As I watched Nick emerge from the rickety ladder that led up to the attic, the first thing that I noticed was the dusty old box that he held tightly underneath his arm. I rolled my eyes, unable to stop myself. Leave it to Nick to go up there to check out a noise we’d all heard, and to come down with junk that he’d poked through while up there. Lord only knew what he’d found, but before I could ask, he was in front of me, a smile plastered onto his face.

 

    “I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Likely just a rat or something.”

 

    “Lovely,” I grumbled at the thought of mice running amuck in the attic, reproducing like rabbits.

 

    “I did find this though…” he held up the box proudly.

 

    “What is it?” I asked dryly

 

    “Some sort of old Ouija board,” I cringed, knowing what was coming next from the blonde, “I thought since it’s Halloween, we could play?” his eyes held a hopeful gleam within their blue depths.

 

    “No, Nick.”

 

    “But why?” he whined, his lip starting to protrude in a pout that he was famous for.

 

    “It’s stupid. Now come on…the others are waiting downstairs for us.”

 

    “Then why do you have it?” Nick ignored the command, “Huh, Kev…if it’s so stupid, why do you have it?”

 

    I could feel my patients running thin, my blood beginning to boil within my veins. I should have known better than to agree to let Nick investigate that noise, To be honest though, attics creep me out, and with him more than willing to go up there to see what it was, I caved willingly at the time. I was starting to regret that decision.

 

    “I don’t know...it’s not mine. It must have been left up there by the old tenants.”

 

    “You mean you haven’t been up there since you moved here, like, five years ago?”

 

    “Nope…now put the damn game down and let’s get back to the movie.” We had been watching Wrong Turn. I wanted to see what happened to the four idiot kids who wandered into the house in the hills. I never knew why they did that in movies…have people trespass into homes that weren’t theirs, with no red flags going up.

 

    “It’s no wonder you have rats up their.” Nick mused, a smirk on his face, “I mean, this house is like, a gazillion years old. If the old owners were as weird as you are about  attics, then there must be generations of rodents running through the walls.”

 

    “Nick…” I growled through gritted teeth. I had made it all the way to the doorway. When I turned around, however, Nick was still planted into the middle of the room, the game grimly gripped within his palms. I sighed, knowing that I was not going to win this battle, “If I agree to play for a few minutes, will you be happy?” Nick nodded his head vigorously, and I sighed, “Fine…”

 

   Nick took no time all to plop his ass down on the plush carpeting right in the middle of the room. I sat directly across from him as he placed box which homed the game in between us. He took the lid off, tossing it aside as a thick cloud of the dust rushed up my nostrils, causing me to cough. Before I knew it, the box was nowhere to be seen, and a rather sorry looking board with nothing but the alphabet and numbers, with the words ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in the top right and left corners, the word ‘ Goodbye’ at the bottom, was in front of me. A plastic-like triangle piece with a hole cut in the middle of it lay atop the board. I raised an eyebrow.

 

    “Where’s the rest of it?”

 

    “This is it.” Nick replied matter-o-factly, as if it were the dumbest question in the world.

 

    “Uh-huh…” I rolled my eyes again, “What do you do?”

 

    “You’ve never heard of an Ouija board?” the disbelief in his voice was evident.

 

    “Heard of them…never cared to learn what they were all about.”

 

    “They how can you say it’s stupid?”

 

    I ignored the question, “Can you just tell me how we play so we can get on with it?” I asked with irritability.

 

    “Well, first we need candles.” I saw Nick look around and spot three candles placed strategically atop the table. I cursed myself for not putting them away last week like I had wanted to. He got up and grabbed them, opening the drawer to pull out a lighter. He walked back with his belongings, turning the light off along the way and placed the candles around the board, lighting them one by one.

 

   “Now what?”

 

    “Now, we take turns asking questions, and whoever asks the question places their hand on the triangle. It's called a planchette. Any spirits present will guide the planchette over the letters, or numbers, to answer.”

 

    “Oh, for the love of God,” I mumbled, “You really buy into this?”

 

    Nick nodded in all seriousness, “Yeah. Don’t be so critical. It will anger the spirits. Now, it will help keep evil spirits away if we draw a circle around us or a ring of salt,” Nick must have caught my glare because he quickly added, “But it’s your house, so we wont mess up your carpet or anything.”

 

    I let out a sigh. If nothing else, I could have a lot of fun messing with Nick’s mind. The kid would believe absolutely anything. He would be afraid to go to sleep tonight if I played the cards just right during my turns. It would be just like Nick to believe in such nonsense.

 

    “Alright,” I sighed again, “Let’s begin”

 

    “Alright, I’ll go first,” Nick was almost to the point of giddy in excitement. He placed his hands around the triangle-thing in a cupping form, letting the circle show through, “Are their any spirits present that possess this house?”

