“Party tonight, don’t miss it!” Melany said, handing out invitations.
Riley slammed her locker shut. “Why does she always have these stupid parties? Every weekend, she has these parties and never invites us.”
“Well, don’t look now, but I think she’s coming over here.” Skylar said.
Riley whirled around. Melany was walking over holding two invitations.
“Skylar, Riley, I’m inviting you to my slumber party! No boys allowed.”
“Um, thank you?” Skylar said, shooting me a questioning look as she accepted her invitation. Riley accepted hers as well, and Melany walked away.
“This has to be a joke.” Riley said, ripping open the envelope to hers. There, at the top, was her name:
Riley Lily Reveur, you’re invited to the slumber party of Melany Sofia Dragone on the date October 26. Dinner and breakfast will be served. RSVP by October 24.
“I don’t think it’s a joke.” Skylar said. “Look, she even got your middle name.”
“How does she even know that?” Riley asked, shoving the invitation back into the envelope. “I’ve never talked to her before, other than asking a question about homework!”
“I dunno, school records?” Skylar suggested, shrugging.
“That’s creepy that she would take the time to search through school records to find my middle name to put on an invitation to a party, when she’s never invited either of us to a party and always makes fun of us.” Riley said.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going.” Skylar said, looking excited. “Melany’s parties are supposed to be, like, the best parties ever. And if this is my first one, then I’m going.”
“Skylar!” Riley exclaimed. “What about all those times she bullied us?”
“Technically, she only bullied you.” Skylar said, searching through her purse.
Riley stepped away from her. “Wow.” was all she said. “Wow. Fine, I’ll go. I’ll go with you to a stupid slumber party that my bully is throwing because I’m the kind of friend who goes with her friends to parties, even when they’re not being very nice!” Riley turned around and stormed to her first class.
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“I can’t believe I’m here.” Riley grumbled from the front seat of Skylar’s car.
“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun!” Skylar said. Riley scowled. “Oh, come on.” Skylar lightly punched her arm. “Lighten up! Just let go of the past and have fun for once!”
Riley’s scowl deepened, and Skylar gave up.
“Fine. Be angry the whole night.” she turned on the car and pulled out of her driveway, and within five minutes, they were in front of Melany’s house.
“Come on, get out.” Skylar said, opening her door and stepping out.
Riley got out and followed her to the front door, holding her sleeping bag and pillow with one hand, her overnight bag with the other. Skylar knocked, and the door opened.
“I’m so glad you could make it!” Melany said. “Come in, come in, we’re all in the lounge eating pizza and watching ‘Harry Potter!’”
Skylar and Riley walked with her into the lounge, and settled in. After the movie, they had a pillow fight, did each other’s nails and hair, and got into their pajamas. By this time, it was past midnight.
“Well, I’m going to bed.” Riley announced. The other girls mumbled in agreement, setting up their sleeping bags and searching for their toothbrushes.
“Wait, one more thing we should do.” Melany said, eyes sparkling with the light they got only when she was planning something that at least one of us would hate. “We’re going to play Bloody Mary.”
“Well, who has to do it?” Skylar asked, her eyes lighting up. Skylar loved spooky stuff, the spookier the better.
“We’ll draw straws.” Melany said, and grabbed a literal handful of straw.
They all took turns drawing a straw, relieved when it wasn’t the short one. When it came to Riley's turn, she grabbed a straw and pulled. It came out shorter than everyone elses.
“I’m not doing it.” Riley said, dropping the straw and folding her arms. “I’m not doing it.”
“Oh, are you scared?” Melany asked.
“It’s stupid!” Riley insisted. “I don’t want to do it!”
“But it’s not real.” Melany’s best friend, Sofia, said. “It’s not real. So why don’t you want to do it?”
“Because it’s stupid, and I don’t want to!”
“No, because you’re scared of something that’s not real.” Skylar, of all people, said. “You told me so, when I wanted to play it with you. You told me so.”
“Shut up, Skylar!” Riley said. “I’m not doing it!”
The other girls circled around me. “Scaredy, scaredy, scaredy, scaredy, scaredy, scaredy,” they chanted.
“FINE!” Riley belllowed. “Fine, I’ll do it!”
“Good!” Melany said. “Follow me to the bathroom.”
Our entire group of girls walked to the bathroom. Melany took out a bunch of candles and lit them, setting them up around the counter.
“You have to be in here alone.” Melany said. “Turn the lights off and chant, ‘I believe in Bloody Mary’ thirteen times. Then flick the light on and open the door.” The other girls left the room and closed the door behind them, leaving the sixteen-year-old in there alone.
“This will be good.” Melany said, smirking. The rest of the girls laughed.
From inside the bathroom, Riley was doing as instructed.
“I belive in Bloody Mary, I believe in Bloody Mary…”
From outside, the girls were silently laughing their heads off. The light flicked on, and the girls immediately grabbed on to the doorknob, making it so it couldn’t open. For a while they felt resistence, and heard Riley yelling at them to open the door. Then there came the sound of glass shattering. Melany went from laughing to looking furious. “She’s breaking my mirror!” she whispered furiously.
“Well, make her pay tomorrow when we let her out.” Sofia whispered back.
The girls were having whispered conversation, but it was cut short by a blood-curdling scream coming from inside the bathroom, and an evil-sounding laugh. The pressure on the doorknob stopped, and the girls heard footsteps from inside the bathroom. Two sets of footsteps.
“No, no, no,” came a soft moaning.
“Come on, come on, come on,” came a silky whisper. “Come with me, come with me,”
“No, no, n-” the moaning was cut short, there was another evil laugh, and the sound of glass sliding over the floor and counter, then a soft chink. The bathroom was silent. All the girls outside of the bathroom looked terrified.
“Come on, she’s just messing with us.” Melany said, sounding more sure than she felt.
“How’d she get all that set up?” Skylar asked. She was actually, visibly shaking.
“I don’t know, but it’s not real.” Melany insisted. “Come on, let’s go to bed. We’ll get her in the morning.”
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The next morning, all the girls crept slowly towards the bathroom.
“Come on, scaredy cats.” Melany said, marching purposfully towards the bathroom and flinging the door open. She gasped.
The bathroom was empty. The mirror was intact. It would have looked normal, if not for the fact that there were puddles of blood all over. Melany screamed. She screamed for her mother, for her father, for anyone. All the other girls came and looked over her shoulder into the bathroom, and they started screaming, too. The whole street was woken up on a quiet Saturday morning to the sounds of the terrified screams of thirteen young girls.
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It had been five years since the misterious disappearance of Riley Reveur. She’d been in the papers for three of those years, but everyone had eventually given up hope of finding her. Her parents and young twin brother and sister were heartbroken, assuming she’d been kidnapped, and murdered by now. All her friends, and fenemies, too, were around twenty-one years old now. None of them had ever fully recovered from the events of that night. Many had been in therapy for those five years, because of their terror, their insistance that Riley had been taken by Bloody Mary, and their insistance that they heard Riley whispering from their mirrors, calling for help.
It was Melany’s wedding day. She walked into her dressing room that had been set up, and stopped short, her heart pounding in her chest. Lying on the floor, in front of a shattered full lenght mirror, was Riley, still 16 years old. Obviously dead, she was covered in blood, and the puddle was spreading across the floor. This death had happened recently. To complete the scene, it seemed, there was a note attached to the frame of the mirror, written on bloodstained paper.
You’re Next.
The last sound Melany ever heard was her own scream, and the same evil laugh that had issued from the bathroom all those years ago.
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