My brother and I trudged through the forest near our house, leaves crunching beneath our feet as if to alert the whole town of our whereabouts. We had attempted to muffle the loudness of our walking by taking smaller, softer steps, but unfortunately, autumn was not on our side. It was 11:00 pm in Salem, Oregon and our parents, with the early birds that they are, were already sound asleep. Ding! My phone lit up for about the third time in 3 minutes and my brother Oliver shot me a weird look, his face wrinkling.

“Who’s texting you, Luna? Does mom know we left the house?” Oliver’s face quickly went from judgemental to worried. “I told you we shouldn’t have done this-” 

“No Oliver, it’s just Cat, chill out. I told you that you didn’t have to come if you were too worried about it.” 

That was a lie. I pretty much forced him but I could tell part of him was gonna say yes because he’s always been protective of me. I read the text to myself, my eyes shifting across the screen.

The text read, “Heyy! Did you and your brother end up sneaking out to that place I told you about??”

“Yeah, we’re actually on our way now. I’m so scared we’re gonna get caught though.” I put my phone back in my pocket when suddenly it vibrated again. I’ll just answer that later, I thought, I can’t believe she’s even still awake.

“Whatever, let’s just keep walking, it's cold right now.” He rubbed his bare arms vigorously and shivered.

“Well maybe if you wore a jacket and jeans instead of a wife-beater and pajama pants, we wouldn’t be in this situation would we?”

“Would we?” He mocked while laughing hysterically.

“Ssh, we still have to be somewhat quiet,” I told him, hoping the animals in the forest wouldn’t wake up or run to our home and snitch on us. 

Paranoia was seeping in.

After about five minutes of walking in silence with only the wind swirling through the trees as background noise, Oliver decided it was too quiet.

“Ok the silence is just getting weird now,” He said while pulling out his phone. Country music began to play and my face shriveled in disgust. 

“Oliver, you know I hate country music! Turn this off.” 

“What do you mean, this beat is fire,” He smirked.

He turned the volume up increasingly louder every time I told him to turn it off. He held the phone above his head and with his lanky arms, it was nearly impossible to reach. I jumped up and started pulling on his arm, trying to lower it and retrieve my phone. Oliver’s face glowed as my phone lit up while it was in his hands. Not even one second later, the music’s volume started going up once again.

“Oliver, I swear to God, turn it down.”

His face turned ghostly pale and it wasn’t just from the light of my phone.

“Luna, I seriously didn’t do that.” The smirk that was once on his face slowly disappeared.

The volume got louder and louder and the music started to distort heavily. I could sense the genuine fear in him as I saw his grip on my phone begin to loosen. The phone dropped to the ground, bouncing and being covered in dirt.

“What was that? If you’re messing with me you’re so dead I swear. I just got that phone like three weeks ago!” I rolled my eyes and my thick eyebrows furled into an aggressive arch.

“Girl, I didn't do that! I wouldn’t have dropped your phone if I was messing with you and plus how do you expect me to be able to do that?”

“I don’t know..you love technology. If anyone would know how to do that, it would be you.” 

“Luna, there is no possible way I could’ve done that and you know it. Let’s just go home, I’m over this.”

He was right. I did know that there was no way for him to do that. I was trying to come up with any logical thing I could think of to avoid the thought that something or someone else could’ve caused that to happen and plus there was no way I was chickening out and going back home. Sneaking out had been on my bucket list for the longest time and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. 

“Come on, please. I’m sorry, I know you didn’t do it, let’s just go. We’re almost there anyway.

I looked at the directions on my phone and realized that the ETA had gone from 5 minutes to 10 minutes. Were we really almost there or was this a glitch? My phone must really be broken now, I thought to myself. A few minutes later we stumbled upon the shop and there was a flickering “OPEN” sign that was hung upon the red door at the front of the place. The little stone, cottage-looking shop lay on the side of a road I had never driven by before. 

“Thank God we’re finally here,” Oliver said, “What even is this place again?”

“It’s like a little witchy shop! They have crystals, tarot cards, vintage Ouija boards, a bunch of the stuff I like, you know?”

“Yeah, I definitely know. Why are they even open this late anyway? That's really weird.” Oliver seemed skeptical which wasn’t unusual for him.

“I guess the witches don’t sleep,” I laughed, “Come on let’s just go in.”

We walked up the little steps which were lined with candles which were somehow still lit and entered, pushing the heavy red door open. A little bell rang hanging from the door rang as we walked in and we were greeted by a woman with silky red hair that dangled past her behind. She was wearing a dark burgundy colored shirt and black pants, blending in with the decor of the shop. The woman looked at us and smiled for a little too long before saying, “Hello, what brings you two in here today?” 

“Oh, we’re just browsing. We just wanted to get out of the house for a little bit.” I said, grabbing Oliver’s arm to motion him over to the crystals. I looked through the different crystals, grazing them with my fingers as I walked. I felt myself bump into the woman who had been standing right behind me. I flinched, my heart beating rapidly.

“I’m so sorry Lu- Hun! I didn’t mean to scare you,” She gulped, “This crystal right here would be perfect for you. I can sense your anxiety and this one certainly helps with that.” She picked up a glittery, dark green crystal that I never before seen.

“Wow, this one’s super pretty. And I do struggle with severe anxiety, how did you know that?” I looked at her in disbelief.

“I’m great at reading energy! It’s what I do as a matter of fact. I do a lot of tarot readings, did either of you want one tonight?”

