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Bloody Mary

It was Kelly Parson's 14th birthday, and she was hosting a slumber party in the basment rec room of her parents' home. There were bowls of popcorn and potato chips, and a greasy box of a couple slices of forgotten pizza on the coffee table. There were endless music videos coming out of the small television set. There were sleeping bags, too-five in total. They were for Kelly, her three best friends and her 11-year-old sister, Carmen. Carmen had been included only because the girls' parents said there would be no party otherwise.
Kelly and her friends asserted thier superiority by making it clear to Carmen that would be forced to endure her presence, they could not be made to actually acknowledge it. They gossiped and danced and did each others's hair and makeup, all while managing to exlude the younger girl completely.
Carmen was accustomed to receiving abuse and rejection from her sister. To be ostracized by a group was significantly more demoralizing, though, and she soon decided that she would be better off upsairs, in her own small bedroom.
"Where do you think you're going?" Carmen had only climbed three steps when Kelly grabbed her by the hair and pulle dher back down.


"Ow!" complained Carmen. "What would you care if I leave? You don't want me arround."
"Truuer words were never spoken," lamed Kelly in a word-weary tone. Her friends snickered abediently. "But if you go upstairs with the 'boo-hoo' face, Mom nad Dad will think that I've been mean to you, and they will come down here and damper on our party. Believe me, otherwise I wouldn't care."
"Well' I don't care, either," Carmen said bravely. "And you have been mean to me! You won't let me do anyhting you're doing, and you won't talk to me. So I'm going."
Carmen turned around and began to march up the stairs.
"Okay, you win," said Kelly.
"What do you mean?" Carmen asked cautiously as she truned around.
"You can hang out with us. Do you what we're doing."
Kelly's friends began to maon in objection, but she silenced them with a slight wave of her hand.
"I was thinking," she said in a level voice, "tha we could play 'Bloody Mary'."
There was a moment of complete silence.
Carmen finally said, "What's that?" and htere was a snort of laughter from one of Kelly's minions. She was silenced with rapid-fire elbow jabs from the other two.
"It's a sort of game----but a serious one," Kelly explained coolly. "It's not for kids. so if you think you can't handle...."

"I can handle anything you can handle," said Carmen, and she walked back down the stairs. Kelly smiled.
Five minutes later the television had been turned off, as had the lights. The girls were huddled outside the small basment bathroom. Candles had been lit and placed in the front of the vanity mirror, on either side of the sink. In this shadowy, flickering, atmosphere, Kelly gave Carmen her instructions.
"It's a great challenge," she told her saucer-eyed sister, "and a dangerous one. You're goign to perfrom a ceremony to summon the spirit of a powerful, longdead witch. Her name was Mary Worth---but she was known to most as 'Bloody Mary'. Now, what you need to do is stand in front of the mirror and close your eyes. The spin around 13 times, and each time say 'Bloody Mary'. Say it with feeling, and concentrate on drawing her spirit back from the grave. After the 13th turn, you can open your eyes and look into the mirror. If you see the hags' face, the chant has worked. Then be careful---because she'll try scratch your eyes out. But if you're strong enough, you can will her to give you her power."
Carmen swallowed hard. She looked into the small bathroom, which with two candles and a story had been transformed into a terrifying altar. Then she looked at Kelly. The older girl nodded, and Carmen knew that she had no choice but to walk through the door. She had to prove herself to the older girls.



The instant that the bathroom door clicked shut, Kelly and her friends let their solemn expressions crumble. They clapped their hands over their mouths to keep hysterical laughter from escaping.
"Shh! Shhhhh!" Kelly hissed. "If she hears you, she'll figure it out! Now, go hide! In a minute, she'll come out of the bathroom freaked all out and dizzy, and we'll take turns jumping out at her! She'll probably pee her pants--which should prove to Mom and Dad that she's too immature to hang out with us."
The girls scattered then found furniture, walls and draperies to hide behind. They forced themselves to stop snickering, and waited.
Kelly had positioned herself on the far side of an old storage cabnet near the bathroom. With her ear pressed against the wall, she could hear Carmen's voice chanting the witches name. Silently, Kelly counted along. On the 13th repetition, she felt a wick little thrill of excitment. She held her breath and prepared to pounce.
For was several seconds, there was nothing but silence. Then came a scream thet shattered the silence and turned Kelly's excitment to panic.
"Carmen!" Kelly yelled as she ran from her hiding place to the bathroom door. "Knock it off!"
But the screams continued. Kelly tried the doorknob, but found it locked. She pounded on the door with the heel of her hand.


"Get out here dimwit! Mom and Dad are probably on they're way down!"
"Should we stay in our places?" one of the girls asked.
"No, you idiot! Get over here and help me with the door! Turn on some lights! Do something useful!"
Kelly could hear her parents then, scurrying across the creaking hardwood on the main floor. She knew that she had only seconds to get her hysterical sister, and the situation in general, under control.
"I'm coming in, Carmen!" she warned, and threw her shoulder hard against the door. The flimsy lock gave away, and Kelly fell gracefully on the cold bathroom tile.
The bathroom was in total darkness. The candles had either gone out or had been put out, and Kelly found that there wasn't enough light to see her own hand in front of her face, let alone her sister, who was somewhere in the area of the shower stall, if one could judge by where the whimpers and moans were coming from.
"Someone turn on a damn light!" demanded Kelly, and someone did.
Light filled the bathroom and revealed the gory scene that was within it. Slashes of crimson fromed a horrifying cross-hatch pattern on the mirror and vanity top. Wet, red handprints smeared the back wall and the opaque glass door to the shower stall.


Using two fingers, as though she was touching some repulsive thing, Kelly pulled open that door. There, crumpled on the floor of the stall, was Carmen. She She raised her head, showing Kelly and the others that her face was covered in a network of bleeding lacerations.
"I saw Bloody Mary," she rasped through jaggedly cut lips.
And then it was Kely's turn to scream.


Six days later, Carmen came home from the hospital. Her face was covered in white patches of dressing, and she was missing a small bit of hair, where one row of stitches exended. Aside from that, she looked fine, almost better than her parents, who wore expressions of great concern and had been told to watch their daughter closely for any signsof selfdestructive behavior.
She announced that she was going downstairs to watch television, and after a flurry of persistent, silent gestures from their parents, Kelly said that she would join her.
For a while, the girls watched quietly. Finally, Kelly asked Carmen how she was feeling.
"I feel good," was Carmen's answer. "I feel really, really good. Because, Kel, a few things are going to change around here."
"Right," snorted Kelly. "I doubt it."


Carmen only looked at Kelly and smiled. Behind the bandages and scabs, there was a confidence the girl had never shown.
"First, I want my CDs back," she said. "And my swim goggles. And the next time your moronic friends want to come over, just tell them 'no'."
Kelly looke dat Carmen and shook her head.
"You really did flip out," she concluded. "You're a nut case, just like I always said."
Carmen barely reacted to her older sister's diagnosis. She turned casually back to the television.
"Nah, I'm not crazy. I'm just different since I saw Bloody Mary. You're going to have to listen to me now."
"You did not see Bloody Mary," Kelly said, although she was regarding Carmen nervously.
"Oh, yes I did," Carmne insisted, and she turned back to face her sister and leaned in close. "I saw Bloody Mary--and she looked just like me."

This time, the girls' parents responded to the screams in half the time. Oddly enough, though, there was twice as much blood.