physically picked her up about a foot off the bed! She could feel hands holding onto her. Suddenly she was violently thrown away from the child and into her husband! Both adults were now wide awake and confused, knowing something very bad had happened, but not really understanding what that might be. The mother believed that this might have been some sort of last revenge for her getting rid of the Ouija Board.

And that was her story. The children’s mother thought it had been all over with after that last incident. The knocking on the walls had never quite ended, but she never imagined that the children were having problems. In an effort to soothe their fear, the children’s mother told them that the woman that had tried to get into the house must have been a drunken neighbor or something, but they knew better than that.

The children knew that thing was not human! And when the mother told them all not to worry, and that she would take care of this, the oldest boy knew that she couldn’t. He knew his mother wanted to protect him, but she just didn’t understand. What could she really do about it? None of them were really sure what to do. How could anyone fight a thing like this? The boy worried about what would happen next. He knew he was the only one that might ever be able to do something, and he wondered if it was all just hopeless.

<<< Episode 05

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Episode 07 >>>

At The Door

"…and you are there with glowing eyes and burning hair."

Concrete Blonde – Violent

~

The little girl sat on the living room couch with one of her brothers, happily engrossed in the TV show she was watching. Her too real nightmare from a few years ago about the witch was mostly long forgotten. That feeling of danger she had back then couldn’t last long for her anyway because of how protective the rest of her family always was towards her. And even though her parents were out for a few hours that night, she always felt safe because her three big brothers were there in the house with her.

After a little while she heard an odd sound that she hadn’t heard in quite some time. It was a low eerie, almost electronic, humming sound, like a too long held bass note on a piano. It wasn’t coming from the television, which up until now was the only source of sound near them. The scary sound seemed to be coming from the front door. The girl unconsciously moved a little closer to her brother on the couch.

All of a sudden there was a bang at the front door! It was followed by loud scratching and rattling. Someone was trying to get in, but the sounds weren’t the sounds of a normal turning of a doorknob and opening of a door. They were violent shakes. She knew it was nobody they knew.

Her brother jumped up from his position on the couch and ran for the door with the little girl right behind. They got there just as the violent banging stopped completely. There wasn’t anything at the large window set in the door to keep anyone from seeing in or out. The area of the door was a small alcove that led to all parts of the house, so it was already difficult enough to see into the house. Including the doorway to the living room, there were also stairs to the left going upstairs as you entered. The two siblings looked out the window and only saw the darkness of the night.

Then in less than a second, from out of the night a face swooped in close to the window! It was the hideous face of an ugly old hag! She had an angry sneer on her mouth full of crooked teeth, and her eyes seemed to be cloaked in an odd glowing darkness. The little girl immediately recognized her as the witch from her dream. “GIMME MY DOG,” the hag screeched at them. “YOU HAVE HIM! GIVE HIM TO ME!!!”

The locked door somehow flew open right in front of them, and the hag pushed herself halfway in! She turned towards the stairs leading up, and screamed again at the frightened children, “THIS HOUSE IS MINE! IT’S ALL MINE! I WANT MY DOG! BRING HIM TO ME!!!” The girl somehow knew not to let the hag get upstairs where her oldest brother was. She had a strong instinctive knowledge that this old witch meant great danger to him. And, even though she would usually look to him for help in any other bad situation, she hoped he stayed where he was.

Right at that moment the girl’s other brother threw himself at the hag and pushed with all his might! After an intense struggle the old witch was pushed back outside, and the two siblings pushed the door shut behind her! Only a second later they looked out the window again, in dread that she would come back, but there was nothing there. Then the girl’s brother stepped right up to the window and peered out. “How could she just disappear,” he said in a shaky voice.

“I’m going to have to go out there and make sure,” said the boy. The little girl pleaded for him not to open the door, but checking was the only way he could ease his own fear. If he saw that ugly old hag he would run back in the house. After a short, desperate argument, he gathered his courage, opened the door back up, and marched out onto the long front porch, the little girl right behind him.

He then peered around to find out if the strange old hag had gone anywhere near. He looked up and down the street but found nothing. The two then looked to the side of the house from the porch to see if she was anywhere near the hatch that led to the dirt floor basement. They still found nothing so they went back inside. The thing, which is the way they were thinking of it now, had truly disappeared.

