The Attic

The Attic Part 1

The room was cold, so terribly cold. And Mary was shivering. But it wasn't just the cold that was making her shiver. It was fear. She was trembling from head to foot as her eyes followed the planchette as it traced the letters T-W-O-D-E-A-T-H-S. Two deaths.

Her eyes were wide and her breath caught in her throat. She tried to get ahold of herself as she looked around at the others. No one else was scared out of their wits, at least as far as Mary could tell.

She looked across the circle of six participants until her eyes landed on Aaron. He was the fourth person to her left. He was staring transfixed on the moving planchette before him. His eyes were slightly glazed over and his features had a bored haughty look. She couldn't tell if he thought this was foolish and stupid, or if the look was just his face. After all, he mostly always looked bored and haughty.

God, she liked him, he was perfect. But Mary was sure that her feelings were not reciprocated. He had barely ever even looked her way the whole night. In fact, he never looked at her. He was too busy caught up with football and his friends. And Mary knew, he'd never go out with a girl like her, she was too much of a nobody. She was plain with her battered old Tee shirts and ripped jeans. Her hair was dark brown, short and frizzy and she had acne along her hairline. The only thing she valued about her features were her eyes. They were light blue, but they often changed to a smoky gray. She pushed a curly stray lock of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear with her free left hand and tore her gaze away from Aaron.

She looked over at Claire who was sitting at Aaron's right, with her 22kGucci shirt and cute blue jeans. Her hair was bright blond, long and smooth. Not a hair was out of line with Claire. It never was. She would look much better suited with Aaron, but he didn't seem to fancy her either. Mary was grateful for that, even if it didn't help her chances with him at all.

Mary looked to her right at her best friend Sara. She had bushy red hair and freckles, but her facial features were gorgeous.

They had been friends since kindergarten. But some of the things she was into unnerved Mary. Tonight was one of those instances. It had been her idea to take the Ouija board out of her parent's attic when they were out of town for the night.

She had told Mary, "we haven't played with it for so long, I think we should get it out again. Hell, my parents never leave for an entire weekend who knows when we'll get another chance like this, let's throw a party!"

Mary didn't like to always be the voice of reason, but she hated whenever they played with the Ouija board. The things that it said scared her. She tried to find the right words without sounding like a wuss, "I don't mean to be a bore, Sara, but what if your parents come back early, or if one of the neighbors snitches to them, or if..."

"Or if?" Sara was smiling as she reached the attic door.

Mary took a breath and answered, "or if something goes wrong with the Ouija board."

"Like?" Mary was no longer paying attention. She briskly climbed the stairs leading up to the attic.

"What if one of us gets hurt? Or worse? What would we do then, Sara?" She called up the narrow hallway.

"Oh calm down, nothing will. I'll draw a protection circle on the floor around us all when we're all inside. And," she started to descend the stairs and Mary saw Sara flash a devilish grin at her, "we'll have protective sexy bodyguards there with us in case anything were to happen."

"What? Who?" she felt her heartbeat quicken.

"Nobody... just a certain Aaron and his friends Mike and Tyler."

Mary's chest tightened at the mention of Aaron's name. "They won't just come if it's just us five Sara."

"Of course not. That's why I'm gonna text Claire and ask her if she'll come since Mike is obsessed with her."

~~~~~~~~

The planchette was moving again. B-A-D-C-H-O-I-C-E. Bad choice. It spelled it again.

D-E-A-T-H-D-E-A-T-H-D-E-A-T-H.

Mary had an impulse to pull her fingers off of it. But she had no desire to have her head bitten off by Sara's scoldings about the dangers of taking your fingers off before saying goodbye.

"Sara, don't you think we should maybe call it quits tonight?" Mary glanced at her friend.

"Maybe she's right Sara. I'm kinda getting spooked." Mary was surprised that it was Claire who spoke.

Mary looked at Aaron. His eyes were still slightly glazed but his eyebrow was raised as he looked at the others. All of whose faces were cast in eerie lighting from the candle in the center of the circle above the Ouija board. The candle was the only source of light in the dark attic. Why Sara liked to play in there, Mary was clueless.

"Ohh all right," Mary could tell Sara was annoyed by the tone of her voice, "may we say goodbye?"

The planchette shifted to NO. Then to R-U-N-H-I-D-E. Run Hide.

"What? What did it just say?" Tyler was looking at Sara. She blushed as she met his gaze, "it... it said to run and hide, I think. I'm not sure."

H-U-R-R-Y.