shivers as she leans back against the trunk of a tree. The night is warm, the breeze cool and while my juices are flowing, Veronica appears exhausted.
“Thank you,” she says, and the sincerity in her eyes causes me to look away.
“Thank you for trusting me. Besides, you did the hard part. It takes a massive amount of control to suppress thousands of years of survival instincts. Most people would have tried to push me down to keep themselves up. You kept your cool in a hard situation.”
“How are you so calm?” There’s awe in her expression, and I don’t deserve it.
“It’s not calm, it’s stupidity,” I say then, switch the subject because I don’t want to linger on that topic. I’m ashamed that I like the adrenaline high I’m currently experiencing, especially since that high scared her so much. And I’m even more ashamed that I want to do it again. “I guess we’re going to have to cross the ghost bridge to head home.”
Her forehead furrows. “You don’t want to leave now, do you?”
“Don’t you?”
Veronica’s eyes glint, an adventurous spark that speaks to my soul. Her reckless smile follows suit, and I’m officially on board for whatever she has planned. “No way. This place is definitely haunted. We’re staying and we’re investigating.”
VERONICA
My jeans are wet, my T-shirt is soaked, but the worst part is my soggy shoes. My feet squish in my socks, and I contemplate taking them off as Sawyer and I walk through the thick forest for the bridge.
“What do you mean this place is definitely haunted?” Sawyer asks.
The glance I throw him is incredulous. “Seriously? We almost died. Several people have died here. Do you think that’s coincidence?”
“What are you suggesting?” Sawyer is as drenched as I am, but he seems more comfortable than me in our current saturated state.
“That the bridge, the river, maybe an entity of some sort, wanted us to fall.”
“I think we’ve had a lot of rain this summer and that loosened the ground where you sat, and I don’t think we were anywhere close to death.”
A disagreeing pssh leaves my mouth and that causes Sawyer to smirk. It’s crazy, but the cocky swimmer boy has been growing on me by the day. So much so that I look forward to every adorable, arrogant smile and his self-assured quips.
We reach the road and the bridge looms before us. The half-moon’s light creates an eerie haze over the roof of the bridge and only highlights the black void we must cross to reach Sawyer’s car, our cell phones and hopefully the recorder. A cool breeze drifts over my arms, but that isn’t what’s causing my skin to prick. There’s a growing uneasiness in my blood, and a voice inside me screams to run.
“Do you feel it?” I whisper as my chest compresses with an invisible pressure.
“Like a serial killer is waiting for us in the middle of the bridge? Yeah.”
Surprised by his admission, I glance over at him. “So you agree this place is haunted?”
“No. We’re in the middle of nowhere. When we had light, I didn’t properly check the bridge. There might be some deranged hermit who lives in the bridge for shelter, and it’s really going to piss me off if I have to punch him in the jaw because he touches you.”
I roll my eyes. “It must suck to not believe in anything.”
“I believe in things.”
“Like?”
“Things. Are we crossing the bridge or what?”
“Oh, we’re crossing.” Definitely crossing. I start forward for the dark opening and Sawyer’s right beside me. So close that his arm brushes mine. “If you don’t believe, then why are you scared?”
“I’m not scared,” he says.
“I think you are. I think you’re walking close to me because you need me to protect you from the big, bad monsters.”
“You’re right. I was actually considering using you as a human shield for the serial killer. Or I could be close because we’re crossing a wooden bridge that was built over a hundred years ago. The back deck at my old house barely stayed together after two years. So maybe if the termite-eaten boards beneath us crack, I can grab you before you fall through to the river.”
That thought causes my heart to beat faster, especially when the boards beneath us do creak with our weight. I have no intentions of going into that river again. “People drive their cars that weigh thousands of pounds over this bridge.”
“People also do meth, but I don’t recommend it.”
I breathe in deeply as