Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/1512588
28 | WheelsOfGrace.com | #70 PLANT CITY, Florida - Jenny Weaver thought dabbling in the occult as a teenage witch would be "fun" like she saw in the movies. Instead, the torment that followed throughout her life became so unbearable that Jenny wanted to die. For Jenny, it all started as a supernatural game. "Things were happening. I was moving things," says Jenny. "I would go up to a drawer to open a drawer and before my hand would even touch it, the drawer would go 'shhew' and open. Lights would bust and break when we would start talking about the demonic realm, glass fall all over us," says Jenny. But eventually, it turned into something much more sinister. Jenny grew up on Florida's Gulf Coast with seven siblings. Her home was dominated by abusive parents, who handed out punishment for the slightest offense. It wasn't much better at their church that didn't teach about a loving Father, but a vengeful, angry God ready to condemn sinners to hell. "I was always thinking God's disappointed in me. God's upset," says Jenny. "So, I was really filled with shame and condemnation." Then her father walked out, leaving 13-year-old Jenny, her siblings, and their mom destitute. "So, I must not even be worthy enough to be loved, to be thought of, to be cared for," says Jenny. "You shouldn't even be alive. Why are you even here?" she thought. "It would be better off if you just killed yourself." Feeling powerless and unloved, Jenny started cutting and smoking pot. Then she saw a movie about teen witches that showed her a way to take charge of her life. Soon, she was pouring over books about witchcraft, Wicca, and the occult, and trying spells with her friends. "Wiccan religion is, 'Do what you want, but do no one any harm.'" says Jenny. "It's kind of like, 'Oh, it's the good witch.' I felt like I had power," says Jenny. "And, so, I'm looking at this like, 'Oh, this is the most amazing thing ever.'" But that power and control were only an illusion because the turmoil in Jenny's home, and within herself, remained. At 17, after a fight with her mom, Jenny ran away and dropped out of school. Bouncing between friends' homes and drug houses over the coming years, she got into harder drugs, sometimes blacking out for days. "And I was so broken and so hurting all the time, that I engaged in just the craziest things you could imagine, and just gave my—gave myself away to whoever, whenever, whatever," says Jenny. "It didn't matter." Then she moved in with a girl who came from a family of witches. Her new friend showed her the things she thought were harmless and fun; those things opened the door to a dark, sinister, and very frightening world Jenny only thought existed in books and movies. "You would feel demon spirits literally walking by you like a human being was walking by you," says Jenny. "Touching you. Scraping the wall. It went from, 'Oh, this is going to be really fun,'" says Jenny, "into, 'I'm going to choke you out until you die. I'm going to take your life.' All the time. Constantly tormented." Terrified, she stopped practicing witchcraft, but the demon of addiction would continue to haunt and torment her for years to come. 'We're Not Leaving, No!' By Shannon Woodland & Danielle Thompson Demons Tormented This Former Teenage Witch Until Jesus Set Her Free 28 | WheelsOfGrace.com | #70