What you are about to read is absolutely true. Nothing has been exaggerated, and none of the names are changed. It involves an experience my girlfriend and I had over a six month period between 1988-89. I was going to make my story into a book, but never did. Notice that I did not use the Anon service. All I ask is for anyone who has encountered anything similar to Email me, and help me to see that these things are not so unusual. Also, please pardon any typos, bad grammar, or anything else wrong, as whenever I tell my story, my eyes water, I get a chill down my back, goosebumps appear, and my hands start to shake. I really hope you believe me, and not think I am crazy, or that I am writing this as a prank.

I am not. What you read will scare you, make you giggle, and maybe even shock, but it is all TRUE. Here goes...

My name is Bill Cassinelli. I met my girlfriend (now fiance) Stacey in Brentwood, Long Island in September, 1987. Almost a year later, we decided to live together. Finding an apartment On Vanderbuilt St in Central Islip, we thought we were in heaven. We were both 18 yrs old, and happy to move out of our parents' houses.

The apartment was really a basement converted into an apartment. To access where we lived, you open the door on the side of the house, go down a flight of stairs into where the laundry room is, cross the laundry room, and there's a panelled wood door. Once in that door was our kitchen. We had a small bedroom next to the boiler room, a bathroom across from the bedroom, and a wide open living room. I guess you would call it a studio apartment.

Strange things started happening the very first night we were there. Stacey was cooking dinner while I was in the shower. I was in the middle of shampooing my hair, when I heard a female voice (albeit kind of muffled) say just above a whisper, "Billy...". I peeked behind the shower curtain, thinking Stacey was talking to me. No one was there. I then called out to her loudy, asking what she wanted. She called back saying that she didn't say anything, and that it probably was me hearing things, with shampoo in my ears. I shrugged, went back to my shower deeds, and was finished rinsing my hair, ready to put conditioner in, when again, I heard it, but a bit louder. It seemed to come from the hallway right outside the bathroom. Stacey came running in, shaking, saying that this time, she heard it too. Needless to say, I didn't condition my hair that night.

After dinner, I convinced us both that it was probably the landlady Liz, upstairs talking to someone else, and that her voice was carried through a vent or something. Around 11 pm, we went into the bedroom to "christen" our bedroom, and our first night living together. Afterwards, I picked up a book and began reading. Stacey was playing a game on my Commodore 64 in the living room. Around 1 am, I noticed that the light was gradually dimming in the bedroom. Finally, it got so dark that I couldn't read, and in less than a minute, was completely off. I got up and looked at the switch. It was one of those round knob switches you have to turn to make brighter or dimmer. I yurned it up, and all was fine. I told Stacey what happened, and she said that maybe it was an electrical problem. That night, after she was sleeping, I was still reading, and fell asleep with the book on my chest (which I still do). I awoke to find her still asleep, but the light off again. I never turned it off, and asked her when she woke, and she said no. The light turned itself off again while I was asleep.

Subsequently, every night at around 1 am, our bedroom light would just turn itself off, gradually dimming until off. We'd joke about it, and show the little 'trick' to friends, pointing out that no other room does it. One day, taking my friend Ken's advice, I turned the switch all the way on, and put a pencil mark on it, all the way to the right. We got a flashlight ready, and waited for 1 am to come. The lights dimmed and went out, and Ken turned on the flashlight, shining it at the switch. Sure enough, the little pencil mark that I made on the 5 O'clock position was now at 7 O'clock...

We started telling everyone we were friends with about the voice and the light. Telling my friend Frank, he suggested we try using a Ouija board in the house. I was very sceptic at the time, thinking that it was all bullshit, that either the people using it move the planchette on purpose, or through involuntary hand movement. Boy, was I wrong.

