AN: This is an incredibly short horror story that I had to write for my English class. As usual, I feel as though there are still a billion and one more edits that I could still make to this, but I am satisfied enough to share it with you all on here. Enjoy!


October 31st, Midnight

A thin crescent moon hung in the sky, surrounded by twinkling stars and just barely peeking through the gloom. On this eerie evening, three teenagers were spending their time telling ghost stories.

"That's not even a little bit scary. Bloody Mary is one of the stupidest folklores I've ever heard!"

Charlie huffed at her older brother. "You'd be scared of her, too, if you watched Supernatural." She turned to their friend. "Right, Jay?"

Jay shrugged. "Personally I think the Wendigo episode was scarier, but Bloody Mary is pretty damn terrifying."

With a smug grin, Charlie looked at her brother once more. "See? You wouldn't make it through one episode of that series without peeing your pants, Nick."

Nick rolled his eyes and rose to his feet. "You guys are so ridiculous, and I'm going to prove to you that Bloody Mary is just a silly myth." He headed toward the nearest bathroom in their home, Charlie and Jay scrambling to their feet behind him.

"Nick, no," Charlie protested, trying to pull him out of the room. "Whether you believe it's real or not, you shouldn't go messing around with this stuff."

He shrugged her off and calmly lit one of their mother's bath candles before flicking off the light. "Bloody Mary," he said, gazing into the mirror.

"Nick, seriously."

"Bloody Mary." He spoke firmly, ignoring his sister's protests. "Bloody Mary."

Silence fell upon the room as the three of them stared at the mirror with anticipation. Eventually, Nick turned to Charlie and Jay. "I told you guys. It's just a silly…folklore.." He suddenly felt incredibly light-headed and found it difficult to breathe. His eyes stung and when he rubbed them, his hands came away covered in blood. He then noticed the looks of fear on his sister's and friend's faces, and he followed their gazes to the mirror. Immediately he wished he hadn't looked. Staring back at him was a demented-looking woman with scraggly dark hair and ghoulish skin. He wasn't even entirely sure if she was staring at him for there were empty sockets were her eyes should have been.

Charlie looked on in terror as her brother's eyes began to bleed because of the figure in the mirror. Jay shook her arm. "What do we do?" he asked frantically.

"Um." She paused, trying to think. "I think if we smash the mirror she'll disappear."

The two quickly began to search the room for something heavy enough to break the glass, and Charlie's eyes landed upon a small candelabra mounted on the wall. Silently thanking her mother for her decorative choices, she grabbed the candelabra and hurled it at the mirror. It shattered upon impact, and she rushed to Nick's side to help him up. Although she was relieved that he was all right, she couldn't help but say, "I told you so."

He gave her a look and opened his mouth to respond, but they both froze at Jay's shaky voice.

"Uh, g-guys?" he stuttered, pointing at the mirror.

To their horror, Mary had begun to climb out of the mirror and make her way toward them. The three of them collapsed to their knees as she grew closer, their eyes burning and trickling blood. Charlie suddenly remembered the Supernatural episode and it dawned on her what exactly they could do to get rid of the woman. With a groan, she stretched her arm out to open the bottom drawer below the sink. She carefully pulled out the handheld mirror within, trying not to attract Mary's attention. Once it was firmly in her grasp, she whirled around and held it up to the woman.

Mary stared at her reflection for a moment, looking somewhat lost and forlorn. Then she began to melt into herself before bursting in a sudden explosion of blood. Charlie, Nick, and Jay slowly sat up and shared shocked looks.

"Hey, Charlie?" She turned to her brother. "That show you were talking about. Does it have episodes on other creatures and folklores?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well." He swallowed nervously. "Do you think maybe we could watch some? Ya'know, just in case it turns out there are other myths that are actually real."

They all chuckled in disbelief at the comment as the event that had just occurred still didn't seem real.

"Sure, Nick." Charlie smiled. "But let's clean up in here first. Mom will throw a fit if she and Dad come home to find out we got all this blood on the bathroom linoleum."