The "Etch-A-Sketch"

This is a start of the story, I know its its not a finished product. But would like to know where to go from here, how,or where to make it longer, and sellable. On my word processor is says its 16 pages long.
My name is keith layton, I hope you will like what it is so far.





The Camp


The day was just starting to wind down, with the evening quickly creeping in on what was left of the day. It’s been a long day for all of us, and after we got here and settled in. It wasn’t very long before we all, got to setting up our own little spaces with-in the camp. After setting up my, and Maria’s space, I had decided to go on a short walk up to the ridge, here I would be able to watch the night come in.
It’s such a beautiful night up here; in fact it’s just about the best time of the year, to be here. Looking up at the evening sky, I was amazed at all the stars up there, I saw that the stars were as bright, and shinny as I have ever seen them, I even saw a few shooting stars, as well. I got to thinking to myself, with so many stars up there; I bet it would take a life time to count them all, as my mind was slowly winding down too. It didn’t take long for the cool of the night to sink in. I started to reflect about the days activities; we were all up about 6am, did all the packing for the trip, got the cars ready, making sure everybody had their things and were ready to roll. Lastly the long 3 hour car ride, just to get here, it made for a very long day indeed. I think the last 20 minutes of the ride were the worst, everybody seemed liked they tried of all the driving. Looking back at it now, I think we were all feeling a little cramped-up from the long drive. Being a truck driver though, I was use to long drives, so it didn’t bother me as much as the others. When we finally pulled into the camp, everybody was eager just to get out of the car, and stretch their legs, have a bite to eat, enjoy the evening’s camp fire, and then settle in for a good nights rest. Since getting here till now, we used what was left of the day light to set up the camp. Now it’s just some quite time for me.
I had took off my watch because I didn’t want to worry about the hour of the day, I just wanted to enjoy this much need vacation, so I didn’t know exactly what time it was. I knew it was getting late, though because it was 8pm when I took off my watch, and I figured it took about 30 minutes to unpack, and as I said, I was starting to feel the chill of the night. After being up here, watching the sun go down, I also knew it wouldn’t be long before everybody would be ready for a nice camp fire to warm-up that old camping spirit.
Now as I was standing by the ridge, looking over the valley, I heard someone walking up behind me, I could tell they were getting closer so, as I turned to see, who it was. I was happy to see that it was my Maria, my sweet Maria. We met on the internet, and have fell in love almost immediately, and now we are finally able to be together. Maria was from the Philippines and this was also her first trip to the states. So everything was new to her. Walking toward me, she said it’s so beautiful up here, and this camp seems to be almost prefect. As we both looked the across the valley, the moon was reflecting its glow across the lake. I reached for Maria’s hand and said, yeah, I know, I love this place. But the beauty here is only half as beautiful as your smile. I saw Maria starting to blush, so I kissed her as lovingly as I could. It was no mystery to my friends and family that I was falling head over heels in love with Maria.
However I was also starting to feel a little uneasy about being here in this place, because in spite of all the natural beauty that’s surrounded us. I know that this place also has a darker side to it. The vast beauty here is only a mask for the many secrets that lay hidden within the trees, and the land that surrounds us. Only a few people were ever in-trusted with any knowledge at all of this place, and I was one who learned only one of its secrets, I also know, that I do know of this mountain retreat, is only a tip of the iceberg for all the other mysteries hidden here. The darker side of this place that I do know, I would also be compelled to tell the others, if for no other reason, for their own safety, but for the moment I would just hold my tongue.
As we continued looking across the wide open valley, we watched the fog, as it was rolling in from a distance. The moon full and bright now, it was a truly a beautiful night, and a perfect night for a walk in the moonlight, as we started to walk hand in hand back to the camp, she softly said, “I love you“, and “being here with you is a dream come true“. She continued to add, “You know I don’t ever remember a night quite like this before. I have seen a lot of things in my life, but there is something magical about this place, I feel it inside, of me, though I don’t know just what it is yet. Whatever the case, I know something special is going happen here“. Maria, stopped in her tracks, to get my attention, and as she did we looked into each others eyes, and said “I am so happy to be here with you, your friends, and your family, they all have been real nice to me, I look forward to getting know your friends, and family better“. As Maria finished talking, she gave me the sweetest kiss I’ve ever known.
I knew she what meant, about being here, it is beautiful, and my friends and family were doing their best to befriend my new love. Being here with Maria, was really dream for me as well, I have been single for a long time. I have had several relationships, off and on in the past, but with Maria I just felt this love was going be better than any love in the past. My family saw it, and I saw that was falling more and more in love with her with every moment that passed.
