Richard had been living in his house for over a year, a historic building he later would tell me was built in 1857. He said it was reputed to have been a schoolhouse around the turn of the century and most of the building was original except for an addition he guessed was added in the 1960’s. Neighbors told him the addition was boarded up years ago. Richard’s girlfriend Anita had recently moved in and they planned to reopen and gut the addition to create additional living space and when they did they discovered piles of dead rodents and several dead cats. Their other goal was to clean out an unfinished attic and turn it into living space as well. Not long after these two projects began the house took on a decidedly unpleasant air. The smell of cigarette smoke would appear randomly. Something in the house “felt dead”. An uneasy feeling came as well that they were being watched or spied on.

When I arrived at the property I knew nothing about the place. I introduced myself to the house and shared my intentions to the energies of the home, they did a quick run through the property to get my bearings. I immediately noticed the bedroom felt overly still, particularly near the window and closet. Something was hiding and I’d get back to that. Going up to the attic there was a real sense of foreboding doom. At the rear inside the recently reopened addition something was clearly wrong. The sudden sound of windchimes caught me off guard. I located them hanging in the kitchen in front of a heating vent that was blowing warm air.

When I returned to the living room I was overcome with full body chills. There was no movement in the air and I began to experience knife-like stabbing pains in the middle of my back. I also began sensing a non-human presence from the attic and I could hear a low growling. I sat down on the sofa and asked out loud, “Do you like what Richard and Anita are doing with the house?” Some twinkle lights that were on in the foyer immediately went out. It seemed significant, though I wondered if they might have been on a timer. I investigated and the cord went behind a large shelving unit, so I asked out loud, “Did you make these lights go out?” A windchime from the kitchen gonged once. Returning to the kitchen the heat wasn’t blowing this time so I asked if the spirit could do it again and the windchimes gonged twice this time. Then I saw a bright flash of light and the house got very cold. I could hear something growling again. It was time to go deeper in my reading of the property.

As soon as I was tuned in I saw an older woman in a Victorian-like dress with a light brown or grey-haired bun run into the bedroom and hide in the closet. I heard an ominous-sounding rumbling I couldn’t identify. The windchimes started gonging in one/two formations. Someone or something was not happy and they wanted me to know that. I made my way to the addition and spotted a peeping tom looking in the window. He appeared to be an Irish man with reddish hair. I said hello to him and the conversation began. I got the name Mike Ramsey, the year 1935. He was hanging around outside the house looking for the former owners, especially a woman. He loved her, but didn’t want to run into her husband. He appeared to be stuck in a time loop outside the house, never able to enter, repeating the same actions over and over. I invited him to come inside the house and when he entered there was a wave of emotion I felt physically, a wave of amazement and gratitude. I wondered if Mike was the only one responsible for Richard and Anita feeling watched and spied upon.

I tuned into the bedroom and the lady of the house. Name starts with the letter E. El- or Em- something. I introduced myself. She said she was hiding from her husband, that he’d found out about the affair. The cold presence in the living room took shape for me. It was a man with two menacing dogs. I said, “You’re the husband?” and heard “Touché” which was an odd and dated comment. The dogs were very agitated, barking like mad. The woman’s energy grew fearful. I sensed that he had been an abusive husband before this as well and the story filled out into a triangular standoff between the woman, the peeping tom lover, and the dark husband in the living room with the dogs who hid in the attic most of the time. I got that her name was Ella and these three spirits were stuck in probably the worst night of their lives.

Then the husband began screaming at me and I decided it was time to open a portal in the attic and Ella left the property right away with Mike not far behind her. Then the husband and I needed to have a talk. I told him he had no reason to stay here anymore now that they were gone. He asked about the dogs and I assured him that his dogs could go with him. He told me he didn’t want to go. I said, “Why?” And I saw flashes. He’d murdered his wife, stabbed her multiple times in the back in the closet. I said, “So you murdered your wife.” There was silence and then he said, “Now you know why I can’t move on.” I told him the current date, that he’d been stuck in this house for a lifetime and that anything would be better than reliving that over and over. He nodded. His dogs went into the portal first, then he rudely stabbed me in the back one more time and he left. You could feel the energy of the whole house start to shift and that’s when I noticed a fourth spirit.

He was from a different time period, a working man of sorts in a red plaid shirt. We had a conversation and I learned pretty quickly that he wasn’t apart of all of that, but this was home and he wanted to stay. I told him it was Richard’s and Anita’s home now and he seemed enthusiastic about helping them with their projects. I respected his choice since he did not seem to be of any harm, closed the portal, and worked with my healing guides to energetically cleanse the property. The house felt good, but it had been a particularly intense couple of hours and I was tired. I contacted Richard and Anita, They returned to the property and as soon as he entered Richard shook his head. He said, “The house looks and feels fabulous, it feels like we’ve returned to a completely different house.” I nodded and smiled. They thanked me and I told him I’d have a full report in a few days, but I needed to go. Later in the week I shared the events of the night with them and Anita said, “Our dogs were always frantic barkers before you were here. We didn’t even know they could be this mellow.” I looked at them curled up quietly on the end of the sofa and felt great that I not only helped Richard and Anita, but their pets too.