The Ouija App

The Ouija Board has a mysterious origin. Some believe that it was created by the Devil himself. Many Christian denominations have warned of demonic possession resulting from the use of Ouija Boards.

“In this generation, like so many others, people have been led to believe that the devil is a myth, a figure, an idea, the idea of evil. But the devil exists and we must fight against him.”

- Pope Francis (October 30th 2014 daily Mass at the Vatican’s Saint Martha house)

THE OUIJA APP

 

Claire hurried into the Starbucks at 114th and Broadway. She needed her morning fix of strong coffee before she could start her marathon session of undergraduate classes. She had been up all night finishing the papers due for the day. But such is the life of an Ivy League student. She sighed as she grabbed her latte from the counter and pushed past the morning crowd at the coffee shop

.

She walked quickly, uninterested in the sights, sounds and people around her. She hurried past vendors calling out their wares, the homeless looking for spare change and charity workers with clipboards trying to register pedestrians for their various causes. A thought crossed her mind. I have finally become a New Yorker.

When she had moved to New York, thirteen months back, she had been shocked that no one on the streets smiled at her. Everyone seemed to mind their own business, cocooned in their own lives, unwilling to even make eye contact with strangers. She was from Glenham, a small town of a hundred people in South Dakota. Life was very different there. She knew everybody in the town and everybody knew her. She came from a working class Catholic family. Her father owned a small towing company. She had always been a good student, excelling in Math and Science, and had been awarded a prestigious scholarship for her studies at Columbia University. No one in her family had ever gone to college, much less to an Ivy League college

All her friends back home were curious about the party scene in New York. What were the best clubs? What were best college bars? Which was the best place to pick-up hot guys? I wouldn’t know, she had thought. Her eleven months in NYC was a blur of classes, quizzes, essays, term papers and sleepless nights; lots of sleepless nights.

She hurried into her ‘Molecular Biology and Evolution’ class five minutes late, sipping her coffee, trying to clear the cobwebs in her mind. She noticed that the students were looking at the professor uneasily, murmuring among themselves.

She took a seat and turned to the Brazilian guy sitting beside her.   

‘Why so gloomy?’ she asked conversationally, opening her laptop to review her notes.

He gave her a strange look.

She looked at him puzzled. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Samantha… passed away,’ he said quietly.

‘Samantha Burns?’ she asked shocked.

The professor looked up from his tablet phone. ‘OK, I have the confirmed date. The funeral is going to be on the 7th. If anyone wishes to send their condolences to the family, please contact Shawn…’

But Claire wasn’t listening. She clasped her head and took a deep breath. Samantha was an undergrad who stayed in the apartment right above hers. Although they didn’t have any common classes she had known Samantha well. Sam was a sweet girl, always polite, helpful, and kind. Kindness, thought Claire, that’s not a trait you find much in people anymore. She made a mental note to offer a prayer for Samantha and her family at St. Paul’s, the chapel at Columbia.

The professor had started his lecture on cell development.

‘What happened to her?’ Claire whispered to the Brazilian guy.

‘We don’t know yet,’ he shrugged. ‘She was found dead in her apartment today morning.’

It was at Damion’s house party, a week later, that Claire learned more about Samantha’s death. Like most student apartments around the University, Damion’s place was tiny, with just a hall, a kitchen and a bedroom. His sister was the DJ for the evening, playing Russian psychedelic trance music. Strings of decorative lights hung from the walls and flashing strobes added to the mood. There was plenty of booze and the place was packed.

Claire sat with her boyfriend, Daniel, a French exchange student, on the narrow fire escape ledge bordering a window in the apartment. The night air was cool, the moon was shining brightly and the loud music in the apartment was pleasantly muffled. This was the first party that she was going to in almost a month. A guy, dressed like a neo-hippie in a colorful loose fitting t-shirt, with hands covered in beads and bands, was smoking weed on the stairs near Claire and Daniel. They got talking and the conversation turned to Samantha. 

‘Something frightened her terribly, man,’ the guy whispered. ‘The apartment was locked from inside. No one could have gotten in. There were no injuries on her body. She died of a heart attack.’

‘How do you know this?’ asked Claire.

‘Word gets around,’ he shrugged, throwing away the bud of the joint. He climbed inside the apartment, across the windowsill. ‘Au Revoir.’

‘Maybe she had a heart condition,’ said Daniel, glancing at the party going on inside.

