The year is 1999.

Your walls are covered with posters of in-sync and the Backstreet Boys.

Blink 182 is blasting from the stereo as you and three of your closest friends trying outlast each other over a bag of Warhead candies.

That night, you play a few board games, make a prank phone call to your

crush, but then it starts to get late. You say, let's order a pizza before everything closes.

But your friend has a better idea. Why not play Bloody Mary? Immediately, you feel your face go red. Your heart starts pounding in your ears and you

try to make a few excuses. You should probably call it a night soon, maybe a movie instead. But the rest of

your friends egg you on. Come on, you're not afraid, are you? Your parents are already asleep.

You can't chicken out and wake them up.

You have no choice but to surrender

and pray to God that nothing happens.

So you go into the bathroom,

turn out the lights, hold hands,

and say it all at once while looking in the mirror.

Bloody Mary.

You take a deep breath and say it a second time.

Bloody Mary.

And then you grip each other's hands tighter than before.

You're all clammy and nervous, but you say it one final time.

Bloody Mary. If this sounds like something you did back in the day, then I'm sorry if this was triggering. But even now that I'm older,

I still think about this stuff all the time. Where do these spooky rituals come from?

And could they actually be rooted in something supernatural?

...