My story takes place
in July, the summer of 1976. My best friend at the time, whose name I will not
disclose, was turning fifteen and her parents allowed her to have a slumber
party to celebrate.
As teenagers are
wont to do, we thought it would be fun to stay up all night and tell ghost
stories, maybe have a seance, and even sneak out of the house and go walking
through a graveyard. We told the ghost stories for about an hour then later
had a seance. We tried calling up the usual spirits such as famous people,
movie stars, etc. We even tried calling up the famous mirror ghost, 'Bloody
Mary'.
Unsuccessful in our
attempts at calling up spirits, we grew bored and discussed sneaking out of
the house and walking down the road to the graveyard. In the end though, we
decided against it out of fear of getting caught and having
the party called off. Then
someone jokingly said, "maybe we can call up Bloody Mary through the bathroom
mirror, after all that's the way you are supposed to
contact her anyway'. It sounded like scary fun so we all agreed to play the
game of 'Bloody Mary'.
The first couple of
us who played, nothing actually happened although it was scary enough just
playing. Then came my best friend's turn. She went into the bathroom, shut the
door, and turned out the light (this is part of the game.) A couple or three
minutes later the rest of us heard a thump coming from the bathroom. We called
to my friend but received no answer. Thinking she was trying to scare us, one
of us went quietly over to the bathroom door and, thinking to catch her off
guard, snatched it open. We found my friend on her knees, swaying back and
forth as if in a trance or about to pass out. Someone asked her what'd
happened but she didn't answer, she only stared into space.
We got her up and
over to the bed and laid her down. She began to
tremble violently. Large welts, about an inch each in length, began to appear
on her face, neck, arms, and legs. By this time we were really scared, and
though we tried talking calmly to her, it wasn't helping, for it seemed like
the more we talked, the more violently she trembled. Then someone grabbed her
student bible and placed it in her hands. She clutched it tightly, as if it
were a lifeline or something. Finally the trembling began to subside and the
welts began to fade until they were gone completely. My friend finally drifted
off and slept peacefully the rest of the night.
Now there was some
doubt as to whether or not she had scratched
herself, therefore causing the welts to appear, in order to scare us. The
doubts, however, were quickly dispelled the next morning when there was no
evidence that the welts had ever even been there. We knew that if she'd
scratched herself, there would've been some tell tale signs on her skin. There
were none. My friend remembered nothing of what'd happened after she'd gone
into the bathroom that night. Even so, she began to change after that. She
began distancing herself from her friends, even I, and I was her best friend.
She started getting into trouble at school until she was expelled completely.
She would run away from home only to be brought back until she would run away
again. This happened several times before her parents decided to have her sent
to reform school, (as it was called in those days.) Even after serving her
time and being released, she would continue to run away from home. She had
never done any of this before that night.
Though she and I
would still talk on occasion, we were never very close again, and the events
of that night were never brought up. Some months, maybe even a year later, She
and her family moved to Brunswick, Ga. We lost touch completely after that. I
can only hope that whatever had invaded her that night has finally released
her from it's clutches and she is living a normal, happy life...