Love wasn’t the only reason for coming here though, I wanted to find some answers here, and knew that my closest friends and family could help me understand, what I hoped to learn. I wondered however, if the others would understand why I choose this place, and forgive me when I tell them the other reason for this place, but for now all they know is that I choose this place simply because of its beauty.
Still I wonder if everybody would still feel the same about this place, and still think it’s beautiful and wonderful, when they learn one of the secrets I have to tell them of this place, but I would wait till I could tell everybody at the same time. Beside it would make for a good story around the campfire, and they will all know the darker side of this place, the secret I have to tell them. For the moment though, I would just let them just bask in all of the vast beauty, and wonderment of this place.
It took only about 5 minutes to walk back to the camp, but the walk in the moonlight, with Maria; could have lasted all night for all I cared. By the time we got back, to the camp we saw that everybody had their things put away already, and starting socializing with each other. If I were guessing at the time now I would say it was close to 10 pm. Terresa and her husband Don already had the camp fire going, were working the flames, roasting the hot dogs and marsh-mellows for everyone, Kalvin and Brain was passing out the beer, and tossing back about as much as they were giving out. The dogs were begging as usual for any leftovers, if you dropped any food you were automatically the dog’s new best friend.
Kalvin and Brain are two of my best friends, I guess, I have known them for about 5 years or more. When ever I was ready to drink and have fun they were there my constant companions, if we weren’t telling dirty jokes, we were trading magical secrets with each other, I guess .…..I should say that Kalvin and I traded the secrets , Brain was our audience. We always had fun together, yet we never got too personally involved with how we lived our personal lives. Terresa, (my sister), and her husband have been together longer than just anybody else I ever known. I didn’t always get along with my sister, while we were growing up, however I did learn to love her, and appreciate having her as my sister, we’re now closer, than we ever were while we were growing up. All and all it was perfect night, perfect company, and a perfect sitting for what I was had to tell them.
So with everybody sitting around the fire, Maria asked me if I had something on my mind, yeah Keith, Terresa echoed, “You have been real quite, and haven’t said much since we got here“. I struggled for the best way to say what I wanted to say, searching desperately for the best words to use. I feared that I might scare them to much. Then I figured I would just come right on out and say it. However it was more complicated just spitting it out. There are a lot of different things to consider, that makes this whole story so interesting.
So giving my best effort, I said… for the last 3 years I have been driving truck, I have seen a lot of things, and done a lot of things in my past. So might say I have always been running from one thing to another. If I wasn’t running away from home to join the Army, then I was running off to live somewhere else. I guess it was easier to pack up and start all over, then to deal with the stresses I had in my life. Well ……you also know where I use to work before becoming a truck driver, remember that Psych Hospital ran by the state where I use to work, well what you don’t know is why I finally left there. I guess, you could say I just needed a change of environment, a chance to find myself again.
The truth is that after my five years of working there, I have met some pretty interesting people, some were killers, some were hearing voices in their head, or seeing things that weren’t there, some were into witchcraft, while other’s believed the Devil, and his demons possessed them, some had drug induced psychosis, and some of them were just down right just as crazy as they were scary. Most of the patient’s I met, I believed were good people on the inside; but they just didn’t know how to deal with their psychosis.
Another truth is I believe some of the staff was just as crazy as or crazier than the patient’s on the ward. I used to tell the patient’s, “that the only difference between the staff and patients was”, “the patent’s got better, and the staff just keeps coming back“. Any ways, as you might guess, it would be easy to get involved in a patients life, even to the point that it could change how you live your own life. It might change how you think about certain things, and even question your own reality. Dealing with these patients it could also change your idea of what is truth and what is false. After my 5 years there I needed a break, I needed to find myself again.
One story I will tell you is the absolute truth, but I will have to give you a few facts first though, so that it will make more sense. First of all one of hospital’s I worked, we had patients come in right off the streets, doing this also meant we also had to deal with the fact that we didn’t always know everything they had in there system prior to their admission, sure we did all the blood and lab work, but often the lab results were known till after the fact. Often when the patents were admitted in hospital, they were often doped-up on what ever drugs were on the street. Now if a patent came into the hospital, and were out of control, hurting themselves or others, we had a duty get them under control for safety sake. One way of doing this was to give them a H.A.C. what that is, its 5mg of Haldol, 2mg of Ativan, and 2mg of Cogentin. Hence a H.A.C. is made. It’s important to know that this was a standard practice at the hospital, and it worked very well. Now Haldol is an anti-psychotic, Ativan is an anti-anxiety drug and Cogent, was used to counteract any side effects of the drugs given. I can’t say for sure that this is what happened to this patient I am going tell you about, but it might have been a factor, ok.
