Specter with White Eyes (Nuggan)

Well, here is something creepy that's been going on for the last few days.

For the past week I've been completely alone in my apartment. My girlfriend is away on a trip with the band of the school at which she teaches, I rarely see my parents, and my friends have all had long hours at their places of work. I've been cut off from all human interaction, save for via the internet. Since I work from home I get to keep whatever hours I want. Lately that has involved waking up in the early afternoon, and staying up until 4 or 5 in the morning. Even chat online dies late at night, so I usually spend my last few hours awake reading quietly in the dim light of my last good lamp. My apartment lacks overhead lighting for its main room, and recently my bulbs have been burning out on me violently with brilliant blue flashes when I flick a switch. I've used up all the spares that I have, and the heavy rain has kept me from wanting to drive out to a store for replacements.

Two nights ago, at approximately 3:30AM, I heard a bit of a scuffling outside my back door, which is right off the main room where I sit and read. Occasionally, if we have company coming, my girlfriend or I will take a full bag of garbage and throw it onto the back porch rather than walk it the whole way to the dumpster. It normally only sits there for that night, and then I take it out the next day. My back porch and yard are fenced in, so its rare that any animals get to it. I didn't remember having left any bags out there, but I thought she might have put one there last weekend and forgot to tell me about it, and that maybe a stray cat had jumped the fence and was rummaging through it. I opened the door to a light rain blowing into my face. There was indeed a garbage bag there, sitting directly on top of a number of empty beer cases. The bag was torn open, and the refuse was tossed all over the boxes. Annoyed that she never told me this was out here, I grabbed a new bag and started picking up trash. I didn't see a cat, but I heard one. It sounded sick, or maybe in heat, but it was yowling up a storm. It wasn't anywhere in my yard, and the fence is high enough that I couldn't see past it, so I wasn't sure where it was coming from. Not wanting to take the wet, smelly bag of garbage into my apartment, nor wanting to walk all the way to the dumpster through the rain, I instead opened the wooden shed that's in the yard and tossed the bag inside. I closed the door and fastened the old rusty latch so that if the cat came back it couldn't get in. By the time I was done I couldn't hear the cat anymore. I went back inside, dried off, and didn't think much else of it.

Last night, right about the same time, I heard the scuffling out back again. Fairly certain that a cat couldn't get into the shed, I opened the door expecting to find one searching the boxes which were still outside it for food. I was greeted again to rain in my face, heavier this time, and with a lot of wind. Earlier in the night the storm had been fairly strong, with a good amount of lightning and thunder which shakes my walls when its close enough. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw the boxes weren't where I left them. They were tossed all about the yard. I assumed it was the wind, but what I was fairly sure wasn't the wind was the fact that my shed door was unlatched and was swung wide open. The bag of garbage was newly torn up, and pieces of trash had blown everywhere. Over the sound of the wind rushing past my ears I could hear a cat again. It wasn't yowling this time, it was hissing. I looked around and saw it in the far corner of the fence. Its back was arched, hair standing up, and it was clawing at the air. I was unsure of why it was so distressed at first, but then I spotted something incredibly strange moving along the fence. At first I thought it was a shadow of some unseen person creeping towards the feline, but as I stared at it I realized the darkness had more of a dimension to it, and looked sort of heavier than the air around it. It was more of a dark cloud vaguely human shaped. It glided towards the cat, but stopped short as if something startled it. It turned, as if aware of my presence for the first time. It had a sort of face that I could barely make out. A round mouth, no nose, and two piercingly white eyes. The mouth opened, and poured forth a sound which reminded me of the brakes of a train shrieking as it tries to come to a dead stop from full speed. It rushed at me then, but before it could get close I slammed the door, bolted it, and attached the chain. As I backed away I could hear it pounding and clawing on the door and wall outside. The beating only lasted a moment, and then it was gone. I glanced towards the large window which overlooks the backyard, but the two blinds on it were shut. There is a slim crack between them where you can see the glass, but it was too bright inside for me to look out without getting closer. As I stood there waiting, unsure of what to do, there was a loud THUNK sound which made me jump, and from the crack between the blinds I saw a single, blazing white eye staring back at me. Then, a flash of blue as my last lightbulb burnt out. I spent the rest of the night upstairs with a flashlight.

