The Bridge of Lake Roho

In a rush to get home after my long and trying day at the office and the extremely long lines I had to endure on my shopping spree. I decided to take a shortcut that I normally wouldn't take. My normal route is the highway, which takes me about 5 miles around Lake Roho, or the Lake of Lost Souls as the crazy locals like to say.

Instead, I took a winding dirt road which led to a bridge that crosses the massive lake. On the other side is my small sleepy town, and my warm soft bed. Which I was dying to climb into right now. Once I reached the bridge, I noticed a bit of traffic.

“Great!” I shouted to no one but myself. "Now the ice cream I grabbed from impulse at the last minute is going to end up melting all over my gifts!" I pulled up behind the car in front of me and threw it in park. I realized the traffic was at a standstill. “I was trying to avoid traffic.” I Whined as I closed my eyes for a second and leaned my head back frustratedly. When I glanced in my rearview mirror, I saw that cars were piling up behind me, so I couldn't turn around and head back the other way even if I wanted to. It was too late. I was now stuck in traffic.

In the distance, I can see a fire truck, an ambulance and a few cop cars. But I couldn't see what was actually causing all the traffic.

“What the heck is going on?” I said out loud, while changing the radio from FM to AM, hoping to hear some news about what was going on. But there was nothing but static.

“Great! Perfect time for my radio to stop working” I cursed at it and turned it off. I noticed that a few people were starting to get out of their cars, and trying to figure out what happened.

I opened up my door and stepped out as well, joining the bandwagon. The first thing I heard was a man in a nice suit, in the car in front of me, stating his radio wasn't working and then a few others chimed in and said the same. Could the reason for the traffic and the radio malfunctions be connected, I wondered? I walked up to the man in the suit who was taking off his suit jacket and throwing it into his backseat. Almost as if, he knew it was going to be a while.

“Hey I'm Lily. How long have you been waiting here?” I asked him. While I watched him take a cigarette out of its pack.

“Frank." He nodded his head at me. "Not long, but the couple a few cars ahead of me said they’ve been here almost an hour.” As he lit his cigarette he mumbled, “No wonder people call this the cursed bridge” He took a long drag then shook his head.

“Wow, That's insane. Wait, why do they...” I started to say. But before I had a chance to finish my sentence, a deathly high- pitched screech echoed through the night causing several of the car's windows and the bridge’s light to blow out. Screams followed by panic filled the pitch-black air. Out of instinct, I crouched down and covered my ears.

“What the hell are you doing?” I heard a voice say. When I looked up the man in the suit was casually smoking a cigarette, with one of his eyebrows arched, looking at me curiously.

“You didn't hear that?” I quickly stood up and looked around confused. The suit looked at me like I’m crazy.

“Did I hear what?” He looks around us and he takes another long drag of his cigarette. Still confused, I looked around myself. Was I the only one who heard that? Everyone was still casually walking around and no windows were broken and the bridge lights were still shining bright. In fact, nothing seemed amiss, well besides the jam that still was at a standstill and stretched the length of the massive bridge.

“Oh, I thought I heard something,” I laughed nervously, as I pulled my sweater tighter around me, suddenly feeling a temperature drop in the night air. He shook his head at me, threw his cigarette to the ground and headed towards a group of people.

I need to get home, I said under my breath, rubbing a hand over my face, I'm obviously so sleep deprived I'm starting to hear things. I walked over to the edge of the bridge and peered over the railing at the lake below. All I saw was darkness but I heard the rough waves of the water. I shivered at the thought of how far of a drop it was.

After a few more minutes, I decided to take matters into my own hands and began walking towards the emergency vehicles. I was determined to find out what was causing all this madness, so I can get to my warm bed, my, now, not so cold ice cream and my Christmas movies!

As I’m walking past all the now parked cars, I noticed all the cars were empty. It looked like a forgotten bridge. I wandered around dumbfounded. Where did all the people go? Did they just abandon their vehicles? I looked back towards where my car was now parked, and everyone there was gone too, even the fancy suit guy.

I turned around in circles. “What the hell is going on?” I shouted into the night. Then all of a sudden that loud screech went off again, and everything went dark. But at least this time, I was able to pinpoint the direction it was coming from. It was in the direction of what was causing the jam.

I started to jog quickly down the bridge, following the only lights visible, the blinking emergency lights. All the emergency vehicles had formed a barrier, blocking the scene. I was still unable to see anything.

As I got closer, I lost my footing and tripped. I yelped with pain and quickly realized I had fallen on broken glass.

“What was that noise?” I heard an angry voice shout. And then I heard several males talking in the background. “GO FIND OUT!” A deep voice shouted.

Were they talking about me, I wondered? I looked down at my leg, which was now bleeding bad. I bit my lip in pain as I pulled the shard out my thigh. I began whimpering as I ripped a piece of my dress and tied it around my leg. I was relieved that I could at least stand and I was able to still walk okay.

I hid behind a cop car and peered towards all the commotion. Fire fighters, EMTs and cops were all surrounding this massive object laying in the middle of the road. My stomach turned as I stared in horror.

“Oh my god, What the hell is that thing?” I whispered to myself, or so I thought. All of a sudden, all the workers surrounding the object turned their heads towards me creepily. Their faces were skeleton-like with glowing eyes. I started backing up, startled by the eerie sight.

I found my strength to turn and dart away. As I'm awkwardly sprinting back to my car and to safety, I grabbed my thigh in pain. I'm never going to make it with my leg, I cried.

“GET HER!! She’s seen too much!” I heard the same deep growling voice. I looked back and screamed at the top of my lungs. A dozen of whatever they were, were now chasing me. Two of which, where probably the ones ordered to investigate, were not too far behind me.

I started panicking. My stomach was doing flips. I really wished I didn't eat all that Mexican food earlier because I really didn't want to see or taste it coming back up. There's no way I'm going to make it back to my car before they get me, I began to sob.

As a last resort, I ran over to the guard rail and decided to try my luck with jumping off the bridge. Drowning seemed like a better fate than getting caught by those creepy creatures.

I climbed up onto the railing and looked back one more time. One was seconds from grabbing me. I turned towards the edge, held my breath and jumped. I was screaming the whole way down, kicking and flailing my arms.

The moment I hit the water; I heard a loud BAM. I jolted awake, and a very angry woman was standing by my car, banging on my driver window.

“Move your damn car, lady!!” she screamed at me through my window. Still in a daze, I looked out my windshield in front of me and noticed the traffic had dispersed. I glanced into my rearview and now I was the cause of the traffic jam. I frantically threw my car into drive and peeled off.

Still shaken up by what appeared to be a nightmare, I cursed myself for my lack of sleep and for eating all that spicy food that made me have such a crazy dream. I took a long calming breath and shook my head.

“That was one crazy dream!” I let out a light laugh as I nonchalantly rub my thigh. My eyes widened and I glanced down for a second and saw a tear on my dress. I trembled when I moved my hem up my thigh and revealed a strange and familiar scar.

“What the ….” My bulging eyes flew to the rearview mirror and a pair of glowing eyes were staring back. I let out a piercing scream and then there was Darkness!