When you play Bloody Mary as a child, you don't really believe a demon will be coming out of the mirror for you. If you did, I seriously doubt you'd be playing. And when "light as a feather, stiff as a board" actually works and you toss your best friend up into the ceiling fan, you're pretty fucking surprised.

One night Kate and I decided to record EVP's at our new apartment, just for shits and giggles. I had a Pressman tape recorder and a box fan for white noise, so we set the two up and went out for tator tots and cherry limeades.

When we got home the fan had fallen over. I picked it up, and picked up the tape recorder, but didn't manage to listen to it just then. The phone rang, Kate's milkshake didn't agree with her, Lost came on. I left it sitting on a speaker box for a couple of days.

You know how roommates are. You have your own things going on. Sometimes you only pass each other on the way in and out. Sometimes not even that. I didn't see Kate Monday or Tuesday, so I decided to listen to the tape without her.

Static, static, static.... I was barely paying attention when I heard Kate say,

        "Hannah? Are you home?"

I turned, but she wasn't in the doorway.

        "Did the power go out or something? It's so -"

              click

Her voice cut out abruptly as the tape ran out.

I called her cell phone, and replied to her hello with, "Oh thank God."

"What?"

"Have you listened to this tape yet? It seriously sounds like your voice on here. I'm kind of freaked out."

"Weird. I'll listen to it tonight."

She got home around 8, and I pretty much cornered her with the tape. She listened and her mouth dropped open when the cassette started calling my name.

"Is that you?"

"No, I don't know. That's fucking weird. I don't remember saying anything like that."

What could we do in a situation like that? Call Ghostbusters? We decided to do nothing. We must have incompletely recorded over something else. We must have mixed something up.

But Thursday when I got home from work, the clocks were blinking. I couldn't get Kate on the phone. I started to believe a demon was going to come out of the mirror.

"Hannah? Are you home?"

I jumped up and turned around so quickly I knocked over our box fan.

"Did the power go out or something? It's so hot in here."

"I cannot believe you just said that. I cannot believe you would say that."

Kate and I are looking for a new apartment. The electricity here is unreliable.