Trapped

A few years back, Me and my friends decided on playing with the ouija board. I know by reading this you might think- Hey, Classic. Happened way too many times -Overrated.
I get it. But that’s not where I am going with this story. Ever since I was a child, my dad would always tell me stories- Ghost stories, Occult stories, Witchcraft, etc; And they used to fascinate me. While growing up, I read books on several paranormal activities. Also the warrens - Ed and Lorraine; they were a big hit in the 80’s. Always been a fan of them - (Still am). They were pretty popular around here after the infamous case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson also known as “The Devil made me do it” case.
So as I was saying, I was crazy about these things.

The night where all of this began- May 13th, 1983. Friday.

I was 17 and had just finished my last day of high school. Me and my classmates were out celebrating when I met a young boy on the road selling scraps - wait- let me correct that- Artifacts. He was tall, lean, maybe 9 or 10 years of age who looked like he hadn’t eaten in days. He had no life in him. I felt pity and I walked towards him and examined the things he was selling.
One of the artifacts caught my eyes. I was drawn towards it. An Ouija board. I had only heard of them until now. These things were uncommon in our part of the town.
I did not think twice and asked the boy for a price. He said to pay him whatever I had on me. ‘Weird’, I thought. It came off more like he wanted to get rid of it. I shrugged every little doubt I had like a moron and paid him 50$ for it. I hid it in my bag since my mom was always against these things. She’s a catholic, a firm believer in the Church. I rushed home and left my bag in my room.

“Aah You’re back! How was your last day?”, mom asked, as she moved the sauté pan away from the stove to the table, looking at me with a delight in her eyes.
“It was good mom!” I replied, as I was rushing towards my room.
“woah! Hold on..what’s the hurry?”
“umm..nothing”, I replied sheepishly, with a fake smile on my face.
My mom was naive. So she would believe anything anyone said.
Sometimes I just felt bad for her.
“I have prepared your favorite for lunch”, she said, as she waited for my reaction.
I looked at her with excitement in my eyes.
“Fajitas?”, I asked her.
“Fajitass!!!”, she said, screaming.
I was so excited that I forgot all about the bag. I changed my dress, washed up and had my lunch and went on with my day with teen magazine.
It was in the middle of the night when I woke up to use the loo, that I found my cat staring at my bag.
“What is it, Sofi?”, I asked her, as if she understood what I said and would reply.
She looked at me, meowed and left my room.
‘hmph..Weird’, I thought to myself and went back to sleep.

Saturday, May 14th, 1983
10:03AM

It was a weekend and so I decided to finish my homework. The earlier I got it done, the better I thought so that I can spend time with my friends in the evening. I lifted my bag from the ground where I threw it yesterday and opened it. That’s when I remembered about the board. I took it out and looked at it well just to make sure that I wasn’t robbed off my money.
It was an old board, typical one that I saw in the books. Flat, with letters of alphabets and numbers from 0-9, the words ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’.
I stroked it and found it to be dusty. So I wiped it with a wet towel and kept it for later that evening to show my friends.
Around 5:30pm, My best friend Priya called me up to let me know that she was under my house. I looked out the window, and there she was in her long sleeved striped top and blue jeans. She practically lived next to my house; never understood why the dress up.

“Well, well, well…who do we have here?”, she said as she scanned me from top to bottom.
“If it isn’t the homeless lady herself. Sarah, why can’t you just dress up a bit”, she said in a disappointed tone as I walked out of my house dressed in my shorts and a tank top that I spilled ketchup on earlier today.
I rolled my eyes at her and asked, “where is bree?”.Breeze aka bree, was another best friend of mine. It was always us three against the high school. The gypsies. The 3 musketeers. You get it.
“You know she’s always late”, replied Priya.
I looked at her with little to no expression
“What?”, she asked, although she knew I was right. She wasn’t an early bird herself.
We waited for bree and she arrived half n hour later.
I took them to a quiet place down the road and told them all about the board.
Both Priya and bree were skeptical about it.
“C’mon dude, are you really gonna believe a homeless boy? He robbed you!”, screamed bree.
"I can’t believe you are so dumb”, added priya, with a disappointed look on her face.
“Okay but can we atleast give it a try? Today. At 10pm. Have you heard of that house down on left Craig street? The abandoned one-“
“It’s not abandoned, its under renovation”, said Priya cutting me in between.
“Yeah yeah as long as there isn’t anyone there”, I said, rolling my eyes at her.
I looked at breeze.
“Ugh fine! But just this once” said bree, reluctantly.
I was happy to have convinced both of them.
We all left to our respective homes, made up our excuses, looked for essentials that are required for the ‘board game’ and packed other stuffs.
As it approached to darkness, we left out homes and walked towards the abandoned house.
No one was around and since it was under renovation, the door was unlocked.
There was only pitch darkness all around. I grabbed the flash light from my bag and looked for a decent spot for us to try the game.