Well I had a weekend where I was off duty, and was schedule to return on Monday evening. But I did listen to the radio during my off time, and heard that we had a death at the hospital I worked at over the weekend. I didn’t think too much about it, as I knew that some our patients had died in the past, for one reason or another. Who’s to say how close one is to death, when they have come off the street doing what ever drugs they had in their system? Maybe they were out of control, on the ward, given a H.A.C. and the drug combo was too much, or maybe they were just minutes or hours away from death when they walked the door, or should I say carried in on a stretcher. So let’s just say the hospital did what they could, and it just wasn’t enough to save the patient for whatever the reason was.
Ok, this is where I come in, I showed up at work like I was suppose to do, about half way through my shift I had to do an admission of a new patient. After the interview was done I went to show the patient where she would be sleeping. Now this was when the spookiest thing to ever have happened to me, she the patient told me she couldn’t sleep there. I asked why? She said “somebody died there“! My jaw dropped, I was off for the weekend, and had no knowledge of what ward, or even the bed where the patient died over the weekend. Nor could this psych patient that I had just admitted to the ward know. I went into the office to ask about the patient that died over the weekend, the staff that worked over the weekend confirmed what this new patient just told me. It was one of the most bazaar, I ever experienced. Because as I said, I had no idea of what bed it was, nor could the new patient know, but she did. Its stuff like that, that makes you question your idea of reality.
Well as fate would have it, there is another story to tell. I did get involved with my patient‘s, what I mean is that I took the time to listen to them, I was concerned about their treatment, how they coped with their psychosis, the things they were hopeful for, and what they were afraid of. Now during my time working in the hospital, I must have met a hundreds of patient’s, from every walk of life. Weather they were young or old, weather they were educated, or not. The ones I found the most interesting were the ones who were involved in some kind of murder.
There was one patient who really stood out from the others, not just because he was involved in murder, but because his story is also probably the most bazaar story I ever heard, but it was also the probably the most believable, if you took the time to hear all of his story. For the sake of this story, and confidentiality, and for what I am going to tell you, I’ll just call this patient “Billy“. Now Billy wasn’t your average patient, Billy had schooling, and seemed pretty smart, on the surface, he had a good job at one time, doing some kind of Psychic work, some said he was the best, while others questioned his methods. After he did one of these psychic session he would become moody, and temperamental which did affected his ability to keep work, for very long. Nobody ever knew how he gained so much psychic insight though; after I tell you more about his story you might know the answer to that question. His family was very supportive to his needs, however what he did while he was in the family is what got him into my care at the hospital.
To fully understand Billy we have to go back, to when he was only 8 years old. At least that’s what his medical records indicate. So that’s where I will start, when Billy was 8 years old, his parents starting noticing some small changes in his behavior, at first it was his a choice in the colors, and style of his clothes that he wore, then it was some problems in school, it went on to property destruction, and eventually Billy would start hurting others, and even killed a family pet. Slowly but surely their little Billy was changing, what they didn’t know was why?
Well according to my conversation with Billy, he said he had some evil spirit making him do these things. When the evil spirit told him do something he would say, and do whatever he was told to do. His blind obedience to this evil spirit was rewarded, by giving Billy certain request that he wanted for himself, whenever Billy wanted some kind of revenge against somebody who he felt was out to hurt him for what ever reason, Billy got his revenge from the evil spirit.
His parents were worried and concerned, as you might imagine, so after talking with the family Doctor, they all decided that Billy just going through a phase, and maybe he just had an imaginary friend that help him cope with the changes in his life, and that he would someday grow out of it. Sadly that wasn’t the case; Billy did learn how to control some of the stuff that was happening with him. However Billy never fully understood what he was dealing with.
I asked Billy what the trigger was for him, what made him snap, and when he trusted me enough he confided in me his secret, and I am afraid that may have been the reason he is now gone. Throwing another log on the fire Don said, “Gone“! You mean as in dead? Yes that is exactly what I mean. “Ok, now you have to explain how disclosing a secret can make you dead“! Well Don, I will try to do my best, though I am afraid it might not make sense to you, or anybody else, after all I don’t know if I fully believe or understand it all either.
Kalvin spoke up, and said if you are going to tell me some wild ghost story, I better get another beer, Brain said, well get me one too. I thought, yeah another beer sounded good too, so I said to Kalvin, hey “Kalvin grab me one too“. After sipping down a little of my beer I said, you all know about an “Ojai Board”, right? Well if you don’t know, an “Ojai Board” is a spirit channeling board, with letters and numbers on it, and while the people are gathered around the board, and touching to oracle. The oracle would spell out messages to the sitters. Well, what I am going to tell you is about something like that. “Let’s see, hum, how many of you guys have ever played with an “Etch-A-Sketch”?
