The Wulver

"I want to break free" I want to break free

  "You are insane Lolita Santana. You're going get us expelled, possibly even killed. "
"Calm down Linna. Our cousin did this last year and found out about this little kid who was killed by conquistadors," Linna Andersen glared at Lolita's twin sister Felippa, who was currently grinning at her reassuringly, and sighed. No one else fully understood how much Linna owed to Briarwell Girl's Academy –it was her home, and without it she'd have nothing. As it was, her treasured place here was under threat, and all because of Lolita's newest idea.
She had come up with it a week earlier. The five of them – Lolita, Felippa, Emmie, Jingfei and Linna – had decided to sneak out of the annual Halloween disco, as last year they had been incredibly bored. Lolita had promised to provide entertainment, which made Linna slightly nervous, as it was Halloween and Lolita was currently reading Silence of the Lambs, but it was better than dancing alongside teachers to the latest crappy dance music. So that was why she was currently sitting on the floor of the toilets, in front of Lolita's "entertainment" – an Ouija board.
"I agree with Linna, this might not be the best idea you've ever had Lo," Linna mouthed a thank you to Kao Jingfei, who was looking at her with a knowing smile. Jingfei understood better than some of the others in their class about being here under scholarship, because she had got in on one too.
"Relax, we'll be fine. I bribed Alex to cover for us," There were times when having a close friend who had a brother at the local music college came in handy. Enter Emmie Beaufort. She had the same mousy brown hair and spring green eyes as Alexandre, who was currently 16 years old . He and his band, White Hot Mess, were playing at the disco tonight, and it seemed that he was also receiving more money for his drum fund.
"You shouldn't have done that Emmie," Linna scolded. "And Alex is the crappiest liar I've ever known." Emmie just looked back at her and suddenly they were all laughing giddily, as things often went with the five of them. Emmie shrugged.
"It was only a tenner. Besides, it's for a good cause. His drums are pretty beat up. This is kinda risky though – if we get possessed, Lo is to blame. Kapeesh?" Linna nodded with the others. "Right. Let's do this. Dorm Six Sisterhood, are we ready to call upon any restless spirits?" Linna looked around her at the craziest, best people she had ever known. Lolita's eyes sparkled like varnished wood in her excitement, and though Felippa's own brown eyes were obscured by her glasses, the easiest way to tell the twins apart, Linna didn't doubt that hers shone too. Jingfei was looking as unruffled as ever, straight black hair falling into a neat fringe and chin-length bob. Emmie was surveying everyone with the same authority and control she always had, waiting for everyone to give their consent. All of them still had traces of glitter and black face paint on their faces, they all wore graphic tees with Halloween themes (Linna's showed a werewolf and a person holding hand with the words "Werewolves are people too... sort of" written in in bold underneath) and they were completely high on adrenaline. That was what made being a teenager so amazing, Linna reckoned. There was this frenzied, optimistic atmosphere that fizzed through the air. It made the simplest pleasures seem like miracles, as long as you had your friends around you.
"We're in," Lolita proclaimed, putting her slim, copper hand in the centre. Felippa's, identical save for the lack of black nail polish, quickly joined it.
"I'm happy with the plan," Emmie's hand had the remnants of a tan from the summer holidays spent in California. Callouses marked her fingertips as battle scars from daily cello practise.
"If Linna wants to, I'll do it too," Jingfei looked back and caught Linna's eye. This was it, now or never. With the thoughts of what everyone here had done for her playing through her head, she nodded. Jingfei placed her hand over Emmie's, her gold tinted complexion contrasting to that of the other three. Quickly laying her hand on the top, Linna realised she was by far the palest, her skin looking like snow compared to that of her friends. They were a very mixed bunch; two Mexican, one Chinese, one French and then... Linna classified herself as Scottish, since she had been living here in rural Aberdeenshire from the age of six, but technically she was Norwegian. She tried not to think about Norway though. Linna found it brought more unpleasant memories than good ones.