Shaken and still scared, but secure in the knowledge that it was all over, her brother then locked the door once again, and they both ran upstairs to tell their oldest brother.

<<< Episode 04

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Episode 06 >>>

A Troubled Sleep

“And when I look in my window, so many different people to be.”

Donovan – Season Of The Witch

~

The boy was having a lot of trouble trying to get to sleep. It had become a common problem for him in the past few years. You see, now when things got quiet at bedtime he began to worry. He wondered if the demonic hag that had been haunting him would ever go away. Several years had now passed and the boy was now several years older, with three younger siblings; the youngest of which was now close to the same age as the boy was when the hag had first visited. And still the witch came to terrorize him.

And what about the threats this horrible old witch was now making toward his family? It seemed as soon as the boy decided that the witch’s threats towards him were maybe just all bluster to scare him, she began to threaten his younger siblings. As an oldest brother, he instinctively feared for their safety even more than his own, which made him fear the witch even more than before. And there was also something else.

The other thing that concerned the poor young boy was the idea that these hauntings were somehow all in his imagination? Nobody else ever saw the witch, and the boy was sure people now looked at him a little differently than most other kids. He overheard them say his withdrawn behavior was because he was shy. He didn’t like that. He wasn’t shy! The whole thing made him feel like a disappointment. He wondered what he could do about it all. He was afraid it was all hopeless.

But even though it took him several hours to fall asleep, that’s just what the boy finally did. It was not long before he was dreaming. He found himself in the living room of his house with the rest of his family. Everything looked okay, but something didn’t feel quite right to the boy. It was after realizing this didn’t feel like a good dream that he noticed that his sister wasn’t there.

And then at that moment the familiar low ominous humming sound that always announced the coming of the hag came again to the boy. But there was a curious difference this time. It didn’t sound quite as close. It felt almost as if the sound was being aimed in another direction. The boy thought maybe it was because this was just a dream.

Even though, upon hearing the threatening sound, his usual urge was to flee in panic to a futile safety near the closest adult, curiosity got the best of the boy.  He couldn’t help himself but to follow that all too familiar strange shift in gravitational pull towards the back of the house. And anyway, he felt that it wasn’t pulling towards him as hard this time. He still didn’t want to meet the hag alone again, but he just couldn’t help himself but to follow his curiosity.

When he got to the kitchen doorway his eyes were somehow instinctively drawn to the window just over the sink at the right side of the kitchen. There looking in the window was the demonic witch with a menacing look on her face! Even though the boy felt the overwhelming urge to run away, he didn’t do it because he noticed that the hag’s horrible gaze wasn’t focused in his direction. She was after something else.

When the boy followed the gaze of the monstrous old hag to the opposite side of the room he found his sister cowering there in the corner! The boy’s terror shifted immediately from himself to his poor little sister. What could he do? He knew he was incapable of helping her.

The boy then turned to look back to the kitchen window but the hag wasn’t there anymore. She was now in the middle of the kitchen walking toward his obviously terrified little sister! No!!! And when the witch halted directly in front of the helpless little girl, the evil old hag turned to the boy and gave him the most evil, spiteful grin she had ever shown him.

It was right at that moment that the boy woke up from the nightmare.

The next afternoon, while still obsessively worrying about his all too real feeling nightmare over and over, the boy’s little sister approached him. Her gaze was focused on the floor for some reason, and she seemed as if she wanted to turn and run. Then she finally looked up at him and said in a small voice, “I don’t know who to tell this to. I had a nightmare last night. It seemed real when I was there. There was a mean old witch, and she said she was going to hurt me…”

<<< Episode 03

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Episode 05 >>>

Disturbed

.

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

~

This is the third episode of the story of a very strange little boy. You see, this little boy has the very disturbing thought that he is being visited by a demon. An ugly old hag of a demon. Is that true? Could something like that really be true? How could anybody know that for certain, except for the boy? Maybe even he didn’t know. That wasn’t exactly the question that was on his mind at the moment though.

The real question he had been wondering was, “What do you have to do to get rid of an evil demon when nothing seems to work?” That’s what the boy was beginning to wonder. As the demonic hag had promised, she had come back to him time and time again over the next several years, and in his memory there was never a respite of more than a few days at a time from this psychological assault that made him too afraid to ever think of fighting back. The boy was growing older now. He was no baby anymore, but he could only take so much.

