The ouija board sat in a box that was long forgotten about, collecting dust and homing new bugs– roommates of the family living a floor below them, though they were unaware of each other. Michael, now father of two children and husband of a loving wife, had bought it his junior year of college as a funny Halloween decoration for his barren apartment; but one drunken night, his roommates thought to make this more than a decoration. In doing so, they summoned a spirit named Cordelia– she was quick-witted, and excited to be able to annoy some boys once more from beyond the grave.
But after the boys called it a night and figured out a way to put Cordelia back into the ouija board, she was forgotten about for a while. Obviously, the boys have reminisced on that one time they summoned a ghost in their apartment over a beer or mixed drink, but they all agreed upon never doing so again. But Cordelia was determined to be freed.
And Michael was determined to find his old pair of cleats for his son’s soccer game. It was midway through the fourth graders season and he’d managed to lose one of his cleats at one of his past games– and of course, he didn’t tell Michael until this very moment, an hour before his next game. Thankfully, his son was growing; this pair of cleats may be a little too big, but Michael was sure his son could bear it until they found the time to buy a brand new pair.
While rustling around in the attic, the dust started to shake off of the old ouija board. Cordelia was waking up, groggily, but she knew with just a few more shakes Michael would do just the trick in order to fully allow her freedom. Just one more push of a box and– she was finally free.
She greeted Micheal with a smile, and to her return she got a pair of wide eyes gazing at her. It all came back to him as his eyes traveled down to the ouija board, and he sighed. Cordelia began expressing the way she missed him and his friends, what she wished to do now that she was free: “this is such a nice house you’ve got, Michael,” she expressed, “I can’t wait to stay in it!”
Michael couldn’t find a way to say no to this ghost. It was his fault she was locked away all these years, shouldn’t he let her be free? But his children, his family, his home– how was he going to explain her to them?
So they made a pact– Michael would begin renovating the attic for Cordelia to live. Since she was a ghost, she could soar in and out the window whenever she felt necessary to roam the world, and she could roam the halls whenever she was sure no one was home or awake. Cordelia, though begrudgingly, abided to this pact; she wanted to live, after all.