Ouija

3

We started searching in the main rooms, searching through every desk,
"I'll look here, you look over there," I said pointing to different corners of the room,

"Nothing in here," She said keeping her hands on her waist,

"This might actually be a kid messing with us,"

I heard a knock on the door. I looked through the peephole, "It's Mom." I said,

"She's back so early?" That's when the second doorbell was heard. I opened the door,

"Hey, Ma." I greeted Mom and Rosa and headed towards the door.
"Hey, sweetie. Hey Rose!" I smiled at Rosa giving her a tight hug. "Hey, Auntie!"
Rosa always called my Mom auntie. It sounded cute.

"What happened, Mom, you're back early," I asked as she took off her coat,

"Well, they had enough nurses,"

"But you always say that a hospital never has enough nurses,"

"It's alright, Abby. Don't worry," saying she walked straight into her room and closed the door.

"Is everything alright? She seems a little out of place," Rosa asked, concernedly looking at Mom's closed door,

"I hope everything's alright," After a while, Rosa's mother called her back home, so she had to leave. Just then I heard a small thudding sound outside the window.

It was late in the evening, walking towards the window, I saw a man in the garden a few feet away. He saw me and waved at me then continued mowing the lawn. When did the neighbors hire a new gardener? He seemed quite aged, wearing very old-fashioned clothes, more like rags.

I drew the curtains, not wanting to see the strange sight. In a couple of seconds as I was about to walk away from the window, I heard that thudding sound again, this time it was louder. My first instinct was to pull those curtains apart and look but Mom was right behind me, and the minute I turned around, I was startled by her proximity, "God, Mom! You scared me!" I almost lost a breath. How come I didn't hear her door open? I didn't even feel her walk this close to me.

"Promise me, you will never ever talk to that man or even see him again!" She said putting her hand over my shoulder, her eyes straight into mine, not blinking once. I couldn't help but nod. Being this close to her made me shiver.

"Did you guys eat anything?" She asked in her normal sweet voice, wearing a cardigan and lighting up the fireplace. It looked like nothing happened here like she didn't just warn me like that. She headed over to the kitchen.

"Ma, why shouldn't I talk to that man? Do you know him?" I asked her sitting on the couch,

"All you should know about him is, he's not a good person," She replied, totally confused, giving me some salad for tasting that she made for herself,

"It feels like you know him, but you're hesitant to tell me about it," I replied, 

"Abby, once I said no, means no. Stop asking questions." She was irritated. This conversation was going nowhere so I walked to my room, just when I felt my phone vibrate, it was Rosa.

"Hey-"

"Abby! Can I come over, please, Mom- oh god," I heard her groan in pain, she sounded too anxious to answer my questions, and I started to panic,

"Rose! What the hell is happening, what's wrong-"

"Mom drank a lot this time. I can't stay the night here, " She cut me off and I heard glass breaking on her side,

"Come over, should I come to pick you up?"

"I'm literally walking to your house right now."

My heart was racing. Her mom had a bad habit of drinking but she'd never hurt her daughter, right? Suddenly a paper ball was thrown into my room from outside my window, it read, 'THE DESK', In all capitals, I got up to see who threw this, but there was no one else to be seen,

I started looking around my room which had suddenly grown cold,

A paper ball was thrown again, Open the desk, it read. Desk, desk, desk. What in the hell was this desk supposed to do? At this point, it started to get annoying.

Suddenly I felt a cold passage of air rush threw me as if something just passed by me, then I heard a shriek, It was mom's voice. I ran to her room, "Mom!" I yelled as I swung the door open. I found her sitting on the floor with her back facing me and she was facing the wall, her knees to her chest.

"Mom, are you okay? I heard-"

"Abby, you shouldn't be here. Leave, right now." She said turning back, and I saw her drenched in sweat,

"But Ma-"

"I can handle this, please, I don't want to drag you in this," She choked on her voice as if she was strangled by someone,

"Mom, I'm not leaving you alone, tell me what's wrong!" 

She turned to me with her entire body and when the light fell on her, I didn't know how to react. Her face looked so aged, there were wrinkles all over, her veins had turned into a shade of something between dark red and dark blue that was showing on her face, her lips were dry and pale, and she didn't look like my mother at all.

"Jesus Christ. Mom get out of there!" I quickly pulled my phone out, "I'm calling for help!"

"Only if I let her go," The words left her mouth but the voice didn't belong to her. Nothing about her belonged to her at that moment, especially not that smile she had on those dried lips.

 ***

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