Devil in the Delta by Rich Newman Read Free Book Online Page B

phone call with Terri, I went over my notes from the conversation and gathered the gear that I would need for my trip into the delta. I packed the usual items for my investigations—digital camera with night vision, digital audio recorders, camcorder with night vision, etc.—but I knew that the most important tool for this trip would be my own experience and senses.
    Over the years, I have investigated numerous reputedly haunted places—hotels, museums, private residences, etc. And in my experience, there are significantly more places that pan out to be mistakenly thought of as haunted than places that actually are haunted.
    Because of this, I stay tuned for specific types of events and tend to pay special attention to the hot spots of a property that inhabitants point out. This is standard operating procedure, and it has saved me countless man-hours by not investigating the wrong places. Even though this was no standard case by any stretch of the imagination, I would take the same logistical approach to the investigation of the Martin property.
    Planning my trip and the gear I would take along for the investigation, I was most concerned with the reported possessions. According to Terri, the event was quite disturbing and everyone feared an additional outbreak of violence from Tim. I wondered if he was simply reacting to the proximity of a spirit with a bit of hysteria.
    In other words, what if a ghost was approaching him—perhaps even touching him as one investigator previously reported experiencing—and fearing the worst, he was going into a panic and beginning to flail about, thinking he was either going to be possessed or that he was in the process of being possessed? Certainly most people would be terrified.
    I felt it simply had to be this or—to be blunt—he was faking it for whatever reason: attention, insanity, or drug/alcohol influence. Either way, I planned to directly confront him regarding the situation. I would not have him upsetting my chances of performing a thorough and extensive investigation of the property. If he would be unable to control himself in this regard, he would simply have to leave the property for the duration of my visit (once I had finished interviewing him, of course).
    I was also disturbed by the fact that the two young girls of the household were often present for the nightmarish activity. Julie was in her early teens, but Katie was only ten years old. This is the kind of environment that can permanently scar the psyche of a young person, and I did not want either of the children to be present during my investigation of the trailer.
    Though removing the young girls could possibly risk taking the “battery” for the phenomena out of the equation (most paranormal investigators believe poltergeists happen in the households of young girls because spirits tap them for their prepubescent energy), I did not want to risk any harm to them mentally or physically.
    I had little to no time to fully research the specifics of the case, but I thought it best to at least brush up on the basics of demonic infestation and poltergeist activity before driving down to the home the following day. After all, it’s better to be prepared than caught off guard, right?
    Possession and Demonic Infestation
    I can still remember reading the books The Devil in Connecticut , The Haunted, and In a Dark Place when I was young. All three books were written by different authors, but they all featured cases that were investigated by the infamous husband and wife team of Ed and Lorraine Warren. But, more importantly, all three books scared me to death!
    Unlike most paranormal investigations of today, the Warrens’ cases seemed to almost always spin off into
the realm of the demonic. These stories were as frightening as they were entertaining—but when I read these books today, though, I’m amazed at how much of the reported activity in the cases falls under the simple heading