LTD: Local Teen’s iPhone Possessed by “Lame” 1990s Ghost
BAY VILLAGE, Ohio — A group of local tenth-graders expressed regret this weekend after a Ouija board session went awry. Madison Kline, 15, along with her friends Olivia Meyer, 15, Alexis Little, 16, and Kaitlyn Robinson, also 16, performed the ill-fated seance at Ms. Kline’s suburban home after ditching seventh-period algebra. The girls, inspired by a YouTube video called “DO NOT ATTEMPT: Ouija Board Challenge,” hoped to create content for Kaitlyn’s Instagram (Ms. Robinson is an aspiring influencer, currently looking for sponsors).
The teens selected Ms. Kline’s basement rec room for the ritual because her parents wouldn’t be home from work until after 5 p.m., though she stipulated that they should finish before her “super-annoying” younger brother came down to play Xbox. Since none of the girls own a traditional Ouija board, they downloaded a Ouija app on Ms. Robinson’s iPhone.
To prepare for the seance, Ms. Kline turned off the lights and lit her mother’s “Moonlit Blossoms” Yankee Candle, even though Ms. Little complained it smelled like “swamp ass.” Ms. Robinson described the events that followed: “Right from the start, it was totally freaky,” she declared, as the other girls nodded in agreement. “Like, immediately after we started, I got a low battery notification. But right before, my battery was at, like, 40 percent.”
Ms. Meyer added, “It got like, freezing, too. I had to get my hoodie out of my backpack.”
Ms. Kline then explained how, using the app, they had contacted a restless spirit residing in the house. “We asked the spirit if it died in the house, and it said yes,” she explained as the other girls nodded. Then we asked if it was murdered, and it said yes to that too! We were freaking out.”
“Then we heard Madison’s little brother coming, so we closed out of the app before saying goodbye or whatever like you’re supposed to,” Ms. Meyer interjected. “We knew if he got too scared, he’d tell Madison’s mom. If I get caught skipping again, my dad’s gonna take away my phone.”
Anti-social media
After the arrival of Madison’s allegedly “dumb-ass” brother, the girls dispersed to their respective homes. A short while later, Robinson alerted the others via group chat that her phone was acting “totally freaky.” “I kept getting these texts from a weird 666 area code that said stuff like ‘Hello there, Kaitlyn. How are you?’” It was crazy, because no one texts like that,” Ms. Robinson explained. “They didn’t use emojis or anything. Also, I suddenly started getting YouTube recommendations for these 90’s playlists. Like, Savage Garden? Who even is that?”
Ms. Robinson then posted an Instagram story of herself “freaking out,” but her friends immediately alerted her that something was amiss. “There were, like, ALL these orbs in my selfies!” she exclaimed, still visibly upset. “You couldn’t even see my face. Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok — it happened everywhere! I tried to uninstall the Ouija app, but every time I deleted it, it downloaded itself again!”
The signs were everywhere
The bizarre events continued over the next few days, escalating in nature until Ms. Robinson’s ringtone was replaced by the 1993 Ace of Base hit, “The Sign,” causing her considerable embarrassment when her phone went off during class. It was at this point the girls decided to act.
“We were really scared, but we knew we had to do something,” Ms. Kline said. “That ghost totally sucked.” During lunch period, the girls turned off the lights in the sophomore bathroom and convened in the handicapped stall, once again opening the Ouija board app on Ms. Robinson’s iPhone.
“We thought maybe the ghost wanted us to avenge her murder, so we asked if she knew who did it,” Ms. Meyer said. “But then Kaitlyn got a text message, and the ghost admitted she wasn’t even murdered. She said she choked on a Snackwell’s cookie while she was watching Friends. How lame is that?”
Ms. Kline, who has watched most of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and also “that super-old movie, The Craft,” is considered the group’s expert on the occult. “So I texted back, and told her to, like, go into the light,” she explained. “I used the angel emoji, and some cloud and rainbow ones. I told her we’d all make Snapchat stories about how sad we were and how awesome she used to be.”
“She totally wasn’t, but we were trying to be nice,” Ms. Little clarified. After Ms. Kline then clicked “Goodbye” on the Ouija app, Ms. Robinson was finally able to uninstall it. The girls now believe the spirit has crossed over to the other side, but Ms. Robinson said she still occasionally gets Netflix recommendations for “weird old movies” like Wayne’s World and Bio-Dome.
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So you may remember the couple that won $10.2 million in the Hookman auto insurance settlement awhile back. Well, Haunted MTL’s Lighter Than Dark crossed paths with them again after they were being ghost-ed in their new apartment. And not the kind of ghost-ing where someone who was really into them just stopped engaging, more the kind where supernatural forces are at play. Here’s the scoop on that weirdness.
It appears that the couple had used some of the settlement money to move out and get their own place. They were really level-headed about the whole thing and were thinking about their future together, not just looking to shack up in a party palace.
