Scary Stories, in the Halloween Spirit

[zackiedawg]

In the spirit of Halloween, I wanted to share a long and scary story - broken down into 6 parts. Are you ready to be really scared?! I'd love to hear some other scary stories too...so if you've got any, feel free to post them here, for all to read and get spooked by!

PART 1 of 6

Years ago, when I was living in California, I witnessed something I cannot explain. I make no declarations of what it was I experienced. I state simply that what I am about to tell you actually happened – the ‘how’s and ‘why’s are for you to decide.

I was living outside of Los Angeles, in the foothills between the San Fernando Valley and the Conejo Valley. My condo was in a beautiful and sparsely populated grass valley just north of the Santa Monica Mountains, south of the 101 freeway, and bordering a vast state park. Through our valley stretched a narrow canyon road that wound its way down to the ocean at Malibu. My father lived not far away, in a mountain community nestled into the Santa Monica Mountains, overlooking the coast...in a large, two-story wooden house with beautiful mountain views all around. It was nice to have family nearby to visit…the rest of my family were all on the east coast.

My father is a free spirit…a self-professed ‘hippie’ who followed his artistic dreams and borderline irresponsibility into Hollywood aspirations. It was a natural fit for him. He was always interested in spirituality, studying various religions and delving into alternative practices and beliefs. One maxim that does not apply in our case is ‘like father like son’…I’ve always been the doubter, the debunker, the nerd, the mathematician, the realist…I am the bane of magicians and hypnotists alike. It came as no surprise that my father and a cadre of his friends had decided to hold an Ouija party one night, to try to communicate with the other side. I don’t believe in such things, but I love a good ruse; and a night with my father and his merry band of pseudo-celebrities and spiritualists playing with a toy to talk to ‘spirits’ sounded too fun to pass up.

It was a motley bunch that night if ever there was one. My father and myself of course, polar opposite bookends of belief and disbelief; my father’s long-time girlfriend and fellow pea-in-the-pod when it came to alternate beliefs; a character actress friend of my father’s; a writer and son of a legendary crooner, who was deep into conspiracy theories and government cover-ups whom my father had met when he came to pitch a script at the studios; and a friend of his who rather famously claimed to have been abducted by a UFO – the crooner’s son was working on a script about the incident, which later became a movie. All but myself were believers in these spiritual connections, and were ready and eager to communicate with the other side. However, none of us were prepared for what was to happen that night.

(more to come...)

 

[zackiedawg]

PART 2 of 6

It all started innocently enough, as various pairs of us would cycle through taking turns on the pointer of the Ouija board to see who could get the best responses. My father was the communicator, asking questions to the spirits to solicit responses. The lights were off, and it was nighttime, so our room was lit only by candles. A moderate moonlight glow outside illuminated the hillside beyond the window in pale, diffuse blue light. We sat at a long dining room table, three to a side, with walls to our backs, a picture window looking out over the hillside at one end of the table, and open to the kitchen and rest of the house to the other. For quite a while, nothing happened. Occasionally, very slow movements of the pointer would begin, until one of the two handlers was determined to have been overeagerly pushing or pulling it. After some time, a few ‘contacts’ would respond with a faint slide towards ‘yes’ on the board when asked if they were present, only to stop just as quickly. As the resident cynic, I found it all rather silly – it seemed clear to me that one or both of the two handlers were subconsciously guiding the pointer using the power of suggestion and a strong desire to experience a spiritual connection. Still, the spooky occultist toy, the intense movie-set atmosphere, the dim flickering lighting, all contributed a high level of drama and theatrics to the occasion, and I was ready to be entertained.

During one rotation of handlers, I was selected…I joined the crooner’s son with one hand on the pointer, quietly bemused by the whole thing, but game. Rather quickly, the pointer began to perk up and start moving…much to my surprise as I was not consciously moving it and it truly seemed that crooner’s son was barely touching it. Thinking silent kudos to the folks who discovered the science behind the illusion and invented this game, I kept my poker face on so as not to break the illusion to the others who really believed in it. The believers said my spirit must have been a strong transmitter and my objectivity and suspicion may have been good for the Ouija. After some brief questions from the communicator asking if spirits were present, and slow ‘yes’ responses from the pointer, we seemed to hook ourselves an active spirit who spelled out his name as Daniel. The movement of the spelling was still too slow to be very impressive to me, but the rest of the group seemed ecstatic. I was seeing involuntary muscle movements, and they were seeing spirits, but we were all having fun. Unbeknownst to us, our fun was finite that evening, as things were about to take a turn to the dark side.