Claire felt a chill in the air. She shivered a little. She snuggled up close to Daniel, holding him tightly. Her phone started buzzing. She glanced at it to see a black colored smiley face with the text ‘Permission to Install: Yes or No.’ She clicked on it, trying to get rid of the screen. ‘App Installed. Thank You!’ said the text. 

Claire was annoyed. ‘Is your Bluetooth on?’ she asked Daniel.

‘No,’ he said, ‘Why?’

‘Good. Don’t switch it on. Someone is passing around some kind of file.’

‘What is it?’

‘Spam, most likely. Who cares?’

She leaned over and kissed Daniel, running her hand through his thick wavy hair. ‘Let’s go home.’

He smiled. ‘My place or yours?’

 

Claire opened her eyes. Her phone was vibrating on the table next to her bed. She switched on the bedside lamp. It was 3:30 am. She grabbed her phone, squinting against the sudden light. Who the hell is calling me at this time?

Daniel shifted in his sleep. Claire looked at the phone confused. It wasn’t a call. She saw a black screen with a radar-like graphic scanning. It said The Ouija App. 

She tried to shut the app down but the phone seemed to have frozen, the buttons weren’t working. It vibrated every few seconds.

‘Great,’ sighed Claire. ‘So this is what was being passed around at the party.’

‘What’s going on?’ asked Daniel, stirring next to her.

‘Just a stupid prank. I shouldn’t have left my Bluetooth on.’

Claire tried to switch off her phone but the power button was also not working. ‘Great,’ she muttered taking out the battery and flicking the phone onto the table.

‘I’ll delete the stupid thing in the morning,’ said Claire to herself.

Daniel kissed her neck lightly. ‘Go to sleep.’

Claire walked up the grimy subway steps at West 116th Street. It had been a long day. She had had to run a series of chores, from buying and couriering a gift for her mother’s birthday to doing the grocery shopping to getting herself a new pair of shoes. It was 10 pm and she walked by the crowded, noisy bars on Broadway to her apartment. The City was just getting ready for Saturday night.

Daniel wanted to hang out but Claire told him that she was too exhausted. After nights of little to no sleep, she wanted to have a quiet Saturday at home.

‘You can sleep comfortably at my place,’ he had said. 

‘We won’t be doing much sleeping if we are together,’ she had laughed.

There was still half a bottle of wine left in the house and she planned to have a drink, watch a documentary and go off to sleep. She lived in a three bedroom apartment and her two roommates, Jessica and Robin, were both out clubbing.

She had just stepped out of the shower when her phone started vibrating. She put on a towel, walked to her bedroom table and casually picked the phone up. It was the Ouija App again. It was scanning. She had forgotten about it completely. She decided that she would delete it. She walked out of the bedroom into the hall, and stood at the window glancing at the street below as she tried to delete the app. But the buttons were not working again. She was just about to take out the battery and restart the phone when the app stopped scanning.

It said ‘PRESENCE DETECTED.’ The black color of the app screen changed to red. Claire laughed. ‘Sure,’ she said to herself.

This seemed like the work of one of the software engineering students. There had been a couple of them at the party. Geeks and their toys. She was now curious about what else the app would do.

She sat on the couch and waited. 

There was a beep and the words ‘CONTACTING PRESENCE’ came on the screen. Claire was finding it entertaining. If the objective was to scare someone, this was pretty lame. The next words would probably be ‘chat with the presence’ she thought amused. 

A couple of minute later new words flashed up on the phone screen, ‘CONTACTING PRESENCE FAILED.’ Claire shook her head in disappointment. This was so anti-climactic. The developers should have done a better job with the app.

Claire got into bed in her pajamas, with a large glass of wine and started watching a documentary on her laptop. She had watched it half way through and was feeling drowsy when she realized there was something wrong with the audio coming from her headphones. There was a rustling type sound she could hear. She tried to adjust the headphone jack when she suddenly realized that the sound was not coming from her computer or her headphones. She looked around and noticed that her phone was not in the bedroom. The sound must be coming from her phone in the living room. 

Claire listened for a moment and then got out of bed. The app wasn’t too bad after all. It seemed there was an audio recording playing. Cool. She walked into the living room and realized that the room felt colder than before. She sat on the couch and picked up her phone. The words on the screen read ‘CONTACT ESTABLISHED.’ She listened intently, preparing herself for a loud scream any moment and a scary image on the screen, like she had seen in countless YouTube scare prank videos.

