Rating: PG-13 for swearing and scaring

Genre: Horror/Humor

A/n: Hey everyone. I decided to revise this story a bit to put up for y'all. It's changed, but not by a ton. Anyway, I can't give full credit to myself on this one. The idea to do this one came to me one day, while I was ditching school. It was actually sparked in my mind after a couple of conversations with Tensleep and my partner in crime, Alli. So, for all of you who don't believe in this, good, you don't have to. And for those of you who do believe in these types of things: I am right with you. Call my a wuss, but I have a fear of these things, but that comes from a matter a few personal experiences. Anyway, this isn't for the weak of heart, the easily scared, and those who are offended by vulgar language. If you think you might not like this, turn back, that's all you gotta do. And to the rest of you, enjoy!

Oh, and one more thing, this story was originally going to be all one chapter, but I decided to make you suffer and put it up in three different sections. Don't worry, it won't take too long to get the rest...

Keira

Dedication: To Rock who helped me with the idea. You truly do rock. ;) Nice pun, huh? ;)

(Pony's POV)

Kicking a beer can at my feet, I walked next to Two-Bit. We'd been lounging around in the lot, tossing a football back and forth. But it was getting chilly now, and we got bored real fast. The air was getting smoggy and the sky was heavily overcast, which we took to mean that it was going to rain soon. Since neither of us had on coats, or had an umbrella to protect us, we decided to move it to my house and grab a bite to eat. It was close to dinner, if it hadn't started already.

"You still don't believe me do ya, kid?" he asked.

Crossing my arms for a little warmth against a light breeze, I sighed. Sometimes I wondered where he came up with his stories. I knew most of them weren't true, but he was continuously making them up. It amazed me to know that he couldn't stand to look at a book, let alone read one. He had been trying, for the last half an hour or so, to convince me of this thing he heard. Some Bloody Mary shit. Hell, if she were real I'm sure Soda or Darry would've told me. Even Steve would've told me to try and scare me. It wasn't working, Two-Bit's effort, that is.

"Give me one good reason to believe it and I'll consider." I humored him. You had to do that with Two-Bit, otherwise it crushes his spirit, and that's not something you want to see from him. Sad Two-Bit is more painful than flunking the last test of the term that was supposed to pull your grade back up to passing...

"Hell, Ponyboy, ain't you thinkin' that maybe I've tried it before?" his incredulous tone ricocheted in my ears. Right, and I'm sure one of the guys was right there to scare the hell out of him too. I wouldn't put it past him to give into the story and test it's truthfulness, and I definitely didn't put it past any of the gang to back up his story with whatever they were able to conjure in his bathroom. I almost had to laugh at his persistence. I've never seen anyone so adamant about a legend, or whatever you want to call it; let alone a nineteen year old greaser who isn't scared at the thought of a rumble or a night in the cooler.

"All right. So you've tried it. What happens?"

"Damn, Pony, do we gotta get your hearing checked? I told you, it's different every time, man."

"What do you mean?" That was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. How many stories can people make up to go along with seeing a bloody lady in the mirror? Very few, I'm sure.

"I mean that it ain't never the same twice. What the hell do you think I mean?"

I smiled to myself. He had gotten himself way too worked up over this. If it hadn't been Two-Bit I wouldn't believe that he was serious, but he was, so I knew he had to be. Which was ridiculous, because there was no such thing as ghosts, and especially not such a thing as a dead woman who haunts mirrors. Who ever made that up had to be on acid or something. It sounded like a bunch of bullshit to me.

"Fine, so it's different. What was so different that happened to you?" It was clear that he wanted to talk about this and he wasn't going to drop the subject, so I might as well go along with it and hear his story. That's what he wanted after all, wasn't it?

We reached the house and climbed the stairs to do the door. The lights were on and the sound of Elvis Presley vibrated off the walls. The smell of chili rested in the air and I realized for the first time that night exactly how hungry I was. We pushed the front door open and the sound and smell of everything instantly magnified.

"She broke my mirror and held up this...switch thing, and pointed it at me! So I beat it outta there, man. I wasn't ready to die," he yelled.

I couldn't help it. I erupted with laughter. You couldn't hear me against the music and the sound of Darry's attempt to get Steve and Soda to quit wrestling in the hall (he never minded the roughhousing, it was where the roughhousing took place that mattered to him), but I was definitely having a good laugh about it. Two-Bit just stared at me, trying to figure out what it was that I found so funny about his attempted-murder.

Patting Two-Bit on the back I tried to collect myself, ignoring the fact that he was glaring down at me. Yeah, he was definitely much taller than I was. Thinking that I'd have some sort of a growth spurt within the last year, I waited patiently. But it never happened. I was still standing at a measly five foot four, and he had managed to grow two inches more. But, height was the least of my worries. He was still four years older than me, more than twice my size, and could pound me like a stake into the floor if he wanted. I knew he wouldn't, and that was what kept me feeling like an equal to him and kept me teasing him.

