The building surrounding them shook, apparently in agreement with what Dhanesh had said.
“So why is this guy still hanging around here?” Josie asked. “Is he trying to make our lives a living hell for screwing his soul over?”
One of the pointers that was on the floor flew up in the air and came crashing down on the board, landing smack dab on the “No”. It was followed in rapid succession by one, two, three, and then four others, all of them landing in a dull thud on top of the first one.
“I think our spirit is trying to make a point,” Dhanesh said. “It’s not our living hell he’s worried about. It’s his.”
Just then, the stack of pointers shifter to the “Yes”.
“Man,” Josie said. “I knew I should have went to college. These kind of things doesn’t happen to educated folks.”
“Anyway,” Steve interrupted. “What does hell and McDonald’s have to do with each other. Besides the obvious stuff.”
Dhanesh sighed and then explained. “Okay, first off, Hinduism is based on the concept of perpetual reincarnation, and Hindu hell is just a point in the cycle where souls burn off their evil before proceeding to the next incarnation. There are a whole bunch of levels to this hell, each realm corresponding to a different sin, and this is where the spirit rids itself of its bad karma. In the case of our spirit friend here, he’d be punished in hell for breaking with Ahimsa.”
“Only he’s not in hell, he’s in McDonald’s,” Josie interrupted. “Close, but no cigar.” She quickly added, “I suppose he’s trying to avoid hell by staying here instead. After all, he sinned only by mistake – and our mistake at that.” The pointers bounced and then flew across the room, embedding themselves in the wall across from where they were sitting. “Um, well, that’s getting old really quick. In any case, what does he want with us?”
“To come back.” The answer was spoken by Steve, though it didn’t exactly seem like it was coming from him. His voice sounded like it was raked over hot coals. Dhanesh and Josie stared up at him. They didn’t like what they saw. Steve looked like himself, though with one obvious difference – his eyes were now a burning, molten red.
“Uh oh,” Josie said, her mouth going slack and here eyes growing wide. “I think Steve’s been, um, possessed.”
With a wicked grin, the body of Steve lifted one of the Ouija boards and pointed to the word “Yes”.
“B...but, you can’t have Steve’s life. Miserable though it may be, he’s still living it,” Dhanesh stammered.
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