By: Kimberly Trice
We were having a sleepover at my house Halloween night. My friends and decided to make it a horror film, scary story, junk food kind of night. By midnight, we didn’t know what else to do and we didn’t want to fall asleep quite yet. Hannah had an interesting idea.
“We should try the Bloody Mary thing,” Hannah suggested.
Danielle, who was sitting crossed-legged on my bed, asked “Why would we want to do that.” Brittany, who was laying on the floor of my bedroom said “Come on, Danielle. It’ll be fun! You stand in front of the bathroom mirror with a lighted candle and say the witch’s name three times. Then her ghost appears, looking just the way she did when she died; all horrible and bloody with scars all over her face!”
“She sounds gorgeous. Just why, exactly, do you think I would want to see the ghost of Bloody Mary?” Danielle asked skeptically.
“Why not?” I said as I was putting clothes away. “I’ve always wanted to see a ghost! It could be fun.“Ooo, that sounds like fun! Disfigurement, death or entrapment. What a fabulous way to spend eternity,” Danielle said sarcastically. “Where do I sign up?”
“It’s just a story told to scare little kids. Bloody Mary isn’t real,” I continued to get Danielle on board.
“I’ve heard it’s real,” Brittany stated. “My friend Katie tried it once and saw the ghost in the mirror. Bloody Mary told Kate that when she grows up she is going to become a research doctor who cures cancer and saves lots of live and wins a Nobel Prize.”
“There’s only one way to know for sure,” said Hannah. “Come on! Let’s try it.”
I ran to the supply closet to get a candle and matches, and all of us, even Danielle rushed to the downstairs bathroom which has no windows so it would be perfect because we needed it to be pitch black.
Once the candle was lit, Hannah turned off all the bathroom lights. As we stood before the bathroom mirror, I told everyone the story of Bloody Mary just to refresh memories.
I went on, “Bloody Mary was the name of an evil witch that lived back in Colonial times. The witch used her black arts to make her young again by killing a bunch of young girls in her village. When the villagers discovered Bloody Mary was behind the murders, they burned her at the stake. Bloody Mary used mirrors to help her locate and enchant her victims, and she cursed all mirrors when the villagers executed her, so that anyone chanting her name three times would be pulled into the mirror with her to spend eternity in the flames!”
The candle in Danielle’s hand flickered a moment and then steadied as the five of us chanted Bloody Mary’s name 3 times in front of the bathroom mirror.
The five of us waited tensely as we gazed without blinking at our faces that reflected in the glass. I strained my eyes, trying to see through the mirror into some other realm that I both dreaded and hoped might be there.
Finally, Danielle said: “Nothing’s happening. Let’s just get out of here.”
She reached for the doorknob and turned it. The door wouldn’t open. After all, there was the possibility that it might not be just a scary story told to frighten little kids.
I rushed to the door, pushed Danielle aside, and unlocked it. But when I tried the knob, the door still wouldn’t open almost as if someone was holding it shut.
Suddenly, Danielle screamed and pointed at the mirror. I whirled away from the locked door and saw a glowing white figure staring at us from the mirror. Her face was twisted with malice and flames seemed to flicker around her. In one hand she held a bloody knife! Could this be Bloody Mary or were our eyes playing tricks on us?
All of a sudden, the figure lunged forward, her knife-hand coming straight out of the mirror and striking Danielle in the face. Long scratches appeared on Danielle’s cheeks and she staggered backwards with a gasp of pain; hands coming up to protect her face. A wave of heat and anger poured out of the mirror in a blast that blew us against the wall. My forehead struck the wall and I fell senseless to the floor.
I woke in darkness a few moments later and groped desperately for the light switch. When I turned it on, I found Hannah unconscious beside me and Danielle blacked-out beside the bathroom sink with deep scratches all over her arms and legs and face.
Brittany was huddled sobbing behind the toilet. I pulled her out, and gasped when I saw she was also covered in scratches. She must have been standing too close to the mirror.
My eyes widened suddenly when I realized there were only four of us crouching on the bathroom floor.
I felt a burning sensation on my arm. I looked down and carved in my arm were the words: “I AM REAL”. I jumped up and ran to the door. It opened immediately.
We cleaned up the blood on Hannah, Danielle and on my arm then the four of us huddled in my room for the rest of the night; too scared to sleep. We’ve had other sleepovers since that night, but my friends and I never tried to contact Bloody Mary again.
