This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Last-Article-2640 on 2024-11-07 20:20:24+00:00.
Hey nosleep. I’m Trish, I’ve lurked on this subreddit for a while now, reading everyone’s experiences and what not. I always was skeptical of them, until about a month ago. I’m in high school, junior year to be exact, and at homecoming something happened.
My best friend, Mary, was always a bit of a recluse. Even when we were five she would fake being sick just to stay at my house for the day. Even after our parents stopped talking to each other my dad would always let her stay the night despite his own issues with her parents. I never knew what happened between them, I don’t think I ever will after what happened.
Mary liked to prank people, a lot. She got in trouble with so many of our teachers because of her pranks. I remember this one day in our freshman year, she was pitching a scheme to me. She wanted to glitter bomb our homeroom teacher, ended up suspended for a day because of it.
I think that fueled her pranks, honestly I wish it never did. I wish she just stopped. I wish she didn’t get worse. She kept pranking our teachers, kept getting suspended and getting detentions. It got worse. I didn’t think anything of it when it happened, I was like a frog in a slowly boiling pot. I didn’t realize how bad it was until it was too late. How could I?
She stuck to her glitter bombs for a long time, it was harmless minus the mess. No one would think anything of it. I certainly didn’t. When she started taking interest in those more advanced glitter bombs I didn’t care. It was just glitter. In our sophomore year she started taking a mechanics class.
She was so excited about it. She’d rush to my house after school each day and have me make things with her. I didn’t fully get all of it, but Mary was so happy. Even when she started bringing car parts over I didn’t think anything of it.
One time she came over and slammed this car engine onto the coffee table, I nearly fell out of the couch at the slamming noise.
“Be careful, that’s an old table!” My dad called from the kitchen. He always avoided her when she came over.
“Sorry, Mr. Davidson!” Mary called back, before whipping her head over to me. She blew some of her black hair out of her face, smiling wide. “Guess how much I got this for!”
I sighed, moving to stand up. “There’s a dump right by your house, I know you got it from there.”
“Actually that closed, dangerous conditions or something I don’t know. Nah, Mrs. Forrest gave it to me!” Mary said. “Completely free of charge. She phrased it as a school project, but apparently it’s not exactly for a grade.”
“Not exactly?”
“She phrased it weirdly.” Mary shrugs.
“Ah. So what do you need to do to it?” I asked.
Mary beamed. “Clean it out, get rid of some dents and the rust.”
“That doesn’t sound fun.” I point out
“Doesn’t mean I can’t make it fun.” Mary retorted
I shrugged, not knowing how to reply to that. For the rest of the day Mary and I worked at it until she had to head home. I never liked working at car parts, but she loved it. Mary always loved the mechanical aspect of things. Maybe she should’ve been a suspect when things first started to happen.
Mrs. Forrest, Mary’s mechanics teacher, ended up hospitalized three months later. I never learned too many of the details, but I remember when the cops came to my door. They asked me if I knew her, knew anyone who had a grudge against her in her class, all of that. Apparently a fuse blew while she was grading a project, and she couldn’t remember which one went off.
Everyone knew it was some sort of foul play, but no one knew who it was. I never suspected Mary, and maybe it never was her, but everything else lined up so well. She just seemed so worried. She was my best friend, how could I suspect her? Why would I? Surely the police would figure it out and make an arrest, but they never did.
More incidents occurred, all to teachers. Mrs. Forrest was the only one who taught Mary, but all of them had a similar case. Something blew in their house, and their face became heavily scarred as a result.
After the fourth incident, Mary started acting weird. She became fixated on her face. Whenever she came over she’d pick and scratch at it. Her face became red and raw. My dad started to buy her face creams, and he even considered talking to her parents. I didn’t know why he worried so much. I didn’t know why then.
Once the school year ended, the incidents stopped. Mary became more aggressive to other students in our year, but never to me. Then junior year began. It was going to be our first year having a prom. We were gonna go together, as we always did with homecoming.
Even then, we still treated homecoming as serious as we could. We went dress shopping where we always did. It was this small store owned by Ms. Ellen and her grandkids. Ms. Ellen would always make the most intricate dresses, and we loved them.
