With an ominous 'click', the lights to the small bathroom go out.
Inside are three giggling teenage girls, it's one of their first sleepovers and inevitably,
the topic of ghosts came up.
Each teen told her own scary ghost story, the girls hyping each other's fears up throughout
the night until finally came the dare: it was time to call out to Bloody Mary, perhaps
the most famous ghost story of all.
The ritual is simple, the girls snuck down to the kitchen and grabbed an old candle kept
for power outages, along with some matches.
Then cramming into the small bathroom, the lit the candle and turned off the lights.
“Bloody Mary...”, the first of thirteen incantations is nothing more than a whisper.
The ritual to summon this specter requires a slow, but steady repetition of her name,
each one louder than the last.
There's nervous laughter among the girls as they repeat the name a second time, slightly
louder.
The nervous laughter dies off somewhere around the seventh repetition.
The candle's flame, sitting perfectly still until now, suddenly dances for a moment.
The girls gasp in shock as a cold chill overtakes the bathroom, but they brush off both events
as coincidences.
Maybe the AC has kicked on outside the bathroom.
“...Bloody Mary...
Bloody Mary...
Bloody Mary...”
Ten repetitions, the whispers louder now, almost at full speaking voice.
The girls are practically chanting the name at this point, but as they come to the last
incantation they hesitate.
Just once more, and the ritual will be complete.
The candle's flame is perfectly still.
The house... quiet.
“Bloody Mary!”
Two of the girls jump with a start as the third, braver member of the trio suddenly
shouts out the name for the thirteenth and final time!
The three girls hold their breath... waiting in the dark.
Water drips from the leaky faucet, one slow drop at a time.
Drip... drip... drip...
After thirty seconds, the girls start nervously giggling again, their courage slowly returning.
They begin to make fun of each other, talking about how scared the other person was, and
firmly filing away the dancing candle flame and cold breeze in the back of their minds
as nothing more than random weirdness.
But the candle flame is dancing again.
The girls hold their breath, peering at the dancing candle, not daring to breathe hoping
that it was their normal respiration causing the candle to dance in the small, claustrophobic
bathroom.
But the candle is still dancing...
A hand suddenly reaches through the mirror, grabbing the nearest girl- the one who had
finished the ritual by shouting Bloody Mary's name!
The girls scream as their friend is dragged towards the hideously deformed face in the
mirror.
They tear open the door, two of them running out of the bathroom and screaming for help.
From inside the bathroom the sounds of screaming and struggling suddenly cease.
The legend of Bloody Mary has been around in some form or another since about the 19th
century, and it's no surprise that it has remained a popular game with adolescents all
around the world.
While the western version of Bloody Mary is believed to summon the specter of a protestant
woman accused of witchcraft, or perhaps even Queen Mary I herself, what's curious is that
other cultures also have similar ghost stories- with a very similar ritual to summon spirits
from beyond through an ordinary mirror.
Peering into mirrors and seeking the supernatural is nothing new for humanity, and in practices
that stretch all the way back to ancient Greece, people have been trying to seek out ghosts
or divine their futures by looking into a mirror.
Typically the goal is to discern future events by performing a specific ritual, such as looking
into a mirror and seeking either a healthy face that looks back at you, or a terrifying
apparition.
If you saw the healthy face then you would overcome whatever illness you were currently
suffering.
If instead you saw a scary visage, then you would surely die.
The ritual to summon Bloody Mary has some basis along the lines of predicting your future,
but is mostly believed to be about testing one's courage.
Bloody Mary may indeed impart some knowledge of the future if successfully summoned, but
she could also simply try and murder you.
Whatever your intent is though, the ritual is always the same.
First, everyone taking part in the summoning must gather together in a pitch-black room
with a mirror.
A single candle, or in modern times a flashlight, is the only source of light allowed.
Every other source of light must be completely blacked out, so for obvious reasons doing
the ritual at night is best.
Next, you and anyone else partaking in the ritual look into the mirror and makes eye
contact with their own reflection.
Slowly, you begin to chant the name Bloody Mary, starting out quietly and growing in
volume.
After the thirteenth repetition- which should be delivered with finality- everyone must
stop chanting and sit quietly, keeping eye contact with their own reflection.
At this point, Bloody Mary may make her appearance, and if she does you must be cautious.
Most important of all is to stay out of arm's reach of the mirror, for it's said that Mary
can lash out at anyone standing too close and seriously injure them, or perhaps even
drag them into the mirror itself with her.