Today, while it was still daylight, I cleaned up the boxes and garbage and took them to the dumpster. I drove to the store and bought more bulbs. The weather was alright, it wasn't storming. The rest of the day was normal, and I'd mostly convinced myself that I was seeing things last night. Until 3:30 again. Just a few minutes ago, I'm laying on my couch reading and I heard something in the yard. It scuffled around for a moment, and then there was a slow, deliberate pounding on the back door. I didn't get up, and I didn't open it. I looked to the window again and there was that eye staring right at me. I just sat here, unmoving, and it gazed right back, unblinking. I slowly reached for my camera, which I had set on the table next to the couch, popped up the flash and took a picture. As I lowered the camera from my face the eye was gone. Whatever it was didn't show up, but I'll post the photo here anyway. I don't think it likes the light very much and must have ducked quickly when the camera flashed. That, or its not something my camera can catch. Its time for bed soon, hopefully I scared it away for good...



Edit: Something knocked on the door again...

Something just happened at one of my neighbor's apartments. I can't really tell what is going on, but there are about six firetrucks all in front of it right now. A bunch of firemen all just ran inside.

I'm holding my camera up high to try to get a picture over my fence, I cant really see directly what is happening:

(Img. 2-1)

I went upstairs and took this one out of the window in my bedroom:

(Img. 2-2)

It doesn't look like there is a fire, but one of the women standing talking to the firefighters is a bit hysterical. I can't hear what she's saying too well. What I can hear is a cat freaking out in the back yard of the unoccupied apartment adjacent to mine. I'm staying inside now.

Edit: They're gone now. I still don't really know what happened. I cracked the upstairs window a bit so I could hear what was being shouted. One woman was sobbing heavily, and the other was just going off yelling at the firemen. I didn't catch all of it, but she seemed fairly sure it wasn't safe to stay in her apartment. Most of the firetrucks left soon after arriving, but one stuck around for a while, along with an ambulance. Two firefighters, carrying axes, escorted a third person out of the building with a mask and attached airtank held up to their face. It also looks like one of their front windows is broken. I'll see if tomorrow I can figure out what occurred.

Edit2: I caught one of my neighbors that lives a bit closer as he was leaving for work, and I found out what happened. Evidently the one woman who lives in that apartment complained for the past few nights that something has been staring at her through the front window while she watches TV. The police did a drive-by a few times, as did the apartment security staff, but they never saw anything. Well, she got up out of bed tonight to grab something to drink out of her kitchen, and there is this thing again staring at her, pressed up against the glass. She grabs the nearest thing, some big frying pan, and hurls it at the window. As it smashes through, one of their lightbulbs burns out and the bulb itself shatters, the lamp then falling over onto the couch. Well, the couch starts smoldering and fills the place with smoke, and the fire department is called. The two people that were downstairs got out really quickly, but the third was still sleeping in his bedroom on the 2nd floor, and inhaled a bit of smoke. I'm really not sure what to do at this point, this thing obviously knows I'm here now. Nothing seems to happen during the day, so I've some time to figure things out. Its time for me to get some sleep now, but I'm going to stock up on flashlight batteries after I get up this afternoon.


 * Angela Christine posted: Don't worry, it is obviously just the ghost of a friendly black lab. Like every black lab ever, he thinks that everyone he sees is his best friend, so he runs up to them and watches them through the windows, trying to get attention. He doesn't understand that he is a ghost, or that people think he is scary. He just wants to play.

Except it didn't look much like a dog. It was definitely human shaped, and I though it was just someone's shadow on the fence at first. Also, a dog couldn't stand high enough to look into the top of my window.