The rustling was actually breathing, she realized. It was a slow drawn out breath, as if someone was in agony. Claire started feeling uneasy. It was a scary app. The guys had done a pretty good job. She wondered if she should take out the battery and switch off the phone. But she was curious about what more would happen. There isn’t much else that can happen, she thought. Some kind of scary audio or video will be played. Or maybe I’ll have the option to message the ghost on the phone, all pre-programmed, of course.  

‘Claire…’ whispered a girl’s voice from the phone.

She jumped up from the couch surprised, dropping her phone. She stared at it shocked. And then the rational part of her mind swung into action. There had to be an explanation. There had to be! She thought for a moment and then sighed with relief. The app had obviously accessed her personal information on the phone. So that’s how it knew her name and then a simple text-to-speech program could convert it into what she just heard.

The voice though had seemed like it belonged to a person and not computer generated. There had been a certain pain, a hesitation.

‘OK, I’ll play with you after my roommates are back,’ said Claire picking up the phone to remove the battery.

 ‘Don’t’, said the voice. Claire felt a chill run down her spine. How could it know? It was probably just random words the voice would speak.

Suddenly she heard a rattling at her window. Her heart raced. She stood still, staring at the window. She could see nothing outside the window, just the silhouette of the building across the street. Is it just the wind? She took a deep breath and walked slowly to the window. There was a strong draft coming in that was moving the curtains slowly. She noticed that the window was slightly open at the bottom. She closed it shut and fastened the lock. She looked out. The street was empty.

She noticed that there was a strange smell in the room. It was pungent, like the smell of rotting eggs. She would get whiff of it and then it would be gone. She moved slowly around the hall, trying to trace the smell. She realized that it was coming from her bedroom. Her mother had once told her that a strange, rotting smell was sometimes the manifestation of a demonic presence.

Is it just my imagination? No, the smell is definitely there.

She stood outside her bedroom. The door was closed. Something told her not to go in. She slowly walked away from the bedroom, and as she did the smell reduced.

She had had it. This was getting out of hand. She had started feeling really scared. This was no simple prank app. She looked at her phone again, preparing to take out the battery when she saw that a video was playing.

It was very grainy. There seemed to be a room of some sort with a figure standing in it. She stared at it riveted, unable to look away. There was something wrong with the figure’s posture. It was standing in an awkward, non-human fashion, slightly bent, with crooked legs and limp arms. It looked like it was naked. The figure’s head was turned up towards the ceiling like a damaged doll. It was too grainy to see any features. Claire instinctively moved towards the corner of the hall, the walls being a form of protection for her. Some part of her mind told her to take out the battery but she was transfixed, helpless, as she stared at the figure. Even though it seemed non-human, it reminded her of someone.

The figure started to turn around and around in circles, at the same spot, in a grotesque dance. The video started becoming less and less grainy. Claire gasped. It couldn’t be. The figure looked like Samantha.

Claire stood staring at her phone horrified. Then she realized that the room in the video was actually her bedroom. The figure was turning around and around, right next to her bed. Claire couldn’t move. She trembled as she saw the figure in the video begin to move towards the bedroom door like a slow top, still turning around and around.

With shaking hands, she removed the battery from the phone. The phone went dead. A part of her was hopeful. Maybe it was finally over; maybe the thing has gone now that…

She heard sounds coming from her bedroom, harsh groans and loud moans. It was still there. She had turned off her phone too late. Thoughts swirled in Claire’s mind. What I had seen was not just a video. This is actually happening. The thing is inside this house. 

Claire knew she had to run out of the apartment but her legs wouldn’t move. She crouched down terrified, looking at her bedroom door. The thing would come out any second now.

Claire was just gathering her courage to rush to the apartment door and run out, when she heard stealthy footsteps outside. The thing was outside now. It was quietly trying to open the door. The lock clicked. The door slowly nudged open. She screamed.

Robin and the guy with her looked at Claire, shocked.

‘Claire?’ called Robin.

Claire closed her eyes. It is Robin. It is only Robin. Thank God! Thank God! Robin ran to her, ‘Claire, are you OK?’

Claire nodded, hugging her, tears flowing out of her eyes, ‘Thank God, you came,’ she whispered.

 

No one believed her. Not her roommates, not her parents, not her friends. Daniel, though he was sympathetic, felt that Claire had been too stressed because of her classes. That fateful day, there had been nothing in her bedroom when Robin had investigated.

