What "The Conjuring" Conjured

So the following events actually happened to me. I wasn't sure where to share them so I decided to go with horror. It was pretty bizarre- and I would love for anybody who reads this to share their own bizarre stories in the comments.

I enjoy watching horror movies- not gory ones, ghost-y ones. It is a bit of a hobby. I am not sure I will be watching any alone anymore though.

The movie The Conjuring had come out on streaming video several years ago. My new roommates had not moved in yet, so I thought I would challenge myself to watch this thing after dark, alone. Now, I wasn't totally alone. I had a little beagle mix- the love of my life- there with me. I called her my "zen puppy" because she was so sweet and calm- and really did not get ruffled by much except loud noises like thunder and fireworks. I start watching this movie- I will not give away details- but I will say that I started the movie with the lights off relaxed in a recliner, then with the lights on sitting a little bit more upright, then through my fingers scrunched up in my chair like a bug.

When the movie ended I was a little on edge, but was thinking I need my big brother to watch this movie! If it scared me, I KNEW it would scare him! My big brother had been successfully scaring me for years- mostly jumping out of the dark from unexpected places. I think, because of that, he developed a low tolerance for scary things. As I was having these mischievous sibling thoughts, my "zen puppy" comes out from the corner of the room where she had been snuggled in her bed sound asleep, sits at my feet trembling staring fixedly at the bottom of the stairs. The hair absolutely stood up on the back of my neck. I turned to look at the bottom of the stairs... nothing there that I could see. I looked down at my pup: still staring and shaking like a leaf. I blocked her eyes with my hand to see if she was actually looking at something, or maybe just heard a scary sound, she moved her head around my hand to try to see behind. At this point, I'm seriously freaked out, but I still can't see anything! So I steel my nerves, walk to the bottom of the stairs and wave my hands around talking to my pup, "See? Nothing is there!" She promptly turned and went back to her corner- not sleeping- still staring and shaking. We did end up going up and going to sleep, but I piled things up against my door because I was pretty uncomfortable. I prayed pretty hard that night!

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Fast forward to Christmas that year. I was visiting with my brother and his family and told him he just HAD to watch this movie. When I visit, he and I usually stay up late chatting, and my sister-in-law teases us about our "deep talks." This particular night, we decided to watch the movie starting at about 11:30pm. (*I do need to give a tiny bit away about the movie for this next part to make sense* all of the scary things take place in the movie at 3:00 am- that is apparently the darkest most evil part of the night.) I could not WAIT to see my brother respond to all of the jump scares. He once watched What Lies Beneath and, somehow, his legs flew up and almost hit the wall behind him! It was slightly vindicating seeing him get scared after all of the times he absolutely terrorized me! However, my brother enjoys a drink or five. Therefore, every time something scary was about to happen, he would pause the movie and say, "OOOOH I wonder if (fill in the blank with a scary movie prediction) is about to happen?!?" He would go on for a few minutes, then go fix himself another drink. It really did not allow him to become fully immersed in the scariness of the movie, and I was a little bit irritated. He did this so much, that by the time we actually finished the movie it was right before 3:00am.

I said goodnight to him, and trudged up the stairs to the room where I was staying- totally bummed that he did not fully experience the movie as I had. The lights were off, I laid down in the bed, and right as I shut my eyes -no joke- the big screen TV in the corner of the room came on all staticky with that white noise sound. It was like I had blinked the TV on. I was pretty tired, so I figured my brother had some sort of thing rigged up where he was watching me and turned the TV on when he saw me shut my eyes. I realize this is a creepy thing to think, but my brother will go to extreme lengths to scare the stuffing out of somebody. I got up and just unplugged the TV- I did not feel like messing around or giving him the satisfaction of how unsettling that was. I would just tell him off the next morning.

In the morning, I confronted my brother. "Super funny trick with the TV last night," I remember saying. He was a little hungover and looked genuinely confused, "What are you talking about?" he said groggily. I proceeded to tell him what happened and, as I did, I could tell by his face that this was news to him. He swore up and down that he did not do that, and then he was trying to figure out if I was trying to scare him. At that moment, in perfect horror movie timing, my 2 year old nephew says: "Daddy, I see something." Both my brother and I stopped talking and looked at him-because that one statement, said in that little voice, at that moment, was bone chilling. My nephew was looking out the double doors from their kitchen to their patio. The patio had a pergola over it- you know, one of those lattice work coverings that roses grow over? Next to the pergola was a patio table with an umbrella. However, that umbrella was now stuck, upside-down, through the pergola, right outside the window of the room I was staying in. Directly outside of where the static TV was. My brother swallowed and said, "You sure do see something buddy..." to my nephew trying to make his voice light-hearted, and went to investigate. I believe his patio umbrella was broken, and there was just no physical way that thing could have blown and landed like that. My brother does not like when I bring up this incident- he was actually scared at that point that something was in his house that shouldn't be.

The THIRD time- yes I watched this movie a third time (you can't fix stupid)- I watched it with my roommate who also liked scary movies. As we were watching, the front door blew open. I might be a slow learner, but, apparently, 3rd time is the charm for me. At that point, I was like DONE! NOPE! NO MORE!

I will not be watching it again.

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Thank you for reading- this all actually happened as weird as it sounds. I would love to read some of your own crazy experiences! If you have written stories about your experiences, please link them in the comments.