“I saw you circled them in the winter dARiA*s magazine,” Eve said with a smirk. “I figured you could use a little touch of goth in your wardrobe.”

  “I love it.”

  Tina’s chest swelled with love for her friends. They did still care about her. “Thanks. This means a lot to me.”

  “Well, girls, I’m gonna put this cake away and head to bed,” her mother said. She leaned in and gave Tina a peck on the cheek. “You all have fun tonight. Knock if you need anything.”

  “Thanks, Ms. Martin.” Eve waved and offered an innocent-looking smile.

  “Yeah, thank you,” Lacey said.

  “G’night, Mom.”

  Tina and her friends waited until the lock on her mother’s door made an audible “click”. They smiled at each other and rose from the table sporting matching mischievous grins.

  “All right, witches,” Eve said. “Let’s get this party started!”

  “Don’t you think your mom will be mad when she sees this?” Lacey stood in the doorway of Tina’s en suite bathroom, her teeth set in a grimace.

  Eve held a sewing needle in one hand and an ink pen in the other. “It’s going to be on her hip. She won’t see it.”

  “Are you sure this will work?” Tina laid back on her bathroom floor and stared up at the ceiling. She was wearing the No Fear shirt that Lacey had given her, the hem tucked into her jean shorts with cuffs rolled at the sleeve. At that moment, she wished that she didn’t have any fear, but her stomach was turning somersaults at the thought of needles and blood.

  “You’re not afraid of needles, are you?” Eve asked.

  “No,” Tina lied.

  “Good, because you’re going to have to tattoo me next.” Eve flicked on the lighter and burned the sharp end of the needle.

  “Have you ever done this before?” Lacey asked.

  “No, but I saw my brother do it a bunch of times,” Eve said. “Okay, T. Get ready.”

  Tina closed her eyes and held her breath. It was after 11 p.m. and they had already burned through most of their sleepover activities. The snacks were all consumed. They had already watched one of the VHS tapes, witnessing as Pumpkinhead sought his revenge on a group of careless teens. They even gave each other scratchy peach exfoliation facials and manicures. Eve suggested sneaking out to go to the cemetery. Lacey suggested they make prank calls to some boys from school. Tina didn’t want to do either of those things, so matching poke and stick BFF tattoos it would have to be.

  Before Eve could land the first mark on her skin, Tina’s finger pulsed. Red glazed across her vision as the dark figure wormed its way into her thoughts again. Suddenly, she felt sick to her stomach.

  “Wait!” Tina sat up from her position on the floor and crawled to the toilet. A gush of birthday cake, Cool Ranch Doritos, soda, and frozen pizza flowed from her guts in a hot wave. Lacey rushed to her side and held her hair back as Tina heaved the last of her birthday party treats into the bowl.

  “Ugh. Gross.” She wiped the back of her mouth and flushed the toilet. “I need to brush my teeth.”

  “Okay, so no DIY tattoos,” Eve sighed. “Message received.”

  “Sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Tina said, rinsing her mouth out at the sink. She blobbed a pearl of toothpaste on her toothbrush and ran it through her teeth. She didn’t want to look up at her reflection in the mirror as she brushed for fear of what she might see.

  “What’s up with you, T?” Lacey asked. “You’ve been off all day. Are you sick? We can go home and do this another time …”

  “No!” Tina shouted. “Sorry, I mean, I know I haven’t been acting like myself. I’ve been seeing some weird stuff lately. I probably need to get my eyes checked.”

  “Bad stuff? Like what?” Eve asked.

  Tina hesitated. These were her best friends. If she couldn’t tell them, who could she tell?

  “All day, I’ve been seeing this weird dark mass hovering over my right shoulder,” she said. “I only see it in the reflection of windows or mirrors. It turns into the shape of a man and then disappears.”

  “That’s creepy as hell,” Lacey said.

  “I’ve got just the thing.” Eve got up off the floor and walked into the bedroom. She picked the Ouija board up off Tina’s dresser and held it out toward her two friends. “Let's see if we can talk to whatever is haunting you.”

