Ashes

28yr old Ashes and her boyfriend Jake are going to an outside campsite party. They arrive in a blue Jetta and park in front of their friend Quinn's house. The day is warm, sunny, and perfect for a party in the woods.

The cabin is mahogany with white trims. The campground is packed with parked cars as Ashes and Jake start walking down towards the cabin. As they approach the cabin to the campsite, Ashes notices how quiet it is despite the blasting of music and the crowd of people that were scattered all over the back of the cabin.

Eerie music starts to play over the upbeat pop music in the background. Jake's voice starts to fade. Ashes blinks and sees a little boy in blue pajamas, skipping past her in slow motion, with giggling sounds of children in the background. The little boy slowly turns and stares at Ashes as he walks towards a door. When he opens the door, this multicolored fog can be seen and the little boy is holding the doorknob. A few seconds later a hand comes out of the fog and grabs the little boy. The door slams behind and fades into the wooded trees, just as Jake is trying to get her attention.

"Ashes? Ashes? Are you listening to me?" Jake says stopping her. Ashes nervously, smiles as she tries to get the image of the little girl out of her mind. "Uh yes, I am listening to you" She pushes her hair behind her ear.

Not really believing her, Jake says "Really? What was I saying?" Ashes shyly looks at him, giving Jake the puppy dog eyes he cannot resist, and smiling says "Thaaaaaaat – you love me?"

Jake smirks and says "Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.....you lucky I love you." He lovingly puts his hand over her shoulder, and they continue walking towards the crowd of people.

As they get close, they here from the distance, "OMG you guys came!!" Alicia says. Dylan, who was next to Alicia, gives a hand greeting to Jake and says "I am glad that you came, bro!

Turning to Ashes, He says staring into Ashes's eyes "Good to see you're doing better." Ashes nods and says "Thanks Dylan"

Alicia turns, while waving them over, and yells " Quinnnnnnn, Ashes and Jake are here!!"

Quinn and John look up from the freezer they were adding drinks to and Quinn runs towards them. "You guys made it! I hope you brought your dancing shoes and your game brain. We are playing card and dancing games later. "

John grabs Jake's hand and gives him a shoulder hug while saying "Bro! So good to see you!" "Hey Ashes, good to see you also" John says as he stares at her eyes. Ashes nods and says "Thanks John, good to see you also."

Quinn then takes Ashes's arm and as they walk towards the cabin, says to her "Are you ok?" "How are you feeling?"

Quinn has always been Ashes's best friend. Even when Ashes was away. Although Ashes looked better, she sometimes did not feel it and apparently Quinn sense that. As they enter the cabin towards the kitchen, Ashes says "I am ok. A lot better than I was a few years ago."

"Are you sure?" Quinn says as she starts taking out more hamburgers and hotdogs to put on the grill. "You know you can talk to me whenever." She continues as she puts on hand on Ashes's shoulder and looks at her eyes.

Ashes knows that Quinn is being genuine, but she does not feel comfortable telling her how it went. So, Ashes smiles and says "Really Quinny, I am fine. Let me help you with that."

Back at the cabin, everyone has arrived, everyone has eaten and were now enjoying drinks. Some of the group decided to stay outside and play beer pong, while Ashes, Jake, Quinn, Alicia, John, and Dylan went inside.

Inside the group decided to play with the Ouiji board. In groups of 3, Ashes, Jake and Quinn were first. They all start putting their hands on the board.

Jack asks the first question "Is anyone here with us now?" Their hands start moving across the board spelling out the answer. Y.........E........S. They all look at Jack and say "Cut it out Jack." "IT'S not me!" Jake says with a surprised look on his face.

"Whatever" Quinn decides to ask the next question. "What is your name?" Their hands start moving across the board again. J........U........L.........I........E. Everyone gasps and let go of the Ouija board. "Told you it wasn't me!" Jake says.

They all look at each other and then at Ashes. Ashes is visibly distraught, but it was starting to make sense. Ashes believed Julie was here and had helped her to get her abilities. Well at least her visions. She still could not see ghosts she was sure, cause otherwise she would have been seeing Julie. They decide to take a break for now. In that same moment, everyone started coming back inside seeking shelter from the rain that started falling.

In the distance you could hear the thunder and then lightning every few minutes. During the quiet times, you could hear a night owl, howling in the night.

Ashes was taking a break in the bedroom, when she heard the owl by the window. "Julie are you here?" She asked. Ashes had not seen ghosts or predicted the future since Julie died and yet earlier when she got here with Jake, she saw the little girl skipping in front of the house.

Ashes knew that Julie's death was the reason for her abilities to disappear. She starts crying. "Julie if you are here please give me a sign." Thunder and lightning flash and in that instant, Julie appears briefly. "Can you see me?" Ashes does not appear to see Julie yet. She looks up and the vision of Rez comes flashing before her eyes.

As the rain pitter-pattered on the window of her basement studio, Rez continued practicing her dance moves with upbeat music in the background. Pit, pat, pit, pat, pit, pat............. BOOOM! Suddenly loud thunder was heard over her music, and the flash of lightning appeared at her window. Rez turned off her music and walked up to the small rectangular window that the moon was shining thru. She could see the brightness of it as well as the drops of rain that fell. It looked eerie to her today, something about it felt uneasy. A shadow was seen flashing past the moon so fast that Rez blinked thinking she had something in her eye.

Rez turned and looked around her basement studio, she could see her reflection from the wall mirror she had added. She wanted it to look like the dance studio she would pass by every morning on her way to school years ago. Suddenly, Rez felt uneasy. Rez decided to call it a night.

She walked towards the flight of stairs across the room, to turn the light switch that was located behind it. She walked up the flight of stairs and pushed the door open at the top. She turned to close the door behind her.

She walked down the hallway to check on the rest of her house. Pit, pat, pit, pat, pit, pat, pit.......... BOOM! Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, thump, thump, thump. Again, there was thunder and flash of lightning with heavy gusts of wind this time.

As she walked towards her living room, she saw what was making the thumping sound. One of her windows had been left open, making the blinds fly left and right against the wall.

Rez ran to the window and started to close it, but as she did someone small grabbed her waist and dragged her away from the window yelling "Mommy, mommy read me the story again"

Rez picked up her 4yr old son James in the blue pajamas and said "Ok let's go honey"

Ashes is sure that the night owl howling was the reason for her vision and believed that Julie was with her. The night owl howled one more time and in that moment, just for a brief moment, she saw Julie who was asking "Can you see me?"

"Yes! I can see you! I'm so glad. I knew that you were still with me" Ashes said. "I'll always be with you" Julie said. Just as the night owl was seen flying away.