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Bloody Mary by Bella*Luna

Kim walked into the bathroom, hesitant but determined. She closed the shutters to the windows and closed the curtains above. She shut the door of the bathroom and locked it. Taking a last look around, she flipped the light switch to off and waited anxiously for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She moved her hand along the wall until she felt the raided edge of the mirror. She walked in front of it and stared into the dare abyss before her.

Kim closed her eyes and listened for the old grandfather clock in the hallway. Second later the unmistakable gong of the clock ringing midnight resounded throughout the house, traveling down the hallway, moving through the bathroom door and hitting Kim’s ears, signaling her to say the magic words. She braced herself on the sink and, on her tiptoes, cried out to the mirror.

“Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary!”

After about a minute of nothing happening, disappointed and relieved at the same time, Kim turned from the mirror to the light switch and flipped it on. She opened the shutters and the curtain then unlocked and opened the door. With one last glance at the room she flipped the light back to off and turned to leave, not noticing the yellow light shining on her shoulder momentarily as she moved into the darkness of the hallway.

“Well? What happened?” Molly asked as she quieted the four girls on the floor of the den.

“Absolutely nothing,” Kim breathed, flopping down to her knees on her sleeping bag and slowly looking to each of the girls.

Molly sat with her legs crossed and looked at Kim with wide eyes. Stephanie was crossed legged in front of Amy who was braiding her hair. Hannah was in the corner on her sleeping bag, her arms hugging her knees to her chest and her chin resting on them. They were all looking at Kim, but Molly’s gaze was the most intense.

“Nothing happened. I closed the window and locked the door and made it completely dark and said the words and…nothing.” Kim sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t believe it. All the stories I’ve heard,” Amy said, “I thought that it would happen for sure. I thought that she would come.” She moved out from behind Stephanie and crossed her legs.

“Don’t believe everything you hear,” Hannah said from the corner.

“Oh well,” Stephanie sighed, shaking her hair out, “might as well move on. Kim, it’s your turn. Ask someone ‘Truth or Dare’.”

Kim stood up and looked at them all with a mischievous grin on her face. “I dare,” she paused as everyone waited with dread for her words to be spoken, “all of you to come to the kitchen with me, I’m thirsty.” Kim turned away from the groans of irritation and headed toward the kitchen.

“Yeah,” Amy said, “I wouldn’t mind eating something other than Molly’s stale Halloween candy too.”

Molly met Amy sly grin with a glare as the snickers of the others reached her ears. She grabbed Amy’s ankle as she walked past and made her topple to the ground, “Ha, ha; very funny.”

Molly got up from the floor and, followed by the others, exaggeratedly stepped over Amy’s sprawled figure on the ground.

Kim had already set out glasses when the girls finally filtered into the kitchen and began filling the orders of everyone as they took their seats at the table. When everyone had their drinks Kim winked at them and moved toward the refrigerator one more time.

“Hey Moll, we have a surprise for you.” Amy said with a grin.

“Oh yeah?” Molly asked with a questioning look on her face, “What kind of surprise?”

“This.” Kim said as she plopped a large birthday cake in front of Molly on the table. Fifteen candles burned atop it, scattered throughout the icing that decorated the cake. Scripted handwriting spelled out Molly’s name and tidings of a good birthday.

Molly smiled as Kim led the others in a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ and Molly laughed when Stephanie added a verse about her smelling like a monkey. As the last note resounded in the small kitchen Molly blew out her candles and held her eyes closed as she made a wish. The five girls stayed at the table, munching on cake and talking about nothing and everything all at the same time, until an hour had passed, their plates had been cleared and their drinks had run dry.

“Did you hear that?”

Hannah voice rose up over the chatter of the teens and interrupted their laughter. The intensity in her voice and eyes made everyone stop and listen carefully.

Kim examined Hannah for a moment and then smiled, “Silly Hannah, you can’t trick us. You never could pull it off.”

“No,” Hannah insisted, “I swear. I heard something.”

“Yeah, sure Hannah.” Amy said, grinning and leaning back in her chair.

A loud bang made everyone jump. Sitting straight up in their chairs, each girl’s wide eyes jumped from one to the other, searching for an answer in each other’s pale faces.

“Now, I know you heard that!” Hannah screeched.

“What was that?” Stephanie whispered.

“It sounded like a door slamming.” Hannah breathed, her eyes looking at the doorway behind her as if something were going to come through and explain the noise.

“Maybe it was wind?” Molly asked hopefully.

“Maybe, but what wind? None of the windows are open.” Kim replied.

Suddenly a dark blanket covered the house and the girls let out helpless yelps of fear. Molly walked to the kitchen cabinet to find a flashlight while Kim rushed to the kitchen window to see if it was storming.

“Not a cloud in the sky,” Kim mumbled into the darkness.

