Deep in the woods just outside of town, there was an old abandoned bridge spanning across a narrow river. Throughout the years, there had been many claims of paranormal activity around the area, becoming the basis of several urban legends among people from nearby cities. While it wasn't so easy to get to there any more, the bridge still saw a fair amount of visitors, especially young people who sought the truth behind the stories.
On a cool autumn night, with nothing but the moon and the stars shining down upon them, five adolescent boys were riding in the back of a pickup truck as it made its way down a narrow country road. The upcoming spooky holiday had gotten them in the mood for some ghost hunting, but so far their searches had come up empty. They had almost given up hope of finding anything, until one of the boys' fathers told them about the bridge. With the night still young and nothing better to do, they decided to go and check it out.
Eddie pulled the hood on his jacket over his head, trying to keep his ears warm as the chilly air blew past. The bunny looked around trying to get an idea of where they were, but the whole area was foreign to him. "Hey Nick, has your dad told you anything about this place before?"
"Not really." the fox shrugged, "It's the first I've heard about it."
"Well I hope it's more fun than wandering around the graveyard all night." Chris remarked. The wolf was thoroughly unimpressed with their earlier adventures.
Billy craned his neck over the side to see where they were going. "Is that it up there?" The goat pointed ahead to an area where it looked like the trees came to an end.
Jason leaned over the edge and looked. The only thing the cat could see in the headlights was a strip of pockmarked asphalt running across an empty chasm. "Yeah, that might be it."
The truck began to slow down as it approached the bridge, pulling over onto the grass before coming to a complete stop. As the boys were hopping out, a grown fox stepped out from the driver's side door. "I can't believe you kids have never heard about the devil's bridge." Frank said as he shut the door and met up with the boys, "We all used to talk about it back when I was your age."
"So what's the deal with it?" Nick asked, "I've never heard of a bridge being haunted before."
"Well, it's not so much haunted... more like demonic, really." his dad began to explain, "They say that Satanists come out here to worship the devil in hopes that he'll bless them with his dark magic. You always used to hear about whole groups of hooded figures being spotted out here, burning candles in the road and chanting out spells from their satanic tomes. There's lots of different stories about what they were trying to do. Some say they were placing curses on people, others say they were trying to summon demons to serve them. They may have even been trying to call forth Satan himself to bring about the end of the world. All I know for sure is that there was definitely some creepy stuff going on out here."
"Huh," Nick was impressed, "That actually sounds pretty badass."
"Yeah!" Billy piped up, "Let's check it out!"
The boys crowded around Frank, letting him lead the way as he continued his story. "Back when I was in high school, a couple of kids in my grade went missing. There was a rumor going around that the devil worshippers caught them snooping around out here and used them for a some kind of sacrifice, but nobody was able to prove it."
"Did they ever find them?" Jason asked.
"Nope. We had a big search all around town, but nothing turned up. Could be they just ran away or drowned in the lake or something, but nobody really knows. We didn't find anything that could tell us what happened, so after a while we all just kinda gave up and moved on with our lives."
As they stepped onto the bridge, the road's condition got worse. Potholes and skidmarks were all over the place, as well as a whole bunch of graffiti. Garbage littered the sides of the road, mostly consisting of spray cans and empty beer bottles. However, one thing the boys noticed were all the melted black candles, chalk pentagrams, and spray painted satanic imagery all over. While they had some doubts about Frank's story, it did seem that there were some elements of truth about the devil worshippers.
The boys split up and looked around, seeing if they could find any more evidence of occult activity. Chris wandered over to the side of the bridge and looked over the edge. The river was a long way down, and in the darkness the water was almost completely black.
"So a buddy told me a while back how the devil worshippers do their sacrifices." Frank continued, "What they do is, they throw the person off the side of the bridge, then as they're falling, a hole opens up in the river and they fall directly into Hell. These sacrifices help the devil worshippers earn Satan's favor. By doing his bidding, he grants them access to his dark powers."
The rest of the crew came over and looked down to the river as well. Nick snorted through his nose and hocked a loogie off the bridge. It took a while to fall, but eventually it smacked against water below. Unfortunately, it seemed snot wasn't enough of a sacrifice to open the portal to Hell.
While he was distracted, Chris sensed an opportunity. He snuck over behind Nick and gave him a firm nudge on the back. "Don't fall!"
