The last night before the jury deliberation brought forth only one thing. A terrible nightmare.

We were all sitting around the table, discussing aspects of the case, most notably the inconsistencies in the defense. It seemed like a relative slam dunk. The affected jurors seemed fine, and didn’t bring up the oddities that have been plaguing us. Then, something atop the drop ceiling scurried around. We all look up as black dust drops onto the table. There is a knock on the door. The bailiff opens it from the outside, and in walks Anthony Mineo, the lover of the late Jessica Willis.

He does a lap around the table as we sit silently. He then drops to his knees and chants something I can’t remember. The whole ceiling above the table falls, seemingly from the mountain of black dust resting on it. From the dust comes the form of the entity that has been plaguing us for the last week. It gets bigger than I could have imagined, and take one whole side of the table, both affected jurors and otherwise, and envelops them in his cape. When he retracts his arm, the revelation is gruesome. All the people that were covered by the cloak (or cape, whatever it was) are basically sitting piles of skin and organs, their bones seemingly removed.

The entity jumps off the table, and grabs the person who is trying to get the door open to run, but having no luck in opening it. It then balls up the woman like a piece of paper, blood getting everywhere, and tosses her to the side like nothing. The rest of the jurors, besides myself, suddenly spontaneously combust. They run around screaming, but no smoke is coming off them. Only more black dust falls where their skin should. The thing then jumps back on the table and crawls towards me (I’m sitting at the end of the table, in shock). It inches its way towards me, and I finally see its face. It’s exactly as Lisandra described. Pure evil. Hate. Rage. All the negative emotions wrapped into one horribly twisted face.

It lunges at me, and I wake up.

It was easily the most vivid nightmare I’ve ever had. I called Lisandra, who coincidentally had had the same dream at the same time (as we would soon find out, all of us affected did). All of this had something to do with Anthony Mineo. Myself and the rest of the affected jurors met at a 24 hour diner near the courthouse shortly after (it was about 4am), and talked until court that day. It turns out, Trinette had forgone her outwardly displayed sanity and asked the other jurors if they had attics, to which most responded yes. So we still don’t know why *we* were chosen instead of the rest of them.

It was time for court, and we walked into the courtroom, the 6 of us weary about what might potentially happen. Both sides made their closing arguments; the defense basically threw his away, and just begged us to find him not guilty. He looked so disheveled, surely someone in the building had asked him if he were hung over. His eyes were baggy, and I noticed black on his fingertips and palms. He looked worse than we did.

It was finally time for our deliberation. None of the affected jurors sat at the end of the table. Of course, 6 of us held out, while the other 6 immediately said guilty. Then began the long explanation of what had been happening to us, and why this weird lady was inquiring about all of their houses attic space. They looked at us like we were crazy, rightfully so. We sat in the room for hours, trying to convince them that something else was going on, and to look past the obvious pitfalls in the defense. We said that whatever this was was affecting the defense attorney too.

It came time to go outside and tell the judge that we hadn’t yet reached a conclusion. We all walked out, and I saw the defense attorney open his briefcase. When we delivered the news that we hadn’t yet agreed on a verdict, the defense attorney took a revolver out of his briefcase and handed it to John Willis, who promptly put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The defense attorney followed suit, killing himself as well. There was an unmistakably inhuman shriek that followed. We barely had time to react before we were taken out of the courtroom and placed back in the deliberation room.

We were there for what seemed like hours, but was in reality only a few minutes. We were recused from our jury duty, and informed that police would arrive soon to get our statements, which they did. Everyone told what they saw and we were released. I returned to my hotel room, hoping the ordeal was all over. Boy, was I wrong.

I opened the door to the room, and it was covered, I mean absolutely *covered*, from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, with black dust. Naturally, I went in the room and investigated. …just kidding. I ran out of there like I stole something. Doing what I should have done immediately after being released, I regrouped with Marcus, another of the affected jurors, and we decided to see what was up with Anthony Mineo, since he had appeared in all of our dreams.

He lived just outside town on a small farmland property, and as soon as we got there, neither of us felt welcome. There were strange things hanging from his trees, sticks that made weird shapes, hay bales in certain patterns that I can’t rightfully describe. We walked up to his door and knocked. He opened his door, revealing himself to be dressed in a hooded robe, with black makeup painted on his face in different shapes and patterns. Before we even got a chance to say anything, he spoke.

“He lives above, and he takes below.”

Hello to you too, Mr. Mineo. We asked him what has been happening to us and why, what happened to John’s family, and why John and his attorney killed themselves. Surprisingly, he answered our questions relatively straightforwardly.

What happened to John and his family

Anthony became fed up after his two year affair with John’s wife. Years earlier, he had lived in New Orleans and became a practitioner of Hoodoo (you all called it). He decided to get rid of John by using a certain spell to conjure an entity that would kill him. Only the plan backfired. The entity became infatuated with John, and wanted nothing more than to consume him and make him his own. Apparently, John refused to give in to the entity, and as punishment, it killed his wife and sister.

Why we have been affected and not other jurors

According to Anthony, this entity feeds on belief. It’s relatively simple actually. The more someone believes in and fears the entity (which does indeed have a name, I just can’t for the life of me pronounce it, let alone spell it), the more powerful it becomes. It wears down people’s faculties, drives them nearly insane, then takes their mind and soul back to hell with him, where they apparently live as his eternal slaves. The reason we were affected is because it saw victims in us. We were near enough to John that it observed us and knew it could take us. The reason the other jurors weren’t affected, was simply that they don’t believe in the paranormal or supernatural.

