Kicked out by the professor, Li Li and the two Goth girls found a quiet patch of lawn. Since class was still in session, the campus was mostly empty. The three sat cross-legged under the shade of a tree.
"Continue," Li Li said, leaning back. "**That'll be an extra charge.**"
Getting kicked out of a lecture she actually paid tuition for? Yeah, the price just went up.
Mary and Sylvia nodded in understanding.
...
The story continued.
Inside the abandoned gym, the three veteran club members closed their eyes.
As usual, they began the opening ritual. Lacey and Duke, the two newbies, watched curiously by the faint flickering candlelight.
As the final syllable of the chant fell, a barely noticeable cold breeze brushed the backs of their necks. The candle flames danced slightly, but in the excitement, no one noticed.
Jack twisted his neck uncomfortably. Feeling a sudden chill, he hunched his shoulders and pulled his collar higher.
"**Spirit of the Board, Spirit of the Board, are you with us?**" Mary asked first.
The small wooden planchette, pressed lightly by five index fingers, remained still.
After a moment, it trembled. Then, very slowly, it began to slide across the smooth surface, dragging everyone's fingers with it. The viewing hole hovered over the letters.
**Y—E—S.**
Lacey gasped.
Duke, on the other hand, looked unimpressed. He figured this was just the **Ideomotor Effect**—subconscious muscle movements. With five people pushing, if one person wanted it to move, the others would naturally follow.
"The spirit is here. Any questions?" Mary glanced around the circle.
Lacey was the most excited. She raised her free hand like a schoolgirl. "Me! Me!"
Mary nodded.
"Spirit, are you a boy or a girl?" Lacey whispered.
This time, the planchette moved faster.
**G—I—R—L.**
Lacey gasped again, then clamped her hand over her mouth, realizing she was being dramatic. She signaled for the next person.
Duke sat beside her. He smirked and asked, "How did you die?"
**F—A—L—L.**
*Falling? That's it?* Duke thought. *The person pushing this thing has zero creativity.*
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He shifted his weight. Suddenly, he felt a phantom itch behind his ear, like a bug crawling under his skin. He rubbed his neck, goosebumps rising on his arms.
The newbies asked soft questions. The veterans went for the jugular.
Sylvia was next. "Did someone push you?"
The planchette instantly jerked violently. The candle flames flared. The wood scraped loudly against the board, racing to spell out a sentence:
**I — D O — N O T — K N O W.**
The five exchanged glances. Lacey looked scared. Duke looked amused. But the three veterans looked genuinely surprised—as if this was the first time the board had actually "talked back" with such force.
*‘Did you do that? Don't scare the newbies,’* Jack signaled with his eyes.
*‘Not me,’* Sylvia replied with a glare.
*‘Not me either,’* Mary signaled back.
"Wait," Li Li interrupted the story, looking at Mary and Sylvia. "So you guys can actually communicate telepathically?"
She remembered the club fair where they did the exact same thing. "How do you do that?"
Sylvia shrugged calmly. "**Trauma bonding.**"
Li Li nodded thoughtfully. *Makes sense.*
Mary shushed them. "Don't interrupt."
Back in the gym, Mary asked the next question. "Have you been here the whole time?"
The planchette moved slowly again.
**Y—E—S.**
The final question fell to Jack. He leaned in. "Why do you stay here?"
The planchette slid with purpose.
**P—E—R—F—O—R—M—A—N—C—E.**
*WHOOSH.*
A freezing wind blasted through the gym, sweeping from the chained main doors straight to the center of the court.
Every single candle was extinguished instantly.
Plunged into total darkness, Lacey screamed.
Duke reacted fast, grabbing Lacey to comfort her while whipping out his phone to turn on the flashlight.
**FLASH.**
A twisted, inverted face flashed in the beam of the light—right in front of Duke.
"AH!" Duke yelled, dropping his phone in terror.
"What? What is it?" The others scrambled to turn on their flashlights.
As multiple beams cut through the dark, the gym appeared empty again.
Duke was hyperventilating, staring suspiciously at the veterans. He was convinced they had set this up to prank him.
"Nothing," Duke muttered, picking up his phone with shaking hands.
"Let's... let's go back," Jack suggested. He couldn't stand seeing Duke playing the hero with Lacey in his arms.
They packed up and left.
---
That night, Jack had a dream.
He dreamed of a blonde, blue-eyed cheerleader captain—someone who looked suspiciously like Lacey. Jack knew it was a dream. *Lucid dreaming? Nice,* he thought. Overcome with passion, he embraced her.
But in the moment of intimacy, the cheerleader's head suddenly snapped sideways at a 90-degree angle. Her neck bone crunched, leaving her head dangling by a thin strip of skin.
She smiled at him.
Jack woke up screaming.
It was morning. Sunlight flooded the room.
Jack convinced himself it was just a nightmare fueled by the spooky evening. He tried to go about his day, but he felt exhausted. His muscles ached as if he'd run a marathon, and massive, unexplained bruises bloomed on his skin.
He told Mary and Sylvia. Mary suggested he go to the campus clinic.
As Jack was leaving his dorm, a neighbor stopped him in the hallway. "Dude, why do you keep going out at midnight?"
"Going out?" Jack was baffled. "I haven't left my room at night all week."
The neighbor insisted. He had been pulling all-nighters for finals and heard Jack's door open and close every night at 12:00 AM sharp.
Freaked out, Jack checked the hallway surveillance footage with the RA.
There he was on the screen. Midnight. Fully dressed. Walking out the door.
But the Jack on the screen had his **eyes squeezed shut**.
"That's it?" Li Li spread her hands. "He didn't consider he was just sleepwalking?"
"His sleepwalking destination is the **Abandoned Gymnasium**," Mary said grimly.
Sylvia nodded.
Jack told the girls, but they were fine. No nightmares, no sleepwalking.
They asked Lacey and Duke. Both reported the exact same symptoms as Jack—bruises, exhaustion, and waking up with dirt on their feet.
The group reconvened to figure out why Mary and Sylvia were immune.
Sylvia suddenly pulled out her phone. Dangling from the case was a small, yellow folded paper triangle.
"I kept the **Protection Charm** you gave us at the fair," Sylvia said. "I love Asian aesthetics."
Mary pulled out her keys. "Me too. I kept mine on my keychain."
As for Jack?
He had tossed that "cheap piece of paper" in the trash the moment Li Li walked away.
For the record, the **Ouija Board** is a patented board game owned by Hasbro. It's sold in the toy aisle next to Monopoly. But somehow, it remains the #1 tool for college students to accidentally ruin their lives.
---
