Cold Encounters

December 27, 2017

When George went into work that morning, he had no idea what the day might bring. The town of Dresden was getting its first real taste of winter. Oh, it had been cold, but you had to expect that when you lived up in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. They had gotten some light flurries but a real snow fall, this was the first this winter. He figured that for the most part people would do just fine nevertheless there were always those few who thought they could drive in conditions like they were going to have today, they would be wrong, so very wrong. You added to the weather the narrow winding backroads that ran up and down like a roller coaster not to mention a lot of nasty little places where you could end up if you weren’t careful and days like today always made for a bad day.

George had no idea how bad his day would become.

***

Julia stopped and looked up at the old abandoned railroad bridge in front of her. It was no more than a half a mile in front of her, nonetheless at this moment she wished it were a thousand miles away right now. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow and the thick hazy white fog hanging over the area only added an even eerier feel to the biting cold. The snow laden branches of the trees and bushes seemed to have submitted to a harsh menacing force that went beyond the thick layers of tiny ice particles.

The bridge ran over a deep ravine and the hazy white mist became even thicker below the bridge making it appear as if the old metal structure lay on a solid sheet of ice. Julia knew better. The thick mist served to hide the deadly hundred-foot drop that the bridge was built over to hold up the trains that had once traveled this rail line and get safely across to the other side.

Julia knew she was only delaying what she had to do so she put her head down and continued to walk toward that bridge her footsteps causing the snow to crunch under her boots. The sound was amplified by the extreme quiet and reverberating off the cold low-lying mist served to heighten her sense of apprehension. If the situation hadn’t seemed so eerie, she might have enjoyed the winter wonderland scene surrounding her. The plumes of vapor she emitted when she breathed out swirled around her head and mingled with the light dusting of snow only added to her sense of unease.

Julia wanted to curse the powers that be however right now the last thing she needed was to get them even angrier at her than they already appeared to be. She had been on her way home from pulling an all-night shift at the local hospital when her car had slid off the icy road and gotten stuck in a ditch. She had tried to call for help but her phone wasn’t getting a signal and as far out as she lived from town there was no telling how long it would take for anyone to get to her. She had sat in her car with the motor running until she used up the last bit of gas in her tank and then sat there another thirty minutes before she had decided to try and make the long trek home.

She could have stayed on the road, but if she had, it was another ten miles to her house on those winding roads resulted in her taking the short cut following the tracks, but at this moment, she was regretting that decision. She had only been about a mile from the bridge where her car left the road and her house was only about another mile on the other side of the ravine, at the time had thought this was the much smarter move to make. Damn why did William, her husband, have to be out of town this week in particular? He had left yesterday morning and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow night. If he had been home, he would have been out looking for her when she had been thirty minutes later than she should have been.

Of course, if William had been home, he would have picked her up this morning and they would have left her car sitting in the parking garage at work. Crap, maybe she should have just stayed with her car. Truth was a quicker two-mile hike in the bad weather shouldn’t have been a problem for her and she knew that she was more than capable of making it home not too much the worse for wear, but damn that bridge.

She like everyone else knew the history. When she had been in grammar school it was still being used by the railroad and yes like with all bridges like this some idiots had used it as a short cut for as long as it had been around, of course some people had some serious encounters with a few trains. Along with those deadly encounters the stories of ghost and monsters had come into being. By the time the bridge had been decommissioned, or whatever the hell they do with old bridges, the stories had grown and with each new telling kids started daring each other to cross it. A few of them had fallen to their deaths and some had simply disappeared. They too had also probably fallen to their deaths but because their bodies got caught in the fast-moving current of the river at the bottom of the ravine they were never found. The railroad finally closed this portion of the tracks back in sixty-seven after the second train had derailed just before getting to the bridge. Oddly enough the train went over the side of the cliff without so much as putting a dent into the old bridge. Fortunately, the railroad had already started building a new bride across the river a few miles down the way and had just finished so they had closed this one a little earlier than they had intended. There was also a bridge for automobiles right next to the new rail line. Julia would have already been across that bridge and almost home if it hadn’t of been for her running off the road when she did.

