I'll admit: I've always been intrigued by spiritual things. My friend, Tasha, liked to use the word paranormal at least six times a day and her obsession rubbed off on me at an early age. It started innocently enough: I would watch
Beetlejuice and
Are You Afraid of the Dark? on TV as a kid; at slumber parties we would play "light as a feather, stiff as a board," pass around an invisible baby without dropping it, and look into the mirror and dare to whisper "Bloody Mary;" and by the time we entered high school we were creeping through cemeteries late at night and breaking into old abandoned buildings on the weekends, hunting for ghosts. It was all innocent--good fun. At least that's what I always told myself to feel better about the whole thing.
But things changed when I came home to visit on Columbus Day weekend after the start of my first semester away at college.
It was the best time of year--Fall. The days are still long enough to enjoy but there's a crispness to the air. The leaves are changing on the trees and just starting to fall, adding a nice crunch to your step.
Pumpkins and other spooks had begun to appear on people's porches and I stood among the ghosts and scarecrows with my leggings and big, comfy boots and a scarf wrapped around my neck as I waited for Tasha and our other friend Cassie.
"There she is!"
I turned around at the sound of Tasha's high pitched scream as she scampered across the street to me.
The three of us collided into the biggest hug possible. This had been the first time in twelve years that we had been separated for more than a week--the one time Cassie's parents took her down to Disney World. We all went away for college now and sometimes e-mail and Skype just aren't enough.
"How the hell are you?" Cassie could barely stop herself from giggling.
"Great now!" I tried to catch my breath and let my heart settle as I looked at my two best friends. It had only been a month and yet we had all changed so much--we'd grown up. My eyes grew wide as I looked closer at Tasha. "You dyed your hair!"
"And you've gained some weight!"
I stuck my tongue out at her. It was true, the all you can eat buffet at my school had not been kind to my thighs.
"Alright!" Tasha declared, her voice loud enough to echo down the street. "We have three days and two nights together. What mayhem can we bring down on this town?"
*******
Our definition of mayhem had definitely mellowed out since our high school days. We spent that afternoon at an old book store looking to add to our neverending "to read" list and our night was spent at my house where we drank boxed wine my mom bought us, eating pizza puffs, popcorn, and twizzlers and watching all of our favorite Halloween movies (Hocus Pocus being at the top of the list... obviously). Saturday my mom took us apple picking and that night we met up with some of our old high school band mates to check out the haunted houses at the local amusement park. And by Sunday night, we were disappointed to find that our old shenanigans seemed to have died out with entering into the "real world."
"No EVP sessions." Cassie shook her head in disappointment. "No breaking and entering!"
"You are aware that that just sounds horrible, right?" I felt the need to point out. We knew that was what we did but we never said it out loud!
"The scariest thing we did was that stupid haunted house last night!" she continued on without hearing me. "And let's be honest--chainsaws are just not scary anymore! Every haunted house in the history of the universe has had a cheap jump scare with a chainsaw at some point. It's like clockwork!"
"Well how about this?"
We both turned to look at Tasha who was holding up a large, tan box.
My eyes grew wide as I spotted the image of two pairs of hands and large letters spelling out O-U-I-J-A. "Tash?"
"Where did you get that?" Cassie asked, her voice sharing just about the same amount of nerves as mine.
"I found it at the bookstore the other day. Look how old the box is! It's got to be from the 60s or 70s!" Her eyes were wide with excitement as she opened the box and poured the contents out on the floor.
"I don't think this is a good idea," I whispered. For some reason, I wasn't thrilled with the idea that my friend had brought a Ouija board into my house. I'd seen enough paranormal investigation shows to know that they were nothing but trouble.
"Oh come on!" She rolled her eyes at me as Cassie sat down beside her, unfolding the board. "Where's the Liz I know who's up for anything?"
I looked down at the board, covered in numbers and letters, a sun and a moon, and the words YES, NO, and GOODBYE. Something in me whispered to run away but my curiosity wanted to know just what the Ouija board was all about. Part of me thought it was just a trick... but another part of me knew it was all too real.
"And besides--don't you want to talk to your dad?"
I glared down at her, hating her for mentioning my dad. It had been six months since he had passed away in a car accident. The thought had crossed my mind so many times--calling out to him, trying to make a connection. So many times I started an EVP session alone in my room only to stop before I could say anything, afraid I wouldn't hear him.
The possibility of making contact with my dad was just enough to convince me to sit down beside Tasha as she placed the planchette in the middle of the board.
Without a word, the three of us placed the tips of our fingers on the plastic planchette and waited.
Tasha took in a deep breath before calling out in a loud voice, "Is there anybody here with us?"
A moment passed just long enough to convince me that nothing would happen when suddenly I felt the planchette twitch beneath my fingers.
"Stop that," I hissed at Tasha.
Her mouth had fallen open as the planchette began to slowly and gracefully circle the board. "I'm not doing anything!"
"You're making it move." I had no desire to deal with her theatrics today, "Stop it."
"That's not me!"
"Guys!" Cassie shushed us both. We followed her gaze to where the planchette had come to rest.
YES.
"Oh my god." I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I do not want to be here right now."
"Relax. You're fine." Tasha rolled her eyes at me.
"Isn't this what we wanted?" Cassie pointed out, trying to be a bit kinder than Tasha.
"Is it you, Mr. Christy?"
We watched in silence as our fingers floated over to NO.
