THE OUIJA BOARD(Yumnah TK) Dear readers, this story is based on a true event though the characters are fictitious.


It was the school’s winter break. The beautiful town of Roseland was frosting cold.

On a misty Tuesday morning, Dalia woke up from the wind’s sound. She had no special plans for the day so she decided to help her mother with the chores. She changed her clothes and went downstairs just in time to hear the phone ringing.

Dalia picked it up wondering who could it be so early and was surprised to hear Faye’s voice.

“Come quickly,” she said in a slight whisper, “We’re having a lot of fun.”

Dalia put the phone back on in its place and put on her coat, eager to know what the ‘fun’ was.

Faye was her next door neighbour. They were good friends but Faye and her brother were far more adventurous than Dalia.

She rang the doorbell and Faye appeared with an excited and anxious expression, this made Dalia impatient. Faye told her not to make noise as her parents were still asleep upstairs.

As Dalia walked in, Faye led her in to the kitchen. The lights were all off and all that was lit were three candles. On the kitchen table were sitting her brother and her cousin, all with the same excited looks.

Her cousin was known as Tiger as he was very courageous. He usually visited them during the vacations and always had weird and daring plans. Dalia wondered what he was up to this time.

Pointing to a board on the table Faye said, “It is an Ouija board. Tiger just read about it last night and we have discovered that we can call ghosts and they can talk to us through this board.”

“No way!” Dalia exclaimed. “This is insane. I am NOT doing this.” She wanted to leave.

Faye held her hand firmly so she could not leave and pushed her to a chair around the table. She sat beside Dalia and said, “Well, we are not sure if it really works or not, let’s just try.”

Tiger placed a bottle’s cover on the Ouija board and then murmured some words.

Faye put a finger on the bottle’s cover and so did her brother. She explained to Dalia, “When the cover moves it means the ghost is here. Come on; put your finger on it too.”

Tiger asked, “Is anyone there?”

They waited for a little while, all anxious, but the bottle’s cover didn’t move. Dalia felt relaxed and thought what a silly idea it was of Tiger.

Faye’s brother was about to say something when the bottle’s cover moved slightly. They looked at each other. Nobody was really sure if it had moved. But they were all pretty sure when it moved the second time.

Tiger asked, “Is anyone there?”

The bottle’s cover started moving towards the alphabets and one by one it spelled ‘yes’. They all sat straight up. Tiger asked, “Where do you come from?”

The bottle’s cover moved to the letters “I lived in a desert in Africa.”

“What’s your name?” Faye’s brother asked.

“Santiago,” It spelled.

Faye’s eyes were wide open and she couldn’t say a word. In a while she managed to choke out, “Let’s ask it something we don’t know, to make sure it’s true.”

They all nodded and thought for a while. Tiger suggested to ask for some password which none of them knew.

Faye’s brother asked, “What’s the code of my father’s briefcase?”

It replied a three-digit-number and Faye went to get the brief case to try on it. When she tried the code, the brief case opened.

Everyone had a stunned look on their faces now. The thrill was growing.

They talked to the ghost a bit more until they heard some noise and guessed Faye’s parents were awake, so Dalia said goodbye to everyone and walked back home, still stunned.

When she reached home her mother opened her door and she had a worried expression on her face. “You’re finally home! Where did you go? You got us all worried!”

“I just went to Faye’s house.”

“So early? You should’ve left a note,” she sighed.

Dalia hung her coat and lay on her bed, amused. She closed her eyes but opened them again with the weirdest feeling of someone being there – she looked around but there was nobody! She had the strangest feeling as if she was being watched. A shiver ran through her back and she thought it was better not to be alone, so she went downstairs.

Her father had gone out while she could hear her mother in the kitchen.

The phone rang and she picked it up.

“We’re doing it again tonight. We couldn’t complete it this morning and Tiger has looked for some more information. He says this time we’ll do it in a graveyard, and you have to come.” It was Faye sounding so thrilled and excited.

Dalia thought about it and then she realised that she had to be brave like the others. There was nothing to fear. Moreover, she didn’t want Faye to call her the next day and show off about what a time she had.

“OK,” said Dalia. “But my mother will not allow me to be out at night, so I’ll tell her we’ll have a sleep over at your place,” Dalia agreed.

Then she walked to the kitchen and said, “Mom I’m going to have a sleepover at Faye’s tonight.”

Her mom inquired. “Haven’t you been to Faye’s this morning? I don’t remember you and her spending so much time before.” She wore a suspicious look.

“Ok, if you don’t want a sleepover, I’ll be back as soon as we finish."

Her mother shook her head, “Fine, but this won’t happen everyday.”

For the rest of the day Dalia thought about how creepy it would be to talk to a ghost in the graveyard.


xxxxx

At twelve the four of them came out and in the quiet cold night they walked over to the next block where the graveyard was. It was a very old graveyard with long trees and old thorny bushes surrounding it. It had a broken wooden fence all around it. Everyone jumped in from the fence and sat on a good hiding spot covered by bushes and trees. Dalia’s heart was racing fast and she wondered if anyone else was feeling like her.

Tiger lit a candle, opened the board and put the bottle’s cover on top of it.