  Tina’s anxiety spiked. At that moment, the graveyard or a tattoo sounded like a better option. “I don’t know. I pulled the game out of the attic because I thought it might be fun. Now, I’m not so sure.”

  “Oh, come on! We used to love playing with the Ouija board,” Lacey said. “Remember that time we asked where your mom’s lost diamond earring was?”

  “Yeah. The spirit board said to look in the backyard next to Mom’s potting bench,” Tina said. “It was right.”

  “Well, whaddaya think?” Lacey asked, joining Eve on her bed.

  Eve had already unboxed the board and the triangular planchette. “Please?”

  Tina nodded and let out a sigh. “Okay. But only for a minute.”

  Tina’s room was dark, save for the soft glow of two lavender scented candles she had picked up on sale at the mall. She had a bad feeling about this— about what they were going to do. As kids, telling ghost stories and playing with the Ouija board had been fun. They liked scaring each other and didn’t take any of their mystical games seriously. But after the strange things going on leading up to her birthday, Tina had little interest in connecting with the dead.

  As usual, Eve took the reins and led the board game seance. Even when they were small, she always had the most interest in spooky stuff out of the three friends. Eve was always trying to get them to make wishes, cast spells or practice their psychic and telekinetic abilities to no results. In hindsight, it really wasn’t that surprising that her stylistic tastes turned to the dark side as well. For Tina, it had been all fun, but for Eve, communing with the spirit world was serious business.

  “Oh, magical Ouija board. Hear our words! Are there any spirits in this houuuuuse?” Eve sat erect on the bed, her eyes closed and her chin tipped upward with both of her pointer and index fingers gently touching the planchette. Lacey mirrored Eve’s position, giving Tina a conspiratorial side-eye as they sat in silence and waited for something to happen. Tina hugged her pillow and peered at them from the far end of the bed as her two best friends attempted to summon something from the other side.

  “Oh, spirits,” Eve called out in a dreamy voice. “Can you hear meeeee?”

  “A little heavy-handed, dontcha think?” Lacey snorted.

  “I’m just trying to set the mood.”

  “Well, it’s not working. We’ve been sitting here for almost five minutes and nothing has happened,” Lacey said. “Besides, it only works if we are all touching the thingy. Come on, Tina. We need you, too.”

  Lacey waved for Tina to join them and placed her fingers gently on the planchette. Tina paused again, unsure if she really wanted to take part. She didn’t actually believe in ghosts or metaphysical stuff; the Ouija board was nothing more than a toy they used to mess around with at sleepovers. But after the strange occurrences that had happened that day, she wasn’t so sure what she believed anymore. If she just stayed on the sidelines, she might never know if what she had seen and experienced was real.

  “Okay.” Tina tossed her pillow behind her and joined her friends at the spirit board. She placed her fingertips on the planchette, expecting to feel a jolt of electricity rush through her. She relaxed a little when nothing happened. It was only a child’s toy after all.

  “Let me try this time,” Lacey said and cleared her throat. “Oh, spirits or whatever. Does anyone have a crush on me?”

  The candles flickered and the planchette trembled under their fingertips.

  Eve squealed and broke away from the board. “Who did that?”

  “Not me!” Lacey said.

  “Me neither,” Tina said. “It was moving on its own.”

  “I told you it needed all three of us!” Lacey said. “Eve, put your fingers back. I wanna know who has a crush on me.”

  “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Tina said. “Let’s make some prank calls instead.”

  “After! Let’s do this now!” Lacey grabbed Tina’s hands and plopped them back on the board. “Concentrate.”

  “Fine.” Tina cringed.

  Lacey closed her eyes again and breathed in deeply. “Spirits. Is someone out there thinking about me?”

  The planchette jerked back to life under their combined touch. Horrified, Tina watched as the clear glass indicator crept across the board and paused.

  “T!” Lacey exclaimed. “Oh, I hope it’s Tommy Myers. He borrowed my pencil on the last day of school and never gave it back.”

  “I don’t think it’s Tommy,” Eve said, flicking her gaze to Tina. “Besides, he wears the same dirty socks for days. Gross.”

  “Quiet!” Lacey hissed. “Let’s see where it goes next.”

