1.4 Bloody Mary

Raveena: "Don't let me say something stupid."
Will: "I can't promise that."

A darkened attic. Four teenagers sit around a bowl of water and a mirror, discussing the legend of Bloody Mary. One says that she now knows how to do the ritual right, and tonight, they will do it. She chants, pours some herbs, and cuts her hand. The four now very nervous girls dip their hands into the water and chant, "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary." They blow out their candles, and the room is in darkness.

Raveena: "Coven of He...Ha...Hepatitis?"

At the morgue desk, Chase and Geoff chat. Geoff starts to ask her out, when a large bang is heard inside. They watch as Raveena chases two vamps around the room, staking one and beheading another with a morgue saw.

The gang gathers in the cafeteria for lunch. Gabe and Jade discuss their upcoming test on herbs and minerals for the Daughters of Hecate. Jade also tells the gang about another big coven in town called Cernunos Grove that claims to be older than the DoH, but they don't have the same work ethic as the DoH. Kalissa inserts herself into the group, much to Raveena's chagrin, but immediate annoys everyone by asking why they're still talking about nonsense.

A newspaper slaps down in front of Raveena. Allie Perkins has come by to ask for help; her little sister has been attacked, and she heard that Raveena and Co. handle "weird stuff." She tries to explain the situation, but Kalissa (with a little help from Gabe) attacks and embarrasses her to the point of tears and she runs off. [Unbeknownst to them she was going to offer to pay them for their help, and now she's probably going to never encourage anybody to talk to them, let alone keep them informed of what's going on. But hey, what the gang doesn't know won't hurt them, right? :P]

Chase heads into the cafeteria and catches the last part of the conversation. She stops Allie before she runs off and gets the whole story from her, eventually calming her down. Allie's sister Ashley, McKennit High School’s head cheerleader, was at Dermot's Point with her star quarterback boyfriend. They were attacked through the sunroof by a woman with milky eyes and a scratched and bloody face. The attacker said Ashley's name before the boyfriend managed to peel out the car, throwing the attacker off.

Chase convinces the group to take the case after lecturing them [not nearly severely enough] on common politeness. Raveena and Will head out towards Dermot's Point and the others head to the library to research potential baddies.

Will: Maybe we can summon the Candyman, and he can fight her."

On their way out, Raveena and Will are stopped by Martin Bishop (Will's father). He asks Will if he wouldn't mind having a chat with his little sister LoAnn. Martin knows she's been sneaking out of the house lately, and with the new high school slasher on the loose, he's especially worried about her. Will agrees to pick her up from basketball camp today and chat with her.

Up at Dermot's Point, Raveena and Will find a scene that matches up with Ashley's story. A car appears to have peeled out. In front of that is a bush with a major dent in it like something hit it. Footsteps leave the bush and head off downtown. There are no other footsteps in the area.

Back at the library, Deaver and Gabe find info on Bloody Mary, a spirit who matches the description provided by Allie. Mary supposedly was a girl in the early 19th century who was picked on a lot. Eventually she called [caused?] magickal mayhem and was invited to join a group called the Vengeance Demons.

After about a century as a vengeance demon, Mary found a way to liberate herself from the control of the vengeance demons, but in doing so became a spirit. In this incarnation, Bloody Mary can be summoned by a simple ritual involving a bowl of water and a mirror. Once called, she can possess each caller, or host, until she forces them to commit murder, after which the host is freed. The host often recalls the events as a dream (as Mary usually first possesses the host while s/he sleeps), but will always remember it.

Mary has the memories and mental faculties of her host, but provides the host with super strength, dexterity, and the ability to wind-walk (walk on walls and spring across the ground like a moon walker). Therefore, Mary invariably goes after someone the host isn't happy with. Bloody Mary can be destroyed if you kill her host during possession. Meanwhile, Jade discovers from a newspaper article that another student, Heather Ryder, was killed night before last and found on the high school campus. Chase calls Allie, and Allie asks if she wouldn't mind keeping an eye on Ashley because try as she might, Allie couldn't convince her sister to stay inside out of harm's way. Chase agrees.

