October 13th

Janet watched as Celeste filled her backpack with all the “essentials”. Two flashlights, a first aid kit, water bottles, candles, a lighter, gloves, her cell phone and, of course, the Ouija board. Janet wanted to ask what all of that was for, but as long as she has known Celeste, she knows not to ask such questions. Celeste operates on her own level and Janet was too tired to head down that rabbit hole.

“You ready?” Celeste quickly zipped the backpack and propped it up on her shoulder.

Janet, a bit hesitant, responded, “I guess. I don’t think I have a choice.”

Celeste playfully hit her on the shoulder, “you’re right, you don’t.” She chuckled as she headed towards the front door. Janet followed in toe, cautiously.

It was her 16^th birthday and while other girls her age had blowout celebrations; Janet was stuck with Celeste. Not that she minded too much. Her and Celeste have been friends since they were children, but instead of a get-together with their friends with some pizza and spin the bottle, Celeste somehow convinced Janet to explore the abandoned house at the edge of town. “It’s Friday the 13^th,” Celeste said on several occasions, “and a full moon this year. You can’t waste that kind of power.” She waived her hands in the air as she spoke. She did that when she was passionate about something. Like sign language, it became a second language to Janet, she could almost interpret her speeches just by her flailing. “And in October? Oooooo.” Celestes fingers danced just inches from Janet’s face.

Celeste lived outside the realm of normal kids their age. She dressed in dark clothing, listened to music Janet hadn’t heard of and spent most of her time writing poetry. But that’s kind of what kept Janet transfixed by her. While most of their friends were predictable, Celeste wasn’t. Celeste had a way of bringing the extrovert out of the introverted Janet and she enjoyed that. After the fact, of course, she was never excited in the moment.

They stopped at the gate that guarded the walkway from the sidewalk and all normalcy that Janet enjoyed staying in. The fauna was overgrown and reached in all directions, like it was trying to escape but being held back at the roots. The gate creaked as Celeste pushed it, her hand dyed orange from the years of rust. As she continued in, Janet stood on the border afraid to cross into the unknown. The “no trespassing” sign bid a foreboding caution to Janet.

“Isn’t this trespassing?” Janet desperately tried to look for an out as she pointed at the sign.

Celeste turned to face Janet, “who’s going to say something? The ghosts?”

Janet gulped. “You, uh, think there’s ghosts in there?” She lazily pointed towards the rotting house.

“Probably. I mean, look at this place. I bet there’s at least one body under the floorboards.” Celeste crossed her arms on her chest and threw her head back with her eyes closed and stuck her tongue out as if she were dead. She leaned into Janet who barely stopped her from tumbling to the ground.

“Not funny.”

Celeste grabbed Janets arm and yanked her onto the property. “C’mon scaredy cat. We’ll be fine.”

Janet took one last glance at the façade of the two-story house. It was painted a deep red, at least it looked like it. Or was it black? A lot of the paint was peeling off, so it was hard to differentiate which color was the last one applied. The shutters, at least the ones that were left, barely hung on to the window frames. The wrap around porch had become overgrown as the house slowly sunk back into nature. Oddly, a rocking chair sat almost untouched on the deck in front of a large bay window, as if it were nearly brand new. Janet stared at it as it began to slowly rock in the wind. She shuttered.

“Screw this place, Celeste.” Unfortunately, she couldn’t hear her cries as Celeste had already walked up the steps and was twisting the brass doorknob. Janet hurried to catch up, each board groaning as she treaded on it. She’d rather be with Celeste in hell than in purgatory alone.

The mouth of the house opened to a dusty foyer dimly lit in technicolor by the clouded stain glass that sat just above the doorway. Janet huddled close to Celeste who had set her backpack down and was rummaging for the flashlights.

“Here, looks like you’ll need this.” She handed Janet one of the flashlights. Even though it was still light outside, very little made it into the belly of the house.

Janet turned on the light and scanned the empty room. Cobwebs lined empty shelves where books once sat, the floor kicked up a cloud of dust as they stepped, jagged stairs wound up the side of the house like a ribcage, hugging the walls and disappearing into the upper floor. Continuing her search, she shined her light down a hallway that extended under the stairwell, towards the belly of the estate. A few doors lined the sides and the walls converged on what appeared to be a kitchen at the end. Janet was kind of impressed. In its hey-day, this house would have been quite impressive, but now it is just a shell of what it once was.

She continued to pan the light across the room, however, she realized Celeste had disappeared. “Celeste?” she called, trembling. “Cece, where are you?” She got a little louder. “CECE!” The silence that remained afterwards was mournful.