"Alright then," Emmie smiled. "Let's summon ourselves a ghost to have a friendly chit chat with." Linna thought it strange how calm Emmie was, as she felt like a millipede was scuttling around inside her, all 400 legs brushing horribly against her insides. She stood up and made to follow Emmie, who was going with the twins to set up the board near a cupboard they could stash it in should anyone come, when someone touch her lightly on the shoulder.
"Hey, are you sure you're okay with this?" Linna looked back to see Jingfei staring intently at her, worry gleaming in her ebony eyes. They had a pretty shape to them, almost like a teardrop, but with a shallower curve on the bottom edge than the top one.
"I'll be fine," Linna replied softly. "This could be fun, so long as we don't mess up and end up dead. Besides," A wicked little grin was beginning to work its way onto her face. "I've got you, Kennedy." Jingfei rolled her eyes. When the two had first met, Linna hadn't known about Chinese surnames coming before the first names, making her consequently think Jingfei's initials were JFK. Although Jingfei had told her repeatedly that her initials were in fact KJF, Linna still called her Kennedy, after the US president, from time to time.
"Hey, you pair! Muck in, will you? We're all slaving away at this Ouija board over here," Emmie called. Exchanging glances and barely contained smiles, Linna and Jingfei walked across to the other end of the toilets. Lying on the linoleum floor was Lolita's iPhone, a piece of A3 sketch paper and Felippa, who was on her front with a pencil in her hand. She was copying from an image displayed on the phone. It depicted the alphabet, the numbers on the top row of a keyboard and the words yes, no, Ouija and goodbye, all written in that swirly lettering Linna associated with Victorian funfairs. There were also pictures in the corners, showing the sun, the moon and two spirit mediums.
"What the hell is that?" Linna asked, one eyebrow raised.
"That, my dear friend, is an Ouija board. We need it big, but disposable and non-electronic, hence Felippa sketching it onto paper," said Lolita.
Linna opened her mouth to ask about the non-electronic part, but Lolita put a hand up to stop her.
"Evil spirits, or entities, are attracted to electronics. We don't want to attract one of those. Speaking of which," She pulled a box of matches out of her bag, along with some scented candles from the gift shop in the nearest village. "Linna, Jingfei – light these for us. We can't have the lights on, and these were the only candles I could buy without it seeming suspicious. And before you ask, I told Mrs Osborne-Hill that the candles were for Mamá and the tías' Christmas. Besides, who doesn't like scented candles?" Linna took a candle and looked at the label on the front.
"Mm, lavender. What did you guys get?"
"I've got cinnamon!" called out Jingfei.
"I've got sea breeze!" added Emmie.
"And I've got a headache," Felippa said drily. She was looking up from her drawing, which was now nearly complete. "Can you guys quit yelling and just light the damn candles already?" Linna struck a match and lit the wick. The lilac wax underneath the flame quickly began to melt into a little fragrant pool. She carefully lit the wicks of the other candles, and soon they had all the candles alight and giving off their respective fragrances.
"Okay, we're done," Emmie announced. Felippa sat up.
"So am I," she responded. "Lo, you ready?" Lolita nodded and everyone crowded round the perfect copy of the picture on the phone.
"Okay, phones off. Jingfei hit the lights," Lolita instructed, pulling a coin and a fairly large pebble from her pocket. Jingfei got up to switch of the lights. With a quiet click, darkness swept suddenly over the room, the only light being the soft orange glow from the candles. Feet softly pattered back to their spot and Jingfei sat down in the circle, legs crossed, like the rest of them. Meanwhile Lolita had placed the coin on the edge of the paper and the pebble in the middle.
"Okay, here's how it goes down. We put two fingers each on the pebble and move it in clockwise circles whilst asking "Are there any spirits out there?" If we get an answer, we stop. Every time we ask a question and get a reply, we have to move the pebble back to the centre so we don't confuse the ghost. Got it?" The other girls nodded. "Right. I'll do the talking." Linna positioned her fingers on the pebble with the others as they began to push it round in a circle.
"Are there any spirits out there?" Lolita asked, her voice clear and polite. Linna could tell she was making an effort to make her accent less pronounced, but she still rolled the "r"s slightly.
