need.

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Of course there was someone with them. Of course Dan had to be the one to contact it. What fucking luck.

The only thought running through Dan's mind is why in God's name did he think that attempting to play with the board would ever be a good idea.

No one really knew what to do at this point. No one spoke, no one moved, it was almost like time was frozen still while everyone was in shock that it had actually worked, even Marzia. Although Marzia was more worried than in shock.

As soon as the planchette had moved there was a moment where everything had changed. Something about the atmosphere in the room was just completely different, Dan had only just begun to notice it.

He noticed the way his heartbeat increasingly sped up, he noticed the goosebumps all over his body, the sudden change in temperature, and just all around there was a feeling that reality was slightly altered.

There wasn't really a way to quite explain the feeling that everyone else at the table felt deep within themselves. Everyone just felt uneasy, like the feeling you get when you know someone is watching you. Dan was the only one who didn't feel uneasy. If anything, something about the feeling he felt was drawing him in and it made him feel like he was safe. It was enticing, the feeling addicting almost.

But despite the way everyone else around the table felt, Chris still brought it upon himself to be an asshole because that's just what he does. "Okay which one of you moved it?" He asks, looking around the table. Chris' eyes stop on Marzia, looking at her questionably which Marzia seemed to notice.

"I didn't move it!" She defended herself.

"You were the one who wanted it to move so badly, so when we were about to put the board away you had to move it because you didn't want to face the fact that you could be wrong."

Marzia glares at Chris, anger rising up inside of her. Being accused of something she didn't do wasn't an okay thing for her. "Do you hear how ridiculous you sound right now? You know I wouldn't play with this kind of stuff."

Chris doesn't know what to say once Marzia was done, so he just glared at her and Marzia glared at him, neither if them talking. The tension between the two was growing by the second, almost as if they were about to get in a fist fight within any moment.

"Do you two want dueling pistols or something?" Dan interrupts them. They break each others gaze and look to him. "Or can we get back to playing the game?"

Chris scoffs, "Whatever." He looks down at the board. Marzia doing the same.

Taking another breath, Dan looks back to the board getting ready to play again. He opens his mouth as if to say something but soon closes it again when no words came out. "I don't know what to say."

Regardless of whether Dan asked a question or not, the planchette continues to move by itself, slowly inching it's way across the board spelling out a word that confused Dan.

stop

"Are you trying to tell Dan to stop talking because I fully support that idea." PJ chimes in, jokingly trying to lighten the mood.

"Shut up PJ." Dan says with an eye roll. He goes back to the board. "I don't understand. What do you mean by 'stop'?"

The planchette moves.

stop playing

"You know, I think that whoever this spirit is has a really great idea." Dodie says, who feels like she's about to puke at this point, the feeling of uneasiness becoming too much for her. "Let's stop playing."

"Hold on." Dan says. "Why do we have to stop playing? We don't want to."

she knows

Dan was getting more confused each time it answered. None of this wasn't making sense but he couldn't stop. We wanted to keep go going. He needed to keep talking to whoever this spirit was.

"What? Who knows? Knows what?"

stop now

"Dan, I think it's time we stop." Marzia says softly to Dan. She tries to make eye contact with him but his eyes were too focused on the board.

"Wait can you at least tell us your name?" Dan asks, with every intention on keeping this game going as long as possibly. It can't end just yet, they've only just started. He needed more.

phil

There was a pause before the planchette started moving towards the goodbye at the bottom of the board, scraping down it while making a loud squeaky noise.

"Wait, Phil-" but Dan couldn't finish his thought before the planchette landed on the goodbye, fully ending the game. The feeling of uneasiness lifted off of everyone's shoulders, Dan being the only who felt incomplete.

Dan shakes his head, "Let's play again." Dan says, placing the planchette back to the center of the board.

Marzia rests her hand on Dan's wrist, making him stop and look up to her. "Dan we have to stop now. It's not a good idea. He had told us to stop so just leave it be."

Dodie begins to stand up, "Marzia's right." She grabs her bag off of the couch. "Sorry for leaving on your Birthday Dan, but I'm going to go home now before either one of you come up with a clever idea to get us all killed."

She turns around and walks to the front door, muttering something to herself about being expelled and chuckling.

Marzia sighs, looking back to Dan once Dodie left the house. "I should probably get home too. Tonight's been fun, but I think I should take the Ouija board back to the shop I bought it from. Sorry for even thinking that getting that for you would even slightly be a good idea." Marzia stands up from the ground, Dan following her.

"But-" Dan begins to argue, only to be interrupted by Marzia.

"I'll come by and get it tomorrow, the shop wouldn't be open at this time of night." She grabs her purse on the floor next to the couch. Swinging it over her shoulder. Marzia looks to Dan. Giving a small smile, she brings Dan in for a hug. "Happy Birthday, Dan. I'll see you soon."

Dan wraps his arms around Marzia, holding her close. "Okay, thanks for coming Marzia."

She breaks from the hug, "Anytime, Dan. Goodbye." She gives Dan one last smile before waving goodbye to PJ and ignoring Chris, soon walking out of the front door.

There was a moment of silence before PJ speaks up, "So is it okay if crash at your guys' place tonight?" You could tell he was trying to sound like he wasn't scared. Dan couldn't blame him for being scared, his entire belief of the paranormal not being real was just shattered, it's only normal to be just a little scared. "It's late and I don't think I should go home just yet."

Dan takes a breath and turns back around to look at PJ who was still sitting on the ground next to Chris, Chris still staring at the board seeming to be in shock.

"Sure PJ, you can sleep on the couch. I'll get you some blankets." Dan speaks since Chris was still confused and trying to figure out what had just happened.

Dan starts walking to the closest in the hallway where they keep all of the extra pillows and blankets. Behind him Chris whispers to himself about the board working while PJ tries to comfort him.

While Dan walks to get the blankets he takes this time to think abut everything that just happened. He didn't know really what to make of it. He didn't know why he felt so attached to the board. He just did. The feeling of playing with the board was just something that felt amazing.

But one thing Dan knew for sure was that it doesn't matter what any one else says, he has to play this game again.

---

Sorry for taking so long to update, I shouldn't make promises

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