I have to admit the actress in me went a little crazy when I was asked to be Bloody Mary. I know its just a haunted trail, but I was determined to "portray" her to the best of my ability. I remember the game we used to play as children growing up, where you would stand in front of a mirror and say "Bloody Mary" 3 times and supposedly Mary's ghost would appear. I'll also admit I remember doing this several years in a row at Halloween parties....I now realize now how silly we were because if anything would have happened we would probably all be in therepy right now!! Anyway, being curious as to what started the urban legand of Bloody Mary I decided to google it and see what I could find. Here's tthe most interesting stories I came across:
Example #1:As told on the Internet, Dec. 21, 1997:
Some of my friends, five of us, cramped ourselves into a small bathroom in my friend Cathryn's House. We ended up saying Bloody Mary (more like chanting it) about 20 times or so for anything to appear. When we did finally see something it started out as a green glow then the darkened portrait of a face became more visible, by that time half of us were screaming so we knocked each other down trying to get out of the bathroom and then I flipped on the light. It was a welcome relief.
Example #2:
As told on the Internet, Feb. 16, 1994:
When I was about 9 years old, I went to a friend's for a birthday/slumber party. There were about 10 other girls there. About midnight, we decided to play Mary Worth. Some of us had never heard of this so one of the girls told the story.
Mary Worth lived a long time ago. She was a very beautiful young girl. One day she had a terrible accident that left her face so disfigured that nobody would look at her. She had not been allowed to see her own reflection after this accident for fear that she would lose her mind. Before this, she had spent long hours admiring her beauty in her bedroom mirror.
One night, after everyone had gone to bed, unable to fight the curiousity any longer, she crept into a room that had a mirror. As soon as she saw her face, she broke down into terrible screams and sobs. It was at this moment that she was so heartbroken and wanted her old reflection back, that she walked into the mirror to find it, vowing to disfigure anybody that came looking for her in the mirror.
After hearing this story, which was told very scarily, we decided to turn out all of the lights and try it. We all huddled around the mirror and starting repeating "Mary Worth, Mary Worth, I believe in Mary Worth". About the seventh time we said it one of the girls that was in front of the mirror started screaming and trying to push her way back away from the mirror. She was screaming so loud that my friends mom came running into the room. She quickly turned on the lights and found this girl huddled in the corner screaming. She turned her around to see what the problem and saw these long fingernail scratches running down her right cheek. I will never forget her face as long as I live!!
I'm not going to lie...reading some of the stories I came across freaked me out. I'm not quite sure if I believe any of these stories, but they definitely helped inspire me in what to do and say in my part of the trail for the next few weeks!! I hope you guys will come out and see us if you live in or near the Winston-Salem/Rural Hall area! I'd love to see what you think of my "performance"!
