Bloody Mary

The candlelight flickered in the dark room, reflecting in the large mirror to illuminate my face. Light bounced off my features, shadowing my eyes and distorting my visage. I stared at her, the woman in the mirror, being both at one and separate from her. 

On the table before me, the candle rested, waving gently in an invisible breeze. Nighttime hummed outside, yet the sounds of crickets and frogs seemed far away and drowned out by a tension in the air of the room. The longer I stared, the further away the world felt, and more and more this small space felt like the entire world.

I inhaled slowly, trying to calm the thudding of my heart. A lump rose in my throat, compounding a newfound fear of speaking. My reflection waited, yet seemed to be smirking, mocking my hesitancy. Her eyes, my eyes, watched, waiting for some movement, some give. Instead, I took in another deep breath and sighed, looking away.

“It’s fine. She won’t hurt you,” I muttered to myself. Yet the fear at my center didn’t abate at the cool logic or simple truth. The story had been merciless. A haunting tale of blood and judgment, off claws embedded in skin and crimson revenge. 

I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned back to my impatient reflection. She was pale, lips tight, eyes slightly too wide. Fear was written on my face as plain as day, an emotion I rarely knew despite all the things I had experienced. 

“This is stupid,” I finally grumbled at myself and pushed back the tangle of hair from my face.  Hands pushed onto the table, forcing me to lean forward, and stare at the face inches from my face. 

“Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.” 

My voice was soft, yet held a hint of tension. I watched the mirror, waiting for a change. Silence hung in the air, blocking out the sound. My eyes remained the same, flicking back and forth across the mirror’s surface, seeking anything in the darkness.

I leaned back, letting my hands rest at my side. My throat released and I finally took a breath after what seemed like a long time without breathing. As soon as I breathed, the mirror seemed to darken, my eyes changing from their draconic gold to pale blue, bloodshot, and dangerous.

A gasp slipped through my lips as I stared at myself, hair darkening and growing longer, escaping its simple braid. The clothing transformed into fresh white fabric, thin with delicate lace. My fingers touched my lips, marveling at their newfound fullness yet feeling like my own. 

My reflection smirked at me, our eyes locking as I watched myself change. Blood seeped down my forehead, over my chest, between my breasts, and slid down my arms to my fingertips. I  turned, looking at my own hands, absent the blood I saw in the mirror. My breasts were clean in the dark fabric I wore.

When I looked up, the reflection tilted her head, an eerie smile on her lips. Long-nailed fingers curled in the mirror, beckoning me forward. Her tongue licked her lips, tasting the ruby blood that dripped sensually over her skin. 

Despite myself, I stepped forward, keeping my face inches from the mirror’s surface. Her blue eyes stared into mine, vengeful and angry. 

“Mary?” I whispered her name. 

She grinned and nodded slowly, teeth stained from the blood she had lapped up. Her hand raised to touch the mirror, fingertips tapping against the surface. I moved my hand up to the glass, hesitating before I finally put my hand against hers.

It was cold and smooth, nothing more than the glass surface. I realized my breath was caught and I exhaled. Mary did not. She did not breathe, nor blink. Her endless eyes stared into mine, never looking away. 

Fingers clasped my hand, sliding between my digits and holding down with incredible strength. I gasped, turning my head to look at her hand grasping mine, cold and dead and dripping with the blood of her namesake. As I looked back to her, she pulled, yanking with the strength of something beyond human, and drew me into the mirror.

Cold air washed over me as I spilled into the mirror’s world. My body slammed into hers, feeling the cold hardness of her undead form. Her fingers never relinquished mine but held me steady as I  touched her shoulder, pulling myself back to standing.

In the mirror, darkness swallowed everything, the candlelight barely piercing its depths. Her eyes continued to haunt mine as I looked at her face, at the cut in her forehead where blood dripped from. There was a strange blue tint to her skin and a hollowness to her face that whispered of death. 

Bony fingers touched my lips, nails grazing over my cheek and chin. I exhaled a shaky breath as I looked at her. My fingers grazed her shoulder, caressed her neck, and moved up to touch her cheek. I was held by her eyes, a mix of fear and excitement coursing through me. 

Her head tilted, eyes considering and judging. With a quick movement, her nails raked my cheek, leaving three long cuts. Blood seeped out and began to drip down my face. I winced but didn’t move away from her. I had heard the stories. I knew that there was nowhere to run.

“So I’m a sinner then?” I whispered to her. My eyes looked away from her own, to her plush lips and over her skin before back to her face. “I know you can see my sins, Mary. Do you like them?”

Her eyes finally blinked, as though awakening. They looked at me, not through me, as I stepped closer and closed the space between us. “If you want to scratch me, you can,” I whispered to her. My lips hovered near her own as I watched her eyes looking into me for new knowledge.

They glanced down at my lips before she moved her head forward, closing the distance between us so that her lips closed on mine.  Cold and dead, they tasted of meat and blood, raw and copper. I sucked on her bottom lip, teasing the edge with my tongue before tracing her upper lip. She pressed forward, hungry for the contact that had been denied her.

