The Face in the mirror

Author's Notes: I do not own Ghost Hunt manga that is owned by Shiho Inada, with the novels being owned by Fuyumi Ono. I also do not own the Bloody Mary Urban Legends, unless you want to count the one I made for this story. Thanks to my neesan Kyia who helped me put pieces together and fill out any plot holes that might have been a problem. Also thanks to her beta reader Titenwren who betaed

The sounds of giggling and running water broke the silence in the dark room; the halls outside were devoid of noise. A throat cleared and this time the only noise in the room the running water; until the one of the voices of the inhabitants started speaking into the darkness.

"Bloody Mary," began a female voice, with a soft drawling accent. "Bloody Mary."

More giggling followed by the other girls joining in, chanting the name eleven more times their voices slowly becoming strained with fear, before the sound of splashing water could be heard. The next few minutes were filled with a tense silence.

"Well?" asked one of the girls. "Now what do we do?"

"Ah man," wailed another one. "I was hoping it would work too."

Someone giggled and the lights were turned on, momentarily blinding the girls as they blinked until their eyes adjusted to the light before they turned their attention to the girl standing by the switch. Her burnt-auburn hair was plaited into two braids with her bangs hanging slightly before her pale green eyes; she smiled at them, before moving back to join the small cluster of girls.

"Well," she said in her soft drawling voice, shrugging her shoulders. "It is just a legend, and I did tell you that out of all the times I tried it back home, it never worked."

"Anyway," said one of the girls, still disappointed, while checking her watch and turning the water off. "Let's get back to class - lunch is almost over."

The girls nodded together and made their way out of the bathroom, but not before the red- haired girl tripped on her own shoes and fell over.

"Savannah, how can you be so graceful on the stage or when practicing ballet and yet be such a klutz anywhere else?" asked one of the older girls, with shoulder- length lightly curled dark - brown hair and coal black eyes helping her up.

"Don't ask me, Chika," sighed Savannah, dusting herself off.

The voices of the girls slowly drifted off, leaving the bathroom empty, no one noticing that the lights were dimmer then normal – until Mai came dashing into the bathroom, making beeline for one of the stalls. The girl blinked a few times and glanced up at the ceiling, noticing that the lights seemed to have dimmed a bit; she frowned at the ceiling.

'Do the lights need to be changed?' she thought, before finishing her business with a soft sigh.

The moment she stepped before the mirror to wash her hands she noticed the water splotch dripping water down the reflective surface, she stared at it for a while, blinking. She sighed and shook her head, reaching for a paper towel; when her hand was hovering over the mirror's surface, the smell of blood assaulted her senses, blood and something else, and she nearly gagged, dropping the towel and covering her mouth and nose with both hands, hunching over slightly. Her eyes widened when the hairs on the back of her neck started to stand up, and she got the sensation that she was being watched, but there was no sign of anyone else being in the bathroom with her. She felt her breathing hitch until it was finally over and the smell of blood was gone, while the feeling of being watched was still there. Shaking slightly, she retrieved the fallen paper towel and wiped away the splotch on the mirror, shuddering slightly when it was over.

She then turned her attention from the mirror and left the bathroom, putting the water out of her mind, she broke into a run when the bell rang. She didn't notice the woman that had appeared in the mirror dressed in Puritan clothing, her blonde hair matted with blood and dirt hanging in her face and around her shoulders. A cold smile spread across her lips, the rest of her face hidden by hair and shadow, before she faded away.