Claire was forced by her friends to have meetings with a college counselor and a psychiatrist. She had to do tests and undergo an evaluation. Everyone told her that she was imagining things. She was advised by the counselor to drop a few credits from her course and to start getting more sleep. Sure, she had thought wryly, I am going to sleep like a baby with that creature prowling around in my room.

She moved into her boyfriend’s apartment. She got herself a new phone. She was terrified of using her old phone again. Daniel had tried to delete the app but he couldn’t. He had started keeping Claire’s phone in his gym locker.

‘Why don’t we just throw it away?’ Daniel had asked.

‘I need to find out more,’ Claire had said. I need to know the truth. I need to know I am not going crazy. I need to know I really saw the creature. The phone had answers.

Claire and Daniel walked into the engineering lab with the phone. If there was anyone who could help them it would be Srinivas.

Everybody in College knew that Srinivas was a genius. He was only twenty one but had already made a name for himself with his inventions, patents and his famous TED talk. He was a pudgy Indian with large glasses, short jet black hair and a quiet, serious demeanor.   

 He was poring over an electrical board, playing with the circuits.

‘We need your help,’ said Daniel.

‘I’m working, Daniel. Go away,’ muttered Srinivas, not bothering to look up.

Daniel protested. ‘It’ll just take five minutes.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Please,’ said Claire.

‘Sorry.’

Daniel sighed. ‘When can we come back?’

‘I am busy for the next few days…’

‘Come on! Claire thinks she saw a ghost... and…’

Srinivas looked up, suddenly fascinated. ‘What? Really?’

Claire nodded.

Srinivas’ eyes twinkled with excitement. ‘Tell me everything.’

He is like a child, thought Claire.

‘It started with this app being downloaded…’ began Claire, giving Srinivas the phone.

Srinivas fidgeted, uneasy. ‘The Ouija App?’ he quietly asked.

They both looked at him surprised.

‘How do you know?’ asked Claire.

‘You are the second person to come to me with that app,’ said Srinivas, ‘I’m sorry but I can’t help you. I tried a lot of find out how it works. It’s strange. I don’t understand it. The app does not take up any space on the phone hard drive. How can that be? It’s like it doesn’t exist and yet… it’s there on the phone. It comes on and off…’

‘So it’s not some kind of prank?’ asked Daniel.

‘It’s not,’ said Srinivas gravely.

‘So who was the first person to come to you with the app?’ asked Claire.

Srinivas took a deep breath. ‘Samantha Burns. The girl who…’ His voice trailed off.

‘Died,’ said Claire softly.

Claire guessed that the function of the app was to make contact with the dead. The app must have brought something into Samantha’s room which probably scared her to death. The app worked by itself. There was no on or off button, it would just randomly start scanning. But was it really random? Or did it start scanning only in specific locations and at a certain time? Maybe it worked only in haunted places. Claire was torn between getting rid of the phone and keeping it to find out more.

Daniel had a class at noon so she left him after their meeting with Srinivas. She grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to visit Damion. Damion was lying on his couch, exhausted after his kickboxing training.

‘I need to know who all were there at the party.’ Claire told him.

‘I heard you were not well. What happened?’ asked Damion.

‘I am not quite sure,’ confessed Claire.

‘Are you better now?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Well, I didn’t know half the people who came,’ said Damion.

‘It was your party.’

‘Yes but my friends came with their friends, their friends with theirs. But why do you want to know?’

‘It’s important,’ said Claire thoughtfully. ‘There could be a dangerous app that is being passed around on phones. I wanted to know if anybody’s phone was infected at the party.’

Damion whistled. ‘Well, everyone was posting pictures from the party on Facebook. So there will be enough tags to identify everyone.’

 

After four hours of calling Damion’s friends and the friends of his friends, Claire had whittled down the list to just one last person, who she was unable to reach. Alan Acuna.

Alan was sick and had been in a hospital for a week. Claire went to meet him.

Alan looked at her surprised. ‘Claire?’

Claire put the flowers she had brought with her on the bedside.

‘Hi, have we formally met?’

‘No... No... but I know who you are,’ mumbled Alan.

‘I won’t take up much of your time. I was wondering if that day at Damion’s party, did you get any files on your phone?’

Alan licked his lips nervously. ‘I don’t think so.’

Claire sighed. It was a dead end. ‘Well, thanks for your help. Get well soon.’

Claire walked to the door.

