What Lies Beyond

We rushed back to my room. I burst through the door, panting like a dog. Turning around, I slammed the door after Darren had gotten through. I quickly limped over towards the bed and sat there. My leg was in serious pain. I tried to hold back the tears from coming, but I didn’t try hard enough. Soon, there was a stream of tears coming down my face.

“What the hell happened?” Desiree demanded.

“W-we-we were getting th-the-the board and,” I started, with pauses between my sobs and shakiness, “it was there. It was right there.” I put my hand about six inches away from my face to show how close it was to me. I pointed to my leg, “It grabbed my leg and threw me. I fell hard on the shin of my leg. It feels broken, but I think it’s just a sprain.”

“What the hell happened to your eye?” Michelle said, looking directly at the eye I hit.

“Oh, I totally forgot about it. I fell when the thing grabbed me and hit my head on the ladder. It can’t be that bad. I didn’t even feel it that much,” I said.

“Desiree, Darren, look at his eye,” Michelle said. They both walked over to me and gasped in unison.

“What?” I said, trying to be as calm as possible. “What’s wrong with my eye?”

There was a big mirror that hung on one side of my room. I got up and with the support of Desiree, who had put my arm around her neck, walked towards the mirror to see for myself what exactly was wrong with my eye.

I reached to pull my eyelids further apart and winced. It may not have hurt then, but now it hurt like a bitch. I pulled my eyelids further apart, fighting against the pain and finally saw what it is they were talking about.

Where the white of my eye should be, was red. My iris was black. My eyes are normally hazel, but this one eye was dark black. There were four veins which created an ‘X’ on my eye. They went through my iris and diagonally to the other side of my eye. They could barely be seen in the iris because it was so dark.

“Oh my God,” I exclaimed. “What the fuck is this on my eye?” That was when I decided it would be a good idea to rub my eye and try to make it go away. “Shit.”

“Okay, I’m seriously getting annoyed with this bitch,” Michelle said, referring to the thing. “I don’t just want to sit here doing nothing while my best friend is getting assaulted by a fucking ghost.”

“Michelle, I’m okay,” I put my arm around her shoulder. “I’m a fighter. We’re gonna get through this,” I promised. There were tears forming in her eyes. “Don’t cry.” I gave her a hug, while using her for support for my leg. “It’s gonna be okay.”

I pulled away and limped over to the bed. On the table in front of my bed, was the box. Under the word, “Ouija” that I had seen earlier, was a quote. “The Devil has no power…except in the dark.” -Cassandra Clare. The quote game me chills. I shook it off and gripped the sides of the box and shook the box up and down until the bottom of the box fell out onto the table.

Dust exploded from the inside of the box. Nobody had used this in a really long time. I grabbed the rectangular board and took it out of the box. I stared at it for a little, and then set it on the table.

I grabbed the pointer and put both of my hands on it.

“Wait. Shouldn’t we actually figure out how to do this?” Desiree questioned. I pulled my hands back and nodded.

I pulled my IPhone out. “I’ll look up some things that we should know before we do this,” I said. “Grab some paper and a pencil. I’m guessing I am going to be asking the questions, right?” I said.

Nobody else volunteered.

“Only three of are going to do this. Who wants to do it with me? The other person is going to write,” I asked.

“I’m definitely doing this shit, nobody is gonna mess with you except for me,” Michelle said triumphantly.

“I am too,” Desiree said.

“I guess that leaves you to write, Darren. You okay with doing that?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said too quickly.

I walked over to my closet and searched for candles. Only white ones, the website had said, no colors, especially black. Black signifies energy, but also negativity. I knew there were candles in here. Somewhere, then I remembered that they were in one of the canisters on the top of my closet. I reached up to the top and grabbed one of the buckets of stuff. I looked through the clear bin to find three candles. I popped open the lid and dug around to find the candles.

“Do any of you have a lighter?” I asked, looking around at each of them. They reached into their pockets and dumped all of their belongings onto my bed. Loose change, lint, bobby pins, and a bunch of other items were spread on my bed. There was one lighter that came from Darren. I grabbed it and lit each of the candles. They left a distinct, but sweet scent.
I placed the candles evenly around the board.

“Okay, are you guys ready?” I asked.

Desiree and Michelle nodded.

“It says that we should say a prayer first for protection,” I said.

“Let’s hold hands and do a quick prayer. I’m no Christian, but let’s pray,” Michelle said, reaching her hands to Desiree and I. We grabbed hands and Desiree invited Darren to come over.

“Protect us from this cruel evil that seems to be haunting us. Protect us as we try to communicate with this being. Keep us safe, if it is your will. Amen,” I said with meaning.

“Amen,” the three said.

Darren went back to his spot. He had the pencil, ready to start writing.

“Okay, put your index and middle finger on the “planchette” as it’s called,” I told the two girls. They did what I told them, and I did the same. “Don’t move the pointer. You have to believe that this thing is going to work. Think positively, no negativity,” I told them.

We all took deep breaths, trying to think of only positive things. “Okay, now are you ready?” I asked.

They nodded again.

“Darren?”

He nodded too.

I thought of a good question to ask, “Is there someone with us in this room right now?” I said.

Nothing, we stared at the pointer for several minutes.

I was about to give up until it began to drag itself across the board to the word, “Yes.”

We gasped in horror.

“Are you a demon? Or are you good?” I asked.

The planchette moved to the letters. It started off with a, “B” and moved quickly to the, “O” it went to the, “T” and then finally to the, “H”.

Both.