The Dark Place In Your Mind II: More Strange Tales

The Man At The Door

I've been friends with Michael for a long time now. We grew up on the same street, went to the same school, and now we're in our mid 20′s. As much as I hate to say it, I trust him more than my own brother. And it is for this reason that I believed him when he told me something extremely strange one day. Mike is an honest guy, and has always been a straight shooter with me especially. So I listened when he told me that he was being haunted.

Something had been tormenting him for 3 years now, and after he told me a flood of memories came back. The source of his plight went back to the night he called me in a frantic state.

"John? John! You there??!"

"Yeah, it's me. What's wrong?" My voice was groggy from having being woken up.

"You wouldn't belie-believe what just....ahhh. It can't be real..."

"Whoa, whoa slow down."

"It spoke to me, it...it, I-ahh..."

"Hey, just come over and we'll talk about it."

Twenty minutes later, Mike was at my house. He and some friends went urban exploring, and decided it would be a good idea to involve a Ouija board. I declined because the idea of going into abandoned houses creeped me out enough, let alone a spirit board being involved. Bad decisions were made, and thankfully no one got hurt. In the end, Mike and those friends with him that night never hung out again.

"So, the weird stuff started when you asked a question?"

"Yeah...I was a little scared to ask anything at first. You know, I didn't want to admit I was scared. Saying you can be brave in a creepy abandoned house with a Ouija board is one thing. It's a whole other beast when you're there."

"What did you say?"

"...you're going to be mad at me."

"Go on. Try me."

"I asked...if it knew how long we would live."

"Mike, you're never supposed..."

"I know, alright! I just...uhh, I wanted to impress the guys. After I asked the question, the planchette moved to 'yes,' and we heard a loud knock on the walls." I looked directly into Michael's eyes, and I knew right away he wasn't making it up.

"So...after that?"

"I asked if it wanted to hurt us."

"Oohhhhh."

"Yeah. I don't know if that antagonized it or what, but a door slammed and the planchette moves to 'yes" over and over again."

"Oh, man..."

"I asked if it was responsible for shutting the door and it said 'yes,' but it was out loud. All of us heard it and jumped up. Then the laughter starts....reverberating through the entire house. It was coming from everywhere all at once. A chair slid toward us, a grandfather clock fell over, everything started going crazy. I don't know why, but it seemed like I was the one that made everything go haywire."

It was at this point that I remembered hearing that spirits and dark entities tend to feed on negative energy. Mike has a lot of dark stuff in his past, so it wouldn't surprise me if that was the reason. I didn't bring this up, as I didn't think it would help and I didn't want Mike thinking of other horrible things along with his current predicament.

"So, everyone just high-tailed it outta there?"

"In the end, yeah. But there was one other thing."

"...?"

"Before I left the house, I grabbed the planchette and asked it to leave us alone."

"And?"