A/n: A little bit of background information I think you might want to know about this. This story actually started out as a posted as a fanfic. is still posted as a fanfic. But ever since I wrote it I've been wishing I had made it into an original instead, so I've gone back and made a second copy of it - new names, new situations, new setting, new terms, and completely new characters. I hope that I've corrected everything that I've needed to. I've gone over it at least ten times and I think I caught everything.

Keira

---

Chapter One

I kicked a beer can at my feet as Troy and I slowly walked to my house. We had been lounging around in the park, tossing a football back and forth. But it was getting chilly and we got bored real fast. The air was getting smoggy and the sky was heavily overcast, which we took to mean that it was going to rain soon. Since neither of us had on coats or had an umbrella to protect us, we decided to move it to our house and grab a bite to eat. It was close to dinner, if it hadn't started already.

"You still don't believe me do ya, kid?" he asked. I sighed and crossed my arms for a little more warmth against a light breeze. Sometimes I wondered where he came up with his stories. I knew most of them weren't true, but he was constantly making them up. It amazed me to know that he couldn't stand to look at a book, let alone read one. He had been trying, for the last half an hour or so, to convince me of this thing he heard; some Bloody Mary junk. Hell, if she was real I'm sure Zander or Patrick would've told me. Even Steve would've told me to try and scare me. It wasn't working, Troy's effort, that is.

"Give me one good reason to believe it and I'll consider." I humored him. You have to do that with Troy, otherwise it crushes his spirit, and that's not something you want to see from him. Sad Troy is more painful than flunking the last test of the term that was supposed to pull your grade back up to passing.

"Hell, Mike, ain't you thinkin' that maybe I've tried it before?" he asked incredulously. Right, and I'm sure one of the guys was right there to scare the hell out of him too. I wouldn't put it past him to give into the story and test it's truthfulness, and I definitely didn't put it past any of the gang to back up his story with whatever they were able to conjure in his bathroom. I almost had to laugh at his persistence. I've never seen anyone so adamant about a legend, or whatever you want to call it; let alone a nineteen year old punk who isn't scared at the thought of a fight or a night in jail.

"All right. So you've tried it. What happens?"

"Damn, Mike, do we gotta get your hearing checked? I told you, it's different every time, man."

"What do you mean?" That was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. How many stories can people make up to go along with seeing a bloody lady in the mirror? Very few, I'm sure.

"I mean that it ain't never the same twice. What the heck do you think I mean?"

I smiled to myself. He had gotten himself way too worked up over this. If it hadn't been Troy I wouldn't believe that he was serious, but he was, so I knew he had to be. Which was ridiculous, because there was no such thing as ghosts, and especially not such a thing as a dead woman who haunts mirrors. Who ever made that up had to be on acid or something. It sounded like a bunch of shit to me.

"Fine, so it's different. What was so different that happened to you?" It was clear that he wanted to talk about this and he wasn't going to drop the subject, so I might as well go along with it and hear his story. That's what he wanted, wasn't it?

We reached the house and walked up to do the door. The lights were on and the sound of Nickleback was vibrating off the walls. The smell of chili was resting in the air and I realized for the first time that night exactly how hungry I was. We pushed the front door open and the sound and smell of everything suddenly magnified. "She broke my mirror and held up thing, and pointed it at me! So I beat it outta there, man. I wasn't ready to die," he yelled.

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing. You couldn't hear me against the music and the sound of Pat's attempt to get Steve and Zander to quit wrestling in the hall (he never minded the roughhousing, it was where the roughhousing took place that mattered to him), but I was definitely having a good laugh about it. Troy just stared at me, trying to figure out what it was that I found so funny about his attempted-murder.

I patted Troy on the back, and tried to collect myself, ignoring the fact that he was glaring down at me. Yeah, he was definitely much taller than me. I thought that I'd have some sort of a growth spurt within the last year, but it never happened. I was still standing at a measly five foot four, and he had managed to grow two inches more, topping him off at six foot three. But, height was the least of my worries. He was still four years older than me, more than twice my size, and could pound me like a stake into the floor if he wanted. I knew he never would, and that was what kept me feeling like an equal to him and kept me teasing him.

"Mike!" Patrick called. "Come get this stuff out on the table!"

