This is part 3 of an as-of-right-now-unknown-number of parts set. The account that I am reciting is 100% TRUE/non-fiction/not writing this for entertainment purposes. That doesn't mean you'll believe me, but that's not my problem. I would read the 2 previous parts (linked at the bottom) for any context about what is about to be described below. As the title implies, this series is me finally chronicling the very real demonic influences in our life; I will eventually get to where they likely came from, why they're here, and what I plan to do about them (although that part of the story is still "in the works").

With that said - onward we go.

So my now ex-girlfriend left our apartment yet again (this time in her own car, which was still with me in Colorado); although she oddly left most of her stuff and her dumb little dog with me without having much concern for them. At some point while she was on the road, I asked her what her plans were for all the stuff she left behind, and she told me to donate it all. Mind you, this is a woman who is very concerned with her appearance and spent a tidy sum on designer clothes. This was not a cheap wardrobe. But me, thinking that I'd never see her again, did just that like a true ex-boyfriend. The dog, I assumed that I was stuck with. 

Anyway, she apparently headed west (we don't have friends or family west of Colorado) and stopped at a friend's house along the way that lives in the Rocky Mountains. I understand that she made a minor disturbance (throwing glass off of their patio onto the rocks below, or something similar), before leaving, which she was later forgiven for. She kept heading west until she hit California. Now, this is where some context is required....

After this "episode," she told me what was driving her actions from this point on (although when this current, 2021 issue is resolved, I intend to ask her if this was driving her previous actions as well. My guess is that they were). She had always been a fan of the hip hop artist, Drake. A fan, and nothing more than that besides perhaps some girlhood crushes that are not uncommon. She barely mentioned him for the entire length of our relationship to that point, although she did play his music, along with countless other artists. Nothing too exciting to report there. However, for a time leading up to these events and for the length of this entire "episode" (spoiler alert - it lasted about 5 months in total), this fandom grew from a simple appreciation to a psychotic-level obsession. There is no rhyme or reason for this newfound obsession - not a new song that suddenly blew her mind, no direct contact, nothing. But at some point, this idea of Drake that was in her head consumed her, to the point that she would listen to his music (and many other songs and movies, and basically any form of media it turns out), and she would think that the lyrics or spoken words were about her, and he was speaking directly to her when she played one of his songs. You can imagine how this is compounded when she was on the road with nothing but her playlist to keep her company. At some point (probably in Miami), this Drake character began guiding her behavior. If you asked me for something more specific, I'd have trouble answering you, frankly because I never expected this to happen again and now I can't ask her because she is "indisposed." However, from what I gather, it was a combination of getting "guidance" from the music, to seeing things that weren't there (she told me about a vision of "Drake" being in a dumpster right in front of her), to subliminal impulses that she followed to I believe actual voices talking to her as a sort of vision in her head, telling her to go here or avoid that or what not. This was constant throughout this whole ordeal. The voices and direction were not only of Drake though - he was the primary guiding voice, but there were competing wills that were warring within her, from other music artists, to I believe even her mother at one point. Keep this in mind as I continue.

So she parks her car in some commercial parking lot at Calabasas, California (apparently this is the town where real Drake lives, or at least owns a home). I'm not sure if she did a whole lot when she arrived besides realize that she couldn't find him from there, and decided to take a trip to Venice Beach since she was nearby anyway. We had vacationed there for a few days in 2014 and it left a good impression on her. For some reason, she took a bus (my thought is that she wandered around Calabasas for a while and lost track of her car, but I'll need to confirm), and one of the first things she did when she got there was go to the beach and (at the direction of her tormentors) throw her keys, cell phone, and wallet into the ocean. She told me later that she did it because she felt like she had to "unplug," but in reality she was now totally cut off from anyone who sought to help/save her, and she would have a very hard time leaving herself if she had a moment of clarity because she was now mostly immobile. She was now a young, attractive female who was cut off from the world, broke, and homeless, with highly impaired judgement. Not a good place to be.

But for a few days, it sounded like she had some fun. She would sleep on the beach in the daytime, and hang out with the homeless community at night (there is a massive homeless community in Venice Beach, and fortunately they tend to be of the friendlier variety), drinking and smoking when it was available.

