![\"BlogSeries\"](\"http:\/\/www.penandkinkpub.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/BlogSeries.jpg\")
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Urban legends fascinate us as much as they frighten us. The settings are familiar, the situations seem plausible, if you dare to believe.<\/p>\n
To celebrate the opening of submissions<\/a> for Legendary<\/a>\u00a0on June 1, we have four guest bloggers who want to share some urban legends to get you in the mood.<\/p>\n All those who comment on this blog series are eligible to win an Amazon gift card. We’d love to hear about your favourite urban legends or the first time you heard one.<\/p>\n Now sit back while Wendy Sparrow\u00a0tells\u00a0you a tale.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is something deliciously illicit about the recounting of an urban legend. Maybe it\u2019s because we know it\u2019s probably not true, but we\u2019re passing it on, selling the lie\u2014and, why? To be titillated? To share a thrill with our listener? Or maybe it\u2019s because our first brush with an urban legend was probably whispered in the dark\u2014at a sleepover or around a campfire.<\/p>\n You never forget your first urban legend.<\/p>\n Oh, sure, the first was followed quickly by the second\u2014the man with a hook for a hand who attacked a couple at make-out point. (I didn\u2019t even understand the significance of their location at that age.) My third was more interactive\u2014a snipe hunt. We went out hunting that mythical bird that was said to have glowing eyes and attack unsuspecting campers. But the first\u2026the first was Bloody Mary.<\/p>\n Now, like many firsts, my introduction to this urban legend was clumsy, but I was excited enough that it\u2019s only in retrospect that I think, \u201cWhat the hell was that all about?\u201d It occurred at a sleepover and my friend held a flashlight up to her face as she told this mish-mash of a legend: \u201cYou know Henry the VIII?\u201d<\/p>\n *we all nod*<\/p>\n \u201cWell, he kept beheading all his wives because he wanted a son, right?\u201d<\/p>\n *more nods*<\/p>\n \u201cHis first wife had a daughter named Mary but her other babies died, and the king wanted a son, so he got rid of her mother. Then, he remarried. When she couldn\u2019t give him a son, he had her beheaded. And he did it again and again. His daughter Mary saw all these women tossed away or beheaded because they weren\u2019t giving the king what he wanted. After the king died and Mary became queen, she didn\u2019t see anything wrong with killing people so she did it too. But she always wore a red ribbon around her neck. She never took it off. She told her maids never to take it off. After Mary died, they finally untied the ribbon to bury her and her head fell off\u2026she\u2019d been beheaded too. Now, if you stand in front of a mirror in a dark room, and say \u201cBloody Mary\u201d three times, she\u2019ll reach through the mirror and try to steal your head.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, if you have any sort of memory for history, you\u2019re clutching your head right now and not because you\u2019re afraid Mary might steal it. The true story of Henry the VIII\u2019s daughter, nicknamed \u201cBloody Mary\u201d because of her executions of Protestants, is butchered in this retelling. (Do some Googling if you\u2019d like to know her real story.) Nevertheless, I went along with it as a young girl and went into the dark bathroom, lit by only the moonlight outside the window. I came from a very conservative religious upbringing, so to say that consorting with demonic spirits was discouraged was putting it mildly. Yet, there I was, standing in front of a mirror.<\/p>\n The mind is a frightening and wonderful thing. Sometimes you see exactly what you want to see, and, sometimes, it\u2019s what you don\u2019t want to see. Science has a lot of explanations for why seeing apparitions in mirrors isn\u2019t uncommon, but, as you\u2019re standing there, your palms sweating, your breath tight in your chest, science isn\u2019t foremost on your mind. The story doesn\u2019t have to be true for your heart to pound. You close your eyes.<\/p>\n Bloody Mary. And you open them. Your nails bite into your palms. You swallow. The aura you see\u2026that\u2019s a trick of the light. The haze that hovers\u2026you blink and it\u2019s gone. The other girl beside you shrieks and runs from the bathroom. Later, she\u2019ll show you scratches on her arms. Probably fake. But, as you stand there, staring at the dim image of yourself, you see what draws us to urban legends\u2014what will always be there. You want there to be something, even as you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n Even when young, we realize that the darkness and depth of a human soul provides a way for anything\u2026anything to be possible. Urban legends reflect our need to search out or create tales that might be true, that might explain the unexplainable, but, at the very least, the shivering wonder we feel guarantees that someday we\u2019ll pass along the story in this dark game of telephone.<\/p>\n \u201cThere once was a young girl named Mary. Her father was\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Keep up with Wendy at her website<\/a>\u00a0or on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Urban legends fascinate us as much as they frighten us. The settings are familiar, the situations seem plausible, if you dare to believe. To celebrate the opening of submissions for Legendary\u00a0on June 1, we have four guest bloggers who want to share some urban legends to get you in the mood. 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\n![\"BloodyMary\"](\"http:\/\/www.penandkinkpub.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/BloodyMary.jpg\")
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\nThere are many variations on any urban legend. Urban legends are living and growing creations. Our fears breathe them into being and each retelling is reanimating Frankenstein\u2019s monster. Beyond Bloody Mary appearing in the mirror when called, the rest seems open to interpretation and exaggeration.<\/p>\n
\nBloody Mary.
\nBloody Mary.<\/p>\n
\n![\"WendySparrow-1\"](\"http:\/\/www.penandkinkpub.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/WendySparrow-1-2.jpg\")
Wendy’s first forays into fiction earned her time-outs, punishment, and “how\u00a0many times have I told you the Boy Who Cried Wolf story?” But, she\u00a0persevered. She’s stubborn like that. Now, all her stories have a happily\u00a0ever after and the lies are sexier and more elaborate. Speaking of sexier,\u00a0Wendy’s Servants of Fate<\/a> novella series about Father Time’s sons will be\u00a0published through Pen and Kink later this year. She’s active in OCD and\u00a0autism communities and writes on her blog to support awareness in both. If\u00a0she’s not writing or wrangling kids, she’s on Twitter<\/a>, where\u00a0she’ll chat with anyone about anything.<\/p>\n