As I looked around at the others, I proceeded to say “Well Billy played with one too, but the one Billy had, been possessed, so he said“. After you hear his story, you can decide for yourself weather or not you believe it. I know it seems like pure fantasy, but weather it is or not, the important thing here, that we have to remember, is that Billy believed it to be true. Even in Voodoo in order to make the curse, or spell work the other person has to believe it to be true, which is the case here.
Now if the “Etch-A-Sketch” was possessed? Then possessed by what, and why? Billy didn’t learn all the answers but he did learn some the answers, and what he told me, I don’t really know what to think about it. But I figure that somewhere in Billy’s story there is some truth, a middle ground, where the answer lies. With that in mind, we also have to ask how Billy ever got this “Etch-A-Sketch” in the first place. How did he discover its secret? An even a better question is why did he hang on to it over the years?
I will try to do my best, in answering all of these questions, and maybe answer the other questions you might have. With another drink of my beer I said, you know that as kids are growing up they are very susceptible to all kinds of outside influences, and that also goes for the things of the spirit world too, good or bad. If you throw in a personal tragedy, you got makings for some very bad and interesting things to come. The personal tragedy for Billy was the loss of his grandpa, as he was very close to him. I found out that his grandpa died in a mining accident. The disaster killed 98 miners, and that only 2 miners survived.
It was very hard for Billy, to deal with the loss of his grandpa. His grandpa was his best friend; it was his grandpa that helped Billy gets through those tough times he had in school, and with his family. When ever Billy was sick, or afraid it was his grandpa that gave him the comfort he needed. Grandpa seemed to be the only person to believe in Billy, and knew that Billy had something very special about him. So losing his grandpa was the hardest thing this young boy ever had to deal with.
One day while at a church rummage sale of all places, he found an “Etch-A-Sketch”. Billy said it had a message on it, I don’t know what the message was, Billy never said, and I never asked. What is important is that what ever it said, it gave Billy some hope, and Billy knew he had to own this “Etch-A-Sketch”. That night just before his bedtime, he got the “Etch-A-Sketch”, and read the message on it once again. He went to bed thinking about his grandpa, and as he cried himself to sleep. When he woke the next day he found another message a new message on his “Etch-A-Sketch” This time he told me it said;

“I am ok………grandpa”


This was quite the surprise for our little Billy, but he still didn’t know what to make of it. The whole day all he could think about was his message that grandpa left him. That night just before Billy went to sleep again he thought of his grandpa, and once again, in the morning there was another message, from grandpa this time it said;

“I love you….grandpa”

Well as you might guess this “Etch-A-Sketch “, was becoming something very comforting, and very interesting to him. When he misplaced this “Etch-A-Sketch” he would get real upset and even violent. If he couldn’t find this new toy, his new message board, his “Etch-A-Sketch“, someone was going catch hell. With this “Etch-A-Sketch” he had a way to keep talking to his grandpa, on the other side. This gave him comfort and a sense of peace; however every time he used this “Etch-A-Sketch”, the spirit inside was gaining in strength, and influence. What Billy didn’t know at the time, was the spirit inside wasn’t his loving grandpa, it was a mean bitter spirit of an old hag of a nurse.
This Nurse that Billy came to know only as “Nurse Wendy” She was mean and nasty bitch in life and now she was even worst in the spirit world. Being trapped inside the “Etch-A-Sketch”, did however allowed her to continue to work her evil ways, just on a much smaller scale. This evil nurse did as much evil as she could, and getting to Billy, was fairly easy because of his loss of his grandpa.
Just as I finished saying that, the camp fire cracked and Brain fell off the log he was sitting on. Brain was without a doubt passed out again. I love brain as a friend, he has always been a good friend, but I can’t drink like he can, I’m sure he could out drink a fish. Kalvin and I helped Brain to his tent, so he could sleep it off. After getting Brain in his tent, Terresa and Don were picking up some of our messes around the camp. My sweet Maria was looking as if she was pretty tried as well, so I would just save the rest of the story, for another night.
Gathering our things together, for the long awaited good nights sleep, I could see that the others looking at me, with some wonderment, wondering how much was bull-shit, and how much truth was in the story I just told them. While the others were retiring to their tents, Kalvin and I sat up a little longer. We talked about our day today, talked about Brain passing out again, and a little bit of the story I just told. I think Kalvin was more skeptical to the story more than the others were. Though Kalvin wanted to know more, I told him, I would tell him, and the others tomorrow. Having said that, we just finished off our beers and turned in for the night.


Day 2

The next morning Maria was the first one up, and she had started to fix breakfast for everyone, the smell of her cooking was so good; it could wake a bear from its hibernation. It wasn’t long and everybody was awakening to her amazing cooking. Terresa joined in helping Maria with the morning meal. Don and I started gathering the wood to restart the fire that has burned out during the night, Kalvin and Brain started getting the things together for the day’s events. We had a couple of inflatable rafts available and had wanted to get to the lake, for swimming and fishing.
