Please note this episode contains mention of suicide, depression, and contains explicit language. Listener discretion is advised. Candice is living an idyllic life with her wife and child until their world is shattered by the sudden death of a close family member. At the funeral, an evil spirit latches onto her and infiltrates her home and mind.
Please note this episode contains mention of suicide, depression, and contains explicit language. Listener discretion is advised.
Candice is living an idyllic life with her wife and child until their world is shattered by the sudden death of a close family member. At the funeral, an evil spirit latches onto her and infiltrates her home and mind. Driven to the point of madness, Candice must fight not just for herself but also for her family…. And it’s not going to be easy.
If you or someone you know is struggling with depression and/or suicidal thoughts, call the national suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visit https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
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Find episode transcript here: https://a-ghost-ruined-my-life-with-eli-roth.simplecast.com/episodes/dark-entity
Eli Roth [00:00:01] I'm Eli Roth in our pursuit of the most terrifying true ghost stories, we meet a lot of different people and hear a lot of different experiences. Each case redefines my idea of personal courage. Having something like this happen to you is really serious, and to be able to share it with others, it puts you in an extremely vulnerable position.
Candice [00:00:25] I need a minute.
Crew Member #1 [00:00:26] Take your time.
Candice [00:00:28] I'll be right back.
Candice [00:00:33] My anxiety and my PTSD from all this has been pretty intense. It's something that that stays. It's something that remains with you.
Eli Roth [00:00:45] That's Candice Weston. When we interviewed her, she had to step away from our crew and collect herself more than once. This is the first time she has ever told her story. When you're sitting across from someone who's been through what Candice, has you understand why. The whole thing is just too intense. She's been tormented by an evil presence for years. This is The Ghost Ruined My Life podcast. We've gone through hundreds of true paranormal accounts looking for the ones we found the most terrifying. We asked the actual people who had these experiences to tell us their story. We did dramatic recreations of the most horrifying moments. That's what you'll see in my TV series A Ghost Who Ruined My Life on Discovery Plus, and that's what you'll hear now in my podcast. This story is called Dark Entity. It all starts in 2018. Candace is living with her fiancé, Lucinda, and together they're raising their daughter, Ray-Ray, in a trendy downtown neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee.
Candice [00:01:50] Lucinda and Ray Ray. We were living together and we had a nice house. We had just gotten engaged. It was. It was awesome. It was awesome. I had a great job. We were both doing very well, she was a makeup artist. It was one of the best jobs that I ever had and I was very much a professional bartender in downtown Nashville, which was very lucrative, very lucrative. I made very good money.
Ray-Ray [00:02:21] Close your Eyes!.
Young Candice [00:02:22] Ok! Ten, Nine, eight seven. Three Two one. Ready or not here I come.
Eli Roth [00:02:29] Things are going great when suddenly.
Lucinda [00:02:38] Hello. What's wrong? Oh. When did they find him?
Young Candice [00:02:47] What happened?
Lucinda [00:02:49] My father died.
Young Candice [00:02:51] When? Oh.
Eli Roth [00:02:56] The sudden death of Lucinda's father shocks the whole family.
Candice [00:03:01] She even told me she goes, Something's wrong, something's not right, and he wasn't an old man like he was in his 50s, if I'm not mistaken, like early to mid 50s and it sucked. Seeing somebody that you love very much goes for the loss of a parent because I've never experienced it. Fortunately, my daughter, she never knew him, so she didn't really experience that loss. But Lucinda had a really hard time with it and not being able to fix that for somebody. How do you fix that, you can't fix that in trying your hardest, just to do anything, just to make them OK for the day? You can't take away someone's depression, you can't take away someone's loss, you can't you can't do that and you're living with them. I mean, it broke me, it was hard, it was really hard and I can't even imagine. I mean, if it was this hard for me, I can't even imagine what it was like for her. Like that it sucked. That's when things did start to get bad.
Eli Roth [00:04:22] The funeral is held three days later and Lucinda's family holds a wake at her father's house.
Lucinda [00:04:29] Thank you for coming. I know it was unexpected. I really appreciate it.
Eli Roth [00:04:35] Unfortunately, rumors swirl around his death.
Lucinda [00:04:38] So we know what actually happened.
