True Ghost Stories: Jim Harold's Campfire 3

by Jim Harold

  My buddy was super scared. His name was David. He was turning pale so he ran upstairs and grabbed a crucifix. While he was watching us play he was praying and holding the crucifix to his chest. We told the board, "Show us a sign that you're really real." It went to "yes" immediately. We asked, "What's the sign?"

  Then the little planchette piece pointed at my buddy David, the one that was holding the crucifix. We looked at him and he was completely white. It was just like in the cartoons when characters lose their color. We looked at him and we said, "What's going on? What's wrong? You all right?" We were trying to see if he needed something and we got him a glass of water.

  He said, "The crucifix." Then, we looked on the floor and it was literally snapped in half. It was maybe about two inches thick. It was a big crucifix and it was snapped completely in half. He said, "I was just holding it, and it went through my hands." It snapped when it landed. After that he said, "I don't want the Ouija board. Take it back to your house. I'm done with that."

  I brought it back to the little shack in the back of my house. My mom was there at the time. I have a basketball court next to the shack and she was sweeping the court, picking up some little things. She asked, "I heard you in the shack. What were you doing? What were you and your cousin up to?" I said, "I wasn't at the shack."

  My cousin and I had gone to the local store down the block. We bought candles because we were going to use it again at night. We went home and put the candles in the shack. We were avoiding my parents the whole time. We locked it all up.

  My mom was suspicious of something going on, but we denied it all.

  We went back to the shack at night. I opened the door and turned on the lights. I went to pull out the Ouija board and it was already on the table with the little planchette piece. When we went to reach for it, it moved on its own. We got the chills wondering what had happened. Also, we didn't realize it, but we were walking on wax. All the candles that we bought were melted all over the floor. The five foot stain is still there. The wicks were just laying there in the middle of the wax. It was like a nice little thick pile of wax of all the candles we had. The funny thing is that had been placed in a bag, and they should have never melted like that.

  We loved it. We said, "This thing's awesome. This thing's for real. This is the real deal." We actually got more excited about it than anything.

  My parents realized something was going on. We had a talk with us and they got it out of us. We admitted to having an Ouija board. My dad said, "I'm going to burn it tomorrow when I get home from work." My father usually would get home around 4:30 or 5 o'clock. All day I was trying to think of what to do, how get rid of it before my dad burned it. It wasn't even mine. When my dad got home, he asked, "Where's it at? Where's it at?" He was furious. He was ready to get rid of that thing.

  My parents considered it the work of the Devil. They said, "That's Satanic. You should not be messing with that. You're going to go to hell." My dad grabbed the Ouija board and he was going to take it to the back where I had a little pile of rocks. So he put it on there, he made a little fire and he was about to throw it on there. Magically, it started pouring rain out of nowhere. It was like the Ouija board was spared, you know? My dad said, "Tomorrow, as soon as I get back, no escape. I'll pour gasoline on it, I don't care. I'll do what I've got to do. I'm going to burn it tomorrow."

  Well, my dad came home the next day and just as he's about to burn it, my buddy, the one that originally let me borrow it, tells me, "Hey, my cousin wants the Ouija board back." He just took it. It got saved again.

  On his way back to the house, my friend said that every light post he passed would die out. The light would just turn off. Then, as soon as he got to the next one, the previous one would turn back on and the one he was at would turn off. He started getting spooked a little bit, so he ran home and he gave the board to his cousin. His cousin said, "Oh, you guys found the Ouija board. I didn't even know where it was." I was flabbergasted! I told my friend, "What? I thought you told him that we were going to go pick it up." His cousin said, "I never even knew where it was." It just kind of sealed it for us there. We figured that did it and we were done with it.

  I've still tried to get it back, I've asked this guy to search his attic, his crawlspaces, but no luck yet.

  I think it was opening some type of portal to something in my house, but I am still curious. I want to know more.

  -Roberto, Illinois

  23. N-O-T-H-I-N-G

  I was raised in a Baptist church. I had heard my whole life that Ouija boards were the Devil's toy and very dangerous. I'd never actually seen one until I was 13-years-old. I was sneaking around in my older brother's room, and I found a Ouija board in a trunk that he had. I thought, "Wow, this is forbidden territory." It scared me, but I was curious. I took it down and hid it in some pine trees on our property.

  Eventually, I took the board out. I knew I wasn't supposed to mess with it because I'd heard all these lectures at church. I took the pointed plastic thing out. I'm sure I did not know it was called a planchette at the time and I attempted to ask questions. It did not move at all, and I thought, "Well, this is stupid. It doesn't even work."

  Then I heard my younger brother Jason, who was 5-years-old, playing nearby. I called him over and I said, "Let's play a game." He had never heard of a Ouija board, but I just told him it was a game where we put our fingers on this little white plastic thing and we asked questions. He was all for it.

  Before we get into what happened, let me tell you a little bit about my brother. I was sure that I was going to be a teacher when I grew up, and sure enough, I'm an English professor today. I spent at least two years trying to teach him the alphabet, trying to teach him to write his name, to learn his address, his telephone number, all the things I thought a boy his age should know. I always tried to play school with him. He would not learn anything. He didn't know how to spell his name and he didn't know the alphabet.

