Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

In My Sister's Mind

When my older sister Christa was little, she started having nightmares...about three times a night. I was only about two at the time so I don't remember any of it. My sister was seven, at the time. She would wake up screaming frantically and unable to catch her breath; the looks on her face (as my mom described it) were terrifying. She was deathly pale and freezing cold, as if she was a corpse.

Christa would run to my parents' room and bang on the door and scream until they opened it. My mom didn't know how to help her, so she read books to try to figure out the problem. Again, the same thing happened the next night and my sister woke up screaming and crying and shaking with fear. My mom went to the bathroom and got a cup of water and splashed a bit on Christa's face to try and calm her down. But it just made Christa think that my mom was mad at her so she cried even more.

Sometimes, my mom would panic and couldn't think of a way to help her. So she would lock her bedroom door and have my sister screaming in the hallway all night.

After about a year of these episodes occurring every night, my parents took Christa in for therapy. The psychologist said that nothing was wrong but my parents knew that something was. They then took Christa to a doctor and had her brain waves examined. The doctors too could find nothing wrong.

One night, the most terrifying thing happened. No one heard Christa screaming, but my parents felt that something wasn't right. They ran to her bedroom and found her sitting on the floor in the corner of her room. Her legs were stretched out and her arms were lazily hanging at her sides. Her eyes were wide open and jet white. My mom rushed over and slapped her face to wake her from her trance. Christa blinked and said, "Ma, Satan is taunting me again."

Christa was scared to go to sleep. She always was. A few nights later after that one night, my mom was dimming the lights for her to go to sleep. "Ma?" Christa asked, "Are there any saints I can pray to to make him go away?" "St. John Vianni...." My mom said doubtfully. She hadn't lost hope in God at all, she just didn't want to let Christa down. So she then went and got holy water, holy oil, and blessed salt and blessed the room and my sister. Together they prayed to God and St. John Vianni. That night was the most miraculous night. My sister didn't wake up screaming...the devil couldn't enter the room.

To this day, if my sister doesn't bless her room, she has nightmares. One night when Christa was 16, she was too tired to bless the room. She had a dream about a giant spider that was trying to kill her and her friends. She woke up to a loud BOOM and her rabbit, Roxy, was running around frantically. Christa got up and blessed the room, and the next morning, she found a dead spider, unlike one that she had ever seen, under her pillow.

Even now my sister can't tell me the dreams she had and I'm 19. I thank God for saving my sister, and I thank St. John Vianni for wrestling the devil.