My second year in SB I lived in a house on the beach, on the biggest party street in Isla Vista; Del Playa, with 11 other people. We partied hard. One roommate in particular took the partying to a whole new level. When I first met her, the previous year while still living in the dorms, she was on the shy side and had a boyfriend back home in the Bay Area. When we moved into the house, she moved into a bedroom with two other girls. She took the loft while the other two shared space on the floor. I lucked out with my own room downstairs.
Shortly after moving into the house, I noticed a few changes in the girl in the loft. She became more outspoken and let loose when partying. She even began to cheat on her boyfriend. It got to the point where if she wasn't having sex, it seemed like she wasn't happy. Nymphomania at it's finest, or at least that's what I assumed. It got to the point where she began sleeping with roommates, (the house was made up of four girls and 8 guys). Her personality really darkened and it seemed like she was in a downhill spiral out of control. At one point her boyfriend even flew into town to surprise her, she acted as though she could care less. I was even the one who picked him up at the airport because she was "too busy".
When December rolled around, she went home to visit her family and never returned. We never received an explanation, but I have my theories. That's when strange things began to happen to one of the other girls living in the bedroom.
The first week back from December break, one of the girls, lets calls her Malory, woke up in the middle of the night and spotted her roommate, lets call her Carrie, standing by the porch door staring out at the ocean. Malory mumbled to Carrie to go back to bed. Carrie grunted from her bed across the room. When Malory looked back at the porch doors there was no one there, so she chalked it up as dreaming and went back to bed.
About a week later, Malory woke up in the middle of the night once again, only this time Carrie was standing at the foot of her bed. Again she told her to go back to bed only this time Carrie woke up asking what Malory wanted. Malory looked away for one second, but upon looking back the figure was gone. Carrie saw nothing; but we discussed the matter in the morning agreeing that Malory was having very weird and vivid dreams.
A few weeks passed and nothing happened. Just as Malory began to forget about her nightmares the most vivid encounter occurred. She was woken in the middle of the night when she felt a tugging on the bottom of her bed sheet. When she woke up she noticed a blonde girl, who greatly resembled Carrie at the foot of her bed seemingly tugging on the sheet. She glanced at Carrie's bed and saw her in bed in a sound sleep. When she looked back the girl was practically on top of her, looking angry with what Malory described as crazed eyes. She screamed, waking Carrie and half of the guys in the house. No one else saw the figure, but Malory was shaking and clearly terrified.
The next day we researched how to get in touch with this figure who was clearly haunting Malory. We then I took a trip to State Street where I purchased a Ouija board and Carrie bought candles. At midnight that evening we lit the candles in a pentagram shape, to protect us from evil as the directions we found online said to do, and recited some poem about keeping our circle safe from those who might harm us. It was like we stepped out of a scene in Now and Then.
We started with basic questions getting yes and no answers. Yes it was the girl who haunted Mal, no it would not show itself to all of us, etc. Eventually, Carrie and I got bored and looked at each other from across the board signally that this was silly. We both removed our fingers, as lightly as we possibly could. Malory was frightened and had her eyes shut through most of the game and now was no exception. As I opened my mouth to say we should call it quits, the game-piece began to move. It spelled, "7 up". Carried joked and asked if the ghost was thirsty. Again it spelled, "7 up". We were at a loss as to what this could mean and Malory was the only one with a finger on the board, yet her eyes were closed and she looked away from the board every time it began to move. No way she had that kind of precision.
We declared that we simply didn't understand and the board spelled, "Go up 7". Again we asked it to explain and it repeated, "Go up 7". Carried suddenly gasped. There were seven pegs on the ladder leading up to the loft that formerly housed out friend. We excitedly asked if that's what it was referring to, it shot to yes. I then asked if the ghost we were talking to was up there. It shot to No. I asked if the ghost we were talking to was trying to hurt us, again No. I then asked if the ghost in the loft was trying to hurt us. The game stopped responding. After a few minutes, I decided to go up to the loft. I began to climb the stairs and swear it got colder the closer to the top I ascended. I felt as though there was a dark shape in the corner, but convinced myself it was my mind playing tricks on me. I assumed there would be a ghost so my mind created one. I started to take one more step up when I was overcome with a feeling of anger and hate. Like, whatever was up there was pissed off and did not want me entering. I quickly climbed down and we decided to call it quits for the night.
We blew out the candles, packed up the game and decided to go down to the kitchen for something to eat. Malory flicked on the hall light to illuminate our way. Instead of turning on, the light made a popping sound and burst into flames.
*Needless to say, the girls slept in my room that night. The male roommates put out the small and very contained fire, but that light never worked again. The ghost who woke Malory up was never seen again.
--I think the roommate who lived in the loft was possessed. Or maybe she got pregnant from all the sex she had. Who knows?
