It was a crisp afternoon and my group of former emo friends were faced with intense boredom. We had grown tired of screaming the lyrics of “I’m not okay (I promise)” at lunch underneath a tree next to a barbed wire fence and longed for something more amusing to fill our 33 minutes of free time. That’s when it occurred to us, Ouija. We had played with Ouija boards before, of course, but never in a place as taboo as school. We began to plan, this was not something we could leave to the last minute, it had to be done now. We only knew of one place that could satisfy our craving for the paranormal, the Hillside basement. 

Nobody was allowed down to the basement unless accompanied by a teacher. It was pitch black filled with cobwebs and the former souls of students who couldn’t get out—or so I’ve been told—I really only recall the cobwebs. A former locker room transformed into storage, it was the perfect location for five teenagers and a Ouija board. 

We set the plan into action after Googling how to make holy water without a priest and asking our teacher if he could loan us salt for the makeshift google holy water. We made our way down to the basement. It was pitch black. We huddled in a circle inside the former boys locker room—which happened to have lots of fake body parts because this was where Halloween decorations were stored, which of course isn’t creepy at all. We pushed a few rubber arms aside and set the Ouija board in the center of the circle along with our makeshift holy water, it was glorious. 

We began to ask questions under the glow of an iPhone flashlight. We had been there for maybe twelve minutes when we heard the door to the basement open. Panic struck the faces of those around us, we were shocked. We had not planned for this, this was not in the agenda! The janitor made his way down the stairs. We could hear him growing closer, our heartbeats sped up as we realized that this could seal our fate. We hastily said goodbye to the ghost of whom we’d been corresponding with and waited in shock. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. We just had to hope he didn’t come into this room. After a few minutes we heard the footsteps grow quieter and the door to the basement open and shut sharply. We let out a big communal sigh of relief. We were safe. And thus concluded our very first, but certainly not last, ghost hunt adventure.