Man [00:04:41] I have no idea what happened to the guy.
Woman [00:04:42] I heard he was having problems.
Man [00:04:43] He was angry all the time picking fights. You know, he acted out the entire medicine cabinet, right?
Candice [00:04:51] They thought maybe he had overdosed and that he had done this intentionally to himself.
Young Candice [00:04:57] Do you want to go?
Lucinda [00:04:59] Where's Ray-Ray?
Young Candice [00:05:00] I'll go find her OK Stay here.
Lucinda [00:05:03] Ok Thanks.
Eli Roth [00:05:08] For Candice, it's too much to process. So much has changed for her in such a short period of time, so understandably, she feels off. What's strange, though, is that night Candice feels a bizarre sensation. She feels like something has actually followed her home from her father in law's. But she shakes it off.
Young Candice [00:05:30] Hallie they want to sleep with you tonight. It's been a long day today, hasn't it? You know, it's OK to be sad right. Is there anything you want to talk about.
Ray-Ray [00:05:48] Where's mommy?
Young Candice [00:05:50] Mommy is not feeling very good. So she went to bed and you should be asleep too.
Young Candice [00:06:04] Goodnight. Love you.
Ray-Ray [00:06:05] Love you too. Can you not shut it all the way, please?
Young Candice [00:06:10] OK.
Eli Roth [00:06:12] But when Candice finally settles into bed, this sensation comes back as if something else is in the room with her, then she sees it.
Candice [00:06:27] As I'm laying down almost half asleep, I can see in the doorway. It's this black mass like it's this huge black mass that stands up to to the ceiling and I'm thinking, I'm just tired, I haven't really slept well in the last couple of days. It's 3:00 a.m. And so I'm laying there and I keep looking and it's one of those things where you keep opening your eyes. It was more of just a feeling of wanting to put the blanket over your head, wanting to put the covers over your head because you knew that something else was in your room that that wasn't supposed to be there. And I reached over to to grab my wife and shake her, and she would not wake up. She she wouldn't get up. And let me tell you this I have never been raised religious at all. I've gone to Bible study camp. You know, when I was a kid Methodist, but I for the first time in my life, I had a grown woman's age remembered the Lord's Prayer, and I was reciting it over and over and over again.
Eli Roth [00:07:32] The mysterious entity vanishes, but it isn't gone.
Young Candice [00:07:41] Lucinda?
Young Candice [00:07:54] What is it? Everything OK?
Ray-Ray [00:07:54] There was a monster!
Lucinda [00:07:56] It was just a dream, ok? Just a dream. What is it?
Candice [00:08:07] Ray-Ray, saw it, too. It's scary. It's frightening. It's frightening. This thing is roaming around my house, and not only am I capable of seeing this, but my daughter is seeing this and it's scaring her. That's the part that really disturbs me. She shouldn't have to deal with these things. Not not at that young of an age. I didn't deal with it. I didn't. I didn't realize what it was. I am my own biggest skeptic for the longest time. I wanted to believe that none of this really existed, that the paranormal is not a real thing. I didn't want to believe that people could actually be haunted. I'm telling myself, You're just tired. You're tired. This isn't really what's going on.
Eli Roth [00:09:09] Candice is trying to reasonably come to terms with the entity she saw. So it makes sense for her to blame the combination of exhaustion and depression for playing tricks on her mind,
Candice [00:09:19] the loss of Lucinda's dad. It was a lot. There were some days that Lucinda could not get out of bed. I was taking care Ray Ray. I did everything I possibly could to make life easier for our family.
Candice [00:09:34] You know what, I'm going to hide now, but we have to be really quiet, OK, because mommy's not feeling.
Ray-Ray [00:09:38] OK.
Lucinda [00:09:42] You're going to be late for work. It's about time you got ready.
Young Candice [00:09:46] It's about time you got your ass in bed.
Lucinda [00:09:49] What did you just say?
Young Candice [00:09:52] I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that.
Candice [00:09:57] I haven't really slept well in the last couple of days. I honestly thought I was just tired and didn't want to put too much merit into it, I guess. I was a professional bartender downtown. I wanted to open up my own bar and restaurant, but something I want to do it my way. And at the time that I wanted to do it, it would have been a perfect, pristine time to do it or even just move up into upper management with the company that I was working with because I'd been with them for 13 years.
