The Bell Witch


 * So this is a story I wrote for CreepsMcPasta. If you don't know who that is, he's a very talented pasta reader on youtube, with plenty of great content. It should also be noted that this is a true story, merely being retold. Now onto the nightmares!*

As a forewarning to all who wish to continue watching, know that what I am about to tell you is a true story. Denial will hold no comfort for you, and in this case, ignorance is probably bliss.

In 1817, a man named John Bell purchased a large amount of farmland in Robertson County, Tennessee. Shortly after having moved onto the property, Bell shot a strange animal in his cornfield, described as having the head of a rabbit and the body of a dog. The occurrence baffled local doctors, as such a thing shouldn't even be possible.

As time passed, the family began to hear gnawing, hacking, and knocking noises, coming from outside the house. Eventually, the noises came inside, with no apparent source of the sounds. It wasn't long after that tremors began to shake the property, an event that, again, seemed impossible to men of science.

After a while, faint whispers began to haunt the family, growing ever louder over time. They haunted the Bells, and all visitors, scaring most people away before they even reached the house.

After a while, John Bell decided he had had enough. He called in a priest to try to cleanse the land. This was a grave mistake. The spirit laughed at the holy man's petty attempts to stop it, and turned violent. Tables and chairs were thrown at him, even as he held a crucifix and holy water. Could it be that god himself was powerless to this monster? The priest survived, but received six stitches and many broken bones.

Whatever the priest had done seemed to enrage the dark presence. It made frequent attacks on the family, whether by controlling inanimate objects, or by striking them with an unseen force. At all times, however, the family knew they were not safe.

As one can imagine, word of these events traveled quickly. Many visited the farm to see if there really were voices and tremors, but left quickly upon experiencing either. One brave skeptic chose to stay the night, and was welcomed to the guest room in the house.

As he was falling asleep, he claimed to have felt a strange presence crawl up next to him in the bed. Frightened, he hastily tried to use his blankets like a net, and threw the presence into the fireplace. What happened then, is best quoted by John Bell's journal: "I was sharply awakened by the most horrid of screams, coming from the guest room."

Upon entering the room, they found a trail of blood leading away from the fireplace and outside the room, though the screams remained. All hints of doubt had been erased from the mind of their guest, as he briskly left the premises.

As the situation grew ever more bleak, John Bell's health began to deteriorate. He suffered from a number of severe, inexplicable ailments, from facial seizures to internal necrosis. The doctor gave him medicine to help ease the pain of his passing. One day, they found him lying dead on his bed. It seemed someone had switched out his medicine for poison, which they confirmed upon force-feeding it to the cat.

Even at his funeral, the presence did not let up. It mocked the family, laughing at them and making snide remarks like "I fixed him". Even to this day, John Bell is the only obituary classified as murder by a ghost.

It is said that if you go to the property today, you can still feel a dark, malicious presence, though it is significantly tamer today than it ounce was.

So what was it about John Bell that made him a target? He was a seemingly normal man, with a seemingly normal family, yet for some reason, the presence haunted him to his death. Why did it go through so much effort just to torment and kill one man? And worst of all, what's to stop it from happening again?