The fox's eyes went wide and he gripped the edge of the guard wall. "Hey! Asshole!" He turned around and took a swipe behind him, but the prankster had jumped back and was already in the middle of laughing.
"Lighten up man," Chris laughed, "I didn't push you THAT hard."
"Guys, break it up." Frank intervened. "The border between Hell and Earth is very thin here. We're close enough that the devil is capable of messing with your mind, especially if it's not pure. He can amplify your sinful thoughts and use them to control you. So try to behave yourselves."
"Sinful thoughts huh?" Billy snickered, "We know Nick's got plenty of those!"
"Oh shut up," Nick rolled his eyes at the goat, "As if you don't?"
Jason stood back and watched as Chris, Nick, and Billy teased one another. It was amusing at first, but he couldn't help but feel that something was off. "Hold on," he finally interrupted everyone, "Where's Eddie?"
They all stopped talking and looked around at each other. Sure enough, they were missing a kid. "Eddie?" Frank began to call out for him. "Where did you go?"
"I'm fine." Everyone heard a voice coming from the edge of the bridge. Eddie was back near the truck waving at them.
"What you doing over there?" Billy asked, "Come here and check it out!"
"Nah, I'm good."
"Really dude?" Nick scoffed, "Come on, stop being a pussy!"
"I'm not a pussy! I just don't want to, okay?"
Chris laughed and muttered to the others, "Oh my god, he's actually scared."
Nick sighed, "Whatever. We know where he is now, we can keep going without him."
The boys continued to explore the bridge for a little while longer. Though, to be honest, there wasn't much more of interest aside from reading the graffiti that was sprayed all over. While Frank's stories were spooky and people clearly did all sorts of unusual stuff on the bridge, it still seemed like normal everyday delinquency. But while Nick was in the middle of reading a dirty limerick that was sprayed on the road, Jason came over and tapped him on the shoulder. "Eddie's still hiding over by the truck."
"Yeah," Nick looked over his shoulder to see the bunny still pacing around at the edge of the bridge, "He's being a scared little bitch."
"You wanna scare him real good? I've got an idea." He leaned up to Nick's ear and started whispering. It was quiet enough that nobody else could hear, but it seemed to give the fox boy a chuckle.
"Haha, yeah, I'd like to see how he reacts to THAT!"
Jason grinned, "Great, I'll go tell the others." He headed off to let Chris and Billy in on the secret. Everyone needed to be on-board if the plan was going to work.
A few minutes later, the four boys got together and started making their way back to the truck. They glanced over at each other as they walked, nodding their heads to confirm that everything was good to go.
"You guys done already?" Eddie asked as they approached.
"Eh, it's just a dumb bridge." Nick shrugged, "I don't know what you're so scared of."
"Yeah, let's go home." Billy added, "All that's here is just a bunch of trash."
The group caught up to Eddie followed him around to the back of the truck. Eddie stepped up on the bumper and pulled himself up to the tailgate. Just as he was getting ready to climb in, the rest of the crew made their move and grabbed him.
"What the!?"
They yanked him off of the truck and and held him down against the ground. He tried to kick and swing to free himself, but his friends weren't letting him budge.
"What the heck are you guys doing!?"
Jason, the only one who wasn't holding him down, walked around and looked him right in the face. With a sly, menacing voice and an evil grin, he filled the scared bunny boy in. "Our dark lord demands a sacrifice!"
The color drained from Eddie's face. "W-What!?"
Jason raised his fist in the air and yelled, "HAIL SATAN!"
"HAIL SATAN!" the rest of the boys cheered back. Each one of them grabbed a limb and lifted Eddie up onto their shoulders. Nick and Billy had him by the arms, while Jason and Chris carried him by his legs.
"W-Wait! GUYS!" He struggled to get down, but they wouldn't let go. "STOP IT!"
They ignored pleas and began carrying him towards the bridge. He frantically looked around trying to find some way out, but what he saw only made his heart sink. There was a gap in the bridge's side barrier, and they were headed straight for it.
"GUYS, SERIOUSLY! LET ME GO!" he screamed, "THIS ISN'T FUNNY!"
"Sorry man, but devil powers sound too fuckin' sweet." Nick smugly replied.
"We gotta sacrifice someone," Jason continued, "we all agreed it should be you."
