SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

Nope. Nope. Desiree was done; it was time to nope out of here.

But she couldn't move. Couldn't move her arms. Couldn't move her hands. She couldn't even speak; any words that attempted to form resulted in a silence that was choke pointed before it could leave her throat.

She was paralyzed. She was a ghost in her own shell, and all she could do was look at Violet, and then the planchette, and then back to Violet. She pleaded—no, begged for Violet to stop.

But she couldn't.

Violet calmed down a little when the planchette began to move. She exhaled as it moved from the 'H' to the 'E' to the 'L' to the 'L' to the O' to the 'V', to the 'I', to the 'O'... to the 'L'...

...to the 'E'...

......to the 'T'.......

And suddenly she was not feeling calm any longer. Whatever they had contacted was dangerous. It knew their names, and it knew to put Violet's first. She started to shake again. A quick glance across the table, and it looked like Desiree was similarly shocked.

Shocked, but enthralled. Neither of the prior spirits had addressed them so directly. As much as she wanted to run—as much as she wanted to leave through the broken window and never return, to hide in her room and get on a phone call with all of her friends until the end of the night and into the early morning to make sure she wasn't, well, killed—she felt a new wave of curiosity tingle across her palms. Violet could almost ignore the other sensation going on in her fingers, which was constant awareness of the air touching their tips.

So, she'd ask a question.

"What do you know of the two prior spirits that we have contacted tonight?"

And maybe later she'd apologize for the bad words, too.

Desiree's breathing was so violent, so earth-shatteringly loud. But she couldn't move. Couldn't even take her eyes off the planchette.

Violet smiled in terror. Here was something, and here was everything, and in the corner was nothing. Hovering about the seven of them was incongruity personified. The spirit could know everything because the spirit could have just asked. Spirits talked to one another if they existed on the same plane.

But there was something low-dimensional about the energy she was reading. She didn't even need to read it. It brushed against her of its own accord, positively radiant.

"How do you know them?"

it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it
hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts

Freude!
Freude.
Violet's smile twisted into a gnarled grin. Beads of sweat dripped once more down her forehead, making their slow trek down her face and burning a trail down her cheeks. She coughed directly onto her and Desiree's hands, unable to move her face away from the ouija board. It was so close that she could smell it. It smelled like singed iron.

Freude!
Freude.
They had gone too far a long, long time ago. Why not keep going and see what happened? Desiree looked like she was having her fingernails ripped off and fed to her. For a moment Violet no longer felt afraid. In the next moment, she felt like she was melting out of her skin, turning to primordial soup.

"What's your name?"

The planchette was spinning out of control, making an endless sideways figure 8. Whatever it was doing, it was bad. Real bad.

Desiree's head thumped. Her bones cracked. It hurt so much. But she had to stop it.

With the last of her strength, she finally broke out of the trance. She slowly pushed the planchette over to the "GOODBYE" spot.

Whatever this demon was, it needed to leave. Now.

Infinity.

Violet wanted to scream but all that came out was a hoarse whistle noise. Overwhelming power coursed through her, but it did not belong to her. It came from the planchette, and it was twisting her insides into knots.

She was powerless to stop it, but Desiree wasn't. Somehow, someway, she managed to stop the planchette, putting it in the Goodbye spot. The demon, whoever it was, whatever it was, was banished.

But that wasn't enough. The connection severed, Violet stood, lifted the planchette from the board, and tossed it off the table to the side.

There.

She panted, feeling as if she had just ran a mile.

That took too much from her.

It was over. The oppressive aura was gone, banished to whatever circle of Hell it spawned from.

Desiree just watched Violet fling the planchette off the table, and she flinched as it slapped to the ground with a thud.

She sighed and hung her head, one hand on her sweaty forehead for support as she closed her eyes and rested on the table.

Violet rubbed at her eyes, trying to shake herself from whatever spell the spirit had put on her. She gazed down at the planchette on the ground for a few seconds, and then stooped down to pick it up.

It was light in her hands. Much lighter than it had felt moments ago.

She looked over at Desiree, but her attention caught on the shattered window behind her. Violet had forgotten that had even happened.

"Oh, sh— no, oh no," she mumbled, straightening up, "jeez, I'm sorry about, uh."

"Uh."

Why was she apologizing? That wasn't her fault, was it?

"What?" Desiree perked up and looked at Violet. Her eyes veered to the broken window with the beads of glass scattered everywhere in front of it.

Oh. Right.

"...One sec." She slowly got up and pushed the chair back under the table before shuffling out of the room.

About a minute later dragging sounds resonated from outside the room before Desiree reappeared holding a broom and standing dustpan in one hand and a trash can in the other. She dropped the trash can near the table and held the dustpan out to Violet. "Here."