And it usually didn’t matter where or when she might appear. There seemed to be only one rule. It almost always began when he was mostly alone. But it didn’t necessarily end up that way. He could wander ten feet away from another person, and the witch would appear. And then it never mattered where he tried to run. A visit didn’t end until the witch chose to end it. And there was always her unasked question. She promised to end all of it for him if his answer would be yes.

Even when the demon witch didn’t appear to him, the boy thought he could sense something evil hovering near him, waiting to strike. He became nervous at all times, dreading what might happen next. His every thought was shadowed with fear and worry of the bad things the hag would tell him. He could never repeat those things. They were too scary to even think about. So now she didn’t even have to be there to hurt him. It seems his own thoughts were betraying him.

Another problem was that the boy had decided that he had to pretend everything was normal, to protect everyone else. He was sure his parents expected him to be normal even though they had never said it, so he had to pretend there was nothing wrong. He was sure this wasn’t their fault. How could they know? They could never see the hag. Nobody could… except the boy. And he knew by this time that no normal person could help him stop something that was as invisible as a ghost. They were all normal. But he wasn’t normal. The boy knew that. He wished somebody would tell him if they thought he wasn’t normal.

But what could he do? Nobody ever said anything. But after seeing some of the strange looks he had gotten for trying to tell this story to people, the boy decided that there was only one thing he could really do. He was going to have to trick them. Trick them all. Yes. That was it. That was the answer. He was fine. That’s what he would say. That’s what he would tell them. It would be easy. So easy. The hag had told him so many times now that they wouldn’t believe. Sometimes she had dared him to tell them, and other times she had warned him to be silent. He thought she was wrong that the others would never understand… until now.

The boy also decided that he didn’t want anyone else in the family to be as afraid as he was. He needed to protect them somehow. His parents. His two little brothers. His new baby sister. The hag had begun to make threats against them too now. She told the boy that she would hurt them if he didn’t do as she told him, if he didn’t listen to the things she said. How could he do that without agreeing to her unasked question that he somehow knew would be the very worst thing he could ever do. Ever. Agreeing to smaller things sometimes seemed to appease the evil creature enough though.

But the boy wondered what would really happen if he were to answer yes to the question? It had been made clear to him that he would learn the question only after he answered with a “Yes.” That always seemed so backwards to him, but he was afraid to ask why it had to be like that. The hag always told him that it would all be over if he were to answer yes, but how could he know for sure? He thought maybe she was trying to trick him. He didn’t think he had ever caught her in a lie though. He listened very closely for lies. Maybe she wasn’t lying about this either, but he still thought this was something very bad.

And there was still his family to think about. They already thought he was a bit strange. He could tell, every time he mentioned anything about the hag. What would they think if he seemed fine all of a sudden? Would they think he was crazy for being okay? He wasn’t crazy! The boy knew the things he had seen! He didn’t care what anyone else might think! But he wished they would tell him, because sometimes he felt like he was being tricked by their silence. He didn't like being tricked. So what if nobody else saw the hag but him. That didn’t make him crazy. He was sure it was all true! He… wasn’t… CRAZY!!! No no no… No!

<<< Episode 02

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Episode 04 >>>

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In The Mirror

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"When you smile, I don’t know what to do."

Concrete Blonde

~

What was that thing? The little boy spent his days trying to understand what the awful creature that had visited him really was. Was it a witch? Was it some kind of hag? Maybe it was a ghost of one of those things. The boy wasn’t old enough to really understand it much better than that. But what he did understand was that the thing was scarier than anything he had ever seen before.

He remembered trying to tell his mom and dad about the witch, but they both assumed that he had just had a bad dream or something. Bad dreams were something that he used to have plenty of. But those involved things like gorillas sneaking into his bedroom to scare him, and other such nonsense. Just dreams. And the dreams had slowed considerably once his tonsils had been taken out.

Well, after the strange story he had told them, the boy understood why the grownups didn’t believe him. He was no baby after all. He’d be old enough to go to school in a few years, so he was old enough to be able to take care of this problem with the mean old hag on his own. …But he wished he just wasn’t so scared.