"Don't worry man, we'll summon you back to be our demon." Chris laughed.
"Yeah!" Billy added. "Trust me, you'll look cool once you've got some horns."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH! HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!" Eddie started to cry, "PLEASE! PLEASE! I DON'T WANNA DIE!"
"HAIL SATAN!" the other boys once again cheered.
Chris struggled to keep Eddie's flailing leg held tightly on his shoulder. He couldn't help but snicker from all the blood-curdling screams that were coming from behind him. I mean come on, did he really believe all these stupid stories? As if anyone has ever been possessed and forced to do the devil's bidding. He laughed at the notion. However, that laughter was interrupted when he began to feel a strange sensation. A weird warmth, clashing with the cool nighttime breeze, becoming more intense as it spread across his back. It was getting really hot, as if a spirit was trying to get inside his body. His fur raised up as a chill shot down his spine. He yelped and jumped away, frantically clawing at the air around him to keep the evil spirit at bay.
With one of his legs now free, Eddie swung it over at Jason. The cat was so distracted by Chris's sudden outburst that he didn't even seen it coming.
"AHH-OWW!" Jason bellowed out as Eddie's heel dug into his ribcage. It was enough to make him drop the boy's other leg as he doubled over and clutched his chest.
With all the commotion, Nick and Billy loosened their grips long enough for Eddie to pull his arms free. He scrambled to his feet and ran before the other boys even realized what happened.
Jason was still rubbing his bruised ribs as he turned to Chris and demanded some answers. "What the heck was that all about!?"
"I..." his face was as white as a ghost, "I felt something."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know! Something was making my back get real hot all of the sudden!"
"Dude, quit fuckin' around." Nick dismissed him, "We're not gonna fall for it."
"I swear! I don't know what it was, but something weird was happening to me." He reached behind and felt around. "Dude, it's all wet!"
"Really?" Billy was intrigued, "Turn around, let us see."
Chris turned around and let the other boys run their hands along the back of his jacket. Just as he said, it was thoroughly drenched.
"Ew, what is this?" Billy pulled his hand away and sniffed it. "...Wait." He turned around and looked along at the ground, noticing a wet spot that wasn't far away. There was a trail running off from it down the road back towards the truck, eventually leading back to a very terrified bunny who was still trying to catch his breath. "Dude, Eddie, did you pee your pants?"
Following the accusation, Nick sniffed his hand as well, "Oh god, it IS pee!"
"WHAT!?" Chris hurriedly pulled his jacket off and smelled the soaked backside as well, "AUGH! Seriously dude!?"
The other three boys burst out laughing from the revelation, though Chris and Eddie weren't so amused. Eddie stood at the edge of the bridge with wet streaks running down his face and his pants legs, his whole body still trembling as his friends made fun of him.
"Dude, it was just a joke!" Nick called out between the laughter, "How can you be THAT scared?"
Eddie grit his teeth and clenched his fists. His mind was swirling with a thousand thoughts, but he couldn't think clearly enough to focus on a single one. Finally, in a sudden burst of raw emotion, he screamed, "YOU GUYS SUCK!" He stormed off to go hide somewhere behind the truck.
"Alright guys, that's enough." Nick's dad finally stepped in. He was fine with letting boys be boys, but they were clearly past Eddie's breaking point. Being the lone adult, he had to be the responsible one and ensure everyone's wellbeing. He went over to check on the poor kid, who was sitting behind the tire with his head buried between his knees. "Are you okay?"
"I just wanna go home..." he sobbed.
Frank turned back to the other boys, "Yeah, we're done here. Come on guys, back to the truck." He looked back down at Eddie and helped him to his feet. "You can ride up front with me if you want."
"Okay..." he quietly eeked out as he rubbed the tears from his eyes. He followed Frank back to the front and climbed into the passenger seat.
The rest of the boys were slowly making their way back, wondering if they may have taken things a little too far. Jason still had a hand pressed against his injured chest, and Chris was still fuming due to his wet jacket.
"I can't believe he actually peed on me..." the wolf muttered.
They all piled into the truck, and after a quick U-turn they were on their way back to civilization. While they may not have uncovered the truth behind the legends of the devil's bridge, they did have fun exploring and hearing all the stories about it. And trying to spook each other too, of course. After all, isn't scaring the piss out of your friends what the season is all about?
