Ouija

25

The doorbell rang. I saw through the peephole, it was Father. Father Simon.
"Welcome, Father." I said taking his coat and hat.
"Thank you Father, for coming here on such a short notice." Andrew greeted him.

"Anytime." He replied smiling.
"Anyway, Can I meet your Mother?" He asked me. I nodded, and went upstairs to get Mom. Meanwhile, Father Simon, looked around the house.

Soon, she was sitting with us.
"Greetings, Mrs.D'Costa. I know, this can be a little tough for you, but can you answer some on my questions? I will help you, I promise." His tone was indeed promising. He took out a tape recorder and switched it on.

"I have gone through a lot of things Father. I think this will be easy." She replied and the questions started.

"So, how long have you been seeing things? I mean, things a person cannot, should not, see." He asked.

"Well, it all started from last year. I went through unbelievable hallucinations. I heard screams, yelling of people to save them. I was terrified." Mom replied.

"But there was one strange thing happening with me since a few days." She continued.
"What do you mean?" Father Simon asked.

"I have been waking up at 3am. Due to weird dreams, or just my eyelids would open themselves, and I didn't even feel a trace of sleep then."

"Oh." That's all he said. He seemed tensed.

"Father? What happened?" I asked.

"3am, is the devil's hour. Spirits are mostly active between 3 to 4am in the morning before dawn." He explained, removing his glasses and sighing.

"Great." I let out a sarcastic comment.
It was pretty cold now. I was sure there was around 12 logs in the fireplace but still, we did not experience the warmth it should let out.

"Can I see your room?" He asked Mom. She looked frightened. Her eyes averted down as if she was avoiding us.
"Mom? Father wants to see your room." I repeated. She looked at me and shook her head slightly, in a no.
"Come Father. I'll take you there." I offered which he took.
Andrew was behind me.

We walked up to the room, I opened the door and hit the lights,  What we saw, was totally unpredictable.
Black scratches, upside down crosses in black crayon, 'satan' scribbled in a handwriting of a little child.

"Jesus Christ." Father said looking around.
"She made me do it." Mom said, her voice sounded choked, as if she was about to break down in tears.

"This is often considered as the insult to the trinity. The father, the son, and the holy spirit." He said, turning to us.

"God!" Mom exclaimed.
✳✳✳

"The house needs a cleansing. Exorcism." Father told us.

"What? Isn't that a thing done on people?" I asked looking at Andrew.

"No, necessarily not. Exorcism is a procedure in which all demonic, evil, and unholy presence is cleansed. The patient maybe a person, or a house." He replied. Andrew nodded.

"Well, we have to move out." I said looking at mom.
"Actually, I don't think that will help anyway. That spirit is latched onto you. So if you stay here, the presence itself will grow stronger and we can get over with it faster." Father said.

He switched the tape recorder off.

"I will ask for the church's permission to perform such an activity." He said moving towards the door.
"Okay, that would be great, Father." Andrew added.

"I will give you a call, when I am ready. Don't worry, and don't lose hope. Have you placed those holy symbols I gave you?" He said looking at me.
"Yeah, I did." I replied nodding.

"Okay then. See you later." He greeted and left.
Mom looked tensed. Her eyes were reflecting guilt. My glance averted to Andrew. He was looking at me too.
"Abby..." He said sighing.
"I'm sorry." He completed.

"No, its okay." I replied, in a soft tone. It was me who pulled him into this mess.
"Today, before Father Simon came in the evening, I walked down the street to the library, to get some more information. I found something really useful." He said sitting in front of me and mom.
I paid attention.

"Spirits, as father said, are active between 3 to 4am. When a spirit comes to human world, its motive is revenge mostly. Sometimes, they come to warn you about your future, and sometimes they come to kill your future. Because of the things they couldn't do in their living life, they come in the form of a wandering soul, to complete what was abandoned." He explained.

"So, do you mean, Alicia has come to this world with the revenge motive?" Mom asked. Andrew nodded.

"How did this all start?" Mom asked looking at me. I looked down with guilt. It all started because I found that Ouija board. I played it. I let Alicia out.

"Actually, Mom..." I took a deep breathe.
"In our attic, I found this strange board with numbers and alphabets. Ouija board. We found that spirits could be called from it. So, we..." I slowed down.

"So, you tried your luck?" Mom completed me. I nodded.
"Mom, I'm so sorry." I said. She looked at me , her eyes softened.
"Its okay now. We can't change what has happened already. Can we?" She said. I smiled. It felt like a huge burden was off my shoulders.

That's when my phone rung. Rosa.
"Hey, Rose." I picked up.

"Hey, Abby. Miss me?"

"So much." She laughed.

"I know. By the way, why does your tone sound like you have just puked your intestines out?"

"Actually..." I told her the entire plot.

"Oh my holy fudgeballs! All of this happened and you didn't even care to tell me? Are you okay? How is your mother? Is Andrew helping? Did you show this whole mess to a priest or something?" She bombarded her questions.

"Calm down. Yes, everything's okay. Father Simon came over. He said he will have to conduct an exorcism for this."

"Exorcism? That's crazy."

"I know. We can't help it. When are you coming back?"

"Um, actually about that. I called you to tell you this. My mom has got a job here, in Europe. In a fashion designing company. So, I shifted here."

"What! You can't leave me just like that!" Great. First mom, then Rosa.

"I'm not leaving you. We have phones, whatsapp, everything to stay in touch, right? Besides, there are many hot guys here." I chuckled.

"Okay, Rose. Talk to you later." I said cutting the call.

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~Sanchali.