Psychic Circle

As you may have read in my story, "The Haunted House - The Undertaker (and Family Stories) ", for a large part of my childhood, I lived in an "actively" haunted house. I describe it as actively haunted because the house itself was teeming with a populous of ghosts, psychic activity and paranormal activity. We lived there from when I was 3 years old until I was almost 10 years old and then, we moved to a different country and a quieter house. We moved to the Mother City, Cape Town in the Western Province of South Africa. The psychic and paranormal energy and entities that were active in this house were more concentrated on my youngest and second oldest Brothers, and seemed to bypass me. I was sent to the best girls school in the city and I was one of the first non-whites to be allowed to attend. I made a group of girl friends, about 8 in total, while, the rest walked around me, nose turned-up and attention elswhere... Or any where else, I suppose. My best friends name was Nina, she was a beautiful red-headed girl who was all about good fun, giggles and laughs. I spent most of my weekends with her, either, at her house or attending a social event at one of the prestigious boys schools.

One weekend, I was sleeping over at her Dads house as her parents were divorced. Oh, man! His house was beautiful, complete with state of the art kitchen appliances, striking home decor and an indoor heated swimming pool with lead-on sauna. Her Father was in advertising and the house had his flamboyant "artsy" flair. He had long, sleek shiny black hair and dressed pro-goth! Nina took out what looked to me, very much like a quija board and said, "Kiki, I've got a game for us to play, it's really cool." I looked at it and answered reluctantly, "Nina, I don't know... Aren't those things like... Bad or evil?" She explained that this game was called psychic circle and it was the complete opposite of a quija board, literally; it worked on light magic or the light energy, and we could only contact good spirits, angels and things like that. So, I agreed.

Now that I think about it, she seemed like she had wanted to play this but hadn't managed to find a willing participant, however, she was very confident about the enterprise and she was very, very well prepared! We even had one of those proper "doohickey-things" to spell the words out from the ghost! We began, and we did not do any preparations, though, no protection methods. After asking once or twice, "does anyone want to communicate with us?" We got a hit and the doohickey moved to "YES"! I remember thinking, somebody is moving the doohickey, but, it was difficult to manipulate or move it myself, and it moved slow-and-steady, glided in-fact from letter-to-letter, as we asked the questions. Eventually, I said to Nina and her Sister, "one of you guys is moving it, just admit it!" Both of them looked at me shocked, insulted and upset, and I believed them. We asked, "are you a lady?" And, the doohicky moved to "YES"! Then we asked, "how did you die?" As the doohickey began moving, I suddenly had a conflicting, negative feeling as it slowly spelled out the word, "S...H...O...T". Immediately, I realized that a shooting would be a bloody, heart-breaking and disasterful incident, and the chances we were talking to a "good" spirit... Became, questionable. I convinced Nina and her Sister it was time to sign-off, she could see my expression and so she agreed like any good friend would do. And we began, "we'd like to say goodbye, now. We'd like to leave"... "NO!" I slouched, we didn't think that would happen? Again, "we'd like to leave, now. Can we say goodbye?" "NO!" Okay, okay relax! One more time... "We are going, now. We would like to say goodbye, can we say goodbye?"... "NO!" At this point, I turn to Nina and start accusing her of moving the doohickey! "You are moving it, Nina! You are, aren't you! You're lying! I know, you are!" "No, Kiki!" She puts her hands up with that gesture which says, I'm innocent! I am absolutely innocent! "I'm not, Kiki! I promise you!" Nina turns to her younger sister, "it's her! She's doing it! You are, aren't you Lara? I KNOW YOU ARE!" Lara swears on her life and everyone she holds dear that she... Is... NOT... Moving... The doohickey. I believe them, and let out a sigh of relief. "Okay guys," I say, shaking my head, "let's try one more time". Everyone nods and agrees, "we are going now, we are going to say goodbye. Can we say goodbye?" "NO!" Lara shrieks in angst and horror, as I scream "DON'T take your fingers off the..." And suddenly, the candles in the room go out, all at once! Lara and Nina spring off the bed running towards the door, and as I turn around, I see the door slamming shut, just, as they are reaching their exit. Nobody closed the door, it closed on its own... Or, did some invisible person forcefully slam it? Lara grabs the handle and turns it, but, it doesn't open. She begins screaming with dread and panic while jiggling the doorknob, but, the door won't open. Nina pushes Lara aside and turns the doorknob, the door won't open, it just... Will not open! Finally, Nina and Lara are crying and trembling in fear, I push them aside and grab the doorknob. I try and open the door the first time, it doesn't work, but, on the second attempt, the door opens and we all rush out to "safety".

I was so grateful to leave that house that weekend. Nina took the event hard, I could see she wasn't the same afterwards. She looked drained and pale, much like a person who doesn't eat or sleep well. I just tried to avoid talking about what happened, all together. A week later, Nina catches up to me at school and tells me, "I spoke to my Dad about what happened. He said, the lady who lived in our house before us committed suicide. She shot herself." I raised an eyebrow... "you told your Dad?!"