(more to come...)

 

[zackiedawg]

PART 3 of 6

Daniel the spirit answered a few questions about where he was from (California), when he passed away (1983), and other trivial background questions. The pointer movements began to pick up – from roughly 12 seconds between letters to about 5 seconds between letters…my hand occasionally lagged a bit behind the pointer, as did the crooner’s son’s…the trick was now receiving my full scrutiny, as I was determined to uncover how it was being done. My father the communicator’s next question was the one that tipped the first domino, and led us down a creepy and scary path. “Daniel, how did you die?” The movement of the pointer was sudden and frightening…it jerked quickly from under our fingers, we barely able to follow it, and in three seconds it had spelled out four letters on the board – F I R E. The actress was transcribing for us, and she presciently had written the word in capital letters, deciding that the speed of the pointer was meant to be a shout. Crooner’s son and I both looked at each other with arched eyebrows, as if our arms did not belong to us and feeling a defensive need to aver that neither of us were responsible. We chuckled a bit to diffuse the tension that had built in the room like a fog, when the pointer decided to jerk off again as our rag doll arms feebly tried to keep up…spelling out just as rapidly a second time ‘F I R E’. It didn’t stop this time either…first circling the board before heading to the letters to spell again. I pulled my hand off the pointer before it could get to the first letter…crooner’s son followed a half-a-beat later, both of us getting a strong tingle up the spine as things had descended to the depths of creepy – the speed and energy with which that pointer moved was surreal. So energized was the pointer that it was still carrying enough momentum to keep sliding across the board hands-free until it arrived at the F. Our night was changed irrevocably when the pointer then departed the F and proceeded to the I…in a different direction and still quite hands-free. Though slowing, it managed on its own to complete the R and the E before finally coming to a stop. We were somehow willing to accept a self-powered (spirit-powered?) pointer moving in one constant direction – but a self-powered pointer stopping and changing direction was another whole level of strange. None of us spoke…we all stared at each other gape-mouthed, not sure what to say or do next. Where could the night go from here – what was there to say? After a brief moment of quiet, someone finally decided to break the silence and make a statement; someone decided to act rather than speak…to send a message. It was Daniel.

(more to come...)

 

[annnewjerz]

Sitting here in a perfectly lit, bustling law firm and got goosebumps reading that last part. I'm not big on Halloween, horror movies and the like (not because I'm scared, but because I don't consider myself a sucker) but Geez Louise, this one is getting to me a little!

 

[zackiedawg]

PART 4 of 6

Our stunned silence was broken by a whooshing sound in the house, followed by a crackle and a dull roaring hiss, while the whole room took on a fierce orange glow. Our attention quickly turned to the kitchen from where the glow was emanating, where we saw the 4-burner gas stovetop topped by foot-tall dancing flames. We all jumped in different directions…some of us running to the sink for water, another to the fire extinguisher, still others fled to another room away from the fire. I went directly to the stove, where I quickly found all four burner knobs dialed to ‘High’…I shut them off and the flames descended, luckily before the whole kitchen was immersed in water and CO2 from the extinguisher. Needless to say, our next action was to turn on every light nearby – the candlelight ambiance was no longer apropos. At this point, believers and non-believers alike agreed that whether this was a spirit, a coincidence, a prank, or a natural phenomenon, it was scary and it was getting dangerous. Any rational person in that house knew that it was time to stop playing with the Ouija board. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in a house full of rational people that night.

After a little alcohol to soothe some nerves, some crying and clutching of blankets by the actress and the girlfriend, some faux confidence fronted by the crooner’s son and alien guy, and some obviously ineffective attempts to rationalize with the group by the non-believer, the others decided they needed to go back to the board. Their rationale was that they needed to eject this malevolent spirit from the house lest it make itself home there; they intended to be stern to Daniel and force him away. I took a stand myself – that I was not going to be handling the pointer anymore. Crooner’s son was willing to continue, and alien guy agreed to take the other half. Some deep breaths, along with a modicum of comfort from the bright lights in the house, and the two handlers reached down to guide the pointer once again. To the casual observer, it would have appeared that the two received an electrical shock when their hands touched that pointer. So quickly did the pointer leap back to life and head right back to the letter F that the two handlers ripped their hands from it in nervous impulse. It didn’t appear to be moving on its own, and convinced they now needed to repel a mischievous spirit from the house, they prepared themselves now knowing what to expect, and reengaged the pointer. The communicator immediately commanded Daniel to stop and to leave. After two more rapid spellings of ‘fire’, Daniel stopped spelling with the pointer, and proceeded to rock it back and forth or spin in circles on the board. The communicator ordered Daniel away once more, with the rest of the group joining in chorus…and after one or two death spirals, the pointer fell motionless. Relief set in, and the nervous believers decided they had won themselves a pyrrhic victory – no glory in that they had invited this evil upon themselves, but back to zero having repelled it.