At one point the locals had put up barriers to try and stop people from crossing this one unfortunately it hadn’t worked to stop all the idiots although the people who fell or went missing did slow down a bit. Obviously, most people had taken the hint, but a few hadn’t. Now here she was doing exactly what she had always been told not to.

Julia stopped again as that lost bit of memory scratched away in the back of her brain. There was something else to the story that stuck in the back of her mind, she just couldn’t remember it right now. Anyway, she was right at the bridge and she only had to walk a few hundred feet to the other side. She would be a little less than a mile from home once she was on the other side. She would soon be sitting in front of a warm fire with her feet propped up close to the flames warming and a large mug of coffee would be cradled in her two hands.

Julia took the first step onto the abutment that put her on the bridge. She hesitated again still trying to think of what it was nagging at the back of her brain that seemed to be just out of the reach of her mind. At this moment however, she was more interested in getting across this damn thing and finished with this cold ass trek through this winter wonder-hell and getting home where it was warm.

When she was about half way across the bridge she looked up and saw what looked like an even thicker patch of white coming toward her and at first thought it had started snowing harder again. She soon realized that it wasn’t more of the wintery precipitation but looked like someone dressed in white coming toward her from the other side. She then grasped that there was a transparency and shimmering appearance to the figure, it seemed to glide as it closed the distance between her and it as it approached. It was at that moment that the elusive thought that had been playing at the edges of her brain had come running to the forefront and made itself known. Yes, people had disappeared from this bridge but only in the dead of winter. Only when the ground was covered in thick layers of snow and ice. Only in times like this. Only when it was snowing.

Julia started to back toward the way she had come but something had frozen her in place. She could only stand there as whatever this thing was drew closer to her. She wanted to close her eyes because the image before her became more frightening as it came nearer to her. If she could have moved her feet, she might have jumped over the side to get away from the encroaching figure of her own free will.

Whatever it was it looked to be shrouded in long white robes that flowed around it as it moved. The death white face broken only by two round black holes instead of eyes that seemed more like deep endless pits and a thin dark grey slit in place of a mouth. Slowly that grey slit opened to more blackness as it let out a cacophony of nerve piercing screeches that blew through Julia’s brain causing her to let out a short squeal just before her brain exploded inside her head. Blood ran out of her mouth, nose, and eye sockets as her eyeball burst from her head just before her head seemed to first expand then blew whatever was left inside outward leaving a gruesome scattering of grey and red matter around where she had been standing.

***

By the time William got back into town everywhere near where his wife’s car had been found in the ditch had been searched. The only sign that Julie had ever followed the rails was where they had found traces of blood splatter about midway of the bridge and a few footprints that survived the falling snow and the wind. Some assumed she had slipped and fallen into the river below. Others felt the bridge had taken her like it had taken others in the past. They never found her body. They also couldn’t explain the amount of blood on the bridge and truth be known, they really didn’t want to because the possible truth scared them. Some just wanted the bridge to be gone, George among them. George was also hoping this would be the only one this winter.

They might should have put a little more effort into finding an answer because in just a couple of days it would happen again.

BACK TO TOP

CHAPTER 2

December 30, 2017

Lisa slammed the steering wheel with clenched fist.

Damn! The pain that shot through her hand didn’t help her mood any.

She was sitting on the side of the narrow two-lane road in freezing weather. There was at least a foot of snow on the ground and the patch of ice that had made her slide off the road and into a tree however was the biggest reason for her foul mood.

Lisa felt a trickle of something running down the side of her face and reached up to wipe at it only to feel the warmth of a sticky fluid covering her fingers.

Oh damn. Well you could add that to the shit crap things that had gone wrong with the whole Christmas holiday.

The reason she was on this God forsaken back road tonight was because of the things that had happened this past week. To top the week off her brother-in-law had made a pass at her and just as he had planted a wet drunken sloppy kiss to her lips her sister had walked in on the scene. The low life jerk had pointed the finger at Lisa and her sister had believed him. Dear sis had asked Lisa to leave her house right then and Lisa had done just that. Screw the jerk, screw her sister, screw her parents who had not said a word on her behalf, and screw the powers that be for putting her in this situation to begin with.