Still chuckling over Troy's tale, I went into find out what Patrick wanted exactly. It was apparent that he had given up trying to convince me, because he didn't follow me, but instead went to see what all the ruckus was in the hallway and to see if he could join in the fun. It amazed me that he could go from spooked to miffed to excited in under a second.

"Hey, Pat." I went over to the stove while he came back in to see if anything was burning. Ah, the food smelled great. I couldn't wait to taste it. I'm so glad Patrick had the day off of work and was able to cook. I don't know how much longer I could've gone on Zander's cooking. His cooking wasn't bad, but it was nice to have normal food every once in a while that I didn't have to make myself.

"Hi, Michael," he said as he rummaged through a small pile of papers on the counter. Bills. It was obvious that he was busy, and that he had barely heard me, so I grabbed a couple of hotpads and carried the food out to the table. There was no real point in trying to strike up a conversation, and since I didn't have anything new to say it would be more or less redundant to begin one. I then went to go get some more bowls and spoons, assuming that Steve and Troy weren't about to leave, and set them on the side of the table that we don't usually use.

Zander came half running, half stumbling into the dining room area with Steve Troy behind him. They were all laughing hysterically and since I had no idea what was going on, I tried to ignore it. I wasn't exactly up to feeling left out of whatever they were keeping to themselves. They all grabbed seats and dug into the food. None of them said anything but kept on sending each other looks and cracking up. Whatever it was, they didn't want me to know, and I wasn't going to ask. I wasn't feeling up to being told that I wasn't old enough to hear. I didn't care to be reminded of how much they felt they needed to protect me, or in Steve's case, just plain leave me out in the dark. It didn't make sense and I didn't want to try and make it make sense.

A few minutes later, Troy decided that it was impossible for him to not speak, so he picked our conversation back up. "Do you believe me yet?"

I glanced up at him, somewhat surprised to find him speaking to me. "If I say yes, will you let it be?"

He thought for a moment. ".Yes." I couldn't tell if he just wanted to give it a rest after all, or if he was confused. Either way I'd take it.

"Then, yeah, I believe you." I smiled at the immaturity of it all. I couldn't believe he had taken it this far.

"What are y'all talking about?" Zander asked, shoving soup in his mouth.

I beat Troy to it. I'd save him the humiliation. "He told me about this thing called Bloody Mary, and he's been trying to convince me about it. That's all." I shrugged and scooped up some chili onto saltine cracker and bit into it.

Zander stopped and stared at me confused. He literally froze with his spoon in mid air. "You've never heard of that before?"

"Nope." I didn't see what the big deal was. They were all acting like I was crazy because no one ever informed me of some stupid childhood fear of theirs. Big deal. I was just either lucky enough to missed out on being scared at night and every time I went into the bathroom, or I was smart enough to not let it affect me.

"Are you sure?"

"Um. yeah."

It was Steve's turn to speak up. "You're fifteen and you've never tried. no. never heard of Bloody Mary?"

"What's with you guys?" I asked, laughing nervously. "Who cares?"

"Mike, there's no way you don't remember me doing it." Zander answered. "Everyone remembers that."

"Wait. you tried it? When?" My stomach began to fall at that point. Somehow it suddenly seemed a little more important with Zander involved. My brothers were always more believable than the guys. Steve was shaking his head at me, not even trying to hide what he was thinking. Well, he could just buzz off.

"When I was like fifteen or something. It was before mom and dad died. Even Pat remembers that." He shook his head, amused that they had managed to let something slip right past me. "Hey, Pat!"

"Yeah?" He was still in the kitchen but came out now to take a break from studying over this month's bills.

"Did you know that Mike had never heard of Bloody Mary?" Now I was getting embarrassed. Were they going to let me live this down? It was past the point of being dumb and now I starting to be humiliated.

"No. So what?" He sat down next to me and grabbed a bowl and the chili spoon.

"Everyone's heard of Bloody Mary. And even if he hadn't, he should've after I did it." Zander was almost at a loss for words.

"Well, did you ever think that maybe Mom and Dad didn't want him scared? I'm sure there was a reason they didn't tell him. And I know you didn't because you were too scared, right?" Finally! Someone on my side. I was beginning to feel somewhat better about this.

"I guess," Zander replied. "But you never said anything?"

"No."

"How come?"