Molly clicked the button on the flashlight and swept the small stream of light over everyone’s faces and then back to her own, which she had contorted into a grotesque and scary face. Then she grinned and shut it back off to conserve the battery.

“Alright, we have light, but what are we going to do about that noise we heard?” Hannah asked in a shaky voice.

Kim smoothed down her nightshirt and eased herself into a chair, “You know, we shouldn’t get all worked up about it. Doors close on their own all the time. If the framing is crooked or the hinges aren’t on right—“

“Or there’s a ghost in the house…” Amy interrupted.

Hannah shoved Amy, “Don’t say stuff like that!”

Kim sighed and grabbed the flashlight from Molly. She left the kitchen and moved through the den, all the girls tight on her heels. She shined the flashlight down the hallway to see if there was anything suspicious that stood out and then took a step forward. Before she could take a step she felt a tug on her arm and turned to see Hannah latched onto her.

“What?” Kim demanded, shaking the scared girl off of her.

“You’re not going back there are you?”

“You want to know what happened, right?” She paused as Hannah slowly nodded her head, “Well, so do I. And if you are going to be freaked out about this all night I would rather just prove that there is a perfectly logical explanation for the noise and for the lights going out.”

“Yeah, and the fuse box is back there too, you guys.” Molly said.

“Alright, but I don’t want you to go by yourself,” Hannah said quietly, eyeing the dark hallway.

Stephanie stepped forward and looped her arm through Hannah’s, “Don’t worry, we’ll all go.”

Kim smiled and turned into the hallway, followed by everyone. They passed the bookcase on the left and Molly’s bedroom on the right. As they moved a little further down the hallway they passed the bathroom and as Kim stared into the darkness she felt the same anxiety come over her as before when she had tried to call Bloody Mary.

“Hey Molly, your parents’ room door is closed.” Kim said, pointing the light toward the white door.

“That was probably the bang that we heard.” Molly said moving past the group to the door.

She led the four girls into the room after taking the light from Kim, once they were all in they scattered around in search of what could have caused the door to slam shut.

After a quick once over Molly turned to the others, “Doesn’t seem like there is anything here, maybe it just closed like Kim said.”

They all jumped and Hannah let out a yelp of fear as the bedroom door slammed shut yet again. Molly shot the light over to the door and the surrounding area. She began moving slowly toward the center of the room, the other girls following her lead.

“Alright, Kim, explain that.” Amy breathed.

Kim’s ears perked as a giggle arose from some where on the edge of the room. It calmed her a bit to see that the others heard it too, though her heart was still beating wildly in her chest at the thought that there was someone in the house with them.

She reached out and plucked the flashlight from Molly, who was whipping the light about erratically trying to find the source of the giggle. She shined it toward the side of the room that she thought she had heard the voice from and slid the light over the wall until she fell on a cockroach that was running along the floor. She followed it on its trek and discovered a pair of feet that were standing just in front of the wall. The feet were wearing shoes that were old and pointed; they had holes in the sides and in the heels and looked to be made of old, worn leather that had turned a grayish brown color from decay and dirt.

Kim took a deep breath and gulped at air as she forced herself to move the light up the figure that was standing before them. There was ripped and dirt-ridden fabric dangling down to the ground; tattered and threadbare, it layered over the legs of the woman. Her arms were crossed over a corset that wrapped around her stomach and chest. Chunks of decayed, dead skin hung from the exposed bones of her arms. Bugs roamed freely through her shoulders and neck where the skin and muscle has been eaten away by time. As the light rolled over her face, the girls could see the full extent of her decay. The skin that still remained was a grayish color and looked ancient and dry, wrinkled and cracked. The places where there was no skin revealed the rotted and browned cranial bone and what few teeth were left in her jaw. Dried and caked blood that had been there so long that it had turned black surrounded her mouth; her eyes were no longer there, leaving the sockets nothing but open, black holes in her face. There were patches of hair on her head filled with dirt and dead skin that had broken away from her skull.

Kim’s breath caught in her throat and her heart began to race in her chest. She didn’t want to but she ripped her eyes away from the woman to look to her friends, to make sure that they were still behind her because no one was making a sound. Their eyes were all wide, their mouths hung open and it looked as if they had all turned paler than the whitest set of sheets. When Kim turned back to the figure, she moved forward, jerky motions of someone who hadn’t moved in years, when she spoke her voice was shallow and raspy as if her vocal chords were as decayed as she, though she still had a voice.

“Who called me?” She demanded.

“K-K-Kim?” Molly stammered and turned her face though her eyes stayed glued to the woman, “Do you think…? You don’t think it worked…?”

“I don’t-“ Kim’s voice caught in her throat and she realized how dry her mouth suddenly was.

“Who called me?” The woman repeated, her temperament turning quickly from strained kindness to blatant irritation.

“Who are you?” Molly asked warily, her voice small and strained as she tried to find it through her fear.

