Stay Away From Ouija Boards

I have more stories to tell from the same haunted location as my creek stories from last time. A quick rundown of backstory for those who haven't read the last one or don't remember: These stories take place in a more rural part of Pennsylvania that has few houses and is mostly open farmland. I believe the area to have been haunted by both spirits who may or may not have been mostly benevolent and a more demonic entity that I feel was actually trying to threaten or harm us. The tales I tell today involve excursions with a Ouija board.

In hindsight, I believe this family to have been psychotic. I was taught by my mother to never touch a Ouija board as even being in the same room as someone using one could potentially invite something to come and hurt me. They, on the other hand, despite their belief in spirits and agreement that the area was haunted, treated the Ouija board and ghosts in general like they were all toys. They would use the board to try to talk with, challenge, and sometimes harass spirits, which might have aggravated the severity of the hauntings and potentially have been how this malevolent entity came into the area to begin with. Yes, you read that right. They would actually threaten or make fun of spirits to try to provoke an interesting reaction out of them.

My first tale is the one and only potential activity that I ever personally witnessed in the house (feelings of being watched and such don't count). For the most part I generally felt safe in the house and don't think it was haunted, just the grounds outside. It was almost like there was some force protecting us from whatever lay in wait just outside the door. Maybe there was a benevolent spirit or an angel or something in there shielding me.

We had a sleepover with a bunch of other girls in the living room that night. It was late in the morning, probably about 3 or 4am, and everyone was asleep except for me because I suffer from insomnia. Instead of sleeping, I was petting the family's two cats and trying to fall asleep.

All of a sudden the stereo in the kitchen turned on and started belting out a really loud and staticky heavy metal song. The song in particular was Metallica's One (this will be significant in a moment), and it was at the part where the song starts getting a little heavier. It was loud enough that it woke everyone up in the living room. Once the stereo was shut off again, my former friend told me that one of the cats had probably tried to jump up on the windowsill where the stereo was and accidentally crashed into it and turned it on, as evidently that's happened before. Which would have been a reasonable explanation, except both of the cats were sitting with me when the stereo had been turned on. There was nothing in the kitchen at the time.

The next morning I was talking to her brother's friend, who had also been staying over, and found out that he and my former friend's brother had both been in the attic with the Ouija board sometime in the middle of the night. Evidently they started communicating with something and asked it to prove that it was actually there by doing something to show itself and never got a response. I also noticed that he was wearing a Metallica shirt and asked him if he was wearing that last night. Apparently he was. I suspect that whatever they spoke to had tried to respond by turning on the stereo in the kitchen and that they must be deaf or something not to have heard it. I'm still wondering if Metallica was just a coincidence since the local metal station's playlist was 50% Metallica, or if that was significant.

The next incident occurred in the summer kitchen (a separate building from the house intended for cooking in the summer, though they mostly used it like a clubhouse that they also stored freezers full of food in). We were having a Halloween party and everyone decided to break out the Ouija board. There were two levels in the summer kitchen and I was in the lower one at the time while they were upstairs as I refused to participate. I remember enough that I can recall I was watching the 1998 Godzilla movie and an episode of Fullmetal Alchemist that we'd taped the previous night at the time. Then I remember hearing the screaming upstairs. All of a sudden, everyone who had been upstairs charged down to the room where I was. They ejected my VHS tape from the VCR and told me to take it into the house and that no one should go up there for the time being before we headed inside and they finally told me what happened.

From what I pieced together from their telling of events and the father of the family's explanation for said reaction of the Ouija board, apparently there were too many people in the room, they had all started asking too many questions at once, the spirit they were contacting became overwhelmed and didn't know who to answer first, and it either grew angry or freaked out and threw the planchette across the room. Following that incident I noticed that the air seemed to feel heavier and more ominous in the summer kitchen. It didn't necessarily feel evil, it just felt like there was something there that should not have been there, which makes me feel they effectively trapped something in there. Of special note, their dog used to follow us in there all the time, but after that night she would instead stop just outside the door and stare ahead, unmoving, almost like she was waiting for something to happen.

I have grown even more cautious with Ouija boards as a result of these experiences. At the time they'd taken place I would have been okay being downstairs while everyone used one, but now I don't even feel safe being in the same building as one. It never occurred to me until then that if they had channeled something evil or dangerous, it might not actually stay in the same room as them and it could potentially have come after me.