Chapter 2: Existence.

There they were. Sitting in a circle in the middle of the dimly lit hall, on the spooky carpet, with Ouija Board in the centre. They clutched each others' hands and Richie started chanting, "Is there any spirit around us?" 

Everyone repeated in chorus.

"Is there anyone around us?" Richie raised up his voice. Everyone repeated. Suddenly the candles started to flicker. Richie asked everyone to close their eyes. Gothy was scared at the flickering of candles and he tightened the grip of his hands holding Darwin and Lamarch's palms. He shut his eyes tightly. Lamarch was still in doubt whether spirits and ghosts really existed, but he was enjoying the game. Darwin was almost asleep and didn't care about whatever was happening around him. Perhaps it was the effect of the two-three drags of weed that actually extended to eight drags, saying, "Just one more, just ONNNE more." Richie was the only one who was completely lost, getting devoted into calling the spirits. 

"Is there--" he felt a strong magnetic force around him and felt the presence of someone. He felt as if someone was staring at his face. He pressed his hands, digging his nails in the palms of Darwin and Lamarch. It was a signal to open their eyes slowly. Lamarch passed the message to Gothy, who was still in doubt as to why wasn't he getting any message from Darwin. Darwin didn't care to pass the message, he was trying to conserve the limited energy left in him after smoking the weed. 

Everyone opened their eyes and looked straight at the Ouija Board. The little triangular wooden piece, resembling a cursor started to move towards the right upper corner of the spooky wooden rectangular board with alphabets from A-Z and numbers from 0-9 painted in black, bold and fat font. The wooden board was pale yellowish in colour. On the right upper corner was a "YES" and on the left was, "NO". The cursor made its way through the board and stopped at the "YES".

Everyone gaped at the board with wide eyes. Gothy was shivering slightly. There were goosebumps on Darwin's hands, while Lamartch was still wondering id it was just a trick played by Richie. He felt a possibility of the cursor having a hidden piece of iron and Richie moving it with a magnet. Richie's curiosity overpowered his fear and decided to take the next step.

Richie closed his eyes again. Lamarch and Darwin did the same. Gothy gasped and quickly closed his eyes tightly. Gothy looked like a stupid, goofy little kid afraid of even the funniest little supernatural creatures. Gothy was shortest of the four, with a healthy built up, not lean like Richie, nor hefty like Darwin, somewhat like Lamarch---in between.

"Can we know your name?" Richie spoke out, again everyone followed. They repeated again. The same force was again felt by Richie. It was stronger than before and it was felt by all the four this time.

They slowly opened their eyes and saw the cursor moving towards the left upper corner, "NO"

They became sure of the presence of the spirit around and slowly leaft each other's hands. Richie told everyone that they may ask the questions they want to.

"May we know the reason, why can't we know your name?" asked Lamarch, who was still not sure about the presence of the ghost.

Slowly the cursor moved through the alphabets, and Lamarch read the letters aloud.

"B...ECA--USEID,U sorry O...NTKNOWYOUGUYSWELL... Because I don't know you guys...uh..well?"

"O--Okay" He continued.

"How many years ago were you dead?" asked Darwin. 

"IWASN'TDEADIWASKILLED...I--I wasn't dead... I was, KILLED?"

The cursor mocved towards, "YES."

"H-how and ..and wh-who k-k-killed you?" Gothy asked, trembling with the idea that he was talking to a ghost.

"IWASHANGEDTODEATHFORKILLING10PEOPLE ... I was hanged to death for WHAT! You killed ten people!?"

the cursor stopped at "YES"

"Okay--oo-okay... We are finished with the questions. It's 10 o' clock and we need to stop the game now. Please, you may leave." Darwin requested, joining his chocolate colour hands.

The cursor stopped at "NO". It further said,

"IAMFREESINCEALONGTIMEIWILLKILLSOMEONEOFYOUFOUR!"

"Please leave!" Gothy burst into tears. His lips were quivering like a kid unwlling to go to school. His red, curly, fluffy hair made his round and fair face look so innocent. He was fair, but not as much fair as Richie. 

"NO" was the reply from the ghost.

"IWILLNOTLEAVEUNLESSIKILLSOMEONE" 

After half an hour of pleading and requesting and begging the ghost to leave and let them live freely, they saw the curtains swaying crazily and the light emitted by the candles was getting dim. It was pretty dark in the room and Lamarch was almost invisible in the darkness. He was trembling with fear. His trembling made Gothy even more afraid and he started crying, sobbing heavily. Darwin thought he was hallucinating and cared little about it. Richie was getting tensed as everyone's safety was primarily his responsibility as the board was his, the place was his and the idea too was his.

There was a loud sound of lightening and thunder. The rain was hitting the window panes behind the swaying curtains hard. There were shadows in the room. There was the shadow of the table, shadows of the boy's hands and head and the rain was making wild noise. 

Suddenly Darwin's jaw dropped open as he pointed towards the wall. Everyone screamed when they saw a fifth shadow on the wall. They realized that the ghost really existed. Now Lamarch believed it wasn't any trick played by Richie, and Darwin was no longer careless about things happening in his surrounding.

They requested five more minutes and the board said,

"IAMGOINGFORNOWBUTIWILLCOMEBACK" And the shadow slowly disappeared from the wall.