‘Wait,’ said Alan softly. Claire turned, looking at him curiously.

‘I am sorry. I must have sent you the app.’

Claire walked to him, surprised. ‘Why?’

‘I knew Samantha… we were together for a night… we had exchanged a few photos on the phone and there was this black smiley asking me permission to get installed. Sam told me she couldn’t figure out how the app worked.’

‘So you got the app from Samantha,’ said Claire thoughtfully.

‘During Damion’s party your Bluetooth must have been on and the app must have connected to your phone,’ said Alan.

‘And I gave it permission to install.’ 

‘But later that night I understood what the app really did… I saw this thing… I…’ Alan’s eyes opened wide in fear. ‘And I could smell it. It wanted to harm me… I escaped that night… I still haven’t recovered from it. It was the worst experience of my life.’

‘Do you know where Samantha got the app?’

‘She was planning a history paper on Devil worship. She had been traveling a lot for it. Who knows where she found the app.’

‘I knew I was not crazy. Did you tell anyone?’ asked Claire.

Alan shook his head. No.

‘Why?’ asked Claire.

‘What happened when you told people?’ Alan asked gloomily.

‘No one believed me.’

‘Exactly.’

‘So where is the phone now?’

‘I destroyed it,’ said Alan, ‘Smashed it into pieces and threw it away.’

‘Just one last question,’ said Claire, ‘Where were you when this happened?’

‘I had gone to Long Island, to my parents’ place.’

‘Do you know who you saw?’ asked Claire quietly.

Alan nodded. ‘My grandmother. Or a thing like my grandmother. But it was so full of hate...’

He suddenly grabbed hold of Claire’s hand. She looked at him startled. ‘Destroy your phone. Don’t let it spread,’ he hissed.

Claire met Daniel in the College grounds. She wanted the phone. Daniel went to the gym locker and got it for her. He had wrapped it tightly in a bubble wrap.

‘I just want to check one more thing,’ said Claire.

Daniel wasn’t too happy. ‘Are you sure?’

She kissed him on the cheek. ‘It’s a public library. I just want to see if there is any mention of an app like this.’

‘Claire, most books there must have been published before there were even apps,’ protested Daniel.

‘I know… but maybe I can research a bit on Ouija,’ said Claire.

‘Promise me you won’t go back to your apartment, especially not with that phone,’ said Daniel.

She nodded. ‘I promise.’

The Weintraub Library took up three floors of a huge, square building. Claire had been there before for various school research projects. It was 10 pm. Claire realized that the library was generally closed to the public at 9 pm. She still had a chance if…

Yes, it was the lean, red-haired man on duty. Claire knew he had a crush on her. I might just get lucky, she thought. She knocked on the large glass door. The man looked up from the library counter. Seeing Claire, he pressed a button under his desk and unlocked the door. Claire walked in.

‘Hey,’ he smiled. ‘Sorry but we are closed.’

Claire leaned towards the desk. I can’t believe I am doing this. ‘It will just take a few minutes.’

The man gazed at Claire’s bosom for a second but quickly caught himself. ‘I have to lock up and leave in half an hour. I can’t keep it open later than that.’

‘I will be done before that.’

The man nodded uneasily.

Claire smiled. ‘You are such a darling.’

The man grinned.

After five minutes of frantic searching she found what she was looking for. It was a massive book. She could barely carry it to the reading table. She looked at the cover. Hauntings in New York City. The authors had compiled stories from thousands of people about their otherworldly experiences in NYC. It was organized by locations and Claire opened it to the Upper West Side section.   

She quickly turned the pages, searching. She found her building. There were about a dozen stories from different tenants who stayed in the building over the years. Could there be anything specifically on Samantha’s apartment? Claire searched through the stories for Apartment 311. 

Time was running out. Another twenty minutes and she would have to leave. And then she found it. Four people who lived in Samantha’s apartment had reported sightings of a blood drenched child. The first entry was in 1972. The last one in 1999. Aside from the reports by the four people who actually lived in Apartment 311, there were other reports of sounds and sightings of the child by people living in apartments close to 311. Claire sat back thinking. That’s what Samantha probably saw. The app made contact with the child. So that was the function of the app. If a place was haunted, it would ‘call’ the spirit. And then there would perhaps be more than just a sighting. 