“I,” the woman began straightening her back and presenting herself in a more stately manner, “am Mary I, Queen of England. The daughter of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. I have come to be known as Bloody Mary in certain circles. I have come because I was called, now who summoned me?” As she ended her introduction her voice grew in strength but lowered into an angry snarl.

Kim felt Molly’s elbow stab her in the ribs and she winced in pain, shooting and angry look at Molly whose eyes were still plastered to the dead woman in the room.

Suddenly Mary was right in front of Kim, standing so close that Kim barely needed to move to touch her. Kim’s nose filled with the stench of rot and death, she felt several bugs of some sort drop down on to the floor by her feet and begin crawling on her skin. She choked back a sickened cough and fought the urge to move away from the insect ridden ghost before her.

“Was it you, dear girl?” Mary’s voice was even raspier than before, so thick that Kim felt like it had crawled right into her ears and could feel it dripping down her spine. She tensed as Mary began moving away from her and toward her friends, “Or perhaps one of the other ladies in your party?”

“No,” Kim said forcefully. Her voice was more stable than she thought it would be, “It was me. They had nothing to do with it.”

Mary was in front of her again; just as close as before, moving impossibly fast in the same jerky movements as before. Kim couldn’t hear her breathing but she felt stale air move over her skin as Mary circled her, warm breath on her neck as the ghost spoke chilling words.

“And why have you called me? Do you have some task for me, some reason for disturbing my rest?”

Kim’s nerves were starting to creep up again. She fought to find her voice and breath over the smell, “It – It was a dare.” Her voice was hoarse, a weak whisper, “We were playing truth or-“ Kim’s voice wobbled and shut down as the smell overtook her control and she bent over to vomit on the floor.

“A dare?” Mary whispered, her face following the bent form of Kim, her eye sockets pointed at the girl in front of her.

The girls heard Mary’s face crack as she stretched what was left of it into a smile. She snickered a bit to herself and then started laughing, manically and uncontrollably. She clutched her abdomen with her rotted arms and turned away from the girls, giggling and laughing.

Kim lifted herself slightly, with Mary away from her she could breathe again. She reached out and gripped Molly by the hand, making her jump. With her head, Kim motioned for Molly to grab hold of the others and follow her. She slowly moved in front of them, taking small steps and walking lightly toward the door to the room. With Mary distracted in her maniacal giddiness, it was an opportunity for them to try and run.

Holding her breath as they moved, Kim reached out and gripped the door knob. Her sweaty palm slipped off of it at first but she reached back up quickly and grabbed it again, turning it and pulling with all her might. Her eyes widened when nothing happened. The door did not budge.

She turned to Molly as the color drained out of her face. “It won’t open,” she whispered.

“Did you honestly think that it would?” Mary’s raspy voice floated on the air toward them, causing them all to jump slightly.

Each girl pushed her back up against the wall as Mary began moving toward them. Her jerky movements making each girl’s skin crawl. They began to scream as the eye sockets on Mary’s face began to glow and she continued to move closer and closer to them.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

Molly’s parents walked into the dark living room from the garage door. They moved through the house and into the kitchen, laughing and quieting each other repeatedly. Molly’s mother removed her shoes as she walked onto the tiled kitchen floor to keep them from clicking and hissed at Molly’s father once more to be quiet as she tried to quiet her own giggling. She gasped as she moved into the den and stepped in something warm and wet. Reaching out to turn on the light that was nearby she and her husband both began to scream as their eyes fell upon the scene in the family room.

Lying in bloody sleeping bags were the bodies of Molly, Kim, Amy, Hannah, and Stephanie. Their dismembered, incomplete forms were hardly recognizable. Skin was torn from the bones of the girls, hanging off of their arms and legs and draped onto the floor. Their throats had been cut open and the wounds were slowly allowing more blood to pour out of their lifeless bodies.

Hannah’s lower jaw had been broken and removed and now sat in her open palm beside her. Most of Molly’s hair had been removed leaving her bloody cranium visible. Kim’s arms were spread out in front of her, as if she were trying to crawl away from something, her fingernails had ripped off and were either dangling from what skin they were still attached too or rested on the floor next to her fingertips. Stephanie’s eyes had been removed, leaving her empty sockets staring at the ceiling above her. Amy’s teeth were all missing from her mouth, which was hanging open and dripping with blood and saliva as it slowly dried out.

Molly’s mother turned away from the sight, choking as her dinner returned. When her eyes met the wall behind them she screamed again, louder and shriller than before. Her husband rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her to quiet her fears but found himself dumbfounded as her stared at the words scrawled on the wall in blood:

Happy birthday. Hope you got your wish.
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"Bloody Mary" copyright 2003 by Bella Luna (beautifulmoon29@aol.com)
The text of this work was created by Bella Luna (beautifulmoon29@aol.com) and is her exclusive property. It is not to be used without her personal permission.

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