Arnet Road Bridge
The night was clear and warm. The moon hung in the sky, full and shimmering. Five friends were riding around in the countryside, kicking back a few beers. They started telling ghost stories and decided to take a drive out to Arnet Road Bridge. They had heard that there were allot of strange things that happened there. None of them knew that they had just made the decision to make a journey into hell.
Hal pulled his sky blue convertible to a halt on the bridge. He had knocked off about six beers and was in desperate need of a bathroom. He told the others that he would be right back and hurried off to the underside of the bridge. The rest of the group just sat in the car staring up at the moon. They had been riding with the top down all night, but now there seemed to be a chill in the air that wasn't there earlier.
After a few minutes, Hal returned to the car and leaned on the outside of it. "I heard that all we have to do is sit here awhile, flash our lights three times and then throw something under the bridge and all sorts of stuff will happen," he said. "Are you sure that you want to do this?" Kyria asked. "I mean what if something actually does happen?" The others in the car just giggled at her comments. The others had been friends for years, but Kyria was new to the group. None of them really knew that much about her. Kyria stood only about five feet tall. She looked like a fragile doll with waist length black hair and large black eyes. She could not have weighed any more than maybe a hundred pounds and people always got the feeling that they needed to protect her because she was so tiny. She had hinted a few times here and there that she thought of herself as a witch, but none of the rest of the group had paid any attention to her.
Hal almost seemed to take Kyria's remark as a challenge. "Ah what to hell," he said, "let's get us some ghost out here and kick some butt." Across the bridge there is a crossroads and just on the other side of the road there is an ancient cemetery. Hal pointed to the cemetery and laughed, "Hey after this peters out, want to go in there for awhile and see if we can torment some ghost?" The rest of the group laughed with Hal, but Kyria remained silent.
Hal opened the car door and got back into the driver's seat. He began to flash the lights of the car and started blowing the horn. "Here Ghost...Come out and play with Hal", he quipped. "I'll help you to remember you're dead!" After about five minutes of blowing the horn and flashing the lights, he jumped out of the car and raced to the side of the bridge. "I have to throw something down there, don't I?" He ran back to the car and grabbed a few beer bottles. Going back to the side of the bridge, he hurled the bottles in to the blackness.
Kyria got out of the car and stared at the empty road ahead. When Hal had flung the last bottle into the dark, he turned and headed back to the car. "Where are the Ghosts?" he yelled. "Scared to come out and play?" He reached the car door and still joking he quipped, "Come out, come out wherever you are." It was then they Kyria turned and faced the car. "They have" she said flatly and pointed to the cemetery.
All eyes in the car were on the road to the cemetery. At first they could only hear it a rustling of leaves and a low mournful creaking. Then as the death wagon turned onto the road, they were able to see it. The driver was shrouded in black and seemed to have no face. He sat perched upon a seat and held the reins of two pure black horses whose eyes glittered red in the moonlight. The wagon was flat and contained a single wooden casket. Slowly, solemnly, the death wagon headed for the bridge.
Hal jumped into he car and fumbled with his keys. The death wagon had reached the crossroads and would be on them in a few minutes. With each advancing move their terror grew. Hal finally managed to get the keys in the ignition and prayed that the car would start. It turned over on the first try. He was about to throw it into reverse when he noticed Kyria still standing in front of the car. "Come on!" he screamed. Kyria did not move. He jumped out of the car and snatched her up and threw her roughly into the back seat. "What to hell is the matter with you? Are you crazy or something?" he screamed back at Kyria. He slammed the car into reverse and just then a woman appeared on the bridge. She was holding a beer bottle and yelling at them to come back. Anger rang out in her voice. She flung the beer bottle at the dimming taillights of the car. This time she was not going to just let it go. She was tired of these kids coming out here and bothering her. This time, she would fight back. She took off running in the same direction the car had gone.
Everyone in the car was screaming except Kyria. She seemed to be a million miles away. Hal swung the car around and headed for town as fast as he dared to drive on the country roads. Since town was only about five miles from the site, they pulled up in front of Hal's house in about fifteen minutes. The girls were crying and the guys were trying to make a joke out of the whole thing.