"I didn't care." He shrugged. "It didn't matter to me. Why are we even talking about this anyway?"

"Troy was just trying to scare me, that's all," I spoke for everyone.

And it wasn't going to work. It almost did, but if Patrick wasn't fazed by it, I wouldn't be either. Those three were lame enough to let it get to them. They probably thought they saw something, but didn't. That or they didn't want to come out with a lame-ass story about how it wasn't real and they had fallen for the trick. We'll let them stick to their story and I'll listen as if I actually cared.

~*~

We were right in thinking it was going to rain. We just underestimated how hard. It was past midnight, heading on one o'clock, and I couldn't sleep from all the noise the storm was making. It had started shortly after Troy and Steve left and I felt somewhat bad that neither of them had brought a car to drive home in. But not badly enough after the way Steve had mocked me mercilessly. Nope. He lost whatever sympathy I had for him.

On normal nights I love thunderstorms. As long as I'm inside and reading a book or watching TV, they don't bother me and I tend to enjoy them. They're somehow relaxing and fun. But not tonight. It's when they get to the point that I can't fall asleep on a school night, then I don't care for them anymore. That and when I do manage to fall asleep, they wake me right back up within an hour. It really doesn't serve me well to be a light sleeper.

Zander had tried to stay awake to keep me company, but he had fallen asleep sometime along the way. It was all right with me, though. I didn't want him tired the next day just because I couldn't sleep. He didn't deserve that. It was getting boring, however. I didn't want to get up and go find something to do, because then I'd never get to sleep, but lying around bored was almost worse. I had tried to read to make me tired enough to block out the thunder, but it hadn't worked. Maybe I'll ask Patrick to buy earplugs next time he does the shopping. That would help, I'm sure.

Because I had nothing better to do, my mind was wandering to all different tangents. I was tired enough that I couldn't keep focused on one particular thing. I thought about the test I took in Auto that I was sure to have passed with Zander's help, the movie Troy and I saw at the drive-in, the book I was reading in English, the math assignment I never finished that would be due first thing in the morning, and finally landed on the thought of Troy and Bloody Mary. I smiled to myself and tried not to laugh, out of fear of waking Zander.

After dinner, my curiosity about Zander and his experience kept on bothering me, so I asked him about it. He was glad to tell me, but he acted as if it pained him. If I wasn't so sure that she wasn't real it would've worried me. I never suspected him of lying, but I wasn't sure what to think anymore. He thought it was so real, he must've formed a story in his head that he believed honestly was real.

I asked him about the mirror breaking, and he said that he that didn't happen. I also asked about how he did it, to see how his story matched up to Troy's. It didn't compare at all. Troy told me that he had to blindfold himself and chant, "Bloody Mary, come to me. Proclaim the immortal existence of thee" five times. Of course he would listen to something like that. He was dumb enough. But how he remembered all of that, after doing it when he was only eight, is beyond me. Zander's story was different, though. He very distinctly remembered being told that he had to simply close his eyes, spin around three times while saying "Bloody Mary" during each turn, then face the mirror and she'd be staring back at him. Steve had dared him to do it so he did. When he came out of the bathroom and told Steve about what he saw, he dared Steve to do the same.

With that new bit of information, I asked him what she had looked like. I allowed him to think I was believing every word he said, and although it creeped me out with every word he spoke, it didn't change my mind. He told me that she had been gaunt and white. According to Zander, she had long, thin, black hair that was stringy and soaked with fresh blood. It hung around her head, tangled and matted, some of it dangled in her face. He also said she was bony, with hardly any fat on her body. Her arms were thin and brittle looking. Her hands, which he very clearly remembered reaching towards him, were thin and old-lady looking. Her fingernails were pointed and long, chipped in areas. When he relayed all that information to me, I asked,

"Like a witch? She looked like a witch?"

"No." he said seriously, his eyes wide. "No. Not a witch. A devil, or something like that. She was evil. Nothing could've saved her soul. Whatever she did to get herself that afterlife had to be. I dunno. but it could've been good. I doubt she ever did a good thing in her life. She's like a demon or something."

I let it settle with him after that. He was starting to get worked up like Troy had and I had began to feel uneasy myself. I was ready to forget all about it when Steve had to stick his nose in my business and taunt me.

"So, you've really never done it?" he asked, while sitting next to me on the couch.