Frank and his girlfriend Dawn stopped by with the board, and they both proceeded to use it on our kitchen floor. They asked if there were any spirits occupying my house. It started to move at first, a little shaky, and picked up. It went to 'Yes.' Frank asked the spirit's name. It spelled out 'Dawn.' Frank looked at his girlfriend, whose name is Dawn, and asked if it was referring to her. It said no, and kept saying Dawn. She got a bit scared, and me, being Mr. Skeptic, had to try it for myself, looking for the slightest hint of Frank moving the piece. Dawn moved away as I took over. I asked if the spirit's name was Dawn, and got a yes reply. I made Frank look away as answers were being spelled, to insure that he wasn't pushing it. I asked for "Dawn's" last name, and got "Lom". "Dawn Lom?" I asked? Is that an Oriental name? It went to yes, and spelled Vietnamese. I then asked a bunch of questions, like "Are you responsible for the lights turning off in the bedroom?" Yes. "Why?" Attention.

Well, what it boiled down to was that this Dawn Lom person said that she liked me, and was jealous of Stacey. This made Stacey very uncomfortable, and she put her hand on the planchette as Frank, hand tired, moved away. As soon as Stacey touched it, I could feel the piece almost come alive with energy, and when asked a question, it moved at a very fast speed. I know for a fact that she wasn't moving it on her own. She had a frightened look in her face, and she was very anxious to see what every letter would spell out. I know I wasn't moving it purposely either, and that's all the proof I needed to know that this stupid piece of plastic and wood actually worked!

Dawn basically was saying that although she liked me, she had no animosity towards Stacey at all, and wished us both happiness. I then did a stupid thing, and asked her to show herself more often, to give me concrete proof that she existed. She said that she would show herself on Friday at midnight, and to look for a sign of her in the TV screen. It got very late, and Frank had to go. He told me to keep the board, that I'd get more out of it than he would. I was overjoyed.

Friday came around, and we bought candles, shut off all the lights like she told us to, and looked at the still-glowing TV screen. Midnight came, but nothing happened. We shrugged it off.

The following week, I was still using the Ouija board as much as I possibly could. We met different personalities (not all bad/not all good), and every now and then, Dawn would talk. By now, Stacey really hated the board, as I didn't want to do anything else but use it all the time. I lost weight, missed days of work, didn't sleep right, etc. This one particular night, however, Stacey reluctantly was using it with me (she kept complaining about how tired she was, that she wanted to go to bed) at around 2:30 am in the living room. Suddenly, the planchette started freaking out, going all over the place, and suddenly spelling out BITCH and WHORE over and over. We looked at each other nervously...Then the doorbell rang. I asked Dawn if she knew who was at the door, and it went to Yes, and went back to BITCH/WHORE. I said "Oh, yeah, then who?" It spelled back: CINDY. We looked at each other one more time before I got up and answered the door, sure enough finding Cindy, a 33 yr old neighbor from down the block. I first said that I knew it was her, and then asked what she was doing up at 2:30 am. She said that she had gotten off of work, knew I'd be awake, and asked if I wanted to have some beer. I said yes, and told her about the board on the way downstairs. She said she never used a Ouija before, as she was afraid, and thought they were evil. After constant begging, she agreed to it, and Stacey was relieved. We told Dawn that Cindy was going to get on, and the planchette went ballistic. BITCHWHORE over and over, until I said I'd never use the board again. Dawn agreed to let Cindy on. Stacey went to sleep, and I proceeded to tell Cindy about Dawn Lom, and about how she says she was a Vietnamese woman brought over to America, and was later murdered by her husband. I asked Dawn why she hated Cindy, and in what seemed to be an eternity, paused. Finally, one word was spelled out slowly: JACK. Cindy's face went sheet-white, her jaw opened, and she let go of the planchette like it was a burning hot coal. I asked what was wrong, as Jack meant nothing to me. Cindy told me that there's a guy on the bus she takes to work that bothers her to go out with him, that he's very persistant, and also a Vietnam vet, and his name is Jack. I finally told Cindy to put her hands on the board again, as we were told that you have to make them say goodbye, or else they can stay with you (dunno if it's true or not, but we didn't take any chances). Dawn called Cindy a Bitch a few more times, but finally gave in and said goodbye. Cindy told me that from that moment on, she'd have nothing to do with that guy.