The crisp morning air was fresh and clean, the morning sun was already shining across the lake. While we were eating breakfast, Terresa said, she felt as if there was something very about this place but she couldn’t quite out her finger on what it is. Maria said “I felt like that yesterday“, without a doubt the ladies were starting feel the secret of this place. This didn’t surprise me though, I know that women can be more in-tuned with the things of the psychic and natural world more-so than the men are. I think the ladies were tuning into the secret, I would finish telling tonight.
As the morning was turning into the afternoon we all broke-off into our little groups to do our own thing. Brain and Kalvin, hike through some of the mountain trails, Terresa and Don spent a few hours in the boat, while Maria and I enjoyed some swimming. The lake was nice and warm; it is probably one of bluest lake I have ever seen. The lake itself also had a history to it, legends has it, that it has the ability to heal what ales you. I must admit that after a few hours of swimming in the lake my back pain was almost gone. It wasn’t long and before you knew it, the day would be coming to an end again. Soon it would be dinner time, and then the evening conversation would start up again. I hated the thought of the day ending, only because I loved swimming with Maria, and getting to know my future bride.
Even though we all broke up, and did our own things today. We all came back feeling a little bit different about things. As the evening conversation would expose, we were all feeling the same thing, a feeling of being watched, abut couldn’t make out if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
For Maria and me, I think we were both feeling closer than ever, yet we’re cautious not to get too excited, because we both have been hurt before. Kalvin and Brain when they came back, looked like were un-sure of about being here, Kalvin dismissed the idea to just being in a new place. Terresa and Don, I think finally enjoyed some time away from the kids. Don was the first one to comment on the fun he had today, but added he felt as if something was watching over him all day. As we all looked about to each other and it seemed that everybody was on the same wave length, with this feeling.
Brain and Kalvin had started working on the campfire, when the fire going pretty good, the dinner was soon to follow. Dinner tonight was my favorite, hot dogs, and Mac & cheese sadly though it was over almost as soon as it started.
To start the evening conversation I said “I said there was a reason why you all were feeling what you felt today, there is more I should tell you about the story, I told you about yesterday.” With that being said I had all their intention, focused on what I had to say, “Remember our friend Billy, well its time to tell you the rest of his story. So let me get a beer, and I will finish, if I can“. As I went over to grab the beer, I passed one to Kalvin and Brain, just then my sister said get me one too. So with beer in hand I took a drink, and started to tell them the rest of the story.
You remember that I told you yesterday, that Billy was gone, as in dead? What I didn’t say is how. It turns out sadly enough that Billy commented suicide, (Or should I say, it just looked that way), and it happened not to long ago. When I met Billy he already been in the hospital for a long time, he was a transfer from another unit, so I only knew him during his last year of his admission. Billy was committed to the hospital at about age 17. Now after losing his grandpa, to the time that he got this “Etch-A-Sketch”. Billy‘s life was a wreck. However since finding this “Etch-A-Sketch”, Billy seemed to be getting better. After he got this “Etch-A-Sketch”, till the time he was committed. He thought he had control of his life, and the “Etch-A-Sketch” in hand, with all its power, he thought he had everything needed. He thought he knew all there was to know about the “Etch-A-Sketch”. But he didn’t know, was that the spirit in side this new message board was gaining strength and power every time he used it.
While he was in school he learned that if asked the “Etch-A-Sketch” questions it would usually give an answer he needed. So it went from a thing of comfort for him, to a sense of power for him. He did better on the test’s he took in school, and even use it for something like a mind reading effect, to impress his friends. This made him kind-of popular with the others in school, and while some were impressed with his supposed talent, others were spooked, and shy away from him.
When ever Billy got angry the power of “Etch-A-Sketch” got even more powerful. It would give Billy special spells to hurt others that hurt him, all he had to do was speak the spell into existence Our little Billy was being sucked into the power of this “Etch-A-Sketch”, and the spirit was also getting stronger, and changing Billy into a very mean, and evil kid. He even went as far as to killing the family dog; the “Etch-A-Sketch” didn’t like the dog much. It turned out the dog sensed something very evil was inside, this “Etch-A-Sketch” and tried to destroy it. So things went from bad to worst with Billy, and he eventually ended up in hospital and there he remained for 5 yrs.
