Don't Park on the Bridge at Night

Jessica looked out the car window at the moonlight that flickered off the rushing water of the dark river. It was nearly midnight.

“Why are we parked here again?” she asked.

Ryan, her boyfriend, adopted a bad Transylvanian accent. “Because every night of the full moon, the ghost emerges from the waters, and climbs onto the bridge...to get you!”

Jessica yelped as Ryan grabbed her arm, then swatted at him, annoyed. He laughed.

“It’s just an old urban legend,” he said, resting his arm on the steering wheel as he faced her. “But isn’t it kind of spooky out here?”

“Does that do it for you? Stories about dead ladies? That’s super gross, Ryan.”

“It’s not gross! And she’s not dead, she’s a ghost.” He reconsidered his words. “I mean, she did die. A long time ago. And now she’s a ghost, not a zombie or anything.”

Jessica looked out her window again. The sky was cloudy, but there was enough clear sky for the round moon to shine through. The trees that lined the river leaned toward the water as if bowed down by a heavy weight.

Jessica turned back to Ryan. “So what’s her story anyway? The ghost’s, I mean.”

Ryan rubbed his hands together, relishing the opportunity to tell the tale. “You see. Way back, over a hundred years ago, a woman was riding in a horse-drawn carriage when one of the wheels went over the side of the bridge. She fell into the water and drowned before anyone could come along and save her.”

“What about the driver?”

“Huh?”

“The driver of the carriage. Why couldn’t he save her?”

“Uh… I think she was driving herself. There wasn’t anybody else with her.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“It does if it was one of those open-topped carriages. You know, the kind they have in those Jane Austen movies you made me watch? Where it only fits the driver and a passenger? Maybe it was one of those, only it was just her driving, and there was no passenger.”

Jessica rolled her eyes. But, she supposed, he couldn’t be too stupid if he remembered the name Jane Austen.

“Come on.” Ryan sighed. “I thought this would be something silly we could do and tell people about at school later. Like, ‘Haha, we waited for the ghost at the bridge, but she never showed. Her loss.’ You know?”

She shrugged, then cocked her head. “It is kind of pretty out here. And private.”

Ryan licked his lips. “Yeah. It is really private. Probably no one around for miles.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“So…”

Jessica sighed. “Do I need to spell it out for you?”

Ryan slid to the edge of his seat and leaned toward Jessica, who closed her eyes in anticipation. When no kiss came, she opened her eyes. Ryan was looking out the back window of the car.

“What is it?”

“I thought I saw something.”

“You just said there was no one around for miles.”

“I know, but—” His eyes shot to Jessica’s.

Jessica’s jaw went slack. “I heard it too,” she whispered.

Ryan also couldn’t speak above a whisper. “It sounded like a whinny.”

Jessica nodded, and they both scanned the area outside of the car. “I don’t see anything.”

“Me either.”

Then there came a different sound. A splash, as if something had fallen into the water. Jessica clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming again. Ryan sat frozen in the driver's seat.

“Probably just a fish,” he murmured.

“Do fish make loud splashes like that?”

“I don’t know. But what else could it—”

Ryan’s eyes grew to the size of saucers as he gaped at something past Jessica’s right shoulder. Jessica was terrified of following his gaze, but she was more terrified of not knowing what he saw. Slowly, she turned around. There was no mistaking it in the bright moonlight. A bone-white hand clutched the side of the bridge.

Her scream caught in her throat as she scrambled backwards, into Ryan’s lap. Ryan clenched her shoulders, as if using her as a shield, but Jessica barely noticed as another hand snaked its way over the edge of the bridge. The pair watched as a pale, slender arm twisted its way upwards, then slammed down onto the road surface. Something was climbing onto the bridge.

Eyes still fixed on the bleached figure, Jessica stammered, “We need to get out of here!”

Ryan obeyed, nudging her back to her seat with his elbow. He turned the key in the ignition. The engine sputtered. And died. He tried again. And again, the engine refused to roar to life.

“What are you doing? We need to get out of here!”

“The car won’t start!”

“What do you mean the car won’t start?”

As the two bickered, a human figure clawed its way onto the bridge before them. It stood stock still in the moonlight, as if offering the teens a good look before it advanced. Tattered clothes hung from its skeletal frame. Strings of hair clung to its papery scalp.

Jessica and Ryan stared mutely—then screamed. The thing took a single step toward the car. Ryan fumbled with the door handle, tumbled onto the road, and scrambled away. Jessica shrieked his name as he took off running.

The creature in the road did not react to him. It stayed fixated on the car—on Jessica. One foot dragged, as if broken, as the thing lumbered forward. But it made no sound. Even the sound of rushing water seemed remote.

Jessica wanted to move, but her body was frozen in the passenger seat. As the creature approached the driver’s side, a scream bubbled up in the teen’s throat and died before it escaped her lips. A numb hand grasped at the door handle. But the door wouldn’t open.

The creature clasped the top of the open driver’s side door, using it to steady itself.

“No, no, no, no, no…” Jessica leaned as far back as she could, clawing at her door.

The twisted, pale figure leaned down and reached a shaking limb into the car, across the driver’s seat, over the center console…

Jessica let loose a feral scream that emanated from the depths of her soul. The white hand moved closer. Jessica fought, kicking wildly, and tried to bat the arm away. But it was no use. The creature felt no pain. Jessica screamed and sobbed.

“No! Get away! Please! Go away! Somebody help me!”

Her cries raced across the bridge, the river, into the trees. And then...silence.