The Girl Who Played With The Ouija Board Read online

  The Girl Who Played with the Ouija Board

  William Malmborg

  Darker Dreams Media

  Copyright © 2020 by William Malmborg

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Publishers Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-7348763-1-4

  Contents

  Part I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Part II

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Part III

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Part One

  One

  “Oh my God!”

  “That’s not funny!”

  “Penny?”

  “Penny!”

  “Is she okay?”

  “Penny, come on.”

  “Guys, I think she’s—”

  “Penny!”

  “Jesus Christ.”

  “Don’t touch her!”

  “Call 911.”

  “Fuck that, call a priest!”

  “Shit! My phone’s dead.”

  “Are you getting this?”

  “I’m getting this.”

  “She stopped.”

  “Penny!”

  “She’s waking up.”

  “She okay?”

  “Penny?”

  A dozen eyes were staring at her, her own eyes blinking several times as the darkness cleared.

  “You okay?” Olivia asked, her face and eyes the closest and most concerned.

  Penny stared at her cousin for a moment, trying to grasp what was going on.

  “Here,” someone—Martin—said, handing her a cup.

  “What’s that?” Olivia asked.

  “Coke.”

  “Coke?”

  “Yeah. Has sugar.”

  “That’s for diabetes, you retard.”

  “So? It might help.”

  “How?”

  Confused, Penny took the cup, her fingers barely able to grip it, and sipped.

  It tasted great.

  And it did seem to help, her focus returning. Or her mind was simply clearing with the passage of time. Whichever it was, her thoughts were coming back. With them came questions.

  “What happened?” she asked, her voice weak.

  “You don’t know?” Olivia asked.

  “No.”

  “It was creepy as fuck!” a voice said.

  “Ned!” Martin snapped.

  “It was!” the voice insisted.

  “Yeah,” someone else agreed.

  “Like The Exorcist or something.”

  “Did you see the other side?”

  “Seriously!”

  “Guys, chill!” Martin snapped.

  “And give us some fucking room,” Olivia added.

  A few mumbles followed as the group started to disperse.

  “You okay?” Martin asked.

  “I don’t know,” Penny admitted. Her thoughts were clearing, but she felt really weak. Almost to the point where she simply wanted to crawl into bed and go to sleep. “I think so.” She took another sip of the Coke. “What—” Her eyes caught sight of the coffee table and the Ouija board that was sitting atop it, memories returning.

  Olivia followed her gaze and said, “Is it coming back?”

  Penny nodded, a memory of adding her fingers to the planchette unfolding. After that, everything was blank.

  “We asked if any spirit beings were present and if they would speak to us,” Olivia said.

  “And then?” Penny asked, concern building.

  “And then you started mumbling something and went berserk, arms flailing to the point where you knocked over the candles and then your head was jerking, mouth spitting. It was really creepy.”

  “Shit,” Penny said. She had no memory of that.

  “Yeah,” Olivia agreed.

  “It was like you were possessed,” Martin said.

  Olivia turned and glared at him.

  “What?” Martin demanded.

  “That’s not helpful.”

  “But it’s true.”

  Penny felt chilled at the thought.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Olivia said.

  “Yeah, you really shouldn’t,” Martin agreed.

  Penny put a hand to her head.

  “Okay?” Olivia asked.

  “I need to lie down.”

  “Want me to take you home?” Olivia offered.

  “No, no, your mom will freak,” Penny said. “I just need like thirty minutes.”

  “My sister’s room,” Martin said. “It’s just down the hall.” He offered an arm.

  Olivia offered hers as well.

  She took both.

  They helped her up, her body wobbling to the point where she would not have been able to walk unaided.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Olivia asked once they were in the bedroom.

  “I think so,” Penny said, her body atop the pink bedspread, right hand on her forehead. “I just need to close my eyes for a while.”

  Olivia nodded and then looked around the room.

  Penny followed her gaze, realizing that her cousin was reluctant to leave her alone.

  Out in the main room, music began to play once more.

  “Guess they called it quits with the Ouija board,” Olivia said, letting out a hesitant chuckle.

  “Sounds like it,” Penny said.

  “I’m going to kill Martin for bringing it out.”

  “Nah, don’t. Not his fault.”

  “I told him not to.”

  “It’s his house.”

  “Still.”

