A Haunting Tale
by Cookster on Jun.09, 2009, under Blog Shorts, Non-fiction, Stories
Strange occurrences at the places I live have become the norm in the last thirty years. I recently came across a book that I hadn’t seen in twenty-five years. It was one of those things I should have gotten rid of years ago, but yet here it was thrown in a forgotten box collecting layers of dust.
In September 1977, there was a book published called “The Amityville Horror.” I wanted to read this book, but with daily care of a young child, that seemed impossible so I passed on buying it. By 1981, my oldest son was two years old and I was pregnant with the second one. I found myself often tired and not wanting to get out of bed much, but it was around the holidays so I eventually needed to go shopping for Christmas items. It was now a couple of years since the book was published in paperback and it was no longer prevalent on the store shelves, so I had quite forgotten about it. As I was standing in line at the cash register, I caught a glimpse of the book on a bottom shelf and decided to buy it.
George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house in Amityville on December 23, 1975. This was close to the time I had actually bought the book…just a coincidence perhaps.
With my son playing quietly beside me in the bed, I was able to find some time to read. As I was making my way through the chapters, I thought about the unusual stuff that had happened to us in our own house. I kept thinking that if this Amityville story was true, then these people went through some weird experiences. One chapter talked about the house being plagued by flies despite the winter weather; another, about the Lutz’s five year old daughter who developed an imaginary friend, a demonic pig-like creature with glowing red eyes; and then, the priest who blessed the house would run a high fever whenever he would think about the house.
Naturally, these incidences made for an interesting story, but they didn’t really make an impression on me until the crisp December morning when I walked into my kitchen and found dozens of flies congregating on the inside patio doors. It freaked me out to say the least as I managed to swat to death the last fly, only to come back an hour later to more flies. A week or so later, my two year old told me he saw a pig looking in his bedroom window. I never talked about this book to my young son. By now, all I could think about were the strange demonic happenings in the Amityville house. I began to run a fever and got very sick with flu-like symptoms. This lasted about 24 hours and no one else in the house got sick. I wasn’t sure at this point whether I wanted to finish reading the book, but continued on.
One of the last lines of the book read, “On January 14, 1976 George and Kathy Lutz, with their three children and their dog Harry, left 112 Ocean Avenue leaving most of their possessions behind.” As I closed the book, I realized that the day’s date was January 14, 1982.
June 10th, 2009 on 12:10 am
Hello Cookster,
Weird story! I did not know about the dates syncing up!
Thank you for sharing this with us. Please continue writing about your experiences as I am sure you have had other events to tell about.
June 10th, 2009 on 7:14 am
David,
Everything I wrote about in this story is true. The book so creeped me out that I put it in a box not knowing whether to give it away or not (same with my Ouija board). I had so many strange things happen to me starting in that house. They kind of subsided after we moved, but started up again in the year 2000 at the new residence.
August 28th, 2009 on 9:06 am
Interesting to say the least! I too had a fly incident that happened to me years ago that I still can’t explain. In southern Missouri . . .flies are the harbinger of the evil. I’ll have to write that up so we can compare demon bugs. Glad you wrote about this and I hope you write more. Very thought provoking stories!!
D
Sarah
August 29th, 2009 on 8:21 am
This book creeped me out for such a long time that I just boxed it up and wouldn’t give it away. I was really afraid to give it to anyone.