Finally, her fingers released mine and slid up my arm to pull me against her body. Blood began to seep through my clothing and touch my skin, making our touches glide over the skin. I shivered as her nails slid down my throat over the curve of my breast before hooking into the fabric and ripping. 

Her blood-soaked hand grabbed the exposed flesh, pinching my nipple and extracting a cry of pain and pleasure from me. Our lips broke their seal as I kissed her neck, lapping at the blood that coated her skin. Against me, she shivered, holding my head against her in a  terrifyingly strong grasp.

My hands explored her body, feeling her through the white dress stained crimson. As my mouth teased her collarbone, I pulled the skirts upward, slipping my fingers beneath to explore her thigh. I stroked her hip and teased the edges of her center, never going further, even as her hips bucked against me. 

Fingers closed around my hand, pulling it towards her core as she whimpered. I smirked, flicking delicate flesh through the thin fabric. She gasped, fingers pulling my hair suddenly to wrench my face back to meet hers.

Our kiss was filled with copper and hunger. Teeth hit each other and bit on lips, tongues met and traded thee flavor of each other’s blood. She turned my head, licking the claw marks she had gouged in my face moments before. 

I moaned against her, finger still teasing her sensitive flesh. Our bodies ground together before she released my head. Our hands worked rapidly to peel the clothes from each other, ripping and clawing for her, while I pulled roughly to remove the dress from her shoulders and slid it down her undead body. 

Blood coated each of us as she slid to the ground together, entangled in the other, naked bodies writhing in the blood that continued to seep from her being. I straddled her, mouth suckling on a large, dark nipple as she slid her fingers down my stomach and played with the delicate skin.

Her fingers felt my wetness and pulled back, my blood coating her fingertips. She smirked and pulled it to her fingers to her mouth and lapped at the blood. I shifted, catching her mouth in mine briefly, tasting the copper of my fluid before straddling her thigh. 

Our eyes met as I looked down at her before I began to grind my pelvis against hers, skin rubbing against skin. We moaned as one, her breasts bouncing with my movement as I rotated my hips. I shuddered, feeling the sweet sensation of ecstasy snake up through me as we moved, rocking on the ground together.

Her nails dug into the earth as her cries escalated with each movement I made, pushing her closer to her edge. Our skin became covered in crimson, each of us leaking fluid tainted with our own moon’s blood, mixing in browns and reds. Small whimpers crept out of her as I increased my speed, rubbing our bodies together in frantic abandon.

Nails dug into my thigh as she cried out, filling the mirror-room with her pleasure. I smiled down at her, slowing my speed to tease the sensitive flesh as she shuddered and smiled, twisting beneath me. A small sound of protest made me grin as she finally smiled and laughed, pulling away as the sensations overwhelmed her.  

Mary moved to her knees, admiring the mess my body had become before she kissed me again. The release made her smile and smirk rather than glower as her mouth explored mine, slow and sensual. Her tongue teased my lips before moving down my throat, to my breasts, flicking each nipple. 

I whimpered and leaned back, giving her access to me before she pushed on my chest. My body laid on the hollow ground, spread before her. Nails raked down my chest and over my breasts, leaving scratch marks without blood. My back arched, pushing my body up towards her with the pain and pleasure she drew from me.

The spirit’s mouth tickled my stomach, flicking at the remnants of our activities to taste it. Her tongue went lower, clearing a wet path in the bloody fluid as she lowered her head to my thighs. My fingers touched her blood-matted hair and I gasped as her mouth closed around my flesh, tongue invading hungrily and diving deep.

My body shuddered beneath her as her tongue explored my depths, saliva mixing with blood. I looked down at her, her mouth pausing to smile at me, chin covered in dark red fluid. A moan spilled out of my mouth as she tasted me again, tongue swirling around the sensitive nub of flesh.

Hips rocked as pleasure moved through me, her mouth working my skin in rhythm, driving the sense of urgency to a heightened frenzy. My fingers dug into her hair and the ground, writhing in the blood and mess around us. Finally, I cried out, bucking up against her mouth and panting as the sensations overwhelmed me.

My undead lover crawled up my body, taking my mouth in her own. I tasted my lust on her, mixed with my blood and hers from our earlier passions. Our kiss lingered, arms around each other, holding each other as the waves moved through us. 

Her head rested on my chest as I held her against me. She listened to my heart as I watched the flickering light from the candle in my world grow dimmer. Finally, she rose and kissed my lips softly before linking her fingers with mine and pulling me to stand with her. Mary lead me to the mirror and touched its glimmering surface, opening the world to me.

I squeezed her hand and smirked. “Bloody Mary.”

With a sigh, I stepped through into the waiting world. Our eyes stared at each other again, Mary’s intense blues into my strange grey-gold. She smiled and winked at me, covered in our mixed blood. Our fingertips met on the glass before I blinked and stared, once more, into my bloody reflection.