  The planchette continued its onward creep across the board. Sparkles of adrenaline rushed through Tina’s veins as she instinctively knew where the indicator would land next. She was an unwilling participant in her own soon-to-be demise. Her stomach dropped as the glass indicator rested over the letter “I”.

  “I!” Lacey said. “Oh gawd, I hope it’s not Tim Gerlihy. He wears way too much CK One cologne.”

  “I thought you liked CK One?” Tina glanced at the half-empty bottle on her dresser.

  “Yeah, but, he practically takes a bath in it,” Lacey said. “Okay, concentrate.”

  The planchette moved again and sweat beaded on Tina’s upper lip. Her heart filled with horror as the triangular object edged ever closer to the letter “N”. Her secret was going to be exposed by a stupid kids board game if she didn’t do something. Lacey would never speak to her again if the Ouija board spelled out her name, revealing her long-kept secret. She panicked and pressed down on the planchette, sending it shooting off the bed and onto the floor.

  “Eeeee!”

  Lacey screamed. Eve jumped off the bed and bumped into Tina’s dresser, sending all of the contents on top sailing. Her Caboodle exploded on the floor, scattering makeup brushes, mascaras, hair ties, and a rainbow of Wet & Wild nail polish and lip glosses. The framed photo of the three friends when they were younger flew, and for a moment, Tina almost imagined that it was suspended in midair. Gravity finally claimed the picture of the trio of smiling eight-year-olds and sent it crashing to the floor, cracking the glass in two.

  “Oh crap! Tina, I’m so sorry.” Eve picked up the broken picture frame and handed it to her. “Our picture. I ruined it.”

  “It’s okay. I can get another frame,” Tina said. “Maybe the Ouija board isn’t such a good idea though.”

  “I’ll help clean this stuff up,” Lacey said, scooping up the contents of the Caboodle. “Ooh. Dr. Pepper flavored lip gloss.”

  THUNK.

  “What was that?” Lacey whispered.

  The three friends glanced up at the ceiling and held their breath.

  THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.

  “Crap,” Tina said. “I forgot to tell my mom about the opossum.”

  “What opossum?” Eve asked.

  “I saw one in the attic earlier when I went to dig out the Ouija board,” Tina said. “Scared me half to death.”

  “Oh, I wanna see!” Lacey said. “I love opossums.”

  “Remember when we used to go up in the attic and dress up in all of your mom’s weird old clothes?” Eve walked to the door. “I’m bored. Let’s go see what’s up there.”

  “It’s just gross and dusty up there,” Tina said.

  “C’mon,” Lacey said, taking her hand. “It’ll be fun.”

  “Fine.”

  The Ouija board was forgotten as Tina grabbed her flashlight. She crept down the dark hall behind her friends toward the pull-down ladder. Even though she wasn’t looking forward to going back up into the attic, she was grateful to the opossum for the distraction. She glanced over her shoulder at the master bedroom on the other side of the house to check if the coast was clear. A flashing light blipped in the dark, a thin blue line of television fuzz under her mother’s bedroom door. Her mother was likely already heavily medicated and so deep in dreamland that she wouldn’t hear them.

  Lacey reached up and slowly pulled the cord to the fold-down ladder. Despite her best attempts, the hinges on the old wooden door still creaked.

  “Shhh!” Tina handed Lacey the flashlight.

  “Don’t worry so much,” Eve said. “Your mom never wakes up. She takes the same sleeping pills my mom does.”

  “It’s not my mom I’m worried about,” Tina said.

  Lacey ascended the ladder and Eve followed behind. The attic was the last place Tina wanted to go to, but she didn’t want to disappoint her friends either. A thrill danced down her spine as she remembered the dark form in the reflection of the windows and the feeling that she was being watched. She sensed it again as her friends disappeared into the attic — a pressure at her back, something heavy looming over her shoulder. Whispering in her ear.

  Let me out.

  Let me in.

  No. Tina wasn’t going to give into her intrusive thoughts. She had let her anxiety get the best of her far too many times, but not tonight. Tonight she was going to enjoy these last few moments of childhood with her BFF’s.

