Chapter Text
“Right now, we’re on our way to house widely considered to be infested with a demon that tortured a young family. We’re going to the Sallie House.” Eddie looked dramatically into the camera as he did the intro.
“This is one of the stupidest ideas you’ve ever had, Eddie. That or letting Bev hold the camera.” Out of frame a hand smacked Bill on the head, playfully.
“Kids! No fighting in my goddam car.” Mike called from the front seat.
“Can you all shut up and let me do the intro?”
As Eddie did the intro Ben’s camera zoomed in on Stan, who was sitting in the passenger seat with his head in his hands.
A few hours later, the losers club arrived at the Sallie House. As they got out of the car, Eddie felt a chill up his spine.
“Everyone thinks, feeling energy is bullshit, but… you don’t feel strange at all?” Eddie turned towards Richie. “Not even a little bit?”
“I mean, I had some bad Chipotle on the car ride over but other than that, no.”
Stan pulled out his phone and leaned towards the address number. “Ohh shit waddup, I’m taking a selfie with some demons yooo. Hell yeah!”
When Bev just stared at Stan, he shrugged and said: “For Snapchat, I guess.”
“Can we go in now?” Ben said from behind the camera.
“Yeah, I just need to work myself up.” Bill said, pausing at the door way.
“You’re walking into a house, Denbrough. Not running a marathon.” Bev said as she pushed Bill out of the way and opened the door.
“Bill, where are you going?” Mike called from the doorway as Bill ran back to the car.
“I’ve gotta get my holy water!”
“Jesus Christ.” Stan muttered, when Bill returned holding a bottle of Dasani water.
“I got it blessed from an actual priest.” Bill bragged.
Stan laughed.
“Laugh all you want. But I’m not giving you any later on.”
“I don’t want any.”
“Guys! Let’s go!” Ben was impatient, and just wanted to get this over with.
Richie looked around the house. “Damn, this place is nice. Do you know how much this would cost in LA? An arm and a leg.”
“It’s infested with demons, Richie.”
“So?”
“Why did I even come with you guys? I should’ve stayed on my fucking farm.”
“Don’t worry, Mike. It’s gonna be great, Eddie’s gonna get possessed by a demon and we’re gonna get famous on YouTube.”
“Beep beep, Richie.”
“If Eddie gets possessed, I’m using my holy water.” Bill said, grasping his holy water like a lifeline as Stan rolled his eyes.
“Guys, can I just tell you the story behind behind this place?”
“Of course, Eddie. Enlighten us with your spooky story.”
Located at 508 North 2nd Street in Atchison, Kansas, The Sallie House is the ultimate haunted house and widely considered to be on of the most haunted places in America. Built between 1867 and 1871, this house has had three deaths inside it’s walls: Michael Finney in 1872, William True in 1918, and Agnes True in 1939. But while the deaths have added to the ghostly inhabitants, the real evil comes from something much different.
At that moment, the doorbell rang.
“Oh, he’s here.” Eddie stood up and walked to the door.
“Who’s here?” Bev asked.
Eddie returned with a guy that looked barely older than the rest of the group.
“I contacted a paranormal investigator. Guys, this is Wendell Deaver.” Wendell waved to the group.
“Hi, I’m Richie and I think this is all bullshit.”
“I’m Stan and I second that.”
“I’m Bill, please ignore those idiots.”
“I’m Bev and that’s Ben and we’re just the camera people.”
“I’m Mike, and I’m the only one with a car big enough to hold everyone.”
“Wait a minute.” Richie said. “Mike go stand next to Wendell. Holy shit, you guys are twins.”
“I don’t see it.” Mike said as he looked at Wendell.
“Nah, me neither.”
“Can we get back to the investigation please?” Eddie whined.
“Yeah, I brought some stuff we can use to communicate with the demons.” Wendell said, showing the group a box full of things and smiling widely.
“I’m not communicating with shit. Not after I was voted most likely to get possessed.”
“I’ll do it.” Stan stepped forward.
“Before we talk to it though, can I finish the story?” Eddie said, trying to hold off on talking to a demon.
While multiple residents of the Sallie House have experienced paranormal activity, it wasn’t until the 1990’s when Debra and Tony Pickman moved in that the activity was fully realized. What follows is based on their first hand account of what start as a small haunting and later developed into a living nightmare.