Kyria climbed out of the car and stood in the middle of the street. She raised both her hands over her head and began to wave them back and forth. She looked like a blade of grass being blown in the wind. She began to chant and yell at the moon. Large white rings appeared around the moon. A white ring encircled Kyria. She continued her chanting and a car turned down the street. Kyria did not move. She stood in the middle of the street and continued her chant. The driver of the car acted as if he didn't see her and he kept coming at a pretty good clip. Finally, the car and Kyria met. Hal and the rest of the group were still sitting in the car. They tried yelling at Kyria to get out of the way, but she did not respond. There was not enough time for any of them to get out of the car to help her so they watched in horror as the car came crashing into Kyria. The car passed right through her as if she had not been a solid object at all. She seemed not to notice that she had been hit by a car and continued her chanting. The driver of the car acted like he did not even see her and hadn't slowed down or stopped at all.
"Oh My God! Did you see that?" Hal screamed! Hal and the rest of the group jumped out of the car and ran into the house. Hal seemed to be in a mild state of shock. He kept repeating, "Did you see that!" To no one in particular and as if he was trying to convince himself that he had seen it. He screamed as he threw the bolts into place on the doors. "Did you see that?" He screamed again! " It's impossible! " Hal ran to the window and began to scream out to Kyria, "What are you! Why are you doing this to us? What in the hell did we do to you to make you do this to us?" Kyria did not respond. She raised her hands towards the house and began to rise into the air, floating above the pavement. She continued her chanting.
The wind hit the house with the force of a hurricane. It roared so loud that the people in the house had to yell at each other to be heard over it. The windows shook the walls vibrated and ghostly howls filtered through the cracks. The girls sought refuge in each others arms on the couch. They were holding on to each other crying. Both of them had their eyes closed as if trying to shut out the terror that had enveloped them. "Make it go away," one of the girls screamed above the roar of the wind. "Can we call someone for help?" The other girl yelled to the guys that were standing in front of them. "I don't know," one of the guys yelled and picked up the phone off the stand next to the couch. "It's dead", he said as he replaced the receiver. Now what are we going to do!" the girl yelled at him. "I don't know what you're going to do," he screamed back, "but I'm going to fight this shit with everything I have in me." He began looking around the room for weapons he could use to protect them.
Hal stood riveted to the window and couldn't take his eyes off Kyria. She was now floating about four feet over the pavement. "You bitch," he whispered as the tears streamed down his face. "Can't you understand that I love you? Why are you doing this?" He kept staring at Kyria, the emotions raging through him. "How could she do this to them?" he thought, "I really thought she was our friend, and I thought we had a little bit more going than friendship." He wiped his eyes with the back of his shirtsleeve and looked out the window at Kyria again, only she was no longer there. He found himself staring into another set of eyes so full of hatred that he stepped back from the window reflectively to avoid looking into them. The face that held those horrible eyes was so hideous that a scream escaped form him without him being conscious that he was actually screaming. Try as he might, he could not tear himself away from the eyes that bore into his own. He felt himself falling, yet was unaware that the rest of the group had pulled him from the window and he had passed out.
The wind was relentless in its pounding on the house. One of the girls suddenly jumped up from the couch and screamed, "Leave us alone! We did not hurt you! What do you want? Can't you take a joke? Just go away and leave us alone!" The wind seemed to take on a voice and cried, "Do not make fun of the dead!" A lady appeared at the window and the girl recognized her as the lady that they had seen standing on the bridge. The lady held up a beer bottle and hurled it through the picture window that Hal had been looking through. The lady turned and looked at the terrified group before her. "You don't like this do you?" she hissed. "You come and taunt me night after night. You think it is funny, it gives you some thrills, and you feel that it is all right to do this." She glared at the group. "Why isn't it funny when I come to your house and think of you as a freak? Why can't I get a few thrills of my own? You scream at me and tell me to leave your home, but when I do that to you and beg to be left in peace, you laugh at me." She shook a fist at the group. "I will not leave!" she adamantly yelled. "You can't make me leave! Now it is my turn to play at your house, to taunt you and to show you how it feels to have things thrown at you!" With that she raised her hands over her head and said something in a language none of them understood.
The house seemed to explode inside. Things flew off the shelves, paper hurled from room to room, and furniture floated through the air. The phone was floating and ringing although it was not plugged in. The television blared static, the radio turned off and on. Pictures of people came to life and started laughing. The curtains floated straight out from their rods. It was like being in the middle of a home that had been struck by a tornado.