Later that day

Mai sat at her desk at the office, her mind flitting from the office work to the strange sensation she had gotten in the bathroom at school. She had considered reporting it to Naru but had decided against that because, honestly, it was probably just her mind playing tricks on her. All the cases they had been on were probably making her paranoid, and besides, just because she had faced a similar situation in dealing with Vurado, that didn't mean her intuition was always going to be right. So there was no need to bother Naru with such a thing. Besides that, he would probably think her an idiot - not like he didn't already - and she was wasting his time, which she probably would have been. That didn't mean, however, that just the thought of the strange events in the bathroom didn't send her skin crawling or the hair standing on end in the back of her neck. Speaking of which she closed her eyes and hugged herself shivering a moment before going back to work, least she be caught and accused of not doing her work. That didn't mean, however, that she couldn't chase the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

Later that night

The bathroom was made up of ivory - tile and purple paint along the walls, with a light brown wood work for cabinets, and doors with brass fixtures. The ivory tiled sink and counter top had several pillar candles of varying shades of light purple that were lit and filling the room was the scent of lavender and lilac; the flames were well enough away from the lavender hand towels with lilac lace that were hanging from an ivory towel bar beside the door to the bathroom, so that they wouldn't cause a fire. The bathroom mirror took up a good portion of the wall, running the length of the sink and its counter. There was one closet across from it that held other towels, cleaning supplies, and medicine on its shelves, along with a variety of other household objects. Then finally, beside the closet was the shower, which was currently on and filling the room with steam, the occupant of the shower's outline being seen through the lavender plastic shower curtain. Beside the shower was the toilet, and above the toilet was the room's window, which was currently being hit by the slowly beating rain.

Chika sighed and wiped the steam from her bathroom mirror, tightening the towel around her body. She fixed the towel around her head and turned the water on reaching for her toothbrush, she yawned a bit before going about the task of getting ready to brush her teeth before bed. She blinked when a loud crash could be heard and turned her attention to the small window above the toilet, noticing that the storm that had been threatening to come all day was finally starting to show. It was still barely raining, but the sky was surging with thunder and lighting. She sighed and shook her head; she hated storms – it was always hard to sleep at night when it stormed; she slept just fine when it rained, but not when it stormed. She turned her attention back to the mirror and started finishing the task of brushing her teeth. The lights blinked a couple of times to the steady beat of the faucet's drip and the rain before going out.

"Great," moaned Chika, rolling her eyes heavenward. "Just great; well, at least I didn't blow the candles out after my shower."

That said, she leaned over the sink to brush her teeth closer to the mirror and by the faint light that was provided by the candles; spitting into the sink she turned the water back on to wash away the toothpaste suds and spit before leaning over even more to take some into her mouth. She rinsed away the rest of the toothpaste suds and then spit that all out into the sink, and wiped her face off with a nearby towel before dropping it into the trash beneath the counter and behind a cabinet door. She turned the faucet off until the usual drip was heard and then one by one began to blow the candles; not noticing that ripples were appearing on the bathroom mirror, she did however notice the scent of blood and something else she wasn't quite sure of. She wrinkled her nose and backed away from the last candle, waving a hand before her face in annoyance.

"Yuck," she groaned, making a mental note to talk to her father about the possibility of something having died in the ventilation system or something of the like.

She moved closer to the mirror and froze, not quite believing her eyes; there was someone in the room with her, behind her, in fact. The woman was wearing a black dress with white trim and white apron secured around her small waist; her blonde hair that was cascading around her shoulders and before her face like a curtain was matted with blood and dirt; she stood there behind Chika with her hands hanging limply at her sides and her head bowed almost as if the neck had been broken. The brunette turned around slowly, her hands gripping the counter's edge until they were white, and she stood there, her breathing hitched; her eyes ran down to the woman's hands, noticing that her nails were abnormally long and that the fingers were twitching slightly, like they were itching to do something. The head slowly began to raise along with the arms and Chika's eyes widened in fear; the scream that had been caught in her throat ripped free and a bloodcurling scream filled the air before the hands swung down and blood splattered the surrounding area.

Next Day

Whispers flew from student to student; the entire school had found out about Chika's tragedy and how strange the tragedy was. The family owned no pets to account for the animal-like scratches along her face; nor was there any sign of forced entry into the house, animal or human. It truly was odd, so the police were investigating it and were looking at the members of the family as being the suspects; they weren't ruling out suicide, however.

The group that had been in the bathroom with Chika doing the Bloody Mary ritual was huddled together in one of the class-rooms, whispering amongst each other.

