Page 50 of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World
“Wow,” I mumbled, skin crawling, “neat.” Easing carefully into the other chair, I decided I wasn’t imagining the watchful malevolence that seemed to radiate from the board. “Who was she?”
“An Austrian medium. She died like a hundred years ago.”
“Uh-huh. Great. And you come in here and chat with her, like, a lot?”
“Technically, I come in here and chat with the spirits of the damned. She supplies the conduit. But yeah, I like to think that Elsabeth and I are pals.”
That was such a weird thing to say that I let it go by without comment. “I haven’t used one of these since I was a kid,” I said, eyeing the board between us. “I feel like I’m at a really spooky sleepover. Maybe I’ll braid your hair when we’re done here.”
“Touch my hair and die.”
“Okay then.” Gingerly, I reached out and placed two fingers from each hand on the heart-shaped planchette. My skin prickled unpleasantly. Watching as Lex did the same, I then cleared my throat and spoke to the empty air. “Um. Hi there.” Nothing moved except for the candle flames. “Is this thing on?” I joked weakly.
Lex rolled their eyes.
I cleared my throat again. “Okay. So. Um. There was an incursion here in the building. Two weeks ago. In an elevator.” Was the air growing heavier? “I want to know what that thing was. And how to get rid of it.”
Lex’s pierced eyebrows drew downward. “I thought you wanted to figure out what was making people disappear,” they whispered.
“I do,” I whispered back.
“So what’s this about an elevator?”
“I’ll explain later.”
We waited, fingers perched on the planchette’s smooth surface. The room was so quiet that I could hear the faint sound of the candle flames as they danced and shivered around us. The moment stretched. I gave the planchette an experimental nudge, but it didn’t move. It was like it had been nailed to the board.
“Maybe it’s broken,” I suggested eventually.
Lex gave me a vaguely disgusted look. “How could a Ouija board be broken?”
“I don’t know,” I replied defensively. “Maybe the operating system needs an update. Maybe Elsabeth is on her lunch break.”
Abruptly, the planchette jerked forward. I let out a squeak and pulled my hands back, and the motion stopped. Hesitantly, I placed my fingertips on the dark wood and immediately the planchette began to move again, skating smoothly from one letter to the next in long, curving arcs.
I-H-E-A-R
I glanced up at Lex, but they just nodded meaningfully at the board. Leaning forward, I asked in a hushed voice, “What is the thing from the elevator?”
H-U-N-G-R-Y
“But whatisit, specifically?” Lex chimed in. “Does it have a name?”
The planchette twitched violently and then glided toward the letterA. Both of us watched, hardly daring to breathe, as it swiftly spelled out another word.
A-B-O-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N
“Shit,” Lex muttered.
“Is that bad?” I asked anxiously.
“Uh,yeah, it’s bad. Is there anything about the wordabominationthat seems good to you?”
Uneasy, I stared at the board. “Where is it now?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E
“That’s unsettling,” Lex said.