And besides, that scary witch hag hadn’t come back in a few days. Maybe the grownups were right; maybe it was all just a dream. There weren’t really things like ghosts or monsters anyway. His mom said so! And his mom and dad knew everything. If there was really a bad thing, they would catch it and beat it up! The boy was feeling better already. Now it was time to go to the bathroom and get his drink of water.

After taking care of a little business, the boy turned to the sink and reached up to turn on the water. As he did, he noticed his reflection in the mirror above the sink. He liked the way everything in the mirror was the exact opposite of all the real things. It made it seem like a completely different place; a place that might be fun to explore. He wondered if his real face looked different to other people than this mirror image, because, after all, he was seeing it backwards. He smiled about that one.

But then something strange happened. The smile on his reflection began to widen, which didn’t match the expression that was now on his own face. At the same time, he heard something. It was the sound! That awful sound! That deep monotonous single tone that pervaded everything and went on and on. As the boy took an involuntary step backwards, the lights quickly dimmed, darkening the shadows on the face of his reflection in the mirror. The reflection hadn’t taken that same backward step.

The boy looked on in shock and terror as the widening smile on his mirror counterpart turned into an evil grin, showing an ugly, fanged row of teeth that were just a bit too big for the mouth. Lines began to form all over the face, and the area around the eyes became dark and sunken. The eyeballs, which now looked dark and cloudy except for a pinpoint of yellow light in the center, glared at the boy with a look of fanatical hatred.

The monstrous image in the mirror continued its horrifying metamorphosis, growing larger and changing even further. The ugly features became more pronounced as the figure grew. All resemblance to the little boy was long gone. What was now glaring back through the mirror at the cowering young boy was the hideous hag that the boy had hoped would never come back!

“I told you I’d be back,” she chuckled in a maliciously teasing voice. “This will never be over, and it’s only going to get worse. Telling the adults didn’t work, did it? They can never help you. No one can help you against me. And I’m going to make you wish you were dead.” The boy was now crouched against the opposite wall, trying to make himself as small as possible.

In a split second the hag’s tone of voice changed. She began to angrily scream at the little boy. “Do you think I ever really left! I’m always with you! I know everything you do! There is nothing that can protect you! You are my dog! I’ll never let you go, and there’s only one thing you can do to make this stop!”

With those last words, the mirror became cloudy and the image of the hag faded away. When the lights finally began to illuminate the room properly again, all that was left was the little boy sitting against the wall softly crying.

<<< Episode 01

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Episode 03 >>>

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The Demonic Hag

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"I’m the one who growls in your closet; I’m the one who lives under your bed."

Alice Cooper – Lullaby

~

In the beginning...

The small boy was having fun playing in his grandparent’s kitchen. He always liked it here because there was such a big area to play with his toys. All the rooms in the house were big, but the kitchen was always nice and quiet for him to play by himself this time of night.

He could hear the comforting drone of the TV coming from the living room, where all of the grownups were watching something he really had no interest in. He was content to play out here by himself while the rest of the big family were only a room away.

He was lost in happy thoughts, pushing his toy car back and forth, when he began to hear something peculiar. Very soon, he realized it was a sound he had heard before. A low, ominous hum that continued on and on, unbroken in a continuous monotone. And he didn’t like it at all. It was a scary sound. The boy was sure it marked the arrival of something very bad.

Almost as if on cue, the light in the kitchen was gradually overwhelmed by a darkness that was most definitely emanating from the same place the awful sound was coming from, the door to the back porch. The only light now came from the living room, which all of a sudden seemed very far away to the little boy.

The boy called out in a trembling voice to the adults in the living room, but none of them answered. He was out here in this terrifying darkness, without the safety and protection of his family, who didn’t seem to know that he was in danger. It wasn’t so much the darkness that he was afraid of, or that he was alone. What really frightened him was that he didn’t think that he really was alone out here in this awful darkness.

As soon as the boy gained the fortitude to think of fleeing to the safety of the living room, he began to realize that he felt a pull from the direction of the back porch door, as if gravity itself had been skewed slightly in that direction. He knew if he tried to stand he would be pulled faster towards the back porch, so the boy stayed on his hands and knees, having to use all of his little might to crawl to the safety of the living room, one slow, agonizing bit at a time; his toy forgotten and left behind.