  “Suck it up, buttercup.” Tina blew her bangs out of her eyes in a frustrated huff and followed her friends up the ladder into the dark attic. But before she reached the top rung, Lacey let out a high-pitched scream.

  “Oh my gawd!”

  Something clattered and fell to the attic floor with a loud THUNK. Tina’s blood chilled as she forced her frozen legs to climb to the top of the ladder.

  Her friends were in trouble, and she needed to get to them now.

  “So this is where your Barbie collection went!”

  Lacey held a disheveled doll in her hand and shined the flashlight on its plastic face. Blonde strands of hair stuck out at wild angles from the dolls’ head thanks to a DIY haircut Tina gave her years ago. The once adorable feminine figure was half dressed and her legs were covered in Crayola marker tattoos that bled in fuzzy lines against her sticky, rubbery skin.

  Tina gasped and collapsed in a heap, feeling as rough as her former fashion doll looked. “Lacey! You scared the life outta me! I thought you were hurt!”

  “The only thing hurt is my feelings,” Eve said, holding up a plush Garfield stuffed animal. “Didn’t I get you this for your tenth birthday?”

  “Yeah. I still like Garfield,” Tina said.

  “Why is all of this stuff up here?” Lacey asked.

  “I couldn’t bring myself to give this stuff away yet.” Tina dug into her toy box and picked up Rainbow Dash, her favorite My Little Pony. Her thoughts drifted back to simpler times when the contents of the toy box were her prized treasures. A time when she didn’t doubt Lacey and Eve’s friendship. A time when things were easier, more lighthearted and fun. Maybe that’s the real reason her toys were hidden away in a dusty attic. She knew that time was long gone. It was easier to move on without the evidence of better days always smacking her in the face.

  “No biggie. It’s just kids stuff.” Eve unceremoniously tossed the plush Garfield back into the box. “So where is this opossum anyway?”

  Tina shrugged. “It was over in the corner the other day. It kind of hissed at me and then froze up.”

  “I heard they play dead,” Lacey said.

  “They’re so ugly,” Eve said, pulling a disgusted face.

  “I think they’re cute.” Lacey shined the light in the corner of the attic. “Well, it’s not there now.”

  “See?” Tina said. “Nothing to see up here. Let’s go.”

  “Hold on. What’s this?” Lacey pulled out a scrapbook and began flipping through the pages. “Is this us?”

  “Yeah.” Tina’s cheeks heated as she remembered the contents of the scrapbook. She had spent so many hours cutting out photographs of her and Lacey and Eve and gluing them to the pages. She had saved ticket stubs to movies they went to, birthday party invitations, bubble gum wrappers, secret notes, fortune tellers made from origami and M.A.S.H. games. The entire history of their friendship was pressed between those pages, covered in glitter and neon kitten stickers. Now it was collecting dust in a dark attic along with the rest of her childhood things.

  “I get why you put your toys away, but why is this up here?” Lacey gazed over at her, a pained expression on her face.

  Tina sighed. “I … I didn’t think you guys were my friends anymore.”

  “Seriously?” Eve propped a hand on her hip. “Why?”

  “I dunno,” Tina cupped her hot cheeks. “Lacey has her softball friends. You have your cool goth crowd you hang out with now. I’m just a boring nobody. I guess I feel like I got left behind.”

  “Tiny.” Lacey said. “We love you! Don’t you know that?”

  “That’s why we’re here,” Eve said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “People change, but they don’t stop caring about each other.”

  Tina wiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry, it was stupid of me to think that way.”

  “I know what you need,” Eve said. “Root beer float?”

  Tina sniffed and swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yeah. That would be great.”

  “Good thing I saved some vanilla,” Eve said. “Lacey, you gonna have a root beer float?”

  “Nah, I’m good. None for meeeeyeeeee!!!” Lacey let out a yelp and dropped the flashlight. It clattered to the ground as a low hiss sounded through the air.

  “Help!” Lacey said. “No!”

  Tina scrambled for the flashlight as the sound of skittering claws scratched on the wooden attic beams. Her hands fumbled along the ground as she searched in the dark, her pulse chugging away like a steam engine.