  “Olivia,” Penny said, a hand reaching out to touch her hand. “Let it go.”

  Olivia looked down at Penny and smiled. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes,” Penny lied and then winced.

  “What?”

  “My hand.” She eased it away from Olivia’s grip and looked at it. “It stings.”

  “You flailed around quite a bit, hitting things,” Olivia noted.

  “It feels like a burn.”

  “Maybe from when you hit the candles.”

  “Did I hit the flame?”

  “Don’t know. Your arms were going everywhere and hitting everything.” She gave a helpless shrug. “It all happened so fast, and once the candles were hit, everyone kind of focused on them, worried that they would start a fire.”

  Penny gently rubbed at the sting, the flesh below her knuckles blistered.

  “And you totally burned Leanne,” Olivia added, another slight chuckle echoing.

  “I did?”

  “Yeah. Splattered her with candle wax.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “Oh yeah. It was just her chest, arm, and a bit of her cheek.”

  “Oh jeez.”

  A knock echoed and then the door opened.

  Martin walked in.

  “What?” Olivia asked.

  “Just checking. You okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Penny said.

  Martin nodded.

  Olivia turned and looked at him, and then motioned for him to go.

  He turned and left.

  “Can I get you anything?” Olivia asked.

  “No, I’m fine. Just going to rest for a bit.” She rubbed at her head. “I’m exhausted.”

  “All that flailing about probably burned more calories than going to the gym,” Olivia said.

  Penny chuckled. “Let’s market it as the Ouija Board Possession Workout.”

  Olivia laughed and then said, “Let me know if you need anything, or if you want to head home. I can always tell my mom that Liz got the stomach flu or something.”

  “I’m okay,” Penny said.

  Olivia continued to hesitate.

  “Seriously, I’m fine,” Penny said. “Go have fun.”

  Olivia nodded and stepped out, pulling the door shut as she left.

  Penny closed her eyes, the exhaustion overwhelming.

  Something was coming for her in the dark, something that she couldn’t get away from. No matter how fast she ran, or where, it was always ri
ght behind her, the distance closing with each passing second, its talons reaching for her, trying to take hold, Penny knowing that once it got a grip, there would be no escape.

  Penny opened her eyes, confusion dominating her mind as the unfamiliar dark bedroom came into focus.

  And then she heard an odd squeaking sound.

  She looked toward the far wall.

  The squeaking continued.

  Confusion appeared but then was quickly replaced with understanding.

  No way!

  A grin spread across her face.

  First Olivia had lied to her mom about where they were spending the night, and now she was having sex with a boyfriend that her mom didn’t even know about.

  She shook her head.

  Everything she had known about her cousin was wrong, the image she had always carried of the uptight Bible-thumping Catholic girl so far off that it was almost comical.

  Her aunt, on the other hand …

  Yikes.

  It was hard to believe her mom and aunt had been cut from the same cloth. It didn’t seem possible.

  Mom.

  A hollow feeling hit, one that caused her lower lip to quiver.

  Tears followed.

  She reached for her phone, a sudden need to see a picture dominating her thoughts.

  Her hand struck something.

  Glass shattered.

  Oh fuck!

  The squeaking in the other room stopped.

  “You okay?” Olivia asked while standing in the bright doorway, the shirt she had thrown on looking like the one Martin had been wearing earlier in the evening.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Penny said. “Just knocked over a glass.”

  “You sure?”

  “Uh-huh. It’s nothing.” She looked on the nightstand for her phone, but it wasn’t there. “Do you know where my phone is?”

  “Oh, I put it in your coat pocket.” She stepped into the room and went to a chair where the coat was, hand quickly pulling out the phone. “Ta-da.”

  “Thanks,” Penny said, taking it.

  Olivia hesitated.

  Penny eyed her and then said, “Really, I’m fine.”

  Olivia nodded and stepped back into the hallway, the sounds of her steps followed by the echo of a door closing.

  Penny sighed and unlocked her phone and then thumbed open a picture of her mom.

  Sadness returned, as did the tears.

  Two

  “I can’t believe I have to wear this,” Penny said while standing in front of the tall mirror in the bedroom she shared with Olivia.

  “Ah, it’s not so bad,” Olivia said.

  “Not so bad? These outfits are a fetish.” She spread her hands out. “If I posted a picture of myself in this on Instagram, thousands of guys would spend hours jerking off to it.”

