The Bell Witch: The Full Account by Pat Fitzhugh Read Free Book Online

repeatedly told her everything was
    going to be all right. “Your mother and I don’t have
    all the answers about why these things are
    happening, but I promise you in the name of the
    Lord God Almighty that your mother and I will
    always do everything we can not to let anything bad
    happen to you. We love you very much, Elizabeth.”
    He then knelt on the floor next to the bed, looked
    upward, and cried, “My God, why…why is our
    beloved and innocent daughter, Elizabeth, being
    subjected to such evil and painful torture? What has
    she done to deserve this? Even a horse thief does
    not deserve treatment as cruel and sinister as this,

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    F I T Z H U G H
    yet with my own eyes I see it being inflicted on an
    innocent child barely twelve years of age! Why, dear
    God, why?”
    Now much calmer, Elizabeth turned to her father
    and said, “Thank you, father; I love you and mother
    as much as life itself, and it deeply hurts me to know
    that you are suffering my pain; but God will see us
    through it, He always does.” She gave her father a
    kiss on the cheek, and he and her mother tucked her
    in and left the room. Less than a minute had
    elapsed when Elizabeth began screaming again.
    John and Lucy Bell rushed back to her room and
    found her holding her ears as tightly as she could
    with her now blood-soaked hands. “Oh God! What
    is it, Elizabeth? Who or what did this to you?” Bell
    inquired.
    “Father, did you not hear that!” “We didn’t hear a
    thing…what did you hear?” “A scream, a very loud
    scream in both my ears and the pain is unbearable!
    It was louder than anything I’ve ever heard before.
    Please, I beg of you, stay in here with me for the rest
    of the night. I’m very scared.” Lucy Bell crawled
    under the covers and spent the rest of the night with
    Elizabeth. The next morning, Elizabeth’s face was
    covered with welts and bruises, and she could barely
    hear a thing. John Jr. and Drewry comforted and
    talked with her to help get the events of the previous
    night off her mind. After these most recent events, it
    became obvious to the Bells that they were not
    dealing with the Almighty, but a sinister entity with
    powers stronger than they could comprehend.
    After much thought and discussion, the Bells
    decided to see whether the mysterious entity
    possessed intelligence. Late one night they began
    asking questions that required numbers for answers,
    such as “How many miles to Port Royal?” The entity
    answered the question correctly by rapping on the

    THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT
    43
    wall seven times. When asked the question, “How
    many slaves do we own?” the entity correctly rapped
    nine times on a bedpost. From this point on, the
    Bells considered the entity to be not only an evil
    being, but an intelligent being as well. From this
    point in time, they referred to the entity as, “The
    Spirit.”
    John Bell feared greatly the skepticism and
    scrutiny of the community and church that would
    befall him when others in the community learned of
    his family’s encounters with the “Spirit.” There was
    also the fear that if someone came and proved the
    encounters to be a hoax, the credibility of John Bell
    and his family would suffer irreparable damage. It
    was for those reasons that John Bell swore his family
    to complete secrecy in the matter of the “Spirit.” e
    Up to this point, the apparitions that had occurred
    were more mysterious than frightening; however, as
    time went on, mysticism gave way to all-out terror
    and fright.

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    F I T Z H U G H
    CHAPTER FOUR
    Terror Takes Over
    O NE MORNING, Elizabeth took her younger
    brothers, Richard and Joel, on a hike
    through the woods nearby. It was a
    beautiful spring morning with the sound of cheerful
    birds and ripples from the Red River filling the air
    with beautiful music. Enjoying every step of the way,
    they often stopped to smell the wildflowers or watch
    a deer or rabbit darting through the woods.