Bartender [00:10:38] Here comes the rush..
Eli Roth [00:10:41] But whatever it is that might have followed Candace from the week to her home, whatever appeared to her and her daughter. It isn't interested in leaving her alone just yet.
Young Candice [00:11:01] I'm sorry, sorry.
[00:11:04] *Screaming* I'm getting unhinged at this point.
Lucinda [00:11:11] You're home early. How was work? Candice? Was everything OK? Anything wrong?
Young Candice [00:11:29] Just just leave me alone, OK?
Lucinda [00:11:33] I don't know what's gotten into you.
Young Candice [00:11:35] For the last time, lay off. I do everything around here while you sit around on your sad ass all day.
Lucinda [00:11:44] OK?
Young Candice [00:11:50] Let's just leave me alone, OK?
Lucinda [00:11:53] Whatever.
Young Candice [00:11:55] Shut Up!.
Candice [00:11:59] One of the pictures that I think her mother had given us came off the wall literally like flew off of the wall. This picture that's over here just breaks. It shatters. There's no reason why that picture should have came out that wall. Lucinda looked back at me and jaw dropped, like looking like the blood had drained out of her face. And so we stop. We stop arguing,
Ray-Ray [00:12:24] Mom?
Lucinda [00:12:24] Oh honey, you should be in bed.
Eli Roth [00:12:47] And with that, we'll be right back. Our story with Candice West started with everything going well, she was enjoying a nice, harmonious life with her wife and daughter, and then suddenly a dark entity enters Candace's life. There's no way of knowing what it was or where it actually came from. And it's not just terrorizing her, it's wreaking havoc on her entire family.
Candice [00:13:21] Something was really going on. Was was really happening in our household. It escalated. It got bigger, badder, stronger. I would see things out of the corner of my eye. I can feel the things still around us. I would be angry and not know why I was angry. I would switch on a dime. It got volatile. It got volatile.
Candice [00:13:53] I just feel like I do everything around here. You don't do anything all day. I feel like you're using me.
Lucinda [00:13:57] My father just died. OK?
Candice [00:14:00] She would tell me, You remind me so much of my dad like the things that I do and would do resembled his actions, and he was characteristics as well. It really started to bother her.
Lucinda [00:14:16] You're scaring me just like him. Just...
Young Candice [00:14:24] Come here, did your father ever say anything, anything weird?
Lucinda [00:14:32] What do you mean?
Young Candice [00:14:34] Like Something? Anything before he died?
Lucinda [00:14:39] He told me he was going to die, not that he was going to kill himself. I just I don't get it.
Young Candice [00:14:46] Ever since he died, I just feel like there's something in that house with us. I just feel like there's something else here. Do you feel it? Do you feel anything,.
Ray-Ray [00:14:57] Mom?
Lucinda [00:14:58] Oh, honey.
Young Candice [00:15:01] Lucinda, I just.
Lucinda [00:15:02] Shhh not now OK. Come with me, sweetheart, let's go
Eli Roth [00:15:08] At this point, there's no denying the odd behavior is more than just a coincidence. Candice starts to believe there may actually be a connection between the mysterious death of her father in law and what's happening to her now.
Candice [00:15:22] Some of the afflictions that he suffered from were also happening to me. Whatever attached to her father attached onto me and followed us after that.
Eli Roth [00:15:34] The next situation is disturbing and horrifying. There are many reasons why people are afraid of spiders. Some are extremely poisonous. Some are deadly to humans, but their shapes, hair, multiple legs. They look and move like nothing else. But studies have revealed that they are capable of highly complex and intelligent behavior. They're not evil. But what if they were being controlled by something that was?
Candice [00:16:02] It just manifested into this whole horribly, horribly bad just manifestation against the whole house? There was nothing good. And I was like, Oh my God, where are the spiders coming from? That's that's scary. I saw these cobwebs that came out of nowhere. We kept our house very pristine, very pristine and out of nowhere. There's spiders behind everything. They've just came out of nowhere. Out of absolutely nowhere. Every corner, every corridor and all of a sudden, these spiders are everywhere, everywhere. And it was something that. Was unexplainable. I could not wrap my brain around it. It still blows my mind, so completely blows my mind. The exterminator showed up. You got a serious problem here. He goes, Oh, those are brown recluse. Oh wow. He starts looking around the apartment. Yep, you got a major infestation with brown recluse. That can be a very dangerous thing. You know, if one would have gotten a hold of my child, I mean, it probably would have killed her. We decided to move. I'm getting my kid out of there. I just thought it was a way to escape.
