It was a clear, quiet night just on the cusp of spring and a slight chill hung in the air as a pair of young women walked along a deserted street. The time was near three in the morning, and the moon and stars still hung brightly in the sky. Everything about the scene was perfect but Sonny Dale got the feeling that something wasn't quite right. She could feel it beneath her skin, down to her bones and although she wouldn't announce it to Vee, her best friend, she wanted to turn back and call it a night. They were slightly tipsy, a little giggly as they continued to walk, their steps quiet on the uneven concrete sidewalk below. It was coming up quick--that old, abandoned house in the neighborhood that most of the kids told stories about, and everyone claimed to know someone who had lost a baseball in the backyard and never came back. Sonny thought she was too old for ghost stories, but there was a distinct prickling on the back of her neck to remind her that fear was real.

"This isn't going to work," the raven-haired girl chided with a laugh to her blonde beside her. "I don't what flea market you got that piece of shit from, but you might as well use it as a cutting board." 

That [i]piece of shit[/i], as Sonny had so eloquently put it, just happened to be a Ouija board. Vee Daniels had brought it over earlier that afternoon, excited as ever about what a great find she'd come across. The woman who sold it to her claimed that it was over one hundred years old and cursed with restless spirits. Being somewhat of a skeptic, but still one to err on the side of caution, Sonny agreed to help Vee test the legitimacy, just not in her own apartment. Thus, the trip to the scariest house in the old neighborhood after a few beers at a dive bar up the street.

Vee, with her porcelain skin and red-painted lips scoffed in disagreement. "Where is your imagination?" she asked. "We could have the ghost of Jimi Hendrix in this thing, and you're already trying to say it's not real." 

Snorting, Sonny shook her head and swept her black hair away from her face. "If Hendrix is in there, I'll pay off your tab at every bar for the next month." 

"Deal," Vee chirped, grinning from ear to ear. 

Soon, the two came to the steps of the house. The windows were boarded up, the porch lights were busted out and the door had almost completely fallen off of its hinges, but they still managed to get inside. The air was filled with dust and hung in a humid cloud all around them. Sonny pulled out her cell phone and swiped at the screen, casting just enough light to walk without falling to a room up the stairs.

What used to be a bedroom was now just an empty shell filled with the same amount of dust as the rest of the place. Sonny frowned as she batted at a cobweb, not wanting it to get stuck in her hair. She turned to Vee, still using her cell phone as a makeshift flash light. "Let's get on with it." 

The other girl had brought a bag with them filled with candles, matches, one old pearl necklace and the Ouija board itself. Together, they lit the candles one by one and placed them in a semi-circle, and then laid the supposedly cursed board down beneath soft lights. On the dusty floor, the friends took a seat and Sonny crossed her legs Indian-style after rubbing her palms on the legs of her black pants. "This place is filthy," she complained with a grimace, only to be met with a shush from Vee as she placed her necklace at the top of the board.

"Now you go," the blonde instructed, acting as though Sonny was supposed to just [i]know[/i] how these types of rituals worked.

"Go...where?" 

"Something personal," Vee went on to explain. "The lady told me that we needed something personal for the spirits to connect with us." 

Rolling her eyes, Sonny shook her head. "I don't have anything. Sorry." It was sort of a lie, but it was mostly because she was starting to get a bit anxious over the sudden seriousness that her best friend was exhibiting. 

The other girl shrugged and dug around in her pocket before producing a small knife. "You can use your blood," she said casually.

"Are you out of your mind!?" Sonny moved to get up, but Vee took hold of her wrist and pulled her back down. She wasn't sure what made her go along with it, but she took the knife from her friend and sliced a shallow cut into her hand until the skin pooled with enough blood to wipe on the board. This was crazy, probably the most insane thing that she had ever done, but part of Sonny still believed that nothing would happen, and that Vee had just been swindled into buying a board game.

Taking a deep breath, Sonny placed her fingers on the pointer along with Vee and looked to the other girl for some sort of direction. The bad feeling that had been sitting in her stomach since the walk over intensified, but Sonny told herself that this wasn't real. It was a game marketed toward kids, and there was nothing scary about that.

"Is there anyone here with us right now?" Vee asked. The only response were the flickering candle lights and the silence around them. "Would anyone like to talk with us?" she tried again, "we want to talk with you." 

Before her eyes, the pointed moved toward the [i]yes[/i] position and it was all Sonny could do to not yank her hands back. Skeptical as she was, she came from a long line of superstition, and she had watched enough horror movies in her life to know that this was the part where things went horribly wrong. What a mistake it had been to cut her hand for Vee when all the other girl had offered was a necklace. 

"Hello," Vee went on, her voice shaking with excitement, "are you male or female?" 

The pointer began to move again, slowly spelling out [i]female[/i] for them. Vee gasped, bouncing where she sat on dust-covered floor. "Will you show yourself?" she asked.

Sonny shot her a look, thinking that was a horrible idea. There was no answer from the board, but the temperature in the room was suddenly very cold and all movement seemed to cease as the flame in the candles stood stark still. With her fingers still on the pointer, Sonny looked around, waiting for something to happen, for everything to go wrong.

"Vee..." she whispered, "we should stop." Her suggestion was ignored as Vee once again asked the spirit to show itself, this time with much more vigor and excitement.

"Come on!" the blonde shouted, flat out taunting the thing, "show yourself!"