#and if they discovered one cryptid already i think they should prove aliens are real too. its only right

[nonbinoclard]

…i dont know

[reading-wanderer]

Ectober Day 16: Bloody Mary

Content warning: blood

As it turns out, trying to summon something known to kill people is a bad idea.

Ectober Masterlist

It started with a joke. Ectoplasm, as they learned in the months since finding that first splatter, does not grow on trees. They ran test after test on that first batch, even going so far as to cut open the large clot floating in the center to get a better idea of what they were dealing with. Maddie was the one to figure out that they could power machines with the stuff— something that they make sure gets patented as soon as possible— while Jack came up with machines and devices to track more down and Vlad tried to create a synthetic version for them to use in the meantime.

It’s a late night in the lab, all their projects were stalled while they waited for materials, when Jack said it. “Maybe we should just try summoning Bloody Mary.” It’s a joke, but the other two don’t laugh. Jack quickly followed it with, “you know, because she’s suppose to be a ghost and if we can summon her then maybe we could get more ectoplasm out of her.”

“Bloody Mary isn’t real.”

“Bloody Mary’s a mirror witch, not a ghost.”

Both answers came at the same time, leaving Vlad and Maddie blinking owlishly at each other. Maddie face palmed and groaned.

“I can’t believe you guys believe in Bloody Mary.”

“We were right about Ghosts,” Jack pointed out with a grin, “why not Bloody Mary?” Vlad just rolled his eyes because they already knew his view on these things.

Maddie and Jack didn’t believe in magic, not like Vlad. Jack liked cryptids, ghosts, and aliens— the stuff of scary movies and fireside stories. He liked to think that they’re out there, just waiting to be discovered, but in the end it’s all for fun. Maddie doesn’t believe at all, but she liked the challenge of proving her friends wrong. She pointed out the fishing line in the ghost videos, the plastic look of the wolfman’s jaw, and the fact that they never did get a second glimpse of that cave cryptid.

Vlad, on the other hand, was raised on stories of Fae and magic. His mother was always preforming spells or explaining the history behind rituals or throwing her thirteen year old son in the woods so a Fae could steal his ability to swear after telling him to mind his language just one to many times. It was hard for him not to believe. (Maddie was still trying to get him to swear, but Jack had at least started stepping in after she ‘accidentally’ broke one of his toes by dropping a defunct ghost tracker on his foot. On an unrelated note, neither of them were allowed to move the larger machines without Jack’s help anymore.)

“There’s so many different versions of her summoning ritual,” Vlad said instead, “I don’t think the real one is still floating around.”

“Maybe if we tried a bunch of different versions we could figure out what works?” Jack offered.

Maddie rolled her eyes, but grudgingly chimed in, “How would you be able to tell what part works or not?”

“Do you think the Ectotracker could help,” Jack asked, turning to Vlad.

“Maybe,” Vlad shrugs, “but like I said, I was told Bloody Mary was suppose to be a mirror witch, not a ghost.”

-x-X-x-X-x-

Unfortunately, when everything’s said and done, Maddie-the-nonbeliever is the one who ends up in the dark bathroom. Most of the “Bloody Mary Summoning Rituals” they could get their hands on involved female summoners, after all. It’s the one in the boy’s dorm, since it would be easier to hide one average sized woman rather than two men, one of which was as tall as a tree and thick as a brick. It was a fairly standard bathroom with three stalls, all of which had thankfully been cleaned relatively recently, and a trio of sinks set into a single long counter. The mirror, the most important part, spanned most of the wall just above the sinks.

Maddie was the only one inside, while the other two stood guard outside the door. Both of them had one of their prototype anti-ghost weapons while she was alone with only a box of matches and a pair of black candles that Vlad had pulled out of who-knows-where that he claimed would protect her if she did manage to summon anything. He’d even carved some kind of elaborate symbol into each of them. Her fingers traced the groves of the candles as she contemplated her life decisions.

With a deep sigh and a quick glance at the door her two idiot friends were waiting behind and the faint light coming in from underneath, Maddie struck a match and lit the candles before placing one on each side of the mirror. Feeling stupid, she stared at her reflection in the mirror and watched the way the light danced. “Bloody Mary,” she muttered lowly, slowly increasing in volume, “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.” She waited a moment and, when nothing happened, twirled in place three times. Nothing.

“Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary,” she repeated blandly, already fed up with the whole thing. Then, another three twirls. Still nothing.

“It’s not working,” she turned and called to the door. There’s… no response. Maddie rolled her eyes. They must have fallen asleep or gotten distracted by Jack’s stomach again. ‘One more time,’ she told herself, and then she’d go looking for her two friends and figure out exactly why they’d abandoned her.

“Bloody Mary,” she starts, “B—.” Movement out of the corner of her eye has her whirling in place, her fists raised, but there’s nothing to see but the toilet stalls empty and still behind her. She stared at them as the dim candlelight caused the shadows to dance and flicker, but nothing popped out. She sighed and continued the turn back to the mirror. “Bloody Mary.”

Another movement, this time on the other side has her whirling in place once more. Again she stared darkly at the toilets, daring whatever it was to move again. ‘Cockroaches,’ she decided after a moment, “or maybe a mouse.” Whichever it was she’d have to remember to tell the boys to tell their RA. She continued the turn back to the mirror once more.

“Bl—”

“Maddieeeee!” Maddie startled as the bathroom door burst open and both her friends scurried inside. Vlad, pale and shaking, practically tackled her while Jack just looked confused and concerned. The door closed behind them with a quiet click.

“I don’t think we should do this anymore,” Vlad hissed quietly, still wrapped around her and shaking like a chihuahua. Maddie raised a questioning eyebrow towards Jack who only shrugged in response. His weapon glowed a faint cyan in the dark room and she could feel Vlad’s tapping against her spine, the cold metal giving her goosebumps.

Maddie slowly started extracting herself from Vlad’s grip firmly but carefully. “Bloody Mary was—”

“Holy shit,” Jack swore, jerking the two of them backwards towards the stalls. Maddie looked up and froze while Vlad retightened his grip on her. There, in the mirror, was a white faced figure with wild black hair and glowing red eyes. Their mouth was opened in a wide snarl, showing off sharp, bloody teeth. The scary part, though, were the long, clawed fingers pushing at the mirror, stretching and distorting the glass.

It only managed to get as far as the candles before the glass seemed to snap it back. With each attempt, the creature just seemed to get angrier. It’s hair lengthened and blood seemed to pour thicker and faster from it’s maw.

Maddie flinched as Vlad detached himself from her and grabbed her wrist. “Time to go, time to go, time to go,” he chanted, dragging her forward and past the creature in the mirror while Jack ran right on their heels. The door burst open, flooding the room with light from the hallway as they made their escape.

“Never again,” the three of them agreed after barricading themselves in Jack and Vlad’s dorm room.

[asa-ghost]

For a prompt how about a : Mchanzo au where hanzo is an alien but has to pretend he is human until he can get of the planet and Jesse has no idea that hanzo isn't human.

TO BE CONTINUED..