She had to destroy the phone; that much was clear. She had to stop the app from spreading. She was about to close the book when she saw a map of the reported hauntings in the Upper West Side. It was color coded, with red for places with most sightings. She looked at it surprised. There were about half a dozen small patches of red spread across the map. And to think this city was safe from demonic activity. She noticed that the Weintraub Library was marked red. A shiver ran through her. She closed the book. Most of the lights in the library had been turned off. She was sitting on the first floor, next to a railing that overlooked the ground floor foyer of the library. She leaned over and was relieved to see the red-haired guy standing outside the library, talking on the phone and smoking a cigarette.

‘Hey!’ she called to him. ‘I am done!’

He couldn’t hear her; the glass doors were blocking all sound. She suddenly heard a light shuffling sound come from somewhere behind the bookshelves. Claire got up. To replace the Hauntings book, she would have to zigzag a short distance along the narrow path between the bookshelves. She took a deep breath. Let me just get it over with.

She opened her bag to put her notepad inside when he noticed that her bubble wrapped phone was on. Should she check it? She stood hesitant, unable to decide for a moment. The battery of the phone was still inside after they had shown the phone to Srinivas. If the app had started scanning, she better pull out the battery and make it stop.

To go downstairs she would have to walk between the bookshelves to the far end of the room where the staircase began. The passageway between the shelves was mostly dark. Or, she could ask the red-haired guy to come upstairs, after he had switched on all the lights of the library.

She made her decision. She would stop the app and wait for the guy to come into the library. Her hands trembled as she unwrapped the bubble wrapping. With every layer she opened, the image became clearer. She discarded the bubble wrap and stared at the phone in horror.

The Ouija App was running but it was no longer scanning. The screen said ‘MALEVOLENT PRESENCE DETECTED.’ A video was running under the text. She saw a huge figure, going around and around in a circle, between the bookshelves. It looked like a black man, about 6’ 5” in height. His skin was peeling everywhere; red stripes on the ebony sweating skin, his one eye gouged out.

Claire screamed. The thing stopped moving around and around. It tilted its face up, like it was smelling the air. Then it started slowly shuffling along between the shelves. Claire knew it was coming.

‘Help me!’ she shouted, hoping desperately that the guy would hear. But he was still chatting away on his phone, oblivious to her plight.

She clambered onto the table next to the railing. If it came, she would jump down. She tiptoed to the edge of the table. One more step and she would be hurtling down to the shelves below.

Then a thought occurred to her. That’s what it wants. That’s what the app wants me to do. Whatever Samantha had seen had not touched her. There had been no bruises on her body. Her fear had killed her. No, I am not going to fucking jump.   

Claire stepped off the table. There was only one thing to do. She had to evade the creature and get past it to the stairs. The thing would move slowly. If she could figure out its position, she could keep a distance from it. She steeled herself and looked at the video.

 But the thing was not shuffling slowly anymore. It was racing up and down the passageways between the shelves. It was fast, limping with astonishing speed, its arms moving lifelessly. She knew that there was no way that she could outrun it. She forced herself to look at the video. Where was it? Was there a pattern to its movements? She had to control her mind. She wanted to scream. But that would only agitate the thing and also, it might give away her position.

 Claire realized that the thing was moving randomly. It would turn left or right at the end of every passage. There was no pattern, just mindless, random movement. She slowly started moving towards the stairs. The shelves in the video where the thing was running were all half empty. So this had to be the far end of the room, towards her front left. The stairs would be to her front right. She moved towards the bookshelves. As she walked slowly, looking at the video, making sure the creature was still near the front left of the room, the video suddenly went blank.

Not seeing the creature was worse than seeing it. Now she didn’t know its position. She started running. She rushed through the dark passageway, desperately praying that she did not come face to face with it. She took a right turn and suddenly she realized it was a cul-de-sac. There was a large orange painted shelf blocking the path. She would have to go back.

The app vibrated. She looked down.

‘MALEVOLENT PRESENCE DETECTED.’

It was working again. So where was the thing now? She had to know where it was before she tried to find her way out. Of course, if it came into her passage, she would probably die. There was nowhere she could run. She would have a heart attack. Like Samantha.

The video started again. This time it was split into two videos. What the hell? 

On one video the thing was still running, near the far end of the room where it had been before. She sighed, her terror lessening a little. She could manage to get to the stairs. But what was the other video? It was blurry. There was an orange painted shelf. That was where she was standing. She turned and looked at the orange shelf behind her. There was no movement in the video. So the app was also showing her position. Or was it?