Emboldened by the light they had wielded to push back the darkness, they felt the atmosphere would be conducive to try for a nicer spirit. Some I think needed a good spirit to help lift their own, others just wanted to end the night on a high note. After a long stretch of nothing, the pointer finally began to stir again. When asked to identify itself, the pointer feebly spelled out ‘Linda’. Further questioning revealed a young girl who had apparently died of the flu nearly 80 years prior. If the speed of the pointer was any measure, Linda seemed weak and lost. The actress and the girlfriend were teary-eyed imaging this young girl who had died and was lost in a spiritual ether trying to find her parents in the afterlife. I, ever the doubter, was running through all the text she put forth, looking for holes in the story, or hints that would reveal which of the minds at the table that evening was thinking it all up. Admittedly, part of my quest was to cover the fact that this night was scaring me, even if it was a prank. When the light bulb in my head lit up with a sudden realization, causing my stomach to rise into my throat, I found myself enveloped in that fear again – kudos to the mastermind if this was a prank, and if it wasn’t…then I wished it was. Before I could blurt out my discovery, everyone else at the table had gone wide-eyed too. They had just received the latest sentence from our little pig-tailed innocent, and their minds all read and processed it about the same time. We all seemed to be hit with the same realization at the same time, but from different sources. Our fears, however, were in perfect synchronicity.

(more to come...)

 

[zackiedawg]

PART 5 of 6

What I had noticed was that the name of the little girl – Linda – shares the same letters as Daniel, save the E. This struck me with a sudden discomfort. What everyone else was reeling from was the little girl’s last sentence, innocently asking “can I come in?” Those claiming to be experienced with spiritual communications know this is bad. Those not experienced but willing to believe suspect that it doesn’t sound good. Those who don’t believe in any of this know that it sounds like something ominous you hear in a horror movie just before the next creepy and scary unexplained phenomenon occurs. We all agreed on one thing – we could feel Daniel’s presence again. We also agreed on the response – an emphatic ‘NO!’ shouted by all. I dropped my anagram bomb on everyone just to hammer the last nail in the coffin, though by now it was unnecessary – no one needed any further convincing that we were dealing with Daniel…and that likely he had never left. The pointer on the board abandoned its slow-moving subterfuge and resumed the rapid circling between letters and words – a ghostly and malevolent impatience. Our shouts of ‘NO’ were not accepted, as the pointer quickly scraped its way across the board spelling out violently “I WANT TO COME IN, I WANT TO COME IN” The handlers wanted to pull off the pointer again, but my father begged them to hold on and keep at it long enough to send the message to Daniel that we would not accept him anymore, and force him from us. Crooner’s son, whose hand was one of those frantically following the possessed pointer, informed us that in communicating with the other side, ‘coming in’ usually referred not to the house, but the body. From the spontaneously combusting stove, it seemed fairly clear that Daniel could have his way with the house, so this was disconcerting news to everyone that we might have been dealing with an attempted possession. We continued with a series of now random, improvised words, everyone streaming out their own fear-guided shouts independently – “go away”, “no”, “leave us”, and at least one prayer floated out there amongst the defiance. The pointer circled ever more violently in the center of the board until it finally and suddenly stopped circling…and with horror-movie precision, the lights in the house all went off, plunging us instantly back to darkness from our safe cocoon of light, a lone lit candle on the table remaining from our earlier theatrics now the only source of light inside the house. Both handlers jumped off the pointer, sobs and stifled screams filled the room from the scared girls and at least one guy, while the bravest among us ventured to the kitchen to find flashlights. Hands were held, some shaking, as we tried to calm down and take it all in. My father had turned on a flashlight which pierced the darkness in the kitchen, and was headed to the circuit-breaker panel to get the lights back on. He didn’t make it very far when the first panicky yelp came from the lips of the actress, diverting everyone’s attention to the scraping noise in the room and the slow but sure perception of movement in our peripheral vision. By candlelight, we all saw it, but somehow in that dim yellowed light we hadn’t accepted it yet. Only when the flashlight beam swept over the table did our minds attach this stunning revelation to reality, and realize the gravity of what we were witnessing.

