𖦹G̶l̶a̶s̶s̶ M̶i̶n̶d̶s̶𖦹

1: The Party

  A couple of days after the plan, the party had occurred at the Hudson Manor. Celine and Damien *with their parents* were there, William and his parents showed up, and some of Mark's family members and older friends came to the manor. The kids had no idea what this whole party was about, but they were excited to be there.

  The inside was more grand than the out *to Celine's surprise*. The walls were cream colored and the floor was nice hardwood to compliment. Artwork and statues filled the corridors and rooms, and so did a few small potted plants. There were two flights of stairs on each side of the house, a third flight went to the basement.

  The group hung out in Mark's fancy room while the adults were downstairs drinking. Celine kept saying how pretty everything looked while Mark searched through his closet.

  "What are you looking for?" Damien asked, looking over Mark's shoulder. He had thrown clothes and shoes all over the floor, making a mess around his feet. He still kept searching.

  "There's something I want to show you guys," Mark replied, not looking up at his friend. "Just..here!" He took out a box and set it on the other side of the room with everyone else. He opened it up and pulled out a board and a wooden triangle.

  "What is that Mark?" Damien looked in confusion at the board and piece. The three older boys in the room chuckled and looked at Mark. He just smiled back at them, then looked at the confused boy to his right.

  Mark chuckled slightly with his older pals then looked at him, "This is an Oujia board, used to contact demons and the dead." He nodded and looked back at the board while everyone got seated around it. Mark showed them how to use the Ouija board and then he turned off the lights in the room.

  The room wasn't too dark, but dark enough to make things creepy. The window was still showing light through, but the blinds were blocking out some of it. They each put their middle and index finger on the planchette. Johnny, one of the older boys, asked the first question, "Is there any spirits or demons here with us tonight?"

  The piece moved slowly over to the "no" and the older kids just sighed. "This thing it a joke, Mark. You shouldn't have stole something so useless from that stupid shop," Ron, another older boy said tiredly.

  "You stole this? Do your parents know about it?" Celine questioned, a bit of concern in her voice. Will just looked at his friend's expression, trying to find an answer to the sudden question. He looked around to the three 4 year older boys, then back at the only girl in the room.

  Mark looked a bit nervous, then responded to her, "well, you see..um, they said if I did it and it was true, then I could be part of their gang..so while the old woman at the corner store wasn't looking I-"

  "You stole just to part of some group?! And from an old woman?!" Celine gasped and slightly glared at the boy across from her. He knew she would be ashamed of him for doing it, he did feel bad for doing it after he spoke about it.

  "Now now dearie, Mark got what he wanted, but now he has to suffer with this piece of junk until he can find some nut job to take it," Michael, the third old boy in the group, smirked at her. She looked angry, not just at Mark but at this kid who was now flirting with her. He got on her worse side once he winked at her.

  "YOU BETTER NOT DO IT AGAIN OR ELSE-" Celine stood up from her spot in the circle and was ready to punch the daylights out of this kid, but Damien interfered with the attack.

  Her brother took her shoulders and turned her to face him, "Celine, Celine, calm down. You know they're only joking, don't take it seriously.." he rubbed her now tense shoulders. She took a deep breath, then nodded and sat back down. "Let's try this again, shall we?" She asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.

  They agreed to continue and all went back to their game. As the game continued, the questions started to get more intense and theories were starting to stir around the group. They did get a response of yes for a demon being there, so all they had to do was find out what it wanted.

  After some time, the demon seemed to get angered by the older boys' jokes. They kept saying that there was no demon with them and that Mark was just moving the piece to get his other friends scared, but he kept telling them he wasn't.

  While Mark and Ron were arguing about him faking the whole thing, they heard a crack of thunder and a flash of bright light come from the window. They all lifted their hands off the triangle, shocked at the sudden sound, but Celine's hand was the only on left on the planchette.

  Will looked in concern at her blank stare and no movement, then snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Celine? You still awake in there? Heellloooo? Earth to Celine?"

  Celine didn't look away from her stare, but spoke under her breath. It was too hard for any of then to make out, her speech was too fast and too silent, but they all could tell something had happened. Something wrong had happened to the poor young girl. She started moving the planchette to different letters on the board, spelling out: I  A M  A L I V E.

  "Celine, are you alright?" Her younger and now scared brother laid his hand on her shoulder. She immediately grabbed his hand and wouldn't let go, staring him dead in the eyes. William tried to tell at her to stop, but she didn't look away from her pleading brother.

  Soon enough Ron had slapped her in the face and got hit back by much greater force. Celine rose up from her sitting spot and let go of her brother to attack the older boys. Will took Damien and followed Mark into the closet so they wouldn't get caught up in the battle.

  They heard lots of punches being thrown about and Celine shouting at them, then it all stopped a few moments later. "S-should we check on them?" Damien asked, squished between the two slightly taller boys in the crowded closet.

  Mark exchanged a look with Will, then they both nodded. Mark took the doorknob in his hand and slowly turned it and peered out to the others outside. Celine was standing in front of his bed while the older boys were bruised on the floor not too far away from her. She was looking at her hands, then looked at Mark with teary eyes.

  "I'm sorry.." Celine spoke quietly, then dropped to her knees and sobbed into her hands. Mark and the other two jumped out of the closet and right to there side to comfort her and see why she was crying.

  What they could make out of her chocked up words was that she was possessed by the demon responding to them in the Oujia board and had beaten up the older boys because the demon was mad they didn't believe in it. Mark helped the boys sit up and got them bandages, then they all sat in silence. Only sniffles were heard, but besides that no one said a thing.

  A half hour later Will, Damien and Celine's parents came upstairs to fetch them and saw them all sitting there. They had asked what happened and Will explained everything they needed to know. Poor Celine got teary eyed again and forgave the older boys five more times while her father helped her calm down. They got everything situated and all went home, leaving only Mark's family in the manor to talk.

••••••••••

{Yes, hello, I'm alive, hi. So I lost motivation for this chapter in the middle of writing it so I put it off for a bit until I could think of something. I was able to think of something to make it all fit well, so hooray for me. I kinda wanted this paranormal event to be attached to the reason why Celine becomes a seer in wkm, and so I made it work. I do wanna speed up this backstory bit bc I've been really wanting to do the events after wkm so badly, so sorry if these next few chapters seem so quick and hastily done, I really wanna skip to the aftermath. Anyways, I'll see ya guys around!}