It was a rainy day after school on a Friday, and I was having a sleepover with my friends Claire and Remi. They were my best friends. We did absolutely everything together–even our homework! We never got tired of each other and always had something to talk about no matter what. We decided to sleep over at Claire’s house that weekend because her mom always lets us, and I love her mom’s cooking and her family; they are so, so sweet. We played board games and talked until about 8 p.m., then I went to get ready for bed and so did Claire and Remi. A few minutes later we were sitting in our sleeping bags with no plans to actually sleep. We were very hyper and couldn’t stop laughing and giggling, so we decided to look up some scary 3 a.m. challenges. As we scrolled through the list on our phones we saw one that was called “Bloody Mary.” It seemed exciting, so we read up on what we had to do.

It was only 8:34 p.m. at the time we were figuring out how to work this challenge, but the instructions said to wait until the middle of the night, so we decided to watch Youtube videos and shorts together for a few hours. At 2 a.m. we returned to reading about “Bloody Mary.” We were making final preparations for beginning the actual challenge at 3:00 a.m., which is what many people consider “the Devil’s Hour.” I was pretty frightened at this point.

At 3:00 a.m. Claire, Remi, and I decided to play rock-paper-scissors to decide who would call Bloody Mary to come out first. First Claire and I would play, then the loser of our match would play Remi. I lost, of course, because I always do. But to my surprise, when I played Remi she lost!

“I’ll be fine,” said Remi, laughing at the concerned look on my face. She was always such a good friend, just like Claire; they meant so much to me. I wanted the three of us to stay this close no matter how old we got. Then Remi stopped laughing. “Claire, tell me the next step so I can start and be done with it already,” she said.

“You need to go in the bathroom, turn off all the lights, stand in front of the mirror and say “Bloody Mary” while spinning three times. Then you can come out.”

Remi sighed deeply. “I’ll be right back.”

A minute passed and we heard nothing, so I went to check on Remi. “Hey, Remi, are you in there?” I knocked on the door but there was only silence. “Remi, please–”

I heard her screaming and shrieking so loudly that I stepped back for an instant before I tried to open the bathroom door, but it wouldn’t budge. Claire came to help me but we could not unstick the door, and Remi kept screaming, drowning out our promises that she would be okay. All of a sudden she wasn’t screaming anymore. It went totally quiet, so quiet that you could hear even the slightest noise. A moment later the door slammed wide open, causing Claire and me to fall on the floor. Claire groaned. “Where’s Remi?!” I shrieked. The bathroom was empty; Remi had completely disappeared.

We never saw Remi again. How did she get out and where did she go? The bathroom had no windows! We searched the whole house but never found her. Claire and I lost our best friend that day. “I HATE YOU, BLOODY MARY! YOU KILLED MY FRIEND!” I screamed at the bathroom mirror before I left the house that night. As the words “I’ll get revenge!” crossed my lips I swear I saw a glimpse of Remi in the mirror and my own face went as white as a ghost’s. Remi was absolutely terrifying. She was nothing like I’d ever seen before. I ran out of that bathroom as fast as I could.

Since then, Clair and I have cherished every moment we have together, and we even celebrate Remi’s birthday every single year.