Part I

Sarra heaved a sigh of relief when she closed the door and turned off the front porch light. She’d given out the last of the Halloween candy and it was after nine. Not that she minded giving it out. She loved Halloween and enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up in their costumes, running from one house to the next grinning and saying trick-or-treat! Halloween was like Christmas for Sarra. That was how much she loved the holiday.

Sarra turned to sit the empty candy bowl down and nearly did a face dive into the floor when she tripped. She grabbed the hallway table right before she completely lost it. Grimacing, she turned to see what had caused her to trip. Something wrapped in an old leather blanket lay in the floor. Sarra reached down and picked it up. When she pulled the cloth away, her eyebrows shot up. A Ouija board. A very old one, hand carved from the look of the aged wood. It was beautiful really, an antique maybe. The Muncey’s had probably used it for their party a few days ago.

Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her pocket to check. Todd, her boyfriend was texting again. They’d had a huge fight earlier about her babysitting tonight instead of going to Jill’s big party. One, she needed the money, and two, she adored the Muncey children. She’d babysat for the family since their oldest, Dakata, was born. Unfortunately, Todd refused to understand she needed the money. All he saw was his girlfriend ditched him on Halloween to babysit.

Sighing, Sarra walked over to the couch and turned on the TV, putting the Ouija board on the coffee table. Todd was still pissed and she refused to argue with him anymore tonight. She just wanted to eat her popcorn and watch some scary movies. One thing about Halloween, there was never a shortage of scary movies. She settled on the Halloween marathon running on the Chiller channel. You could always count on watching Michael Myers at least a dozen times during October. She needed popcorn first though.

She flipped on the kitchen light and frowned. Water ran in a slow stream from the faucet to the drain in sink. She’d turned it off when she’d heated water for the baby’s bottle earlier. At least she thought she had. Shrugging, she turned off the faucet and then threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Snagging a can of Coke from the refrigerator, she waited for the microwave to beep. She’d been dying to watch scary movies all night. The kids were finally asleep and the trick-or-treaters were all going home. She could sit back, turn off the lights, munch on her popcorn and be terrified.

Sarra checked on the kids and then plopped down onto the Muncey’s big oversized fluffy couch with the lights out. Checking the time on her phone, she turned the volume up just a little and settled back. The baby would be up for a bottle in another hour or so, but until then, the TV was all hers.

Halfway through her popcorn, the phone rang right when Michael was about to grab Lori and Sarra screamed, popcorn flying everywhere as she jumped. She surveyed the mess in disgust before grabbing the cordless.

“Hello?”

“Sarra,” Mrs. Muncey’s voice sounded breathy. “Just checking in on the kids.”

“Sound asleep,” she said. “They were both out by eight.”

“Everything else okay?” Mrs. Muncey asked.

Sarra could hear the party going on in the background and smiled when Mr. Muncey grumbled close by about leaving the girl alone.

“Yes, ma’am,” Sarra assured her. “All good.”

“Okay, we’ll be home by midnight,” she said. “Or one.”

Sarra shook her head when they hung up. The mess on the floor had her scrunching her nose. Popcorn was everywhere. Sighing, she grabbed the bowl and started cleaning up her mess. Before she could finish, she heard the baby crying on the monitor.

It took her a few minutes to change the baby’s diaper and get him a bottle. Poor little guy was out even before he finished his bottle. She settled him back in his crib and smiled down at him. She adored the little tyke. Even when he screamed his head off.

She picked the bottle up and started for the door. An odor hit her nose and she stopped. She sniffed and scrunched up her nose. Oh my god, what was that? It smelled rotten, like someone had forgotten food for a few days. It reeked. Sarra tried breathing through her mouth, but it was impossible to escape the foul smell. She turned on the light and searched the room, thinking someone had eaten something up here and forgotten, but she couldn’t find anything. She pulled her shirt up to cover her nose, trying not to gag.

A thump sounded and then a wail. Forgetting the odor for a moment, she hurried to Dakota’s room. She found him on the floor, crying. “Hey, little man. Are you okay?”

His big blue eyes were full of tears and he pointed at the corner. Sarra looked over but didn’t see anything. “What it is, Koda?” she asked.

“Boo-boo,” he whispered.

Sarra picked him and sat down on his bed, rocking him. “Shh, little man. You just had a bad dream. There’s nothing there, baby. I promise.”

He whimpered, but settled against her, trusting her. It took her twenty minutes to get him to calm down enough to fall back asleep. She tucked him in and made sure his night light was on. The small lamp lay on the floor. He must have knocked it off when he fell out of bed. She turned it on, and the room lit up with images of dinosaurs. The lamp shade spun around and the shapes that had been cut out flashed over the walls.

Now to figure out where that smell was coming from. She tucked Dakota in and turned toward the door. She nearly screamed when she caught an image of something in the corner. It did look like a boo-boo, dark and hunched over. She blinked and it was gone. Sarra rubbed her eyes and shook her head. No more scary movies tonight.

Going back to Mason’s room, Sarra frowned. The smell was gone. It smelled like baby powder again. She checked the baby and gave the room a last once over before turning the light off and going back downstairs. She grabbed the popcorn bowl to empty it out. She’d freaked herself out enough for one night. Maybe she’d find a good old fashioned comedy on. Lord knows she’d had enough weird for one night.

