CHAPTER 11
Carol did not feel the chill of the winter day as she ran home. Heated by her anger and hurt, she raced her memory through the events that had left her without a best friend.
Each memory filled her with the same emotion: She hated herself for not finding a way to make up with Jenny; she hated Jenny for hating Phoenix; she hated Phoenix for knowing so much about Ouija boards.
Oh, how she longed for everything to be like it was before she got that Ouija board.
At home she headed straight for her room. She pulled the Ouija board from the closet shelf and held it, frozen by a moment of confusion. Was this the cause of her problems? She still didn't believe it had a demon, but if only she had never gotten this so-called game. Then she and Jenny would still be friends.
Angrily, she tore open the box and grabbed the board and ripped it apart at its middle seam. Then she broke it over the back of the chair. When she had demolished into into several pieces, she threw the planchette on the floor and stomped on it. Then she surveyed the mess.
The air seemed heavy. Though sunlight streamed through the window, darkness seemed to hover around her. Carol shivered. She sank to the lower bunk that was her bed. The upper bunk's shadow swallowed her up. She shivered again. Was one of her sisters in here? Carol sensed someone's eyes watching her. But she was alone.
She decided to open her curtains wider. A sunbeam touched her dresser and caught the gold paint on one of her glass knickknacks. It was an angel Jenny had given her a long time ago.
"Oh, Jenny," Carol moaned. She went to the dresser and reached for the angel, but when she picked it up, it cracked in her hand. She almost cut herself on its sharp edges. How could that have happened? Had one of her sisters dropped it and put it back, pretending nothing had broken? That sounded like something Darlene would do.
"I'll strangle her," Carol said. "This was one of my favorite presents from Jenny." She picked up the owl. It, too, shattered in her hand.
"I don't believe this! Yesterday it was fine." She touched a glass flower. Broken. A teddy bear. Broken. A kitten. Broken. All of them, every one that Jenny had given her, broken. But only those that Jenny had given her.
"This is too weird," Carol said. Who was watching her? She looked around expecting to find one of her sisters. Now her bed was unmade! She had just sat on it, and she was sure it had been covered by the blankets. Now the blankets were tossed into a lump at the bottom.
"All right, Darlene," Carol said trying to steady her voice. "Come out from hiding. I know you messed up my bed." Carol searched under the beds and in the closet. No Darlene.
With a growing, eerie feeling, she said, "I don't like this." She looked at the pieces of Ouija board on the floor and felt goose bumps rise. "I must get rid of that." She scooped up the pieces, carried them downstairs to the kitchen, and dumped them into the trash.
"Carol!" her mother called from upstairs.
"What, Mom?" Carol called back as she passed through the dining room to get nearer.
"Get up here right now and clean up this mess. You know the rules."
"What mess?" Carol stood at the bottom of the stairs.
"You know what I'm talking about, young lady. Get up here now."
"I thought I picked up all the Ouija board pieces," Carol mumbled to herself. At the top of the stairs, she found her mother waiting for her. As Carol moved closer, she spotted her clothes lying all over her bedroom floor. Her dresser drawers were open and empty.
"I didn't do that," Carol said. "I was just up here and it wasn't like that. Honest, Mom. It must have been Darlene or Beth playing tricks on me."
Mrs. Astrey spoke sternly. "Your sisters are at their friends' houses."
"Then who—?" Carol shivered again. She suddenly did not want to go into that room, but her mother's face told her she had better clean up that mess now. Carol hurried to put the clothes away, concentrating on the job rather than on how the mess got there. Afterward, she grabbed the phone in the hallway and called Phoenix.
"Why did you smash your Ouija board?" Phoenix wanted to know.
"I was really mad about losing Jenny's friendship," Carol answered.
"Why take it out on the Ouija?"
"Everything started going bad after I got that thing," Carol said.
"Everything? What about our friendship?" Phoenix made a poor imitation of feeling hurt.
"Just why did you become my friend?" Carol asked. "You have plenty of other friends who are more your type."
Phoenix's answer came slowly. "Well, remember that day we met in the music store? That morning, my Ouija had told me I'd be meeting someone who would be a good student of psychic powers. The Ouija set up our friendship."
"You're kidding."
"And now you've made the Ouija mad. That's why your things got messed up."
"Has weird stuff like that ever happened to you?" Carol asked, nervously twisting the phone cord around her fingers.
"No, because I've never dared to make the spirits mad."
Carol eyed her room. "Will it happen to me again?"
"It might. If the Ouija is still mad at you."
"You're scaring me."
"So do something to make it happy with you."
"Like what?"
"Well, didn't you say it broke just the knickknacks Jenny had given you?"
"Yes."
"Doesn't that tell you something? It wants Jenny out of your life."
"I don't believe we're talking about it this way," Carol said. "I used to think the Ouija board was just a game."
"There's a Ouija spirit for everyone who's interested in the game," Phoenix said.
"I don't want any spirits," Carol replied.
"Of course you do. The Ouija is a higher, supernatural intelligence who can help you. Jenny doesn't want you to know that. So she's poisoning your thoughts. That's what the Ouija is trying to tell you. That's why it wants Jenny out of your life."
Carol bit her lip, wishing there were a way to be friends with both Jenny and Phoenix.
Phoenix continued. "Jenny doesn't want you to develop your psychic powers. The Ouija does, because it knows these powers will make your life better."
Carol was really getting confused. Jenny had been a great friend, better than Phoenix. But Phoenix's words sounded true. "Tell me how to make the Ouija spirit leave me alone," she said.
"You don't want it to leave you alone," Phoenix responded. "It can teach you many things and give you powers beyond your dreams. You just want it to not be angry at you. You have to get Jenny out of your life. She's your block to reaching greater powers."
"I don't want her out of my life. If the Ouija is so powerful, why won't it help me get her back?"
"Haven't you been listening? She's no good for you."
"She was good for me before I started fooling with the Ouija board."
"But your life can get so much better now."
"It's been getting worse!" Carol exclaimed.
"Only because Jenny's still in your life," Phoenix insisted.
"Actually, she's not. I tried to make up with her, but it didn't work. The Ouija wrecked my stuff even though Jenny's already out of my life."
"But you still want to be friends with her," Phoenix said. "That's what the Ouija doesn't like."
"Why should I do what the Ouija wants?" Carol wanted to know. "Why can't I make my own decisions about who I have for friends?"
"Because it knows what's best for you."
"It's trying to control my life," Carol said. "I'm going to make up my own mind about who's a good friend and who's not."
Phoenix was silent for a moment. Then she said, "Suit yourself. I tried to help you. It's up to you whether or not the Ouija stays angry at you. Don't blame me for what it does next."