Chapter 2: The Bridge
871 Words
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
“The brakes aren’t working.”
For a moment everyone was silent.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The only sound inside the car was the pounding of the rain.
Emma looked at her father, she could see the fear in his eyes.
“Dad?” She said terrified.
“What’s going on?”
Surely she heard him wrong.
Cars can’t just stop working.
Definitely not their car.
Not this one.
Richard Walker couldn’t say anything.
He held the steering wheel tightly.
His knuckles turned white.
“Everything will be fine,” he finally said.
But the confidence in his voice was gone.
Emma saw fear flash across her mother’s face.
“What do you mean the brakes aren’t working?” Grace asked.
“I don’t…I don’t know,” he stammered.
“I checked everything before we left.”
Another flash of lightning lit up the sky.
For a split second the speed decreased.
Then the car surged forward again.
A sick feeling settled in Richard's stomach.
Something was terribly wrong.
This wasn’t a normal brake failure.
It felt deliberate.
He looked at Grace and for the first time in twenty years of their marriage, they understood each other without even saying a word.
Someone did this.
Someone planned all of this.
Someone is trying to kill them.
“Who could it be?”
“Who could be behind this?”
Ethan sat upright.
“What—what—what do we do?” He asked, his voice cracking.
Richard forced himself to focus.
His children need him.
His wife needs him.
Panic would help no one.
He must protect his family at all costs.
“Listen to me.”
His voice calm despite the fear clawing in his chest.
“Everything is going to be okay,”
Grace immediately reached for her children's hands.
Emma squeezed it tightly.
Her mother's hand felt warm and safe.
Emma heard Ethan suck in a sharp breath.
Then another problem appeared.
Headlights.
Bright.
Fast approaching.
A large truck was coming from the opposite direction.
Emma screamed.
Richard jerked the steering wheel.
The car missed the truck by inches.
For a few seconds nobody spoke.
Nobody could.
Fear gripped them all.
Grace swallowed hard.
“Call the emergency services.”
Ethan immediately grabbed his phone.
He frowned.
“No signal.”
“What?”
“No signal.”
Grace looked outside the window.
No houses.
No businesses.
Nothing.
They were completely alone and they had no way to call for help.
Miles away, inside a black sedan parked near an abandoned roadside shelter, a woman sat silently.
The windshield wipers swept back and forth.
Back and forth.
Victoria Hart stared at her phone.
Waiting.
Beside her, Marcus glanced at the dashboard clock.
“It should have happened already.”
Victoria didn’t respond.
Her eyes remained fixed on the storm outside.
Marcus shifted uncomfortably.
“Are you sure everything was done correctly?”
Her gaze slowly moved toward him.
Cold.
Sharp.
Dangerous.
“Of course.”
Marcus looked away.
Neither noticed the slight tremble in Victoria’s hand.
Not from fear.
From anticipation.
Years of waiting.
Years of jealousy.
Years of pretending.
All leading to tonight.
Back at the highway, Richard spotted something ahead.
His stomach twisted.
A bridge.
The old Riverside Bridge.
The bridge stretched across dark waters far below.
And they were approaching it too fast.
Far too fast.
Grace saw it too.
“No.”
The word escaped her lips before she could stop it.
Richard’s mind raced.
Think.
Think.
Think.
There had to be a way.
A way to stop the vehicle.
A way to save his family.
Then something happened.
A memory surfaced.
The envelope.
The warning.
The strange phone call he’d received weeks ago.
The growing suspicion that someone inside his own circle couldn’t be trusted.
Pieces began clicking together.
Too late.
Much too late.
Richard looked into the rearview mirror.
At Ethan.
At Emma.
His children.
The two people he loved most in the world.
Emotion tightened his throat.
“Listen to me carefully.”
His voice was unusually serious.
Emma immediately knew something was wrong.
“Daddy?”
Richard forced a smile.
“I love you.”
Tears instantly filled Grace’s eyes.
“Richard—”
“I love all of you.”
The bridge rushed toward them.
The car sped forward uncontrollably.
Emma’s chest tightened.
Fear consumed her.
She didn’t understand what was happening.
She only knew she wanted to go home.
She wanted everything to go back to normal.
She wanted her father to stop looking at her that way.
As though he were saying goodbye.
The vehicle hit the bridge.
The tires screeched.
Richard fought desperately for control.
The steering wheel shook violently in his hands.
For one brief second, it seemed they might make it across.
Then another vehicle appeared.
A black SUV.
Blocking part of the bridge.
Richard’s eyes widened.
“What the—”
The vehicle’s headlights blinded him.
The Walker car swerved.
Spun.
Grace screamed.
Ethan grabbed Emma.
The world tilted.
Metal shrieked.
Glass exploded.
The guardrail shattered.
And the car plunged into darkness.
Emma’s final memory was her mother’s scream.
Then everything disappeared.
- Writer