 

    The planchette moved slowly and directly towards the word ‘yes’. A sudden prickle radiated upon my skin, but I figured it was just my imagination playing with me. Instead of thinking too much into it, I snorted.

 

    “How convenient.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm from my tone.

 

    “Shhh…” Nick scolded lightly, “What is your name?”

 

    The planchette slowly moved, forming the word R-Y-A-N.

 

    “How old are you, Ryan?”

 

    28

 

    “How did you die?”

 

    K-N-I-F-E

 

    Nick looked up at me and grinned. I shook my head at how excited he was becoming, as if I were buying into this crap. Did he really think that I was that gullible? I mean, come on. I’m the sensible one of the five of us.

 

    “Your turn.” Nick removed his hands from the triangle.

 

    “I’d rather not.”

 

    “C’mon Kevy…just ask a question.”

 

    I knew that I would not be winning this battle, so instead of arguing, I put my right hand on the piece lightly, ready to scare the hell out of Nick. I was laughing on the inside, but kept my features set in stone.

 

    “Were you murdered?”

 

    I was about to move the piece, but instead, my hand was guided unwillingly to the ‘yes’. My heart stopped, and before I could play it off, I saw Nick’s grinning face right in front of mine.

 

    “Now do you believe?”

 

    I couldn’t answer. Not verbally at least. I was too confused, wondering what had just happened. There couldn’t be any truth to this whole supernatural myth, could there? I removed my hand, and before I knew it, Nick was back in play without any hesitation.

 

    “Are you a bad spirit?”

 

    I gulped, knowing that I really didn’t want to know the answer to this. Wasn’t there some kind of rule against asking a spirit if they were bad? I didn’t know. Now I wish that I would have found out more about this ‘game’ before I agreed to play.

 

    ‘Yes’ the board gravitated towards that answer again.

 

    “Can you make yourself known?”

 

    We both waited, and the fire atop the wicks flickered on the candles, a cool breeze rushing past us. My breath caught in my throat. There was no way that this was just a coincidence. Right? I prayed that it was, but deep down, knew that we were messing with something from beyond this earth and the living.

 

    “This is too freaking awesome! I’m going to get the others!” Nick exclaimed, getting up, “Don’t do anything until we get back. AJ’s going to love this!”

 

    I nodded, too freaked out to even want to continue on. Especially alone. Suddenly, that salt ring around us for ‘protection’ didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all. I watched as Nick exited the room, my skin becoming chillingly cool. I shivered, and waited…

 

    And waited…

 

    And waited.

 

    Nick should have been back by now, shouldn’t he? I looked up at the glowing clock on the table that he’d fetched the candles from. He had been gone for nearly fifteen minutes. I could feel in the pit of my stomach that something was wrong. He wouldn’t have spent that long pestering the other guys when he was this excited about the damn board. I looked towards the empty doorway, then back towards the board. I gulped, and slowly placed my hands back atop the triangle. I took in a deep breath, laughing bitterly to myself from the fact that I too, was believing in the power that this ‘spirit’ possessed.

 

    “Where is Nick?”

 

     G-O-N-E

 

    A chill ran up my spine, “Is he okay?”

 

    The piece gravitated towards the word ‘No”

 

    “Peachy,” I muttered, for the one time I wanted the damned thing to go towards the ‘Yes’, it failed to do so, “What happened to him?”

 

    H-U-R-T

 

    Another chill. With a swallow, I didn’t know what to think. Whoever this Ryan spirit was, was apparently evil. What had he done to my friend? What had he done to the other guys? Were they okay?” I got up, and walked quickly towards the door, and to the staircase. The movie was still on.

 

    “NICK?” I yelled, and waited. Nothing, “AJ? HOWIE? BRI?”

 

    I waited more, but still got no reply. I was really starting to get freaked out. At least one of them should answer. Unless Nick’s plan was to get them in on giving me a heart attack. My plan to freak Nick out was backfiring on me. That was it. He was playing a prank on me. Still though, I went back towards the game, my heart hammering within my chest to hard that I thought I was having a heart attack. There was one more question I wanted to ask. Had to ask.

 

    “Is Nick okay? Can I help him?...Where can I find him…where can I find them.” I emphasized. I waited, as slowly, my hands were guided to the letters, spelling out what I had feared the most.

 

    Y-O-U   C-A-N-T   S-A-V-E   T-H-E-M

 

    I wanted to roll my eyes, and would have if Nick had been the one asking the question. However I knew now that this was all for real, and my blood ran cold as a chill ran up my spine when directly after the chilling taunt, all of the flames on the candles blew out and a thunderous crash was followed by a blood-curdling scream, then another crash.

 

    Then everything within the house went completely silent.