"Get that thing out of my fucking house."
"Oh, come on, Cecily! It'll be fun," whines my best friend of three years Jamie.
"It'll be death and carnage," I respond in a deadpanned voice.
"You're being dramatic," she huffs.
'I shouldn't have let this girl into my house,' I think to myself.
Jamie had called me an hour ago excitedly asking to come over whilst giggling like a maniac. I was weary of what she had planned, but like an idiot I told her to come on over. Big mistake.
"It's called being sane, Jamie! That's a fucking demon communication device. People aren't supposed to mess with that shit," I exclaim loudly, frustration clear in my voice.
"But Celliieee," she whines once more, dragging my nickname out, "you said so yourself that you bet it doesn't even work. If you think that, then why won't you just try it?"
"Because there's still a chance that it could work, and the next few days would be us in situations where we're either dead, dying, or killing ourselves to escape the absolute batshit crazy demon haunting our lives!" I screech at her, listing the reasons on my fingers as I talk.
I don't know whether it's a good or bad thing my mom isn't home today. On one hand, she would've gotten on to me about yelling in the house. But on the other hand, she would've burned that damn ouija board before it even entered the house.
"Please Celie?! We'll have the Bible next to us and make holy water and have crosses and everything while we play! We'll follow every rule to a T! Nothing will happen," Jamie pleads desperately.
"Why do you even wanna do it so bad?" I ask suspiciously.
She shrugged her shoulders before replying with an innocent look on her face, "I'm bored."
"For the love of - fine. We'll play," I sigh, giving up.
"WOOOHOO!" She yells in triumph.
"But we're playing outside in the backyard," I say, interrupting her celebratory dance, "Maybe if we play out there, it won't be attached to the house."
"Doubtful, but whatever helps you sleep at night," she says brightly, moving past me to skip out the back door.
I sigh once more, resigned to my fate.
"Is that everything?"
"Yea, I think so," I say looking over everything.
It took us about an hour to gather every Bible, cross (necklace and otherwise), and holy relic we could find in the house. It took us about another our to look up a legit recipe for holy water and make it. It's about five in the afternoon now. The sun's still up, but it'll be setting before we know it. Everything's set up outside in a circle with Jamie and I sitting in the middle of it all. Jamie and I are facing each other with the ouija board set up in between us.
"You ready?" Jamie asks, holding up the board piece.
I grimace, looking at the piece in her hand before looking down at the board. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, raising a hand to clutch at the cross necklace around my neck. Opening my eyes again, I nervously nod at Jamie. She returns my nod with a small, shaky smile.
'Glad to see she still has some sense of fear.'
Jamie placed the piece down on the board, keeping her fingers on it. I placed my own fingers on the piece, my palms damp with sweat. After another deep breath, this time from the both of us, we began the game.
"So, what are we gonna ask?" I whisper to Jamie, slightly afraid to speak.
She shrugs in response, "I dunno. I didn't think we'd get this far."
I want to hit something, preferably her. But alas, I'm too scared to lift even a finger from the game piece.
Settling for rolling my eyes at her, I clear my throat, "Um, are you there?"
We wait a few seconds, staring intensely at the board. In slow, halted movements, the piece starts moving across the board. I suck in a sharp breath, eyes wide in shock and fear. I immediately glance over to Jamie, and she looks just as disturbed as I am.
"Jamie, are you fucking doing this?"
"N-No, I swear!" She whimpers, staring up at me with wide eyes.
Jamie's a shitty actress and an even shittier liar. I learned this first hand after we got caught by a teacher trying to skip class, and it was her idea. We got detention for the rest of the week after that.
"...Ok, I believe you," I reassure her quietly.
I glance back down at the board as I feel the piece come to a stop.
Yes
Jamie and I share a glance before returning our gazes to the board.
"Will you hurt us?" Jamie asks timidly.
...
...
No
'Fucking lies.'
"Are you a man or woman?" I ask, curiosity getting the best of me.
W
O
M
A
N
"Do you know Danny Phantom?"