The last year of Billy’s stay in the hospital, was when I met him, as I have said earlier. During Billy’s stay in the hospital, he never had his “Etch-A-Sketch” with him. Though he asked for it repeatedly the doctor’s decided that it would just encourage his behavior in a bad way. As the years went by the power the “Etch-A-Sketch” went dormant for a while, and lost some of its grip it had on Billy. After a few years Billy started feeling better and functioning like a normal person again, it wasn’t long and Billy was able to enjoy being back in the world with others again. Doing his best to repress the influences that the “Etch-A-Sketch” has had on his behavior before, Billy would face the world again.
So we know now that how the “Etch-A-Sketch” got into Billy life in the first place, and how Billy used the “Etch-A-Sketch” to his advantage, and know something of the “Etch-A-Sketch‘s” power to do evil. Getting this information was hard, because you can imagine that after being involved as he was, he wasn’t too comfortable in stirring up these old memories. Before Billy was released, I spent a lot of time building up the trust enough so he would feel comfortable in telling me his story. He did eventually trust me enough to listen to his story, I guess he felt that he could better deal with his life when he gets released if there was someone who would just listen, and not question his sanity because of it. If you think about it his story is a bit on the crazy side of realty, and having someone to confide in could be very helpful.
So this is how I learned of his secret, and learned of this “Etch-A-Sketch“. We had a lot of conversations over his last year in the hospital, he told me that spirit, that was in his “Etch-A-Sketch” wasn’t his loving grandpa, but rather it was a evil nurse that possessed the “Etch-A-Sketch”. The nurse’s name was “Nurse Wendy”, she was a mean bitter bitch of a nurse in life, and even a worse in death. It turns out this nurse was also into some sort of Voodoo, and she was as mean and nasty as she could be to others, Nurse Wendy didn’t give a shit about any of the patients in her care. This nurse would over medicate the patients, neglect them, deny them food, and snacks. Nurse Wendy went out of her way to be as mean and nasty to even the staff that worked with her and anybody that crossed her path.
Well as it turned out one of the patients saw through Nurse Wendy’s pretend concern for the patents’ and hated Nurse Wendy enough to kill her, and one night after they had taken enough of her abuse, decided when she got close enough to Nurse Wendy they would attack and kill her. So one night while she was making her rounds, Nurse Wendy was attacked by seven patients; they whacked her up side the head, and then proceeded in beating her to death, with an “Etch-A-Sketch” In Nurse Wendy’s dying breathe she chanting some incantations. Take a guess what she was hanging too, when she spoke her incantations? You guessed it an “Etch-A-Sketch” the very same “Etch-A-Sketch that killed her. As she laid there bleeding to death, she spoke her incantation and the spell was cast, her body died there but her spirit now trapped inside the “Etch-A-Sketch”.
She laid there bleeding and slowly dying for some time, before anybody went to check on her. It turned out that she had pissed off enough of the other staff people, that nobody cared if she was gone for a while or not. Things actually were better when she wasn’t there, to stir up trouble, for everybody.
I had everybody looking at me and their undivided attention for the moment, Maria spoke up and said, yesterday you said “possessed by what“, we know now it was this very bad nurse, but we still don’t know why the “Etch-A-Sketch “was used for the spirit of this evil nurse, or how this has anything to do with Billy being dead now. Don chimed in, “tell us about his suicide“. Okay, okay, “I will get to that in a moment. Let’s get another round of beers, and I will continue.”
Lets go to the question of why, Why was the spirit inside this “Etch-A-Sketch”, I have done some research and I have learned in some forms of Voodoo the spirit can be transfer from one vessel to another, and this transferring of the spirit, can in-able the spirit to live again. The “Etch-A-Sketch” was Nurse Wendy’s vessel. Inside this toy she would be able to get some of her revenge with those patient‘s that attacked, and eventually killed her, and also get those who didn’t come to her rescue. When the staff did eventually come to check on Nurse Wendy, they also find some of the patient’s that attacked her. She was beaten so badly though, that she was already dead when the staff got there to see what had happened. What was strange to the other staff that found her was the fact that the “Etch-A-Sketch” was in her hand. According the best records of the event, the staff said something was written on the “Etch-A-Sketch”, but couldn’t make it out, because of the blood on the “Etch-A-Sketch” and every time the “Etch-A-Sketch” would move the words would fade away. There was also a pool of blood where she laid, and there was some writing in the blood as well, but when the message was starting to be read one of the patients involved in the murder of Nurse Wendy, went into some violent convulsions, and died beside Nurse Wendy, landing in her pool of blood, and smearing the message written with-in the blood.
My guess is that after Nurse Wendy’s evil spirit got inside the “Etch-A-Sketch”, she wrote some spell of death on it for the patient’s that attacked her, and when the message was read it, it started to kill just as fast as the message could be read. It seems that if the spirit, weather good or bad feels like it has some unfinished work to do, that it could continue to stick around till it feels that it completed its work.
