My hands shook unevenly on the cold metal locks, protesting what they were about to do. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” I shot at Lilly, “this place is seriously sketchy. If anyone sees us they’ll freak.” Lilly smiled, bearing her teeth and shaking out her long, blonde hair. “Relax, it’ll take like two seconds. We’ll be in and out before you know it, I just want to take a peek.” Then, with a quick glance in my direction, she added, “If it bothers you I don’t mind going alone.” My hands reacted quicker than my mind did, pulling the door open and stepping inside.


The first thing that hit you was cold. The air moved slowly around me, examining every inch of my body. The dust was palpable, making the staircase smell stale. Cobwebs laced the stairs like rays of sunlight in a photograph. Everything felt dead, cold; when we came into the place it felt it start to breathe, and the air began to have a voice to it. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that the place came alive.


“This is gross,” I said, wrinkling my nose, “The murder staircase is a myth. Come on, we’re missing lunch.” Lilly shook her head, her skin looking translucent in the dim lighting. “This is too cool. My sister said she came down here with a bunch of people and they all sat in a circle at the bottom. Someone brought a mirror, and someone stole candles and everything so it was like, super creepy. And they all got Chelsea Stevens to go turn around three times and say ‘Bloody Mary’, and everyone swore they saw someone in the mirror. How freaky is that?” I rolled my eyes. No one knew better than Lilly that I hated that sort of stuff. Last Halloween some of Lily’s sister Jenna’s friends dressed up as homeless people and came into the house to try and scare us, and I ended up locking myself in the bathroom. It took a solid two hours for them to coax me out, and it took even longer for me to be able to sleep without having nightmares of being torn apart by a bunch of burglars in my own home.


“Come on, Lil, you don’t seriously believe that. If she didn’t tell you that just to scare you, then everyone was probably stoned by the time Chelsea could say ‘Bloody Mary’.” She began walking down the steps and me, fearing the thought of being alone more than the thought of going to the bottom of the murder staircase, followed dutifully. “Well, I wouldn’t expect you to. But that summer Chelsea Stevens drowned. Everyone says it was because Mary pulled her under through the reflection of the water. I know you wouldn’t think so, but I think its Mary.” She spoke with such authority you’d think she was trying to convince me the world was round. The light from the flashlight was dim, and I began finding my way down the uneven stairs by following the noise were I heard her step.


“Did you ever meet Chelsea?” I called ahead of me, “Do you think that maybe Jenna made up Chelsea to scare you? Or maybe Chelsea drowned because she couldn’t swim?” Lilly heaved a dramatic sigh. “It’s hopeless trying to convince you, but it’s true, I swear.” With that Lilly whirled around, whipping me in the face with her ponytail. She handed the flashlight to me and, after several seconds of digging through her purse, pulled out a small, compact mirror. I shook me head, and with as much force as I could muster, said, “No way. There is no way we are going to play Bloody Mary right now. We need to go up, people will notice that we aren’t upstairs.”


Of course Lilly didn’t exactly heed my warning. She set the mirror on one of the steps and turned off the flashlight. “If you do it, I’ll do it with you.” I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. “If you do it with me we can go back upstairs.” The hairs on the back of my arms stood up, and I groaned something alone the lines of “Fine.” Giggling, she led the chant “bloody Mary’ and I followed along, spinning in the cold, dusty air. “Bloody Mary... Bloody Mary…Bloody Mary.” Quickly, she picked up the flashlight and shot it at the small mirror on the ground. I thought maybe I saw something, but that could’ve just been me. Or a rat.


“Ha. I told you we wouldn’t see anything. Now lets go back on up before Mary changes her mind.” Lilly stared at her reflection for a long second, before turning on her heel and leaving me to chase her back into the light.


“That was lame.”