This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/paranormalencounters by /u/haar1111 on 2025-09-28 23:01:33+00:00.

Note: Names of family members have been changed to protect their privacy. The events are described exactly as they happened to us.

Our First Months in Canada

We moved from the United States to Canada in 2018: my husband, my mother who has Alzheimer’s, my three sons — David was 23, Leo 12, Ethan 10 — me, and our four cats. We were living out of suitcases, renting Airbnbs week by week in East Gwillimbury, north of Toronto, while searching for a permanent home.

One of those rentals felt wrong from the moment we opened the door. As soon as I stepped into one of the bedrooms a chill ran straight through me. I tried to tell myself it was nothing. That evening the boys were playing PlayStation in the living room when a framed art print fell off the wall by itself. We put it back. Our family has always been aware of the paranormal, so strange little things don’t shock us. But this was only the beginning.

At two in the morning my husband and I told the kids good night and went to bed in the room where I had felt the cold. He sat down on the mattress and immediately started shivering. “Look at me,” he said. “I’m freezing.” Before I could answer, his voice changed — a deep, distorted, almost mechanical sound. I grabbed my phone and began praying a powerful prayer I knew. Whatever was inside my husband prayed back at me, but backwards.

I called my kids but at first they couldn’t hear me. I gathered all my strength and called again. This time David ran in and opened the door. My husband’s face was pale and his muscles were swollen, transformed. The cats clawed at my younger boys’ feet, pushing them into the room. David asked what he could do. “Pray and help me find the holy water,” I told him.

I was shaking like never in my life. Leo was jumping up and down in panic. Ethan started shouting at the thing, telling it to leave his father alone. I sent the kids to get my mother’s rosary. I tried everything that came to my mind. The holy water didn’t seem to do much. The rosary burned a little. The prayers weren’t working. I told Leo to do Reiki on his father but he was terrified to go near. My husband reached his hand out, as if calling him, but Leo stayed back.

Suddenly my husband said he felt better. He stood up and went into the hallway bathroom to splash water on his face. Then I saw his expression in the mirror and thought, “Oh no — the mirror.” I told the kids, “Get him out of there.” He grinned strangely. My boys pulled him out. We went outside the house. My husband said, “Please, let’s pray.” We all held hands and started praying. He shook and my oldest whispered, “Mom, that’s not Dad.” My husband laughed and said, “Do you really think you’re going to get me out with little prayers?”

We dragged the mattress from that room to the living room floor and made him lie down. I started doing Reiki and said, “¡Vayan todos por la luz!” — “All of you, go toward the Light.” My husband shook violently and levitated. My kids were so frightened I had to pull him back to the floor. He said he felt better after the Light prayer.

I called my father to ask him to pray for us but something kept interfering. I called my husband’s sister; she told me to take him to a hospital. The next morning my husband was outside smoking when I joined him. He said, “We were waiting for you.” I asked, “Who is we?” and he began to stutter. A putrid smell, like rotten fish, hung in the air.

We left the house that morning for another Airbnb, but the thing still followed. I could feel it coming, and when I did I would run to my husband’s side and tell him to be strong and fight it. Eventually we got a house and called the church for help. The priest was so terrified he said he would bless the house from outside but would not set foot in it. He asked many questions and told us they would call us to do an exorcism, but they never did.

In the end we got help from a couple I found on Reddit. They never charged us. After that we began to get better.

We never expected to go through something like this. It’s something you can’t tell just anyone — but it happened to us.