So now we come to Billy, remember I said that kids are very susceptible to all kinds of outside influences, and with a personal tragedy tied in, very weird things can happen, Billy losing his grandpa was why, I think he was drawn into the spell of the “Etch-A-Sketch”, so easily. Billy was just what Nurse Wendy needed, to continue to wheel her evil works, Billy got taken in because of some comforting words written on the “Etch-A-Sketch“. This was also sadly the demise of Billy as well.
Together Billy and Nurse Wendy were able to work together, through this “Etch-A-Sketch”. Nurse Wendy did her dirty work through Billy. The spell would be written out on the “Etch-A-Sketch”, Billy would chant the spell out loud. The spell would then be cast, and others would suffer or even die as a result of this connection. Now as the years went by, it seemed liked the two of them were a perfect match, each one using the other for its dirty work. Billy told me that if he refused to do the bidding of Nurse Wendy she would cast a spell on him, or make someone he loved to suffer. The first time this became an issue for Billy, was when he told by Nurse Wendy to kill the family dog. It seems that animals have a sense for evil things like this, and the dog tried to destroy the “Etch-A-Sketch” as I said earlier. Nurse Wendy didn’t like the dog at all couldn’t have that dog around any more.
After reading the message on the “Etch-A-Sketch” Billy refused at first. Nurse Wendy went on to tell him it was going to be the dog, or his Mother. Billy had no doubt that nurse Wendy could kill his Mom just as easy as she did the patient that attacked, and killed her in the first place. Billy hating himself for what he was about to do, but went on to kill his dog with some rat poison, mixed in its food. Billy watched as his dog went into convulsions, and eventually died. Billy swore that he would never again play with the “Etch-A-Sketch” again, he tried to bury it but it some how showed up the next day, in his bedroom. With a curse on it so scary that he decided he better not take a chance trying to get rid of it again. So he held on to it through the years, avoiding as much contact as possible.
The killing of the family dog made him sick; he tried to cope with it through drugs. Billy’s life was taking a turn for the worse, he had already killed the family dog, doing drugs, and becoming addicted to some street drugs, and drinking to the point that he almost killed himself, on one of the binges he went on. That’s when Billy for the first time was admitted to the Hospital.
During his stay he went through several staff people who thought they had a grasp of how to deal with Billy, but they had no idea that the best way to help somebody is to just listen to them. Now As I said earlier I met Billy during his last year in the hospital. It took a while to earn his trust but I did eventually, that’s when he told me of this story, it was also the beginning to his recovery. He knew that working with me he would able to tell me anything, and together we worked out some ideas that he felt could work for him. What we decided was that he would have to get out of the hospital, try to cast the evil spirit that was Nurse Wendy out of the “Etch-A-Sketch“, and destroy the “Etch-A-Sketch. ”,once and for all.
The question now, was just how to that. We had read that in the Bible that Jesus once cast out some demons into some pigs that would eventually jump over the cliff to their death. So that was the plan. During Billy’s last few months in the hospital, he brushed up on as much Bible scripture as he could. Trying to build up his strength, and his ability to fight off the evil spirit, that is Nurse Wendy.
I did a little more research and found a couple of other points of interest here, I learned that there was a Nurse Wendy that was killed in the same hospital and unit where I met Billy. Hospital records also showed that the Nurse Wendy that died there was also beaten to death, which was carried out by several of the patients on the ward. So what Billy told me earlier was starting to make a little more sense, I just didn’t know how close to home this was. However while Billy was on the ward, he did report to me that he was often bothered by the same nightmare. I didn’t think too much of it then but now I do believe there was some kind of connection there.
Well as the story goes Billy did get out of the Hospital, and when he got home he found his “Etch-A-Sketch” on his dresser, right where he left it 5 years ago. So he said, now Billy wasn’t going to chance anything he saw the “Etch-A-Sketch” from corner of his eye, and tossed clothes on top of it so he wouldn’t be able read any message written on it. He then put it inside a suitcase, for safe keeping. I know this because after our long talks on the ward, we decided to keep in touch after his release.
This I know was against the hospital policies, however if people (the staff and former patients)ran into each other on the streets, there was little to be said of that, we as the staff member had to keep quite about their admission to the hospital. After all my time I spent working in the hospital, you would be surprised to learn just how many people on the street are former patients, of the Psych hospital.
Well moving along here, Billy and I did run into each other on the streets, and have keep in contact with each other up until about year ago. We just happened to be in the same little café just about a half mile outside of town. During this chance meeting with Billy he told what he had been up too, told me that the “Etch-A-Sketch was still there, right where he left it, and still trying to haunt him day by day.