Eli Roth [00:17:24] Candice believes that moving out of this house will finally give her and her family some peace.
Candice [00:17:31] We got a very, very big, big house that we moved into very shortly after Lucinda and I got married. Everything was good, everything was good. It was good for a long time and I thought that it was done. I thought that it was over.
Eli Roth [00:17:50] We all wish that was the case, but sadly, Candice is wrong.
Candice [00:17:58] It followed us. There's something sitting on the edge of my bed and you can see the silhouette because the light behind in the living room is obviously showing the silhouette of this, whatever it is. You can see where the head it kind of shaped up right at the molding that's at the top of the door. It never moved, staring me blank in the face. Obviously, there's no eyes looking at me. It's just a black, mass that's staring at me. When I saw it back in the house, it was heartbreaking for me. It was heart wrenching for me. It was scary and not just for me. It was scary for the fact that I didn't want this to come back upon A.) my kid and my wife again and start to affect us the way that it had before it was. It was devastating. This thing fed off of anger. It fed off of our negative emotions, this thing fed off of that, it got ugly, it got violent. It got really violent.
Ghost [00:19:06] *Creepy noises*.
Young Candice [00:19:11] No. please please.
Eli Roth [00:19:13] As the dark entity continues to torment her. She grows increasingly paranoid.
Young Candice [00:19:19] Oh Go. Go away. Go Away.
Eli Roth [00:19:27] And her wife grows increasingly concerned,
Candice [00:19:30] the vibe in our relationship and the House has completely changed. I couldn't even breathe. The animosity that that transpired in our home got extreme. Horribly bad. It affected our relationship horribly bad.
Young Candice [00:19:48] Shut up. I know what you think of me. I know what you think of me. I know that you hate me.And you're going to leave me I know that you're going to leave me. *yelling*
Candice [00:20:06] Such an anger like I'm going to kill. My rage is is scary. It's it's blinding even to me. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. Blackout rage. It's an immediate rage. Well, that was when the China that I did not want for a wedding came kind of flying out of the cabinet and broke the glass window.
Ray-Ray [00:20:38] Mommy, what's happening?
Candice [00:20:43] She witnessed it looking up and seeing your daughter standing in the doorway. I think she witnessed it. She got a piece of glass stuck in her foot. If I'm not mistaken, and it could have been way worse, she could have completely serrated her toes could have completely taken her foot off
Young Candice [00:21:05] we're just playing, Sweetheart.
Ray-Ray [00:21:07] You're lying to me. I don't like it when you lie. It makes me angry.
Eli Roth [00:21:18] The evil spirit now wants to take hold of her daughter, Candice, isn't going to let that happen.
Young Candice [00:21:24] Get out. Get out, get out, get out.
Lucinda [00:21:30] Come with me.
Candice [00:21:35] There were things that my daughter should not have experienced. It's too much, it was too much, it was too much, it was time for us to to not. No child should ever have to witness any of that. I don't know if I'm comfortable talking about this,
Male Crew Member [00:21:54] Alright so uhh...
Candice [00:21:55] I'm going to take a minute.
Female Crew Member [00:21:56] oh take your time.
Candice [00:21:57] sorry.
Eli Roth [00:22:01] We have an amazing crew on a ghost tour in my life. They're very professional. They're skilled in speaking with people about very sensitive matters. Remember, these stories are true, and the people who experience them are real people like you and me.
Female Crew Member [00:22:14] Take the time that you need Candice.
Candice [00:22:16] Sorry, I haven't really processed all this until just now, to be honest with you.
Male Crew Member [00:22:22] It's OK. And the good thing is when you're done, you know you'll feel better.