Meanwhile, Will leaves to pick up his sister. Will awkwardly steps around small talk and then goes super-blunt about her sneaking out. Will says it's dangerous right now and promises to get Dad to lighten up if she'll hold off sneaking out for a while. They go home to play Nintendo since she doesn't want to meet his freaky friends. [The Director thanks Charles for the wording on that!]

Ashley (slamming the door): "Bitch!"
Raveena: "Yep!"
Will: "That seemed to go well."

That evening, the gang takes off for Lone Star, as they've been told Ashley will be there. After they watch her dance with random strangers for a while, she finally leaves. Will and Raveena hop in his truck and follow her. Ashley drops off all of her friends and goes home. She doesn't go inside, but stays standing on her porch staring at Will's truck until finally Raveena hops out. They fight about Raveena and Will "stalking" her, Ashley threatens to call the police, and finally Raveena drags Ashley into her house.

Chase calls Geoff at the morgue and informs him of the situation.

Raveena: "Maybe we can put the spirit in someone we want to kill."

The next morning, Chase gets a call from the morgue. Geoff says that they're going to bring a high school male in, but if she hurries she might get to the site before his people do. The gang hustles itself over to find Ashley's boyfriend gutted and leaning on the flagpole. Will gets a call from his dad urging him to get over to his house now, which Will does. The gang realizes that there were at least two people involved in the ritual, since there have been two murders, and possibly more. They also realize that it's likely that the people who performed the ritual had no idea what they were getting themselves into. About that time, Will calls them and tells them to get to his house pronto. They pile into Chase's SUV and get over there.

When they arrive, Will quickly introduces his dad and then shuffles him out of the house. He shows the gang a plastic bag full of blood-drenched pajamas and tells them that LoAnn was attempting to sneak out of the house with the bag this morning. They get LoAnn out of her room (into which she has been banished until the second coming) and pepper her with questions.

Finally she reveals that she and her friends were playing around with the Bloody Mary ritual, but they didn't know what it would do. Her friend Kit brought the pj's over early this morning and she was trying to get rid of them. Her friend Ellen has been freaked out, and she hasn't been able to get a hold of Jamie, the final member of the ritual. The gang decides to have a big slumber party at the Bishop house with all four girls since there are still two murders left to be performed.

Deaver warns Raveena that possessed person could be much stronger than a normal high schooler. Gabe, Jade, and Deaver decide to head back to the fifth floor and research. Raveena stays with LoAnn and has her invite her three friends over. They all agree that the two main obstacles are 1) they can't kill the girls and 2) Raveena can't kill a spirit without a solid body.

At the library, the three folks research potential spells to help them. Deaver researches exorcisms and Gabe finds a spell to give form to the incorporeal. They decide to go for it. Jade will perform the de-possessing and Gabe will solidify the spirit once it's out. Timing will be key, though, as the solidifying spell takes about 20 minutes to perform and the excorcism takes a variable amount of time. Everyone heads back to the Bishop household. Since Geoff has the night off, he joins them. They kick Martin out again, and set up camp in the living room.

Raveena: "Possesion's nine-tenths of the law."

As it gets dark, Kit explains to the group how she was dreaming about a time recently when Mark had been particularly mean to her on the night that she dreamed she killed him. Jamie says the same thing about Heather Ryder. Ellen tells that Ashley (along with Trisha Boyd-Townsend) kept her from getting on the cheerleading squad this year and she was dreaming of that the night the attempt was made.

The crew knows now knows that Ellen and LoAnn are the only two that can still be possessed. The gang gets them talking about what's going on in school, hoping to give Bloody Mary an opening. Eventually the girls go to sleep. Will stands guard outside, and the rest stay in preparing for the fight.

About three hours later, Geoff decides to try asking Chase out again. He gets about to, "So, next weekend, would you be interested in..." (which is substantially further than last time) when Ellen wakes up. She has to go to the bathroom. Raveena follows her and waits outside the door.

