“Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Evie, Happy birthday to you!” Evangeline, or Evie for short, had just turned five years old. It was a special day for her! Her grandparents fly out every five years to celebrate with her since they live far away from each other. Evie was so excited, she couldn’t wait to open up her gifts. From her Grandma Ann and Grandpa Joe, she got a stuffed koala bear along with some t-shirts and a necklace that has a locket with their pictures in it. Evie’s parents got her a new D.S and they planned a birthday party at Sky Zone for Evie and her friends from school. Evie was so grateful for all her gifts, especially the koala. She had decided to name it Billy, after her brother who passed away from a long battle with brain cancer. 

Evie spent every day and night with her new koala. She couldn’t get enough of it but then out of nowhere, Evangeline started talking to her koala Billy, as if it were real. This had been going on for a while now, and Evie’s parents didn’t think too much of it. They just thought it was just a phase and it would eventually pass. Their late son Billy had done the same thing but instead, he had an imaginary friend named George. After a few weeks, on one random night, Evie woke up screaming! She bolted across the hall to her parent’s room to tell them she had a horrible nightmare. She said Billy was trying to tell her something but she couldn’t remember. Her parents looked at each other in disbelief. They didn’t know what to do or say, they were speechless. Evie was drenched in sweat so her mom told her to take off her pajamas and then she could put new ones on. When Evie took off her pajamas, her mom’s jaw had dropped to the floor. 

Evangeline had multiple scratches and bruises all across her back and stomach along with an imprint of the letter B etched into her thigh. Her mom Joann shrieked at the sight of

her daughter’s body. Joann then belted for her husband to come and look. As soon as he stepped into the room, he almost had a heart attack. They both had no clue what to do so they asked Evie, “What happened to you?! Are you alright?” Evie cried out “Why mommy, what’s wrong?” Then Evie looked down at her belly and asked her mom “What’s that? Why is it purple?” Joann didn’t know what to tell her. She grabbed Evie and started holding her, saying “It’s gonna be alright baby, we will figure this out.” It was now 2:38 in the morning so Evie’s parents told her that she could sleep with them for the rest of the night. 

When morning arrived Evie’s parents still had no idea what had happened just a few hours prior. They knew something was terribly wrong, even though they had thought nothing of it a few days back. Joann and Robert gave Evie some breakfast and then proceeded to ask her if she remembered anything at all of what happened. Evie said she couldn’t really remember, but she recalled that Billy had said something about an afterlife. Evie asked, “Mommy, Daddy what’s an afterlife?” Little does Evie know, Billy is going to do something so big, peace may never be restored. 

After a long day, Evie was so tired she had gone to bed. It was only 7 p.m. but she was so scared of falling asleep again that she had laid awake the previous night. About 20 minutes later, Evie had drifted off to sleep with her koala in hand. Evie had started to dream about seeing her grandparents again, it had only been about a month but she missed them so much. She wished she could be 10 now so she could see them again. In the middle of her dream, it quickly turned into a nightmare. Billy crept into Evie’s room, his spirit started to scratch her body. At first, he did it as if he was trying not to. Then Billy decided it was time to bring out the big guns.

 He bit her neck, scratched her body, and slapped her across the face. Billy knew he didn’t have long, he had to bring her to the afterlife if he wanted any chance at becoming alive again. He grabbed her by the neck and held her to the wall, hoping that would either suffocate or wake her. Neither of those worked. He threw her back into bed and snatched the pillow from underneath her. Billy took the pillow and held it tightly against her face. Evie quickly realized she couldn’t breathe and she woke up almost instantly. She tried to scream but nothing was audible. Evie kicked and fought hoping she could free herself from this nightmare. She was gasping for air, her tiny body couldn’t take much more of this. 

After 5 minutes of fighting, she slipped loose and ran to her parent’s room once again while she was screaming at the top of her lungs. It was so ear-piercing it woke her parents up within seconds. Joann jumped right out of her sleepy state. She tried calming Evie down but nothing worked. Evie was in so much shock and pain, her whole body went numb and her bright blue eyes were welled up with tears. Joann had no idea what just happened to her daughter, but she couldn’t get Evie to respond to any questions. 

Evie was almost hyperventilating, she was short of breath, sucking the air in and out so quickly that Joann couldn’t even tell if she was actually breathing. Robert had gone downstairs to get her a glass of water, hoping that would help calm her. Joann and Robert had no clue what they were going to next. They couldn’t figure out what was causing Evangeline to see and hear Billy. What they did know is that they had to do something to help their baby girl. Billy was appearing out of nowhere. Evie was paralyzed with fear and her parents couldn’t do anything about it. Their baby was in danger. An hour later Evie had finally started to relax so her parents suggested they go to sleep and figure out a plan in the morning.

While eating breakfast the next morning, Evie’s parents were trying to find a way to help. They bounced ideas back and forth, hoping that just one would be good enough. 25 minutes had gone by and not a single idea had made the list until Robert came up with this: Child Psychologist. They knew there were a bunch in the Los Angeles area, they just had to find the best one. Evie’s parents read the reviews on every single child psychologist in the area before they had decided on one, Dr. Chelsea Bennett. She was rated #1 child psychologist in the entire Los Angeles area. She only had one appointment open for the rest of the year. After booking the appointment for the next day, Evie and her parents went out for ice cream to distract everyone from last night’s events. Evie was relieved to have some kind of a normal day. When they got back home Evie laid on the couch and watched her favorite show, Spongebob Squarepants. She loves that show.

The next morning on the way to the appointment Evie was nervous. She’s never had to do anything like this before. Once they got to the appointment, Evie was taken back to a room right away. Dr. Bennett started by asking Evie what she saw at night when she was sleeping. She replied, “I saw a ghost, his name is Billy.” Dr. Bennett proceeded to ask Evie what things Billy does to her. Evie said “He scratches me and bites me and hits me. Last night he put a pillow over my face, he’s scary.” Dr. Bennett jotted all of this down in her notebook. Then she asked Evie if she had any stuffed animals. Evie said “Yes. I have a koala and a little piggy.” Dr. Bennett only asked this because a lot of her patients who have had paranormal experiences are linked to a stuffed animal or security item. The last question Dr. Bennett asked Evie was which stuffed animal she slept with more. Evie told her “My koala because it’s from my Grandma and Grandpa.” Chelsea knew that what Evie was experiencing was very, very real and something was very wrong.

When Evie’s appointment with Dr. Bennett was over, they went back out to the lobby where Mr. and Mrs. Wilder were waiting. Dr. Bennett told Evie’s parents that she was convinced the koala that Evie sleeps withholds the spirit of their deceased son. The Wilder’s were shocked. Dr. Bennett then said that the koala must be destroyed for Evie to be freed from these hauntings. Evie yelled back “NO! That’s mine!” Dr. Bennett persisted that this was the only way that Evie would stop being attacked at night. The Wilder’s finally agreed to have the stuffed koala destroyed. Later that day the koala was shredded into a million pieces and burned to a crisp. They could literally hear the spirit’s blood-curdling screech as it seeped out of the koala. Evie was so upset that she had to let go of her favorite stuffed animal but Dr. Bennett gave her a brand new bunny. Evie adored it so much she even brought it with when they burned Billy. Billy had to find someplace else to go, he didn’t know where but he thinks he found the perfect place...