There was a knock on my door today. The front this time, and it was still daylight, so I answered it. It was one of the apartment security team. He wanted to know if I had seen anyone creeping around, or just had anything unusual to report. I told him no. He asked for me to keep an eye out and call them if I saw anything, and explained that there was an incident last night. I told him I had seen the firetrucks. They seem to think there is some sort of prowler around. He wanted to know if I had any pets that I let outside. I have a rat, which lives upstairs in a cage in my guest bedroom, but nothing larger so I told him no again. Evidently today some kids playing around found a few dead cats over in the clearing behind the dumpsters. They were all torn up, and pieces of them flung around on the grass.

I have plenty of extra lightbulbs and batteries now, so I think I should be ok for tonight. I'm not really sure what I'll do if it comes pounding on my door again, or watching through the window. I called a friend of mine today who is into occult stuff, and deals with this sort of thing, he lives way out in Arizona though and I'm in Pennsylvania. He told me if he were here, and its what he thinks it is, he'd try to catch it in a jar. I have no clue what that means though, or how one would go about that at all. He mentioned that its all about knowing the right words to say to it, or something like that, and just being forceful enough to command it. I think for tonight I'll just stick with my flashlights, and try not to look at the window.

My friend in Arizona called me back and was very adamant that I at least make an attempt to catch this thing. He claims that if its still only hunting small things, like cats, its not very strong yet, and if its going to be stopped it has to be now. He said that if its not now then someone could get seriously hurt, or killed. He gave me the instructions on what I need to do. I have to get a clean glass jar, a good sized one, and wipe the inside down with oil. Then I have to take sand and fill it about 3/4ths full. He gave me some sort of little prayer chant to say over it, but asked that I not repeat it to anyone. I've done all that already. I used an old salsa jar I had laying around. He had a few other things I was supposed to do, but I don't have the proper... ingredients, I guess you could call them. He said that without them it should still work, but won't be as strong.

Now, I guess that one of the major things about this sort of spirit, or creature, is that they absolutely despise light. So, what I'm supposed to do is if it comes knocking at my door, I knock back the exact same way. Then I count to ten and open the door. I take the jar of sand/oil, in which I've now placed a small lit candle, and set it at my feet. He says this thing will get enraged by this and move fast, faster than I can see it, to extinguish the light. Now, I have to be ready with the lid of the jar, because as soon as that little candle goes out I have to slam the lid down and tighten it as fast as I can.

After that its supposedly stuck in the jar. I guess in some weird sort of way it makes sense. If its a ghost or something like that I don't understand why it couldn't just move through the glass, but it wasn't able to get through my window the last two nights. He said one of the most important things is that when I do this I keep the door closed behind me, because I definitely don't want it getting into the house. Now I just have to wait up for it.

Here is the jar, candle in it and ready:

(imgs. 03-01, 03-02)

A few years back, just as a fun project while I was still in school, I took a crappy digital camera apart and made an infrared camera out of it. I looked through some of my old stuff and found it. I took some pictures of the jar so I can see if anything looks different if this somehow works. If its dark out I usually have to take the pictures with the camera flash. Most lamps and flashlights don't emit much infrared light, but a flash bulb is full spectrum, and the candle certainly does.

With flash:

(img 03-03)

Without flash:

(Img. 3-4)

Well, I've been sitting here tonight trying to read like a normally do, but it just wasn't happening. I kept glancing over to the computer to see what time it was as the minutes crawled by, and it was driving me a bit crazy so I had to close the laptop, put the book down, and just sit waiting in silence. Even so, I still jumped when the knock came at the door a few minutes ago. I was startled, so I missed the first bit of how the pounding went, but I picked up the rest and knocked back in the same way as best I could. I really don't think I got the first part right, though.

I opened the door and peered out into the darkness. I had the jar with candle in my hand, and my eyes didn't adjust very well. Still, one part of the yard just seemed a bit darker than the rest. I knelt down and set the jar at the bottom of the step on the porch, closing the door behind me. The night here is cool, but not uncomfortably so, and deathly still. Not even a light breeze blowing around. From what my friend had described I thought this was supposed to happen quickly, but I watched as the candle slowly dimmed from a bright flame to barely lit. As soon as it went out completely I smacked the lid onto the top of the jar and tightened it as much as I could. I didn't really know what to do at this point, so I just came back inside.