This is not to say that she did not get into some very hairy situations, though. She recounted a few times where she met some guy or another who attempted to show her how to properly "live the homeless life," and would eventually make a move on her. She had the wherewithal to leave those situations when they got out of hand. She went up to a random guy and told him to "take me to Drake" (I'm sure this was at the request of the "others"). This guy was bad news. He let her hop in his backseat probably assuming that he was going to get laid. When he realized he had a mentally ill woman in his car, he wanted her out. He ended up choking her to get his point across. I suppose it could have been worse.

In another situation, she wandered into a random house, which was empty except for a contractor doing some work there. She told him that she lived there, and proceeded to walk into the bathroom and take a shower. After she was finished, she began rummaging through the dressers for a change of clothes and found a wad of cash - like $800 - and walked out. I believe that she spent a little of it and gave the rest away. These are a sampling of the stories that I remember her telling me after the fact. It is truly amazing - dare I say "miraculous" - that she did not end up dead or as a sex slave in someone's basement. I imagine that these sorts of situations are how some women end up on the street for life. However, it was not for lack of trying on the part of these influences in her mind. Only by the grace of God was she threaded in and out of these highly dangerous places, sustaining little permanent damage besides some embarrassment/shame when it was all said and done.

Sprinkled sporadically into these insane situations that she found herself in, were moments of clarity. She described times when she would "wake up" mentally, look around, and wonder how the hell she got to this point (physically and metaphorically). This would sometimes put her into a depression, and sometimes spur her to act in whatever capacity she could in that state. I remember being at work and receiving an email on my phone, that basically said "I asked to use someone's phone, I'm at X place in California, please get me." Knowing of course that within minutes she would be elsewhere, I still reached out to her mom to let her know what was happening. She offered to fly me to CA to try to find her, but I declined. It would be at least a day or so before I got out there, and she would be long gone. Would I just wander around a foreign city yelling her name? 

Eventually, however, our moment came. My wife called her mom to tell her that she had been hospitalized (for psychiatric evaluation, not injury) after a trespassing incident with a restaurant. She was now contained in one place, and had a court date coming up to plan a flight around. Her mom once again offered to fly me out there, and this time I accepted. At this point, I was still hurt from being dumped, and honestly only begrudgingly went because no one else would have gone. It sounds crappy writing it like that after the fact, but there it is. I didn't really want anything to do with her after everything that happened (or so I thought), but took vacation time from work and flew out there more from compassion for her situation than anything else. 

So I got there, and navigated the labyrinthian Los Angeles court system enough to make it in time for her court case that same day (she got a fine and a year of probation in the state of CA, which didn't matter since she was leaving the state immediately). She was very happy to see me when I was able to take her out of the courthouse, giving me a long, loving hug. I honestly think that I was just a familiar, friendly face that was there to remove her from what was clearly an unfriendly, dangerous situation. We took a bus back to the general area where she said that she left her car (I brought a valet key with me that she had left at the apartment), and somehow managed to find it. We drove her car back to the apartment in Colorado. 

At this point, I was very confused. This was my girlfriend of 3 years that was only away from me for about 2-3 months at this point, and so a part of me wanted her back. Another part of me wanted her completely out of my life. She explained to me that she was still not interested in getting back together, and that we were just not meant to be, etc even after my part in getting her out of that mess. And mind you, I found no reason to assume that this was anything other than some kind of mental lapse, although there was much more going on behind the scenes that I will elaborate on as we go. Remember, I am an atheist at this point, and she was a marginal Christian at best, but you'd never know it by the life that she lived before or during all of this.

And so, ONCE AGAIN, after a short time in Colorado, she drives off - this time heading east.

Her plan was to take her dog and go back home to New Jersey to collect herself; which, after everything that happened, seemed like the second most reasonable thing to do since she was adamant about not staying with me. She ended up taking the long way of getting there by going south to Texas, then east to about Georgia, then up the eastern seaboard to NJ. And that's what she did. As you might expect by now, it did not go as planned. But I'll save that for next time...

Link to Part 1 is here - Facing Down Demons Part 1 - Intro, Prologue, and Context

Link to Part 2 is here - Facing Down Demons Part 2 - The "Episode" Part 1 - Miami