- And that's when she saw it.
Hey, I'm Sapphire.
Wanna hear something scary?
(eerie music)
What if their were creatures that could
do your evil bidding for you?
This next story comes from Arwiesh,
whose older sister Jessie had the unfortunate honor
of encountering such a spirit.
One night, about seven years ago,
18-year-old Jessie was home alone,
and when one is alone, one tends to let their imagination
get the best of them.
So when lights started flickering,
and doors opened on their own,
Jessie didn't think too much of it.
It was probably all in her mind.
Then, some of her friends decided to pay her a visit.
Jessie did notice that the strange activity stopped
when they were there.
They stayed until about 10PM, and after they left,
Jessie decided to watch some TV.
The walls of her apartment were paper thin
and she could hear every word
that her fighting neighbors were exchanging.
Frustrated, she decided to get some fresh air
out on her balcony, but right as she was about to
place her hand on the doorknob, she heard a knock
coming from the other side of the door.
Writing that off as her imagination, she opened the door
and was immediately hit with a strong gust of wind.
She covered her eyes to protect them from the impact.
Then she could see, in the distance,
a pair of glowing red eyes.
(low piano chord)
At that moment, all the lights in the house shut off.
Jessie turned back inside the house,
closed and locked the balcony doors,
and stumbled her way in the darkness to her bedroom.
She could hear children's laughter echoing
throughout the halls. (creepy laughter)
She locked the doors and took cover underneath her blanket.
Once she had calmed down a bit, she slowly
pulled the blanket from her face,
and that's when she saw... it.
It looked like a small boy, with glowing red eyes.
It's mouth curled into a mischievous grin
when it saw that Jessie was looking at it.
She quickly pulled the covers back over her head
and heard an extremely high-pitched scream.
And Jessie's ears felt pain (screaming)
like she'd never felt before.
When Jessie woke up the next morning,
there was blood all over her covers,
all coming from her ears.
Terrified of the previous night's events,
she visited her grandmother and told her
everything that happened.
Luckily, her grandmother knew exactly what was going on.
"What you saw last night was a bakroe",
her grandmother said, as she continued to explain
the history of these spirits.
During the west Indies sugar trade in the mid-17th century,
they were mass sugar cane planations in Surinam,
a Dutch colony in South America,
where Jessie's grandmother grew up.
The plantation owners imported slaves
from Africa, Asia, and Indonesia.
The Indonesians were very spiritual,
as they believed that their faith would help them
get through these terrible times.
When a slave died, they performed a ceremony
so that the spirit could be put to rest.
But sometimes, the ritual couldn't be completed
and therefore the deceased soul
became a restless entity.
These are the bakroe, spirits that are roughly
half the size of a human child with enlarged heads.
They are half flesh and half wood
and cannot feel any pain.
They can be controlled by those practiced obeah,
an Afro-American religion similar to vodou or santeria.
These spell workers would use the bakroe
to cause harm to someone, and since the bakroe
have no will of their own, they carry out
their master's wishes fearlessly.
The bakroe will attempt to possess the body and mind
of the victim, consume their soul, and take their life.
If the victim is easily manipulated,
then the bakroe will have no trouble carrying out its task.
But if the victim is strong-willed, like Jessie,
then they can stop it from taking over.
Jessie believes that it was her ex-boyfriend
who sent the bakroe after her,
since he practiced obeah and was convinced
that she had cheated on him.
Because obeah is not a commonly practiced religion,
Jessie has had no luck in figuring out
how to completely get rid of the bakroe.
To be safe, Jessie's grandmother had a protection ritual
performed for her, and while that has prevented
the bakroe from possessing her, it hasn't stopped them
from trying.
Every now and then, she still hears
the high-pitched whispers, the childlike laughter.
Sometimes she catches one in the corner of her eye.
It's been seven years since she first encountered them
but strange things still happen to this day.
Recently, she saw what looked like a five year old boy
in a hoodie staring at her house.
It was raining pretty hard, so she went outside to see
if he needed help, but when she looked up, he was gone.
She went back inside and forgot about him
until hours later when she saw him again,
still wandering outside her house.
It was pretty late at night so she went back out
to talk to him, and immediately became nauseous
and ran back inside, where the lights
began flickering uncontrollably.
Maybe that was all a coincidence,
or maybe the bakroe is still after her.
So, what do you think of Jessie's experience.
Do you think it's possible for someone to
send an evil spirit after you?
And if so, would you ever use one?
And even though the bakroe failed to possess Jessie,
she now lives in constant fear that it will show up
and succeed.
So in that sense, hasn't the bakroe
already taken over her mind?
A very special thank you to Arwiesh from the Netherlands
for sharing your sister's story with me,
and I hope that she can get rid
of the bakroe one day.
If you or anyone you know have any unique
paranormal experiences, I'd love to hear it.
Send me a message on Instagram
and I might feature your story.
Like this video if it gave you the chills
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my links are in the description below.
Until next time, sweet dreams.