"Don't do it! Don't even think about it!
Judy opened her mouth to reply but Ben stopped her with a raised hand before she could speak.
"Take my word for it; you have absolutely no idea what you're playing with!"
"But Ben, it's only subconscious pressure on the top of the glass that moves it." Judy objected.
"No, it isn't." Ben's face showed genuine concern. "It's dangerous, it's evil, it's malignant, and if you play with it you WILL get hurt! Just believe me please, I really do know how treacherous the bloody thing can be"
"Prove that to me, and I'll leave it alone" She was still half determined to press on with her intention, but he had planted seeds of uncertainty in the back of her mind with his earnestness and she was challenging him to justify them.
"How can I prove it without putting someone at risk? Look, I won't even allow a ouija board in my house, doesn't that tell you something?
"So then tell me what has made you so adamantly against them, and, if I believe you, I promise not to try it." Judy's face still wore a defiantly sceptical look.
Ben hesitated, then.... "Ok, but what I tell you goes no further, yes?"
"Ok, if you insist!"
"I do insist! Absolutely! Now promise me?"
"I promise, but it'd better be good!"
"Good? There's nothing good about it, believe me!" Ben was irritated by her flippancy but he would have to tell her anyway!
He began. "You remember Louise, the girl who went into hospital with a mystery virus a couple of years ago, and then moved to Scotland for her health?"
"Yes.... You're not going to cite her 'cos I can't check with her, are you?" Judy was still dubious.
"She had no virus, she was in hospital with post traumatic shock, and then she went north because she was too bloody scared to stay here! No only that but three other people, and I'm one, were given sedatives and needed counselling for months, and it was a bloody ouija board that did all that! In fact I think Fiona still has counselling! Now, you can check with the other two if you really need to, but I hope you don't because we'd all rather like to forget it!"
He had caught her attention with that! She looked hard at him with obvious surprise on her face. "Fiona? Roger's wife? Now you really have to tell me, or I'll only go and ask her, won't I?" He had forgotten that Judy and Fiona were friends!
He sighed and reluctantly went on. "One night the four of us, Roger, Fiona, Louise and I, were all leaving the 'White Lion' when Roger suggested going back to his place to end the evening with a bottle of wine. Anyway, by the time we'd emptied that bottle and a couple more, we were all pretty much drunk and it was near midnight, and so the conversation got around to 'ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night'. And I suppose with empty glasses lying around someone was bound to suggest using one to 'talk to the spirits', and this time it was Fiona who came up with the idea! But before our foggy minds could think it through, Roger butted in with 'I can do better than that', and fished a ouija board out of a cupboard. Now, none of us, except maybe Fiona, believed it was anything but rubbish, so we all sat down and, with a lot of giggling I might add, set it all out ready to start!
Ben stopped at that point, looking at Judy. "Look, it really isn't very nice, you won't like it. So do you really need me to tell you?"
"You can't stop now, can you?" Judy was intrigued with the story, true or not, especially as it involved her friend, and she wanted to hear the rest.
"Ok, well, we all put our fingers on the pointer, 'planchette' I think they call it, - but pointer will do, and started moving it around in slow circles like you're supposed to. Then Roger put on a 'voice of doom' and began asking 'is there anybody there' and the pointer promptly shot off the table and hit the wall!
'Alright, stop fucking about!' Says Roger. 'That could have hit my glass figures.'
He had a collection of little crystal figurines that he was excessively proud of, but of course everyone pleaded innocence and so with more drunken giggling we started again. Of course, had we been sober we might have realised that fingertips just resting on top of anything can't throw it across the room! Anyway, Roger starts up asking if anyone's there again, but nothing happened, not for a while at least. Roger keeps asking, but not a thing, and we all begin to get pissed off with it. Eventually he shouts out 'Look, if anybody's there, will you bloody well show yourself or we're packing this in, this is your last fucking chance!' Well, that got a response and the pointer started moving around the board, sort of any old how, at random I suppose you'd call it, circling round then darting across, but never going to any of the letters! We were all looking at each other wondering if it was for real or if someone was pushing it, and, I must admit, feeling just a bit worried!
Then Roger asks, sounding quite sober all of a sudden, 'Who's there?'
The pointer carries on going round but then begins to go direct to certain letters. I'm spelling it out as it does and we get 'n', 'o', 'n','a','m','e', I suppose meaning 'no name'!
'That doesn't exactly help' says Roger sarcastically. 'Who the fuck are you?'
At this the pointer went back into random mode, moving about all over the place, and much quicker than before, so quick that sometimes we had a job to keep finger contact with it. In fact I swear that I once saw it change direction without any of us touching it! After about five minutes or so, it settled down a bit, as if its temper had eased a bit, you know?"
Judy nodded and Ben went on. "Then the damn thing started to spell again and this time it spelled out 'I said no name, you stupid cunt'! Now, none of us had ever come across a swearing ghost, and we weren't sure if it could be for real or not, but I could see on people's faces that if it was real, then they thought it was a bit scary, - I surely did!
Roger wouldn't give up though, he asked it again who it was, and again it said 'no fucking name!' and the pointer, as it spelled that out, it moved really fast and jerky as if it was trying to emphasise the words. Next thing Roger said, 'you must have a name, you gotta be called something', and before we knew it the pointer was bouncing off the wall again.
Now, you've got to remember we we're still a bit drunk 'cos if we'd had any sense we'd have quit right there, but we picked it up and tried again. This time Roger sat quiet, like the rest of us, with his finger on the pointer wondering how to get any further with it and so it was Fiona who spoke next. She asked it, 'If you've no name, we can't ask who you are, so should we be asking 'what' you are?' The pointer went straight to the 'yes' on the board, so Roger butted in with, 'Ok, so what the fuck are you?'
'Spirit' spelled the pointer!
'Whisky or rum?' Roger thought himself very witty sometimes!
But the answer we got was 'you would say incubus!' I don't know if you know it, but an incubus is supposed to be a male demon that copulates with women in their sleep! Apparently it was recognised in law in the middle ages and was often blamed for deformed children! I didn't know that at the time, and I don't think any of us had much idea, but Louise asked, talking to all of us, 'Isn't that a randy ghost or something, that seduces witches or turns girls into witches by seducing them or something?' I tell you what though, 'ghost' is not a word I'd use to describe it - 'demon' is nearer the mark!