“Trick or treat!”
I flung open the front door to find four little kids standing on
the doorstep. There was a princess, a
vampire, some kind of ninja, and an adorable little pumpkin. “Happy Halloween,” I said, dropping a
mini-sized Snickers bar into each of their bags.
“Thank you,” they all chorused and scampered off down the driveway
to a man that was waiting for them on the road.
I smiled and shut the door, heading into the living room, where my
two best friends, Abby Hunter and Sean Littrell, were sitting.
“Can we like go do something now?” Sean asked. “This is boring.”
“I know,” Abby agreed.
“It’s Halloween; we should be doing something fun.”
“Where’s Hallie at?” Sean asked, referring to my seventeen year
old sister.
I rolled my eyes. “She’s at
some party. It’s not fair.”
“Yeah, Sonny went to a party too,” Abby said. “Probably the same one.”
We all sighed, wishing we were at that party, rather than stuck at
my house with nothing to do. And we
couldn’t even stay up late and party all night either because it was a Sunday
night, and we had school the next day, of all the stupid things. Why couldn’t they at least give us the day
after Halloween off?
“Hey, I know!” Abby cried.
“Jess, you still have that Ouija board, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“We should have a séance!” she exclaimed. “Like a real séance, not just some gay
fortune-telling thing we used to do when we were kids.”
I shrugged. “Sure, that
sounds cool. You wanna, Sean?”
“Sounds good to me,” he said.
“Where should we do it?” Abby asked.
“How about the attic? It’s
sorta spooky up there; it’d be perfect,” I suggested.
“Great! Let’s go get it
ready,” Abby said, and we all went upstairs to my room. I rounded up some candles, Sean got some
matches, and Abby dug out the Ouija board.
Then we all went up to the attic.
We spread out an old blanket to sit on and surrounded it with
candles, setting the board in the middle.
We lit the candles, turned out the lights, and sat around it.
“Who should we call back?” I asked.
“Somebody famous,” Abby suggested. “Like…”
She tried to think.
“No, make it somebody evil,” Sean interrupted. “Like a murderer or something. That would be cool!”
We all thought for a moment, trying to think of a really bad
criminal. And then, suddenly, it came
to me. “I know!” I cried. Sean and Abby waited for me to go on, the
candlelight flickering over their eager faces.
“Justin Timberlake,” I said dramatically.
Their mouths dropped open in shock. “Justin Timberlake? You mean, the one who… who…” Sean didn’t even have to finish his question. We knew what he meant, and he already knew
who I was talking about. I had filled
them both in on everything my mother had told Hallie and me back in March.
“Yup,” I said, grinning devilishly. “Come on, it’ll be fun. And it’s not like this kind of stuff actually
works.”
“Yeah, let’s do it!” Abby said.
“Okay, Sean?”
Sean looked a little uncertain.
“Aw, guys, I dunno. I mean, I
know we think this stuff doesn’t really work, but there’s some people who swear
it does. Do we really want to chance
calling back the spirit of someone who did so many horrible things… to our
families?”
“Aw, come on, Sean, get real.
The only kind of people who say it really works are those psychic
people, and they’re fake anyway,” Abby insisted. “Besides, even if it could happen for
someone, it’s not gonna happen for us.
We’re not professionals or anything; we’re just messing around, having
fun.”
Sean sighed. “Well… okay,”
he said finally.
“Okay, let’s get started, “Abby said anxiously. “Everybody put your fingers on the pointer
thingie.”
I smiled, laying my fingertips lightly on the “pointer
thingie”. Sean and Abby did the same.
“Now close your eyes,” Abby instructed, her voice taking on a low,
melodramatic tone. I did so, trying not
to laugh at her voice.
“Okay,” said Abby, taking a deep breath. “We are gathered here tonight to-“
Sean burst out laughing.
“It sounds like we’re at a wedding,” he said, smirking.
Abby opened her eyes and glared at him. “Shut up,” she snapped. “We’re supposed to be serious here. It won’t work if you don’t concentrate.”
“Abby, we don’t want it to work,” I pointed out, laughing.
She turned her glare towards me.
“So, we can at least pretend,” she argued. “Now come on, act serious.”
We forced the smiles off our faces and closed our eyes again, and
Abby continued. “Okay, once again, we
are here to summon the spirit of Justin Timberlake.” We sat in silence for a moment, before Abby
went on, asking, “Are you with us Justin?”
Again, we waited. Nothing
happened.
“Justin, if you’re here with us, give us a sign,” Abby went
on. We were all silent and motionless,
waiting, listening for something to happen.
But nothing did.
That is, until we heard a creak.
And then another.
“Oh, my God,” Abby whispered, forgetting to use her psychic
voice.
My eyes flew open, but I didn’t see anything unordinary in the
room. Not like I would though. Even if Justin’s spirit was there, we might
not be able to see it.
I heard a thump all of a sudden, and we all jumped. Abby screamed. Loudly.
The first thump was followed by a bunch of others, which I quickly
realized were footsteps. Before I knew
it, the door to the attic swung open, and in came my sister.
She glanced from us, to the Ouija board, to the circle of candles,
and her mouth dropped open. “What are
you guys doing up here?” she asked.