I didn't think it was possible, but my heart broke just a bit more. I wanted to toss the board across the room and be done with all of this but my thoughts were interrupted by Tasha's next question:
"Are you a ghost?"
Our fingers moved altogether in a wide circle before landing back again on NO.
My stomach dropped. Not a ghost?
"I wonder if they don't know they're dead?" Tasha exclaimed. She was a bit too excited for my taste. It was as if she didn't even realize how hard it was for me to sit here, knowing that we weren't talking to my dad. "Are you dead?" She turned her eyes down to the board.
NO.
The questions went on and on as my palms grew sweaty and my head began to pound from the stress of the answers to the questions.
YES.
YES.
23
VERMONT.
NO.
GIRL.
NOT HUMAN.
YES.
Finally, Tasha asked, "What is your name?"
I softly read the letters out loud as the planchette floated across the board, "B... E... L... I... A... L..."
"Belial?" Tasha furrowed her brow and shrugged her shoulders. "What kind of name is that?"
"I don't know." I shook my head. "It's not English." It was a weird name... and there was something about it that made my skin crawl.
"How many people are in the room?" Cassie tried to ask a question, her confidence rising.
Around and around it floated...
4
"Four?" Cassie shook her head. She looked across the board at me in confusion. "There must be some mistake..."
As her voice trailed off and her eyes moved to look over my head, I could feel something there--standing behind me. I don't know how and I don't know what it was but all the hairs on my neck stood up on end. There was a weight to my shoulders. And I swear to you, I felt someone or something breathing on my hair.
Tasha must have seen it too because her courage vanished in the blink of an eye. "Okay, thank you very much. Goodbye," she almost screamed as she pushed the planchette away from us and kicked the board with her foot. In an instant, whatever was standing behind me was gone--it's absence was painfully obvious as I fell back onto the floor, panting.
"What the hell was that?" Cassie cried out, tears in her eyes.
I continued to lay on the floor. It felt as though any and all strength I could have had within me had been sucked out of me; I was too weak to lift my head up to look at my friends. I was cold and my hands were shaking. I laid on the carpet for awhile, I think... I don't really remember. When I finally moved to sit back up, I looked over at Tasha who was on her phone, her face pale and eyes wide.
"What is it, Tash?"
She remained silent for a moment--it seemed as though she was absorbing something that her mind could not comprehend.
"Tash?" Cassie shook her shoulder gently.
"Tasha!" I shouted, throwing a pillow at her to snap her out of whatever trance her phone had placed on her.
She blinked her eyes and looked up at us. "Huh?"
"What is it?" I pointed to her phone.
She drew in a shaking breath and when she spoke, her voice trembled. "I just looked up what Belial was."
The silence we waited in was almost enough to drive me crazy.
"And?" I demanded to know what it was that had stood behind me.
She blinked and tears fell from her eyes. The confident, brave, and slightly obnoxious girl I had known almost my entire life had just been destroyed by whatever that word meant. Burying her face in her hands, she screamed, "It's the devil!"
The two of us just sat back in stunned silence and watched our friend descend into a wave of tears and hysteria.
The devil.
Satan.
Lucifer.
He had so many names and yet I had never heard Belial until that day. I felt as though I was in a daze--a bizarre dream that I just couldn't get out of no matter how hard I told myself it was nothing more than a dream.
We've only told a few people of what we did that night and almost all of them have laughed at us and told us that it wasn't true--Ouija boards are just a spooky game you play around Halloween to try and scare your friends.
Even now, Cassie is convinced that either Tash or I played a trick on her. She's convinced herself that she didn't see anything standing behind me... We haven't talked in a few years now.
Tasha believes. She was destroyed that night--shaken to her very core. She started going to church twice a week. I think that's the only place she feels safe.
And as for me... I haven't been able to get over what happened that night. I can still feel the jolt of electricity coursing through my body, making my hair stand on end. I can still feel that immense weight and the feeling of someone's breath on my hair. I can't forget that or tell myself it didn't happen because it did. Because he was here, in my bedroom, standing right behind me. And in some ways, I don't think he'll ever leave.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Today's fantastic writing prompt was "_____ was here." Oh the possibilities were endless! My mind instantly filled in the blank with "he was here" and I immediately started thinking of creepy ways to make this happen.
Now I think that Ouija boards are a lot like communism: as an idea, it works, but in practice maybe not so much. Now I know many people are against the idea of "talking to the dead." Psychics, EVPs (electronic voice phenomena), and Ouija boards are all seen as ways of talking to the dead and many people see that as evil. I've always been a little spooked out by the idea of trying to make a connection with the dead... until Jed died. Now, I talk to the dead all the time. I talk to Jed all throughout my day, I write him letters, and I keep my relationship going with him. Is a sister talking to her little brother evil? It's just something to ponder, I guess...
And it makes you start to think, what would someone do to be able to talk to a loved one again? Would you go to a medium? Would you write letters like I do? Would you dare play with a Ouija board? All in the hopes of reaching out to your loved one... just to see if they are okay and missing you just as much as you are missing them.
Now I've never been brave enough (or stupid enough?) to play with a Ouija board and I can tell you now: I never will. They creep me out. Every paranormal show I watch says the same thing:
STAY AWAY FROM OUIJA BOARDS!!
So many different people have said that these boards act as a doorway from world to world and sometimes things come through that we don't understand and can't control...
Of course, the science end of things says that this is all just a bunch of hocus pocus... but isn't life a bit more fun with some magic and mystery?
a.r.w.