Lisa thought back on this past year and realized it wasn’t just this past week that had been a bummer. She and the man she was supposed to marry in a couple of months had called it quits because he too couldn’t keep his hands to himself, only it wasn’t her he had been groping. She had been passed over for a promotion that should have been hers because someone else had been allowing the boss to grope her, because of her breakup she had to find a new place to live and it wasn’t as nice as the other one. The insurance company had cancelled her car insurance because the dick wad she had been engaged to at the time had gotten a ticket for an accident he was in while under the influence. She had no doubt that now her new insurance company was sure to cancel her for this little fun ride, and to top it off they had cancelled her favorite series. Damn it to Hell could it get any worse? The year still had one more day in it, so she wasn’t taking any bets that it wouldn’t.

Lisa thought about the situation she was in and concluded that things might get a whole lot worse in the next few hours. She had no idea where she was due to the detour she had taken because of a wreck on the interstate. Between the temperature and the snow there was a good chance she might not live to see the new year come in. This wasn’t good. The passenger’s side of the car had gotten the worst of the accident because of an ill placed tree. The steam that was rushing out from under her hood wasn’t going to do much to keep her warm either. The fact that she now had a lap full of airbag wasn’t going to do much to protect her from the cold any more than that steam billowing out from under her hood. She was surprised that the window in the driver’s door hadn’t broken when her head was slammed into it from the force of the airbag deploying. She honestly couldn’t imagine it getting worse however something deep inside told her not to place any bets on that.

Lisa knew that you should stay with your car to make it easier for you to be rescued yet she hadn’t seen another vehicle on this road since she made the stupid decision to turn onto it. Not the wisest move she had ever made however she hadn’t wanted to sit in a traffic jam for several hours and thought making a quick exit was the smart thing to do. She would chalk it up to live and learn but right now the live part was questionable as far as she could see.

Lisa opened her car door after having to shove her shoulder against it a couple of times and it finally opened, she almost rolled out onto into the frozen white powder surrounding it. The snow was coming down even harder now and soon the car would be covered over completely. Looking around Lisa tried to make out any lights through the trees and either there wasn’t any, or the snow was doing a damn good job of keeping them hidden from view. The snow seemed to have a small break in it and Lisa thought she saw a faint twinkling shining through the trees a short distance away. She continued to stare at the small little glow in the far-off distance between the trees and felt sure she was seeing the lights of a house. It appeared to be close enough for her to walk to, true it appeared to be a good distance away, but she felt sure she could make it to that house at least before she froze to death.

Knowing that what she had on wasn’t going to do a lot to protect her from the cold Lisa made her way around to the trunk of her car and popping it with the remote that thankfully still worked, on that at least, she reached in and opened her suitcase. She counted it another blessing the trunk light still worked so she had no trouble finding a couple of pairs of thick socks and her heavy winter boots. Along with a heavy sweat suit she felt that once she put her coat on over everything, she would be OK long enough to make it to the house.

Lisa crawled back into her car and with some contorted maneuvers and bumping her head again as well as both her elbows, a knee, jamming a couple of fingers she was able to get all the extra attire on. She thought of what people did to get a little action in the backseat of a vehicle and wondered why anyone ever thought it was worth the effort. When she remembered the ultimate payoff for such outrageous lengths she giggled.

Thinking it might be a good idea to leave a note with which way she was headed she rummaged around until she found a pin and some paper to write the note with. At one time trying to come up with those items wouldn’t have been a big deal but now with cellphones, tablets of the electronic type, and laptops, old fashion writing utensils were pretty much obsolete. Anything before nineteen ninety was old fashion to her. After placing the note in several places trying to figure out the best place to leave it she decided to fold it over once and then slid half of it down into the inside of the driver’s window figuring that would be the best place for someone to find it if they came up on the car.

Lisa shut the door of her car and considered if she should lock it or not. Finally, she punched the lock button on her key and set off toward the light. Once out of the path of where her car had slid off the road, she found herself in snow almost half way up the calf of leg. It wasn’t quite high enough to overrun the tops of her boots nonetheless every time she took a step a good portion of the snow stuck to the boot covering the foot she was lifting would tumble off and fall into the inside of the other. Within a hundred feet of her trek she wondered if she had made the right decision. That light was still a good way off. If she wasn’t careful, by the time she made it there her feet would be soaked through and frozen. For a brief moment she considered turning around and going back to her car. She quickly pushed that thought to the back of her mind and continued on.

