“Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary!” the kids behind me shouted. I hated when people called me Scary Mary. Everyday someone called me Scary Mary. Most of the kids just mocked me, but my name is Mary. JUST MARY.

I am seven years old and live with my mom. My dad died a year ago. My mom and I live in a small little house in the middle of the woods. We have no neighbors around us. My mom isn’t home much so I like to go out into the woods and play when she’s not home.

One day after I got home from school and I was walking through the woods trying to find my favorite spot in the whole woods, but there was something wrong, I couldn’t find it. The next thing I knew I was completely lost. I had walked through the forest at least every other day for the past year! Then I thought that I heard someone talking, or something talking. What was it saying. It sounded like kids. Children around my age! They sounded exactly like the kids from my school. The noise was getting closer and closer to me. Now I could here what they were saying. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary...”

The voices were getting closer and closer. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary...” The closer they got the more scared I became. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary.” They were so close now I could feel the someone was watching me, or something. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary!” The bush behind me made a loud noise, It sounded like a groaning noise. I walked to the bush and looked behind it and... “SCARY MARY!”

The next thing I knew I woke up in a hospital. Why am I here? What happened? Then my mom came in the room. She looked so happy to see me, but she looked so worried at the same time. I asked her what had happened and she said that I went missing in the woods and it took six hours to find me. She also said that when they found me I was asleep up in a the top of a tree that was at least 75 feet tall! I had cuts and bruises all over my body, and the weirdest thing of all, on the back of my neck was a cut that was in the shape of an eye. They washed off the blood but they said that I would have a scar there forever! She said that it was just a weird coincidence that the scratch was in that shape. My mom told me to go back to sleep, because I needed my rest.

The next day I didn’t have to go to school because I was having some tests done in the hospital. I had to get my blood taken also, but when they took out some of my blood, my blood wasn’t red it was brown! The nurse beside me screamed and ran away to get another doctor. Why was my blood brown? Now I was even more scared. When the doctor ran in he looked at my blood and said that I was going to go into the emergency room for an operation.

That night was my first night in the hospital. My mom wasn’t there with me, because she had to work overtime so that we could pay for the operation. I was all alone in my small little room. There wasn’t even any nurses or doctors around. At about one in the morning I started to hear some voices. I thought that it might be some nurses or the doctors going in to check on everyone. But then I realized that these voices weren’t grown-ups. They were kid voices. They sounded like the ones from the woods. I was getting so scared I almost screamed. The voices kept on getting closer, and closer, and closer. Now I could hear what they were saying, but I didn’t want to hear what they were saying. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary...” They were the voices from the woods. Now they were getting even closer. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary...” Then I just jumped out of bed and ran for the door. The voices were still following me. I saw the exit of the hospital. I was almost there. The voices were getting even louder and closer. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary!” I reached for the door and... I was out of the hospital! I had escaped from the voices.

I was walking home on the sidewalks all alone in the middle of the night. I guessed that the hospital didn’t have that good of security. I was just glad that the voices were gone.

I had finally gotten home and I couldn’t open the doors so I walked around to the back door and and went inside. My mom wasn’t home so she wouldn’t know that I wasn’t in the hospital, and she wouldn’t be back for about five hours. I got changed into my regular clothes and decided to watch some TV. There was nothing good on at this time of night so I settled for the news. I was just about to turn the channel when a picture of me popped on the screen. I turned up the volume a little bit louder so that I could hear better. The news woman was saying that I had just escaped from the hospital but there was more to the story. A few pictures came on the screen. One, had a picture of a wall in the main entrance of the hospital lobby that had had “Scary Mary” written on it with what looked to me like blood. As soon as I saw that I turned the TV off. I was so scared, but then I remembered that I had left the voices in the hospital. But something came into my head. If the voices had followed me from the woods to the hospital, maybe they would follow me from the hospital to my house. Then I also remembered that scare I had gotten in the shape of an eye from the voices. That must be how they could follow me.

After about three hours huddled up in a ball in the corner of my living room I knew that they wouldn’t be coming. I knew that the voices always came after me the soonest they could when I was alone. I now think that I know what was happening. Maybe the voices weren’t real. Maybe I was just imagining them. Maybe I scratched myself on the neck like that on purpose. That had to be it. I knew it was. I came out of the corner and decided to get something to drink after all that had happened, or I thought had happened. I went to bed but I didn’t stay asleep for long. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary..” I knew that I was just thinking that I heard the voices but I knew that they weren’t real so I just stayed in my bed until they stopped. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary...” They were getting closer but I still wasn’t scared. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary!” It sounded like the voices were in the hall, but I still wasn’t scared. “Scary Mary, Scary Mary, Scary Mary!” Now it sounded like the voices were right outside my room. Now I was getting a little bit scared. There was a knock on my door! Now I was so scared I thought that I was going to explode. The door started to open and...




The funeral had just ended. I could only read part of the name on the tombstone, it had Mary written on it in big bold letters. I saw my mom crying and talking to a doctor from the hospital I was in. He had asked what had happened and my mom said, “After I got home from work I heard Mary talking to herself in her room. I knocked on her door to check on her, but when I opened the door she screamed and died of fright.”

A little bit later I heard my mom talking to a different doctor, but I knew that he worked at the hospital, too. He said that I had been really sick for awhile, and that if I had gotten more medical help before I had ran out of the hospital I could have lived. He also said that I had told him about the voices and he knew that I had just imagined the whole thing, and that I had cut myself in the back of the neck in the shape of an eye because I was so sick. But now it was too late. But at least the voices were gone and out of my head. Then I heard something. Someone was right behind me whispering into my ear. “SCARY MARY...”