(more to come...)

 

[zackiedawg]

PART 6 of 6

The pointer had begun to move again, all by itself. Creeping across the board, followed by the white beam from the flashlight which gave the pointer a long slanted shadow that added to its dimensionality and thoroughly enhanced the scariness, the pointer slid itself to the end of the Ouija board…then kept going. It slid across the bare table, all of us sending millions of signals from our minds to our bodies to get out of here, while our bodies were all frozen in place. When it reached the end of the table, the pointer arrow rotated around until it was pointed directly out the picture window. We of course knew we had to look out of the window, but none of us wanted to. We were in fact avoiding the window consciously, not even letting our peripheral catch a wayward glance…yet inexorably our heads were rotating towards the window.

The girls reacted first – both with a scream and an uncontrollable creep-out shake, the actress covered her eyes and dropped into alien guy’s chest. The two men closest to the window, my father and I, jumped cleanly out of our seats so quickly I thought I left my skin behind, and got far from the window to the other side of the table. The crawling sensation all over my skin confirmed that I was still inside of it. Alien guy and crooner’s son both reacted with colorful expressions as they leapt several inches off their seats, while their bodies shook like wet dogs from a serious case of the ‘heebee-jeebies’. What we all saw in the dim moonlight glow outside that window imprinted itself on our brains like a brand that will never go away. Staring back at us were three wild coyotes, faces right up to the glass, all three sitting on their rear haunches. The moment we all saw them and leapt back from the window, the center one reared up his head and let out a lonely tenor howl, as the other two yipped in to join him. The normally timid and people-shy coyotes stayed at the window even as a seat cushion slammed against the glass – one of our group overwhelmed by fear and gripping a survival instinct had thrown it at the coyotes. My father seemed to enter his own survival mode, one honed by years of growing up in New York…he got angry. He stormed around to the kitchen sliding door, winged it open, and leapt outside wielding the flashlight like a club, and ran at the coyotes – who finally released by their spirit possessor seemed to quickly surmise that they were coyotes and that they were supposed to be scared of people…they ran off into the hills, probably wondering why they had gone to that window in the first place.

The circuit breakers were thrown, and power returned to the house. The candles were extinguished, and the Ouija board was boxed and stuck outside on the picnic table at the end of the property. Thus ended the gathering for the night; we were a group of mostly silent folks with knowing, tired eyes who preferred to forget about what we saw. Most were happy to be leaving that house that night…I could not imagine how my father and his girlfriend slept. To this day, I don’t know what I saw – was it spirits, was it evil, was it an elaborate prank? Each of us may think differently about it…but none of us can forget it. Did Daniel stay in my father’s house? We may never know…two days later the house, and in fact the whole neighborhood, burned to the ground. My father and his girlfriend were at work in Burbank when it happened, and were not injured. When he first heard the news on the television of the fires, he had been listening to a CD in his office given to him by the crooner’s son…of the crooner himself. As it became clear that his neighborhood and his house was likely being consumed by flames at that moment, the CD began playing the next track, a lovely velvet-toned rendition of ‘Danny Boy’. My dad quivered.

That Ouija session happened on October 31, 1993. True story.

Happy Halloween!

Feel free to share any scary stories you may have.

 

[zackiedawg]

Sitting here in a perfectly lit, bustling law firm and got goosebumps reading that last part. I'm not big on Halloween, horror movies and the like (not because I'm scared, but because I don't consider myself a sucker) but Geez Louise, this one is getting to me a little!

Thanks Anne. Hope you got to finish it.

Don't know how many folks like scary Halloween stories, but I love them. I'm not a sucker either - I just enjoy the whole ghoulish yet fun atmosphere. Plus, I am an avid writer and storyteller to begin with.

Just wanted to share one with the boards, and hopefully hear some others.

 

[Disney Doll]

I think there are "planes" of consciousness that we don't "see" but that exist. Call them what you want...heaven, hell, nirvana...

I think the spirits of some people exist in these "planes".
And I think some spirits are good and some are evil.

I believe in God, so I believe in evil, the devil...call it what you want.