Looking at the jar in the light, it really doesn't seem like anything is different. The only noticeable physical change is that it feels much cooler than it did a few moments ago when the candle was lit, as if I had left it in the refrigerator for maybe ten minutes. That, and the lid kinda vacuum sealed itself. The little button on the top of it is sucked in, I'm assuming from the pressure difference from the candle having just been lit.

Here's the current picture of it: (Img. 4-1)

It doesn't look much different in infrared:

(img. 04-02, 04-03)

I took one without the flash too, but you can barely see it:

(Img. 4-4)

I don't know what I should do with it, but I'll call my friend again tomorrow and ask.

Edit: Its definitely sealed tight. I tried to just loosen it a bit with my hand to check, and I cant even get it to budge.

Shit...

(Img. 5-1)

I went upstairs to take a piss, and as I was washing my hands I heard my rat freaking out from the guest room. I went in to check on him and he was holding on to the bars of his cage and gnawing on them like crazy. He bit me when I went to pick him up, but he calmed down after a minute. I held him and gave him a little piece of chocolate, and he seemed ok after that so I put him back, refilled his water bottle, and came back downstairs, and found this.

(Img. 5-2)

It looks like the jar fell off the table where I had set it and the lid popped open. I didn't hear it fall when I was upstairs, and the lid was on there pretty tight, so I'm not sure how that happened. Its not like I set it precariously on the edge of the table either.

(Img. 5-3)

The candle is still in there, its just buried now. Some of the sand spilled out. I cleaned up what I could by hand and set my roomba on the rest. I just tried to call my friend to ask what I should do, but he hasn't answered. I'm a bit on edge right now. If this mess is the only thing that happened I'll be happy, but I'm a bit worried. I'm going to have a smoke and try to calm myself down.

Edit: One of my brand new lightbulbs burnt out. It didn't pop or flash or anything, just plain went out. I don't know what the heck is going on, because its not a regular lightbulb, its one of those energy saver spiral ones that's supposed to last 10 years or so. I screwed in a new bulb, and that one seems to be working fine, so its not the lamp that's the problem.

Edit 2: My damn hookah fell over. By itself. While I was nowhere near it. I was in the kitchen pouring a drink after changing the lightbulb, and I heard it crash from the other room. Its small, and it didn't fall off the table, so its not broken, but the hot coals broke into a bunch of pieces and landed on my carpet. I had to grab my tongs quickly and try to toss them onto the metal tray, but they crumbled a few times as I did, so now I've got these burns all over the rug. Also, my hoses are filled with water and possibly ruined.

(Img. 5-4)

I called my friend again, but he still didn't answer. I'm just going to bed, and locking the bedroom door. I'll try to deal with this tomorrow.

Edit 3: After a few hours of not sleeping I got a call from my grandmother asking if I would drive her to the hairdresser since my uncle is away in the mountains hunting turkey. I went to pick her up, and on the way there she gave me some sad news. She works for the apartment complex I live in, and three days ago they got a call from some local business. One of their employees, who lives in these apartments, didn't show up for work, or call in sick, and they were worried about him. They asked if someone could go check on him. Well, one of the managers heads up there and knocks on the door. No answer. He unlocks it and calls inside. Still no answer. He walks upstairs and checks the bedroom. The man is laying in his bed, dead. It looks like he passed in his sleep. The police said they didn't suspect any sort of foul play, but the man was fairly young and as far as I know in alright health. There was no reason for him to just die in the night.

Its light now, so I'm going to go try to get some sleep. Again.

attackbunny posted:
 * salt

shotgunbadger posted:
 * salt

My Little Puni posted:
 * salt

Tardcore posted:
 * salt

(Img. 6-1)

I'm not looking forward to having to clean up rings of salt everywhere, but if this works I wont complain.

My friend finally called me back. I evidently did most everything wrong, and the seal he had me put on the jar was nowhere near strong enough. He seemed surprised it worked for as long as it did. He agreed with you guys on the salt thing. Personally, it sounds more to me like you all watched Hocus Pocus a few too many times.