"No. What does it matter to you?" He always tried to intimidate me when I was younger. He used to scare me. But I wasn't afraid of him anymore. Especially not in my own house. I'd talk to him however I wanted to.

He laughed a short, fake laugh. "It doesn't. I just can't imagine a Johnson being enough of a pansy to not give it a go." He had stepped over the line with that one.

"I ain't a pansy, Steve. I just have more sense than some of you guys."

"Ah.I suppose you're right," he said and looked in another direction, twiddling his thumbs in that gawd-awful way. Typical. "I forgot the rest of the story."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know." he started, waiting for me to catch on. "Come on. you know. the part about you not being able to do it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I had absolutely no idea if he was being serious or not. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing I was possibly falling for his hijinks, but if by chance he was telling the truth, I wanted to know. I'd just decide that for myself.

He stared at me cold and hard. "Kid, since Zander's done it, you can't."

"Why not?"

"Because! God, you're stupid.. Since you're in the same family, you can't do it twice in the same house. Everyone knows that. It's just how it goes." He propped an arm on the back of the couch and crossed one ankle on his other leg's knee.

"Why? What happens?"

"How am I supposed to know? It ain't never happened to me! I'm figurin' you'll die or something," he said nonchalantly. That was stupid. I bored him with an incredulous stare. Now that was crap if I ever heard any. If he thought I was going to fall for that, he was crazy.

"Fine," I said at last. "Then that's my reason for not doing it."

He rolled his eyes to the heavens. "Pansy."

"I'm not a pansy, Ass. You want me to die?" I was surprised at my own bravery with that one, but I have to admit that it felt pretty damn good.

Then just to make me mad, in his own cruel way, he leaned over and pretended to sniff at my head. "Smells like a pansy to me. Like a fully blossomed, fuckin' pansy." How the heck he knew a pansy was a flower was the least of my problems, although it did spark a little interest. But the fact that he was crossing his boundaries like that was more than enough for me.

So, I stood up, leaned forward and sniffed at him before walking off. "Better a fuckin' pansy than a fuckin' fool." Luckily for me it took him a minute to catch on that I had insulted him, and by that time I had taken refuge in Patrick's room, claiming to need the quiet serenity of his room to do my homework.

But what he had said was playing at me all night and I couldn't get it off my mind. I always knew how little he thought of me, but to let on that he thought I was a chicken just about did it in for me. It was because of that I almost decided to try it out. Then I realized I'd be doing exactly what Steve wanted me to do. He wanted to trick me into doing something that might make me shit my pants so he could have a good laugh at me when I returned from the bathroom. It wasn't happening.

I rolled over in bed. It was colder than normal with the rain and wind tonight. The hair was sticking up on my neck and it was driving me crazy that I couldn't shake the chill.

I sighed. My eyes were burning from lack of sleep and my body and mind were ready to fall into a deep slumber. But every time a bang of thunder shook the house, or a crack of lighting illuminated the sky, I would be brought back to full wakefulness and have to start the process over again. If I could only get to a point where I could warm up and clear my mind quick enough to fall asleep faster, maybe I wouldn't wake back up until I absolutely had to.

Clearing my mind seemed impossible though. I kept on hearing the voices of the guys playing at me. I knew I should've let them get to me, but they had, and now I couldn't forget them. I'm sure they all did it because I was the youngest and they had nothing to lose from me trying it out. I couldn't stand giving the two of them, meaning Troy and Steve, the satisfaction of knowing that I had done it or even given a thought about trying. But everyone's voices, the hidden meaning, and the purposeful ridiculing kept pounding at my head.

"She broke my mirror and held up thing, and pointed it at me! So I beat it outta there, man. I wasn't ready to die."

.

"I'm sure there was a reason they didn't tell him."

.

" She's like a demon or something."

.

"Like a fully blossomed, frickin' pansy."

That was it. I couldn't take it anymore. I didn't want to give it a go, but I had to. I wasn't going to be able to make peace with myself tonight unless I did it. I had to try so that I wouldn't keep on dwelling on it and keep myself awake all night. It wasn't worth it. No one had to know that I had taken in what they had said and no one had to know that I had tested it out for myself. And if they did find out, that's the story I'd stick to. I was doing it for myself. No one else.

