The weather was atrocious. Rain poured heavily, tapping at the windows for hours. While the wind howled strongly, sweeping away garden furniture that wasn't secured down.
To make matters worse, Jess, Sara and I were dressed in our Halloween costumes, but the party had been cancelled an hour ago, due to the bad weather.
"It's Halloween and the weather is shit!" I moaned, watching the storm rage outside Sara's bedroom window.
I was wearing a pair of tight black shorts, with skeleton hands pointing at my mound, and a matching bikini top, with the skeleton hands printed as if they were holding my big boobs.
"Tell me about it," Jess agreed, laying on Sara's bed dressed as a short skirted slutty witch, scrolling through her social media.
"Look on the bright side, girls. We get to keep all the treats my parents bought for the trick or treaters, and we still got to wear our costumes," Sara laughed, dressed conservatively as little red riding hood.
I grumbled. "But it's our first Halloween as eighteen-year-olds! We're dressed up! We should be partying! Getting drunk!"
"Getting laid you mean," Sara smirked.
"Amen to that," Jess chuckled.
"Well yeah, that too," I smirked.
"There's alcohol in the fridge. Why don't we go and choose something to drink and watch a horror movie?" Sara suggested.
"I don't do all that horror stuff. Halloween is fine. But horror isn't really scary. It's all fake crap," I moaned.
"The modern stuff is," Jess said, sitting up and finally putting her phone down. "The old classics are the best. Like Poltergeist or the Exorcist. I vote for Sara's idea."
"I'll go with the majority," I shrugged again.
"You're being more miserable than the weather, Pippa," Sara poked my arm in jest. "You know Olivia cancelled the party because the marquee was damaged in the storm today. We can still get drunk and make the best of a bad situation."
"Always the optimist," I smiled at Sara.
Since becoming best friends, in the early days of our schooling, Sara, Jess and I were like peas in a pod.
I'm a 5ft 5" curvy brunette, and the grumpy, cynical one during times like this. Jess was roughly the same height as me, a tad taller and slimmer with flowing blonde hair. She was the cheeky one. Sara was also a slim blonde, and the shortest of the three of us, standing only five foot tall. She could be quirky at times, but she was always positive and upbeat.
"Let's get something to drink and eat, then we can choose a Halloween horror movie to scare the shit out of ourselves with," Sara laughed.
"Whatever," I sighed, still reeling at the Halloween party being cancelled.
"I'm in!" Jess sprang to her feet.
We went into the kitchen, grabbed two bottles of white wine, some roasted peanuts and nachos, and then retired to the lounge to find a scary movie to watch.
As if it were meant to be, the movie Jess mentioned was starting on TV at 9pm.
"This will scare the shit out of you!" Jess pointed and laughed at me, as I opened and poured the wine. "It starts in ten minutes."
"Poltergeist is a masterclass," Sara chipped in, pulling some sofa blankets out from the lounge cabinet.
"Some say the cast were cursed after making the movie," Jess said, waving her arms in the air like a child mimicking a ghost, making fun of me. I shook my head and smiled.
"I think about four cast members died after making the trilogy," Sara thickened the plot, whilst dimming the lights and handing us each a blanket.
"Is that supposed to scare me?" I rolled my eyes.
"No, but the little girl who plays CarolAnn died a few years after making the movies," Sara added.
"Because she played a role in a horror story?" I pulled a sceptical face.
"As Jess said, people say the movie was cursed. But I think she had a disease which tragically took her life early," Sara replied.
"So it's safe to say we won't be cursed if we watch it?" I joked, taking the piss out of Jess and Sara.
"You're so miserable and negative tonight, not even a poltergeist would want anything to do with you," Jess fired back with a laugh, as I took my seat between them on the sofa.
We all laughed and held our glasses, drinking wine and settling in nice and cosy together, on the sofa in our costumes, waiting for the movie to start.
The girls took the movie seriously, remaining silent, apart from when they were munching on snacks. I quickly got into it too, as the story unfolded and grew creepier and scarier by the minute.
Then came the iconic scene of CarolAnn being drawn to the poltergeist in the TV. I didn't know it was iconic seeing it for the first time. I was genuinely shit scared to the point I wanted to pull the blanket up over my eyes.
I stayed with it though, and found myself enjoying the movie right until the end. Whilst my doubts about evil spirits and poltergeists remained pessimistic, I was now converted that not all horror movies were rubbish.
The movie finished just before 11pm, by which point we had consumed two bottles of wine between us.
"I thought you said horror movies weren't scary," Jess nudged me. "You shit yourself during it."
"I wasn't scared!" I grinned. "Ok, maybe in some parts I did jump and shit myself."
"Imagine having all that going on inside your house," Sara said. "I hope we haven't just cursed ourselves." Sara then laughed as she got up to use the bathroom.
"Ghosts aren't real," I scoffed. "Certainly not poltergeists."
"Don't be so sure," Sara waggled her finger at me, then left the room.
"Do you really not believe in any of that stuff, Pippa?" Jess asked.
"Not really," I shrugged. "I've never seen any evidence. All the paranormal documentaries I've seen look fake as fuck."
"Yeah, but they're for TV entertainment. I believe there has to be a spirit world."
"Why does there have to be?"
"You're so closed minded," Jess moaned.
"I just like to see some evidence before I can believe in something as ridiculous as spirits wandering the earth," I told her.
"Don't you want to believe we go somewhere after this life?" Jess sympathised.
"It's nice to think there could be a heaven," I replied, pausing for a moment. "But where's the evidence?"
Sara returned carrying what looked like a board game. "Maybe this will provide you with some evidence."
"Is that what I think it is?" Jess bounced excitedly on the sofa.
"It's a Ouija board," Sara smirked.
"Oh for fucks sake," I laughed cynically. "Really, Sara?"
"It belonged to my Grandmother," she said, putting it down on the coffee table. "She was into all this stuff. Spirits and fortune telling etc."
I looked on with silent scepticism and finished my wine. I wasn't about to belittle my friends late Grandmother.
"Did you ever use it with her?" Jess asked, drawn to the board on the coffee table as Sara moved the snacks and empty wine glasses.
"We used it once when I was fifteen. My mum wasn't happy so gran never showed it to me again. But then she left it to me before she died last year. My mum doesn't know I have it," Sara answered.
"Did you contact any spirits?" Jess was gripped, while I remained sceptically polite.
"I don't expect you to believe me, but yeah, we contacted my grandad."