Debra and Tony Pickman moved in on December 31st 1902. The haunting started small, lights would dim, their dog would bark incessantly at the entrance to the nursery, and their newborn baby would wake up every hour. The Pickman’s neighbor could see the nursery window from her house and eventually asked Debra why she kept the light on in the nursery all night long with the baby sleeping in there. This question came as a icey shock to Debra, who always turned the light off.
Things got especially weird on July 14th, 1993, when Debra, Tony, and her sister Karen found all of the baby’s stuffed animals organized in a neat circle, back to back in the middle of the room, on the floor. They figured it was one of them playing a practical joke, so they put the animals back, turned off the light and went downstairs. To their horror, when they returned, not only was the light on, but the bear was knocked off it’s chair and laying on it’s back on the ground.
After that, they cid what anyone would, packed up some stuff, took their baby and went to stay with Tony’s parents. While they were leaving the house, Tony felt a sharp sting in his back. When they lifted up his shirt, they discovered three long scratches. Tony would continue to get viciously scratched as time went on. The Pickmans eventually would turn to a psychic, who picked up on a presence named Sallie.
The group and Wendell made their way up to the nursery, where they placed a flashlight in the middle of the room.
“Sallie, if you’re here, or any spirit that’s here wants to communicate there’s a flashlight. If you can turn the flashlight on and let us know that you’re here, that’d be great.” Wendell said.
“Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.” Bill murmured under his breath.
“Guys!” Richie pointed to a stuffed animal sitting on the windowsill. “It’s a little monkey.”
“Christ, Richie you scared the shit outta me.” Bev said.
“Just wanted to show you the monkey.”
According to Debra Pickman, on the morning of October 31st 1993, Tony went to grab a glass of orange juice from the kitchen. When he turned around, he saw a little girl in early 1900’s clothing. Shortly after he sketched what he saw for Debra.
The group had moved from the nursery to the kitchen and set up the flashlight, once again.
“Please turn the light on for us.” Wendell said.
“Please don’t.” Eddie whispered.
“Demon?” Richie called.
“Stop calling it that.” Bill said.
“Demoonn?”
“Stop it! Stop talking to it!” Eddie snapped, fearfully.
“I just want to talk to the demons, Eds.”
“That’s not my name.”
“If you like these guys, please turn the light on.” Wendell invited.
Richie knelt by the flashlight. “You’re fucking crazy, Richie.” Eddie said as he backed away from the light.
“If you don’t like us turn it on.” Richie smiled.
At that moment, the flashlight snapped on and light filled the room. Eddie screamed and backed into a corner. Bill ran out of the room. Stan and Richie just laughed maniacally. Ben couldn’t keep the camera on Eddie who was screaming and running back and forth and Bev could barely hold the mic she was laughing so hard.
“What the fuck!” Bill cried from the other room.
“Oh shit.” Wendell said, also laughing.
“NOOOOOO!!” Eddie panicked as Richie tried his best to calm him down. “I think I’m having an asthma attack.” Eddie fiddled in his pockets looking for his inhaler.
Ben brough the camera over to Mike. “Mike, what do you think about that?”
“That was pretty spooky.” Mike deadpanned.
“Where’s my holy water?!” Bill said rushing back into the kitchen, frantically searching.
“I’ve got it.” Stan handed him back the bottle of Dasani.
“If you really don’t like us turn the light on.” Richie crouched by the flashlight again.
“Frankly, I don’t think they have the power to turn it back on.” Stan said.
Eddie looked distrustfully at the flashlight. The light once again snapped back on and sent Eddie and Bill into a panic. Bill uncapped his holy water and splashed a little bit on himself and then on Stan.
“Dude, you got it in my eye, what the hell?” Stan said, rubbing holy water out of his eye.
“I've gotta protect the things I love from the demon.” Stan rolled his eyes.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Eddie screamed at the flashlight.
“Keep in mind.” Mike said. “We have to stay the night here.”
Bill and Eddie’s faces fell as they remembered their promise. “Shit.”
“Please turn the light off for us, spirits.” Wendell called. The light of the flashlight dimmed, much to Eddie and Bill’s horror.
