VANISHED (#1 in the VANISHED series) #NaNoWriMo2019 ✔

t h i r t e e n ✔

"What the fuck, Stella?" Arielle couldn't help but glare at her friend—her best friend, supposedly—who snuck stuff into her trunk when she wasn't looking and lied about things. Big things.

Bigger than me thinking I might be in love with our deceased "other" best friend.

"A Ouija board?" She banged her fists against the table and stood up, groaning. Stella had no idea of Arielle's history with the occult object; but was now the right time to fill her in? To start a screaming match in a restaurant far from home?

No.

"It's not some random one I picked up at a trashy store, Ari," said Stella, cheeks red, sweat forming above her near-white eyebrows. "It's my mom's, homemade, legit, somewhat safe."

"Somewhat?" Arielle huffed, set her hands on her hips, tipped her head back. "After everything that's already happened to us? The black mass, the girl apparition, the Cemetery seance, the bathroom—" she stopped herself before she announced the nitty-gritty of her bloody moment at Queen's University. "You'd hide this from me? You'd want to try to use it? Ouija boards are not safe. Store-bought or homemade, doesn't matter."

Stella cocked her head and squinted. "I don't disagree, but how do you know so much about Ouija boards?"

You're a hypocrite, Arielle. A ridiculous hypocrite—

"Because of Jade?" Stella sat up straight. "She had one, right?"

Arielle glanced at Stella in feigned confusion. "Huh?"

Stella dug her crimson nails through her platinum locks, yanking them off her face where they'd fallen in sleek curtains. "Jade had a Ouija board. She said she used it once... and it spooked the shit out of her. But she kept it... I think. Did she tell you about that? Or... does this have to do with your mysterious past before you moved to our town? You never wanted to tell me more about that."

Shit.

Should she tell a minor lie—yes, she knew about Jade's board, no she never used it—or divulge all her former troubles? All the death surrounding her loved ones, all the risks Stella took by being in her presence?

"Uh... she told me of it once, yeah." Peeking at her shoes to avoid eye-contact, Arielle sighed. "And it has come up in my past, too."

Not a lie. Not a lie.

She'd never explained to Stella why she and her dad moved to Ohio. It was Jade she spoke to about the crap in her youth, about how afraid she was that death followed her, stalked her, wanted her. Stella was the fun friend, the one she drank alcohol with and danced with. The one she had crazy adventures with, who shared memories they struggled to remember but laughed at once they did. Not the one she confided all her anxieties and fears to.

Jade...

Since they'd started their Spring Break... there had been a lot of serious moments, more so than usual with Stella.

"So... you don't like them, is that it?" Stella rose, pulled her purse onto the table, and extracted her wallet. "Fine, I get that. But you'll be safe with me. Mom always said if you follow proper procedures, there's no risk. And I know those proper procedures, Ari. Despite hating that stuff, I have watched Mom do her thing. I'm not stupid."

"And I'm not saying you are, but I don't appreciate the lie. And no, I don't like Ouija boards."

Stella forked out a few bills for their meal, then slugged her purse strap over her shoulder. Her gaze turned somber, stern as she gaped at Arielle and walked up to her. "Do you want to find Jade? Talk to her? Keep asking your what happens after death questions? Because this is how we do it. We can investigate these places for her, provoke spirits until we're blue in the face—but if we don't detect the right spirit, we'll never talk to her. You'll never get your closure."