#12: Ghost Stories and Legends

Booooooo! What would a sleepover be without ghost stories, seances, levitation, and Ouija boards?




Some good ghost stories:

The Tale of the Missing Liver and The Golden Arm

The Backseat Murderer

The Hitchhiking Woman

The key to making these stories most frightening is to: 1. Be in a dark tent or room with only a flashlight. 2. Be able to use timing and tone of voice to make the story sound good. 3. Have a prop of some sort to throw at/taunt/touch someone at the end. I was 9 when I first heard these on a camping trip with my friends, Karen and Laura Wally. After they scared the living daylights out of me, they proceeded to tell me dirty jokes - and so the perversion was born.

Another fave pastime of ours was dabbling with levitation....which started when I was around 8. The chant we found most effective was "Light as a feather, stiff as a board," and it almost always worked. Once, a friend, whose name I can't remember, got so freaked out after we lifted her a few feet, that she fled the room crying and her parents had to pick her up and take her home. Baby. Her parents made her stop hanging out with us because they thought we were demonic witches or something. Fools. The trick, although we didn't know it at the time, is actually quite scientific and has nothing at all to do with the paranormal: See for yourself.


After we sent the wimpy babies running home, we'd dare each other to go to the mirror and chant, "I believe in Mary Worth" 13 times.

Variations:
· The avenging spirit goes by many names: Bloody Mary, Bloody Bones, Hell Mary, Mary Worth, Mary Worthington, Mary Whales, Mary Johnson, Mary Lou, Mary Jane, Sally, Kathy, Agnes, Black Agnes, Aggie, Svarte Madame.
· Summoning Mary requires the right chant. "I believe in Mary Worth" is the key phrase according to one version, but others require the shouting of "Kathy, come out!" or the repetition of "Bloody Mary" into the mirror as many times as the ritual demands. (Sometimes Bloody Mary gets more of a script and is summoned by calls of "Bloody Mary! I killed your baby!")
· The precise requirements of the ritual vary. Some specify that the mirror must be illuminated by a single candle; in others, there must be a candle on each side. In some versions, the message to Mary is repeated by just one girl who is either a volunteer or one selected by the others to summon up the mirror-witch. The number of chants needed to fetch Mary also varies.
· What the mirror-witch does upon arrival varies too. She may strike her summoner dead, drive her mad, or fiercely scratch her face. She may merely peer malevolently out through the mirror, or she may drag one of the girls back through it to live with her.

Check out the origins of Bloody Mary.