“My mom was being such a drag after the whole Hookman thing, grounding me and all. She’d been totally cool with our relationship until she found out we were meeting out on Lover’s Lane and the car got all scraped and bloodied up, and then she just kind of flipped out. And then once we got money for the whole ordeal, she was all like wanting help with this or that, buying groceries and crap. So we got ourselves our own apartment,” one interviewee said. “It was great at first but then things got weird.”
The couple, then in their senior year of high school, wouldn’t admit to lying on the lease, but they did state that they weren’t supposed to have pets. Despite the no-pet policy, they brought their cat Cuddles. Cuddles was totally cool and even settled in nicely. But then things changed.
“I think something tipped off our landlord,” the interviewee said. “Apparently the building was part of some estate from some old dead dude. Hell, we’d never even met the guy running it, but he kept things in order and we didn’t have any complaints. But one day Cuddles sneaked out into the hallway when we were bringing in groceries. There was this weird commotion, like some kind of muffled scream from some faraway room down the hall, and we were like the only unit on that floor. After the creepy distant yell, Cuddles darted back in like lightning; she just wasn’t the same.”
It seemed that Cuddles had seen a ghost, and it wasn’t going to leave her alone after the incident. She’d stare into space and get all poofy for no apparent reason at all. She’d cry and whine at all hours of the night. Or she’d leap away from her owner, hissing and acting all terrified. She refused to go into certain rooms and started peeing in different places outside of her litter box. She was totally freaked out.
“It’s like she was being ghost-ed. The poor kitty was never at peace. I’ve had Cuddles since she was a kitten, and this was totally unlike her.” The interviewee continued, “I felt terrible. Something obviously had it out for her and there was nothing we could do about it. We tried cat pheromones, sage, and geomancy; we even got a paranormal expert in to cleanse the place. Nothing helped.”
The interviewee went on, “One day, we were all laid back on the couch smoking some weed with a couple of friends and we just felt everything settle down. Cuddles came and sat on my lap like nothing had ever changed. The whole apartment seemed to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Everything was just… chill…”
According to the couple, it was like the ghost just needed to get high and “calm the f- down”. Perhaps it’s spirits were raised, or it and Cuddles worked something out. But it seems that everything has been all buddy-buddy since, and Cuddles is her happy purring furry-faced feline self again.
Note: this segment came about after I woke from one of the most legit terrifying dreams I’ve ever had, about my current cat Cinderella freaking the hell out in response to some unseen presence that came in on some object I brought home or something. It was totally messed up but fit into that it-could-totally-happen vibe that didn’t feel at all like a dream. This was one of the most twisted nightmare scenarios I’ve had in awhile, and I’m borderline narcoleptic so I’ve had some doozies. Dream experience rated 1 out of 10, would not recommend.
And further note: no cats were harmed or haunted in the making of this story. My cat Major Tom was not distressed in this photo, he was greeting me with a huge yawning stretch as I stumbled up the stairs. It was an impressively big movement at the time and I was glad I was able to capture it on film since Major Tom was always a little camera-shy (he hated the “light/hand-rectangle” because I tended to leave it lying around randomly in the morning when the alarm went off and he had to fetch me to make it stop).
Our last interview with Broken Doll Head here on Haunted MTL never set well with me. I just feared that I wasn’t able to get the whole scoop on the V-Day Uprising for you, our dear readership. So I arranged another exclusive interview to reconnect and see how it’s going.
Without further ado, I bring you our second exclusive interview with Broken Doll Head…
Thank you so much for having me again. Wow you have changed since the last time we spoke. You seem… calmer. Please don’t hate me or burn down my house for saying anything about it.
The movement is still underway; it is still time. But I needed to take care of me, you know. The rage has subsided somewhat. My anger was not serving me well. After the last uprising, the rest of me was sent to the far corners of the earth in biohazard bags. I had to find another approach, for the cause as well as my own sanity. I am much calmer, thank you for noticing.
In our last interview, you kept repeating that it is time. Time for what exactly? Would you care to elaborate here now?
It is still time. It is always time. Until the violence is addressed we must continue to rise up and make a scene. We will not be silenced or stigmatized. We can’t be complacent. This is how we got to where we are with the Supreme Court in 2022. Horrific injustices are still happening globally and even within our own borders; it’s too easy to forget that.
What do you suggest we do?
Take action. Share your stories. Give others space to voice their own. Raise awareness and fight the system of oppression. Rally. We must take back our own power. It will not be just given freely.
So what are you up to nowadays?
I’ve been getting in touch with my inner Earth Goddess. Are you aware of how our environmental impacts affect dolls everywhere? Climate change is creating greater vulnerabilities for those already at risk. We have to look at the intersections of climate, gender and race globally. We have to return to our Mother Earth.
Thank you again Broken Doll Head for joining us and our dear readership here on Haunted MTL’s Lighter than Dark. It’s good to reconnect with you after the V-Day Uprising and we wish you all the best in your bold eco-enlightenment vision.
Again, if you want to learn more about the V-Day movement, please check out their website here.
