It was a Dark and Stormy Night

I'm not allowed to play with Ouija boards.

Ivy says they're just a goofy board game and I tend to agree with her, but my mom says they can be used as doors, and it's best to leave those kinds of doors tightly shut.
Avalanche says my mom is right... Except for the tightly shut part. She's been bugging me to play with one with her for a while now, but since my mom hates them, I've always said no.

Late yesterday afternoon, just as it was starting to rain, Avalanche popped up unexpectedly and asked if she could spend the night since we didn't have school today (some kind of all day teacher's meeting... I love those!). As she was politely talking to my mom and asking for permission for an unexpected sleepover, I noticed her green eyes were practically glittering with mischief, but Mom didn't seem to notice. She just said it was ok if Avalanche stayed over, and then she went to bed early.
As soon as her door closed behind her, Avalanche unzipped her backpack and hauled out her prized, battered Ouija board, a pack of pink birthday candles, incense, and a cheap Bic lighter.

"Look what I brought!" she exclaimed happily, holding it out to me. "Now we can really have some fun!"

I looked uneasily at my mom's door... the light was off, and she'd had a bad headache. I knew she wouldn't be coming out to catch us in the act, but it seemed wrong to disobey her. I just didn't see what all the fuss was about; it was just a goofy game! She'd never know...

Finally, I shrugged and took the game. Curiosity over what the big deal was had won.
"We can set it up on my desk," I suggested. "But Mom will smell the incense, so we shouldn't use that, or the candles. We'll be in huge trouble if she finds out we lit things on fire." I dug around in the hall closet and found an old camp lantern with dying batteries to use instead.
"Who are you trying to contact?"

Avalanche shook her head, making her glossy black curls bounce on her shoulders. "I don't care. Anyone, really. You don't really get to choose, you just ask the board if you have a spirit present and then you ask it stuff you want to know. The spirit you get could be anyone. I talked to a guy who said he was Grover Cleveland last week.
"Hey, who is she?" Avalanche suddenly pointed to the top of the stack of papers and old photographs I was busy clearing off my desk to make room for the game board; I had spend the weekend working on a family genealogy project for my history class and had all kinds of old family photos scattered around.

I looked at the photo Avalanche had picked out. It was an old cabinet card of a girl about our age. She was wearing clothes that must have been stylish for the time, but were horrbily old fashioned to me. The name 'Maude' had been scribbled on the back in pencil, but there was no date or anything else to identify her.
"She'd be a good person to ask the board about, I guess. I don't know anything about her. My family thought she was my great-great grandmother's sister, but her name wasn't Maude, so we have no idea who she is. I guess we could ask about her family."
I switched on the camp lantern, and we turned off the lights in my bedroom. Immediatly, I felt a little creeped out.

Avalanche placed the planchette on the board, and with my fingers trembling a little, I put my fingers on it next to hers.
Since she had done this before, she was the one who asked the questions. She asked if there was a spirit present, and the board immediately told us there was. I was ready to stop right then, but Avalanche kept asking stuff. Next, she wanted to know if there was more than one, and when the board said there was, she asked "how many are there?"
I knew it was just Avalanche moving the little pointer, but I nearly jumped out of my skin when the planchette pointed at the number 7.
Avalanche didn't say anything, but the pointer began to move again.
This time, it spelled out B-E-H-I-N-D Y-O-U

I jerked around, but didn't see anyone there.

"Avalanche, come on... this is getting crazy! Let's put it up and watch a movie or something," I said nervously, but Avalanche just shook her head.
"Who is Maude?" She asked the board, but to my relief the planchette responded by moving to the ''Good-Bye' space on the board.

But my relief was short lived as the batteries in the latern gave out and the room was pitched into complete darkness.

Hello," came a quiet voice from the darkness behind us.

"I'm Maude."