What Binds Us NaNo2020 Novel

“Pass the chips, numbnuts.”

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you manners?”

“Didn’t your mother sleep with the principal?”

“Jesus, Chris,” Monona interrupted, grabbing the bowl of chips from Annisa’s violently shaking hands and passing it to Christine. “Do you really have to bring that up every year?”

“It’s tradition,” Christine said, stuffing a handful of chips into her mouth, chewing and swallowing loudly before adding, “I’d be remiss if I didn’t.”

Taking a shaky breath, Annisa bit her lip as she glanced at Monona. “Christine’s right,” she murmured, her long blonde hair shimmying as she shook her head, reaching for a juice box as she took a deep breath, gathering herself. “We have traditions for a reason. It’s our last year together… before college…” Sniffling slightly, she glanced at Christine. “I accept your apology.”

“I didn’t apologize,” Christine snipped, popping another chip into her mouth. “But thank you.”

“Alright, I’ve got about thirty minutes before I need to head out to practice-”

“Nerd.”

“Shut it, Chris. Let’s get this show on the road, yeah? Chris, grab the matches and candles- Annie, can you grab the chalk?” Monona leaned forward to remove the ouija board from the box, gently setting it down in the center of their little circle, on top of the chalkboard.

By now, this whole ritual was tradition. A routine, even. Every year, they would attempt to talk to the dead, to communicate with the other side. None of them were quite sure just who it was that had suggested they start this practice, but it was something that they had done every year since second grade. Even at 17, they still did it, although Annisa had attempted to convince Monona and Christine to skip it during their junior year, claiming that it was too childish for them. Then, after the death of her brother in the spring, she had been insistent that they do it this year.

The girls returned with the materials, and Christine grabbed the chalk to quickly draw a pentagram and a circle on the chalkboard. Monona and Annisa set to work lighting the various candles before the three sat down around the board and joined hands.

“Dearly beloved,” Annisa intoned, the candlelight casting dark and twisted shadows across her normally bright and bubbly face. “We gather here today to celebrate the life and death of Maya Angelou, Theodore Bundy, and Noah Lane. Spirits, we will attempt to contact one of these three people, or all three if possible. If you could please guide them to the board so we may communicate with them, that would be very appreciated. Thank you.”

“Right now, we’d like to speak with Theodore Bundy first. Maybe you guys call him Ted?” Christine piped up, looking incredibly eager at the prospect of speaking to one of the most infamous serial killers in all of history. “If Ted Bundy is here, please indicate using the ouija board.”

On the other hand, Annisa looked like she was about to vomit, her hands shaking violently as she reached out to touch the planchette with the tips of her fingers. Christine and Monona followed suit, and with the three girls’ fingertips all on the planchette, they awaited results with baited breath.

The planchette slowly began to inch towards the ‘yes’, before Monona released her hand and smacked Christine’s arm. “Stop pushing it!” she scolded, and Christine shrugged sheepishly.

“Worth a shot, right?” she muttered under her breath, leaning back. “Okay, uh… Maya Angelou next?”

Monona nodded eagerly, as if this would finally be the year that they’d be able to talk to the dead. But considering that they had already done this for the past 9 years, each time yielding no results, all three of them doubted that they’d get any sort of message from beyond the veil.

Again, Christine asked the spirits to push Maya Angelou to the board, and again, the girls sat and waited. While Monona seemed mostly skeptical of the board, despite her earlier excitement at the chance of getting to communicate with her idol, Christine and Annisa were both staring at the planchette intently, as if it would move through sheer willpower.

But again, the planchette didn’t move, and Christine and Monona traded looks as Annisa took a shuddering breath.

“Spirits,” she called out quietly, her hands trembling as she wrung them in her lap, “Spirits, if you could- if you could ask Noah Lane to come to the board?”

“Annie, you know we don't have to-”

“We’re doing this,” Annisa interrupted, turning her gaze to the board, placing her fingertips on the planchette. Christine and Monona shot another look at each other before reaching out towards the board as well, and the three stared at the board intently.

