True Ghost Tales

Sister's Story

Several years ago,my younger sister had an experience with a ouija board. Actually,it wasn't a single experience, but several. And eventually itcontinued beyond the ouija board.

Mary, my younger sister (this isn't her real name, but I'm notsure she would be happy if I posted her real name), was aboutfourteen years old when this happened; I was sixteen or seventeen.Our family (me, my mom, my two sisters, and my older sister'sfriend, who lived with us for a few months) lived in a very smallapartment. Mary and I shared one bedroom, our older sister andher friend shared the other bedroom, and my mother usually slepton the pull-out bed of the sofa. The weekend it all started,though, my older sister and her friend were away somewhere, andMary had gone to a slumber party with about twelve of her friends.She told me the next day that they had been playing around with aouija board.

Mary was really excited about this experience. She had beenafraid to participate at first, she said, and wouldn't even puther hands on the planchette. Finally, for some reason, she joinedin, and they started talking to what they thought was a group ofspirits. These spirits were all male, and gave names like Ben,John, James--typical, nondescript names like that. They saidthrough the board that they had all known each other in pastlives. I forget the whole story, but apparently, whatever wascommunicating with them through the board had convinced the girlsthat they and this group of male spirits were soulmates, andmeant to be together. I don't know how they expected to betogether, or what else happened, but that's what Mary told me.

Later that night, Mary said that "the boys" (I don'tknow what else to call them) had left, and they had stoppedplaying with the ouija board, but had left it out with theplanchette sitting on top. At one point, someone happened toglance over in that direction, and saw that the planchette wasmoving by itself in sideways figure eights, like the symbol forinfinity. Now remember, I wasn't there, so I can't say for surewhether or not this actually happened. My sister swears it did,though. The girls went over to the board and asked the name ofthe entity or whatever that was moving the planchette. Thepointer moved to the number "6." That was the only nameit would give. Again, I don't know exactly what happened afterthat. It had scared my sister so badly that she wouldn't tell me.But she said that eventually it went away, and they talked to"the boys" again.

Mary was telling me all this because she knew that I loved ghoststories, and she thought I would get a kick out of it. Instead, Iwas a little worried. I had heard from other people who had useda ouija board, and had bad experiences with it. I asked her ifshe thought she would do it again, and she said they had anotherparty planned for that weekend. They had a party like that everyweekend for a month, or maybe two. Eventually, Mary stoppedtelling me about what happened at these sessions because of myreaction. I had started saying right out that I thought thatwhatever they were talking to was lying to them, and that theyshould all stop, and get rid of the board. It was seriouslyscaring me.

It was at about this time that Mary started asking me to leavethe light on at night. At first I thought it was because shewanted to read, but after a while I realized that it was reallybecause she was scared. She didn't want to be in the dark, eventhough I was just across the room. It used to be that I was uplater every night than she was, but Mary started staying up allnight. I found out later that she'd had a few experiences thatshe wasn't sure were dreams, and that she was now honestly afraidto go to even close her eyes. At first, having the light on atnight helped. I had one of those four-level lamps that turned onand off when you touched the metal base. I often stayed up lateat night with the lamp on the lowest level, studying or readingto unwind. Now we left the lamp on all night.

Unfortunately, even the light didn't seem to help after a while.Whenever our older sister was gone, and my mother was sleeping inher room, Mary usually crept downstairs after a while, where thelights were brighter, and turned on the T.V. for company. Shedidn't like to go downstairs when our mother was sleeping there,because she didn't want her to know what was going on. But shestopped going to the ouija parties, and asked me to pray for her.Although I hadn't been to church more than twice a year (onChristmas and Easter) since I was ten or eleven, I prayed as hardas I could. I don't even remember exactly what I prayed, buteventually Mary told me that she thought it was over. Of course,I had to ask, "WHAT is over?"

That's when she finally got up the nerve to tell me everythingthat had happened. The things that happened at night that shereally didn't think she had dreamed. And even a couple of thingsthat she saw during the day.

The first thing that happened was the mirror. There was a full-lengthmirror hanging at the end of the upstairs hallway. I'd neverreally paid much attention to it--I hated to look at myself full-length.Mary and my other sister, though, usually stood in front of it todo their hair in the morning. Mary said that one morning, she hadfelt that someone was watching her. Then she noticed a sort ofblack shape reflected in the mirror, as if someone were standingbehind her. Of course, when she looked behind her, there wasnothing there. Every time she looked back at the mirror, theshape seemed to take a more solid form. She said that the closestthing she could think of was a monk in a black hooded cassock.Typical image, right? But it scared her enough to stop using thatmirror to do her hair in the morning.

The second event that scared her enough to want the light on atnight was another feeling of being watched. I had already turnedoff my lamp and gone to sleep, but Mary had woken up briefly. Shetold me that it wasn't like one of those "Old Hag"experiences--she said she could move just fine, but that she sawanother black shape at the foot of her bed. Then she felt a handgrip her around the ankle and tug her leg. She said that sheactually slid down the bed a foot or so. Then she flung thecovers off and spent the rest of the night downstairs. She saidshe felt safe downstairs, for some reason. The light wasbrighter, and the T.V. made enough noise to dispel the eeriefeeling.

The final even that made her realize that she'd gone too farhappened downstairs, where she had gone for yet another sleeplessnight. She said that she distinctly felt the cushion next to hersink, as if someone had sat down. She could see the imprint ofsomeone's rear and thighs in the cushion next to her, and felt aheavy arm settle around her shoulders. She swears she was wideawake. I believe this was the same night that something finallyhappened that I personally observed. Remember the lamp I wastalking about? Well, sometimes it would turn itself on in themiddle of the night. No particular reason. I was never nearenough to have brushed it accidentally in my sleep. I would justwake up and it would be on--usually on the lowest level, butsometimes on the second or third level. I actually witnessed thisa couple of times. It probably happened because of power surges.But on this particular night, the lamp did not just turn itselfon and stay on. It kept cycling through the four levels, and thenwould go off. A few seconds later, it would happen again. Thiswent on for about twenty minutes. Although I didn't know exactlywhat was going on with Mary, the thing with the lamp scared me. Iunplugged it and brought it down to the dumpster the next day. Ijust told my mother that I had accidentally broken it.

This has been my only experience with anything remotelyparanormal. I love to read about it, but that's as close as Ireally like to get. Thanks for reading this far.