The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren (12 page)

By two P.M., the Warrens had arrived at the Foster home. The Foster home was a typical Cape Cod house on a wooded plot where, Ed and Lorraine later discovered, the family had lived for the past thirteen years.

All members of the family were present that afternoon. Al Foster, a phone company lineman, was a youthful looking thirty-five. His wife, , with whom Lorraine had spoken on the phone, was her husband’s age, but she looked drawn and upset. They had not witnessed the phenomena, however. It had been experienced by their three children: Abby, fifteen; Joel, fourteen; and Hannah, eleven.

Ed arranged his recording gear on a nearby table while Lorraine asked their permission to walk the house. When the Warrens are working together, Lorraine will usually investigate the premises clairvoyantly, while Ed interviews the family. She’ll begin in the basement and work her way up to the topmost floors, stopping in each room of the house. Because clairvoyance is a sense ability like the other five, it is not possible for her to deny psychic input anymore than she can refuse to see or hear. Therefore, if there is a spirit presence in a home, chances are excellent that Lorraine will become aware of it.

As she left the room, Ed began an extensive interview.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Foster made it clear that they had not experienced any of the phenomena their children talked about. “But I would imagine,” Mrs. Foster said, “that this is probably my fault, at least from what little I know about the subject. Meg has always been interested in the occult—witchcraft, spells, that sort of thing. She has a small library, but none of the books were on conjuring. So last Christmas, I bought her one on conjuring demons as a present. I honestly didn’t think anything like this was going to happen.”

“Okay,” Ed said, turning to Meg. “Where is this book?”

“Upstairs,” the girl answered. “It’s a paperback. It explains how to conjure something like seventy-five different demons. It tells the correct ritual and explains the debt you pay if the ritual works.”

“And did you perform any of the rituals?”

“Yes.”

“What demons did you try to conjure?”

“Which ones?” she repeated. “I don’t know. I only did a few of the easy rituals, the ones I could understand and had the equipment for. When I did them, though, nothing happened. So I didn’t bother anymore.”

“Sometimes the response will come days, weeks, months, even years later,” Ed informed her. “Tell me about what happened to you this week. You had trouble, I believe?”

“Twice,” said Meg.

“Who was here when it happened?”

“Joel, Erin, and me,” she answered, “The first time was this past Thursday. Dad and Mom went out to their friend’s house. We stayed home because we had school the next day. Erin and Joel were already in bed. I’d just taken a shower. I went downstairs to make sure the doors were locked. I also turned off the radio and downstairs lights before I went back upstairs.

“When I got to my bedroom, I heard the water running in the bathroom. I didn’t think about it at first, but a few minutes later, I went down the hall and saw that all the faucets were turned on. I turned them off. Then I heard the radio on again downstairs. The lights were on too! I yelled, ‘Who’s there?’ But nobody answered me. Before I went downstairs again, I looked into Erin’s room. She was asleep in her bed. I looked in Joel’s room too, but he wasn’t asleep yet. I asked if he turned the radio on downstairs. He said he hadn’t. So I then went down and turned off the lights and radio
a second time.

“When I came back upstairs, the water in the bathroom was running again! This got me mad because I was sure Joel was doing it. But when I came out of the bathroom, the radio was on real loud and all the lights were on downstairs! I went into Joel’s room and said, ‘There’s someone in the house.’ ”

“Joel, did you hear the radio?” asked Ed.

“Yeah, I heard it, but I didn’t think anything about it,” he answered.

“Did you turn on the water?” Ed asked quickly, hoping to catch him off guard.

“No way!” the boy replied. “I never even got out of bed.”

“Okay, Meg,” Ed said, “please go on.”

“From upstairs I could hear the radio changing stations, so I went right back down again, thinking my parents might be home. When I got down there this time, the radio dial was moving back and forth
all by itself,
I stood there and watched it, and that’s when I started to get scared. I turned off the radio and the lights again, but when I got halfway up the stairs, I felt an icy-cold hand touch me on the shoulder, just for a second in the dark. I almost screamed, but I didn’t. I just went right to my bedroom, shut the door and turned off the light. Before I got to my bed, though, I heard the sound of footsteps, like someone was walking out of my room into the hall. But the door never opened!”

