Short Story; Bloody Mary

Trigger warning, gore, death, violence

I exist in the fog of this strange mirror realm, my ethereal essence is tethered to countless mirrors scattered in the mortal realm. I am Bloody Mary. Waiting for the living to beckon me forth with a simple candle-lit chant. I’m not alone here, not the only Bloody Mary. The curse that brings our souls here, has no mercy.  The mortal world has no shortage of women murdered by their husbands, whilst a mirror closely watches. The on-looking mirror captures the death trauma. We all become Bloody Mary.

The spectral fog of this realm keeps us alone yet aware of the others in the dark. Angry, chaotic, bloodthirsty. The pain bubbled up in monstrous moans. I'm impatiently waiting for the shimmer of a mirror calling me forth to kill. All that I have left is the blur of my final mortal memory. The sting of it torments me, rolling the pit of my stomach over and over… consuming my brain and emotions like an out-of-control fire, burning up my heart as it goes on. It tastes like sour rotten death on my tongue. The last memory that brought me here…

I remember a dimly lit room, with an ornate mirror leaning against the wall from me. The reflection is so unfamiliar now. My dark hair hung in disheveled tendrils around my pale face. Trembling hands tugged at the constricting bodice of my lace wedding gown, now stained with dirt and despair. Gazing at the wide brown eyes, the tears flowing down, a desperate and terrified face in that mirror.  Chilling awareness came too late, as a large dark silhouette appeared behind me in the reflection. My heart pounded so hard it should have shattered the bones that contained it. The sensation of my breath catching in my throat, choking on my silent scream. There he was, ax gripped in hand, his face obscured in shadow, malevolent presence overcoming the entire room.  He raised his weapon high, gleaming, swinging. The final memory, the final moment, before darkness consumed me. Only I awoke here, in the cursed mirror realm. One of the many Bloody Marys.

I feel the faint stirrings of a summoning. Shimmer now appearing before me. Cocking my head to the side, sounds are coming through. Hushed giggles of two young girls before a mirror. Their youthful faces are filled with trepidation and excitement, illuminated by the glow of a single small candle. With anticipation I’m listening, their eyes lock on the mirror. Voices trembling,

“Bloody Marry, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary..” they chant in unison.

Their chant echoes through the glass shimmer, a siren call summoning me. I feel the invisible threads from the shimmer drawing me in closer. Pulling me into their world. They shiver as the temperature drops, the fog of my realm spilling through blowing the last flicker of light out. My presence can always be felt. My desire for revenge, the cold breath in my throat, I know already. The blood price was not paid in the summoning. To avoid death and reap a wish you must offer blood. It’s not been paid. Shuddering my joints snap, nails grow long, deadly sharp. My teeth ache as they extend out, through my malevolent grin. Passing through to their realm, ready to take the blood debt. 

Their screams pierce the air as they scramble for the door, desperate to escape the nightmare they have conjured. 

“Help! Please help!”

“No! No! Please!”

Voices shrieking in high pitch, while they paw at the door I’ve sealed shut. My power is too strong for these foolish girls. Their throats feel warm as my fingers clamp down, pulse tangible beneath my nails. Just begging for freedom. Nails easily dig in. Their silence is instant, now just gurgles and gasps. Suffocating in their blood. There is a price to summon Bloody Mary. Warmth coats my fingers, and arterial spray covers my face and gown. My cheeks tighten with an even wider grin while life quickly slips away from their eyes. The girl's bodies crumple to the floor in a satisfying thud. Murderous delight washes over me as the fog pulls me back. Two more souls paid the price of poor choices. Pathetic mortals. A laugh escapes my grin, letting the taste of pennies reach my tongue. The shimmer washes over me and I’m returned to the ethereal mirror realm.

Instantly I feel a shift, off balance, and the oppressive fog has a strange purplish tint. The shrieks are different, broken, and wrong. Something here is wrong. The mirror realm echoes with sounds of cracking glass, the ground under me shifting in impossible ways. Grotesque women appear with anguished cries. Seeing other Marys for the first time in this fog. That can't be possible. There's not enough time to look at them before they shatter, thick red ooze imploding into impossible glass shards. Shimmers fly all around as they try to escape the strange haze.  With a lightning sensation, the knowledge hits me, the mirror realm is collapsing. I don’t know when I even raised my hands but I reached hard and fast grasping for the shimmers. The only doors. The only escape. Spinning, confused, I hear a chant, I hear someone in a shimmer! There, the back leg and foot disappear through a shimmer to my left. It's holding, I can make it. 

The claws of a grotesque old woman with hollow bloodshot eyes, her hair soaked in gore grab at my wrist.  I yank away, shoving past her toward the shimmer. Away from her screams of agony. The unraveling of this mirror realm brings a choking thickness to the haze surrounding me. The haze trying to unravel my twisted existence, chilling my bones with dread. I stretch my hands out painfully reaching, and leap into the shimmer. A disorienting whirlwind hits me, the strange tingles consuming my body as I'm passing through the shimmer. Tumbling forward into oblivion I close my eyes in the confusion.

I have emerged into the mortal realm as if dropped by a hurricane. The world around me is filled with the vibrant colors and sounds that had been absent from my existence for an eternity. Overwhelming. My ears ringing while my skin burns. I can barely squint through my eyes. I can’t stand it, my body is lit up with uncontrolled shakes and groans. I feel wrong. Different. Has there always been this painful thump in my chest? Why can I feel my toes? The bright colors gleam through my lashes, blinking and forcing my eyes to open, cold fingers raised before my face to block it out. Normal fingers, pale, with short nails. The claws are gone. Gone? I feel…alive.

Slowly, painfully looking down at myself, I realized that I was no longer the twisted, spectral figure that had haunted the mirrors of the Mirror Realm. I had taken on a human form, one that was both beautiful and haunting, a reflection of the torment I had endured. A reflection like my final memory. Somehow I resemble that pathetic little woman, that mortal waste, how can this be? Where are my claws, my spectral figure that snaps and bends inhumanely? 

Pain coursed through my body as I lay on the cold, unforgiving ground, disoriented and bewildered. My side and thigh throbbed with a searing agony that felt almost foreign. Something heavy pinned me down, and I struggled to make sense of my surroundings.

The grunts that escaped my lips sounded strange, almost unrecognizable. Was this me? I felt like a distorted version of myself, like a broken reflection in a shattered mirror.

Amid the chaos of my confusion, the voices of humans pierced the fog of my thoughts. They were loud, booming, and filled with a bizarre mix of excitement and fear. I strained to understand their words, but they were fragmented and disjointed.

"Get her!"

"Holy shit, did you see that?"

"Is this the right one or the one that got away?!"

These voices were infuriating, a cacophony that grated on my senses. Who were these mortals, and how dare they treat me like this? The rage inside me built like an approaching storm, threatening to consume everything in its path.

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into the dirty hard cement beneath me, as I vowed to unleash my wrath upon them. They would pay for their audacity, for daring to capture me, to hurt me. My thoughts darkened, my vision blurred with a fiery intensity, and I knew one thing for certain:

I would kill them all.