This scene takes up exactly where my last entry leaves off.  It also brings us full-circle to the prologue that i posted a few weeks back.  Let me know if you all want some more of my mystery/horror/sci-fi novel “The Bridge” or a sample of one of the sequels to it.  Again I apologize for the strange-looking breaks and paragraph shapes.  WP just seems to love messing with the format of things I copy and paste here from MS Word.

“Rachel?” Ronnie repeated staring at the girl, who had now fully emerged from the water with Alex’s jacket draped over her shoulders.  “You’re not alive are you?”

The girl shook her head.

Roy stepped forward and said in a tight voice, “Tell us what happened to you child.  We can’t undo what happened, but by God we can get whoever did it.”

The teenager opened her mouth and brackish water spilled out.

“I’m so sorry,” Ronnie whispered, tears running down her face.  “I let you down.  I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”

The ghostly figure shook her head in disagreement.

“Did you kill my Uncle Jason?” asked Julie, breaking her silence.

Rachel shook her head again.

“Then why are you here?”

The dead girl replied by grabbing the lapels of the jacket and pulling them closer.

“It’s the jacket.  She’s been trying to get to Alex, but the jacket has kept changing hands,” said a voice nearby.

All heads turned to look at Cassandra.  The heiress’ eyes had taken on a strange look that made those standing near her shudder.

“Are you saying she’s haunting the jacket Miss Elliott?” asked Roy incredulously.

She nodded, “Alex thought she’d fallen in the water and put it around her and the water soaked into the fabric.  She’s bound to that water and wherever it is she can appear.”

Veronica’s mind worked quickly.  “You had the jacket in the trunk of your car the night you fainted outside the bar.  You said a girl rose up out of the trunk.”

Cassandra nodded apologetically. “Yeah, I still wasn’t myself at the time though.

My mind was still on that man who’s been following me.  When she appeared I freaked and passed out.”

“She must’ve appeared in front of that poor bastard at the dry cleaners too,” muttered Roy, remembering the look of horror on the man’s face.  “The shock must’ve been too much for his heart.”

Listening to all of this Julie turned to Cassandra, “Why are you able to understand her?”

The heiress looked away and said quietly, “Alex and I are psychics.”

Mouth hanging open, the muscular girl turned to Ronnie and asked, “Is she shitting me?”

The older woman shook her head, “No, Alex is a psychic.  I didn’t know about her, but I was beginning to suspect.”

Julie shook her head. This was all getting too much for her, yet at the same time it made a strange kind of sense. “If Alex is psychic why couldn’t he tell Rachel was…” she gestured at the dead teen.

Cassandra answered, “We can’t always tell when we’re meeting someone who’s no longer among the living.  If the personality is strong enough they can seem as real as you or me.  And this girl has incredible amount of power.  She must have been a psychic when she was alive.”

Nearby, Officer Patrick Danson began to stir.

Meanwhile, Julie asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.  “So why has she been killing people?”

The drowned teen looked over at her and tried to speak.  But, once more only dark water spilled out of her mouth.

“It wasn’t her,” Cassie said, acting as the girl’s translator.  “She’s been trying to prevent these deaths.”

Veronica moved closer to the dead teen saying, “Rachel, do you know who’s responsible for the killings?”

The girl nodded and began to open the jacket, just as Danson opened his eyes and spotted her.  Scrambling to his feet he grabbed the nearest person, who happened to be Cassandra, and threw her at the nightmare figure.  Then he raced down the corridor screaming before anyone could stop him.

Julie watched in horror as time seemed to slow and the heiress went head first into Rachel’s chest, which rippled as if it were made of water.

For a moment no one could move or speak as Cassandra slowly plunged further and further into the teen’s torso.  The moment was finally broken when Julie lunged forward and grabbed the heiress by the ankle.  Roy followed suit and grabbed the other one.

Together they prevented the woman from being swallowed, but at the same time, they could not pull her out.

As the phantasm stared at the back half of the woman who was now sticking out of her, while Ronnie called out to Cassandra to see if she was all right.  Upon receiving no reply, she slowly moved around Rachel to see what was going on.  Suddenly, her hands flew up to her mouth.

“Is she okay?” asked Roy, tightening his grip.

“I don’t know,” Ronnie replied shakily, “She’s not there.”

Just then Julie and Roy were yanked forward.  Something or someone was pulling from the other side.

Cassandra found herself under dark water.  A flash of light above showed her she was not far from the surface.  With a lunge she broke through and gasped.  Rain struck her face as thunder and lightning raged all around her.

How had she gotten here?  And why could she feel someone grabbing her ankles?

She reached under the water to see what was going only to find a set of exposed rib bones encasing her waist.  She tried not to panic, but it was an uphill battle.

The cool rain hitting her face helped to calm her.  Bravely she looked around and gasped.  Looming over her head she saw the all familiar shape of the bridge.  I’m at the Graham estate, she thought.  “How did I…” she began when a banshee-like wail pierced the night and her psyche.

A second later, lightning lit area and she spotted a limping figure heading towards the bridge.  It was Alex, but he wasn’t alone.

Standing on top of the slope was a girl with long dark hair.  At first Cassie thought it might be Rachel, but quickly realized this was not the case.  Waves of evil hatred were pouring out of this girl as she stared murderously at the Alex’s fleeing form.

As the heiress watched helplessly, she heard the stones of the ancient bridge groan.  Then, out of the corner of her eye she thought see spotted movement among the stonework.

Staring she thought, Did that bridge just…

Suddenly, she was pulled back under the water just as Alex reached the bridge and collapsed.

Cassie found herself on the floor of the police station and spitting up water.   As she lay there coughing, a pair of strong arms reached around her middle and squeezed.  Another great gulp of water was forced out of her and she was able to breathe once more.

“Is she okay?” asked a man’s voice.  Before she could answer, she heard Julie reply, “I think so.  Are you all right Baby?”

Cassie looked up and saw the object of her affection and Chief Peterson studying her anxiously.  “I’m okay…” she nodded and coughed again.

“What happened?  Where were you?” asked Veronica joining them.

“In the water… near the bridge at the Graham estate…” she gasped.  “I saw Alex… he’s in danger,” another coughing fit racked her trembling form, “… some girl is trying to kill him.”