We all run back into the living room as we feel the floors shaking and notice things floating around. "Rory, what did you do?" "I thought I told you not to do anything stupid!" I exclaim. "Guys! What are you doing down there?" Sarah calls down. "Nothing!" We all yell instantaneously. We all kneel down, looking at Rory accusingly. "Tell me you did not play alone." "Are you nuts?"
The static television shuts off before turning back on again. "I think there's somebody here..." Rory comments. We all jump as we see the chandelier swinging above our heads. We all sit in our spots, Benny leaning over to ask it a question. "Are you the hot, but brutally honest ghost babe we recently conversed with?" Benny asks hopefully. The middle part lights up red with 'No' appearing.
"No. Didn't think so." Benny laughs nervously. "Okay, it's getting weird..." Ethan panics. "Just how I wanted to spend my night" I sigh out.
"Uh, guys? I think it's trying to tell us something, but I don't know what. It may be another language" Rory says and we see the middle piece now a blue color, different symbols popping up. "Yeah! Like evil speak." Ethan says.
"Okay, I know it's not cool for a dude to be freaked out, but I am a freaked-out dude right now!" Benny exclaims. "We even went over the rules, Rory!" I bring up. "You played alone. Rory, it's the number one rule! Never play alone!" Ethan exclaims. "Okay! Okay! What do we do?" Benny asks. "I don't know. It's going crazy!" "The obvious choice would be to call Sarah" I chime in.
"Are you mad? She was the one who said we shouldn't have done it in the first place. If she knows we managed to mess it up, she'd be furious!" Ethan points out. "Yeah, and she can do the furious stuff later! I think she'd know what to do and we can get this problem solved, and then she'll kick our asses!" I point out. "I don't want my ass kicked at all!" Rory says. "Maybe you should've thought about that before playing alone" I growl out.
"Okay. Okay. Let's all just put our hands on the board." Ethan suggests. "Right! You first." Benny nods. "Why me?" "This is your idea" Benny shrugs. "Okay, together. On 3: 1, 2,...3" We all place our fingers on our respective corners and all the floating objects drop back down. We all sigh a breath of relief. "I think it worked." Ethan breathes. The middle part lights up blue again, going crazy. "Or we just really ticked it off." "Let's go with that one" I agree.
"It's trying to spell something. Look. 'Hands off.'" Ethan reads. "Hands off what? The board?" Benny asks. "Yes! Yes, yes, it said yes." Ethan begins to freak out. "What do we do?" Rory asks. "Take your hands off the board!" "Okay!" The other three take their hands off. "No! You idiots! That was rule number 3! It just said that to get out!" I exclaim as the board starts to shake violently, the ball flashing orange. Ethan yanks my hand off the board worriedly.
"Oh no! That is the number 3 rule! Do not take your hands off the board unless the ghost says goodbye, or it can escape the spirit realm." Ethan panics. "But it told us to let go" Rory points out. "Of course it did. It's a ghost stuck in the Netherlands, and now it wants out!" "I think you mean netherworld" "If you knew that, why did you listen to the fucking ghost in the first place!" I bring up. "I panicked!"
A swirly like mist bursts out of the middle and a red beam shoots out of it. The middle piece goes blank again. We all look around. "Ghosts in your bodies?" We all feel around ourselves. "It's not in mine. I would definitely feel it if it was in mine." "Ah! I don't feel any different." "I think if we were possessed, we'd wouldn't be able to talk right" I point out.
I then look towards Snowball. "Snow, are you feeling okay?" I worriedly ask and the others look towards him as well. Snowball perks up, his tail wagging. "Snowball?" Benny asks. He lets out an excited bark, climbing off the couch and licking Benny's face. "He's good" Benny assures us and I breathe out a sigh of relief. "Maybe it never left the board. Grab that." Benny and Rory quickly grab the top of the box, putting it over the board.
"Okay. No more séances. Ever!" Ethan declares. "Got no problem with tha...Whoa!" We all turn around and watch as Sarah strides down the stairs, her clothes a little ripped up, her hair curlier than usual, wind blowing around her as she walked. "Sarah??" I exclaim. She had a symbol on her forehead, her eyes dark. "Hey...Sarah..." Benny trails off confused. Sarah smirks. "I don't know what your babysitter has done to herself, but I like it." "Normally, I'd yell at you for that, but, I kind of like it too" I admit, looking her over.