I can recall going to a presentation many years ago done by "ghost hunters" Ed & Lorriane Warren...they are of Amityville Horror fame. I very distinctly recall them speaking of ouija boards and saying something to the effect of "You are opening the door to a world of which yo know nothing, and when you open that door, you have no idea what will come through, so don't open the door".

I have always taken that advice, since it seemed like good advice.

PS-OP, you should be a writer. You are very good!

 

[Goofyluver]

First...you are a wonderful writer.

And as I sit here with chills...I'm in awe of your "skillz".

I'm hoping to read more of your writings some day. But, I'll have to do it in the middle of the day if it is a similar story.

Thank you.

 

[txSleepingBeauty]

well that was creepy

 

[oliviansmom17]

I've been glued to my screen for 15 minutes now. And became seriously uncomfortable sitting next to my french doors after the wolves entered the picture!

You are a magnificent writer..I loved the story. And my Mom always felt the same as the Warrens'- no ouijas. Ever. Anywhere.

 

[annnewjerz]

Thanks Anne. Hope you got to finish it.

Don't know how many folks like scary Halloween stories, but I love them. I'm not a sucker either - I just enjoy the whole ghoulish yet fun atmosphere. Plus, I am an avid writer and storyteller to begin with.

Just wanted to share one with the boards, and hopefully hear some others.

I did finish it, and it scared the bajesus out of me

I agree with everyone else. GREAT story and great writing. I couldn't wait the 15 minutes between segments to finish reading what would happen next. Especially between parts 5 and 6.

I have only used a ouji board once when I was much much younger at a sleep over. We also tried to do the "light as a feather stiff as a board" thing which was a load of BS. Needless to say, I won't be trying any of it again.

I don't have a scary story really, but 3 years ago my Dad passed away due to complications of a surgery he got. For the first few weeks after, weird stuff just kept happening with no explanation and we swear it's him...pulling pranks around my Mom's house.

One instance with her was she had gotten the butter out and sat it on the counter. She walked away and came back and it was on top of the microwave. Now most people would say - she put it on the microwave to begin with, but she is not some cook and was 100% certain that she put it on the counter across the kitchen. Another time we were hanging around her house and my Dad's closet (which was still full of his clothes) was open and two shirts were laying on the floor. We hadn't gotten up the nerve to clean it out yet, much less just open it and toss clothes about...so that was odd.

I have dreams of him all the time and I swear they aren't just dreams...they are some sort of communication with him now that he is gone. I have NEVER believed in anything...heaven, hell, ghosts, anything supernatural until he passed away and for some reason now, it just makes sense (maybe because he was the first person I had really been close with that died). I have had a dream about us being at my bridal shower (he was there but passed away 3 weeks before my wedding) and have walked into the computer room and a slideshow is running on my screensaver but is stopped on a picture I have of him with my DH and I.

I'm definitely a believer now, probably more out of necessity because the thought of a loved family member passing away and just being gone permanently, not existing in anything but our memories is just a little too much to bear sometimes.

 

[WDWBarb]

Most excellent! Wish I had a story that scary!!!

 

[Disney Doll]

I did finish it, and it scared the bajesus out of me

I agree with everyone else. GREAT story and great writing. I couldn't wait the 15 minutes between segments to finish reading what would happen next. Especially between parts 5 and 6.

I have only used a ouji board once when I was much much younger at a sleep over. We also tried to do the "light as a feather stiff as a board" thing which was a load of BS. Needless to say, I won't be trying any of it again.

I don't have a scary story really, but 3 years ago my Dad passed away due to complications of a surgery he got. For the first few weeks after, weird stuff just kept happening with no explanation and we swear it's him...pulling pranks around my Mom's house.

One instance with her was she had gotten the butter out and sat it on the counter. She walked away and came back and it was on top of the microwave. Now most people would say - she put it on the microwave to begin with, but she is not some cook and was 100% certain that she put it on the counter across the kitchen. Another time we were hanging around her house and my Dad's closet (which was still full of his clothes) was open and two shirts were laying on the floor. We hadn't gotten up the nerve to clean it out yet, much less just open it and toss clothes about...so that was odd.

I have dreams of him all the time and I swear they aren't just dreams...they are some sort of communication with him now that he is gone. I have NEVER believed in anything...heaven, hell, ghosts, anything supernatural until he passed away and for some reason now, it just makes sense (maybe because he was the first person I had really been close with that died). I have had a dream about us being at my bridal shower (he was there but passed away 3 weeks before my wedding) and have walked into the computer room and a slideshow is running on my screensaver but is stopped on a picture I have of him with my DH and I.

