Ouija’ust Wanted To Have Fun
Disclaimer: This is a Halloween themed short story. All characters except for Krystal belong to me.
Krystal is the sole property of :iconKamduis_Ravenpaw: and is a white wolfess with ice blue eyes. She sometimes has wings..
Dominique, Edward, Tony and Sara are the property of my own fertile imagination. Dominique is a mostly black wolfess, Edward is a short jaguar, Tony is a tiger and Sara is a swan - The odd one out in the group.
None of us could have been expected to realise that we were making a mistake. We were young and it wasn't exactly like we knew what we were doing when we all sat around in a group, our fingers touching a glass in the middle of a board. Someone screamed when the glass moved, though I had my mind set on the fact that it couldn't be happening, not really. When the glass moved to the letters I, C, A and N - even I had to start panicking. There wasn't any reason for one of us to scare anyone else...we were just young and trying to have fun.
When I heard Krystal scream, I followed suite. She was my sister, my best friend - and if she was scared well...that meant there was a reason to. She was sat to my right and Sara to my left, while Tony and Edward were sat across from us. It had been Edward's idea to come to the old abandoned De'Morte house and do an Ouija board. We had all agreed with him, buoyed up with false bravado and stolen gulps of cider. Krystal had been the only one of us to complain, but I had urged and blackmailed her into coming along, not wanting to be left alone with Tony and Edward.
I heard crying from in front of me when the glass moved again to the letters S, E, E and then paused, as though taking a breath. I tried to remove my finger, but couldn't, but my hesitation seemed to urge whatever was directing the glass onwards, giving it energy to complete what was being spelt out. Y, O and U completed the selection of words with the glass going to the middle of the board, no longer touching any other letters. This left us with only one thought on our minds, that someone, or something had clearly just had us spelling out 'I can see you.' The fact that Tony was crying scared me. He was the leader of our group. The reckless one, the one we ran to when we couldn't do something dangerous, and here he was sniffling and crying like he had just watched someone he loved die.
When a door slammed, we all jumped out of our skins, and I wasn't the only one to scream, at least one of the others screamed with me. My heart was thumping, was all I could hear before doors began to slam open and shut without a wind to cause them, making us all jump, cringe, cry or as I did - scream until our throats were hoarse. A silence fell suddenly, before the glass started to move without us even touching it, the movement catching our eyes and drawing us in in horrified fascination. Words formed where before we'd had to piece together the letters into small sentences. 'I will find you. I will get you. I will take you. You are mine.'
Krystal was whimpering beside me at this point - and I definitely wasn't telling her to shut up, especially not when I felt like joining her. All I could do was put my arm over her shoulders, and cuddle against her, she may have been the older sister, but I was definitely the braver one of us, the one most likely to go along with what Tony said or urged us to do. I sat there, cuddling Krystal against myself before jumping when Sara spoke. "I've heard that you can use salt to protect from things like this. Did anyone else think to bring any? I only have a few little sachets." When we all wordlessly shook our heads, she huffed before sighing, and closed her eyes, putting on her thinking face - that she was angry was something she liked to make very clear.
Edward was the next to speak, and the sound of his voice had Sara snapping her eyes open. "My sister told me that white candles are meant to bring only good spirits in. I thought she was joking, but I do have a candle in my bag. I could only find one, but it's white. I don't know if that'll help?" I sat there myself, trying to rake through the chaos that was my memory. I was so sure that I remembered something, but Tony speaking ruined it for me, made me forget what was planning on my mind and lingering on the top of my tongue. "Sage. I have a little in my pocket. I didn't want to come without something...just in case."
I sat there, feeling like an idiot until I heard Krystal clear her throat and look at me. "There are prayers you can say, to help drive away bad presences and to ensure protection. I know them, and can coach Dominique in them while we prepare. Surely we can all use what we have to do something?" When I looked at her, she smiled briefly, though we both cringed as the glass scraped against the board and drew our attention back to it. 'Your plans are fruitless. Nothing will get rid of me. You are mine. Mine! You are mine to devour. Only mine to scare and scar and feast and feed on.' Whatever was controlling the glass was certainly not benign in nature.
After the glass stopped moving, everyone started arguing around me. I could feel the pressure in the air gathering above me, making me cringe just a little as everyone's words ran together on a never ending reel of film. Harsh voices and mean faces ran in front of my eyes. "My salt will do the job!" "No, a candle, we don't need stupid salt to do anything!" "Just burn the sage! That's what Google told me to do!" I was shocked when my sister stood up, Krystal didn't normally force her opinion on anyone, but here she was, just doing that! "I'm sure the prayers would keep us safe, so we can get out of this house!" The argument carried on, rolling and rocking back and forth like turbulent seas, leaving me getting more and more tense until I sat up and just screamed, letting lose all the frustration, fear and anger I was feeling in that moment. "Everyone, stop. Just stop it! Please! We can't all fight like this. We're going to end up doing what that thing wants us to!"
When my voice finished ringing through the room, everyone went silent, turning to look at me with shock in their eyes. I'd never ever been this loud before, because although I was brave, I didn't shout scream or rage at anyone normally. Edward went quiet first, sticking his hands in his jacket pocket and nodded silently at me when my eyes hit his face. One by one everyone else nodded, and I stepped forward into the guise of leader. Tony was too shaken to be the fearless leader we needed him to be, so who else could have done it? "Sara, get the salt please. Edward, Tony. You need to get the candle and sage. I have a plan. If you come here Krystal, then I can learn what you meant by these prayers."
The glass was sliding sluggishly back and forth between the letters H and A repeatedly, a clearly mocking tone that was lacking in energy as we redirected our fear and focus elsewhere. When Edward lit the white candle, and then started to burn the sage smudge stick, the glass faltered in its movements, now moving to the word NO on the right-hand side of the board. Again and again it moved towards that word, and the snippet of what I remembered was suddenly hooked on a sweeping, search line. I left Krystal beginning to recite a prayer to the Goddess (we are a pagan family) and Sara was making a thin, but complete circle of salt around the table.
I put my finger on the glass, and began a battle of wills. Mine must have been stronger as I moved the glass to the word Goodbye, sending whatever spirit had tormented and frightened us away from the space we were purifying and back to whatever hellhole it had come from. I didn't leave it there; I grabbed the glass and threw it out of our circle, listening to the satisfying smash of glass and then the sudden silence that came over the house. It was peaceful now, no longer haunted with malignant and evil beings of anyone's imagination. My sister kept up her whispered litany until we walked out the front door, and left that house behind. We collapsed against the door, laughing - only for laughs to turn to screams when something thumped loudly.
It was only the next month in English Literature at college that I found something that even remotely resembled what had happened to us. It was a quote, by Benjamin Franklin._ '__Light often arises from a collision of opinions, as fire from flint and steel.' _