āAugust, what is that?ā
āA Ouija board.ā
āWhy do you have it? And where did you get it?ā
āI made it.ā He grinned up at me and held up the piece of cardboard with numbers, the alphabet and āyes, no, goodbyeā scrawled on it in his shaky, sprawling hand.
āWhy?ā
āI want to talk to Evelyn myself.ā
āI donāt think this is a good idea. Mal said his seers can talk to her because they know what theyāre doing.ā
āIām a ghost. Who could know more about dead people than me?ā
āI get that, but-ā
āStop.ā August put an icy hand over my mouth, my skin burned with the cold where he touched me. I nodded. He let go.
āDo you want to know your card for today?ā
He looked up from the Ouija, his eyes were hard. He held up the planchette, another piece of cardboard (Cheerios box I think) with a hole cut out at the tip.
āIn a minute. Come.ā He indicated the spot on the floor next to him. I left my desk and came to the board. He sat cross legged and hunched over the board. I sat opposite him.
āI donāt think youāre supposed to do this at home.ā
āIf you do not shut up, I will shut you up." He didnāt look at me as he said it, but I felt the force of his words. He placed the planchette on the board and I felt the air in the room go cold.
āDenizens of Hell, I am looking for someone.ā Nothing happened. The hair on my arms stood up as I shivered in the cold room. August continued.
āI need to know if there is anyone from Hell in this house.ā
Despite meeting Mal and hearing all that he said, I hoped the answer was no, but it swung to yes.
āBrilliant!ā August cried. āWho are you?ā
āA father.ā
āMy father?ā
āA father of nightmares.ā
āHmmm⦠do you know anyone called Evelyn Nevernight?ā The room went still and quiet. I held my breath. Then we heard a noise, low, guttural growling coming from somewhere.
āAugust, say āgoodbye.āā
āBut I donāt have an answer.ā
āThe answer is āno,ā August, say āgoodbye.āā The growling got louder, the room grew hot and the air was thick and hard to breathe, āAugust!ā
āJust tell me!ā He screamed at the Ouija, āDo you know Evelyn?ā
āSay āgoodbye!āā The growling was deafening, I took the planchette from August. āThank you, spirit, GOODBYE!,ā I screamed over the noise. It stopped, the room went quiet and the temperature dropped. Something rustled behind me and I spun around. There was a new bunny in the bunny cage. It had been empty since August killed the last one. The bunnyās fur was black and salted with white, just like the one August had killed. I crawled over to the cage and looked at it. It looked back with brown eyes and wiggled its little black nose.Ā
āSo what was my card?ā
I jumped.
āFor fuckssake donāt do that!ā
āIām thoroughly disappointed, to be honest.ā
āYou got the Father of Swords, reversed,ā
āAnd that meansā¦.ā
āYouāve lost your damn mind.ā
I took the Ouija board and buried it. I donāt know what to do with the Hellbunny. I guess wait and see?