Prologue

It all started on Yun Chae’s birthday.

There were candles on the cake, a present in the chair, frankly too many decorations all over the house, and it was one of those times that you are supposed to treasure forever.

I said, “Let’s take a picture.”

She said, “Yeah, that’s a great idea.”

I then I got to see the demon.

What is the demon? Well, that’s what my story is all about. On that day, Yun Chae’s 18th birthday, I started my quest to free my friend.

***

Chapter 1

Exactly one year ago we were having a great party. The music was pumping, people were dancing, Yun Chae was drunk and I wasn’t because I am the good one. There was lots of cake and beef, also salted pork and a giant pizza. Things were really good and we were having a lot of fun.

There were lots of presents too. When the candles of the cake were blown out, Yun Chae fell over her presents, then started opening them with her teeth, a bottle of soju in both of her hands.

Totally normal Yun Chae behavior. To be honest, the demon possessing her later made her much nicer to be around.

Anyways, she ripped apart boxes like an angry dog, showing us many wonderful gifts. There was an Apple Watch, a bag of beef jerky, and some cute tops and skirts. But those weren’t the best of the presents. 

As usual, my smart self got her the gift she liked the most. A best friend mug! On the mug there was the picture of me and her together, smiling at the camera. She had a bottle of whiskey in one hand and her arm around my shoulder with the other. Her face was bright red with drunkenness. She might have had an alcohol problem but that was okay because she was my friend.

She got another interesting present as well. From a box the shape of a board game came something we had never seen before. It was a flat board covered with numbers, letters, and symbols. It also had some sort of rolling glass that two people were supposed to use together. This was an Oujia Board, the box said, and we could use it to talk to ghosts.

That was a very neat present. I couldn’t wait for us to use it. I was so excited! I could finally meet my hero, Michael Jackson.

Yun Chae was excited too, though I didn’t know it until the next day. She stumbled into the kitchen, looking very tired and smelling very bad. She’d stayed up drinking soju until 3am in the morning!

“Hey, Yeon Seo, where’s my breakfast beer?” she asked, almost falling over the counter.

“Hey Yun Chae, I think you might have a problem,” I said. 

She laughed, then kicked the TV. “You better find my beer! You didn’t drink it, did you?” She narrowed her eyes angrily. 

It was my turn to laugh. We had this conversation every day. I looked over at the garbage on the floor from yesterday’s party and I saw the Ouija Board. I knew that this was the best time to try it out. Yun Chae wouldn’t be sober for another 24 hours after this. 

“Hey, Yun Chae.”

“What?” she asked really loudly. Then she belched.

“Let’s try out your Oujia board. I think it would be fun to talk to Michael Jackson.”

She stared at me. “Does he have beer?” she asked.

“Maybe?” I answered. “We have to talk to him to find out.”

We sat down together around the board. It was super cool. We were about to talk to the dead! I heard a clink as Yun Chae set down a glass bottle. I saw that she’d found her breakfast beer but she wasn’t drunk yet so it was all good. I looked at her and she looked at me.

“What should we ask? How do we know if it is Michael Jackson?” Yun Chae asked.

I moved the cursor, selecting the letters for my question. “Are you Michael Jackson?” I asked.

The cursor moved. The ghost was talking! “Ee-hee,” the board said. It really was him!

I looked at Yun Chae, my eyes shining with excitement. “Oh my god, it’s really him!”

Yun Chae was also excited. “Do you have whiskey?” she asked. 

“Ee-hee,” the board answered. I frowned. Maybe Michael Jackson was broken. “Ee-hee,” the board said again.

I was getting bored. “Michael Jackson can’t talk right. Maybe we should go do our homework.”

Yun Chae put up a finger to my lips. “Shhhhh,” she said, then drank her bottle. It was empty in just a few seconds. “I have an idea,” she slurred, her eyes wild. “Maybe we don’t have to do homework anymore. Maaaaybe, Mr. Ee-hee does it for us.”

The Oujia Board shook, and the cursor moved by itself!

“EE-HEE! EE-HEE!!” the board exclaimed. I guess Michael Jackson really likes homework.

“So how do we have him do our homework?” I asked Yun Chae. Yun Chae smiled.

“That’s easy. We can just attach a pencil to the cursor, then put our homework on the Oujia board and let Michael Jackson do the work for us.”

That did sound easy. Too easy. I remembered stories about wishes and bad genies, how when people tried to do stuff with magic it always ended badly.

“I don’t know,” I said. “This might be a mistake.”

“Shh,” she said, her finger on my lips and another full bottle in her other hand. “I’ll make it work. You go to the mart and get me more soju.”

And that was the start of the horrors to come.

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