After a good 3 or 4 minutes of dead silence, Christine suggested tentatively, “Annie, maybe-”

“No, shut up.” Annisa seemed to be deathly still for once, her eyes glued to the board. “Just a few more minutes. Please.”

2 more minutes passed, and Monona sighed, lifting her aching arms from the board. “Annie, I’m sorry,” she said quietly, as Christine also removed her hands. “But I just don’t… it’s never actually worked before…”

Silently, Annie lifted her hands from the board as well, although she looked like she was on the verge of crying. “No, it’s- it’s fine,” she said quietly, her voice trembling as she bit her lip. “I didn’t- it wasn’t going to work, I just thought… You know, maybe this time, this year...”

Monona gently placed her hand on Annisa’s shoulder as the blonde girl leaned back from the board, trying not to let the tears slip down her face. Christine looked as if she wanted to either hug her friend or flee the basement completely.

In the silence that hung around them like a veil, with a loud gasp, Christine’s juice box slipped from her hand, and she sprang to her feet. Monona glanced at her curiously as she straightened the juice box, wholly unbothered, before Annisa shook her shoulder violently, nodding towards the ouija board.

“Are one of you guys doing this?” Christine said, glancing at Monona and Annisa, her jaw clenched. “This isn’t- this isn’t funny, guys-”

“We’re not doing it, Chris,” Annisa managed to get out, her eyes following the planchette as it danced across the board. “What the hell…?”

“We need- we need paper,” Monona muttered, leaping to her feet and grabbing a notebook and pen from her backpack. Christine and Annisa inched closer to the board, Christine returning to her seat on the ground, as Monona flipped open to a blank page.

“Is it- I can’t keep up with it,” Christine growled in frustration, her eyes darting about as she tried to keep up with the movement of the planchette. “Jesus- hey, ghost! Slow down!”

The planchette froze, before lifting into the air and rapping on the board sharply before landing gently on the surface of the board. Annisa was rocking back and forth, her arms around her legs as she murmured, “This is just a dream, this is just a dream…” Monona glanced at Christine uncertainly before redirecting her attention to the ouija board.

This was… unexpected, to say the least. Monona was tempted to wave it off as a mass hallucination, probably the result of some expired juice, but she knew that what she was seeing in front of her couldn’t be chalked up to her imagination. As far as she could tell, she was wide awake and fully functioning… which meant that they had really contacted the dead. Taking a deep breath, she mentally reshuffled and reorganized all of her panic and haphazard thoughts. If they weren’t hallucinating, then… Well, this was important.

“Okay, um… let’s see… Who is this? Wh- who are we talking to?” Monona asked, pen at the ready to take notes.

If the planchette had a mouth, it most certainly would’ve sighed. It flew across the board, and when it came to a stop on the ‘H’, Annisa’s hand flew to her mouth in surprise and shock.

“Oh my god… Noah?” she whispered, touching the board gently. “Noah, is that you?”

Yes.

The floodgates opened, and tears streamed down her face as Annisa clutched a mildly aggravated Christine as she sobbed. Monona cleared her throat uncomfortably, turning back to the board as she scribbled Noah’s name across the top of the page. “Um… hey, Noah,” she murmured, continuously shooting worried glances towards Annisa. “So, um… what’s… up?”

Monona’s eyes followed the planchette as it darted across the board, her hand quickly writing out the message that the plastic planchette was clearly trying to communicate. Overall, she seemed to have gotten over the whole, Noah Lane is communicating through a cheap toy thing, while Christine still seemed to be in utter disbelief while Annisa was completely in tears.

The planchette slowed, and Monona stared at the page. “Oh my god…” she muttered, turning to Christine with wide eyes.

“What? What does it say?” Christine said quietly, gently stroking Annisa’s head in her lap.

“Not dead. Save me. Door at south basement. Hurry,” Monona said hoarsely. “This… this can’t be real.”

But all three girls startled and scrambled backwards as the planchette promptly floated up into the air, three or four feet high, spinning slightly.

“What the f-”

Like an expertly thrown dart, the planchette shot across the basement through the air, embedding itself into a dark wooden door on the south side of the basement. Completely frozen in fear and shock, all three girls stared at the planchette now fully embedded in the door, before Annisa let out an ear-shattering scream.

