Devil's Board

Part 1

Part I

Sarra heaved a sigh of relief when she closed the door and turned off the front porch light. She’d given out the last of the Halloween candy and it was after nine. Not that she minded giving it out. She loved Halloween and enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up in their costumes, running from one house to the next grinning and saying trick-or-treat! Halloween was like Christmas for Sarra. That was how much she loved the holiday.

Sarra turned to sit the empty candy bowl down and nearly did a face dive into the floor when she tripped. She grabbed the hallway table right before she completely lost it. Grimacing, she turned to see what had caused her to trip. Something wrapped in an old leather blanket lay in the floor. Sarra reached down and picked it up. When she pulled the cloth away, her eyebrows shot up. A Ouija board. A very old one, hand carved from the look of the aged wood. It was beautiful really, an antique maybe. The Muncey’s had probably used it for their party a few days ago.

Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her pocket to check. Todd, her boyfriend was texting again. They’d had a huge fight earlier about her babysitting tonight instead of going to Jill’s big party. One, she needed the money, and two, she adored the Muncey children. She’d babysat for the family since their oldest, Dakata, was born. Unfortunately, Todd refused to understand she needed the money. All he saw was his girlfriend ditched him on Halloween to babysit.

Sighing, Sarra walked over to the couch and turned on the TV, putting the Ouija board on the coffee table. Todd was still pissed and she refused to argue with him anymore tonight. She just wanted to eat her popcorn and watch some scary movies. One thing about Halloween, there was never a shortage of scary movies. She settled on the Halloween marathon running on the Chiller channel. You could always count on watching Michael Myers at least a dozen times during October. She needed popcorn first though.

She flipped on the kitchen light and frowned. Water ran in a slow stream from the faucet to the drain in sink. She’d turned it off when she’d heated water for the baby’s bottle earlier. At least she thought she had. Shrugging, she turned off the faucet and then threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Snagging a can of Coke from the refrigerator, she waited for the microwave to beep. She’d been dying to watch scary movies all night. The kids were finally asleep and the trick-or-treaters were all going home. She could sit back, turn off the lights, munch on her popcorn and be terrified.

Sarra checked on the kids and then plopped down onto the Muncey’s big oversized fluffy couch with the lights out. Checking the time on her phone, she turned the volume up just a little and settled back. The baby would be up for a bottle in another hour or so, but until then, the TV was all hers.

Halfway through her popcorn, the phone rang right when Michael was about to grab Lori and Sarra screamed, popcorn flying everywhere as she jumped. She surveyed the mess in disgust before grabbing the cordless.

“Hello?”

“Sarra,” Mrs. Muncey’s voice sounded breathy. “Just checking in on the kids.”

“Sound asleep,” she said. “They were both out by eight.”

“Everything else okay?” Mrs. Muncey asked.

Sarra could hear the party going on in the background and smiled when Mr. Muncey grumbled close by about leaving the girl alone.

“Yes, ma’am,” Sarra assured her. “All good.”

“Okay, we’ll be home by midnight,” she said. “Or one.”

Sarra shook her head when they hung up. The mess on the floor had her scrunching her nose. Popcorn was everywhere. Sighing, she grabbed the bowl and started cleaning up her mess. Before she could finish, she heard the baby crying on the monitor.