As the video became clear she knew what had happened. The app had contacted a second spirit! The video was now crystal clear. There was a second massive figure. It was leaning on the orange shelf. Well, that has to me. I am leaning on the shelf. Why is it showing me as this thing?

But the figure slowly moved a book from the shelf. What the fuck…

Then it hit her. Whatever it was, it was right behind her, on the other side of the shelf. She spun away and saw a hollow eye, blood streaming from it, looking at her, inches away from where she had been a second ago. She stumbled to the ground, shrieking. The figure lunged at her, through the shelves, scattering the books. Its arms flailed about, desperate to reach her. The shelf was sturdy and though it shook, it did not fall. The creature rabidly tried to get to her, teeth clenched, groaning constantly. Claire screamed. The rotting smell around her was overpowering.

She then heard rapid shuffling steps approach behind her. At the end of the passageway, from where she had come, was a shadow. She was trapped. Her only way out was blocked. She saw the first figure she had seen in the video, standing there, staring at her. It opened its mouth and blood gushed out. And then it raced towards her.

Terrified, Claire screamed again and again, as she pushed against a shelf on her side, desperate to get away. It wouldn’t budge. She fell down, dropping the phone, books falling on her. She closed her eyes, frozen with fear.

Everything suddenly went quiet around her. The two creatures stopped their groaning. Am I dead? She was feeling no pain. She slowly opened her eyes. Both the things were still there but instead of approaching her, they were slowly moving away.

The app had stopped working.

What happened?

And then she knew. She looked at the books scattered around her. She looked at the shelf she had tried to force her way through. It was section for a collection of Bibles. The books lay in a circle around her, protecting her.

Claire stood next to the dumpster. She took out the phone and smashed it against the curb again and again. It broke, the screen shattering in shiny fragments.

A homeless man sat, slumped over, watching her from the shadows.

He thinks I am crazy. She took a deep breath. She tossed the phone into the dumpster.

‘It’s over.’ she said softly. ‘This app is not going to harm anyone again.’

As she walked along the night street, passing by a row of beautiful townhouses, she was elated at still being alive. I survived. I survived after my fight with the Devil.

She said a Hail Mary.

BEWARE

 

The Ouija App needs permission to install itself on your phone.

Usually the image you will see is a black smiley.                

 It spreads via Bluetooth.

The Ouija App might also be called:

Dark Art AppOuija the Game AppCall the Devil AppUndead 9.0 AppDemon Worship App

 

EPILOGUE

Sheik and Hasina Ahmed were a Bangladeshi immigrant couple who had a phone repair shop in a tiny basement behind a Chinese restaurant. It was 11 pm. They had both been working fourteen hours that day. Their eight year old son, Alam, sat sleepily in front of his school textbook.

Their business was small but successful. On different trays on the store counter were kept hundreds of phones. Most of them had minor problems like keypad was not working smoothly or speaker being too loud or there would be issues with the electrical circuits. The phones would usually be repaired in two days’ time.

Sheik sighed looking at the trays around him. ‘Too many, too many still to do.’

‘It can wait,’ said Hasina, ‘The customers can wait for a day or two more. Alam is sleepy. He has school tomorrow.’

Sheik nodded. They stayed in Jackson Heights, which was forty five minutes away by train. The boy needs his sleep, thought Sheik.

A homeless man sauntered into the shop.

‘We are closed,’ said Sheik.

‘How much for this?’ asked the homeless man showing Sheik a battered cell phone.

‘Nothing,’ said Sheik grimly. ‘Just look at the condition.’

‘It still works. At least give me $10.’

‘$5,’ said Hasina. ‘And not a penny more.’

‘Come on, man…’

‘Take it or leave it,’ said Sheik.

The homeless man grumbled as he handed over the broken phone and took the five dollar bill.

Sheik and Hasina busied themselves with the closing chores, which included emptying the cash register and vacuuming the carpet. Alam switched on the broken phone.

‘It’s still working, Dada,’ he said happily to his father.

‘Good,’ muttered Sheik.

Alam began to play with the phone. He noticed that suddenly all the phones in the trays around him were lighting up. He curiously picked up a phone placed on a tray. He saw a black smiley asking for permission to install. Alam went through the various phones, pressing ‘yes’. This is fun, he thought.

His parents finished their work. There was a slight chill outside. They made Alam put on a small jacket and a woolen cap. Sheik closed the shop shutter and locked it.

The three of them started walking to the 110th Street subway station.

THE END