I posted before about my niece being scratched. The scratchings stopped for quite some time but now things are escalating.

She woke up about a month ago with three bruises on her leg that look like fingerprints. There were always three scratches, now there are three bruises.

The bruises are just starting to heal after a month. This is a healthy 17 year old who heals like lightning normally, so I am concerned about how slowly these bruises are healing.

The bruises weren't there when she went to sleep but were painful and sore when she woke up. They are very defined.

Everything started when she went on a tour of Waverley in Louisville. She thinks that something there may have attached itself to her. Since that visit she has been scratched, bruised and generally terrorized by noises like loud bangs and shadows that she says look like gargoyles. She has the distinct impression that she is not alone in her car. Last night she and her sister were watching TV when suddenly the fan pull flew up against the light and broke it. The fan was not on at the time. She often hears a loud bang like someone has thrown themselves against her bedroom door. Strange things like that are becoming a daily occurrence.

She is very upset about this and I am at my wit's end.

My question is this: what can we do about this? Other than being clawed by something at a B & B once, I have zero experience with anything physically harming me. This is completely new to me and I just don't know what to do to help her.

If anyone has any suggestions I would be very grateful. I have suggested that she smudge herself and her room and that she put a ring of salt around her bed. I have also suggested that she keep holy water in her room and sprinkle her bedroom before she goes to sleep. I honestly can't think of anything else other than going to a priest. She is embarrassed and doesn't want to do that, but says she will if we can't think of anything else.

This is really serious to me, so I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give us.

No offense, JJB, but I don't want to wait around to get proof of anything. If there's even a chance that this is paranormal, I want to start doing whatever we can to stop it. I don't want her to suffer a minute more than necessary. She's really afraid. Also, stuff is happening around her and her sisters when they are awake. It's not just the scratches and bruises – there's a lot of activity going on around her. There's more going on then I put in my post. I wanted to be as brief as possible and frankly the poltergeist type activity doesn't bother me. It's only the scratches and bruises that upset me.

Incidentally, the scratches have appeared while she's awake. She was blowdrying her sister's hair when she felt a burning sensation and noticed that three bloody scratches had appeared on her forearm.

Getting a check up by a doctor is a great idea, though. That needs to be done ASAP. She did get a cut after the bruises that has completely healed at a much faster rate than the bruises, but it's still worth checking out.

I don't know about the normal healing thing. When I got scratched, they were three bloody slashes across my collarbone, like I'd been slashed with a needle or scratched by a cat with three claws. They completely healed in a few hours. Not even a pink mark left. That actually freaked my husband out more than the scratches themselves. Watching them go from bleeding to gone in less than four hours was pretty freaky, almost like watching time lapse photography. I wouldn't have believed it was possible if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. My husband sure as heck wouldn't have believed any of it if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes. /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Thanks, Milo. I appreciate any and all prayers, positive energy, etc.

I'm not asking anyone to believe that this is happening. I just hope people will have some suggestions in case it is really happening.

After all, what can it hurt to do cleansings, etc. At least it might make her feel better and that's a good thing, IMO.

I really hope people have some good suggestions. PM me if you don't want to post publicly. I won't tell.

So I wonder – does your niece participate in seances, play with the Ouija board or other things like that? Sometimes when you go in too open to a haunted place and do not protect yourself, I think it is possible for attachments to occur. Has your niece tried just asking whatever is bothering her to leave her alone? It sounds simple, but ultimately she is in control of her person.

Another thought – perhaps she has awakening sensitivities that something at Waverly triggered? In that case, perhaps seeking assistance from a psychic mentor to help her gain better control may also help.

She swears that she has not messed with a ouija board and I believe her. She has a healthy respect for the paranormal and I really don't think that she would play around with it.

She has tried telling it to leave her alone, but she says that has only made things worse. She had lost confidence that she has the power to make it stop and was feeling completely helpless. That's one reason that I was so concerned for her.

I do believe that she's sensitive, much more so than I. I wish I knew someone who could be a psychic mentor to her, or better yet, help her to shut down her abilities since they are making her so miserable. What 17 year old wants to see apparitions, etc?

Everything harmful seems to have started when she went to Waverley, but she has been seeing things at her mother's house for several years, long before she went there. That house was really active. They've moved, but are still seeing some of the apparitions from that house both at their mom's new house and at my brother's, so apparently they can travel. It's not clear if it's one of these spirits that is harming my family or something that attached itself to her at Waverley. She genuinely believes that the scratches started with that visit.

I say harming my family because my dad is now waking up with terrible bruises and the first hour that I was there a glass flew out of the cabinet and hit my mom dead in the face, leaving a big bruise. A full glass of coke disappeared and reappeared soon after that. We all looked everywhere for that darn coke and then found it exactly where it was supposed to be, even though all of us had looked there for it first thing. Irritating, but harmless, unlike the glass throwing.

Things are definitely active there and the two incidents happened when none of my nieces were there, which makes me pretty sure that it's not caused by them.

I thought my family would laugh at me with my sage and holy water, but they all took it very seriously and were very solemn and respectful of the whole process. They each even read a prayer. Sometimes your family can surprise you.

I did the house cleansing and blessing and both my brother and dad said that they slept better that night than they have in ages. My brother liked the sage so much that he has decided to smudge his office and car. I've made a convert.

My niece says that things feel "normal" to her for the first time since she went to Waverley, so hopefully we managed to drive whatever was attached to her away. The house has been quiet with no further activity since we did the cleansing. Long may it last.

Thanks to all for listening and giving me advice and suggestions.