"Pony!" Darry called. "Come get this stuff out on the table!"

Still chuckling over Two-Bit's tale, I went into find out what Darry wanted exactly. It was apparent that Two-Bit had given up trying to convince me because he didn't follow me, but instead went to see what all the raucous was in the hallway and to see if he could join in the fun. It amazed me that he could go from spooked to miffed to excited in mere seconds.

"Hey, Dar."

I went over to the stove while he came back in to see if anything was burning. Ah, the food smelled great. I couldn't wait to taste it. I'm so glad he had the day off of work and was able to cook. I don't know how much longer I could've gone on Soda's cooking. His cooking wasn't bad, but it was nice to have normal food every once in a while that I didn't have to make myself.

"Hi, Pony," he mumbled as he rummaged through a small pile of papers on the counter. Bills. It was obvious that he was busy, and that he had barely heard me, so I grabbed a couple of hotpads and carried the food out to the table. There was no real point in trying to strike up a conversation, and since I didn't have anything new to say, it would be more or less redundant to begin one. Assuming that Steven and Two-Bit were going to hang around a while longer, I went to go get some more bowls and spoons and set them on the side of the table that we don't usually use.

Scurrying like little boys, Soda came half running, half-stumbling into the dining room area with Steve and Two-Bit behind him. They were all laughing hysterically and seeing as I had no idea what was going on, I tried to ignore it. I wasn't exactly up to feeling left out of whatever they were keeping to themselves. They all grabbed seats and dug into the food. None of them said anything but kept on sending each other looks and cracking up. Whatever it was, they didn't want me to know, and I wasn't going to ask. I wasn't feeling up to being told that I wasn't old enough to hear. I didn't care to be reminded of how much they felt they needed to protect me, or in Steve's case, just plain leave me out in the dark. It didn't make sense and I didn't want to try and make it make sense.

A few minutes later, Two-Bit decided that it was impossible for him to not speak, so he picked our conversation back up. "Do you believe me yet?"

I glanced up at him, somewhat surprised to find him speaking to me. "If I say yes, will you let it be?"

He thought for a moment. "...Yes." I couldn't tell if he just wanted to give it a rest after all, or if he was confused. Either way I'd take it.

"Then, yeah, I believe you." I smiled at the immaturity of it all. I couldn't believe he had taken it this far.

"What are y'all talking about?" Soda asked, shoving soup in his mouth.

I beat Two-Bit to it. I'd save him the humiliation. "He told me about this thing called Bloody Mary, and he's been trying to convince me about it. That's all." I shrugged and scooped up some chili onto saltine cracker and bit into it.

Soda stopped and stared at me confused. He literally froze with his spoon in mid air. "You've never heard of that before?"

"Nope." I didn't see what the big deal was. They were all acting like I was crazy because no one ever informed me of some stupid childhood fear of theirs. Big deal. I was just either lucky enough to missed out on being scared at night and every time I went into the bathroom, or I was smart enough to not let it affect me.

"Are you sure?"

"Um... yeah."

It was Steve's turn to speak up. "You're fifteen and you've never tried... no... never heard of Bloody Mary?"

"What's with you guys?" I asked, laughing nervously. "Who cares?"

"Pony, there's no way you don't remember me doing it..." Soda answered. "Everyone remembers that."

"Wait... you tried it? When?" My stomach began to fall at that point. Somehow it suddenly seemed a little more important with Soda involved. Steve was shaking his head at me, not even trying to hide what he was thinking. Well, he could just fuck off.

"When I was like fifteen or something. It was before mom and dad died. Even Darry remembers that." He shook his head, amused that they had managed to let something slip right past me. "Hey, Darry!"

"Yeah?" He was still in the kitchen but came out now to take a break from studying over this month's bills.

"Did you know that Pony had never heard of Bloody Mary?" God, now I was getting embarrassed. Were they going to let me live this down? It was past the point of being dumb and now I starting to be humiliated.

"No. So what?" He sat down next to me and grabbed a bowl and the chili spoon.

"Everyone's heard of Bloody Mary. And even if he hadn't, he should've after I did it." Soda was almost at a loss for words.

"Well, did you ever think that maybe Mom and Dad didn't want him scared? I'm sure there was a reason they didn't tell him. And I know you didn't because you were too scared, right?" Finally! Someone on my side. I was beginning to feel somewhat better about this.

"I guess," Soda replied. "But you never said anything?"

"No."

"How come?"

"I didn't care." He shrugged. "It didn't matter to me. Why are we even talking about this anyway?"

"Two-Bit was just trying to scare me, that's all," I spoke for everyone.

And it wasn't going to work. It almost did, but if Darry wasn't fazed by it, I wouldn't be either. Those three were lame enough to let it get to them. They probably thought they saw something, but didn't. That or they didn't want to come out with a lame-ass story about how it wasn't real and they had fallen for the trick. We'll let them stick to their story and I'll listen as if I actually cared.