Bloody Mary

Chapter 4 - The Name Behind The Mirror

The truth was I did remember that name Max Beagle, but how it related to anything, I had no clue. I was laying in Megan’s bed just staring at her ceiling wondering how it related to her. I had a few ideas like maybe she went out with the guy, she did go out with a lot of people, but then I thought why would his name be written on the back of the mirror. Maybe it’s the name of the person who sold the mirror? Old owner of the house? It was starting to hurt my brain about how this name could be on the back of the mirror. I closed my eyes hoping that I would be able to fall asleep. I could still hear Mrs Portakol crying. She was best friends with my dad, so she had lost a lot in two days the same as me.

I layed there trying to fall asleep, knowing that if you try you normally don’t fall asleep. I could smell candles everywhere, maybe the unfamiliar smell kept me awake. A cold brush of air swept by me as though I wasn’t the only one in the room. I started freaking out, not wanting to open my eyes just in case there was some monster staring at my face.

“Go away whatever you are! I just want to sleep!”

I don’t remember if I yelled it or said it loudly but the cold air left the room, as though I had scared it away. Could I be a reason that all of this was happening? I couldn’t bare the thought that maybe I had done something to kill my own father, or even my best friend. The one thing I had concluded before I fell asleep, was that neither of their deaths were from a stroke, it was something else.

***

The next morning I woke up and there was a card on the bedside table. Mrs Portakol had left and said she was going shopping. This was fine with me because I had to go to the library and find out who this Max person was. It was the only way I could find out what happened to Megan. I walked down the stairs and the house felt empty. I opened the door and locked it from the inside, making sure I had everything I needed and then started walking.

It was a beautiful day with no cloud in sight. I could feel he warmth rushing over my cheeks when the sun hit me. I started walking faster, hoping to get to the library just as it opened so that I could find a place to sit. I ran around the corner almost tripping over my own feet, the librarian has just started opening the big glass doors to the library. I was in luck.

The librarian yelled at me to stop running, so I did. Anything to make her like me as I knew later on I might be asking for some help to find some old newspaper articles. I walked towards her and smiled.

“Hi, do you have any computer available?” I asked hoping that there was.

“Let me check for you.”

Her arms looked fragile and she had the same old people smell and well… old people.

“We have one computer left.” She said staring at me.

“Could I please use it?” I asked.

“Yes of course you can.” He reply sounding more sarcastic then approving.

“Thank you”

She walked me over to the first computer on the workbench.

“This is your computer”

“Okay thank you” I replied while sitting down.

“And your not allowed to swap computers with anyone.”

“Okay”

“Understand?”

“Yes I understand” I said. I don’t know why they make you sit at the same computer all the time, but it annoyed the way she said it to me.

I sat down at the computer and started searching. My first try was searching the name in the library database. There were no results and I was starting to get impatient. I wanted to know who he was but I wanted to know strait away. I needed to know exactly who he was and it seamed like it was going to take all day to find out who he was. My next though was maybe I should just look up his name in Google. I didn’t want to do this at first because there could be heaps of people with that name, but I tried it anyway. Of course there were hundred of result, but there was one newspaper article. And I remembered the title.

“Boy Gets Hit By Black SUV” I read to myself.

I knew I had remembered the name. The boys name from this article was Max Beagle. I could feel the rush of achievement through my body. But maybe I should have been feeling shock. I sat and read the article, it was small but it started to make sense now.

Max Beagle was riding his bike to school when a car which bystanders said to be a black SUV hit the boy. Max was rushed to hospital only to die three hours later. His family and friends are in a great stated of sadness and ask if anyone who may have seen the car or know who owns the car can please step forward. The car is thought to be a Black 2001 BMW SUV. No numberplates where seen. This occurred just out of Whitevally.

As I read the article it hit me. Megan’s mum drove a black 2001 BMW and she lived near Whitevally. The day that the accident happened was the day Megan stole her mum’s car and came to pick me up for a ride around the town. I didn’t get into the car but she had already picked up Sarah and they left without me. She got in big trouble but she said that nothing interesting happened. I turned off the computer and walked up to the librarian and signed out on the computer sheet.

I started running home. It made me feel better running knowing that I was actually getting somewhere. I made it home in no time at all. My sister was waiting at the door for me. I hadn’t told her that I was staying at Megan’s but I knew she would understand when I told her what happened.

I told Becca everything and she just laughed at me.

“It’s a shame that Megan died. I really liked her.”

“I know you did”

“But your crazy to think that it wasn’t a stroke!” Becca laughed at me.

I knew that even if I had told her what I had found at Megan’s house she wouldn’t of had believed me, so I left it out. But just the fact that I thought that It could have been something else made her laugh. I stared at her in disbelief at how she could be laughing when she just found out what happened to Megan.

“How could you be laughing after what happened to Megan?” I asked

“Well shit happens! You have to get over it!” She yelled strait into my face.

I could smell the alcohol on her breath. Knowing that she was probably drunk I walked away. The conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere. It always went around in circles when she was drunk.

“Where are you going?!” Becca yelled as I walked up the stairs

“To dads bathroom!” I yelled back starting to get angry.

I walked into my dad’s bathroom and I could still smell the blood. I had tried everything candles, sprays even deodorant just to try and get rid of the smell. I didn’t want to walk on the floor where he died but I needed to see if there was anything underneath the mirror like at Megan’s, because if there was, then there might have been a connection.

As I slowly lifted the mirror and placed it on the bench near the sink I stared into it, hoping that when I turned it around that there would be nothing on it.

To say that there was nothing on the back of the mirror would be a lie. But what I say just made my heart sink into my chest and made me regret trying to find out what actually happened to my dad and Megan. There could have been so many other names tat could have been on the back of the mirror. Anyone except the one that was written I could have lived with. I sat down on the floor, not caring anymore that my dad had just died in the same spot that I was sitting. Hatred started to fill my body as the name kept ringing in my head over and over again. I couldn’t let this one go, now that I’m in, it’s way to late to get out.

I walked over to my room and grabbed to house phone. I had to tell someone… anyone, what had happened. The only person that I could think of that may believe or understand me was Sarah. And with that she could tell me what happened that day that she went driving with Megan.