Candice [00:22:28] I definitely was not prepared for the influence that this was going to have upon myself and my family. I started to realize that the best way for me to try to keep my family safe was for us to split up. The House being empty was. I think I was kind of shut down. Things got so bad this thing was not going away. It would make me angry and it fed off of that. It was very much stronger at this point. It was scary. I lost my job. I quit because I couldn't. I could not be around that many people in that larger capacity anymore. Man, I started to drink, I thought I could sip it away. I could put down a gallon, of vodka a day. Easy. Not a problem. Most people should be doing that. Walk a mile in my shoes. You're going to look for any outlet to make it shut the fuck up. I need a minute. Sorry.
Eli Roth [00:23:57] Candace realizes that whatever drove and his father to his death is now coming for her,
Candice [00:24:04] the things that I do and would do resembled his actions. I found out before he passed. Her dad had had paranormal experiences when the entity had shown up. It was responsible for his death. It got very, very overwhelming. I was so tired at that point, so tired, I was so tired. I'm dealing with everything that I just couldn't do it anymore. I just I wanted everything to be done. I tried to kill myself. When I came to in the hospital, when I finally came out of it, I realized that that was not a place I wanted to be in. I literally had had enough. I had the all that I could stand. I can I can temper things happening to me. But when things start to happen to my family, that puts me over the line. And that was my breaking point. And that's when. I I had I had had enough. Very, very determined, and I decided to fight. At this point, I just instinctually knew that it was time to get this thing out of my house. I decided to fight. I went through every room, every room, room by room and said, you have to go. You have to go. It's time to go. I opened up every window in trying to make the entity leave. It's time for you to go. It was very strange. \.
Eli Roth [00:26:03] The entity refuses to leave. So Candice consults a medium to rid herself of the torment.
Candice [00:26:10] Well, she was very much an amateur. When I brought in an investigator that didn't necessarily know what she was doing. It stirred the pot and then and it, it just made situations worse. My sister told me that maybe it's time you should get out of here, like, let's just go. So within that week, we grabbed a U-Haul and we packed up all of my things and moved to Lafayette, Louisiana. It followed me. I was I was devastated. I didn't know how to fix anything and I was scared, like scared. It was really a why me situation? Why this right now?
Eli Roth [00:27:03] I find it very difficult when these stories don't somehow resolve themselves. This is one of them. To this day, Candice has no idea what this entity is, exactly or why it latched on to her. All she knows is that she must find the courage to fight it for the rest of her life.
Candice [00:27:20] I don't know if it was a succubus. It fed off of my negative emotions and anger this particular entity. It's not something that that is ever really going to go away. It's something that I have to live with and fight
Eli Roth [00:27:41] if this entity is feeding off Candice's despair, she decides to starve it from what it desires.
Candice [00:27:47] It's very much a research process. It actually gives me a better understanding of the things that are happening around me and helped to get this under control for the most part. I have worked very, very hard on myself for the last couple of years to not be angry and not let these things afflict me.
Eli Roth [00:28:12] Candice does have to battle this mysterious entity every day of her life. But for now, it's left her daughter alone, which is a huge relief.
Candice [00:28:22] Ray Ray's amazing. She's doing great. She's great, she's great. I'm very proud of her. I've gotten through this bad point in my life and and I have transpired and gone through this entity messed our world up. I firmly believe that it is the sole cause of why I'm not still married to that woman today. I try to take a negative, turn it into a positive and you're not going to succeed all the time, but some days you might be better than others.
Eli Roth [00:28:56] I have great admiration for people like Candice that have lived through unimaginable terror and are still able to find the good in the world. This demonic entity has ruined her sense of peace and destroyed her marriage. And yet she still wakes up and fights every morning for the sake of her daughter. If you or someone you know, is struggling with depression and or suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at one 1 800 273 8255 or visit Suicide Prevention Lifeline Dot Org. Learn how to help someone in crisis at be the 1 to dot com. That's B.E. T-H-E number one T O dot com. If you want to hear more real, terrifying stories like this, go to Discovery Plus and check out my TV series. Eli Roth presents a ghost in my life. Go to travel channel dot com slash, A Ghost Ruined My Life, that's where you can learn more about the podcast TV show and what we're up to. A Ghost During My Life with Eli Roth is produced by Cream Productions for Discovery Plus. For Discovery Plus, our executive producer is Marissa Lucy for Cream Productions our executive producers are Eli Roth, Johnny Kalangis, Kate Harrison and David Brady. See you on the other side.