I'm definitely a believer now, probably more out of necessity because the thought of a loved family member passing away and just being gone permanently, not existing in anything but our memories is just a little too much to bear sometimes.

I firmly believe that people who love us don't "leave" us after they die. They are around...

DFIL & DMIL both died in 2001...in March & December respectively. In early December 2002, I was taking some brush and yard waste to the transfer station in town. It had a big 3 sided concrete '"box", for lack of a better word, for yard waste. Well, the morning I got there, the entire concrete box was empty save for a gardenia, sitting right in the middle of it. Now, this was right around when DMIL died, and gardenia was her favorite plant. So I just "knew" that she had sent it to me. So I brought it home. DH thought I was nuts, said that it would die since it had been out in the cold, I tol d him it wouldn't because it was from DMIL. I put it up in the window in the spare room which was nice and sunny and warm, and it flurished. I kept it all through the winter and spring, no flowers, but beautiful shiny green leaves. It seemed very happy there. Amazingly enough, it bloomed in May 2003...on Mother's Day.

Another story from when I was much younger. I was at a party at a friend's house who lived a few towns over in what was a fairly rural area. I was about 19 or so. Well, I had too much to drink...stupid, I know. So it's time to go and I am driving along when all of a sudden I heard someone yell "stop", excpet there was no one in the car with me and I heard it inside my head, if you know what I mean, so I stopped. Well, as my eyes focused a bit and I got used to the dark around me and could see, I realized that I had stopped on a curve, which I didn't realize was a curve. Where I had stopped was immediately before where I would have gone flying off the road and into a small creek. I would have gone flying off the road there because I didn't know the road curved, so the road would have been curving while I was going straight. I don't know what (or who) told me to "stop" in my head, but had I not, I'd have been injured as my car flew off the road.

As a nurse, I was caring for a very ill elderly woman one night. She had been unresponsive for several days, we were providing comfort measures only. I went into her room at about 2:00AM and she was sitting up in bed, eyes wide open, looking past me and saying "Oh thank God you've finally come for me". Again, I was young, it scared the bejesus out of me. I made sure she was safe, siderails up, sort of heled her lie back down, fixed her pillows and so forth. I checked on her a while later and she was gone.

Another work one from years ago....caring for a woman whose husband had died on our unit about 2 months prior to her own admission to my floor. Myself and another nurse were "settling" her for the night...making sure she was clean, a little back rub, fix the pillows and so forth when the lights in the room started to blink and the woman looked up and said "Oh Victor, you're here". Victor was her late husband who had passed away on our unit a couple of months prior. Kind of scared the other nurse and I (we were young), the patient was all set so we left. When I checked her again a while later, she was gone too.

 

[pepperw23]

Thanks Anne. Hope you got to finish it.

Don't know how many folks like scary Halloween stories, but I love them. I'm not a sucker either - I just enjoy the whole ghoulish yet fun atmosphere. Plus, I am an avid writer and storyteller to begin with.

Just wanted to share one with the boards, and hopefully hear some others.

That was an OUTSTANDING story!!!! (I write too, but just a hobby) I enjoyed it so much I wanna see the "movie".



I have not read the whole thread, but I am eager to read more of your stories!

 

[zackiedawg]

I think there are "planes" of consciousness that we don't "see" but that exist. Call them what you want...heaven, hell, nirvana...
I think the spirits of some people exist in these "planes".
And I think some spirits are good and some are evil.
I believe in God, so I believe in evil, the devil...call it what you want.
I can recall going to a presentation many years ago done by "ghost hunters" Ed & Lorriane Warren...they are of Amityville Horror fame. I very distinctly recall them speaking of ouija boards and saying something to the effect of "You are opening the door to a world of which yo know nothing, and when you open that door, you have no idea what will come through, so don't open the door".
I have always taken that advice, since it seemed like good advice.
PS-OP, you should be a writer. You are very good!

I remain neutral on the subject myself. But I love to know what other people believe on the subject - it's one of my favorite things about human nature is that we have such diverse beliefs, interests, and emotions. Whether I subscribe to any particular belief or not, I still enjoy reading up on and hearing all theories out there.
I agree on the Warren's advice - despite not particularly believing in doors to other worlds, I have a healthy respect for anything said to be evil or bad. It may be wrong and nothing happens to me, or it may be right and something does - so as long as I remain Switzerland on the subject...best to leave it alone!
Thank you for the kind words on the writing.