He still felt no safety as he finally made it to the door of the living room. The boy could sense a terrible presence in the kitchen behind him. And it was coming ever closer. He didn’t turn around to look for fear of what he might see there. He had to try to move faster so this unseen horror couldn’t catch him and drag him away, back into the darkness. If only he could make it to one of the adults…

But as the little boy looked at the faces of the grownups, he saw a distance in their eyes, and none of them seemed to be moving at all. They didn’t appear to even know he was there. There would be no safety, even here. And when he finally crawled all the way to the middle of the living room, the boy could sense the evil presence from the darkness standing right behind him, waiting.

After what seemed like an eternity, the little boy mustered up all the bravery he could, and turned to look at his stalker. What he saw was a mask of pure evil staring back at him. It resembled a very ugly old woman, at first, but this thing was obviously not quite human.

She was short compared to an adult, but much taller than the boy. Her clothing was a dreary brown and gray that looked like something that belonged on a peasant from hundreds of years ago. Her dull grayish skin didn’t appear so much wrinkled as it seemed as if it didn’t quite fit right.

The old hag’s teeth just didn’t look like they belonged to a human. They seemed way too sharp, and there seemed to be too many of them. She had what appeared to be fangs like those of a wolf. And the whole set of teeth looked just a little bit too big for her mouth, which was set in a cruel grin.

…And those terrible eyes! Those dark, hollow eyes seemed to bore right through the boy. Some people say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. If this evil creature had a soul, her eyes would scream that her soul was violently insane! It was those eyes that made the boy turn his face back to the floor in terror.

“That’s right! Down on all fours with your face to the ground,” the old hag screeched angrily. “Soon I will make you my dog,” she continued. In his little boy mind, the boy thought that last part was very strange. He knew from stories that witches turned people into frogs, not dogs. He wondered why she would say something like that, but he dared not speak up to correct her.

The hag spoke again, “You seem very compliant, so I will offer you a deal, dog. I have a question for you. All you have to do is answer yes to my question, and this will all be over for you forever. Otherwise I will keep coming back, and I won’t be so nice then. I can do very bad things to you.”

Even though he was just a few years old, and he was having trouble understanding most of what she meant, the boy somehow knew even before she asked it, that he should never say yes to the hag’s question. So even though the boy thought it might mean certain death, he looked up and simply said to the evil creature, “No!”

This infuriated the already seemingly angry witch! “You dare say no to me, you miserable dog! Do you think the horror I will inflict will be limited to only you! Your whole family will suffer right along with you, so don’t think they can ever help you against me,” she screamed at him.

The demonic hag, still facing the boy, abruptly began to float backwards towards the back of the house from where she came, as if in a movie being played in reverse. Before the hideous old crone disappeared back into the darkness, she said one last thing, “This is over for now, but I’ll be back! I will never let you go! The rest of your life will be nothing but hell!”

The little boy didn’t care right then if she would be back or not. All he cared about was that she was gone for now. Everything was okay, for now.

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Episode 02 >>>

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The Demon Hunter's Dog

It had been only a few years since everything had changed for him, but it seemed like a lifetime to the demon hunter. Now he found himself standing at the edge of the parking lot of an old boarded up liquor store. It was about three hours before dawn, so everything around was bathed in darkness.

He barely remembered getting the order to come here to take care of a problem. He was always contacted at unexpected times, but he knew all of this was necessary. After discovering his unusual powers, he met the mysterious ones who had shown him that demons desperately wanted into this dimension so they could bring misery and death to every human on the face of the planet.

The mysterious ones had patiently explained that he was one of the very few humans that could stop the demons from carrying out their evil plans. You see, after being haunted by one of the evil demons for much of his childhood, he had finally discovered why the thing had never seemed to be able to really hurt him. It was an inner strength that almost nobody else had, and that was of course part of his special power.

After finally finding the courage to banish that first demon back to where it came from, he was contacted by the mysterious ones, and it was then that he had been recruited to defend the human race from what the demons were doing. The demons meant to fight a war on all of humanity, and at this time humanity was losing badly.

He wished someone else could do this terrible job, but he knew that most normal people were oblivious to the disaster that was about to befall them. Besides, he was one of the few that understood how the demons were able to come here, and how to send them back.

After being taught many things by the mysterious ones, including the true nature of good and evil, he had begun going on these missions to banish the demons from this plane of existence. He was now well experienced as a demon hunter after only a few short years. It had become routine business for him.