Even though the “Etch-A-Sketch was tucked away in the suitcase that Billy put it in. Billy still felt the tugging on his spirit to bring it out again. Billy knew that if he gave it a chance he would lose what ever sanity he left, to the evil spirit that he came to know as Nurse Wendy, and worried that the evil Nurse Wendy would try to posses him, instead of the “Etch-A-Sketch” A little bit further into our talk he told me of his plan to exorcise Nurse Wendy from his life once and for all. It all sounded fantastic to me, at the time, I must admit. I did however listen intently to his plan. Though some of the details are little fuzzy to me, because although I had talked with Billy on many occasions in the hospital, I didn’t always understand all of what he said. Billy spoke of camp ground on some mountain that he and his grandpa use to go too about once a year. This mountain camp ground, also had a working mine on the north face of the mountain, where his grandpa worked and eventually died.
As Billy was describing his camping experience’s he had, it started to sound familiar to me, and as it turns out his camp site, was right here in this area some place. Maria gasps! “I knew there was something very odd about this place,” she said. Now I don’t know if its here right where we are now, but it is here in this area. Terresa spoke up, “what are you telling us“? Does that have to do anything to do with us being here now? It got real quite for the moment, and off in the distance we heard a wolf cry. Kalvin tossed another log on the fire said “this is getting good“! And as the fire cracked and popped again, Brain fell off his log, and was passed out again. Kalvin and I knew the drill, with Brian, so as we made our way to Brian, I told the rest of the campers not to worry, his grandpa died a long time ago. (I left out the other part about Billy’s last camping experience)
So as Kalvin and were putting Brian in his tent the others once again started cleaning up around the camp, and were ready for bed. So the rest of the story would have to wait another day, to be told. Perhaps the morning would be a good time to finish, Billy’s story. This time both Kalvin and I went to bed with everybody else, staying up would only delay the morning, and the things we wanted to do.
In the tent with my Maria, we made a little small talk between us, but mostly we just laid together in each others arms. It’s hard to describe just how wonderful it was, having Maria in my arms, but somehow it made all the other bad relationships seem all worth the pain, because it somehow brought us together now.
Once the morning sun was rising, it was again Maria’s great cooking that woke everybody up. After the morning stretch, and the usual bathroom runs in the morning. Don had insisted that I finish telling the story, of Billy, his “Etch-A-Sketch”, and the evil spirit now trapped inside the “Etch-A-Sketch” known only as Nurse Wendy that I started 2 days ago. So without any further ado, I recapped what was said last night about Billy and the camping trips with his grandpa, here in these mountains. I reminded them also, of Billy’s plan to exorcise that evil Nurse Wendy, from his life, once and for all. What I didn’t tell them last was that they last time anybody seen Billy was 6 weeks ago.
Having said that now, I had to tell them also that, Billy’s family stated to the police that Billy had been planning a quite trip in the mountains to help him find his peace again. Now after about 4 days has gone by, Billy’s family hadn’t heard from him so they called for the search and rescue team to look for him. The search and rescue people looked for Billy in places they thought would be the most oblivious, but as it turned out they found Billy’s dead body about half way down the cliff, that over looks the water below. They said it looked like a suicide attempt to them, but what they thought was unusual was the suitcase clutched in his hand. Now the suitcase and the stuff inside was scattered all over the cliff side. Billy was dead, and the place he did his camping was here on this mountain. I don’t think its right where we are, but there is only 1 lake around here, and the first night we were here I was looking over a ridge. So I feel it is real close to this area. Personal I don’t think he committed suicide, I think that he had planned to toss the suitcase over the edge, like when Jesus cast out those demons into the pigs, which then ran over the cliff to their death. In doing so I think what happened is he some how lost his footing and fell to his death.
You know its just like you to bring us up here with this macabre story, to try to scare us, Terresa said rather angrily to me. I told you his story was a little on the strange side, and I told you that you might not believe the story. Well I have heard enough Terresa said, and went off walking with her husband Don. Kalvin and Brian said I thought it was a good story, and went off hiking in another direction. About that same time, I felt maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Maria didn’t know what to think so she just looked at me. Not knowing if she should take me seriously or not.
With everybody hiking off to do their own thing, I decided to stick around the camp for a while. I had a little more breakfast, and ended up napping a bit longer. When I woke up I surprised to find two of my other best friends coming up for a surprise visit.
My friend Richard was more than just a friend, he was also like the father I never had, but always wanted, and Doug was the other good friend of mine, up for the surprise visit. Now what made Doug so special was he was first of all, just about the smartest man I ever knew, he was also like the big brother I never had. With Richard and Doug up here, I now had all my best and trusted friends up here. It wasn’t long and the rest of the campers returned, and was surprised to find the camping party just got bigger. We exchanged some small talk