Next, you must make sure to never, ever allow the mirror to be broken until the ritual is
complete.
Doing so might allow Bloody Mary to escape, letting loose a demonic spirit that will surely
attempt to attach itself to you.
If successfully summoned, Bloody Mary may answer a question from one of the members
of the ritual, but it's just as likely that she will instead shriek and scream at you,
lashing out at anyone foolish enough to stand too close to her mirror.
Her scream has been compared to that of the legendary Banshee itself, though instead of
killing you on the spot, Bloody Mary screams are known to cause severe and long-lasting
psychological issues for those who hear them, including depression, suicidal thoughts, and
mania of various forms.
Once summoned, there is no known way of dispelling Bloody Mary, but it's recommended that you
simply leave the room immediately and don't return for a significant amount of time.
If Bloody Mary refuses to leave, she may choose to instead continue visiting you through the
same mirror, though if that happens you must resist the temptation to simply shatter it
or throw it away carelessly into a dumpster.
Instead you should safely store the mirror and prevent it from breaking, or risk letting
Bloody Mary loose into our world.
Sometimes, Mary won't appear the first time she is summoned.
Instead she may choose to answer the call later, at an unexpected time when you may
have completely forgotten about the ritual.
So if you attempt to summon Mary, keep your guard up- she may be biding her time before
striking out.
But who is Bloody Mary exactly?
Some believe that she is Queen Mary I, daughter of the infamous Henry VIII.
She was England's first queen to rule on her own without a king, but she is far more famous
for being a devout Catholic.
During the English Reformation, English Protestants had splintered off from the Catholic church,
and Mary didn't take kindly to that.
By the time she died from an influenza pandemic in 1558, she had executed hundreds of protestants
for refusing to recant their faith.
Even for the normally bloodthirsty English, Mary's executions were too much, and often
seen as being overly cruel in their methodology.
Most people sentenced to burn at the stake were strangled before burning, but Mary often
refused to offer such mercy and burned men and women alive.
The next suspected Bloody Mary was Mary Queen of Scots.
This Mary lived a rather tumultuous life, used as a political pawn by various men seeking
the throne thanks to her legitimate claims to both the Scottish and English thrones.
Eventually, Mary fled and sought protection from her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, but instead
of finding hospitality, Mary was imprisoned for 18 years by Elizabeth.
Eventually Mary was accused of being part of a plot to overthrow Elizabeth and she was
executed.
But the execution wouldn't go as planned.
Despite attending her own execution with a dignified grace and even cheerful manner,
the executioner made a real mess of things, granting Mary far from a merciful or dignified
death.
Sentenced to have her head chopped off, the first axe blow struck her in the back of the
head, missing the neck entirely.
The crowd gasped at the horror as the executioner quickly attempted to rectify his mistake-
but the second swing failed to completely decapitate Mary.
With blood gushing everywhere, the executioner was forced to saw away at the sinews that
still kept the head attached to the neck, and eventually Mary bled to death.
The last Blood Mary candidate is perhaps the most bloodthirsty, and probably who the real
legend is based on.
After all, this Bloody Mary suspect more than lived up to the bloody reputation.
Elizabeth Bathory is considered by many to be the greatest serial killer in history.
Known as the 'Blood Countess”, Elizabeth Bathory would routinely invite young peasant
girls to her castle under the guise of caring for them.
Peasant families would gladly send their daughters away, confident in the better life that they
would have learning to be servants for nobility rather than forced to backbreaking farm labor.
The truth however was that none of those girls would live for long.
Bathory's cruelty knew almost no bounds, and she routinely tortured the young girls she
took in.
Eventually she killed all of the young girls in the nearby villages, forcing her to look
for victims further away.
She visited countless horrors on her victims, and was fond of taking baths in blood of the
young girls, believing the act would rejuvenate her and reverse aging.
It's not known how many girls Bathory killed, but it's estimated to be in the hundreds,
which in our opinion makes her the likeliest Bloody Mary candidate out of the three.
The real question though is if you're brave enough to try and summon herself tonight?
Or maybe you did years ago, thinking it was nothing more than a childhood game, not realizing
that Mary could simply choose to wait to answer your summons until you're no longer expecting
it.
Like, perhaps, the next time you wake up in the middle of the night for a quick bathroom
trip.
Our advice?
Don't stand too close to the mirror.
Ready for more terror?
Check out Laughing Jack Explained.
Or click this other video instead.