“Didn’t you think any of this was strange?” Ed wanted to know.

“Sure I did,” said Meg. “I was scared out of my mind!”

“Erin, did you hear the radio?” Ed asked her.

“No, I was asleep,” answered the little girl.

“Now, Meg, did anything else happen after you heard the footsteps leave the room?”

“Yeah, plenty! When I got in bed I lay down and closed my eyes. Suddenly, I heard a door downstairs slam
real
hard. After that I heard furniture being pushed around and crashing, like it was being thrown by somebody who was very mad. I really thought there was someone in the house, but I was too scared to do anything so I just kept my eyes closed. But even though my eyes were closed, I could see my whole room
through
my eyelids! I opened my eyes, but nothing was different. So I closed my eyes again. Then—through my eyelids—I saw a silver light come out of the woods and glide into my bedroom. It was there when I opened my eyes too. The next thing I knew, something—some hand—yanked my hair three times. Each time it pulled harder, until the third time it made my eyes water. Then I screamed and ran into Joel’s room.”

“Joel,” asked Ed, “did you hear all the noise downstairs?”

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Why didn’t you do anything?”

“I was too scared,” he admitted.

“Good answer,” said Ed. “Erin, did you hear anything?”

“I heard the furniture being thrown around, and when Meg screamed I went into Joel’s room too.”

“About what time did all this happen?” Ed questioned.

“That’s the funny thing,” Meg told him. “It was about ten-thirty when I got out of the shower, but my bedroom clock was three hours
ahead.
And when I went into Joel’s room, his clock was three hours
behind.”

“All right, once you were in Joel’s room, did the noises stop?”

“Everything got even louder,” Meg said.

“Did you hear any other sounds in the house at the time? Poundings on the walls? Voices? Knocking?”

“No, just doors slamming, footsteps, and furniture being thrown around,” Joel said.

“What did you hear, Erin?”

“The same thing Joel heard.”

“I heard what sounded to me like loud whispering, too,” Meg offered.

“Could you make anything out?” Ed asked her.

“No.”

“What about the footsteps?” Ed went on. “Did they lead anywhere?”

“They went around in
circles,”
said Joel. Meg nodded agreement.

“After you all went into Joel’s bedroom, and you kept on hearing these sounds downstairs,” Ed repeated, “what did you do then?”

“We had an argument,” Joel answered. “Meg wanted to call the police, and I wouldn’t let her because I knew there wasn’t anybody down there! If the police came, I figured they might have thought we were playing a joke on them.”

“Finally we called my parents at their friend’s house,” Meg spoke up. “But by the time they came home, everything had stopped. All they did was tell us we were ‘hearing things’ because we were tired. They didn’t believe us!”

“Mrs. Foster,” Ed questioned, “have you ever seen or heard anything unusual in this house?”

“No, like I said before, I’ve never seen anything. The only thing unusual I’ve heard is the songbird.” She paused “For years we had a large pine tree outside our bedroom window. A few months ago, we cut the tree down. But every night now, for the past three weeks, Al and I hear a songbird singing outside our window where that tree used to be.”

“Al, did you hear the bird too?” asked Ed.

“Yeah, every night,” he replied. “I never gave it any thought, but birds don’t sing at night, do they?”

“No,” said Ed “Not ordinarily.”

“Well, it turns out you've all experienced something here,” Ed summarized, “Do you think this house is haunted?”

“
I
think so,” said Meg.

“I think so too, ” Joel replied. Erin and her mother also tended to agree.

“Mr. Foster?” Ed asked.

“Well, I don’t know. I’ve never been around when any of this kind of thing has happened.”

Just then Lorraine came back downstairs. She nodded discreetly to Ed, indicating, there
was
a spirit presence in the home, and then took a seat at the dining room table. Rather than alter the mood of the conversation, Ed held off asking Lorraine for her impressions until he had the family’s statements on tape.

“You said these phenomena happened to you
twice,”
Ed reminded the children. “What happened the second time?"