Ellen comes out and looks up at Raveena with milky white eyes. "I'm sorry, but I have to go now." She slams Raveena against a wall, blows by Will [jen – will was outside, not in the house], scampers up the wall, and exits via a skylight. After a pause, the gang leaps to action, taking LoAnn with them in case she gets possessed again. They head out to Will's truck when a gang of vamps jumps out at them, heading for Raveena. Raveena rolls her eyes and says she'll stay behind, but Chase pulls out a coin from her pocket and shows it to the mob, claiming that everyone's with her. The vamps back up and leave, frustrated. She gets some strange looks, but everyone's too busy worrying about Ellen to dig.

They follow Ellen (busting through a fence or two in the processes) to a party a few blocks away. Ellen punches her way into the party and out the back door. The gang follows, knocking a few drunk popular kids into the pool in the process [Can we say bitter much? *Director will attempt to refrain from future commentary*] and eventually ends up in an alley behind the house. There they find a very drunk Trisha Boyd-Townsend being help up by Ellen. As Trisha comments on Ellen’s presence at the party (in that “how on earth did YOU get in here” kind of way), Ellen raises her hand a knife materializes in it.

Jade and Gabe start chanting. Ellen tells them to leave. Kalissa grabs a lump of clay from her pocket (she brought some along … just in case?) and chunks it at the knife, hitting Ellen in the hand. Ellen releases her grip and the knife it gone. Ellen warns them again to leave, recloses her fist, and the knife reappears. She stares at Gabe and Jade and changes to holding Trisha like a hostage, knife at her throat, and tells the witches to stop chanting.

LoAnn calls out to Ellen, and Ellen starts blinking - the spell is working! Her hand opens and the knife disappears. Raveena tackles both girls, pushing Trisha out of the way and sitting on Ellen. White gas spews from Ellen's eyes and mouth and forms a cloud in the air. Will grabs LoAnn from behind. The wind begins blowing heavily as Chase starts to smack talk the spirit like the high school prom queen she once was, hoping to focus Mary's attention elsewhere as Gabe continues to chant. The cloud disperses and LoAnn's eyes turn milky.

The wind blows stronger and a black cloud forms around LoAnn. A new voice throbs through the night in a Native American tongue. LoAnn listens. Deaver listens as well, then yells over the wind "Don't let it get her; it's a wendigo!" Will claps his hand over LoAnn's mouth, trying to prevent her from speaking, as the cloud becomes a funnel swirling around the two of them. LoAnn throws Will off of her and hard onto the ground. She looks at him for a moment and her eyes uncloud. She yells "Stop!" and takes a step forward through the funnel before her eyes cloud over again.

The funnel slows, stops and moves to recircle LoAnn in her new position. LoAnn calls for the Wendigo to return as Jade's spell goes off again, and Mary is forced from LoAnn. This time the spirit rises up into the night, dissipating. And Gabe's spell goes off. Hitting the Wendigo. The spirit Wendigo coalesces into a wolf-person and Raveen attacks. She and Will kill it, but since it was a spirit wendigo, not subject to the frailties of it's kin that already have a host, it did not vanish into fire, and the gang is left with a demon-spirit corpse thing.

The gang wonders what happened to Bloody Mary, so Jade and Gabe set up a circle to talk to the spirit plane and ask if Mary is still a threat. Through flickering light, an almost human form tells them that Mary has returned to the spirit plane. He compliments the gang on frightening her off, as that's never happened before, and closes contact. The gang shuffles out of the circle and stares at the corpse.

Geoff turns to Chase and says, a little louder than he'd intended, "I have two tickets to the circus next week in Augusta. Do you want to go?" She looks at him a minute. "There's never been a good time to ask." Chase laughs a little and agrees. Everyone heads home by way of a dumpster to get rid of the corpse (much to the fright of tomorrow's garbage collectors).

So back in the cave. With the ash door. And the iron hinges. And the torches. And... nobody kneeling in front of it.