Broadwire

7: Inside The Board: Trenton

I've done the original night at least 600 times now. Every time Dakota starts walking towards the woods, I follow and when I come back, everything has restarted. I don't know how much longer I can take it, but I'm not in control, I'm just watching it like a movie. Then I hear a car, something that's normally not in the replay. Then I feel control come back. I don't scream to not alarm the monster, but it turns to day and the greenery grows so much and fast that it's hard to see things. Sarah disappears and Dakota's head and shoulder suddenly have wounds and he's dead on the ground. Jasmine hits the ground and blood runs up her face from her nose and dries. Then I hear footsteps behind me.

"Hello?" I here from behind me. I turn around and stop crying. It was Brie. She saw the bodies and walk towards them.

"Trenton, What did you do?" she asked me, implying that I had killed them. She walked over to the pile of ash and picked something up, but I didn't see what.

"It wasn't me, I've been trapped here for so long. It was the monster," I said, realizing how crazy I probably sounded to an outsider who hadn't experienced everything I had in the past few days. I figured out what she took from the ash after looking at it a second time.

"No, don't take it," I told her, swatting to grab it from her jacket pocket. I knew that if she took it, then the ghost or demon or whatever would want her in the board. She pulled her phone out and I presumed she called 911.

"Get away from me, you killed them! You monster!" she screamed at me. She started to run, I had to follow to get the planchet from her. I couldn't let her get away, I would feel responsible if the thing came and got her. She ran out the entrance and when I passed it, my body hit the ground. I could see my body laying there, and then, without warning, I flew back to the pile of ash where the Ouija board was burned.

I woke up in a big stone room, and what looked like hundreds of people were walking around. I was laying down on the cold ground and when I stood up, I saw the immensity of the room. It was huge, and hundreds or maybe even thousands of people walked around, whispering amongst themselves. On one of the far corners, I saw a giant empty chair. Only one though, and it had bones and translucent hands clawing at it from the ground.

"What is this?" I asked one of the others walking aimlessly. They looked up and it was a young girl. 18 maybe.

"This is the board, did you own it?" she asked me, with big, blue sad eyes. I finally understood what he had meant by he would put me into the board. I was trapped here forever wasn't I. This was my afterlife. A life of worshipping the one who put me here.

"I did, how long have you been here?" I asked her, as she started to walk away, bored with the conversation.

"Me? I've been here since the late 1600's. What year is it now?" she asked, smiling because the newcomer could update her on the year.

"It's 2029, you've been here for 350 years?" I asked, terrified. I was damned to an eternity of walking. No end to it. Just nothing. I was going to be blamed for the deaths of Jasmine and Dakota. I would be a villain in the eyes of all. Never to have a chance to redeem myself. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't I couldn't even get louder than a whisper really. I started to walk away and I accidentally bumped into someone. I looked at them and noticed who it was. It was the dead body that had hit the ground and killed those two cops. I knew it wasn't actually him, and that the monster had turned into him, but I needed to know something.

"What's your name?" I asked him, fearing I already knew the answer.

"Me, oh. I'm Edwin Howard," he said, and I thought back again. It was the same name as the first guy we talked to. The guy who the monster impersonated to kill cops. I couldn't seem to pass out, or scream. So I walked. I walked towards the giant chair and watched it. I watched it, I might as well wait for the monster that trapped me here, but when I got there, I saw where the hands were coming from. They were all coming from under the chair, but I saw two faces I knew. Dakota and Jasmine. I started looking at the rest of their faces and I realized I knew every single one of them.

"You can see the people who E killed because of you," someone who walked by said, looking in the pit with regret in their eyes. "They aren't actually there, there in a place of where they receive punishment for either trying to help you, or just being in contact with you during the time you had the board. We just are forced to see their suffering as torture by Emeril," he said to me, without much of anything in his voice. More somber than anything else.

"His name's Emeril?" I asked. I knew I'd heard the name before, but I didn't know where from.

"Well yes, but it's not a him, or a her. It's just evil and enjoys watching the pain of others. Don't let E hear you say that either, he'll punish your people," he said, gesturing towards the pit, "instead of you. Somehow, it hurts more," he said, then walked away slowly, as if cared about nothing. Which he probably didn't. I didn't want to bother him again, so I walked to a random that was wearing clothes that looked like she was from modern times, so I could ask if there was anything else I should know about this hellish place.

"Hello, is there like a rulebook for this place," I said, slightly laughing, not knowing whether it was appropriate or not to.

"What do you wanna know?" she asked, unamused from my joke.

"I don't know. Is there anything we can do?" I asked, wanting to know how I might be able to pass time.

"Well, most of us have tried it lots, but it gets boring after a while, but if you know who gets the board. You're forced to be the ouija spirit that contacts them, and if no one knows, then anyone who wants can," she said to me, uninterested in anything. I remembered Brie taking the planchet. She was almost definitely was the new owner of the board. I had no control over it. I couldn't stop fate. Everything was doomed.