Sleepover Séance

The red Silverado pulled up in front of a grey, concrete driveway that was slightly cracked on the sides. Tossing a few loose strands of thick, dark brown hair over my left shoulder, the car, at last, came to a stop. My family was proud of our Cherokee decent and the glossy locks that came with it. I glanced out of the window at the black tinted mailbox bearing six bright pink balloons. My eyes then wandered to the front exterior of the red-bricked house with a rusty rail connecting the stairway, whose bricks glowed crimson in the vibrant sunlight. This is where I would be spending the night with Katie, a friend from school who was clearly excited for her thirteenth birthday.
"Suzy, don't forget Katie's present," my other friend's mother called as the two of us climbed out of the car and into the hot sun.
"I won't, Mom!" Suzy shouted back. "I wish you would just leave me alone…," she added, muttering under her breath.
"Thank you for giving me a ride here, Mrs. Michaels," I said smiling.
"Anytime, Angel, sweetie," Mrs. Michaels replied starting to roll up the window, "You girls have fun!"
I looked around to see Suzy as she spun around on her heel. A cheek on her faintly tanned and freckled face had been marked with a shade of red lipstick that only a mature woman would wear.
"Yeah, yeah…I love you, too, Mom," Suzy muttered again as her mother's car drove towards the street once more. She stalked off for the stairs snatching up her white duffle bag coated in tan polka-dots with her right hand, while her other hand clutched the flimsy string handle of a jade green present bag with lime green tissue paper protruding out of the top. The fading gold amulet given to her by her grandmother swung around her neck, glittering fantastically in the light. She had told me that it had been passed down to every female in her family, but she wasn't sure why. She wasn't sure of the proper time period, either. I bent down and grabbed my purple bag, and joined Suzy in walking up the steps, trailing behind her in silence.
Reaching the top, I stretched out an arm and pressed in a knob that I knew was the door bell. From behind tall curtained windows I heard a chiming sound, an excited squeal, and footsteps. The door opened and the slim, eager figure of Katie appeared, grinning, wide-eyed, blonde hair spilling into her excited face.
"Happy birthday, Katie!" Suzy and I chimed in unison; Katie grabbed us and pulled us into a group hug.
"Yeah, and thanks for the invite," Suzy added while Katie and I grinned and giggled delighted to spend her special day with her.
"Mom and Dad are in the back. They've got lots of paperwork to do and catch up on," announced Katie's happy voice, glowing with ecstasy. "So, we've got this half of the house to ourselves!" she explained, motioning to the den, which lay beyond the open door in front of us, and then moved her arm towards the direction of a short hallway where her room was located.
We walked inside dragging our duffel bags behind us, following Katie to her room. We spent an hour and a half playing "Would You Rather?" and "Truth or Dare".
Outside the glossy windows, the sky grew darker, and we made our way into the comfy, carpeted den.  Laying out our pillows, sleeping bags, and blankets, we settled down into the center of the room, fully dressed in our pajamas. The conversation between Katie and I slowly came to a hush when Suzy stood up just a couple feet away from where we were sitting, a hand on her amulet and her eyes filled with meaning.
"Time for ghost stories," Suzy announced trying to make her voice have the essence of mysteriousness. She snapped off the light switch and the room quickly became dark. A quiet click of the flashlight protruding from Suzy's clenched fist, echoed in the newly darkened room as the light washed over her face. Briefly, her hand fluttered up to her amulet, as through it was a magnet, and then brought it down slowly, once again placing it to her side.
"Yay; ghost stories," I murmured softly, inaudibly clapping my hands quietly.
Feeling Katie shiver nervously beside me, I looked over at her. Watched her eyes as they grew to the size of full grown melons, I realized she was practically radiating with fear.
Suzy spoke again with the same strained but mysterious voice she had used previously. "A long, long, long time ago, when quill pens were still used," she began, "there lived a girl suffering at the hands of savages . . . kidnapped," Suzy whispered. "All for revenge."
Recovering her mysterious voice once more, she continued, "Abused wrongly, she was forced to walk a trail with no food for days at a time. Tied to oxen! Horsewhipped! Arrows at her back!"
Beside me, Katie convulsed, hands around her knees, rocking back and forth.  "It's not real, it's not real, it's not real," she whispered hysterically, trying to calm herself.
In an absolutely terrible voice, Suzy continued. "Each passing day ended with the girl sleeping in a mud puddle, thinking about how much blood the savages had made her lose, and crying miserably about how she would never be back home with the people she loved."
"And what happened to this girl?" I inquired, intrigued with this new story.
"She died," Suzy replied simply. Then, suddenly filled to the brim with melancholy, Suzy moaned, "They scalped her, taking her hair back as a sacrifice, and they left her there to die."
