The Fatal Game

The bright flash of lightning made the entire group jump a little and some of the girls even let out squeaks of terror. What followed were seconds of tense silence that seemed to stretch for minutes and just as they were about to relax the thunder roared as if the sky itself was being torn asunder. It was a perfect night for scary stories. One of the kids started laughing. Samuel didn’t know whether to join in, roll his eyes or squeak in terror along with the girls as he almost had.

“Come on, let’s do it,” Samuel said. It made Jarek stop laughing.

“What? Are you going to be late for bedtime?” He said and gave Samuel an evil look. This drew snickers from the rest of the group and made Samuel’s face go red. Leon faced Jarek and opened his mouth but didn’t say anything and looked down. Even so it made Samuel thankful he could call the boy his friend.

“No, I was just looking forward to this,” he responded and tried to suppress his discomfort. Jarek had already opened his mouth to continue his game of torment but was interrupted.

“Leave him be,” Ewa said. That sent a swirl of emotions through Jarek’s face and in the end he relented.

“Whatever. Let’s go,” Jarek said. Leon smiled and winked at Samuel before following the leader.

They entered the living room decorated in all manner of Halloween ornaments. Carved pumpkins, ghost and even small plastic skeletons made the room feel a lot more crowded despite its considerable size. Jarek nodded to Leon and together they lifted the large cloth from the low table in the centre of the room. On a white lace tablecloth there was a square wooden box. Jarek opened it and took out the witch board.

Samuel, Ewa and two of the others took candles from a nearby cupboard and placed them around the artefact. Once they were all lit and the small flames flickered despite the still air, all the lights were turned off. In the candlelight the gang took their places around the table. They stood in silence for a minute then took each other’s hands in the circle. Ewa gave Samuel an excited grin as she took his right hand. He was glad the dim light wouldn’t betray the heat in his face. Jarek looked at each of them in turn with an intense smile on his face. He lifted his hands, taking the ones he held along and everybody followed suit.

“Ancient spirits and demons answer me!” Jarek chanted in a dramatic manner. Samuel never really understood whether Jarek was serious about his belief in the occult or just making fun of everybody who had been. Everybody else was entranced and had their eyes on the boy with apparent admiration written across their faces. Samuel himself wasn’t sure either way. At least if it was real, he didn’t want Jarek to be the one who guided them through the experience. His concentration had drifted so far that he had almost forgotten to answer the continuing chants. One of the candles blew out. Ewa fetched the lighter and relit it. The séance continued as if nothing had happened. Samuel wondered whether the spirits were so accommodating as to not be bothered by such disturbances. Aren’t rituals supposed to be taken seriously?

After what felt like an hour of chanting, which had become gibberish at around at least the half point, and was dissonant and out of rhythm since the start, they concluded the introductory part and sat down around the table. Jarek sat in a chair at the head of the table, Samuel and most of the others on the sofa, and the rest on beanbags.

“It’s time,” Jarek announced. He placed the planchette on the witch board and put his hand its edge. One by one the rest of the kids started leaning in and placing their hands next to his. There was barely enough space for all of them to join in, even as most of them only placed a single finger on the small bit of wood. They sat and glanced around with eager nervous smiles. There was no debate about who would ask the first question.

“Are you here with us?” Jarek asked in a loud voice. Samuel held his breath and focused on the board. For a while nothing happened then the planchette shook almost imperceptibly before it began drifting along the wooden board. It crawled in a curved line and crept towards the edge. Samuel tried pushing a little, just to test his influence over the ritual, but the planchette felt solid like a glacier moving down the mountain. It stopped over the YES inked in the aged wood. Samuel peeked around the circle of his friends and saw them staring at the board, mouths agape. Jarek looked back at him with a smirk.

“What is your name?” Jarek continued his questions. Again the planchette traced a path over the board. Slowly it spelled out a strange word.

“Aixer! Answer my questions!” Jarek commanded the spirit. One of the candles blew out and Ewa let out a terrified shriek. Samuel gave her free hand a squeeze.

“Don’t break the contact,” Leon said with stiff urgency. A bead of sweat on his forehead reflected the flames of the remaining candles.

“Are you alone?” Jarek asked. The board responded in affirmative.

“How old are you?” Leon asked, unable to hold himself back. Jarek glared at him for his presumptuousness but Leon didn’t seem to notice as he gazed at the board. Samel was confounded when the board started answering using letters instead of numbers but it brought a small smirk on his face when it became obvious that the answer would be ANCIENT.

The string of questions continued for a long while, with most of the group getting a turn or three. The spirit or demon or whatever the presence was supposed to be answered their questions, though any questions about it’s own identity were met with similar answers that were in all likelihood true but ultimately as useless as the question about its age. Ewa asked about her future love life, Anna about her school success, aided by Leon’s question about the answers to the next mathematics test and Kamil about the present for his upcoming birthday. Somehow Samuel didn’t feel like taking part in it any more. Perhaps it was because of Ewa’s question. The response was as vague and useless as all the others, but somehow he knew that whatever her future involved, he was not part of it.

The initial shock of possibly dealing with a supernatural entity had passed and Samuel was starting to feel quite bored of the whole thing. If it wasn’t for the fact that every person he had ever considered a friend was in the room with him, along with some others, he would regret ever coming to the gathering in the first place. The boredom, however, only lasted until the fatal question was asked and replaced it with utter horror.

“Which one of us will die first?” one of the girls asked. Samuel stared slack-jawed at her. He was joined in this response by some of the others. Jarek, on the other hand, began laughing in his annoying manner.

“Let’s find out,” he said.

“Jarek. Let’s stop. This isn’t funny,” Ewa said. He returned a dissatisfied look.

“We can’t stop now. It could be dangerous.” It seemed as if he had wanted to say a more biting comment but held himself back.

The planchette wouldn’t move. The group sat around the table in tense silence and nothing happened for several minutes. The tension was leaving Samuel and he felt that perhaps the bedtime comment was not such a bad idea after all. Leon opened his mouth as if to say something, but was interrupted by the board which shook at that moment. The pulsing of Samuel’s heart was strong enough that he could feel even the blood vessels pulsing in his neck and shoulders. Letter by letter the board spelt out the name, each like a knife carving directly onto the skin.

S-A-M-U-E-L

“Samuel!”

“Samuel!”

“Samuel!”