When one of the girls tried to run, she was picked up and hurled through the house and thrown hard into a wall. After impact, she slid down the wall like a limp rag doll. One of the guys had been hit with a lamp hard across his head and the blow had rendered him unconscious. When he opened his eyes he was looking into the face of the woman that he had seen on the bridge. She was dressed in a tattered white wedding dress. She had holes all through her face where the insects had gotten to her. Parts of her eyes were still intact but were oozing a black substance. "Please," he begged, "Don't hurt me! I didn't do anything to you." She said nothing, just threw him across the room and stood there looking at him. "Don't you have any mercy?" he asked her. "Why are you doing this to us? We were just having some fun is all!"? He started to cry. "What to hell harm did we cause? None! We didn't do anything wrong." By now he was sobbing hysterically. The lady appeared at his feet. She effortlessly lifted him off the floor into the air. "I'm only having a little fun too," she stated. "Maybe you will learn a little respect for the dead." She said. Then she smiled and as an after-thought added, "If you live through tonight and don't join us, that is." She made an attempt at a smile and tossed him out the picture window of the house. He hit the pavement in the driveway hard and felt his arm snap. He lay there sobbing and in pain, but to afraid to move even to go for help.
Hal finally managed to shake himself awake. The first thing he did was to start screaming as he remembered the image that had faced him in the window. "It's all right" he heard a voice say. He blinked his eyes and Kyria's face floated into focus. He was outside lying on the ground and Kyria was kneeling over top of him. He tried to clear his foggy mind. He started to say, "I had the worst dream," when he realized that it wasn't a dream. Panic seized him. He tried to get away from Kyria by sliding on his back using his elbows and feet to pull himself along. Kyria just laughed, "Don't you look silly! Relax, I will not hurt you!" She said. "Just calm down and let me explain what is going on." Hal let his weight fall to the pavement. He raised himself to a sitting position. "This had better be damned good," he murmured.
Inside of the house, the woman had risen about two feet in the air. She had the three terrified occupants huddled together in a corner. "Why have you summoned me?" she asked. The group was afraid to answer. "Why have you summoned me?" she asked again. She moved closer to the group. "You come and pulled me from my rest only to throw bottles at me and laugh at me? Is this all you wanted to do?" Still no answer from the three terrified people she was badgering. "I shall stay here then," she said. "follow you and mock you and throw things at you and you shall have no rest or peace." One of the girls began to sob. The other wet her pants and the guy that was with them could only stare at the figure before him. The woman raised her hands again and the three figures flew to the ceiling. "You think it is all right to torment me!" she raged, "But I should always be good and never strike back? What do you think? That the dead have no power?" She laughed and sent chills running through her three captives. "We have rights too," the woman told them, "We have the right not to have people come and torment us night after night. We have the right to seek revenge, and tonight, on you I shall have mine." She lowered her hand and the terrified group fell to the floor in a pile of bodies before her. "Come play with me children," the woman said and descended on them.
Hal hear the terrified screams of the occupants of the house. He tried to get up and go to help them. "Stop" Kyria said and Hal froze in his tracks. She walked over to where he stood riveted and said, "Hal, you have to come with me back to the bridge." "Are you crazy?" Hal asked her. "There is no way that I am going back out to that place!" "Hal you do not understand. You must! " Kyria replied "You brought out the death wagon out from the cemetery and you left it sitting on the bridge." "So what?" Hal replied. "Listen," Kyria said, "as long as the death wagon remains on the bridge the spirit you have released will be free to torment you and your friends. There is nothing you can do to stop it unless you can get back there before the dawn breaks and return the death wagon to its place." "What are you?" Hal asked her. "How do you know all these things? I mean you sit here and tell me I have to do this and that and you expect me to just jump up and run off and do it." He leaned up close to her face and asked her "How can I be sure that you are not trying to get me into more trouble than I already am?" Kyria just stared at Hal for a moment before answering him. "You will just have to trust me now won't you?" she replied, her voice filled with ice. " As for how I know all these things, simple.... I'm dead!" Hal started to laugh and discovered that he could move again. "Ya, right," he told her, "so am I." He heard another terrified scream come out of the house. "Hal," Kyria pleaded, "We have to help them! There is no other way, we have to go back to the bridge before it is to late." Hal looked at her for a moment. "I think you know that I love you Kyria," he said. "I don't know what to hell is going on here, but I feel like I have no choice but to listen to you." He raised a hang gently to her face and touched her cheek. "Come on," he said, "let's do this."