He thinks that right now this spirit is hiding somewhere dark in my apartment. Inside some closet, in cupboards, in a crawl space where plumbing is, in the ventilation, somewhere like that. Most likely a place that I can't get to. It won't come out until the sun comes down, and until then there isn't much I can do about it. He told me I have two options at this point. I can try to banish it from my apartment, or I can try to capture it again. He warned me that whichever I do its going to be angry, more so than it is already since my last attempt failed. If I banish it it won't be able to get back into my apartment, however it will still be free to roam around and could try to do something to me while I'm out or move on to try to hurt someone else. I don't want to give it that chance, so I'm going do my best to capture it and not screw up this time.

While I still have daylight I have to go collect a few things to prepare for this. Also, I have to find something larger than a salsa jar. He said if I can find something with some sort of symbolic meaning to catch it in it will be much stronger and be much harder for this thing to break out. Time to go wandering through the woods...

Well, I'm back inside. Its going to be dark soon, so I hope I grabbed the right stuff.

This is the start of the field behind the dumpsters:

(Img. 7-1)

This is where I'm pretty sure they found those cats the other day. Its right off the little path that leads through here, and grass and stuff is all flattened. I'm supposed to take some dirt from here, so I grabbed a little handful.

(Img. 7-2)

I'm supposed to find some sort of small white flowers. These are tiny, but they're growing on a tree instead of from the ground. I think it might be a dogwood. I don't think they're the right ones, but I took some anyway so I can ask my friend about them.

(Img. 7-3)

Not too far away, however, I found these. I'm pretty sure this is what he sent me out here to find. They're tiny and growing in little clusters all over the place. It smells like garlic. I took them too.

(Img. 7-4)

I jumped when I heard a sound, and turned to find this rabbit just staring me down. He watched me the whole time I was out there.

(Img. 7-5)

I needed to get a dead branch from a tree with a forked end. This one looked alright to me.

(Img. 7-6)

Finally I had to get some sort of natural nut around here. It had to be whole, with an unbroken shell. The was laying not too far from the branch.

(Img. 7-7)

That was all from the woods. I also needed oil, charcoal, and candles, but I already had all of those. I'm going to call my friend back and make sure I got the right things. I hope so, because the light outside is fading and I still need to figure out what I'm going to trap this thing in.

Edit: shotgunbadger posted:
 *  banish first then go to trapping at a later time.

From what he told me before, if I do that it's going to be seriously pissed off. I don't want to take the risk that it's going to go out and hurt someone, or something else.

Alright, I got all the instructions from my friend, and I'm fairly certain I'm going to do everything right this time. Its dark outside now, but nothing strange has happened yet. I checked on my rat, he seems fine. I poured a ring of salt all around his cage. I'm currently getting everything else ready, but I thought I'd show you all what we've decided that I should try to trap this spirit in.

(Img. 8-1)

This is an old painting which I have hanging right at the top of my stairs. It was painted many years ago by a cousin of mine. Not a direct cousin, but a cousin on the Italian side of my family. I couldn't tell you how we're actually related, everyone just calls each other cousin. The painting is supposed to represent a helpless soul falling in towards death. I thought it was fairly appropriate as a place to try to put this thing.

Edit: I just had a lightbulb burn out on me again. This time it was one in my kitchen, on the light attached to the ceiling fan.

Edit 2: I got curious and took a picture of the painting with my infrared camera. Its creepy to look at, it reflects the light completely differently in infrared, and much of the detail is gone. The only think you can really see is the skull at the center.

(Img. 8-2)

Ok, I've finished the first part of the ritual that I had to do. I walked around every room in the apartment, sprinkling oil to anoint the walls, and had a small prayer to say over it. I had to make sure I got every wall and every tight space, including inside closets and drawers, the windows, the plumbing and furnace space, all of it. From what I understand, this gives the spirit no place to hide while also effectively sealing it inside the building. If I did it right it has nowhere it can escape to now.

I'm getting the next part set up. I'll take a picture before I do anything once its ready.

Edit: I just fell down the damn stairs. I swear to god, something grabbed my ankle while I was on the 4th step from the top, and I tripped. I caught myself before I tumbled the whole way down, but I bashed my knee up pretty good. I was carrying the forked stick at the time too, and it snapped under me. Now its not long enough to reach how I need it to.

