Bloody Marinara by Ezekiel Kincaid
Olivia placed the pizza on the kitchen table. “Emma! Ainsley! Food’s here!” She heard footsteps running down the stairs, followed by giggles.
The three junior high girls had a night of scary movies planned. They already started on Urban Legend. Up next, Scream and Oculus.
Emma sat down first and opened the pizza. “Ewe. Why’d you get the fish thingies?”
“I didn’t,” Olivia said. “They must’ve got the orders mixed up.”
“I am not eating that,” Emma wagged her finger.
“Just pick them off. The pizza will be fine,” Ainsley said.
Emma and Olivia curled their noses and picked the fish off and placed them on a paper plate.
“I feel like I should run some water over it or something,” Olivia said.
Ainsley rolled her eyes. “Just eat it.”
Each of the girls picked up a slice and bit into it.
“See, tastes fine,” Ainsley said, proud of herself for being right.“You think any of that urban legend stuff from the movie is real?” Olivia asked.
“No,” Ainsley huffed.
Emma raised her eyebrow and a sinister grin crept across her face. “There’s one that is.”
“What?” Olivia’s eyes widened with anticipation as she chewed her pizza
“Ever heard of Bloody Marinara?” Emma asked.
“Oh, God. Emma, you’re so lame,” Ainsley lifted a slice of pizza to her mouth.
“No, seriously. It’s real,” Emma countered.
“I’ve never heard of it. Do tell.” Olivia said.
Emma placed her piece of pizza down on her plate, folded her arms, then leaned on the table. “Mary Cartwright, daughter of Louise and Edwin Cartwright. They owned a pizza place in California. After school, Mary used to come to the restaurant and help her parents out. Well, one day, they had a big ole pot of marinara cooking on the stove. I’m talking industrial strength pot size. Huge. Gallons and gallons of the stuff boiling on the stove.”
Emma stood up and continued. “Mary, who was thirteen at the time, was stirring the pot. Her earing fell out and dropped to the floor. She leaned down to pick it up. When she did, an earthquake hit. It shook the restaurant so hard, the pot of marinara bounced off the stove, and poured all over Mary. By the time they found her, it was too late. Her body had been burned by the sauce…but that’s not the worst part.”
Olivia jumped up and grabbed Emma’s shoulder. “What, what? What happened?”
“She didn’t die from the burns. She died from drowning in the marinara sauce.”
Ainsley clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle the giggles.
Olivia’s jaw dropped.
Emma went on with the story. “Now, the urban legend part is this: If you stare into a pizza and say ‘Bloody Marinara’ thirteen times, she comes up out of the pizza and grabs you. Her hands burn your body, and she vomits marinara sauce into your mouth, drowning you.”
“No way!” Olivia said.
“No way is right,” Ainsley protested. “It’s just a dumb story to try and scare kids when they order pizza.”
“Oh yeah, well if it’s not real, then you won’t have any problem playing it right now.” Emma sat back down in her chair and folded her arms.
“I don’t think we should,” Olivia said, shaking her head as she returned to her seat.
Ainsley mocked her. “Oh my goodness, you’re buying into this? Okay, fine. Let’s play your dumb game, Emma.”
Emma glanced at Olivia. “You in?”
She nodded.
Emma explained the rules. “Alright, we all need to stand up and hold hands, making a circle around the pizza. The only way to survive the game is to keep the circle. It keeps her in the pizza box. If you break the circle, she can get you and kill you.”
The girls stood up, reached across the table, and held hands, with the pizza in the middle of their circle.
“Next, we have to stare hard into the pizza. Not just look at it. Look through it. Understand?” Emma waited for confirmation.
“Yes,” Olivia and Ainsley said in unison.
“Good. As we stare, we have to say ‘Bloody Marinara’ thirteen times. We have to say it slow…all together. Got it?”
They nodded.
“Good. Let’s begin.”
Emma shot an eye at Ainsley, who came down with a case of the giggles. Emma rebuked her. “If you’re laughing, you won’t be able to say the chant right, and it won’t work. Now stop.”
Ainsley bit her lip. “Okay, sorry.”
“On my count,” Emma said. “One, two, three.”
“Bloody Marinara.” The girls said in chorus. They repeated the chant again and again until it came time for number thirteen. They paused, then took a deep breath. “Bloody Marinara.”
Still holding hands, the girls waited.
Olivia grew uncomfortable. She felt the tickle of fear building in her throat. She peeked at Emma and Ainsley. They seemed at ease.
“See, it’s a stupid story,” Ainsley said. She went to drop her hands and break the circle, but Emma held on tight.
“No, not yet. Wait a second,” Emma said.
Moments later, the table started to shake. The pizza exploded, sending cheese and sauce splattering on the ceiling. A red bulge appeared in the middle of the pizza. A face began to form in the red goo--a girl’s face--black and burned in places. Marinara sauced matted her hair and dripped down her cheeks and chin.
Olivia screamed, dropping her hands and breaking the circle.
Mary turned on her first. Sauce covered arms reached out of the bulging red goo. Mary’s hands clasped Olivia’s face. Olivia screamed, and her cheeks bubbled as the skin burned. Mary pulled Olivia in close and put her lips over Olivia’s.
Olivia let out a muffled scream. Marinara sauce rushed into her mouth and gagged her. Olivia tried to pull away, but Mary’s grip proved too strong. Sauce flowed from Olivia’s nose, then ears. It even started to leak from her eyes. A few moments passed, and Mary released Olivia. She fell on the table, dead.
Ainsley turned to run away. One of Mary’s arms extended like a hose and curled around her neck. Ainsley grabbed the arm with her hand, and steam arose from her sizzling palms. Another hand shot forth from Mary, grabbing Ainsley by the back of the head. The smell of burning hair filled the air.
Mary opened her mouth, and like a geyser, shot forth a stream of marinara all over Ainsley’s body. Ainsley shrieked in pain, as her skin melted off from the scalding sauce. Mary went to pull Ainsley close and fill her lungs with marinara but saw she had already died. Mary released Ainsley, who plopped to the floor.
Emma stood motionless, staring Mary in the eyes.
The red bulge grew taller, and something the shape of a leg lifted out, followed by another. Mary stood fully erect in the pizza box. Her body was covered in red sauce. Her skin had patches of red and black. Her eyes were green and flashing like emeralds in the sun. Mary opened her mouth and revealed jagged teeth which resembled pizza slices.
It happened so fast; Emma didn’t have time to react. Mary’s pizza like teeth sunk into Emma’s neck, draining her blood and replacing it with marinara sauce. Emma crossed over into death, staring into Mary’s flashing eyes, smelling her own burning skin, and feeling her insides get cooked by the boiling red poison coursing through her veins.
Mary threw Emma to the floor. She spun in a circle in the box then sank back down into the pizza.
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