Then he muttered the words and asked, “Is anyone there?" and the answer was “Yes” immediately.

Tiger asked, “Where did you live?”

And the ghost answered, “I lived in a house in China, and I still visit it.”

“Why do you still go there?” asked Dalia.

The ghost replied, “I miss my family a lot, so I go there and sit with them while they watch the TV. They don’t know I am there.”

Everyone gasped and there was a scream from Faye.

“What’s wrong, Faye?” her elder brother asked.

“Oh nothing, the candle’s hot wax just fell on me,” Faye laughed rubbing her hand.

Then the ghost kept on spelling “escape” sometimes jumbling the word. It took a while for them to realize that he wanted to go so Tiger moved the cover to goodbye. “All right, now let’s call another one.”

“N-n-no,” Dalia stammered. “I-I-I’m feeling too cold and we should leave now.”

Everyone laughed. “Scaredy cat.”

Faye laughed again. “Let’s go anyway, it’s one already.”

Wow -- Dalia didn’t realize that the time went so fast and with a sigh of relief she got up with shaking knees.

They first dropped Dalia at her place. She opened the door with her keys. Everyone was asleep. She changed her clothes and lay on her bed, unable to sleep. She had the same creepy feeling as if someone was in the room, sitting on her chair. Dalia shivered and turned her side. While Dalia had a bad night, Faye slept comfortably taking nothing seriously.

Dalia woke up early in the morning. She went down to the phone and called Faye.

“Dalia I am so glad you called. look, this evening we are going to the abandoned building Tiger discovered.” Faye explained.

“Faye, that’s what I called to tell you, I am not doing it again, ok?” Dalia said, “I couldn’t sleep, and I kept feeling people around me in the room. And when I finally slept, I had nightmares.”

“Oh come on!” Faye exclaimed, “It’ll be so much fun, nothing happened and nothing will happen. Tiger said that it’s much more spooky in the abandoned buildings.”

Faye always convinced her to do something she never wanted to do and it was a fact that nothing had happened so far. In fact, she enjoyed it too.

“Fine,” Dalia said and closed the phone.

By the time Dalia made herself a sandwich her mom woke up. She waited for her mom to make herself a cup of coffee and in the meantime her dad woke up too, so she decided to ask her dad this time.

“Dad, Faye and I are going to the carnival this evening. It’s quite close from here.”

“All right, but you better ask your mother, she may have some chores for you.”

Just then her mom entered the room.

“Mom, you don’t have any chores for me this evening, do you?” She couldn’t risk her mom getting suspicious.

“No Dalia,” her mom replied. “Why?”

“Because I will go to the carnival with Faye”.

“All right,” Mom said “Are you getting really close to Faye these days?”

“Yes mom.” And she left quickly before her mom could ask anything else.

“You mean she’s been with Faye before?” Her dad inquired.

“Yes,” Her mom said sipping her coffee. “Yesterday morning when we were sleeping, she went to Faye's and had a sleepover. She spent last night there too.”

At night Dalia went to Faye’s and from there they walked to the abandoned building which was not very far away. They entered in and Tiger guided them to a spot in the basement. He probably had been there before to look for a perfect place.

It was very dark there. Tiger lit the candles, now they could see the scraped off walls full of spider webs. There were many crawling insects.

Dalia shuddered, “Let’s start.”

She wanted to get over with it quickly.

“Dalia, why don’t you try this time?” Faye said suddenly.

“M-me?,” Dalia stammered. “No way”.

But Tiger pushed the board in her direction and she decided not to sound coward by refusing.

She muttered the words. Nothing happened for the first time. They told her to try again. Next time, after waiting for a while, finally the cover started to move.

“Is anyone there?” asked Faye’s brother.

“MAISEY” it spelled.

“See!” Dalia exclaimed, "I got the wrong ghost. I didn’t even know how to do it.”

Everyone ignored and Tiger asked, “Please tell me where do you live?”

“EREHWON”

Everyone looked confused.

Suddenly Tiger exclaimed, “Oh I see, it spells backwards, it says nowhere and before it said yes i am.”

Faye nodded. “Ok, we understand you live no where, so who are you?”

“ENOON”

“It says no one,” said Faye’s brother.

Dalia asked, “What is your name?”

“LIVED”

“What is this name?” said Faye, but her face turned white as soon as she realized what the ghost had told.

“Please leave, we have nothing more to ask,” said Tiger. For the first time he looked scared.

“TNOWI”

Dalia was the first one to run followed by Faye. But the candles blew off on their own and nothing was visible anymore. It was so scary to feel that they were in the dark basement with a DEVIL.

Tiger looked for his torch and Faye’s brother just pulled him to run.

They managed to come upstairs somehow and all of them were panting.

As soon as they came out they ran as fast as they could towards their houses.

Dalia went to her house straight without caring for anyone else. She found her parents in the living room. She ran to her mother and started crying. Her mother asked her and she told the truth of what had happened.

Her mother comforted her, although she was very disappointed to know how she had lied to her. Dalia’s father walked to the phone and rang Faye’s father to talk to him about what had happened. All of them decided they won’t play such dangerous games again. Dalia couldn’t believe she was safe and at home.

The end.

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