In what may be a curious coincidence, a former resident who lived in the house shortly after the Pickmas said “My daughter was 5 at the time. She had an imaginary friend, Sallie. I would scold her for something and she would come back and tell me ‘I didn’t do that, Sallie did it’ or ‘Sallie told me to do it’ When shown Tony Pickman’s drawing, 11 years after they moved out of the house, the daughter identified it as her imaginary friend from her childhood.
The Pickman’s also reported fires that would start on their own. In fact, two former residents before the Pickmans reported fires starting inexplicably in the room that would eventually become the Pickman’s nursery. The activity continued to escalate beyond fires, however. A lamp was thrown at Tony’s mother, Tony reported hearing scratching behind his bed, quote, ‘Almost like you had an animal digging to get out of the wall’, and, in one instance, Sallie appeared in the room and grabbed Tony’s wrists, burning dark red finger marks into his arm. At this point Tony believed ‘We’re dealing with something way beyond a little girl’ and begged to leave the house. Yet Debra, who at this point never witnessed anything alarming, didn’t share the same desire.
“Back in the 90’s people had video recorders, right?” Richie asked, interrupting Eddie’s story.
“I mean, some of the scratches happened on video, but-”
Stan groaned.
“That’s the things. People are always clamoring for evidence but then when they get it they’re just like ‘fake’.”
“Well, have you seen ghost adventures?” Stan pointed out.
“Don’t even talk to Bill about ghost adventures, he’ll go off.”
“Did someone say ghost adventures?!?” Bill called from the other room, where he was talking with Wendell.
“Christ on a cracker.” Stan murmed.
Things eventually went beyond physical terror, however. Here’s another quote from Tony: ‘It got to the point where I, when I was in the house, I could not think any happy thought. It was just strictly I want to hurt her [Debra]. I was a whole other person. That something could come inside me and make me capable of doing that.. It tears me up. As much as I hate to say it, I thought about slitting her throat.”
“Jesus Christ!” Ben cried, when he heard that.
Bill turned to Stan. “If you slit my throat tonight, I’m gonna have a hard time forgiving you for that.”
“Why am I the one you all think would go crazy?”
“Well, Stan. You’re already at a pretty high threat level to begin with so adding some demon would not be a very fun time.” Richie pointed out.
“Richie, I’m gonna kill yo- Oh wait, I see what you mean.”
“Richie if you died here, would you haunt me for the rest of my days?” Eddie asked.
“No, because ghosts aren’t real.”
“Oh.”
In 1994, the Pickmans finally moved out of the house. But at this point you’re probably wondering who’s Sallie? From what I could find, records show that a Sallie Isabel Hall did indeed live in the house in 1905, but she was actually a 34 year old black woman. While this may seem damning at first, the implications of this are quite horrifying. If there was in fact never a little girl named Sallie who lived, then who, or what, is this alleged spirit presenting itself as a little girl named Sallie? That question lead me to this piece of research. Sometimes, in human presences, demons will allegedly present themselves as humans who are physically flawed, or in some cases perhaps like this one, they may appear as children.
“That demons racist!” Mike said. “He was like, ‘oh there was a black lady who lived here? Nope, can’t haunt with that.’”
“Wai-” Eddie tried to say but he was cut off by Mike.
“‘What about a little white girl with with blonde hair and pigtails.’”
“Demons don’t-”
“Fuck that demon! He’s trying to whitewash the history of this house.”
“Demons don’t present themselves as adults. That’s what I was trying to say. They present themselves-”
“Ever?” Stan asked.
“No! It’s an entity that needs souls to feed on so it wouldn’t come out straight away with the horns. They come out with the little girl, it makes sense.”
“Whatever.” Mike said. “Demon’s racist, I don’t respect this demon.”
Stan high fived Mike. “Neither do I, fuck this demon.”
“Ditto on the demon fucking.” Richie nodded.
Eddie rolled his eyes. “Demons present themselves as little girls and it probably presented itself as the little girl Sallie before adult Sallie even moved in.”
But what really suggests the presence of a demon is something that occured in the basement well after the Pickmans left the house. A female tennant, her husband, and their children moved into the house and reported no paranormal activity. But on a surprise visit from landlord, Les Smith, he allegedly discovered something terrifying in the basement. A large pentagram on the floor, an alter, a large black kettle, and a black robe.
“A pointy hat, a broomstick, three newts.” Stan mocked.
“A lizard’s tongue, eyeballs.” Richie continued.