Flopping back down on the couch she channel surfed for a few minutes, but found nothing on she really wanted to watch. It was Halloween and everyone had on scary movies or other specials. Her eyes landed on the Ouija board. Why not? It was Halloween after all.

She pulled the table closer and ran her fingers over the wood. The letters were carved deep into the smooth surface. A chill swept through her when she touched the pointer. Sarra shivered, but continued to lazily move the pointer over the surface. She’d seen movies about the board, read horror stories about them and even played with once with some friends in middle school. It was a silly game and they’d scared themselves to death, each moving the cursor without letting on they were. It had been fun.

Well, Halloween was All Hallow’s Eve, the night when the veil between the living and the dead was supposedly at its weakest. Sarra laughed at the thought. Silly superstitious nonsense. Fun to play at though. She stopped moving the cursor and let her fingers rest lightly on it instead.

“Alright, oh great and powerful spirit board, talk to me.” She laughed out loud as she said it, but then frowned when there was a small tug from under her fingers. She glanced down, but it had stopped. Or maybe it had never moved at all.

“Hello?” she tried again. “Is anyone here?”

This time she knew she felt a tug. The cursor pulled itself to the word yes. Sarra let go as if the thing was on fire. She just stared. No freaking way. She hadn’t move it. It moved. On its own. How? Was someone pranking her maybe? Tom deciding to have some fun with her because she missed the party? She pulled out her phone and dialed his number.

“Hey, babe,” he answered on the third ring. “You done yet?”

Sarra could hear the frat party in full swing behind him so there was no way he was the one doing this. “No, I just wanted to call and say hi.” It was lame, but he sounded drunk enough to not notice.

“Aw, baby, I wish you were here.”

Sarra smiled. He was always so sweet when drunk. Now if she could get him to not act like a jerk sober, they’d get somewhere. “I miss you too,” she said. “I’ll be there as soon as I’m done, okay?”

“Okay, babe,” he said. “I gotta go rescue Mikey.”

Sarra chuckled when she heard splashing. They must be doing stupid stuff in the pool. “Okay, I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

“Love you, too...no, don’t throw that in there!” Sarra laughed out loud when she heard the click. Drunk or not, if they trashed the pool again, the school was going to be pissed.

Someone pounded on the door and Sarra jumped, not expecting it. The knock came again, louder this time. Sarra got up and walked over to the door, turning on the porch light, and looking out the peephole. No one. There was no one outside. She look out the window and still saw no one on the porch. First the Ouija board and now this. Someone was messing around and it was starting to piss her off. Another loud knock at the door had her looking out the peephole again. Still no one. The horror guru in her said not to open the door, but she refused to be afraid. She unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door.

“Trick-or-treat!”

She looked down to see the cutest little kid dressed as a pirate holding out his treat bag. His parents were standing a little ways behind him, shaking their heads impatiently. Sarra laughed and grabbed the extra bag of candy she hadn’t opened. “Hey, there sweetie. Aren’t you a fierce looking pirate?”

“Arrrrr,” he yelled, smiling.

Sarra laughed and dumped half the bag into his orange pumpkin bag. “There you go, big guy. Have fun with the M&M’s!”

“Thank you!” he grinned and ran back to his parents. Sarra closed and locked the door, laughing at herself for getting so scared. Over a silly game.

She went back into the living room and sat down, prepared to do battle with a fictitious spirit.

“Alright, board,” she said. “I’m back. Is there anyone there to speak to me?” She lightly lay her fingertips back on the cursor and nearly screamed when the cursor moved, circling until it came back to yes.

Okay, now this was freaky weird. “Is this a joke?”

The cursor dragger her fingers to the word NO.

“Someone’s here?

YES

Sarra yanked her fingers away from the board, staring at it in shock. This had to be a joke. Someone had to be doing this. She put her fingers back down onto the cursor and it started to move lazily around the board just like she’d been doing earlier.

“What is your name?”

D-O-V-I-A-N.

“Dovian is your name?”

YES.

“Where are you?”

H-E-R-E.

Sarra shivered, feeling the temperature in the room drop. This couldn’t be real. She was not sitting here talking to a ghost through a Ouija board. No possible way.

“Knock if you’re here now.”

A tap tap sounded from the table the board rested from. Oh, damn. This was so not good. The cold crept closer to her, but she ignored it.

“Do you want something?” she asked. “Need something?”

YES.

“What do you want?” Sarra kept her fingers firmly attached to the cursor.

Y-O-U.

“Me?” she whispered

D-E-A-D.

--------------------

I am so excited to be asked by the wonderful folks of the new horror film Ouija, to write a short story for the film. It will be releasing in theaters on October 24. I am a horror fan and was thrilled to be asked to help out. The Ouija board has always been a fascination of mine and I am super excited to be able to explore that fascination on paper.

For me, I think deep down we all have a dark fascination with things that go bump in the night. Take Halloween for example. It’s the one night of the year we all dress up, hide behind costumes, and think about those old fables of the veil between the living and the dead being at its weakest. It’s the one night of the year when the Ouija board is at its strongest, when it can help us talk to the dead.

Sometimes though, it’s not the dead that speaks to us, sometimes it’s the darkest things that hide in the veil that come through….

Make sure to check out the film Ouija on its opening night. I know I will.

~Apryl Baker