Alright, here is the setup for the last part of this ritual:

(Img. 10-1)

The big forked stick is sitting there touching the painting and next to the candle and oil. Its there to channel energy into the painting. The boxes are because I broke the stick when I fell, and it wouldn't reach the painting from the ground anymore.

(Img. 10-2)

The ouija board isn't there for me to actually use to try to talk to this spirit, or anything like that. My friend said it has something to do with it just being there is a kind of "open invitation" for whatever entity present to come forward. Its some kind of calling out that I'm inviting a sort of interaction. He said it wasn't absolutely necessary, but since I have one it couldn't hurt to have it there out in the open.

(Img. 10-3)

The charcoal and the dirt from the field is mixed in with the oil. I have to then use it to bless the board, my knife, the candle, etc. Its also what I used for all the walls.

(Img. 10-4)

The knife is supposed to be a long dagger that he called an "athame", or something that sounds like that. I have a few daggers, but they're all ornamental, and none of them have a black handle, which he said is required. This is the closest thing that I have.

(Img. 10-5)

The candle is sitting on top of a shot glass. Under the glass is the garlic-smelling flowers I gathered in the woods.

(Img. 10-6)

I don't pretend to know how any of this is supposed to actually work. The way my friend says that this happens is that first I bless everything with the oil. I turn out all the lights in my apartment, except for a small flashlight to make sure I don't fall going back up the stairs. Then, while saying a chant that he gave me, I light the candle. I then invite any entities present, that if the light offends them they should extinguish it. I dip the knife in oil, and once the candle goes out I pour a drop onto the wick. Then I put the candle quickly under the glass with the flowers. After that I touch the bottom of the branch to the top of the glass and, cracking the nut open with the flat of the knife, I tell the spirit that I break the prison holding it and allow it passage to only one place. That place is up through the branch and into the painting. He said that when that's all done the smoke should clear from inside the shot glass, and then I know the spirit left it and went into the painting.

I'm going to go start turning out the lights now. I'll post again when I'm all done.

Well, it's done now. I turned out the lights, and did everything the way I was told to. This time, unlike when I was outside, the candle went out fast. It was so quick after I finished talking that I almost dropped the knife in the darkness and fumbled a bit while trying to get the candle under the shot glass. The rat freaked out in the cage while I was chanting, but he had salt around him so I figured he'd be ok and I tried to ignore him.

I have no real way to tell if I did it right or not yet. Nothing tripped me when I went downstairs to get my camera, and as far as I can tell none of my lightbulbs are burnt out.

Here is the painting now. It doesn't look any different to me.

(Img. 11-1)

Here it is in infrared though.

(Img. 11-2)

These pictures are with the flash of my camera. It looks like something is reflecting a bit differently on it than in the first pictures I took. Its definitely a reflection of some sort, because without the flash you cant see the painting at all. This one is a little bit blurry because the camera can't focus well in the dark.

(Img. 11-3)

So, maybe this means it worked? I hope so. I tried calling my friend to let him know its done, but he isn't picking up his phone again.

Edit: I went back upstairs to clean stuff up and the painting was hanging crooked on the wall. I straightened it and threw the boxes back into the storage room, but when I came out it was leaning again.

(Img. 11-4)

I straightened it again. I've got this weird feeling like its watching me or something.

shotgunbadger posted:
 * Nuggan you've either had an amazing (and horrifying) life experience or just told one of the greatest stories I've read in a long time, either way rock on bro.

HOLY SHIT.

I just about had a heart attack there. I sat down on the couch here and was about to type a reply to you when I heard this thumping coming from my left. I jumped up and looked over just in time to see the painting ROLLING DOWN THE FUCKING STAIRS.

(Img. 12-1)

It stopped when it hit the bottom and got stuck on my karaoke machine.

I'm not doing anything to the painting itself until I can get my friend on the phone and ask him about it.

(Img. 13-1)

I put it back at the top of the stairs facing the corner. I didn't try to hang it back up. You can't see it very well on the carpet, but I poured a salt all around it.