I didn’t even have to look at my brother to know that he’d be shaking his head. 

“You know normally I would,” I said timidly, “But I don’t really want one right now.”

“That’s ok!” She forced a smile. “Maybe you guys wanna look at some vintage Ouja boards? We just got a hold of some new ones and they’re pretty cool.”

My brother and I looked at each other and while I was interested in witchy things and he loved anything vintage, I wasn’t so sure about getting a vintage Ouija board. 

“Duh! Where do you have them?” My brother said eagerly.

“Oliver, we should actually be going soon since it’s getting really late.”

“Oh don’t worry,” said the mysterious woman, “It’ll only be a couple minutes.” She gestured for us to follow her and led us to the back of the store which was dimly lit compared to everywhere else. A life-sized doll was propped up in the corner against some old wooden boxes and I could practically feel it staring right through me. I shot Oliver a concerned look, my eyes darting between him and the front door. She grabbed a set of keys that rustled as she flipped through them, trying to find the right one. She pulled out a large black key and unlocked the storage room. I lingered behind, not knowing whether the creepy doll or the weird storage room would be safer. 

“Come on Luna!” Oliver headed through the door, waiting for me to follow. 

“I think I’ll just stay out here and look around a bit, you go ahead!” I walked through the store, looking around at all the posters that lined the walls. I stumbled upon more dolls that looked similar to the one I had seen by the back door except they weren’t up front before when we walked in earlier. My heart started to race once again and I reached for the crystal in my pocket, looking for anything to soothe the fear and anxiety I was feeling. D-doo! I heard a phone go off except it wasn’t mine this time. It was the woman’s. I headed over near the register where I had heard it go off and glanced at the screen curiously. The contact name was Cat. What the heck? I thought. I picked up the phone and read the text:

“Did they get there yet? Luna hasn’t answered my last couple texts. Is it because she’s dead already? She'll pay for what she’s done.”

My heart dropped and I slammed the phone down on the counter. It was then that I knew. Cat had found out about me kissing her boyfriend. I regretted it at that moment more than ever. I quickly ran to the storage door, realizing that it’s been more than the couple minutes the woman promised. I banged on the door. “OLIVER! ARE YOU OK?” 

“He’s fine darling. We’ll be out soon.” said the woman.

“No, we have to go now. Can you please open the door?” I jiggled the door handle, my attempts to open the door failing. Now I was really scared. Suddenly, I could hear a muffled scream and I knew it was Oliver. My heart sank. I used all the strength in my legs from the years of soccer I played and kicked the door repeatedly. Blood spilled under the door like spilled paint on a canvas. The adrenaline had now fully kicked in and with one last thrust of my leg, the door swung open. He laid there on the floor, no movement to be seen. A Ouija board had been set up on a table in the middle of the room which was completely surrounded by candles. I screamed, dropping to my knees. My tears ran faster than I ever could. I grabbed Oliver’s hand and continued to sob, feeling my weakness setting in. Despite being an emotional and physical wreck, I had to get myself together and get out of that place. I shot up like a rocket and did the first thing I could think to do. I grabbed the Ouija board and slammed her over the head as hard as I could. She collapsed, knocking over one of the many candles that surrounded us. 

“Shoot!” I panicked, trying my hardest to pick up my brother. He was a few years younger than me so I was eventually able to pick him up but it certainly wasn’t easy. I stumbled out of the room as fast as I could go. It was like all the strength had left my body had vanished. The woman collected herself and began running after us. I opened the door with the hand that I had free and felt a large resistance. The door flung shut. I have to find another way out, I thought. I set down my brother on a chair nearby and quickly tied my scarf around his stomach where his wound was bleeding heavily. “Okay fine, take me! Please, I mean it. I saw the text, I know Cat wants me dead. So please, for the love of God, take me! I’ll do anything.” I sobbed, pleading for her to leave my brother alone. She grabbed my wrist and dragged me into the storage room. Without even thinking, I quickly spun around wrapping my leg around hers and tripping her. I pushed over the table where the Ouija board had been sitting, leaving it to land directly on her. More candles toppled over, the flames sputtering and wavering like crazy. I slammed the door shut and blocked it with the doll that I had been avoiding. I hated even having to touch it but desperate times call for desperate measures. 

“L-luna?” I heard Oliver mutter.

“OH MY GOD! YOU’RE AWAKE!” I had never been more relieved. “Come on, we have to go right now!” The flames were now getting closer to us and I coughed uncontrollably because of all the smoke. I took off my sweatshirt and used it to open the door, the handle burning a hole in it. I grabbed onto Oliver and he hobbled out, leaning on me for support. We half-ran as fast as we could at the time for what seemed like an eternity. I could see our house in the distance and this moment, there was no time to be worried about the repercussions of my actions. I was in survival mode and all that mattered was getting inside the house. As we got closer, it became apparent to me that the crystal from the shop was still in my pocket and without hesitation, I chucked it as far as I could into the distance.

“I don’t want anything to do with that place ever again. I’m so sorry I let that happen to you Oliver. There’s no excuse, I just wanted to cross sneaking out off of my bucket list.”

“It’s okay. It doesn’t matter now, let’s just get back inside before anything else weird happens.”

We both walked inside without looking back and shut the door behind us. 

Green and glittery, the alluring crystal was no longer lying in some random bush, but was lying directly on the porch in front of our house, waiting for a moment of weakness.