“That’s what he found, alright!” Eddie said, although he, too, was laughing.
Many believe that the female tennant was a devil worshipper performing sacrificial rituals. To this day, there’s a black mark on the floor of the basement where the pentagram once was. Consequently, many believe the demon lives in this basement, specifically, a hole in the back wall.
The group was in the basement, now.
“Over there.” Eddie pointed. “That’s the hole.”
Stan stuck his head in the hole and looked around.
“Hello?” Richie called playfully. “Anyone home?”
“Christ, Richie. Will you stop talking to the demon?” Eddie smacked Richie’s hand.
Again, Wendell set up the flashlight and invited the demon to turn it on.
Suddenly, a device started beeping. Eddie looked around frantically, thinking it was the demon.
“Oh, sorry.” Wendell said. “That’s me.”
“What did you just match on Tinder?” Bev joked.
“No, the room is giving off high EMF here because of this.” Wendell pointed to the backup generator in the basement. “It’s a false alarm. But the high amount of electricity feeds the spirit more.”
“Oh yay, let’s feed it more.” Bill deadpanned.
“If you wanna eat my heart! Turn on the flashlight!” Richie screamed.
“Richie! What! The! Fuck!” Eddie whisper-screamed.
“I think this demon’s a wimp!” Stan said when the flashlight remained off.
“They’ve lost their minds.” Eddie said to the camera.
“Wanna lay on the pentagram, Richie?” Wendell asked.
“Please don’t encourage him.” Bill said.
“Oh hell yes!” Richie lay down flat on the pentagram, with his arms in the air.
“Here we go! Rock and roll buckaroo! If you want to eat my heart, just turn that light on.”
“If you wanna eat Eddie’s heart, turn that light on!” Stan said.
“No! No! No!” Eddie yelled. “Don’t turn that light on! Stop roping me into your shit, Stan!”
“Ah yes, our old pal, Eddie Kaspbrak, we’re a package deal!” Richie joked.
Just then, the light snapped on.
“Oh look at that, Eds. The lights on.”
“Don’t call me that.” Eddie said trying his best to keep his cool, and failing miserably.
“Turn it off for us. For Eddie’s sake.” Wendell said.
The light snapped off.
“NOOOOO!!” Eddie screamed as he crumbled to the floor.
“Fuck this house, dude. Fuck this house so hard.” Eddie said as they made their way upstairs.
“And now, we get to spend the night here.” Mike reminded him and Bill just sighed in response.
The group bid Wendell goodbye as they began to set up their sleeping stuff.
“YOU GUYS!” Stan screamed from the kitchen. Everyone rushed to his side to see.
“Ezra Miller and Tom Hiddleston just met!” Stan squealed pointing to a photo on his laptop.
“Seriously, Stan? I thought you saw a ghost.” Eddie sighed.
“No, this is better than a ghost.” Mike said. “Is that Tokyo Comic Con?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s nothing.” Bev said. “Call me when we get the A4 trailer.”
“It’s supposed to be on Friday.” Stan shrugged.
The group returned to the living room and went to bed. Stan and Richie were some of the only ones who actually got any sleep. Bev was a little uncomfortable sleeping in a house that wasn’t her own. Ben was still scared after what happened in the kitchen. Mike could NOT get comfortable, not matter what he tried. Bill and Eddie were too panicked about ghosts to get any rest.
“Richie, I’m scooting closer to you, I don’t care.” Eddie said as he scooted right under Richie’s arm.
“Whatever spaghetti head.” Richie mumbled, half asleep.
“Stan, can I?” Bill asked, also wanting comfort in this hell house.
“Sure.” Stan replied, moving to make more space.
The group sat in silence, as most of them were sleeping, until Eddie stirred, waking up everyone (but Bill who wasn’t sleeping at all).
“I can’t. It’s not happening.” He said gathering his things.
“What are you saying, Eddie? Do you give up?” Mike asked, just wanting to go back to sleep.
“Yes, whatever. Just get me out of here.”
“Oh thank god!” Bill was relieved.
And so, the group packed up their stuff and, with Stan being carried by Mike (because he would NOT wake up) they left the house without a second glance.
In the end, it’s up for debate on what haunts the Sallie House.The Pickmans seemed to believe it’s a demon. And in my opinion, nothing I experienced suggested otherwise. But as always the answer will remain, unsolved.