Sasha and her best friend, Michelle, sat on the couch watching movies and handing out candy to trick-or-treater’s until they finally ran out of candy around 10:00 on Halloween night.
“Well, another Halloween is in the bag,” Sasha said after she’d turned off the porch light and sat down on the couch.
The two friends got comfortable on Michelle’s chaise lounge and resumed watching, Urban Legends, the movie they had been watching in between passing out candy.
“I’ve never done the ‘Bloody Mary’ thing, have you?” Sasha asked Michelle while watching a scene in the movie of three girls standing in front of a mirror, chanting, “Bloody Mary.”
“Nope, me neither. I’ve never believed in that stuff though. It sounds bogus to me,” Michelle answered.
“Yeah, but haven’t you been a little curious as to what would happen? Wondered if it’s real?”
“I can’t lie, I have thought about doing it, but I chickened out,” Michelle admitted.
“Let’s do it now, while we’re both here; satisfy our curiosity,” Sasha said standing up.
“Umm, negative. I don’t want those evil spirits unleashed in my house. I have to live here.”
“I thought you said you didn’t believe in it anyway?” Sasha said, arching a brow at her friend.
“I don’t it’s just…oh what the hell,” Michelle said standing up. “I can’t take this peer pressure,” she joked.
Sasha followed Michelle into her bathroom and stood beside her. They looked at their reflections in the mirror.
“Bloody…” Michelle began.
Sasha cut her off. “We’re supposed to turn the lights off and do it in the dark,” she said.
“Well how are we supposed to see anything if it’s dark?”
“Good question. I know, let’s light one of these candles you have in here then turn off the lights.”
Michelle reached for one of the candles setting around her bathtub, which she used when she took a relaxing bubble bath, lit it, then set it on the sink.
“Perfect,” Sasha said as she flipped the light off.
The candlelight cast an eerie glow on the walls of the bathroom, setting the scene for the girl’s creepy adventure.
“On three,” Sasha said. “One, two, three.”
The girls began chanting, “Bloody Mary.”
“How many times are we supposed to say it?” Michelle asked.
“Three times.”
“Well, we’ve said it three times and I don’t see a thing.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Sasha agreed. “I guess Bloody Mary was a myth after all.”
Michelle blew out the candle and she and Sasha walked back to the living room.
“Well, I guess I’d better get going.”
“Aren’t you going to stay and watch the rest of the movie?”
“I would but I have to work in the morning.”
“Okay, well it was fun hanging out. You drive safe,” Michelle told her as she walked her friend to the door.
“I will. Talk to you soon. Bye.”
***
Sasha drove the couple of blocks to her house. It had started to rain and she could hear thunder and see lightning in the distance and she wanted to get home as soon as possible.
The car behind her was following too closely and the high beams of the driver’s headlights nearly blinded her. Sasha glanced in her rear view at the car in annoyance, silently cursing the rude tailgater, but something else caught her eye. An old woman with wild hair, chalky white skin and dark, black circles around her eyes was sitting in her back seat.
Thinking she must be seeing things, Sasha turned around to look, only to find the back seat empty.
“Get it together, Sasha,” she mumbled to herself.
She turned back around just in time to realize that she was about to run into the back of a log truck, which had appeared out of nowhere in front of her. She opened her mouth wide to scream, but it was too late. One of the logs shattered the windshield, causing glass to fly everywhere as it smashed into her face, killing her instantly.
***
While Sasha was taking her last breath, Michelle was preparing to take a shower. She removed a jar of Noxema from behind the bathroom mirror and rubbed the facial cleanser all over her face while the water got hot.
Once steam began filling the bathroom, she removed her bathrobe and stepped into the shower. She lathered body wash over her and rinsed, then repeated the process. After she was cleaned, she removed the towel hanging over the shower rod and wrapped it around her body.
She stepped in front of the mirror and turned the faucet on, then splashed lukewarm water in her face to rinse the cream off. As she was bent over the sink, she heard a noise in the living room, or at least she thought she did. She stood upright and reached for the face towel hanging on the towel rack. She quickly dried her face off so she could go see what the noise was.
“What the hell?” she gasped as she looked in the mirror, realizing that there was an old woman with chalky white skin, wild hair, and black circles around her eyes standing behind her. She turned around to look behind her, but no one was there.
“I knew I shouldn’t have let Sasha talk me into that stupid Bloody Mary crap,” she mumbled to herself.
No sooner than she uttered those words, the woman reappeared behind her. With long, withered fingers, the woman grabbed the back of Michelle’s head and slammed it into the mirror. The impact caused the mirror glass to shatter all over the floor.
The next day, the police found Michelle with her eyes gouged out and her throat slit. The bathroom looked like a bloody scene from a horror movie. Her death was written off as the result of a random attack and remains a cold case.
J.L. SAPPHIRE 