  “That’s probably why we have to wear them,” Olivia said. “All the school officials are perverts who walk around with huge boners all day.”

  Penny laughed and then said, “I almost feel like I should have my hair in pigtails.”

  “It would complete the look.”

  “You know what,” Penny said, pulling a hair tie from her wrist. “I’m so doing it!”

  “Me too!” Olivia announced.

  Penny grinned while securing the hair on the right side of her head and then shifted to the left, her fingers freezing when she saw the scar and realized it would be completely visible.

  “No good?” Olivia asked as Penny undid the pigtail on the right.

  “Nah, not for the first day,” Penny said, fingers running through her hair, scar once again hidden.

  “Nicky! Girls!” Aunt Susan called. “We need to go.”

  “Coming!” Olivia shouted, her own fingers removing her pigtails.

  Penny took one last look at herself in the mirror and then turned to head out, one hand grabbing her backpack while the other pocketed her phone.

  “Olivia said boners while they were getting dressed,” Nicky said as he followed the two into the kitchen.

  “I did not!” Olivia scoffed.

  “Did too!” Nicky insisted. “And they were talking about sex stuff.”

  “Penny?” Aunt Susan asked.

  “We weren’t talking about sex,” Penny said, confusion spreading across her face.

  “She’s lying!” Nicky insisted.

  Aunt Susan looked from Nicky to Penny and then said, “We need to go.”

  Olivia gave a brief glare at her little brother and then grinned at Penny, who grinned back.

  “Jesus!” Penny said as the school came into view, a giant stone tower with a huge cross atop it dominating the landscape.

  “Penny!” Aunt Susan snapped.

  “Sorry.”

  “We’ve talked about this.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I’m trying.”

  Aunt Susan didn’t reply to that and instead reminded them that she was going to be visiting their grandfather today and then taking Nicky to Scouts that evening, so they would be on their own for dinner.

  Olivia nodded and then opened her door.

  Penny did the same on her side.

  “Ready for this?” Olivia asked.

  Penny eyed the front door, where tons of students in white shirts and plaid skirts or pressed pants were entering, and said, “No.”

  Olivia laughed. “Come on, it won’t be so bad. You already know all the cool kids.”

  “Yeah, and they know me as the heathen girl who freaked out while using a Ouija board.”

  “Which is why you’ll be the big hit here…if you don’t get struck by lightning while touching the front door.”

  “Maybe you should stand away from me when I try to enter.”

  “Fuck that. If you’re struck, I’m struck.”

  Penny made it through the doorway without being struck by lightning and then made it to her first class without issue, the rooms looking fairly similar to the rooms of her old school out in California, the only exception being all the religious stuff that lined the walls. And the uniforms.

  No one paid much attention to her as everyone filtered in, which was most likely due to this being everyone’s first day. That was a plus. Had she been forced to switch schools mid-year, she would have had a “new girl” stigma attached to her, but since it was the beginning of the year, it would take some time for everyone to realize this was her first time in this particular school.

  “Penny?” a voice asked.

  Penny looked up from her schedule and saw Martin looking down at her. “Hey!”

  Next to him was another familiar face from the party, though the name escaped her.

  “These seats taken?” Martin asked, motioning to the ones to her left.

  “Nope,” Penny said.

  “Great.” He took the seat next to her while the familiar-faced guy secured the one behind him. “You remember Joey?”

  “I do,” Penny said, the name now clicking. They had talked a bit at the party. She gave him a “Hey.”

  “Hey,” he replied back with a nervous grin, eyes quickly going down to his schedule.

  “So, you any good at math?” Martin asked.

  “Not at all,” Penny replied.

  “Well sh—” An authoritative-looking figure entered the room. “Shish kebab.”

  Penny snorted and then looked around in horror.

  No one had noticed.

  And then a bell buzzed, several students hurrying to grabs seats.

  “Okay, everyone, simmer down,” the authoritative-looking figure said.

  Penny had been expecting a nun, but this was just a middle-aged man whose aftershave dominated the room.

  “My name is Mr. Foster,” the teacher continued. “I’m going to take roll, during which I want each of you to—” He stopped as a student hurried into the room, her tiny voice apologizing profusely about having gotten turned around.

  Everyone watched as the young lady found a seat and collapsed into it.