InediblePenguin posted:
 * burning sage

Sage was one of the things I was supposed to use for the first jar. I didn't have any on hand, but he said that it would probably be alright anyway. I guess not.

Nothing much else has happened tonight. I'm about to try to get some sleep. My friend never called me back, but I'll probably talk to him after I wake up.

I'm shipping the painting to Arizona. I had a long conversation with my friend this morning about it. I'm reluctant to actually destroy the painting, since it was made by a family member, so he's going to do his best to remove this spirit from it without any damage and then send it back to me.

Some of you have disagreed with my actions in trying to catch this. Others have disagreed with my methods. I have a few PMs and e-mails from goons trying to explain how this sort of thing works, why what I'm doing wouldn't work, why what I'm doing will work but it needs to be stronger, and telling me I should just get rid of it and not try catching it myself. It really comes down to that this is my home, I trust my friends methods, and I wasn't going to let some weird spirit or anything like that creep around killing animals and hurting people.

shotgunbadger posted:
 * Oh man it's gonna be like the horror movie sequel, you'll get a call from your friend in a week going 'there was nothing in this painting!' and then some goon between your state and Arizona will be posting in here about lightbulbs going out!

I hope not. I sent it out yesterday, and he should get it sometime tomorrow. If I'm lucky there won't be any problem on his end with getting rid of this thing. I like that painting and want it back!

Demon Of The Fall posted:
 * Holy shit dude. You need to start your own thread. Keep up the entertainment!

What would I put in it that wouldn't fit in the ghost story thread? 50ft Ant is better at writing, had better and longer stories than mine, and he kept all his stuff in the ghost story threads. I still want to hear about that bigfoot, Ant. I guess I do have a few other stories I could tell, this isn't the first time something like this happened to me, though it is the first time I was the one trying to catch or banish or whatever to a spirit. I have a few stories from when my friend who lives in Arizona lived here in Pennsylvania. He and his girlfriend at the time were really into stuff like this, and were sort of the go-to people when creepy stuff happened. I hung out with them a lot, and helped out a few times. He moved away after he woke up to his girlfriend stabbing him in the leg with a fork. He grabbed it from her and stabbed himself in the chest, telling her that if she was going to kill him she needed to aim higher. After that he kicked her out, they broke up, he went to Arizona and she moved back to Louisiana, where she was originally from. They're both a little crazy.

I'll try to think of which would be a good story to tell, in the meantime I like reading these stories too so other people need to keep posting some.

shotgunbadger posted:
 * Look behind you! For real though yea Nuggan, I'd love to hear if you talked with your friend about the whole deal.

Well, my friend got the painting a few days ago, he did whatever he was planning to do to it and then shipped it back to me. Its hanging on my wall again. As far as I can tell whatever was in it is gone. I've not had anything fall over or any lights go out, and it looks normal in pictures again. I guess that means what he did to it worked. Next time I talk to him I could try asking what he did with the spirit that was in it, but he usually says things like that shouldn't be talked about.

Ozz81 posted:
 * Any way he could just give you a brief idea of what it *might* have been, or where it came from? That would freak me the fuck out, but even some of the scariest things pique my curiosity.

I called him yesterday to check in, and I asked him this. He told me I "already know" what it was, and he didn't need to try to explain it more than that. I guess he's right, and in a way I do, since I've been with him when he's dealt with things like this before. It was an entity, or spirit, which was never a human. Apart from that it'd be very hard to categorize. People have tried to do so before, calling things like this demons, fairies, elves, goblins, etc. The problem is, we can't see them, and we can barely interact with them, and so we ascribe to them attributes which may be common only to a single one of them, or a few of them, and by those attributes we make up categories which may or may not exist. So the best I can really tell you is that it was not, and never was, human.

As for what he did with it, he wouldn't tell me. Said that it was gone, that was enough, and there was no reason I need to know. My guess? He's got it stuck in a jar or something somewhere, just in case someone pisses him off. He'll sneak to their house at night and set it free. ■

By Nuggan of SomethingAwful, April-May 2011