WHY? WHY DID YOU DO THIS!

(The following account is true; only the names have been changed)

When Brad was a child in early elementary school, he began to show signs that something was wrong, very wrong. One day his mother and older sister returned home to find the den in chaotic disarray, papers cut up and strewn on the floor, toys and other childish paraphernalia turned over, cluttering the floor.

Brad's mother told the child, "Clean it up." Brad stood up, looked her in the eye, and said, "No." She repeated her words. Brad stood stock still, ramrod straight and screamed, "No! No! You can't make me! I don't have to do what you say! I will not!" He didn't. It was one incident after another like that one which made his mother and sister not only frustrated but also fearful, even terrorized at times by his defiance.

But as Brad grew older, things calmed down. There were no more defiant episodes. Then in his teenage years, his family noticed a strange behavior going on in their darkened basement. Brad was down there, hour after hour. He had placed candles all over the place, would light them, and spend his time poring over his special books. When his mother and sister asked what they were, Brad was honest. They were books on the occult. To be specific, books of occult spells. Brad was spending hours and hours studying and memorizing them.

The years passed; Brad met a girl, her name was Lucy. They dated and after a while, Brad proposed marriage and she accepted. She recalled years later that the night before the ceremony, she had what she called a premonition that if she did marry Brad, she would regret it for the rest of her life. We'd say that it's common for many brides to be to have second thoughts just as they're about to make one of the biggest changes of their lives. The next day, Brad and Lucy became man and wife.

One day Lucy announced some good news; she told Brad that she had gotten a job and Brad was as happy as she was. It was then that he, with joy, told her, "I knew you'd get it; I cast a spell and you got it!"

Lucy, dumbfounded, asked, "You did what?" He said it again and she backed off a bit and told Brad that she didn't want to have anything to do with that and that he could have his beliefs and she would have hers, that never the twain shall meet. Brad passed it off, still happy about his success in casting a spell.

Brad began to act strangely--he became controlling, accusing Lucy of breaking her marriage vows when she'd done nothing of the kind. He wanted to isolate her from any and all friends. He became controlling of their three girls, the oldest of whom was now almost a teenager. They couldn't seem to do much that was right in his eyes.

But things were going normally for a while. One normal morning Lucy goes off to work; Brad has promised to take the little girls to school. Nothing unusual. Everything was fine and going well early that day. It was that day and that morning that it happened, something that changed their lives forever.

Lucy was at work when she got the call--her house was on fire. Brad had vanished. Her girls were in the hospital. Lucy rushed to the hospital and outside the room to which she was directed stood a policeman. She told him that she wanted to see her girls and asked, "How are they?"

The officer stands there silently. Lucy asks again. He tells her that he can't say, but that a doctor and a chaplain are on the way. Lucy collapses in his arms, overcome with dread and fear.

The doctor, the chaplain, and the police tell her the news: her little girls are dead, all three. They had been assaulted by their father, he had cut their throats and set the house on fire. They now have Brad in custody at the police station; he's confessed everything.

Lucy, in a rage, asks if she can see him immediately and they agree with one condition: she can see him, but she can't touch him. If she does, they will immediately remove her from the room.

They take her to the station and escort her into the place where they're holding Brad. She walks up to him, looks him in the eye, and asks, "Why? Why did you do this!"

Brad, head down, and sitting in a chair, answers with tears, "I don't know." Lucy, not accepting that answer, asks again, "Why" Why did you do this!" Again, putting his head in his hands he tells her that he doesn't know why he did it.

For the last time, she asks the same question and he finally answers her: "I cast the wrong spell!"

The occult. Those books. The spells. These things wreak of the demonic. The Bible tells us that there is a dark, evil side of the universe. Brad had made contact with it.