Just then Celeste popped her head out of one of the rooms in the hallway. “Shut up, you’ll wake the ghosts.”

“Hell in a handbasket.” Janet exhaled. “Don’t DO that to me!”

Celeste smiled and disappeared back into the room. Janet slowly crept towards the door that she had popped out of.

Janet pushed the door open to see Celeste sitting on the floor on her knees in front of the Ouija board. She had already lit a few candles and was eagerly looking at Janet. “C’mon, lets do it.” The glow from the candles caused Celestes face to look mildly contorted and added to Janet’s anxiety that was already peaked well above her level of comfort.

Janet hesitantly kneeled in front of the board across from Celeste. “Are you sure about this?” Janet was cautious. She’d seen many movies about this exact moment and it never turned out well.

“Mhmmm.” Celeste wasn’t bothered in the slightest. “Now, how do we get this going?” She grabbed the box and flipped it over to frantically read the back for any instructions; the candlelight didn’t help as she squinted past the picture of the kids having a blast playing with their Ouija board on the back.

“Well, in the movies, they just set their hands on this thing,” she motioned to the white paddle with the viewer in the middle resting atop the board, “and we ask the spirits questions.” Janet knew she couldn’t stop Celeste, so she might as well lean into it to get it over faster. The sooner Celeste got bored, the sooner they could leave this grimy corpse.

Celeste reached for the paddle and motioned Janet to join her. Both rested their fingertips on the plastic awaiting something, anything. “Uh.” She stared at it as it sat there.

Janet, looking reluctant, “maybe there are no ghosts, oh well, guess we should go.”

“No, wait.” Celeste said profoundly enticing Janet to stay for a least another moment. She closed her eyes and raised her head to the ceiling. Janet watched in amusement. “Ohhh spirits of the house, hear our shouts,” she wailed in a sing-songy rasp that echoed off the tattered wallpaper. “If you are there, tell us what this place is…” she paused and furled her brow,”…all abouts!” She quickly opened her eyes and looked at the board, proud of her rhyme.

Janet snickered.

The piece didn’t move.

Frustrated, Celeste shook her free hand and emphasized her irritation. “C’mon, is there anyone there?”

 Just then, the piece began to wiggle slightly. Janet gasped.

“Stop moving it, Janet.”

“I’m not, I swear.”

They both watched as it slowly slid across the board to the bold “YES” in the corner.

“No seriously, stop it, Janet.”

Janet panicked. “IT’S NOT ME.”

Celeste asked the universe another question. “Is it Janet moving the piece?” Which slowly scratched across the plane to “NO”.

“I told you.” Janet’s anxiety had slowly ceased. What little light that shone through the boarded windows showed a room that wasn’t all that scary. Dirty, unkempt and unsafe, maybe. But not scary.

Celeste, however, was determined. She wanted to see how far she could take it. She had also seen the same movies that Janet had and wanted one of those experiences. “Spirits, if you are here, let us know.”

Just then, a knock came from an adjacent room. Both girls squealed.

After catching their nerves, Janet assured them, “it’s just an old house, they make noises.”

“Well, let’s make sure.” Celeste was running on pure adrenaline by now. “Is that all you got?” She raised both hands to the sky and pumped them with every syllable, for added intensity, of course.

“Don’t taunt the thing.” Janet went back to feeling nervous.

Just then, the door from the joining room began to creak. Both girls immediately turned their attention to the door as it slowly began to open. “Um, Celeste?”

“Yeah, it is…” The girls had read each other’s thoughts. “Nice parlor trick, Casper.”

“Jesus, Cece!” She leaned forward and hit her playfully on the shoulder as the door slammed open causing both girls to jump and shriek. The wind from the door immediately blew out the candles and sent the room into near darkness.

“SURPRISE!”

A group of teens barged through the entryway of the other room waving flashlights, balloons, presents, and even a cake. It took Janet a minute to recoup. She noticed that they were all their friends from school, huddled together around her. She looked over to Celeste who was bent over in laugher.

“Haha. The look…on your face…priceless.” She said in between laughs and gulps of air. “Hap…py birth…day.”

Janet was just able to mutter, “I hate you, Celeste” before Lacy slammed the cake into her face sending glops of icing all over the decrepit house.

“Let’s go explore the rest of the house,” exclaimed one of the other girls. They all chimed in agreement.

Among the excitement of the crowd, Janet smiled at Celeste as she wiped off the last of the baked remnants; she did get her pretty good.

And it was one of the better birthdays she’d ever had.