This story probably isn’t going to go the way you’d assume it would…. but let me tell you the story of the only time I have ever screwed around with a “Ouija board”. I put Ouija board in air quotes because it wasn’t a real board, but what happened after was VERY strange and unsettling nonetheless.
When I was probably around 11ish, I was at a friend’s house for a birthday-sleepover-party sort of thing. We were all hanging out down in her finished basement playing games, talking about crushes, and sharing our hot middle school gossip- the usual pre-teen slumber party kind of stuff. At some point, me being the creepy little soul that I am, I suggested we should try to contact spirits with a Ouija board. I don’t think anyone else was super onboard with the idea, but somehow I convinced everyone we should play.
We didn’t have an actual board so we made one ourselves with scrap cardboard and cheap, scratchy felt pens. I think the planchet we made was also made out of a piece cardboard or maybe even just regular paper. Being dumb pre-teens and this being before the age where looking up things on the internet was the go-to, we have no idea what we were doing. The board probably didn’t even have everything that was supposed to be on there honestly. I think the only thing I knew about Ouija boards was that you all held onto the planchet and then “ghosts” would move the planchet around to spell out words. That was ALL the information I was working on… none of us had any idea there were actual rules.
Being a little rat who liked to scare people, once we started playing I immediately started to push the planchet around (of course pretending I wasn’t and adamantly saying I wasn’t doing anything). I think I spelled out a random man’s name and tried to amp up the spooky atmosphere but it didn’t really go anywhere since I assume everyone knew it was me.
The friend whose house it was asked her mom if anyone with the name I spelled out had ever lived there after we stopped playing and she said no. So that was pretty much the end of my failed attempt to scare everyone with the Ouija board… and that should have been the end of the story.
Fast forward to over a decade later, I had learned more about Ouija boards and paranormal stuff in general and would warn other people against using one based on the terrifying stories I heard over the years. I’d even go so far as to tell people I had never and would never use one because of how dangerous it is. Even warning people about making sure they closed the board if they ever did decide to play. The night at the sleepover was so far gone from my mind that it became a completely lost memory. I mean, what was worth remembering? Nothing happened. Or at least…. not until now.
I’ve had nightmares semi-regularly my whole life, but this one I had the other night was different.
In the nightmare, I was standing in some kind of grand hall in a giant mansion. It was dilapidated and covered in cobwebs and debris with dusty sheets over ornate furniture. Sort of imagine the “West Wing” from the animated Beauty and The Best movie minus the magical glowing flower. I was standing in the middle of this huge, dark room facing towards a set of partially destroyed stairs. As soon as the dream started, I felt uneasy. I felt like I was being watched, but as I surveyed my surroundings I could see no one else there with me.
Suddenly these forces of sheer, awful, nauseating energy (for lack of a better way to describe it) descended from somewhere above started swirling around me. I fell to the dusty floor on my knees covering my ears and closing my eyes tightly. The things were like black clouds of smoke- they reminded me of dementors but without any definitive physical form or shape. The presence of whatever they were was horrible and demonic. Everything I’d ever felt or known was replaced with deep, penetrating fear. It felt like they were trying to steal the life away from my body. As they closed in tighter around me I felt their energy start to rattle and shake me from the inside out. It was like they were encasing me in their horrible, bodiless forms. They screamed unintelligible whispers into my brain and the shaking became more and more violent. It felt like I was going to just die or my soul would be ripped away from my body. I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t think, all I could do was cover my head and cower.
Then I felt as though I’m being lifted high off the ground by my head. I get the courage to open my eyes and there’s just this void-like black figure holding me up, looking into my soul with its piercing yellow “eyes”. I say eyes in quotes because they weren’t really eyes but two holes of yellow light in this mass of blackness that seem to have sucked up all the light and air in the room. They pierced through my very essence and paralyzed me with fear. Now unable to close my eyes or look away.. I can feel every cell in my body screaming with desire to get away, but I can’t move. I can’t do anything. As I look into its horrible eyes with really no other choice I can feel its words-
YOU.
NEVER.
SAID.
GOODBYE.
-reverberating through my entire body. Its voice was deep and unreal… it had this strange tone to it almost like it’s voice itself was rotting. Every word felt like it echoed into eternity. I can’t really describe it horrible, painful voice in a way that would do it justice… or at least I don’t want to think about it any longer to try. It wasn’t like any demonic voice I’d ever heard in a horror movie, it was… worse.
I woke up on the floor next to my bed, shaking, sweaty and breathing heavily like I had been holding my breath underwater almost a little too long. I look at the clock- 3:12am. Seeing the time unsettled me even more. Demonic witching hour shit. What the fuck. As I sat there still shaking, the only thing I could think of was the sleepover. The image covering every inch of my mind was of me walking away from the board at the party. The shitty piece of cardboard with pink letters covering it. I hadn’t thought about that sleepover since they day it happened, but now it was as clear in my mind as if it happened yesterday.
We didn’t know the rules.
We didn’t close the board.
We didn’t say goodbye.
I wish I could say it was a nightmare I’ve just moved on from, but ever since that nightmare my child-like fears have started to return. Whenever I have my back to a dark room I feel like those horrible black swirls of horrible energy might grab me and take me away into the darkness forever. When I take a shower I have a fear in the pit of my stomach that when I open the curtain, there will be those fucking yellow eyes waiting for me on the other side. And I’ve started hearing weird creaks and footsteps by my bedroom door at night that I never heard before. I never look up or open my eyes when I hear those noises, I don’t want to see what’s there.
I have to keep reminding myself that I am an adult and it was just a bad dream… but I just have a nagging feeling in the back of my mind like maybe it wasn’t.