Feet thudded down the stairs as Mrs. Lane appeared at the bottom of the stairs, running over to the three girls. “Annie? Annie, baby, what’s wrong?” she asked, wrapping her daughter in her arms. “Monona, Christine, dears… what’s- what happened?”

Annisa stopped screaming, staring at her mother with wide eyes and trembling lips, shakily pointing towards the door. “I- I saw- I saw a-”

“A spider,” Christine interjected suddenly after a sharp glare from Monona, stepping forward in front of Annisa. “She saw a huge ass spider, Mrs. Lane- uh, pardon my French. But it was massive, and she got freaked. Sorry to bug you.”

Annisa stared at Christine in confusion, while Christine glared at her pointedly. “Um… yeah, a spider,” she conceded meekly, smiling sheepishly at her mother. “N- nothing to worry about, ma.”

“You silly girl,” Mrs. Lane tsk-ed, patting Annisa’s shoulder affectionately. “Almost 18, and you still can’t handle a little arachnid. Alright, well… you three have fun. I’ll be upstairs.”

“Sorry about that, Mrs. Lane,” Monona called after her retreating footsteps, while Christine shoved Annisa angrily.

“Why’d you almost spill everything, you idiot?” she hissed, while Annisa rubbed her arm with an offended expression. “Do you want your mom to send us all to a mental hospital? Idiot!”

“I just watched a piece of plastic fly through the air and stick itself in a door I’ve never seen before,” she shot back with a sullen expression. “Cut me some slack, oka-”

“Wait,” Monona cut in, her eyebrows meeting in confusion. “What do you mean you’ve never seen that door before?”

“Well, have you? You guys come over, like, every week. You know this house as well as I do. Have you ever seen that door?” Annisa retorted.

A veil of silence hung over the girls as they realized that-

“No…” Christine muttered quietly, staring at the door. “That wasn’t there before. It’s never been there before.”

“It doesn’t even match the rest of the wood in the house,” Annisa added, pointing at the lighter molding and stair railings. “It’s so… dark. And scary.”

“It’s a door,” Christine scoffed. “How scary can it be? You’re such a baby, Annie.”

“Oh yeah? I’d like to see you open that door.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Guys, can you just stop for one second for once in your lives? Seriously, shut it!” Monona whisper-shouted, pointing at the door in question. “Look- Noah’s trying to say something.”

Indeed, the planchette was on the move once more, scratching out a message on the wood of the door with a horrible screeching sound. Finally, as the planchette dropped to the carpeted floor in front of the door, all three of the girls traded anxious looks of disbelief.

Magic. Hurry.

“What the hell is happening?” Christine said loudly, almost angrily. “Annie, is this your idea of some stupid prank?”

“You think I’m going to joke about my dead brother, you insensitive little jerk?” Annisa shouted back. “What kind of horrible person would-”

The loud sound of a phone ringing cut through their squabbling, and the three girls stared at Monona’s ringing phone in her backpack.

“Shoot, I’m late for practice,” Monona muttered under her breath, rushing over to her backpack to answer her phone.

“That’s my cue to go,” Christine grumbled as well, while Annisa looked at both of them with a pleading expression. Were they really just going to leave her here? After what just happened? There were ghosts in her basement- the ghost of her dead, maybe not-dead brother was in this world! They really expected her to sleep that night?

“What am I supposed to do with the door?” she wailed, as her friends gathered their belongings. “Guys, please don’t leave me here… Not alone…”

“Annie, this is your house,” Monona sighed, clearly somewhat exasperated. “We’ll.. We’ll meet here, after school tomorrow. I can drive. We’ll figure this out together, Annie- I promise. Right, Chris?”

“Right,” Christine agreed, if somewhat reluctantly. “Tomorrow.”

“After school.”

“Fine.”

“Fine! Go.” Blowing air kisses at both of them as they left, Annisa called, “I love you both! If I’m dead tomorrow, it’s gonna be your guys’ fault! I hope that guilt hangs over your heads forever!”

“Shut up, nerd!”