They drove out to the bridge in silence. When the headlights of the car flashed on to the bridge, they could see the death wagon standing there. "Do not drive onto the bridge," Kyria said. "He will take you if you do." Hal pulled the car over to the side of the road about fifty feet from the bridge. Kyria got out of the car and started to walk towards the bridge. Hal started to follow her and she raised her hand to stop him "do not come any further Hal;" she warned. "they will take you if you step on the bridge." He looked at Kyria. "Then what are you doing? If they can take me, they sure as hell can take you too!" "I am safe Hal," she replied, "they can't hurt me." She took a few steps and stopped. She turned back towards him and told him again sternly, "Stay away! No matter what you hear and see, do not come anywhere near the bridge." With that she turned and walked towards the bridge.
As soon as she stepped onto the bridge, she walked up to the driver of the death wagon and said something to him that Hal could not hear. Then she walked over and opened up the casket. She began to chant again. Suddenly the woman that had been standing on the bridge earlier had reappeared. For a moment they just stood and looked at each other. The Ghostly figure started to float over to Kyria. "No!" Hal screamed. "Leave her alone!" In spite of Kyria's warning, Hal raced towards the bridge. Kyria raised her hand and screamed, "Stop! Don't come any further,
Hal, or you will die!"
As Hal raced towards the bridge, the driver of the death wagon climbed down from his perch. He started to go towards Hal’s direction. "Come to me!" he screamed. Hal seemed not to hear him and kept on running towards the bridge. His only thought was to save Kyria. "No!" Kyria screamed. A bolt of lighting struck the ground right in front of Hal. It knocked him off his feet. He was only a few feet from stepping on the bridge. "Get back!" Kyria screamed at him! "You claim to love me and if this is true, then get back away from the bridge." She looked passed the driver of the death wagon. "If you come anywhere near his grasp," Kyria screamed, "He will take you with him!" Hal had been rising to his feet while she was talking. He saw the driver standing at the edge of the bridge. He started to walk backwards. He was not sure if any of this was real anymore. The only thing he was sure of was that he did not want to get anywhere near the being at the foot of the bridge.
During all the commotion, the lady had floated over to Kyria. When she was sure that Hal was safe she turned towards the ghostly figure. She reached out her arms and pulled the figure to her. They warmly embraced. "Sister," Kyria said at last, "It is time to go home, don't you think?" The ghostly figure answered her back, "Where have you been for so long? I have been waiting and waiting for you and it has taken forever for you to come here. I have been so lonely!" Kyria smiled and answered, "There were many things that I had not finished and there is still some work that I must do, but I will accompany you home now and we shall be together." The figure looked at Hal. "You must stop them from coming here," She told Kyria. "I don't think that after tonight they will be back," Kyria replied. "Trust me sister, when people hear about what you have done tonight, they will leave the dead in peace." Then Kyria turned to look at Hal and said. "See you on the flip side." She blew him a kiss and took her sister's hand. They slowly walked towards the cemetery. The death wagon followed them and vanished through the cemetery gates.
When first light hit, Hal did not want to get up. He yawned and stretched out lazily. "What a crazy dream," he thought. He went to roll over on his side and he realized that he was lying on the pavement. He sat up startled. He was in the middle of the road in front of his house. The horror of the night washed over him as he got up and ran into the house. Everything was as he had left it the night before, in perfect order. No broken windows, nothing was out of place at all. "It had to have been a nightmare," he thought and he headed for the bathroom to take a shower. On the way he passed his room and noticed all of his friends sleeping peacefully on the floor.
When he got into the bathroom, he reached over and started the shower. He began to take off his shirt when he noticed the red marks on his arms. "What TA hell?" he thought and pulled shut the door to look into the full-length mirror mounted on the back. He began shrieking in horror. He had tire marks across his chest and legs. His face was charred and bruised but there was not a single mark on his clothing. Written across the mirror was a note that read simply, "See you on the flip side...Kyria."
This is one of the many Ghost stories from Dr. Pernel Dove. You may visit her site at