I threw the covers off me, and crept out of the room as quietly as I could. I wasn't aiming to wake anyone else up. No one was going to know about this. No one. And they certainly weren't going to watch me do it, or catch me in the act.

I made my way down the hall and into the bathroom. I flipped the light on and closed the door behind me. I locked it for double the security and stood there for a second before turning around.

I felt so incredibly ridiculous about doing this, and at the same time I was scared out of my mind. The feeling had hit me so suddenly, it was hard to imagine that it hadn't been there a minute ago. There was no turning back now that I had gotten myself up to do it. I couldn't prove Steve right. I had to prove to myself that Steve didn't always have the final say about what was right and wrong about me. He didn't know if I could handle this or not. It wasn't up to him to make the call. And then there was Troy who thought that it should be part of every kid's childhood experiences. He did it when he was younger, Zander did it, and so did Steve. I never asked Pat if he had, but I'm sure he did. And if he did, he wasn't scared, so why should I be?

After mentally preparing myself, reviewing all the things I had just gone through in my mind, I switched off the light. The room became instantly ebony black and eerie - darker than usual. It was like the moonlight had been shut off and nothing was letting off light anymore. I had to remind myself that it most likely was. There was a storm going on, and it would be difficult to get a regular amount of light.

Facing the mirror, I stared at my reflection. It looked perfectly normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. And that's the way it should've been, nothing different. Didn't one of the guys say something about her presence taking over your reflection, and you disappeared? So, that meant all I had to do was do the chants and actions, look at myself and leave. Nothing to it. I could handle that.

Right then, an overwhelming sense of foreboding overcame me. I reached over and flipped the light back on. Someone was standing outside the door. They had to know that I was in there and were just waiting, because I hadn't heard them knock. But they were there, waiting. I breathed deeply, letting out air I hadn't realized that I was holding. Quickly I turned around and unlocked the door and opened it to let them know they could have the bathroom. I was finished. It wasn't worth it. It was a dumb idea anyway.

No one was there.

Crossing my eyebrows I stepped forward and stuck my head into the hall to see if he had just gone back or what. But, he wasn't out there. Period. It didn't make sense. I could've sworn there was someone there.

I leaned back and chuckled lightly. I couldn't believe I had done that to myself. No one was there, they never were. My mind had been wracking with excuses to turn back and never try this again. It wasn't going to work. I had more control of myself than that. No way was I going to get scared over a stupid ghost story.

Once more, I closed the door and turned the light off. I shook my head. I wasn't going to let that happen again. Not a chance. I'd do it all fast and get it over with. Then I would go back to my room and fall asleep. Yeah, that sounded just about right. One, two, three, laugh at the guys in the morning and forget all about it. Sounded just fine to me.

Ignoring Steve's forewarning from earlier, I got myself ready to do it. I took one last glance at myself in the mirror and closed my eyes. I was ready. Deciding to take Zander's approach at it, I started to turn in a slow circle. "Bloody Mary," I whispered.

I paused momentarily as I almost lost my balance. Without opening my eyes, I grabbed for the counter to steady myself before I tripped over someone's strewn clothes. My stomach flopped with a sensation that I was still going to fall. I was tempted to stop right there and open my eyes, but I didn't.

I spun again. "Bloody Mary," I said it a little louder than the first time. There was ringing in my ears, it was so quite.

Again, I almost lost my balance. It didn't make sense that I couldn't stay steady, but I tried to forget about it. I felt oddly scared. I could've sworn I felt someone's eyes boring into my skull and it was a horrible feeling. Like I'd never feel peace again. Like my world wasn't going to continue from there. My life might as well have been over, according to the chilly air and gut gnawing feeling. But I didn't stop. It was too late to think about that now. The sooner I got it over with the better. The sooner I finished the sooner I'd feel better.

I took the final three steps to complete my last turn. "Bloody Mary." I said it the loudest that time, and I'd be surprised if it didn't wake up the others.

That time I was perfectly steady and didn't have to find myself any support. It would've been comforting except for the fact that I knew I still had to open my eyes. But that's all I had to do; open my eyes, see nothing, feel nothing, go back to bed, and forget all about it.

It wasn't that easy.

---

A/n: Well, I hope you enjoyed the start to this story. There are about three more sections, and they are all ready to go. So, please review and tell me what you think.

Thanks.