I thought I didn’t believe in this stuff, but apparently I do. Apparently I do enough to the point that I’ve been giving this thing power. It can be many places at once, and it always takes up shelter in the areas above someone. If someone didn’t have an attic, he’d stay in the rafters underneath the roof of the home. If you lived in an apartment complex underneath someone else, it would stay hidden in the upper units area, leaving no trace besides a trail of black dust.

Simply put, the more you give in to it, the more powerful it becomes.

Why John and his attorney committed suicide

Anthony’s answer for this was pretty straightforward. They killed themselves because they realized they would never stop being taunted by this entity, and took the only way out they knew. Makes pretty good sense if you ask me.

What we can do

Of course, we asked Anthony how we could end this curse. He gave us a list of instructions and some different spices, salts, and plants with directions on how to use them.  Kindly enough, he gave us enough to distribute to the rest of the jurors, all while apologizing to us profusely, saying he never meant for anyone else to get hurt because of this. He said we must follow his instructions to the letter, or we would lose the battle and be taken down to hell with the entity. No pressure.

We left Anthony’s and regaled the information and distributed the items amongst them, and all went our separate ways.

Getting rid of the entity once and for all

I followed Anthony’s instructions as closely as I possibly could. First, I had to go back home and put the salts and spices around the entrances/exits to my house (doors, windows, etc.). Not to keep the entity out, but to keep him in, because he’s already here. He apparently preys on you when you’re tired, and according to Anthony, can only take someone to hell at precisely 10:28pm (don’t ask me, I’m not the magic entity bringer upper).

Then, I took a bunch of the herbs Anthony gave me and crushed them up as best I could. I put them in a circle in my living room. I then took a bunch of the black dust I’ve been finding everywhere, from a bag of it Anthony gave me, and covered the crushed up herbs in an effort to disguise it. The reasoning for this is that when the entity travels back to hell, it does so through a portal made from its dust. I would agree to join him in hell, and when he would enter the “portal”, he would be trapped within the circle of herbs, which he cannot cross back from (Anthony explained that he can willingly cross into them, but not out).

Then I waited until 10:20. At that time, I began calling out for the entity, saying I’d given up, and wished to join him in hell. It took until 10:24 for me to hear the attic stairs fall down, and then to hear the entity slide his way down the hall. It reached my living room and stood up in front of me, and I’m not going to lie, I peed my pants a little bit. I’d never gotten a look at this thing from the front before.

It’s body underneath the cloak was hard and scaly, a dark green color to it’s cracking skin. I’ve already described its face. It stood nearly 7 feet tall, having to duck under the bannister into my living room.

I again stated I’d given up and wished to join into hell, if he would only lead the way. It walked up to me, and I stood my ground. It loomed over me, as intimidating as something could ever possibly be, and breathed down hot, putrid breath upon me. I nearly vomited when I inhaled it. Black dust fell from its shoulders onto me.

I claimed I constructed a portal for it, and again, that I wished to join it in hell for all eternity, if it would just lead the way. It stared at me for a few moments, then turned to the circle I’d made. It apprehensively went towards the circle, inspecting it, looking back at me to see what I was doing every few seconds. Eventually, it stood just outside the circle and presented an arm, welcoming me into the circle.

Thinking quickly, I replied *”I am your servant, I never walk before you.”* It stood for a moment, let out a scoff, and entered the circle. I quickly turned around and lifted up my couch cushion, retrieving the papers Anthony had given me with the things I needed to say to banish the thing from my home forever. And so, I did my best recitation of the following text:

”Ti o ba ti ẹmí deruba mi ni ibi yi, Ja Omi nipa Omi ati Ina nipa ina, banish ọkàn wọn sinu nothingness ki o si yọ wọn agbara titi ti o kẹhin kakiri Jẹ ki awọn wọnyi buburu eeyan sá Nipasẹ akoko ati aaye kun.”

Suddenly, I heard the same screech I’d heard in the courtroom earlier in the day, and the floor within the circle burst into flames. The entity then stared at me with its lack of eyes, and slowly dropped into the flames. Once it was completely submerged, the flame cut out, and all that was left was a pile of black dust.

Needless to say, I couldn’t believe it. Anthony told me that the spell only works in my home, so if I were to move, I would need to do a protection spell against it in my next residence, as I will now forever be a target of it. If that’s the case, I’m never moving. Pretty simple.

I called the others, but only got two responses (so far). Marcus and Lisandra both reported that their spells had gone identically to mine, and they both said they felt safer already. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the affected jurors, but I do hope they went the same way. I’ll update this post if and when I hear from or about them.

I don’t know if this was the resolution you were looking for, or hoping for, but it’s the resolution of what’s been happening to me. I don’t know if I feel safe yet, I guess time will tell. Thank you for all of your support and advice throughout this ordeal. I know myself and the rest of the jurors have benefitted from your kind words and tips through battling this thing that were just unfortunate enough to become haunted by.

I thank you all again, and please message me if you have any question. Be sure to check back in the next few days for updates on the remaining 3 jurors. Be well everyone.

• Nick