"What if the ritual really worked," whispered one of the girls fearfully. "What if we really raised Bloody Mary?"

"Oh don't be such a twit, Jun," hissed one of the other girls. "There is no such thing as Bloody Mary!"

"But Chiyo," whined the girl.

"Chiyo's right," said Savannah, putting her book down and joining them. "There is no connection to Chika's death and the Blood Mary ritual."

"How do you know?" whimpered Jun. "How do you know we didn't cause this?"

"Because," said Savannah, with finality. "The legend says that if Bloody Mary doesn't show up in the mirror then the ritual didn't work, and since none of us saw her, it didn't work. Right?"

"Right," said the girls, nodding.

"Good," said Savannah.

"Okay," said Chiyo, firmly. "Chika's death was just a terrible tragedy and had no connection whatsoever to the ritual we had performed that day; it's just some fluke coincidence, that's all."

"Right," said Savannah, clapping her hands together. "Let's all get to our own classrooms and everything will be fine."

The girls nodded and Jun followed Savannah back to their class. The rest of the school day flew by without a hitch until lunch, in which another group had gathered in the girls' bathroom, with the lights out and the faucet running.

"Bloody Mary," chanted the girls. "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary."

The chanting started to break up a bit as the girls reached the thirteenth name and their fear started to get the better of them; one of the girls took a deep breath and reached into the running water for a handful, which she threw at the mirror. The girls waited for something to happen, holding their breath and watching the mirror; somewhere in the back of their minds they registered that the faucet was no longer running. One of the girls yelped when it started dripping and they noticed that the lights were flickering on and off to the dripping water. When the final drop of water fell from the faucet, ripples appeared on the mirror's surface. Then their breathing hitched when a feminine figure began to take shape within the ripples; with the last ripple the figure became solid and they saw her standing before them with her head bowed and her blonde hair hanging before her face, matted with blood and dirt, her black and white clothing looking old and battered.

"What's that smell?" whispered one, cupping her hands over her nose.

"I don't know," answered another one, coughing a little.

"Hey look," whispered one of them.

The girls watched the female raise her head and arms slowly; their eyes widened when they caught a glimpse of her face beneath the hair, and they ran out of the bathroom nearly stumbling over each other. They crashed out of the bathroom and nearly slammed into one of the hall monitors, mumbling their apologies; they headed back to their classes, staggering slightly so as not to seem too strange. After awhile they got over their fear and started to giggle at the entire thing.

Night

The bathroom that Chiyo shared with her two sisters had the motif of the ocean. The tiles and bathroom rugs where all a sandy color, with the towels being varying shades of blues; the walls had an ocean mural painted on them with various fish swimming around the walls, and various marine plant life was painted along the middle of the walls above the sea-green tiles. She let out a soft sigh and glanced down at the sink and counter, both of which were a dark green tarnished metal that matched the cabinets beneath them and made the entire thing look like something that had been pulled from a shipwreck, though the sink was in the form of a shell. The shell theme had been taken on into the larger mirror, which had small shells pasted to the outline of it, forming a border. The entire thing, in Chiyo's opinion, was rather garish and a bit much; though her sisters did seem to love it, she hoped that that would change when they got older. The only good thing about the bathroom was the large tub that was good for soaking in and the fact that the shower curtain that went in front of it was a pretty green. Plus, the window beside the toilet had a netting in front of the normal ocean-blue curtain that had shells stuck in it. So it wasn't all bad – just most of it, and Chiyo tried to spend as little time in here as possible, unless she was taking a long bath, and even then she pulled the curtains shut and pretended she was somewhere else.