Ever since I first used the Ouija, I'd come home from work or anywhere, and enter the house saying: "Hi, Dawn.. We're home!" Stacey would get annoyed every time. I thought it was cool, having our very own ghost. I'd try to communicate with the Ouija when I was alone all the time, but to no avail. It just wouldn't work with one person. Lots of times, we'd get a personality pretending to be one we were familiar with, but we could see though it. Each "spirit" had its own style, its own personna. We'd ask who they really were, and they'd finally tell us someone else. After asking why they lied, they'd say because they were lonely. One particular friendly one was named Sal. He told us that the Ouija could only contact people in "hell". He said that hell was really a sort of underworld very much like earth, and that they eat, sleep, and do other things very much like us. He said that when you die, you are are your own judge, deciding where you go. Once, Stacey and I brought our board to my mother's house for my sister's birthday party, and were using it in my old bedroom with Stacey and a couple of other party guests. My mother peeked her head in and asked what time we were going to leave. I told her that we were goona probably stay till about midnight, as we both had to work the next day. We contacted Sal, and were conversing. We told Sal to tell us when it was midnight, as we had to go. He said he would, and we were asking questions. A few hours later, in mid sentance, Sal went to the numbers 1, then 2. We said, "Oh, it's midnight already?" It went to Yes. Just then, my mother walked in, and said "I thought you were leaving at 12! It's now one in the morning." We all looked at each other.

We asked Sal if there is a problem, and he said that there must be a time difference (does this mean that Hell is in the Central Time Zone? Would explain Chicago ).

One day, while Stacey was at work, my best friend Ken came over. We were using the board, and got Dawn. I got an idea, and promptly asked her if she knows the future. She said, yes. I asked if she was lying (there's supposed to be a rule (among many) that they have to tell the truth when asked if they are telling it). She said no. I then asked for that night's pick three lottery numbers. She was very reluctant, but finally, 078 were spelled out. I very excitedly asked Ken if he manipulated that, he very seriously told me no, and I hurried with him to a local convenience store where I bought $50 in tickets. Ken, realizing that if I were spending that much money on it, that I couldn't possibly have been moving the pointer, bought the same. We picked up a bottle of champagne on the way home, and I waited for Stacey to come home from work to tell her the news. I called up a bunch of my friends, told them what happened, and that this should prove that this Ouija stuff isn't a bunch of bullshit. As the lottery drawing was coming on, I had the bottle all ready to be opened as she called my winning numbers. The first number came up as I popped the cork, to see 4...9...1. I was PISSED!

My friends all had a good laugh at my expense, I got a yelling-at from Stacey, and I felt three inches tall. I quickly got the board out and demanded for Dawn to get on. She did, and after I asked how she could do something like that, she said that it was against the 'rules'. She's not allowed to do those kind of things. I was sad, everyone went home, and Dawn said goodbye. Two days later, I'm at the same convenience store buying cigarettes, and on that day's winning 3 numbers, I see... 078. ARRGH!

Once, I got a young boy on the board. Trouble was, he didn't speak much English. His name was Miguel, and when asked how he died, replied only with "Bam". Well, since neither Stacey nor I spoke any Spanish, we decided to call my friend Carlos over to translate. He did, and as he watched, he said that the boy was afriad of something in my closet. A chill came over me. Was the thing that was calling itself Dawn Lom something that hid in my bedroom closet? We went over to my bedroom and opened the closet door. We suddenly laughed as we saw what it was he was so afraid of. It was a black-light velvet poster of a hooded and robed glow in the dark skeleton holding an axe.

The strange goings-on in the house didn't cease either. Once, As Stacey and I were watching television, I became a little frisky. I started fondeling her breast. A little while later, I heard something that caught my attention. Directly above us, where the ceiling meets the wall at a corner, I heard a distinctive scratching sound. Quite like a sound a mouse would make, burrowing a hole through the wall.

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