The Haunting

Ouija

My mother had always been against anything that had to do with demons or the occult.

In fact, I once got in trouble for having books checked out from my high school library on witchcraft, that I was using to write a paper about the Salem Witch Trials.

So, as you can imagine, having a Ouija board was a big no-no.

Yet, that's exactly what my sister had one of her friends bring to a sleepover one night, when she was babysitting me.

Of course.

Because I wasn't traumatized enough by the house.

I never even knew about her using the board until years later, or at least I don't remember knowing about it until that night had been brought up in conversation.

As I'm sure you can imagine, it wasn't easy for me to sleep in that house. I had to sleep with my light on, and the hallway light on. When the last person went to bed at night, then they could turn off the light in my room - as long as I was already asleep.

This night was no different.

That is, until I woke up in a dark room, with a face staring down at me.

Now, I'm not just talking about a face. No. First, there was no body that I could see, that went along with the head. Second, it was blue and sort of glowed.

Although, I don't know if glow is the right word. Maybe more of a shimmer. It wasn't radiating a light or anything, but it was definitely a defined face - despite the fact that I can't recall for certain whether it was a man or women, though I'd be more inclined to say it was a man.

I don't remember how long I lay there, frozen, before I finally let out the most terrified sound that had ever come out of my small six-year old body.

The next thing I know, there are footsteps racing up the stairs and my sister turns on the light, and the face disappears.

She came running over to me, and gathered me up and I just sat there crying, unable to say anything. Her friend just stared there in the doorway, wide-eyed.

I finally found my voice and cried out, asking why she had turned off the lights. She knew she wasn't supposed to, and she told me she didn't.

Still shaking, I told her what I had seen. Her suggestion was to come down and have some hot cocoa and calm down. She even told me I could stay up until our parents came home, and she would just tell them I had a nightmare and stayed up with them.

But if it was a nightmare, surely it was continuing as we made our way down the steps.

I stopped when I got to the bottom, and asked who had been at the house.

"No one. Why?"

I looked back down, and softly told her there were muddy footsteps leading from the front door, and down the hall.

She got in front of me, but I didn't want to leave her side. So I clung to her shirt as she walked down the hall, following the footsteps.

But then they just stopped. Right at the edge of where the linoleum stopped at the end of the hall, before the carpet of the dining room began.

They looked everywhere downstairs, but didn't see any other footprints. All the doors and windows downstairs were still locked, but the bolts on the doors firmly in place.

Nothing had been disturbed and there were no other signs of anyone being in the house.

A quick glance outside didn't show any footprints on the front or back porches either.

Not only that, but it was dry as a bone outside, and hadn't rained in days.

I don't remember if my sister and her friend had cleaned up the footprints, or if they were just gone, because when I passed by the hall again, there was no trace of anything.

As I said, years later, I found out they had been using the Ouija board when all of this started. Apparently, they had just asked for the spirit to give them a sign when my screams rang through the house a minute later.

My sister never had anything to do with another Ouija board again.

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Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading this far! If you're enjoying The Haunting, please be sure to vote! I love reading your comments and try to respond to all of them, so if you have something to say, don't be shy!