The Rope

                     It was dark and foggy out. Jenna had just got off work and was making the hour and a half commute home. Most of the ride home was through the woods. But there was a bridge in the middle of the woods. As Jenna approached the box shaped bridge, she glanced at the time, “11:07PM”. Jenna thought to herself, “Don should be asleep, and May and John also.” Jenna thought of her kids and husband.

Jenna’s car went over a small bump as she entered the long bridge. Midway through the bridge, Jenna saw a girl standing at the end. The bridge was dark. It was like a tunnel dangling over the canyon. The headlights lit up just enough of the area, to see the girl standing there.

Jenna stopped the car. She opened at the car door, stepped out of the car, and yelled, “Hello?” Her voice echoed through bridge.

No answer. Jenna slowly walked towards the motionless girl. As Jenna got closer she realized, the girl wasn’t standing she was hanging! The girl was hanging from a rope attached to the top of the bridge. Jenna screamed but her voice was frozen with terror. Jenna’s heels clicked as she ran back to her car, grabbing her phone. She dialed 911.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator said in a low monotone voice.

“Hello, this is Jenna Loftening. I’m on Peak Bridge. There is a girl hanging from a rope that connected to the beams of wood above. She’s dead! The girl has blonde hair and is wearing a white dress.” Jenna yelled into the phone.

“Okay ma’am. Stay where you are,” the operator explained, “we are sending an emergency vehicle right now.”

Jenna ended the call. She looked up at the girl. She was gone. A million thoughts went through her head, thoughts about her kids, husband, and their new puppy. She wondered if she would ever see her kids again. She worried about what her kids would do without a mother as if she knew this was her few breaths. Blood pumping through her veins, sharp and short intake of air as she walked closer to the rope. Her black heels clicked against the road, click, click, click. The sound of her black slacks rubbing together with each step, Jenna could see the rope, but the girl was no longer there. The rope appeared to be moving, “Maybe just the wind,” Jenna had thought to herself, though she felt no wind.

Jenna let go off her blue and black necklace, which matched her shirt, that she had absentmindedly twirling out of a nervous habit. She reached out for the rope. As her fingers brushed across it she felt someone grab her arm. Jenna turned her head and looked over her shoulder, and there stood the girl that Jenna thought was dead, the girl that Jenna thought was hanging. She opened her mouth to let out a wailing scream. This girl still looks dead but yet she staring right at me holding onto my arm. She screamed.

Ten minutes later the police car sirens were echoing through the bridge. The police car pulled right up behind Jenna’s running car, with the driver’s door wide open.  The police officer got out of the car, his golden badge that read “Chief Dave Loftening”, matching his navy blue uniform. Dave got out of his car and slowly walked towards Jenna’s car and looked into her car. It was empty, “Hello? Anyone out here,” Dave called out but got no answer.

Dave walked closer to the end of the bridge and saw the hanging girl. Dave walked closer to the girl he realized he recognized the girl who was hanging. It was his sister-in-law, Jenna. Then Dave thought to himself, “Wasn’t it Jenna who called in reporting a hanging girl? That’s why I took this call to see if she was okay.”