The floor was open one last time, and there was one
person left to tell their story.
"Hey everybody, I guess it's my turn now," David
said with his eyes glued to the ground. "All of your stories have
been great and it has been really exciting hearing about all of them,
but my story will definitely leave you speechless. I am not sure
how to go about telling my story, but I will try my best.
Most of you did not come upon the ghost who you encountered on purpose,
but I, on the other hand, enticed this incident. I was at a
sleepover with about five of my buddies from school and it was right
around Halloween time, maybe a week before. The sleepover itself
was meant to be fun and scary, but what we decided to do will haunt me
forever.
"We met up at my house around seven o'clock that
evening so that it was already dark outside. One of the kids
there decided to go play the 'Hail Mary' game in the bathroom.
Half of us had no idea what he was talking about. We followed him
into the bathroom where our game would take place. He explained
that the game would consist of us turning off the lights and facing the
mirror, while one volunteer would chant 'Hail Mary' seven times with
each time getting louder until it was almost at a full scream. I
volunteered and I regret it very much. He guided me to face the
mirror because the lights were already off. I hesitated but I was
trying hard not to tremble in front of my friends. Part of
the rules also stated that I had to spin around in a circle while
chanting so that I would see the mirror once every spin. I began
the chant.
"Each time I spun around it seemed as if the mirror
would get lighter but everything else remained black as night. By
the fifth or sixth spin, the mirror had blackened again and I began to
notice something appearing in the mirror. I was getting dizzy so
I thought it was just something I imagined. On the last spin I
saw two red eyes in the mirror, but they were about seven feet above
the ground! I immediately let out a scream of horror and the rest
of the group ran out of the bathroom as fast as they could. I was
the last to get out, and when I reached the light of the bedroom all of
my friends stared at me in disbelief. I asked them what they were
looking at but none of them could answer, only point. They were
pointing toward my hands. I looked down and noticed that my hands
were covered in what looked like blood! The whole group stared at
me without saying a word for what felt like an eternity. We all
started to scream at the same time and ran out of the room while I was
trying to wipe the blood off my hands. We reached the front yard,
but when we got there we all turned around to notice that all of the
lights in the house that had once been turned on had turned
black. As scared as we were at that moment, we turned around
without thinking and started for someone else's house!
"We got to Jimmy's house safely. At that
point we didn't know what to think. We sat down on Jimmy's couch
and stared at one another. We played the staring game for about
half an hour before we decided to play video games to take our mind off
of the incident. Everyone else seemed to forget about it...except
me. I have not been able to get this out of my mind since it
happened."
Dr. Kriegel noticed that David was finished.
"So all of you have told your stories, and now it is time for me to
tell my own." He sat his clipboard down and stood up.
"I have something to tell all of you, and it may
come as a bit of a surprise. I am actually the answer to all of
your problems. I am not only a counselor...I am a ghost. I
died fifteen years ago and I have not been able to give up my
profession because I loved it so much." He hesitated and began to
float off the ground! "I do not want to frighten
any of you, but I had to tell you soon. Since I have been dead I
have been able to learn from the living in many ways. I
learned a lot from you guys while you were telling me your
stories. I actually know all of the ghosts you told stories
about, and I will tell you up front that they mean you no harm. I
was there in the woods with the hitchhiker, I was there with the
children when they were killed by the train, I was in the Toys 'R' Us
and I was also at your house, David. I do not want any of you to
be scared...I only want to learn what I can from those that are
still living, and I will also begin to share what I have learned with
other ghosts as well."
Author's note: I took the original urban legend of "Bloody Mary"
and turned it into "Hail Mary." The kids in my story experienced
it up close and personal and will never forget it. The horror of
this story is the blood that appears on David's hands, but it is never
explained how it got there. The original urban legend has many
different versions of the story, but I chose the one that requires you
to spin around in a circle and then ever so slightly the ghost appears
in the mirror when you face it! This legend has had many people
scared for some time, and a lot of people refuse to go after it.
Dr. Kriegel did in fact turn out to be a ghost himself. Not only
was he a ghost, but he was actually present during all of the kids'
experiences!
Image Information: Bloody
Mary
Bibliography: "Bloody Mary" Snopes.com:
Rumor has it.