“We’re having a séance,” Sean said. Abby didn’t respond. She looked awfully white, even in the
flickering candlelight.
“A séance?” she asked in exasperation, rolling her eyes. Two guys pushed past her and came into the
room. One was Sonny, and the other one
I hadn’t seen before. He was really hot
actually, with curly, dirty blonde hair and brown eyes.
“Cool, who are you trying to call back?” asked the blonde
guy.
“Justin Timberlake,” I replied.
“He was this murderer who got the death penalty a long time ago, before
I was even born. He used to be in some
music group way back in the 1990’s, but then he went psycho or something.” I decided not to mention the fact that he
had terrorized our family and friends for years to a complete stranger.
The guy started to say something in reply, but was interrupted by
a gasp from Sonny. His mouth dropped
open, and he stared at the three of us with a look of absolute hatred.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he cried. “That guy killed my father! Don’t you have any respect?! What the hell is wrong with you people?!”
I opened my mouth, but I was too stunned to say anything. Sonny was so nice, not the kind of guy I
would expect to have an outburst like that.
Before I could even apologize, he turned and stormed down the
stairs. Hallie glared at us and hurried
after him.
The blonde guy was left alone.
“Whoa,” he said, raising his eyebrows.
“Yeah,” I said bitterly.
“You know, I’ve heard of that Timberlake dude before, but I had no
idea Sonny’s dad was one of the ones he… well, you know…” He trailed off.
“Yeah. He did stuff to our
families too,” Sean said. “But he didn’t
kill anyone in mine or Jess’s. Abby here
is Sonny’s sister. Half sister really
though, cause she has a different dad.”
“What’s your name?” Abby asked the guy. She had calmed down a little bit once she
had realized all the noises were just from my sister and her friends.
“Derrick Randall,” he said, coming over and shaking her hand. “My family just moved here a couple months
ago.”
“Oh cool,” I said. “Well,
in case you don’t already know who I am, I’m Hallie’s sister Jess, this is Abby
Hunter, and this is Sean Littrell.”
“Littrell?” Derrick asked.
“You’re not related to Hope Littrell, are you?”
Sean smiled. “Yup, she’s my
sister. You a fan?”
“A fan? Of course!” Derrick
exclaimed. Taking after her father,
Hope was now a singer. She had recorded
an album while she was still in college, and her first single had been released
at the beginning of the summer, becoming an immediate hit. She was off touring now as an opening act
for a seasoned pop group.
“Hey, maybe you can meet her some time,” Sean offered.
Derrick smiled. “I’d like
that,” he said. Glancing at the Ouija
board, he asked, “So, can I join in on your little séance? Hallie’s probably down with Sonny, and I
don’t know if I should interrupt them.”
I glanced at Sean and Abby and shrugged, not sure if they still
wanted to do it or not. But Abby smiled
and said, “Sure, sit down here.” She patted
a spot on the blanket next to her, and Derrick sat down. We all got back into séance mode and tried
once again to call Justin.
“Justin, are you here with us?” Abby asked again in her lilting
voice.
To our surprise, the pointer moved beneath our fingertips. We all opened our eyes and watched in awe,
as the pointer traveled very slowly to the word ‘yes’ in the top right corner
of the board.
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
“Whoa,” whispered Derrick.
“I can’t believe this.”
“Shh,” Abby said softly. “Oh,
spirit, are you really Justin Timberlake?”
The pointed moved slightly off the ‘yes’ and then back onto
it. Our eyes widened in a mix of
amazement and fear.
“Let me ask a question,” I said.
“Justin, why did you do such horrible things to our parents? Why did you kill Sonny’s dad and my mom’s
friend Sammy? Why did you shoot my mom
and stab my dad?”
Again, the pointer started to move. It slid slowly down to the letter ‘J’, then
to the ‘E’, then to the ‘A’, and after a long while, it had spelled out a word.
“Jealously,” whispered Sean.
“He did it because he was jealous.”
“What do you want from us now?” Derrick asked. His voice was hushed and shaky sounding.
Again, the pointer began to spell out a word, this time much
faster. R-E-V-E-N-G-E
“Revenge!” I gasped.
“Oh my God!” Abby whimpered.
“Guys, I don’t wanna do this anymore.”
Again, her dramatic voice had vanished, being replaced by that of a
scared little girl’s.
“Neither do I,” I said, taking my hands quickly off the pointer,
as if it were scalding hot.
Sean and Derrick let go of it as well, and we all scooted away
from the board.
“Guys, did any of you move it?” I asked, looking from Abby, to
Derrick, and finally to Sean. I let my
gaze linger on his face for a moment. He
could have easily moved the pointer to try to make us believe we had actually
contacted a spirit. Sean loved
practical jokes like that.
All three shook their heads solemnly.
“Sean?” I asked. “You swear
you didn’t move it?”
“I swear,” he said, looking me right in the eye. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“You didn’t move it, did you, Jess?” Derrick asked me.
I shook my head. “Of course
not,” I replied.
“Then that means… it was real?” squeaked Abby, looking at me with
wide eyes.
We all exchanged worried glances.
We had thought séances didn’t really work, especially ones done in an
attic by a group of high school kids.
But maybe we were wrong.
***