Ouija Warning!

Ouija Board

In the month of October in the year 1968 three young soldiers, John, Harry and Dave were serving in 39 Missile Regiment of Artillery with the British Army in Germany. Late one Friday night, in the barrack block, they decided to play with a Ouija board. The Ouija board is a wooden board with the letters of the alphabet, numbers 1 to 10 and the words Yes and No on it. The idea of this game is to try and contact spirits or ghosts who are said to communicate through the Ouija board by spelling out messages through a glass that moves to the letters. The three soldiers put their fingers on the upturned glass and asked the age old question ‘Is there anybody there?’ The answer and the messages came, but not the ones that the three soldiers expected.

Harry, whose room the three soldiers were using, soon got fed up with the Ouija board game. He thought the other two, John and Dave, were pushing the glass around the board and accused them of cheating. After a while he got changed and went to bed telling the others to get out. Harry even laughed at the idea that any spook was using the Ouija board to communicate. Then the glass began to move and spelt out this frightening message ‘He will not laugh long, soon he will be sorry’. John told Harry, who just laughed even louder. ‘Get out of my room and let me sleep’ he said. It was long past midnight so John and Dave put the Ouija board away and went to their own rooms.

Dempsey Barracks

The next morning, being Saturday, John was trying to sleep in when he heard someone calling his name. It was just 7 a.m. when the angry voice of Harry woke him up. Harry insisted that someone had damaged his room. ‘You better come and see the mess my room’s in’ he said. John reluctantly got out of bed and followed Harry down the cold tiled corridor to his room in the old barrack block. Inside Harry pointed to the scene of destruction, it was as though a bomb had hit the place. Harry’s bed was upside down, his large metal locker was bent in the middle and all the contents scattered about the room. ‘Who did this?’ asked John, but Harry had no idea. ‘It started just after you left me last night’ he said ‘I heard a weird laugh and then something began smashing my room to bits’. Harry had hidden under his blankets until dawn had broken.

In fear Harry refused to return to his room and moved out into another. But the terror did not end there. That very night John was woken at 2 a.m. by the most horrible loud clattering and banging. It sounded as though someone were dragging a huge metal locker over the corrugated tiled floor of the corridor. When John opened the door of his room to see what on earth was going on the noise stopped. Looking out into the dark corridor John saw only the silent shadows of night, nothing and no one moved. The really strange thing about the awful noise was that John’s room mates had not heard a thing. Then the next night, Sunday night, it happened again.

It was pitch black in the barrack room and John was fast asleep. Suddenly an incredible booming noise woke him. It was 2 a.m. and John was frightened, the whole building seemed to be shaking from top to bottom. Jumping out of bed John ran over to the door and threw it open, though he dreaded what he might see. Then, just like the night before, the noise stopped. As John peered down the long corridor of the barrack block he saw the face of his friend Dave looking out from his room.

Dave walked down the shadowy dark corridor to John and together they set out to discover where the noise was coming from. As they came close to Harry’s old room, now empty, they both felt a terrible cold surround them. Then, from inside the closed door, came a frightful hollow laugh. They turned and ran.

The next morning was Monday and John went to see the Sergeant Major in charge of the barrack block. He told this stern soldier exactly what had been happening and all about their silly games with the Ouija board on the Friday night. The Sergeant Major at once ordered that Harry’s old room be cleared completely and locked up. ‘You do know this old barrack block used to be a prison during the last war’ the Sergeant Major said. Then he told John something that really scared him, ‘those rooms you sleep in now were once cells holding evil criminals, perhaps the ghost of one of them returned through your stupid Ouija board’.

Reader, believe me Ouija boards are very dangerous and not to be played with. I know that for certain, you see I was that soldier.

Soldier Boy John aged 18 Years.