Katie squeaked and fell over. "Did she have a name?" I asked inquisitively.
"Yes . . . Rosemary Wells," Suzy moaned again.
The room seemed to fall still as Suzy said, "What we're going to do tonight… is bring her back…," once more clutching at her amulet, "from the dead!" The words rang through the mid-night air as if she were laying them out for us to take in.
"Uh… I d-d-d-don't th-think th-th-that's a g-g-g-good id-d-dea, Suzy," Katie stammered, wrapped up in a thick red blanket, her teeth chattering with fear.
I was never scared of ghost, but it was cleat that Katie was.
"It's just pretend, it's not real, Katie", I murmured, trying to make my soft voice sound soothing with compassion.
"Okay," Katie shivered. "Thanks, Angel."
Suzy sat down, edging closer to us. "Now, everybody hold hands." We did as we were told, and circled up, the three of us holding hands. I squeezed Katie's hands for moral support and she squeezed it back with a nervous smile.
"O great spirit," Suzy murmured in a moaning voice, once more. Escape from the world you were once trapped in and grace us with your presence, O one that was forgotten."
I couldn't believe what happened next. Katie trembled violently beside me and as if from a dream, the center of the precious amulet, that was once gold, flashed brilliant silver before our very eyes. Then, the strangest thing happened.
I was knocked backwards. My head pounded; I felt as if I had been hit by an ice block. I couldn't see. Everything was black. I felt a burning hand on my forehead and heard a faint scream I thought sure was from Katie. Instead, I heard a voice that made the bravest of people want to run away and hide for all eternity. "Finally," the voice echoed, "I return in flesh."
I faintly felt my skin erupt in an icy sweat. "Who are you?" I thought desperately, wanting to be free of this horrible feeling that I would never be myself again.
"The forgotten one," the voice replied simply, even more terribly it seemed, as I realized it was answering me. Abruptly my eyes shot open and my body rocketed up so that I was sitting in an exact ninety degree angle. I felt my neck crane sideways to stare at Suzy and Katie, who were trembling in the corner, fear wide in their eyes.
"Hello." The strange voice sighed dreamily as I realized with a whelp of horror that it was using my own mouth and voice. Katie froze, and her shaking stopped almost instantly as if she had come to some understanding of what terrible happening was occurring inside of me.
"R-R-R-Rosem-m-mary?" Katie breathed.
"That's right," the terrible thing in my voice replied.
"Leave me alone! Why are you here?" my thoughts seem to echo in the empty space in my head.
"You mean you haven't figured it out yet?" The voice of Rosemary suddenly sounded maliciously cold. "I'm taking my revenge."
"But, I did nothing to you," my thoughts squeaked innocently.
"It's in your blood." There was a sadistic twist in her tone sending violent shivers through my veins. It came to my absolutely petrified attention that she was after me … for nothing else but my Indian bloodline.
Very faintly, I began to hear the voice of Katie protruding through Rosemary's ranting monologue. "Do you remember the time I was pushing you in the swing out back and I pushed you too hard and you fell off and landed on Suzy?" she screeched hysterically.
There was a pause in which I guessed Suzy was probably questioning her judgment. Rosemary had finally stopped trying to communicate with me, but something had clicked in my mind that made perfect since. Being kidnapped, you experience no joy, no friendship, and no happiness. She didn't understand Katie's memories.
"Remember that time I got really hyper on energy drinks at Suzy's bat mitzvah?" Katie screamed even more loudly than before, with Suzy's encouragement in the background.
As I felt a chuckle rising out of myself, I distinctly thought I heard Rosemary squeal. I attempted to move my hand and to my surprise, I could see my fingers wiggling.
Rosemary was getting weaker.
"Remember the time Suzy and I wasted our voices cheering you on in the school musical? You were so good," Katie continued, her voice broke very slightly; it was enough to break a heart. "You can't leave us."
I felt a wet tear on one of my bare feet. Anger for this beast inside me rose in my very core. This is when I realized, out of the corner of my possessed eyes, the recently silver tinted amulet shining on Suzy's neck. "Suzy," I managed to gasp for the first time. "The . . .," I croaked, startlingly unable to speak; yet, so desperate to get my message to her, I managed, painfully, to gesture to my neck. I clutched at my stomach for breath. I heard the sound of something sliding open. Muted footsteps, which seemed far away, rustled the grass outside, and finally, I heard something break.
I allowed myself to fall backwards, one hand on my stomach, the other ruffling my dark hair. Tears flooded onto the carpet. I was free and no one could hurt me or my friends, who unconditionally cared for me.
At once, we were all huddled together under a blanket, panting and telling Katie not to scream. "Girls, you've been up for hours. Get to sleep!  Good night," came the impatient voice of Katie's mom. Despite the warning, this was the first sleepover where no one dreamed of sleeping.