Lisa tried to keep the beaconing light within eyesight yet even with the barren branches of the trees and underbrush it was often concealed from her view from the thick woods that surrounded her. Each time she would pick it up again she felt sure it would be closer however it only seemed to be getting farther and farther away. Again, she considered going back to her car but knew her car had to be as far away from her now as the light and pressed on through the snow.

Lisa was so focused on keeping the light in sight that she didn’t notice when the ground suddenly took a downward tilt and she found herself tumbling down a steep hill. When she managed to pick herself off the ground, she found she was standing between the slope she had just tumbled down and another opposite it. Taking a look at first one then the other she tried to decide if she should go on or turn back. She hadn’t seen the light in several minutes. but she knew she had to be a lot closer to it now. Lisa began to climb the rise opposite of the one she had just rolled down. At least this one didn’t look quite a high as the other.

Once Lisa was able to scale the ridge and make it to the top, she tripped on something immediately and came down hard. She heard a cracking sound as an intensely sharp pain shot through her left arm. She almost passed out from the throbbing when she tried using that arm to help her right herself.

Oh damn, damn, damn! Lisa finally managed to get into a sitting position while trying to protect the injured arm.

Lisa sat there taking stock of her situation. She was able to determine that what she had tripped over was one of the rails running parallel to the one she had fallen on. Coming to the realization that she was sitting in the center of a railroad track she wondered when the next train was due to come through not only where she was sitting and through her as well if she didn’t move. It was apparent that a train hadn’t been through this place in a while because of all the snow that now covering the tracks. This didn’t however make her confident that she wouldn’t encounter a train. She had no idea how long the snow had been falling at this spot or how heavy so that could mean the last train through could have been hours ago or only thirty minutes. OK the thirty minutes might not be the answer but that could only mean there could be one coming through any time as for all she knew. She had to get up and move and soon.

She was certain she had managed to break her arm, she also realized she could no longer see the light. It took a moment for her to figure she was facing the same direction she had come and begun to twist herself around when suddenly the light appeared to her left. It didn’t make sense to her because the last time she had seen the light it was still directly in front of her and now seeing it from this vantage point it should have been on her right before she fell.

Suddenly it dawned on her she might actually be seeing an oncoming train and she began to struggle to her feet while keeping an eye on the light that now held her captive like a deer caught in the bright lights of an oncoming car.

***

Officer John Braiden was heading back from a call when he noticed the car that had slid off the road. He didn’t know how long it had been sitting there however he could tell it wasn’t running and there were certainly no lights on. He pulled as far off the road as he could and turned on his emergency lights so that hopefully it didn’t cause a wreck should anyone happen to come by. He doubted that anyone else was out in this weather, but he wasn’t going to take any chances of adding to the problem if he could help it. The fact that there was a car sitting here meant that some idiot was or had been out in it so the fact there were idiots and morons running around in this world was glaringly apparent.

Grabbing his flashlight Braiden stepped out of his car in order to check out the one sitting at a slant in the ditch on the opposite side of the road. The passenger’s side of the car was lodged against a tree and both the front and back windows had shattered. Trying the door handle he discovered it was locked and brushing the snow that clung to the window shined his light into the window. He noticed the piece of paper that was shoved down the window inside of the car. If Officer Braiden had been much later in spotting the car the paper would have probably been blown away because it was barely hanging on by the corner when he saw it. Breaking the driver’s side window, he reached for the paper. Braiden clasped it in one hand while shining the flashlight through the car as he tried to determine if there was still anyone in it. He could see there was no one inside and then shinning the flashlight toward the ground he found faint footprints leading away from the car and into the woods. Officer Braiden didn’t like the looks of this and turned his attention to paper in his hand and found it was a note. If he did like the way things looked before after reading the note, he really didn’t like the way things looked. The officer removed a glove and placed his hand on the hood and although it wasn’t hot it was still warm to the touch, so it hadn’t been sitting there to terribly long.

