Bloody Mary

In honor of Halloween I decided to write about something that scared me. This story is scary because it is true.

When I was a little girl my cousin Kathy spent the weekend with me and she dared me to call Bloody Mary. For those of you who are not as old as me, or for those who have forgotten this urban legend, the story goes that if you stand in front of a mirror in a darkened room and chant “Bloody Mary” a gruesome, bloody woman appears in the mirror. I don’t remember how many times you have to chant her name. I’ve heard three, ten, and twenty times. I’m going with ten here because Kathy and I had to chant a few times and when this story took place we had just gotten started chanting, so I think we had to chant more than three times.

Since she dared me, I got to pick the location and I settled on the bathroom because it was an interior room with no windows and once the door was shut and the lights were off, it was dark. I had the idea that Mary would be glowing and the darkness would allow us to see her better.

So in we go, door closed, lights off. Now I must mention that Kathy loved to play jokes on me, and I didn’t trust her, so I stood between her and the door. I thought maybe something awful would happen and she’d run out and shut me in or worse, something awful would happen and she wouldn’t let either of us out. So I stood in front of the door which meant I was also closest to the light switch.

We chanted a few times and I heard a click. We both stopped and I asked, “What was that?”
I turned on the light and the door was locked. We didn’t lock it when we came in.
We both ran out so fast it’s a wonder we didn’t tear down the door. We ran out of the house. We didn’t stop until we were well away and safe.

Then we never talked about it. That’s how I know it’s real. It’s too scary to mention.

I don’t think Kathy was messing with me. For one, she would have had to reach around me, in the dark, without bumping me, and find the door knob without making any noise. It wasn’t her bathroom, she rarely came to visit, and I just don’t think she could have done it.

Did we see anything? No, too dark.

Have I ever tried it again? Never. Too scary!