Bloodymary

Five friends. Five life long dear old friends. You know the kind. The kind of friends that heard your first farts. Saw your first trips and accidents. First fights and first loves. Yes all through middle school, Katie, Mary, Ashlee, Greg and Mark have been best of friends and as they say, "Been through it all and hell and back!" They would cheer as a group, usually after shots of tequila.

Well tonight, after years of toiling and relentless school work and all the demands, finals, thesis's and tests. It was finally over. The five were fresh college grads and on their long planned excursion driving all over parts of Maine and the east coast.

Greg Danielson the driver hugs the curves of the coast line in their rented Mercedes SUV. "So can you all finally fucking believe it! We're actually in Maine for the first time ever and getting real live, well dead after, but you know what I mean. Maine tender lobster right here on the shore line!" Greg beats his hands on the steering wheel and continues, "Holy shit this is going to be a blast. Think about it! Remember Katie when I came over to your house after school in the ripped Friday the 13th t-shirt semester year and I said we should make a pact that we all do something spectacular and scary after college."

Katie rolls her eyes and continues filing her nails. Her glossy red lips say it all as she grins and smiles at him. "Juicy." She says as she focus's back on to her nails.

Mark chimes in, "Oh bruh I know man! I remember that week. It was right before high school graduation. We had just all found out we were selected for ASU and you had the brilliant idea for this trip!"

Katie immediately loses her charming grin and dons a ratchet scowl, "Him? You mean me!" Greg smiles and pats her leg, " Us. Darling. Us. Now lets get to our first stop."

Mary and Ashley start to wake up from their daze out of the back window. Ashley's got her Apple earbuds in and Mary's playing Candy Crush on her phone. Mary yawns and clicks her phone off. "How much further to the Inn?" Mary tiredly asks full of boredom.

Greg just looks back at her annoyed and shakes his head, "Almost there sleepy head."

"So is it haunted like they say it is?" Ashley chimes in taking out her earbuds. "Because it better be. I brought all my ghost hunting cameras for tonight."

Later that evening the five companions sipped wine by the fire as they told old ghost stories. Snuggled up and stuffed in their loft style room in the old bed and breakfast manor. Mary lights a joint.

"So," says Mary as she hits the joint, inhales and coughs. "What are we doing now? After all this telling spooky stories and stuff. I got my infra red cameras and recorders. I want to catch a ghost."

"Me too." says Mark as he takes the joint from Mary. He hits it and passes it to Greg who responds, "Who wants to play Bloody Mary? We could record it. See what happens. If the legend of Bloody Mary is true."

Mary claps her hands and shouts, "Love it! That's brilliant Greg!" Ashley takes the joint from Greg, sips her wine and is a little confused. "Wait. Bloody Who? Who's Bloody fucking Mary?" She says with a slur.

Katie passes on the joint and opts for her wine instead. "What! You've never heard of Bloody Mary. You knock three times on the mirror and say her name three times and she's supposed to appear." Katie shrugs, "Then kill you or something."

Greg agrees, "Yeah. I also heard that she's based off of Queen Mary of the Tudors fame. The real family that is in Game of Thrones from way back in the fifteen hundreds or some shit. Apparently she killed three hundred- protestants because she was Catholic and wanted to push that religion. So when she ruled for four years she had three hundred protestant civilians burned at the stake. They gave her the nickname... Bloody Mary."

They all ponder this a moment. "Oooohhhh," Mary showing some excitement. "Juicy. I've never heard that one. I was always told she was a mother who had murdered her children and died in a psychiatric hospital."

Mark stands and stretches, "I heard you have to do it at three am with candles. Three of them and you have to knock at precisely three am and stand before the mirror for thirty seconds exactly with your eyes closed after you say her name three times. If you're brave enough to do that.. she'll appear. Everything has to be in three's."

"Three's? Why three's?" slurs Ashley. "The Holy Trinity. Father, Son the Holy Spirit. " Mark instructs, "Bloody Mary is an evil spirit. The three's are it's way of mocking the holy trinity before it eats you and snatches your soul."

Again they all stop to ponder this staring in the fire. Katie jumps up followed by Greg. "God I hate you Mark" Katie squeals as shivers run up and down her arms. "Why did you have to make it so real now" I'm scared. I'm not doing it."

"Come on," urges Greg. You have to. We're all here. The lights will be on."

"Yeah," adds Mary getting up and to her gear. She starts unpacking equipment. "We have cameras and everything will be filmed. We'll all be in there together.

"No." Says Mark sternly. "You can't. Has to be only one person. Lights out. Door shut. Just three candles, say Bloody Mary three times. Shut your eyes. Count to thirty."

"Fuck that," says Katie crossing her arms. "Okay," commands Greg. That's fine then. You watch the computer monitors for us. We'll take turns."

"Draw straws to see who goes first."

A short while later the red digital clock on the nightstand reads two fifty-eight am. Katie is set up in the living room watching two laptop screens on the coffee table. Wires are everywhere leading through the dim light into the bathroom.

