The Bridge

Brain Log [12]

“In the office!” Ivan shouts the moment I open his door, taking off my shoes at the front door I stumble into the dark living room of his house and made my way into his office which resembled a mini library with all of the law books on the tall shelves behind his chair. On the table lies every documents I had asked for.

“Thank you so much” I say trying to grab one of the files to look over what I was dealing with, he puts his hands over them protectively “Oh, okay....” I trail off confused.

“I worked day and night to retrieve this for you. Had to go through a lot of dusty old libraries. Climbed scary ladders to reach for certain files in the archive room. That was a reminder that I need to raise the topic of digitalizing the history of the town at the next council meeting” He sighs “My question to you is, why? You owe me at least that for making me do all of these work-out to get you those files. You drive your bike off a bridge, almost lose your limbs and stay in a coma for weeks and come back obsessed with the history around the bridge that almost claimed your life. Why do you wanna know? What happened to you? It's more than the accident isn't it? You're not gonna tell me the truth, I might as well force it out of you” f**k!

“I can't sleep” I say after few minutes of him staring me down like grumpy boss at work trying to force his worker into doing something they don't want to. I've experienced that once or twice.

“I'm well aware of your issues at night. You don't talk much but your parents do. Do you know how f*****g sad it is to beg your parents for information on you because you wouldn't tell me s**t. Don't you know that you can trust me?” His eyes were red in anger. I breathed just as heavy as him.

“I went through hell and you couldn't even pay me a visit while I lay there miserably!” I yell suddenly, surprising myself. Ivan appears to be shrinking in shock.

“It wasn't on purpose. I felt f*****g guilty like I left you to die that night, I couldn't bring my head out my ass to pay you a visit. All I know was that when I see you, It'll be real. I am the worst friend ever. When the situation wasn't looking too bright your family tried to get me to come, I couldn't and when you woke up I was beyond happy but then I thought you'd blame me in a way for not stopping you from getting on your bike. I know you said it wasn't my fault but I saw you downing those drinks before cleaning the table and just watched when you took off. I'll forever regret that”

I giggle “They were soda. I was never drunk” That seems to ease him a bit “Would you believe me if I tell you something...paranormal?”

“James, I'm Agentinian. We are religious before all else.” He reaches for my hand with a sift expression “If there is a God, there are ghosts”

“There was a woman there in the hospital with me, she's dressed as if she walked out of the 19th century and would stare at the people who comes into my room. Mostly, she'd stare at me begrudgingly. She probably thought I killed her offspring. No one inside could see her and I couldn't warn them cause I was trapped in my own body. God, it was awful” I say remembered how being imprisoned in my body felt “There were several others in the room with me but the lady stayed until I was discharged.”

“I started having dreams of me walking out of the room at night, I was fine. I explored the place in peace, no one would stop me as if they couldn't see me there but everytime this rotten smell hits my nose I just know deep within me that I had to return and everytime I do, a footstep would echo through the halls. Something was visiting everyone, the first night it happened I just knew to close my eyes and pretend to be asleep. Even the angry lady was gone, I just knew something was wrong. When the footsteps paused really close to me I thought I was done for but after few seconds it moved on. The next morning I find out a teenage boy in the room before me died in his sleep, cardiac arrest.” I pause to see Ivan's unmoved face as If it wasn't something new to him “Everyday for about a week I explored the building at night but I'd always return, sometimes I'd even try to chase the big bad. Finally one day, I decided to stay in bed until the footsteps comes and when it passed my room I decided to follow it, there was no form. It was nothing more than a sound. I didn't know what it was until a guy about our age walked out of his room, I was about to scream to help him escape but a dark figure of a boy covered my mouth” I wipe my tears reliving those moments, the same chills I felt in the hospital moves across my skin.

“He froze when the so called nothing grew tall shadowing him and eventually it shot out something like a dark ink and I passed out. The next morning, he was dead and I was found right where I passed out. I stayed the night. The nurses couldn't answer my doctor how I had managed to get there despite my comatose state. That night I found the angry old lady on the floor, in distress, she blamed me and was pretty mad at me she told me to ‘go back to the beginning’. The next f*****g day I actually woke up, you'd think I'd be happy but I realize the legs I have isn't even mine and it was useless. Again, I meet up with the lady at night and she was saying more cryptic stuff, miraculously my legs are working the next morning.”

I'm researching all of this to get to bottom of this, find out who is the lady, which b***h poisoned the well— her quote by the way and whose legs I'm walking on. If I don't finish it I think my borrowed time will end and I will slip into another coma which I will never wake up from. The lady makes it clear every night by appearing in my dream yet for some reason I don't think she's the villain” I tap on the table bringing the spaced out Ivan back to life “Were you even listening?” I ask half hurt to be that vulnerable and ignored.

“Sorry, sorry. I was thinking about it. As I said earlier I'm a believer. I've told you fragments of this, you know we didn't directly come to America, at least not this part of the continent. My grandparents smuggled our whole family from Argentina through a ship because my father got involved in shady s**t and we were in danger. We first arrived in Venezuela and hid at an abandoned building until there was a safe passage to well— here. While living there, I was stalked by a malicious spirit which I thought was one of us since it disguised as a woman in her 20's. For few weeks she'd play with me, my mom would assume I was just doing what children do— playing with their imaginary friends. The situation turned critical when grandma realized something was off and pushed me to pray with her. In the middle of saying ‘Hail Mary’ I began stuttering and lost consciousness, when I opened my eyes an old priest was there, he smiled and said I was going to be alright. My whole family had gathered around me forming a protective circle. She apparently took over and tried to choke my grandmother with my rosary twisted around her neck”

“She returned again two days later, more violent. I didn't witness any of it. My grandmother says the priest brought an army and still, she almost drained them all. I was exorcised to the point of death, when I woke up we were in New York. The priest discovered it was a demon disguised as a normal spirit trying to feed off of me, my family were sent here with the promise to never return to Venezuela. Even now” Talk about insane childhood, I fix myself on the seat noticing that my back had went numb.

“What do you think I'm dealing with?”

“I'm surprised you believe all of this. You used to laugh when Crazy Mary would start off her class with a prayer, you even made up that name for her” I flinch at my bully days back in the day, sighing disappointed at the highly amused Ivan. This guy…

“You hear my situation. Do you think I have any choice now?” I snap.

“True. It sounds like we've got a case of a soul-snatching demon in the hospital, a foot in this world explains why the footsteps could be heard. Invisible to the eyes since it has the other foot in the spirit world making it easier for it to take a soul back to the spirit world”

“Any explanation why the lady thinks I'm at fault and tasked me to solve this”

“This could be related to your accident. For this we need to dig deep into every mysterious death in that damned hospital and to confirm it was indeed mysterious we need their forensic files. This all would've been easier if I was a cop, being an attorney would mean I'd have to go through a judge for everything. You're not going to like this” He says his face turning grim.

“What?”

“We're gonna have to obtain the stuff we need illegally”