Everyone stayed completely still for several minutes, fingers lightly resting on the pebble. Linna could feel it; cool, smooth and... gently vibrating?
"Um, guys?" she whispered. "It's vibrating." Everyone looked up sharply, but then the pebble inched towards the "Yes" on the board. All five girls watched with baited breath as the pebble stopped on top of the word. Linna watched as Lolita, fingers trembling, moved the counter back to the centre.
"Are you a good spirit?" Everyone let out a sigh of relief when the pebble gravitated to "Yes".
"What is your name?" Lolita asked, moving the pebble in circles again. It slid across to the letters and paused on one.
""N"," Lolita breathed. The stone moved minutely right, so it was on the "O". Then it moved off the letters, before landing on the "T", "I", "M" and "E".
"No time? What does the spirit mean?" Felippa asked.
"I don't know," Lolita muttered, her brow creasing into a frown. "Maybe the spirit misunderstood, and we should ask again." She reached out to move the pebble to the centre.
"No," Linna said quickly. She realised everyone was staring at her, but she didn't care. "The spirit must be trying to tell us something. Just, let me try. I know what I'm doing." The others looked unsure, but soon nodded. Linna guided the stone around the board, murmuring softly. There was an aura, though very faint, that she presumed was the spirit's – and she felt inexplicably drawn to it. She wasn't sure why, but she felt a kind of understanding with the aura.
"Hi, I'm Linna. Sorry if we bothered you, by the way, with our summoning. Why isn't there time? Thank you," Linna loosened her grip on the pebble. It drifted to the letters "H", "E", "L" and "P", then off the letters like before, then back on the letters again, where it paused on the "M" and "E".
"What –" Linna held up a hand to silence Emmie, before moving the pebble back to the middle of the board.
"How can we help you?" Linna kept her voice soft and gentle, as if she were speaking to a stray cat. "You aren't going to be hurt or manipulated, we promise." The pebble made its way to the alphabet once again. Keeping a track of where it stopped in her head, she realised what the spirit was saying.
"You want me to talk to you? But not ask any questions?" The pebble went to the "Yes" again.
"Okay, well, I'm 14. Today is Halloween, so this is what we're doing instead of going to the school party. My favourite colour is deep red, like roses, because that's the colour of my school uniform. I play hockey on the school team, and my favourite subject at school is history. At the weekends I like to go –" The stone suddenly jolted under Linna's fingers and moved quicker than it had earlier, spelling out the words "Ready. Get yourself and your friends out of the way. I don't want to hurt you."
"Guys, we need to move."
"But –"
"Please, move away from the board. You have to trust me on this," Linna looked up at her friends, praying for them to understand. The candlelight on their faces faded as it travelled upwards, like the sky while the sun set in the evening.
"Okay, we'll move. Come on everyone, move back, and don't knock over any candles," Jingfei said. The sounds of everyone scooting back and the nervous breaths each girl took filled the silence in the room like dirt in a grave.
Linna felt doubts beginning to mount up around her. What if the spirit had lied? What if it was actually coming to possess her and her friends? What if she had doomed them all to a fate of becoming possessed, homicidal psychopaths? But then she remembered the feeling of speaking to the spirit. It had felt... good, like all her happiest memories rolled into one. Linna was curious as to who the spirit was, and why it had made her talk to it.
"Nothing's happened," Felippa whispered. "Do you think –" The pebble began violently rocking from side to side.
"Duck down right now," Lolita hissed. Everyone obliged, just as a column of blackness sprouted out of the Ouija board. It felt dark and cold and neglected, like an old house left forgotten and boarded up in the middle of nowhere. It gave Linna the chills, yet she understood now. The spirit was escaping whatever Hell this was, and she would help him more if he needed it. But the room was suddenly overcome by the dark, as the last candle sputtered out. Blind, Linna became aware of the spirit's presence, and she sat up. But before she could stand up fully, there was a thump, and something heavy and warm was squashing her. Something that felt suspiciously human... and alive.