“The second time was last night,” Joel replied. “Only Meg and I were here. Almost exactly the same thing happened as on Thursday. This time Meg was in her bedroom, and I’d taken the shower. When I came out of the bathroom, I heard the radio on downstairs. The stations were being changed slowly, and I yelled down, ‘Leave that one on.’ But when I walked down the stairs, no one was there except the dog. He was snarling viciously at something in the room. That was really strange, because he couldn’t have heard anything. Our dog’s deaf! Then I remembered the other night and I ran upstairs and went to bed. About five minutes later, the footsteps started downstairs, making the whole house vibrate. And the furniture started being thrown around again. I was scared the first time, but this time I was
really
scared.”

“Did you hear it too, Meg?” asked Ed.

“Yeah, just like he did. I even yelled out to Joel, ‘Do you hear it?’ But he hollered at me, saying ‘Shut up!’ ”

“I guess I didn’t want to admit it was really happening again,” admitted Joel.

“When you were in your room, did you see or feel anything unusual?” Ed asked him.

“No, nothing.”

“How about you Meg?”

“Well, the more scared I felt, the louder everything became downstairs. The second time, I also saw a dark, purplish cloud in my bedroom. I could never look at it directly—only out of the corner of my eye. When that purple ball was in my room, I kept my eyes closed so I couldn’t see it. As I lay there, my hands were closed up in tight fists. All of a sudden I felt
another hand
try to force mine open! It was a really strong hand, like a grown man’s. It couldn’t get my fist open, so it yanked at my arm and tried to pull me out of bed. It pulled me almost halfway out of bed before I screamed for help. Then it let go, and I ran into Joel’s room.”

Ed looked to Joel. “What happened next?”

“Meg and I wanted to call the police or my parents or somebody,” the boy replied, “but we didn’t want to go out of the room. Meg told me about the hand, and we both felt something else was going to happen.”

“Like what?”

“We didn’t know,” the boy answered. “But we felt a really strong sense of
evil
all around us. I don’t know how to say it. Anyway, we wanted to get out of the house, but we didn’t want to go through the downstairs. Meg said we ought to jump out the window, but I thought that was nuts. I told her we were gonna
run
out. Meg got dressed in clothes from my closet because she wouldn’t go back into her room. Then I opened the bedroom door. We could see the lights were on downstairs, and we could hear the footsteps stomping around. But we didn’t care, we just wanted out: so we decided to make a break for it.”

“We went into the hall and nothing happened,” Meg said, “except the whole upstairs was sweating hot. So we ran down the stairs as fast as we could and got out the front door.”

“Did you see furniture tossed over in the room downstairs?”

“No, I don’t think so. The furniture was out of place, but I don’t remember if I saw any of it knocked over.”

“Did you, Meg?”

“I didn’t even look,” she admitted.

“All I remember about the inside of the house,” Joel went on, “was that the radio wasn’t playing—it was buzzing, like it was picking up static. Anyway, we got out of the house and decided to run up to the university campus to call somebody. I’ll never forget that. There were dogs outside, and when they saw us running, they started to run with us too. But when they got close, they ran
backwards
! And the birds—as we ran along, the whole woods were full of screeching birds!”

“About what time was this, Joel?”

“Between eleven and eleven-thirty that night.”

“Beside the fact that birds aren’t active at night, was there anything unusual about the incident? Did you notice if the screeching came from only one side, maybe from the left?”

“Yeah,
only on the left side,”
the boy said emphatically. “How did you know that?”

“It doesn’t matter right now,” Ed told him. “Just continue with what happened out on the road.”

“We were running up the road, but something was chasing us from behind,” the boy went on. “Whatever was in the house had
followed us.
We were running toward the street light, because we felt we’d be safe if we made it there. But it didn’t seem like we could make it to the light. We couldn’t make any progress. It was like running in place. We were being held back by some sort of forcefield.”

“If that force caught up with you, Meg, what do you think would have happened?” Ed asked.

“It
did
catch up to us!” she said. “It was heavy and it tried to force us down on the road. If we didn’t get to the light, it would have killed us.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because there was no air to breathe,” she responded