  So we were sitting there, and he wanted to ask the first question. I thought that we'd play, it would all be gibberish, and I'd just make up some answers for him. I figured it would be fun. I should mention that he was known as a little Don Juan in the neighborhood. He had lots of little girlfriends. I'm sure he had kissed every girl in Sunday School at least once or twice. Jason loved little girls. His first question was, "Who am I going to marry when I grow up?" Which I know is unusual for a little boy, but all of his questions except the last one had to do with girls.

  He asked, "Who am I going to marry?" The planchette started moving around, and I thought, "Well, he's moving it." I knew I wasn't and I thought, "Well, so what? We're just having fun, and I'll make up an answer." It went to the letter N, and then it went to O, B, O, D, Y, and I was absolutely shocked. I knew I was not moving it. I would not have wanted to spell that word out anyway. I was just amazed. I knew Jason didn't know the alphabet or couldn't spell, and he was so excited. He said, "Who did it say? Did it say Shannon?" She was his favorite girlfriend, the little girl that lived down the street. He said, "Am I going to marry Shannon? Is that what it spelled?" I was shocked, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings or anything. I said yes, it spelled out Shannon.

  So he wanted to ask another question, and he said, "How old will I be when Shannon and I get married?" I was shocked that it moved around again and it spelled out N-E-V-E-R, which was not an exact response to the question "How old will I be when I get married?", but "never" suggested to me that he was never going to get married. That scared me, and I remember feeling very chilled. It was June, and I just felt cold all over. I really thought I probably should stop this game because it wasn't a game anymore, but I didn't. I told Jason it said 21. I guess I was fascinated with it and wanted to see if it would keep going.

  His next question was, "How many kids will we have?" It went to N-O-N-E. He was excited and wanted to know what it spelled. I told him that he and Shannon were going to have three kids. I was just making up answers I thought he wanted to hear. The next
question was "Where will we live?" It spelled out the word N-O-W-H-E-R-E and I made up a response of a town that was near us.

  I was ready to end this. I was very frightened because these were very negative responses, and they all started with the letter "N" which I realized was very odd. He begged to ask one more question, and I said, "Okay, one more, that's it." I thought it was going to be another little girl question. Then this little boy asked the ultimate question. He said, "How old will I be when I die?" I never dreamed that he would ask that question. It spelled out the word N-O-W. I was horrified. I remember I put my fingers down very hard on the planchette to keep it from moving at all, and he got mad at me. Jason was a very sweet boy, so it was hard for him to get angry. He said, "Stop it! You're holding it. You won't let it move." I stopped pushing down on it and it spelled out the word N-O-W.

  I remember jumping up and the Ouija board went into the grass. I don't know if I threw it down or it fell out of my lap or what. I was very upset, and it scared him. Jason's eyes got real big, and he asked, "What?" I wouldn't tell I'm anything, and I told him to go play with somebody and just go. I hurt his feelings. That whole day I was just horrified and I thought my little brother was going to die and it was my fault. I was the one that got him to play that game.

  I spent the whole evening reading the Bible in my bedroom. I wouldn't talk to anybody about this, because I was afraid if something happened to my brother, they would all blame me; it would be my fault. So I told nobody, I cried, I made bargains with God. I was getting God confused with whatever entity was talking through the board. I know now that wouldn't have been God, but I said, "God, don't take him. You can take me. Please don't take my little brother.". I was miserable the whole night and I still didn't tell anybody.

  Then something happened the next morning that scared me very much. My mother is very talkative, and at the breakfast table it was just the two of us. She wasn't talking at all. She wasn't looking at me, and I could tell she was upset. I kept asking what was wrong and she would say nothing. Finally, she told me that she had a very bad dream the night before, and it woke her up. She cried and she couldn't get back to sleep. Her mother had died just the month previously, and my mom dreamed that my grandmother had come and taken my brother away. In the dream, Grandma was leading him by the hand, and my mom was crying and calling to her mother and saying don't take her son, "Don't take Jason. Where are you going? Bring him back." Jason never turned around and looked back, but my grandmother stopped and looked back at my mother and she had a very sad look on her face. Grandma didn't say anything, kept walking, and then they just kind of disappeared.

  I was very upset anyway and my summer was ruined. I had no summer vacation. I had that balled up inside me. I had caused this to happen. All fall and winter, I kept thinking about it. Eventually, the feelings faded, but I never forgot it.

  Several years later, my mother called me and she was upset again. She said, "Your brother just called and said he's getting married. He's only 18-years-old. He was working at a restaurant and he met a waitress and they're getting married." She was so upset because she felt Jason shouldn't get married at that age. In my heart of hearts, I wanted that wedding to happen because even though he hadn't died "now" like the board had said, I needed more proof that all those predictions were wrong. The day of the wedding my mom was hoping it wouldn't happen, but inside of me, I was saying to myself, "Yes, please, please, get married."