"Does anyone else think that Sarah seems a little...different?" Ethan asks "Oh, for sure" I nod. She points a hand out and knocks stuff off of the shelves. She points her hand at the tv and the static turns into a swirly looking vortex. We watch as Sarah literally glides out of the living room and into the kitchen. "Nah!" Benny says before we all walk into the kitchen, pausing as we take in the scene. "Okay, maybe I see what you're getting at." Benny nods.
Sarah was perched onto the counter, sniffing around and I raise an eyebrow. "Sarah, are you okay?" she ignores me, vamp speeding to the fridge and opening it up, eating things and then throwing it at us, all the while making a growling noise. "Oh, jeez" I mutter, face palming. "I've never seen a girl eat like that" Rory says in amazement as Benny, Ethan and I dodge the food being thrown at us. She finishes off a can before crunching it in her hand and throwing that as well.
"Sarah, why don't we just..." She says something, though it comes out foreign. "Oh! Definitely not Sarah. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" "The ghost that escaped from the séance board..." "Found a body it liked" "Can't say I blame it. You gotta admit, she looks like a lot more fun." Benny comments as we watch her spray whipped cream into her mouth before throwing the can at us which we dodge. "I thought she was fun to begin with, jackass" I growl out.
"If she wasn't trashing my house, I think she'd be fun!" She shuts the door before picking up the chocolate cake from the counter, bringing it over to the island. "Oh no! No! No! Not the cake! Please don't!" Ethan begs. "Please. Please, my mom just made that cake for her book club tomorrow. She researched recipes all week. Please." She starts grabbing cake, throwing it around and eating it at the same time, destroying the cake.
Snowball appears, eating up the food that she had thrown. "No, don't eat the cake, Snowball!" I pull him away from the mess. "I like her style" Benny comments as she stuffs the handfuls of cake into her mouth. "Ethan, where's Sarah?" We hear Jane call from upstairs. "We think she's possessed by a ghost from the Netherlands." Rory explains. "Rory!" Ethan scolds. "She's just getting you guys a snack. Be right up" Ethan says.
"I have got to try that cake" Benny moves to eat some. "Benny!" "What? It's not like your mom can feed it to her book ladies now." Benny stands beside her. She hisses at Benny, showing off her fangs. "Okay, it's your cake. I get it." Benny quickly nods, backing away. "Sarah, Sarah, are you in there?" Ethan tries. The demon stops licking her fingers, glaring at Ethan. "Elok hesse on Sarah." And with that, it vamp speeds into the dining room.
We all rush after it, watching as it holds up a trophy, giving Ethan a challenging look. "Stop! Stop, okay? Just put down the trophy" Ethan says slowly. "Dude, it's just a bowling trophy." Benny scoffs. "No. It's the only trophy my dad has ever won...ever." The demon throws it into the ground, breaking the trophy. "Argh! Okay, that's it! This party is over! I command you to return to the board and go back to wherever it is you came from." Ethan demands. The demon narrows its eyes at us. "Big mistake" "Huge mistake" She roars at us, a gust of wind blasting at us and we all scream.
It vamp speeds up the stairs and we all start running after it. We hear Jane scream from upstairs. "Jane!" We all rush up the stairs, calling for Jane worriedly. "Jane, where are you, Jane?" "Jane, Jane, are you okay?" Ethan opens the door to Jane's room. "It's empty" He sighs out. "Uh, guys? I think I know where she is" Rory motions to Ethan's closed door and we notice lights flashing from inside.
We open the door and all scream as we see the possessed Sarah floating in the air, her eyes glowing red while lights flashed, wind blowing at us. She slams the door shut on us and we rush down the stairs. "What the heck was that?" Benny exclaims. "A guess? I'd say some kind of demon has taken over Sarah's body." "This was a bad idea. I told you, a séance was a bad idea." Benny groans. "It was your idea." Ethan points out. "Yeah, and now my possessed girlfriend is...well, possessed!" I add.
"Okay, now is not the time to be throwing blame around, you two. But, while we're on the topic, I'm not the one who invited Casper the psycho ghost in." Benny points to Rory. "He's got a point" I agree. "It was an accident!" "Just like knocking the television signal out was an accident?!" I argue.
