Haunted Slumber Party

It was September 1997, and I was invited to my good friend’s house for a birthday slumber party. It was a typical party: presents, cake ’til we almost puked, and singing karaoke with each girl thinking they could sing Jewel’s “Foolish Games” better than the others.

Then, when it started to get dark, someone said, “Okay, time for truth or dare!” For the dare, my friend Samantha pulls, out of her closet, the good ole Ouija board.

Samantha knew most of the girls, like me, were always told we weren’t allowed to be around things like this. The excuse I was given by my adults was that it would cause possession, or it would lead me down a road I didn’t want to be a part of.

Needless to say, I was completely terrified to be even looking at one, let alone my friends are about to set it up. In my mind, I’m like, it looks just like any other board game I’ve played, so what’s the big deal?

Samantha and another friend, Ashley, stack a few books in the center of the room, put a silk sheet on top, set up a couple of tea lights, and put the board in the center. One girl immediately starts crying and wants nothing to do with it, so she plugs her ears and gets in her sleeping bag.

I sit there with my heart pounding as Samantha and Ashley say, “Okay, let’s start with the three of us.”

I’m purposely sitting out of eyesight from Samantha and Ashley so they don’t pick me to be the third person. Samantha and Ashley say, “Come on, you guys are all babies. Someone volunteer or we are gonna play ‘eenie meenie’.”

Heidi volunteers, and a “thank you” relief sets in a bit for me. How bad could it get? I’m not touching the game, simply watching.

They begin by asking the board questions like, “Does so-and-so like me?”

You could tell, at that point, each girl was pulling it to answer “yes” or “no” in their favor.

Other girls start getting bored and saying, “Come on, guys, let’s play something else or watch a movie.”

Arguing starts getting louder. Some want to try the board as well…not me.

Samantha and Heidi step out of the circle, and in comes Tara and Andrea. Ashley stayed in. Immediately, as those three girls sat in the circle, I don’t know why, but I was terrified. I felt as though someone was watching us.

Thinking it was just me, I didn’t say anything. Then Andrea asks the board, “Is someone watching us?”

I immediately get chills as it moves to “yes.” I get mad and say, “Okay, guys, it’s obvious it’s you. This is stupid!”

Andrea then says, “Who is watching us?”

The board starts spelling out something. One girl is saying the letters out loud as it spells out “YOU.”

We look at each other like “Okay...”

I get annoyed at this point and tell Andrea she’s an idiot, and that makes no sense.

She says, “Then you try!”

Not wanting to look afraid, I’m like, “FINE!” I sit in the circle with a brewing stomach pain all while thinking, “Oh, no, this is bad. I’m not supposed to even be near this game, and now I have my fingers on the damn thing!”

So, because I was the skeptic, but still terrified, I asked the same question: “Is someone watching us?”

Next thing I know (for damn sure I was not moving it, but I wanted to believe my other friends were) it spells “YOU” again.

Still looking down, with disbelief, we ask, “Who is ‘you’?”

Then, out of nowhere, the girl that had been plugging her ears and hiding in her sleeping bag who wanted nothing to do with this, stands straight up out of a dead sleep, pointing at everyone in the room and saying, “It’s YOU! It’s YOU! It’s YOU!” in a creepy voice that didn’t sound anything like her.

I got chills and immediately stopped touching the board. The same girl then starts screaming, at the top of her lungs, “GET OUT!” in the same creepy voice.

The room felt darker somehow, as if the light of the candles couldn’t provide light past the darkness. I went into flight mode, grabbed everything I brought as quickly as I could, and took off up the stairs from the basement as my friend’s mom was running down to comfort the other girls who were all now screaming.

My friend’s mom woke her out of whatever it is you want to call the state she was in. We all called for rides home, and after that night, I never touched one again.