  When they said "I do," I was so relieved. I told the story for the first time two years ago but I have never told my brother as he's very superstitious. He loves stories about the paranormal, and I think even though he's in his 30's now, if I told him, it would terrify him. So I won't. He and his wife have been married for 18 years and they have two children. None of those predictions came true. But I was absolutely sure then, and I'm sure now, that little underachiever brother of mine could never have spelled out the word "no," let alone "nowhere." He just couldn't have done it.

  It was a very scary experience. I remember telling God I would never play with a Ouija board again if the worst wouldn't happen, and I haven't. I haven't played with one since.

  -Shari, Virginia

  24. A Family Secret Revealed

  I was about 15-years-old and my friends and I used to like to go camping in one of the kid's backyard. Someone brought a Ouija board over and we were playing with it all night. Nothing seemed to happen so we just put it away and went to bed.

  The next morning I said, "You know what? I want to take a chance with it." So a friend of mine and I started playing it. The planchette started moving. This wasn't really a close friend, so she didn't know much about me. The board told me that the person I was speaking to through it had the same name of my grandmother. I asked, "Are you my grandmother?" The board said, "Yes." I was laughing about this, because I thought maybe somebody put my friend up to it. I knew I wasn't moving the marker.

  When I started asking a couple intimate questions about my childhood that only I would know, it started answering them on point. I asked my supposed grandmother, "How many times have you been married?" It said three. I wasn't sure about that, because I only knew that my grandmother was married once -- to my grandfather. When I went home, I started talking to my mom about what had happened and she said, "No, your grandmother was married three times."

  My mom said it wasn't something that they talked about in the family a lot because my grandmother's first marriage was when she was very young, and her second was so short they didn't even really consider it a marriage. The third was to my grandfather, which of course I knew about.

  I wasn't sure if it was actually my grandmother who I was speaking with, or something that was pretending to be my grandmother. Still, I had asked it very intimate questions that only I would've known the answers to and it was answering right away. Now, you hear that maybe your subconscious is what moves the planchette, but I didn't know that my grandmother was married three times. I had no clue, so that doesn't really explain it, does it?

  It was pretty freaky and as a result, I've never touched a Ouija board since.

  -Kat, California

  25. Some Things Should Be Left Alone

  This occurred back when I was in high school, about 1998. At the time, I lived in a trailer home and had a friend over one weekend. We were up playing video games and it was probably about midnight or 1 a.m. All of a sudden, I heard something that sounded like metal banging. It sounded like it was coming from beneath the floor. At first, I thought maybe it was my mom, talking in her sleep, because she yelled in her sleep a lot.

  So, we turned the TV down. Then we heard some indistinct mumbling like when you hear someone talking, but you can't quite make it out. We just thought it was kind of weird. I took a peek outside and didn't see anybody around. That's all we experienced. A couple days later, when we were in school, I was telling the experience to one of my other friends, and he was kind of shocked by it. He said that on the same night at his house, he had a couple of buddies over and they were playing with a Ouija board. At the same time we were hearing these weird sounds they were asking the Ouija questions about me. I said, "Oh my God, you've got to be kidding me."

  I asked, "What'd you ask?" He said, "We were just asking questions and your name came up. We asked what they thought of you and it didn't like you. It thought that you were lazy or something."

  That's the experience, but the timing is what is strange. We knew nothing of what each other was doing that night. I never heard any sounds in that mobile home like that before or since.

  Back when I was a kid, I played with a Ouija board a couple of times. Nothing ever really happened, but knowing what I know now and the stories I hear, especially some of the stories on your show, there's no way I'd ever touch one again. Some things just should be left alone and that's one of them.

  -Ryan, Minnesota

  26. I Never Played with a Ouija Board Again

  When I was a kid my family lived in this tiny house. One day, m
y older sister started playing with a Ouija board. Just one of those old school ones, the kind everybody had. I didn't believe much in it. My brother came in the house and he said, "Oh, that thing's not real. It doesn't work; you kids are kidding yourself." I was kind of agreeing with him. He said, "All right, I'm going to go into the kitchen and I'll write a number down on the refrigerator. When I come out here, I want the Ouija board to tell me what it is." So he did and he came back to where my sisters were playing with the board.

  The girls sat there, the planchette started moving, and it went to the number 4, it made a circle and landed on the number 4 again. My brother turned white as a ghost. I asked, "What was the number?" He said, "Go look." I went around to the kitchen, and he had written "44" on a Post-It note on the refrigerator door. I thought, "Okay, that's pretty strange, but maybe coincidence? I don't know." Being very young, I was in the 5th grade, I just dismissed it.

  For Christmas, I got a handheld tape recorder. This was before anybody knew what an EVP was. So my friend and I were doing Michael Jackson imitations, goofing around with this recorder. At the time, I hadn't hit puberty yet, so my Michael Jackson impression was dead-on. I played this tape back, and all I could describe hearing was a super loud, demonic voice. It said something like "Did you do something wrong?" Then, there was a second of silence and it said, "Join in."