We were looking through the store, every year Ms. Ellen would make something new and we were excited to see what it was. This time all of her dresses had some sort of bow motif. Mary found a sleeveless red dress with a large frilly skirt, the waist was wrapped with a black ribbon with a bow in the back. It was beautiful, and Mary looked beautiful in it when she tried it on. I ended up with a blue dress, it was the same design as Mary’s, but with a white ribbon instead.
Mary seemed blank that day, staring into space almost every minute. I wasn’t bothered, she always spaced out. Yet this was different. It was longer, and she seemed focused on whatever she was staring at. Once I saw her moving her jaw up and down, almost like a dummy being puppeteered to talk.
It was creepy, but maybe it was nothing. I ignored it. I ignored every sign until it was too late, until homecoming came and I saw what she became. Maybe if I noticed sooner, maybe if I said something, maybe she’d be ok.
Homecoming was the same as always, at first. I got there before Mary, sticking by the food table as I waited for her. Music was going, and it covered up the squeaking of shoes on the gym floor. It was dark, only being lit up with colored spot lights.
I was focused on the doors, and soon enough they opened. Into the gym stepped Mary. She was completely barefoot, dirt and grass sticking to her feet, her hair was barely brushed, draping down her masked face, yet her dress was perfect, having no stains or tears. It was almost like a doll you played with too much.
For some reason, I didn’t walk over to her. My feet were glued to the ground. She slowly moved her hand to her face, her fingernails looked sharp and like they were stained with something. Mary carefully removed her mask, hair falling to the side.
She didn’t have a face. It wasn’t there. I mean it was there but it just wasn’t. Instead of the red and raw skin, there wasn’t any skin at all. Instead rough, patchy, bleeding flesh. She tore off her own face.
A chaperone quickly went to check on her, while another took out his phone to presumably call an ambulance. Before the chaperone approaching her could even get a word out, Mary lunged at her. She was like an animal, tearing at the screaming chaperones face.
The homecoming turned to chaos. Some braver students attempted to shove Mary away, only to get stabbed by the knife she wielded. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it at first. Many ran, the chaperone calling 911 got through. I’m still convinced that’s why so many survived. I doubt we would have without him. Mary got off of the chaperone she had mauled, and began to charge at whoever she could. She stabbed, she tore, she fought. Mary was like an animal. I didn’t run like so many others. No one tried to get me.
Soon enough, Mary and I were the only breathing things in that room. Bodies littered the ground, their faces all bloodied or gone. Mary limped forward towards me, I guess someone got a lucky hit. She tilted her head, hazel eyes shining in the remaining lights.
I finally managed to convince my body to cooperate, taking a step backwards. “Mary..?” I began slowly.
She let out an animalistic grunt, the muscles around her eyes contracting in what I could only assume was a smile.
For some reason, she didn’t seem like a threat to me. Don’t get me wrong, I was terrified, but I just knew she wouldn’t hurt me. Somehow I knew. I didn’t step closer, I wasn’t stupid, but when she got right in my face I didn’t step away.
She reached a hand up to my hair, tracing through it. Her fingers twirled through the blonde and her muscles contracted in that smile. Her fingers were sharp, almost like claws. I’m not sure what happened, I don’t think I’ll ever know what happened.
When the sirens approached, Mary jerked away from me and ran. Police rushed into the gym, and when they saw me as the only living thing there they took me away and wrapped me in a shock blanket. It wasn’t cold, but the heavy and uncomfortable fabric soothed me. I told the police what I saw, and when the other survivors confirmed the story the police got off my back.
There weren’t too many causalities, according to the police. Apparently only a few people actually died before making it to the hospital, I think our local news put it to three deaths? I don’t think anything’s made it to the big news networks, we’re a small town and it’s not like death is uncommon these days. They’d want something big, I don’t really know if this qualifies.
They’re still looking for Mary, and even if they haven’t found her it’s only been a month. We all know she’s still out there. They would...
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1gm01xb/faceless_mary/