Why I will never play the Ouija board again.

Why I will never play the Ouija board again.

This is why I will never play the Ouija board again. It was 1964 and my sister and I were 13 Year old identical twins. We were living with our mother in rural Scotland, parties were all the rage in the 60s and this night was one of those nights. The house we lived in was a three story building with the living quarters planned out on the top two floors. The ground floor of the residence was a gathering area for the village’s communal meetings or various parties my mother occasionally hosted.

My sister and I were left upstairs for the night while our mother hosted her party. We could hear all the murmured voices pass compliments to one another, muffled by the floorboards between us. It wasn’t long before voices became loud music and thuds, caused by what we considered to be dancing. My sister and I were bored to say the least. Our mother firmly told us to be quiet and behave for the duration of the night. My mother was strict but loving, so making her angry was the last thing we wanted to do. When we were good girls she made it a thing to make us aware of it by buying us gifts.

It had just celebrated our birthday a few weeks before and she had bought us a life sized doll. This thing was huge! It towered over my sister and I but we both loved it. It was around 6ft tall with long red, string like hair. It had a small stitched mouth and 2 round buttons for eyes. We kept the doll in the wardrobe, with it being too huge for the bed. My sister suggested we play with the doll, and as much as I wanted to I suggested we play something else.

At school all the girls were talking about playing an Ouija board, how amazing they are and what they can do. Once I heard about these boards I was hooked. I saved up my allowance over the weeks and bought one secretly to surprise my sister. This was the perfect time to reveal my surprise to my sister. So when my sister replied to my suggestion, “What shall we play?” I ran upstairs and pulled the board out from under my bed and ran back down.

I presented the board as they do for prizes on the TV game shows we watched with our mother on Thursday nights. At first my sister was dead against playing it, worried our mother will find out and be angry. It didn’t take very long to persuade her to play and we soon cleared the table and set up the Ouija board. My sister and I placed our hands on the planchette and began to ask various questions inciting spirits to come forward.

The planchette moved! We looked at one another, both our faces straight and then we both giggled out loud. We knew we had moved it ourselves in an attempt to frighten one other. My sister suggested we turn out the lights, so we both jumped up and began to turn out all the lights in the house. “I’ll grab some candles” I shouted to my sister “And I’ll grab some of mums jewelry” My sister replied.

A few minutes later all the lights in the house were out and the candles we placed around the table were lit up. They cast an orange glow around the Ouija board, complimenting the mood.
My sister and I were now confident. We sat face to face at the table and placed our fingers on the planchette. The house was quiet and any sound that could be heard was that of muffled voices and music playing from downstairs.

With our hands on the planchette my sister and I began to ask the same set of questions we asked before and prepared for some sort of experience. We looked at one another and paused for a moment. Nothing happened! I felt so annoyed! My sister was visibly shook up and expressed her anxiety, “I want to stop Julie, something doesn’t feel right” we both took our hands off the planchette without ending the session correctly. I remembered the girls at the school stating you should always end the session with an Ouija board.

I expressed my concerns and told her we need to finish the session correctly. It was too late, mother came rushing up stairs and seen us both by the table with an Ouija board out. She wasn’t happy from the moment she walked in. I didn’t know what had happened? We were quiet and she hadn’t seen her jewelry on the table at this point. I can’t remember what she was going on about but I noticed her white dress had been painted red. I remember asking her if I could come down and paint with everyone.

But once she had seen the Ouija board set out on the table she broke down crying. She was so upset when she locked the door she slammed the dead bolt shut. She turned to us and with a finger pointed out sharply, she sent us both to bed. My sister and I went to bed with our heads hung low. We took ourselves to bed and discussed why our mother was so upset. It wasn’t long before she came in to our room and turned out the lights. She shouted at the both of us “Get to sleep the both of you! And don’t leave your rooms or this house before I say so! Okay?”

My sister and I didn’t say a word and slammed our heads on our pillows and closed our eyes. I felt awful for upsetting my mother but I couldn’t get this sound out of my head! It was scratching! I could hear scratching. I whispered over to my sister, “Can you hear that” she whispered back to me “yes! I thought it was you.” Instantly my stomach felt tight and knotted. “That wasn’t me!” My sister jumped out of bed and ran to the bedroom light flicking it on.

