Bloody Mary As a Kid

INTRO:

Hello constant listener. I was thinking of childhood memories and this one came to me as I was about to go to sleep last night. It’s a game I haven’t played for over 20 years. Yet, in some ways, I’ve been playing it at least once every day without realizing it. Each time I turn out the lights in before I go to bed I make sure to keep my eyes facing straight forward. I’ve grown so used to walking by mirrors and purposefully turning my head away while in the dark. I lowering my gaze to my feet over the carpeting will do. When I finally crawl beneath my covers I listen to the constant and even breathing from my husband near me. I’m comforted and eventually, I go to sleep. This particular ritual of turning off the lights each night is now routine. I NEVER look at a reflective surface. 

I heard a funny about phobias that I think you’ll find interesting. Phobias are the instinctive echo of an event that killed us horribly in a previous life. 

With that idea in mind, the commonality of how people fear spiders… could you imagine what sort of apocalyptic arachnophobic-insanity had to occur if so many people in the world can’t stand spiders? My fear of deep water? I think understandable. But reflections… in the dark… That can’t hurt me. The face I’ll see looking back at me is one that I control. I don’t know about you, but I can’t look at the dark reflection of me in the eye. I’m not alone in that phobia, the fear of looking into a bathroom mirror with the lights out is all too common. The face that’s mine, and yet isn’t mine. Black sunken eyes, pale skin, a common description around the world. Some scholars believe it’s an unconscious fear of our own death. Those features are common for corpses after all. But what if it’s more? If we circle back to the idea that phobias of initiative feelings we carried over from death in another life. This image of the reflective monster before us has been described by some as the “Ancient Villain”. Pale-faced, empty socket eyes, twitching lips, and a veil so thin it could reach beyond that glass and touch you. How could this be such a common fear universally around the world? A shared phobia of something common. Who was this old monster, and why does almost every human being fear their own reflection in the dark?

Have you ever heard of the word scrying? It’s a common practice of “mediums”. You know, people who work with crystal balls, reading tea leaves, or the lines on the palms of your hands. Scrying is used by witches as well, those seeking darker magic. Their version of scrying can sometimes involve a polished black surface of obsidian, no less by candlelight to summon demons. Scrying can even involve mirrors. Have children passed down what we thought was a game of Bloody Mary? A stupid tradition? What… if we’ve done something more. We’ve invited something into this world that follows us, and gave us more than we ever bargained for. A children’s game, derived from something real?

I’m Tasha Wheelhouse, and this is Coppershock.

BODY:

In the pines of Flagstaff Arizona. I sat on a bedroom floor with two other 9-year-old friends. The night was young and we were having one of my first sleepovers with my good friend Carrie. We were talking about school crushes, creepy bus drivers, and the Grey house at the edge of the playing field behind the school and that’s when Carrie got her idea. She wanted to play truth or dare, for those who listen to Coppershock, you already know why I don’t like that game. When I absolutely refused, Beth suggested “Bloody Mary.” I then gave Beth a confused look.

Before that point, I’d never heard of it. This was 1996, Google didn’t exist yet,