The closest thing to where he was right now was an old abandoned railroad track and it hadn’t been used in more years than he had been on this planet. Beyond that there wasn’t any place that would offer shelter around here for almost five miles in any direction. Well almost any direction. There was an extremely deep ravine a little over a mile from here and the closest house or anything else for that matter was on the other side and over a mile away from that. An old bridge that connected the railroad to the two sides was the only way over there and still the lady who owned this car shouldn’t have had any reason to head up those tracks and he didn’t like the direction the footprints had taken.

The old bridge. Holy fucking shit. That damn bridge. Keying down on his radio he wasted no time with formalities or protocol.

Guys we have a problem out here by that damn bridge. The fact he was going to be in super-hot water for that one didn’t enter his mind right then. Some stupid woman ran off the road out here and left her car and took off through the woods toward that damn thing. I’m going to try and get to her before she gets to it, but I have no way of knowing how much of a head start she might have. Get someone out here as quick as you can but if it looks like she made it to that bridge then she is on her own.

Officer Braiden took a minute to try and determine which way was the best to handle this and felt that driving back toward the tracks and following them toward the bridge was the logical plan. He knew traipsing through those woods wasn’t it. As quickly as he could he got back into his patrol car and after a couple of little slips he managed to get it turned around and headed back in the direction he had come. It only took a couple of minutes but to him it seemed liked hours. The last thing he wanted was to go hiking up those tracks, however it was the only thing to do if he wanted a chance to save that stupid bitch that had put him in this situation. He knew he was probably being unfair to the woman all things considered but all things considered he felt he was totally justified in his opinion of this lady right now as well as his mental rantings. First and foremost was the urgency of getting to her before she got too close to that damn bridge.

***

Lisa finally managed to get to her feet but was still standing in between those two rails and unsure how to proceed. She could still see the light in front of her it didn’t seem to have moved any. She determined that it must be coming from some building close to the tracks. If that was the case following them was the smartest thing to do. If the light appeared to start moving toward her faster than it should just from her walking toward it then she could always get off the tracks. There was also the possibility that one could come from the opposite direction from behind her. She felt sure she would hear it if it did. It would also have a very large light on the front of it, so she was sure she would notice it if it did. The throbbing in her arm was bad enough to make her cringe with each step with every footstep she took it finally appeared that the light was getting closer.

Lisa didn’t notice the cold that had begun to seep into her body and was beginning to take effect on her. Her pace had slowed and ever third or fourth step she took she seemed to stumble. Off in the distance she thought she could begin to make out a structure, a dark silhouette, she was unsure of what it was. What she did know was the light appeared to be coming from that structure and she tried to hasten her steps.

The snow seemed to be falling harder now than before and the wind had picked up. The stronger gust of wind should have been accompanied by a pronounced moaning or whistling sound what could only be described as an eerie silence went unnoticed by Lisa because of the sound of her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.

She suddenly stopped when she thought she heard the sound of something behind her. Turning she saw a light in the distance. It appeared to be moving toward her sending a chill down her back that had nothing to do with the cold. She thought she heard a train whistle and stood frozen in place trying to decide what to do. She was so close to the light now and maybe she could reach the lighted structure before the train got too close. Turning back toward the beaconing light she had been following for a while she now saw as her only chance of survival, she tried to run toward it hoping she wouldn’t have to bail from the tracks before she reached What she now thought of as her safe haven.

***

Officer Braiden knew that he was getting way to close to the bridge and was about to turn around when he thought he saw the woman ahead of him. Trying to get closer to her he began to jog trying to catch up to her. She had signed her note with her name so now he began to call her by it.

Lisa.

Officer Braiden had picked up on the deadly silence surrounding him and knew he was getting way to close to that fucking bridge.

Lisa! Officer Braiden’s voice seemed taken on a bit of a high pitch squeal. Clearing his throat Officer Braiden called out again.

Lisa.

***

Lisa thought she heard the train whistle again and turned her head as much as she could without stopping and turning around. She caught the light from the train behind her and it was a lot closer than it was before. She was now stumbling more than she had been and the cold had definitely taken a toll on both her body and her mind at this point. The heavily falling snow only served to worsen her mental and emotional state. Trying to fix her gaze on the light that had been drawing her toward it like the children had been drawn to the sound of the piper’s instrument to never be seen again in that old tale of folklore she was undaunted in her pursuit.

The only thing going through her head now was she had to make it to that light, she had to make it to that light.