The moment the lights went on the scratching stopped. My sister and I went through the process of turning the light on and off for while. Everytime the light was turned off the scratching persisted.
Eventually I thought enough was enough, we were both too frightened to sleep with the light off so I went down stairs to get my mum to help us. I ran downstairs hectically looking for my mother and I couldn’t find her anywhere. I searched the middle floor going from room to room. Eventually I made my way back to the bottom of the stairs and noticed the door leading downstairs was unlocked and open.

I slowly approached the door when I heard my sister come running downstairs to me, she was screaming. “It’s gone!” She ran into my arms and I embraced her. “What’s gone?” I asked her. She jumped out of my arms and began to explain theatrically that the doll had disappeared. She said it had opened the wardrobe door and had ran so quickly by her she couldn’t see it move. She had tears rolling down her face, suddenly my mother came stomping down the stairs.

“Why are you out of bed!” She was shouting at us both. “Why is the door wide open?” She was asking question after question. We didn’t know how do answer and we denied the accusations. We tried to explain the door was already open and we thought she had opened it. We also explained the doll had gone missing. My mother was visibly shocked and ran down to the ground floor. My sister was sat on the floor with her arms wrapped in her knees. I told her to stay put and I followed my mother.

I ran down the stairs to the ground floor and saw my mother and the doll. She was crying and pulling a knife out of the dolls hand. There were bodies all over the room and what I thought was red paint all over the place. In hindsight it was the same as what was on her white dress. She looked up and noticed me watching her. “Bed! Get now!” My mother screamed at me with her finger pointed at the stairs behind me. I knew I was in the wrong and felt I had to do as I were told or I’d be in trouble. I made my way back up to my sister.

She was still sat by the door with her head in her knees. “Come on sis’ we’ve got to go to bed” I held my sister by the hand and we went to bed. We left the light on and the wardrobe door open. My sister and I were discussing what had happened when we heard the door downstairs being slammed shut and bolted. Our mother came into our bedroom and the lights turned off involuntary. My mother let out an audible gasp. My sister and I picked up on our mothers distress and instantly screamed.

A gust of wind filled the room sending shivers down my spine. With the room being pitch black, we were left with no visuals to accompany the breeze flowing around the room. The swooshing sound came to an abrupt end with the wardrobe door being slammed shut. Again my family and I gasped, we were too frightened to move. A silent pause filled the room for a moment when it was interrupted with the light suddenly flickering back on.

Nothing else occurred that night for us.
My sister and I soon fell to sleep with the lights on, despite the weeping from our mothers bedroom. The next morning was quiet for a school day, too quiet. I climbed out of bed and looked out the window, the streets were empty. All the cars that were parked here the night before were all still parked in their places. My mother came into our room and marched to the wardrobe. She opened it wide and I ran around behind he to see what was inside.

The doll stood there towering over me. It had red stains all over it and one of it’d buttons had been ripped off leaving an “x” stitched on its face where the button eye once sat. It’s stitched smile had been stretched higher on it’s face. My mother didn’t hesitate to grab the doll and drag it outside to the back of the house. I ran to the window and witnessed my mother burn the doll. I still swear to this day I heard it cry out in pain with its arms waving frantically.

I walked back over to the wardrobe door my mum had left open. I saw deep scratches etched into the inside of the door. I ran my fingers down the scratch and pulled out a finger nail! There was a finger nail stuck into the wood! I didn’t know what to make of it. My mother came back up the stairs and began to pack our suitcases. “We’re leaving, today!” That was all that my mother would say. Shortly after she pulled us both out of the house and to the car.

I saw all the bodies laying around the ground floor and I knew they were dead. I wrapped my hands around my sisters eyes as we made our way to the car. We left that village behind and moved 100 miles south where my mother brought us up in a small council house.

This was 40 years ago and that’s why I will never play the Ouija board again. I have since been online and checked out the little village I grew up in. The village took me weeks to find, it was buried well but what I found horrified me to my bones…

I found out everyone in the village was murdered with a kitchen knife during a party one night in 1964. They recently took DNA analysis on the murder weapon and couldn’t find any finger prints. The murders still remain a mystery today, however what was weird about the murders was that everyone who had been killed had their finger nails ripped off.

CREDIT : Ross wild