Chiyo stared into the mirror, rubbing face cleaner between her hands under the running water before pulling her hands out and transferring the face wash to her face, rubbing it in circles. The storm that had started the night before raged outside, the rain pouring from the sky while the thunder and lighting remained just as strong. The lights in the house had been flickering off and on throughout the night, which is why Chiyo had taken to carrying a flashlight with her – in case the lights did go out before she hit the sack. She glanced up at the ceiling when the lights began to flicker on and off a few times before going off; she sighed reaching for the flashlight to turn it on and setting it point upwards she then bent down over the sink and cupped her hands beneath the running water to rinse her face a few times, she repeated this issue routine a few times before reaching over to turn the water off. Taking her hand towel she dried her face not noticing the ripples forming on the mirror's surface nor the woman emerging in the mirror behind her.

When Chiyo dropped the towel to the side she yawned briefly, blinking a few times before turning her attention to look into the mirror, at the same time reaching for her toothbrush until she noticed the woman behind her. She blinked a few times and turned around quickly, looking at the woman and trying to push herself into the counter top.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my bathroom?" she hissed. "Screw the bathroom, what the hell are you doing in my house?! Not only, that but what the hell are you doing in THAT?!"

Chiyo winced when she started to smell the scent of blood and something else; it reminded her of the time the meat in the refrigerator had gone bad, but not quite.

"Hey!" she snapped, her anger giving way to fear, which somewhat fed her anger. "Look at me when I am talking to you!"

The blonde-headed woman in the strange clothing slowly began to lift her head and raise her arms, and for the first time Chiyo noticed the long, sharp nails. She screamed once and then it was cut off when the stranger's hands swung down and blood went everywhere.

Next Day

Mai collapsed into her desk and sighed, laying her head against the cool top; she was finding it hard to believe that two of her schoolmates had died within twenty-four hours of each other. She had heard whispers from the students who had been interviewed on their thoughts on the dead girls' personal and family life. Whispers of family problems and relationship problems for the girls had flown throughout the school. Accusations came from the police about whether or not their fathers had abused them, or someone else in the family had. Those that knew the girls best were outraged when the police questioned them about what they thought of the girls being suicidal; they told each other that they didn't believe for one minute the girls would crack under pressure. Tempers were running high, along with the stress of having the police asking for students to interview.

Mai really wanted this day to be over; every time she entered the bathroom the bad feeling she would get would increase, and she constantly got the feeling that she was going to either faint or lose her food. She was almost tempted to call in, but she knew that would only cause problems with Naru, problems she didn't want. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair when the teacher stepped into the room and prepared for the afternoon classes.

Making her way through the halls, she caught snippets of conversing students; even the students that hadn't been questioned by the police were talking about it. The two girls had slashes going down the front of their faces and the back of their heads had hit, or been smashed into, the mirror. The students that had been interviewed were exchanging the questions they had been asked and the answers they had given.

"Can you believe the questions they asked? I mean, I can't believe they asked me if they did drugs! After I got over the shock of that question I simply told them 'no sir, the girls didn't do drugs.'"

"They asked if she had any family problems? Well, I simply told them they didn't have any that I was aware of."

"I still can't believe they asked me if Chika's father was abusive! I simply told them flat-out that I couldn't imagine Chika's father being abusive—he is far too kind for that—and that even though Chiyo's father was a bit cold, I still couldn't see him being abusive either."

"Did they ask you about the girls having boyfriends? They didn't? That's odd – I would have thought that they would have. What did I tell them in response to that question? Simple 'No, I don't think they had any. Chika had one or two boys interested in her but neither one of them seems like the sort of person that would do that.'"

Mai sighed and pushed her way towards the front door; she had to hurry if she wasn't going to be late for work – Naru hated tardiness, especially from her. When she arrived at work she set her stuff by the desk before making her rounds to see if Naru or Lin wanted tea, and then set about preparing their preferred teas – black for Naru and peppermint for Lin. Once this was finished, she booted up the computer and got to work on the office work that Naru had given her. An hour had passed and she was in the middle of typing up a report on a case they had just finished, when she started to get that strange feeling again. It almost felt like she was being watched, but seeing how her back was to the wall and the office was on the second floor, and not only that, but the doors were closed to Lin and Naru's offices, there was no way someone could be watching her. She bit her lower lip and looked around just to make sure no one had slipped inside when she wasn't paying attention; she breathed a sigh of relief to notice she was still alone in the front office, because if someone had come in she would have gotten an earful from Naru.