First...you are a wonderful writer.
And as I sit here with chills...I'm in awe of your "skillz".
I'm hoping to read more of your writings some day. But, I'll have to do it in the middle of the day if it is a similar story.

Thank you kindly. I tend to be a verbose poster when responding about anything, so it's nice to be able to focus that word propensity into something appropriate for the length! I don't think I could creep you out any other time of the year...only Halloween month.

well that was creepy

Thank you...I think! It was supposed to be, so I'll take it as a compliment!

I've been glued to my screen for 15 minutes now. And became seriously uncomfortable sitting next to my french doors after the wolves entered the picture!
You are a magnificent writer..I loved the story. And my Mom always felt the same as the Warrens'- no ouijas. Ever. Anywhere.

Thank you so much. It was a lot of fun to recall the incident, and surprisingly it's the first time I ever wrote any of that out. I've told the story verbally to friends, but never thought about how I would flesh it out in written form and make it interesting to read.

The very kind words and support make it worth the time to write it all down!

I did finish it, and it scared the bajesus out of me
I agree with everyone else. GREAT story and great writing. I couldn't wait the 15 minutes between segments to finish reading what would happen next. Especially between parts 5 and 6.
I have only used a ouji board once when I was much much younger at a sleep over. We also tried to do the "light as a feather stiff as a board" thing which was a load of BS. Needless to say, I won't be trying any of it again.

I have dreams of him all the time and I swear they aren't just dreams...they are some sort of communication with him now that he is gone. I have NEVER believed in anything...heaven, hell, ghosts, anything supernatural until he passed away and for some reason now, it just makes sense (maybe because he was the first person I had really been close with that died).
I'm definitely a believer now, probably more out of necessity because the thought of a loved family member passing away and just being gone permanently, not existing in anything but our memories is just a little too much to bear sometimes.

Thank you Anne. Ah, you've heard the feather/board analogy! I agree on the ouija...it was my first time, and last, playing around with it. I must say, for doing something only once I definitely got my money's worth!

I know what you mean on the dreams - I've had those strange dreams from those who passed on, and it's so hard to separate them from reality sometimes. Maybe it is a connection, maybe not. I remain skeptical but open to the truth. Though I label myself a doubter or debunker, I'm not cynical or closed-minded about it. I just haven't yet seen or heard irrefutable proof that any of these things are real, so I continue to wait for concrete proof. It is comforting sometimes to think that there is someplace souls go, and some master plan behind it all, which is why so many religions exist to begin with.

Most excellent! Wish I had a story that scary!!!

Maybe you do...you've got all month to come up with one or remember one - let the Halloween spirit flow! Thank you for the compliment.

I firmly believe that people who love us don't "leave" us after they die. They are around...

With the blooming flower and the curve in the road, you've got some benevolence watching over you. And you're time as a nurse would certainly give you opportunity to be in the presence of death much more than most of us...who can say what a person's source of energy is, and where it goes at death...even science admits energy never disappears - it just takes on a new form. Some people call that energy our 'soul' or 'spirit'...it has to go somewhere!

That was an OUTSTANDING story!!!! (I write too, but just a hobby) I enjoyed it so much I wanna see the "movie".
I have not read the whole thread, but I am eager to read more of your stories!

Thank you so much. Happy to share it, and to read other folks' spiritual run-ins. I hope we get a lot more ghost stories, scary and otherwise!

Maybe I can get my father and crooner's son to help me whip up a movie on the subject! (yes...those characters were all real...I've just left names off). Let's see...I'll be played by Brad Pitt...

 

[Seewhatimesdone]

Love the story! You're a great writer. The part where the triangle came off the board gave me the chills. I hope you plan on writing more!

 

[2BigKIdz]

I really enjoyed your story, and as others have said, your writing. As a teen or even young adult I would have tried summoning spirits on a Ouija board but I definitely would not now, I agree that some doors should not be opened. I am and always have been equally fascinated/frightened by ghosts and the supernatural. I would definitely enjoy reading more scary stories, fact or fiction, in honor of Halloween.

Thanks for this thread.

 

[Tess]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to give us all a good ghost story! I really enjoyed reading it and appreciate your writing style.