Three teenage girls sat down with their legs crossed, forming a circle. Within the circle, a hand mirror lay on the floor. Elizabeth, a brown-skinned girl with puffy hair and glasses picked up a lighter. The candles, once lit, shined their dull light on her light blue pajama shirt and white pants, with light blue as the accent color. She joined hands with the other two girls: Jennifer, freckled ginger in a full set of green pajamas, and Kaley, a blonde woman wearing a pink t-shirt and black gym shorts. In unison and slight nervousness, they began to chant, "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary."
A typical candle would only produce heat within a small radius and a neat aurora, but the girls' body heat would rise gradually, and they would only smell smoke. Nevertheless, they would continue the seance. "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary!"
Finally, the thirteenth chant would be uttered. The girls patiently awaited the faces of their future spouses to appear in the mirror, and, like Jennifer expected for herself… nothing.
"Jennifer," Kaley called out, "I told you we were supposed to say it six times."
"Shut up, Kaley!" she fired back. "We should have walked up the stairs backward with the mirror as I said!"
Elizabeth slouched as she watched her friends throw words back and forth. "I knew this wouldn't work," she groaned, hands covering her face. A low, screechy voice would make her heart stop.
"Whoever said it didn't work?" Elizabeth looked behind her to see a pale white woman behind her. She wore a beige 20th-century dress with red highlights, the blood under her blackened eyes and mouth sharing the same color.
Jennifer and Kaley stared at her with as much surprise as Elizabeth. Mary let out a hollow screech, causing their hearts to pump faster than ever before as they panicked for their lives. Mary's screaming soon dissolved into laughter, but not the kind the girls would expect of her. "Oh, you should have seen the looks on your faces!" When her eyes opened, the void black was swapped out for normal human eyes, their irises red as velvet.
Once she calmed down, Mary introduced herself. Properly this time. "Mary B. Worth, haunting poor souls since 1920. Glad to meet ya!"
Kaley reluctantly shook Mary's hand, looking at her with a mix of stillborn fear and newborn confusion. "So you're not as malevolent as they say?"
"Sometimes," she shrugged. "Depends on the respect you show to me during the summoning. Oh, fun fact:" she perked, "this red stuff under my eyes and mouth, it's jam. And maybe the blood of the last group of boys whose eyes I scratched out." Elizabeth felt a chill up her spine, letting out a frightened moan. "Hey," Mary shouted, as she began to defend herself, "they acted like it would be nothing if I showed up. That's on them!"
"So, our method of circling candles and a mirror in the middle wouldn't have revealed our future spouses to us?" Elizabeth asked.
"No, you're supposed to walk up the stairs backward with the mirror for that," Mary answered.
"Told you, Kaley," Jennifer bragged.
"Shut up," Kaley shot.
"I wouldn't hold my breath, Jenny," Mary said. "You tried that method and did succeed. Your mirror showed you a skeleton in it."
"I know," Jennifer said, hanging her head. "It's such a shame I'll die before I get married."
"Not exactly."
"Huh?" Jennifer looked up in perplexion.
"One way or another, it shows who your spouse will be." Mary couldn't hold in the laughter building up inside her. "You're… you're going to marry a skeleton!" Mary fell onto her back, bursting into bloody tears of laughter. Jennifer was in absolute shock, with Kaley dry gagging and Elizabeth simply scooting a bit further from her. Mary would have to call her distant cousin Hanako about this one.
Elizabeth's door was suddenly opened, bringing the girl's attention to her mother entering the room.
"Alright, girls, I bought some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for you-" She stopped in spoken silence before dropping the candy to the ground.
Mary felt more awkward than the girls ever could. "So is it too late to explain the face jam? And maybe face blood?"
Elizabeth's mom cupped her hands to her face, yelling out a horrified scream before rushing out the room and down the stairs. "Richard! Richard!" she called out for her husband.
"Seems I've caused some trouble, so I gotta bounce." She quickly scooped up some of the Reese's Cups from the ground. "You have a nice marriage," she teased Jennifer, patting her on the shoulder, much to her dismay. "Mary B. Worth, signing out!" she yelled out before returning to whence she came… which was from the closet door.
Kaley and even Elizabeth couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "Have a nice marriage," Kaley jested at Jennifer.
"Shut up," she shot.