"Okay, let's assess. We have an evil demon who's taken possession of a fledgling vampire's body, who has trapped your little sister inside your bedroom." "Right" We all nod. "Well, then, there's only one thing to do..." "Ghostbusters style?" I ask hopefully.
~~~
We all sneak up the stairs, Rory with a safari cap on and a giant net, Ethan with a strainer over his head and a crowbar, Benny with a hockey helmet and a baseball bat and me with a broomstick, wearing a baseball helmet. Rory throws open the door, him leading because he was the vampire. We all slowly walk in, our weapons held up defensively. Rory opens the closet door and we spot Jane cowering in the corner, hugging a stuffed elephant tightly and whimpering.
She points to the other side of the room and we all look over to find the demon on Ethan's computer, typing something. We slowly inch forward. "What's it doing?" Benny asks. It was on Ethan's FriendlyFace page. "It's changing my status...to 'jamming with my babysitter in my Star Trek jammies'." Rory, Benny and I laugh. "Burn!" Her head snaps towards us.
She starts shouting something in demon, standing up. The closet door slams shut and we all scream. "Okay, we're not leaving...until you give me my sister back." Ethan demands. The demon's mouth opens and green goop sprays all over us. We all scream and gag in disgust before rushing out and running down the stairs. "What is this stuff?" Rory asks. "I don't know. I feel so dirty." "Wait, it's ectoplasm! The physical manifestation of paranormal energy."
"Oh, cool!" "Cool? More like gross. Now I know what Peter Venkman felt like when he was constantly slimed." I groan. "Check this out. It's an EMF app that I just-rigged to detect paranormal activity." he shows us his app on his phone. He looks it over before gasping. "Whoa! These are some high readings you got here." Benny informs him. "Okay." Ethan sighs. "Well, I'll be leaving now" Benny moves to leave. "No." "No, we have to think this through. What would the Ghostbusters do?" "They'd put on their proton packs and bust some ghost ass" I shrug.
"Yeah! They'd use streams of lightning plasma to suck ghosts into their containment boxes." Benny agrees. "Do we have any of that stuff?" Rory wonders. "No. All we have that sucks is a vacuum." "My dad has a leaf blower that we could kick into reverse. Nothing strong enough to hold a spirit as nasty as this though." Benny sighs. "Well, there is one thing I know of that can suck up spirits and hold them." Ethan suddenly says and we all think it over.
~~~
"Once we suck the soul out, we'll need a place to contain it." Ethan explains, using a shovel to dig up a hold in his backyard. "The cubile animus? Seriously, this is a really bad idea. I mean if a séance was bad, this is a seriously, majorly messed up bad idea" Benny describes. "Just use the shovel and start digging so we can get Sarah back!" I point at the hole Ethan was digging up with a shovel while Snowball used his paws.
"Are you really sure we should be doing this?" Ethan's chair gets thrown near the hole causing us all to jump. We watch as more things start getting thrown out of Ethan's window. "My lucky...Borg cube!" More things get thrown out. "Oh, come on! My star projector? That was a gift!" Ethan exclaims. He looks to Benny and I in anger. "She better not throw my limited edition Heckbot super flyer." "Give me that" I take the other shovel from Benny, giving Ethan a nod.
"Come on" Ethan, Snowball and I start digging again until we feel something in the dirt. Benny gasps, picking it up. "Let's do this!" Ethan nods. We see Ethan's Heckbot get thrown out of the window. "Okay!" Ethan yells, dropping the cubile animus in the process "Stop throwing my stuff!" No one else seems to notice as blue fog starts to cloud out from the box, my eyes widening. Rory pulls out his phone. "Hey, Ethan! Why did you just text me one of your baby pictures?" Rory laughs.
Ethan takes the phone from him, looking it over. "Aww!" Benny coos once he notices and Ethan screams. "Aw, look at baby Ethan!" I chuckle, looking at my own phone. "She just e-mailed this to the entire school. Oh, that's it." He hands his phone over to Rory. "This is on!" he picks up the cubile animus and the three run in. Meanwhile, I look at the shadowy blue cloud forming in the hole, Snowball watching it curiously too. "Shit" I mutter. I look to Snowball. "We better go back in before something bad happens" I lead Snowball away, glancing back at the hole one more time. This was bad. Really bad.