Mary stands before the mirror. Two candles are lit on each side of the counter. Greg and Mark are frantically looking around. "Candle! We need a third candle." States Mark.

Ashley stands in the doorway and glances back towards the large loft style room. She notices something beyond Katie's head flicker in the far corner.

"What about that candle in the window?" Katie casually asks. "What candle?" asks Greg while scratching his head.

"Who cares. Go grab it." Mark orders. "Run! We only have a minute!"

"Okay! Gawd! So bossy." Katie turns her head up and walks out of the doorway. She does end up giving in and runs to grab the candle. She reaches it. It's a long wide black candle on an old brass ornate tray. "Wow. Cool" She mutters to her self.

"Why does the only one here with the name Mary suddenly get chosen for this. I don't know." Mary shakily looks at Mark for support. "You'll be fine. Urban legend remember. Besides. I get to go next.-"

Katie bursts in carefully holding the candle. "Wow. That's cool. Who brought that?" Greg asks. "Probably Katie," replies Ashley. "She's into Goth but a complete coward. Ironic I know."

"Hurry! Put it on the counter. Okay," Mark checks his watch. "It's three am. remember. Knock on the mirror three times, say her name three times and count to thirty eyes shut. No cheating! We'll be at the monitors." Mark hurries everyone out. "Wait," Mary whimpers. Too late. They shut the door and the lights go out.

Mary stares back at her pale reflection in the mirror. Her long red hair glows in the light of the three flickering candles. "Hurry up!" Mark shouts from beyond the door.

"Alright!" she anxiously yells back squeezing her hand in tight anxiety driven fists.

"Deep breath Mary. This is just a game," She says to herself inhaling deeply s and with a big exhale she knocks three times on the mirror.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

"Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary." She trembles on the last syllables slowly closing her eyes and starts counting out loud under her breathe in a hushed whisper.

"One.. two.. three.. four.. five.. six.. ," A loud aggressive pounding on the door causes Ashley to jump three feet in the air. "Hurry up! I have to pee!" Shouts a laughing hysterically Greg from the other side of the door.

In the living room Mark is fuming. "You fuckwad! You ruined it! Now we have to start over! It's past three now!"

"Calm down bro. "Replies Greg casually. "You act like you really believe this stuff."

Inside the bathroom Ashley is cursing under her breathe. "You fucking asshole Greg!" She shouts at the door. "You know I have anxiety already!" Ashley shakes her head and starts reaching for the light switch.

A faint red misty glow starts to appear in the center of the mirror. Just before Ashley flicks the switch. She stops and turns to look in the mirror. The light red mist caught her attention. It seems to emanate from within the mirror and starts to leak out into the bathroom floating in the air like zero gravity.

The long finger like trails of red mist start to inspect Ashley much to her dismay. She freezes. Ashley jerks back and tries to scream. Nothing comes out.

A large portion of the red smoke like presence thickens up and goes in her mouth filling it up like a solid. Ashley starts to choke. The mirror cracks and splinters of it shatter onto the bathroom counter.

A large white pale face with deep endless hollow black eyes materializes before Ashley's stark frozen face. Blood oozes from the ghostly black eye sockets. Ashley struggles to breathe and starts slamming on the counter. She's kicking as the red form lifts her a few inches off the floor.

Meanwhile in the living room Mark is tapping on the blank laptop monitors. "What the fuck. Ashley. What did you do? Did you knock something over? The screens went blank!"

"Did you check all the plugs?" asks Katie concerned. "Yes, of course I did. Three times. It's not the power." Frustrated Mark gets up and heads to the bathroom door. "I'll check the cameras. Hey Ashley! Hope you're not pooping! I'm coming in!"

Mark throws open the bathroom door and flicks on the light. The entire inside of the bathroom is covered in blood. Dripping from the ceiling, walls, counter and floor. Chunks of Mary's flesh are thrown everywhere in dozens of pieces. Her fingers, her eyes, parts of her face lay on the bathroom counter.

Mark staggers backwards with his mouth agape. Speechless. He tries to speak.

Greg looks on from the kitchen laughing. "Oh you trying to be funny now Mark. You and Mary set this whole thing up huh. Gotta hand it to you bro. Hell of an actor." Greg swigs his beer.

Just then Bloody Mary's two grotesquely large bone white hands shoot out of the bathroom and rip Mark in two pieces then throws his split corpse across the room. The bloody bottom half lands on Katie and Ashley. The fresh cut top half of Mark just misses Greg and splats against the wall behind him.

Bloody Mary crawls out of the bathroom. She stands and towers over seven feet tall. She's covered in a blood soaked pale white gown. Black pits for eyes, black hair to the floor and blood streaming from her eyes sockets. Her bottom jaw filled with sharp long teeth detaches and stretches down to the floor. A blood curdling scream from her black soul erupts from her form.

All the lights go out.

More screams follow.

The sounds of gallons of blood can be heard splattering across the room and windows.

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