***

Officer Braiden should have stopped and turned around he couldn’t leave this woman like this. She was almost to that bridge and if he didn’t get her to stop and turn around there would be no saving her.

Officer Braiden couldn’t understand why the woman appeared to be running from him now. He had seen her turn her head and surely, she must have seen his light at least. He took in a deep breath and once more screamed the woman’s name, Lisa.

He noticed that the woman stumbled again and now he thought she might be injured. He knew he should turn around the woman was less than a hundred feet from that bridge and if he didn’t get her to stop now it would be too late.

Lisa.

Officer Braiden’s attention was diverted to the bridge that now seemed to be looming over the two figures that were making their way toward it, that’s when he saw it. The police officer stopped dead still in his tracks. He saw it. The ghostly white apparition had just suddenly appeared on the bridge and stood there as if holding out its arms to embrace the woman as she ran headlong toward it. She managed to reach the bridge and placed her foot on it.

Officer Braiden began to slowly back up the way he had come. He should have turned around and run as fast as he could he didn’t. He only regretted that for a microsecond.

***

It was when Lisa took her first step onto the bridge that she realized that the light she had been tracking was actually a bridge. That there wasn’t any light never had time to dawn on her. It was also at that moment she noticed the horrific specter only a few feet in front of her stopping her dead in her tracks. The thing towered over her seemingly to stare at her from what looked like little bottomless pits where its eyes should have been.

Lisa opened her mouth to scream if a sound ever made it out of her lips it was never heard. While Lisa tried to scream the monstrous thing in front of her opened its mouth to release its own blood curdling scream drowning out any sound Lisa might have made. The loud piercing screech that filled the night shot straight through Lisa’s head crashing into the soft tissue with the force of a supersonic explosion that shattered her skull sending her blood and brains all around where she had stood. The thing that had confronted her grabbed her body up in its immense arms and as if gliding moved back toward the middle of the bridge. It then performed an almost acrobatic maneuver and simply folded over the rails of the bridge and then fall. The deep ravine below the bridge seemed to simply swallow up both the specter and the woman’s body it nestled in its arms.

The body of the officer was not on the bridge and was left lying on the tracks about fifty feet away. Although his head had been affected by the sound coming from the gaping maw of the monstrous specter on the bridge the results hadn’t been as devastating. Where the woman’s head has exploded the only evidence of his encounter was the blood running from his mouth, nose, and ears. The officers who found the body assumed it was from the injuries Officer Braiden had suffered when he had fallen on the tracks and his head hit one of the rails. The autopsy would reveal something for more sinister.

BACK TO TOP

CHAPTER 3

Sharan stood in her kitchen trying to take in what she had just been told. Her brother was dead. Phillip Ackerman, another officer and her brother’s best friend, had actually been the one to come to tell her. They had found his body on those damn tracks close to that God forsaken bridge. She knew it had been no accident no matter what they said. Sharan sat down at the table and now that everyone had left, she broke down and cried. She had no one now, at least not family. John had been the last of her immediate family.

She wiped the tears from her face and looked around the kitchen. Her family had lived in this house since she was five and it was full of happy memories, at least until about four years ago when her mom had died of cancer at the ripe old age of fifty-four. Her dad had died last year of a massive coronary at fifty-nine. Longevity didn’t seem to be a strong suite in her family.

She shook her head trying to clear it of the cobwebs and tragic memories that were threatening to drown her. She needed her wits about her now. There were too many things on her plate to get bogged down in all the pain and suffering of losing all the people close to her right now. She had to think about John and what she needed to do for him. Her mind went to John’s fiancée.

Sharan didn’t really like the ditz, but she felt the girl would be devastated. She might be a ditz, but she had appeared to have loved John and for that reason alone Sharan had accepted her and done everything she could to make her welcome into the much-dwindled fold. It wasn’t that the poor girl didn’t have an education, but it was in one of the dumbest things Sharan had ever heard of. That kind of made her smile. A lot of people would say that about her she was sure.

Oh, damn it to hell. The new job. Sharan had just accepted what could only be described as a truly kick ass job and she was supposed to have left this coming weekend for Nashville. There was no way she would be able to do that now, so she could probably kiss it goodbye. She thought