"...Did you seriously just ask a ghost about Danny Phantom?" I ask incredulously.
"...Yes?"
...
...
...
We both burst out laughing.
"Oh my f-fuck, that's fucking g-gold!" I manage to squeak out in between my laughter.
Jamie's in the same boat as me as she gasps, "I-I know!"
It takes a minute or two before we manage to get our laughter under control. The giggles still escaping our mouths are completely gone when we glance back down at the board.
Yes
"Seriously?" Jamie asks in surprise.
Yes
On a whim, I ask, "What's your name?"
D
E
S
I
R
E
E
"Desiree?" I repeat in confusion.
"Desiree... Desiree... Desirée!" Jamie suddenly exclaims.
"What?" I ask still confused.
"Her name is pronounced Desirée (deh-zer-ray), not Desiree (desire-ey)," she explains proudly.
"How can you even tell?"
"Duh! She added two e's at the end of her name. And plus, who else in this world would be dumb enough to actually name their child Desiree and spell it like a character's own name from Danny Phantom?" She asks smartly.
"...Huh?"
"You seriously don't remember Desirée?" Jamie asks me incredulously.
"Jamie, I'm 15. I haven't watched Danny Phantom since I was, like, 10," I defend myself.
She rolls her eyes at me, "Desirée was that wish granting ghost, the super hot one with the big boobs."
"OH! Yea, I remember her. Man, I'd kill to have her figure," I mutter the last part to myself, but Jamie still heard it and nods her head in agreement.
Our attention is drawn back to the board as the piece moves once more.
T
H
A
N
K
S
"Wait, you're really Desirée? But... You're from a TV show..." I say slowly in confusion.
"There's no way a ghost would pretend to be a cartoon character. It'd be more believable if they claimed to be Abraham Lincoln," Jamie attempts to reason.
"True, true."
"Hey! Does that mean you can grant wishes?" Jamie asks excitedly.
Yes
"Sweet!" She squeals.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the tiniest bit interested now. If this ghost was trying to posses us, they were doing a damn good job at making it entertaining for us.
"Ok, I'll bite. You said you're Desirée from Danny Phantom right?" I ask her.
Yes
"Prove it. Show yourself to us."
F
I
R
S
T
W
I
S
H
I furrow my eyebrows, "You want us to make a wish first?"
Yes
I glance up at Jamie, and she's looking right back at me. She looks beyond excited right now, almost ready to burst at the nonexistent seams. I can tell that she really wants to make a wish.
"Don't ask for anything stupid," I warn her.
"Obviously," she huffs out, rolling her eyes at me.
After a moment of that, she makes up her mind, "I wish to be a beautiful princess."
This is the second, no, third time today that I've wanted to hit her. I don't have a chance to though because 1) I can't take my hands off the fucking piece, and 2) the ghost was responding and and moving the piece so fast it was hard for me to keep up.
S
O
I
T
S
H
A
L
L
B
E
Before I can even process the words, a burst of green smoke appears and after it clears away, Jamie's gone and in her place is Desirée towering over me.
'FuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK.'
I hastily end the game before chucking the piece at Desirée's head and scooting away from her. She swats the game piece away with a small, amused smirk on her face.
"Now, that wasn't very nice," she says seductively.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" I screech at her, "What the hell did you do with Jamie?!"
"Relax little girl, she's relatively safe. She wished to be a beautiful princess, so I made her into sleeping beauty. She's currently in a tower somewhere in the ghost zone," Desirée responds flippantly.
"WHAT?" I screech again.
"I'm not repeating myself you little twit," she says boredly.
"Take me to her!" I demand, standing up from my seated position on the ground.
"What's the magic word?" Desirée asks in a sing-song voice.
"I..." I falter slightly before pushing through, "I wish, um, that I was in Nickelodeon's cartoon Danny Phantom with my own powers."
I hastily added in the last part about powers knowing that I'd need them in order to stay alive long enough to get to Jamie.
Desirée grins at me, eyes glowing, and whispers, "Your heart's desire is my command."
And suddenly, I'm lost in a void of black.