Heartless

23

"Alright. Let's do this" Sam said as he pulled out the ouija board. "Are you sure you're ready for this." Colby mumbled to me. I wasn't sure. "I'm ready." I said and sat on the ground. Corey refused to play, but none of us fought him on it. We put our fingers on the planchette, "ouija....we are here" I said softly. "Is anyone here." I called out, this time more confident. The planchette didn't move. I looked up at Sam and Colby with a quizzical stare. "Is there anyone here?" I repeated. The planchette slowly moved to yes. I nodded, "Are you the same spirit we talked to before." My voice shook slightly as the planchette moved to no. I heard Colby release a sigh of relief. "Are you good or bad?" I said cautiously, it slowly moved,

G-O-O-D

"Okay. Cora I think we should stop before something happens." Corey said nervously. He was right. I proved to myself that I wasn't weak. I didn't want to test my luck.

"Okay. Thank you for talking to us, goodbye." I said and slid the planchette to goodbye. I looked up at Colby, the way he looked at me was with pure admiration. The butterflies in my stomach fluttered at the sight. We all stood and Sam walked deeper into the cave, "we didn't really get to look around much the last time, this place is cool" his voice echoed off the walls. Colby grabbed my hand, and pulled me closer to him. He planted a kiss on the side of my head. "You're the strongest girl I know" he said causing me to smile. He let go of my hand and followed Sam deeper in the cave. My thoughts took over me as I sat against the wall.

"Cora honey you can come out." My dads tearfilled voice echoed from outside my room. "I-is she gone?" I said timidly as I hugged my knees, sobbing. "Yeah." His voice broke, "she's gone." I opened the door and was quickly enveloped in my dads arms. We sat on the floor and cried for a minute. "Do you still love me?" My voice was raspy. "Of course. I love you to the moon and back." He said and stood up with me in his arms. "Come on squirt. Let's get some ice cream." He said and put me down, grabbing my hand. We walked down the hallway to the kitchen. "Is she coming back?" I said as he put whipped cream on our sundaes. He took a deep sigh, "I don't know. But I need you to listen to me." I looked up as he got serious. "It's going to be hard if she doesn't, but when the hard parts over, you're going to be the strongest girl out there. You got that?" He said with a small smile. "I got it." I said and he scooped some whipped cream up on his finger and booped me in the nose with it.

I shook my head as the memory faded away. I blinked away a couple tears and stood up. Following the boys into the cave. They were now filming a little video, talking about how they were back here and if the audience wanted another video in here they should go like their last video. I stayed out of the way as I brushed my hand along the graffitied walls.

The sun was completely set as we exited the cave. Colby held my hand as we walked back down the trail. "Are you feeling better?" He said quietly. "I really am." I said with a smile as he caressed my hand with his thumb.

It was only 9:30 at this point, but we went back to the house. When we walked in Kat and Devyn were sitting in the game room,talking. "There you guys are!" Kat said and got up from the couch. "We are stealing you" She said to me and linked her arm with mine. "What do you mean by that?" I said with a grin as Devyn linked her arm with my free arm. "Don't ask questions, just trust us" she said and started to pull me out the door. The boys were laughing as I stopped them from pulling me, "hold on" I said and unlinked my arms with them and skipped up to Colby, "I'll see you later" I said and kissed him quick, then went back to the girls. They pulled me out to Kat's car and we all got in.