Dan Williams was jubilantly unwrapping the presents of his thirteenth birthday. Also rummaging through the pile were his siblings Edward, Bessie, and Annie. Their parents had retired for the day, and asked them to put it off till the next morning but, like each year’s celebrations, they had sneaked down to the sitting room and were gleefully examining every gift.
Their efforts unveiled a set of toy cars, a baseball bat, a guitar, a fantasy chessboard, all of which received joyous commendation until the process was abruptly interrupted by a cry of disbelief.
“Hey, what’s this?” inquired Bessie sharply.
“Shh! Not so loud! Let me see it”, said Edward.
“But its got no name on it”, continued Bessie, disregarding her brother as she uncovered a reddish box, gazing curiously at the label.
“What is that thing?” asked Dan impatiently.
“Can’t even pronounce this. Oo-ja or something. Weird!”
“That should be Ouija I guess. I’ve heard of it. Lets check it out”.
The box contained a rather soiled, tattered sheet of parchment, emitting wispy dust-clouds as it tumbled out, along with a thin, triangular piece of wood.
“There’s letters and digits all over it!” exclaimed Annie.
“They use this thing to summon spirits”, explained Dan.
“Spirits! You believe in all that filth! Come now, Dan, you’ve grown up, thirteen!” they uttered in unison, with an air of raillery.
“Oh? How about I prove it to you?” he retaliated.
“Really! You think you can call up the ghost of some great big monster?” jeered Edward, patting him on the shoulder.
“ We’ll see. If you want to try it out, all you have to do is steady your nerves as you place your forefinger gently on that marker along with me. And make sure you don’t get scared or drag it with your finger. I’ll do the rest. Up for it?”
They nodded. Outside, a storm had commenced, the torrents battering incessantly against the windowpane; the winds hollering like some wild beast struggling to be free.
At Dan’s instructions, the marker was slowly shifted in circular motions around the middle of the sheet before bringing it to the centre, all four of them trying to focus, fingers on the triangle.
After a brief pause, Dan suddenly spoke up in a hoarse whisper-
“Is anybody here?”
They waited, Dan visibly impatient. Nothing occurred.
“This is stupid”, cried Bessie with exasperation.
“But I think I-“ began Annie, only to be snubbed.
“You’re just a fraidy cat, that’s it. There’s nothing. We’d better wrap up, its late”, ordered Edward, with ill-concealed trepidation.
But Dan implored them for another chance. It took much persuasion. The process was resumed, his eyes glowing with determination.
“Is anyone here?” they asked again.
Their fingers were yanked to the letters, forming the word ‘Yes’. After many moments of complete petrifaction, Dan managed to squeak out-
“What is your name?”
The marker moved slowly this time, stopping at the letter S for some seconds before scraping coarsely across to A.
“Must be Sam or Samuel”, muttered Annie, looking on hopefully.
The marker suddenly pushed forward with enormous speed to the letter T and then nearly hopped back to A. They had only time enough to cleave the night with their screams before the marker scurried over to the letter N.
No comments:
Post a Comment