However, knowing she was alone in the room didn't ease the feel of her being watched. She sighed and blinked her eyes. She was starting to get paranoid and the storm that had been raging for the past few days wasn't helping; it was giving the entire city the feel of a B - horror movie or mystery. Shaking her head, she got up from her seat and headed towards the bathroom so she could throw a little water on her face hoping that would help her to shake whatever funk she was in now; besides that, she really did need to use the restroom.

Lin was finding it hard to concentrate. His Shiki were acting strange- they had been the past couple of days, but only when Taniyama was in the office. But today, or was it tonight, they seemed especially agitated, almost as if the storm that had been raging for the past few days had brought something with it, something yearning for the girl's blood.

Mai sighed and washed her hands, cupping them slightly to allow water to pool in them before splashing some water on her face. That horrid feeling she had been having all day just seemed to increase with every passing moment; it was like she was waiting for the executioner's axe to drop. She stayed there for a moment, her hands on the sink; leaning over it and letting the water drip from her face, her eyes closed and she breathed slowly in and out. She glanced up at the ceiling watching the lights flicker on and off, the water still dripping from her face not noticing the ripples appearing on the mirror in time with the water dripping from her face. She scrunched her nose up in annoyance when the lights flickered off and turned her attention back to the direction of the mirror.

It was then that the strange smell assaulted her nose; she coughed slightly and covered her mouth and nose with her hands, her eyes tearing up from the stench. She knew this smell, she had smelt it in the bathroom at school when the lights had needed to be changed—they still did- and she had found the splotch of water on the mirror. She coughed some more and leaned against the sink; her stomach retching from the odor, she could not remember it being this strong before. She glanced up at the mirror as the lights slowly began to turn on until they cast a faint glow, similar to candle light, around the room, and it was then that Mai realized she was not alone in the bathroom.

She knew this smell, she had smelt it in the bathroom at school when the lights had needed to be changed -they still did- and she had found the splotch of water on the mirror. She coughed some more and leaned against the sink; her stomach retching from the odor, she could not remember it being this strong before. She glanced up at the mirror as the lights slowly began to turn on until they cast a faint glow, similar to candle light, around the room, and it was then that Mai realized she was not alone in the bathroom.

A gasp left her lips and her eyes went wide in terror; spinning around, her mind registered the woman standing before her. The black dress the woman wore with a white square neck and cuffs was stained with blood and dirt; it was torn in places, showing skin along the body and in some places that weren't fit to be seen. The woman's blonde hair was unbound around her shoulders and before her face, dirty and sticking together in clumps by blood and dirt. The young woman could feel her breath coming to her quickly and she was breathing heavily with her heart pounding in her ears and sweat dripping down her face. The smell seemed to consume her like a flood and her eyes followed the movements of the woman's hands as they slowly rose in front of her, the woman's normal nails growing to an unnatural sharpness and length. Then her eyes focused on the woman's now raised and visible face; pale skin was marred with ugly red scars, and beautiful gray eyes were filled with raw rage and hatred. Movement from the corner of Mai's eyes caused her to throw herself against the bathroom sink and scream in terror, which blended with pain.

Lin frowned when his Shiki began to get more agitated; they had been acting like this ever since the lights had flickered and gone out because of the storm. He had been sitting in the dark for a minute, feeling grateful that he had saved the stuff he had been working on before the power had started flickering on and off, or else he would have lost everything. He breathed a sigh of relief when the light started to slowly turn on, though he had to admit he did find this odd, and was just getting up to make sure Mai was fine when her bloodcurling scream shot through the office and sent him running from the room in its direction. He wasn't surprised to find Naru shooting to the girl's rescue right beside him. The closer they got to the bathroom and the stench of blood and death coming from it, the worse their worry grew. They couldn't help but wonder what they were going to find on the other side of the door.