Now he found himself standing here in this dark parking lot. As he began the search for his new target, he got a little surprise! His dog had somehow followed him here, even though he thought he had left her safe at home. He didn't want her involved in this, but it was too late to take her back home now. That could be a fatal mistake. The demon he was looking for might just follow them.

The hunter and the dog both discovered it at the same time. At the back of the parking lot, in front of a small forest, was an abandoned car! They both could sense that the demon he had come for was hiding in that car waiting for something! Demons were easy to find for anyone who knew what to look for. They gave off a kind of glow. It was a glow of darkness instead of a glow of light. Basically, they radiated an evil kind of darkness.

As he made a move to step towards the old wreck, his dog quickly put herself in front of him and began to whimper! She also sensed what was over there, and she was terrified. She didn't understand that he was a demon hunter and that he was more than a match for that evil creature. She only knew that there was something very dangerous and she wanted desperately to protect him from it.

The dog began to cry a little bit louder while refusing to be moved out of the way. Then she moved up to the demon hunter and tried to nudge him away from the danger. This human was the whole world for the poor dog for most of her life, and she couldn't bear to see anything bad happen to him. The man understood exactly how the dog felt, but he had a job to do. And if he didn't do it now, they'd both be in grave danger.

Even while keeping a close eye on the hiding place of the demon, he reached down and gently petted his faithful companion to try and reassure her that everything was alright. He desperately wanted her to remain safe, just as much as she was concerned for his safety. He had to make sure she stayed where she was while he went over to deal with the problem of the demon.

While petting his dog, he whispered to her that he wanted her to stay there while he went over to have a look. He told her that he knew her concerns, but he understood exactly what he was doing. He said he would be completely safe as long as she did what he told her. He wasn't sure how, but she seemed to understand him, and she seemed to be comforted.

After the demon hunter was sure his pet was alright he turned back toward the abandoned car where the demon was hiding. He could see that the dark aura that came from this evil thing was becoming more intense with every passing second. It radiated out and was even beginning to make the car difficult to see. He knew that meant the demon was aware of his presence. He had to move quickly.

As he walked toward the car, he heard the dog make a few small whimpering sounds, but he knew he wouldn't have to turn back. The hunter knew the dog was still afraid, but he also knew she would be okay, and she would stay right where she was. He was glad of that because he could feel the tension in the air as he moved closer to the car. The demon was bracing itself, getting ready to strike!

As he got next to the car, the demon hunter quickly grabbed the door handle and flung the door open! Out of the darkness the demon leaped at him! It was a pale thin wrinkled thing with long sharp teeth and rags for clothing. It had a mostly humanoid shape, but there was nothing at all human about this horrible monstrous thing.

Just as the demon was about to collide with him, the hunter quickly threw out his hand and smashed it into the head of the horrifying entity! As soon as his hand made contact with it, the demon exploded in a flash of sparkling light! No fight, no struggle. It was quick and clean. The demon was gone. Why it had come to this particular place was a mystery that the hunter didn't need to find out. His job was now done.

This had been a struggle between courage and fear. The hunter knew that demons of this type fed on fear. That's how they gained their strength. His knowledge of this took away all of his fear and all of the demon's strength. After that, it was easy to defeat this evil thing with only a touch. The opposite of fear is courage, and courage always destroyed these evil creatures.

Without looking back, the hunter walked back over to his now very calm dog. The dog greeted him with a wag of her tail as he patted her on the head. They were both glad this was all over. It was just then that the hunter began to wonder how his dog had come here. No normal dog could have followed him all the way to this place.

Now that he thought about it, his dog had always seemed special in some way. There was an intelligence that no other dog seemed to have. Could it be that she had some kind of special power like he did? He was going to have to look at his best friend in a different way from now on. He knew she would be coming with him to these places from now on. How could he stop her?

As they walked away, the demon hunter told his dog that it would get easier for her every time they did this now. Soon her fear would vanish, and she would begin to learn exactly what to do against the demons. She might even be able to defeat the evil ones on her own eventually, but for now they would work together.

Who knows what the future might hold? The demon hunter hoped they could somehow one day make the world safe from the evil scourge that had invaded it. The little dog just hoped she could learn to keep the demon hunter safe. Two different dreams, but they worked very well together. This could be a very good beginning for this new team.