(1,058 words)
"Dude, no. There is no fucking way I am getting within 10 feet of that thing, never mind touching it." You looked at your best friend with a frightened stare, combined with an are-you-crazy? look as she held the planchette out to you. The one that went with the Ouija board sitting on her coffee table. After the nightmare you had last night, of meeting a strange girl in the street with your blood on her nails, you were in no mood to mess with anything demonic.
"Don't be such a pussy, it's just a stupid game, Y/N. I literally got this at Spencer's. No demon is going to come out of the board to kill you." Your friend chided, rolling her eyes in the process.
Famous last words, you thought to yourself, but grabbed the planchette anyway. Seated around the table were you, your best friend, and two of your other mutual friends.
"Ok, let's get this show on the road," you huffed, exasperated that your friends had, yet again, guilted you into something.
"No, Y/N, it has to start like this. Servo nostrum animarum pauperum-"
"Oh my god, just fucking start it, you weirdo," you both laughed, then she said,
"No, for real though, you have to ask it yes or no questions."
"Oh, ok- so like, are you as fed up with this bullshit as I am? Yes or no?" You joked, but no one else laughed. Instead, your best friend asked the first question:
"Is there a presence here with us?"
You waited a few seconds, but no response came.
"Ok...maybe they're just shy. Let's start off with something else- are you a boy?"
To everyone's amazement, the planchette began to slowly gravitate toward the "NO" carved into the board. You immediately pulled your hands away.
"I swear, who did that? Quit fucking around." You said angrily, but only because you were a bit frightened.
"Not me," "Nope," "I swear I didn't", they all said. Scarily enough, they all looked sincere and just as shaken as you were.
Your best friend, always the leader, continued:
"Alright then, so you must be a girl. When did you die?"
Again, the planchette moved slowly across the board...only, instead of the predicted number answer, the planchette returned to the "NO". Confused, you all looked at each other.
"You're just...not dead? Is that what you're saying?"
The planchette moved a little faster now, spelling something. "Quick, grab some paper and a pen from that drawer over there." Your best friend said, and so you did.
"A...L...I...V...E." Everyone spelled aloud in unison. You all looked around the table at each other, everyone a bit shaken. You could tell that no one here was controlling the planchette.
"...Ok, guys, I think we should-" You began to say, moving back from the table, but the sound of a heavy breath blowing out one of the candles on the table cut you off. Your friends screamed and backed away from the table, following your actions.
"What the fuck you guys, I didn't fucking do that!" Your best friend yelled, and the others nodded in agreement. The silence that followed encroached like a thick blanket, and you all watched the planchette, as if expecting it to move on its own.
After a few minutes, with no activity from the board, one of your friends said, "It must have just been a draft or something, these things totally aren't real. They're stupid and fake, just like whatever moved the piece." Even while she said this, you knew you had all heard the breath that blew the candle out.
"Uh...I-I heard you're not supposed to talk about it like that, it'll make it angry." You began hesitantly.
"Whatever, this whole thing is shit and stupid and this demon is boring. Step your shit up, you coward." Your friend said to the empty air, eyes narrowed. Another short period of silence followed, but then she spoke again: "I guess you didn't hear me the first time; I SAID-"
But she never got to finish her sentence. The planchette began moving inhumanly quickly on the board in a five-pointed star formation, repeating the pattern over and over. You all backed even further away from the board. The lights in the kitchen began flickering, and you all screamed. "IT'S TRYING TO GET OUT OF THE BOARD!" Your best friend wailed.
"OKAY, OKAY, ENOUGH! I GET IT, PLEASE STOP!" Screamed the same friend who angered whatever was in the board in the first place. And, just like that, everything stopped; the lights came back on and the planchette sat still once again.
Breathing heavily, you all just stared at each other. You had tears down your cheeks, but wiped them away quickly.
The friend who had angered the demon speed-walked over to the table, grabbed her jacket off the back of the chair, and said, "Fuck this shit, I'm out of here."
She began down the hallway to the front door, but stopped suddenly. At first, you couldn't figure out why she'd stopped, but then you looked up. The light in the ceiling at the other end of the hallway, right above the front door, had sputtered out- then, with perfect timing, the rest of the lights in the hallway burnt out one by one, each getting closer to you, each with a deafening pop!
The only light still on in the hallway was the one above your friend. You all watched the light in anticipation, but this one didn't burn out. Instead, it began to buzz and glow unnaturally brightly for a few seconds, turn bright red, and then every single lightbulb in the house blew.
Now, in the dark, you had no idea what to do. Clearly, whatever it was didn't want you leaving- it had made that clear with the hallway lights.
Nobody spoke. Everybody screamed.
The candles around the Ouija board lit themselves, which caused everyone to look over. Hesitantly, you all walked over, surrounding the table and looking down at the Ouija board.
You saw the planchette begin to move slowly, almost seductively. As you saw it was spelling something out, you quickly grabbed the pen and paper and scribbled what you saw.
Your throat grew dry, your hands grew shaky. With a quaky breath, you looked up at all your friends, uttering the single word spelled over and over on the board:
"BILLIE"
