The Silver Coin is a spooky tale about a group of girls who decide to play with a Japanese version of a ouija board, called Kokkuri-san. They take precautions to protect themselves, but the girls find out that dabbling in the occult can be dangerous.

When I was in school, my best friend Jessica was really into scary stories, ghosts and urban legends. She seemed to know every creepy tale there was and she said she read all about them on a scary website she always went to. 

At the time, we all loved listening to the various creepy stories and urban legends she told us. Through her, all of my friends heard about “The Slit-Mouth Woman”, “Kashima Reiko” and other weird Japanese legends. Some of them really terrified me. 

One day, Jessica invited myself and two of our friends, Margaret and Sophie, to a sleepover at her house. That evening, after school, we all followed Jessica home and went up to her bedroom. 

She started talking about a new Japanese legend she had read about and begged us to do a ouija board with her. I told her I didn’t want to mess around with the occult, but she said that it wasn’t an actual ouija board, but a Japanese version of the game she had seen on the scary website. It was called Kokkuri-san. 

Because it was Japanese and didn’t involve summoning demons, I guess I thought it would be OKOK. 

“But just to be safe, we should play with a silver coin,” said Sophie. 

“OK, but why?” asked Jessica. 

“I heard that if you play a ouija board with a silver coin, it protects you against being possessed,” she replied. 

Luckily, Jessica’s mother had a coin collection, so she took one of the silver coins out of its case and brought it up to the bedroom. 

We sat in a circle on her bedroom floor while Jessica drew the board, putting letters and numbers on it. When she was finished, she placed a coin in the middle of the board, on a weird squiggly red shape she had drawn, and we started to play Kokkuri-san. 

We each put a finger on the silver coin and Jessica called out “Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, please come and play with us!” 

The rest of us had never read anything about it, so we really didn’t know what we were doing. When the coin suddenly started to move, we were all shocked. 

After a while, we were having a lot of fun and spent some time asking the spirit as many questions as we could come up with. 

“Who does Jared like? Me or Jessica?” I asked excitedly. The coin quickly slid across the board and spelled out my name. “I knew it!”, I squealed with delight. Jessica wasn’t so happy. 

We were all grinning stupidly at each other. It was like we had found a new playmate. However, as we asked the spirit more and more questions, I noticed something that seemed a little strange. 

Whenever we asked the spirit a question, instead of answering YES or NO, it would always spell out “OK”. 

Because of this, it was a bit difficult to figure out what the spirit’s real answer was. As we continued playing, it grew dark outside and we eventually ran out of questions to ask. 

We decided to call it a day and go home. Jessica said it was important to end the game properly, or something bad could happen. 

“Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, please go back to the other world,” she called out. 

The coin moved over to “O” and then “K”. 

“That’s not right,” said jessica in a worried voice. “It’s supposed to go to YES”. 

“Ask it again,” I suggested. 

““Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, please go back to the other world,” Jessica demanded. 

Again, the spirit spelled out “OK”. 

“It’s supposed to go to YES and then stop on the red torii gate,” hissed Jessica. “But it’s not doing it.” 

We all tried to tell the spirit to return to the other world, but it was no good. It just kept spelling out “OK”. 

“Did you go back home?” asked Jessica. 

“OK.” 

“Did you really go back home?” she demanded. 

“OK.” 

“Please go away,” she shouted. 

“OK.” 

No matter what we said, it just wouldn’t leave. The movement between the two letters gradually got faster and faster and eventually the silver coin was flying back and forth between the two letters at a dizzying speed. It was all we could do, just to keep our fingers on the coin. 

We were all terrified. It was as if the spirit was out of control, taking over the board and the coin and there was nothing any of us could do. We sat there watching in horror as the silver coin slid back and forth again and again. 

“OKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOK…” 

All four of us started to freak out. Margaret and Sophie began crying, and Jessica was wide-eyed and had tears in her eyes. My heart was pounding so fast I thought it was going to leap out of my body. 

“I can’t take this anymore”, I cried. We all looked at Jessica. 

“Alright!” she shouted, taking control of the situation. “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re all going to take our fingers off the coin at the same time.” 

We all immediately agreed. 

“Alright, on the count of three…” she said. “One… Two… Three!” 

All of the girls lifted their fingers off the coin at the same time. 

All, that is, except me. 

I don’t know why, but for some reason it was as if my finger was stuck to the silver coin. I just couldn’t let go. The coin continued sliding back and forth at dizzying speeds. I was so terrified I couldn’t even think. 

I burst into tears and started screaming, “What’s happening? Help me!” over and over again. 

It was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. Even today, I’m not sure I fully recOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOK…