The Woman on the Bridge

“She wears a white Saree, just like the movies. You cant really tell she is a ghost, she is so damn pretty. A big red bindi on her forehead. She jumps off the bridge at 3.00 A.M , like clockwork, every full moon day. Motorists avoid the steel bridge post midnight, and with good reason. Seven people have succumbed to her so far, and the eight victim might just be you”, Pree’s introduction had made her gulp, and now she wished she had never agreed to this stupid dare in the first place.
The Midnight Gang was one of the most happening gangs in the college, but membership into it was extremely tricky. Getting into a gang was very important in a girls college, and Midnight Girls were definitely on top of the reputation list.
She had started out with the right moves, of course. Befriended Pree, aka Preethi, who was arguably the friendliest girl in the gang. Slowly she had extracted information about the rest of the gang, rich girls who were spoilt but studious, cool but distant, and friendly yet secretive. The M’s as they were called were invited to all of the Happening parties, headed most of the clubs that mattered, and it was rumoured that being an M even added to your job prospects when companies started calling for placements.
She wanted to desperately fit into a gang, any gang, and was almost certain that the M’s had forgotten her. And then yesterday evening she had been pulled aside after Biology class by Pree and been briefed on how she had been chosen as a possible recruit. The dare itself was simple enough. Meet the ghost in the white saree on the Bridge, talk to her, get her story on how she killed herself and come back. It seemed unreal at first and she thought Pree must have been joking. But Pree was dead serious and asked her to meet up near the college at Eleven in the night. The van was being driven by another member of the gang. It was speeding past the Gandhi statue, the yellow lights casting a pale light on each member . There were six of them in the Van, and she got introduced to each of them individually by Preethi. The seventh girl, the leader of the gang, would meet her tomorrow at her induction ceremony, if she made it through the night , that is!
“ The woman is very seductive , they say. She reels you in with her sad story and then tempts you to jump with her. That’s how the other seven died. Some say the bodies were never found, others say they still see strange people walking on the bridge past midnight. Whatever it is, don’t jump, and don’t get close enough so she can push you over the edge.” Pree finished! She felt thin beads of sweat run down her face, and was in half a mind to turn back, but the other half was tempted to find out the truth. She was always a non believer of ghosts and ghouls, and she had her Lords Cross hanging on her neck anyways, just in case.
The van approached the bridge at quarter past two in the morning. To call it a deathly silence would have been ironic, for there were the strange creaking noise still echoing through the night. It stopped at a distance, and she gulped as she was handed a torch. Pree opened the door, and she heard the other girls say muted good lucks as she stepped out into the cold night. The bridge had no lights, and , as Pree had predicted, no vehicles seemed to dare cross it in the night. Infact, for the past five kilometres, she had hardly seen a shop open or a house lit, and had noticed that all the vehicles seemed off the road. The bridge was definitely on the outskirts of the city.
Pree nodded towards the bridge and closed the door as the girl at the steering wheel turned off the light. The black Maruti Omni was now practically part of the forest, and it would have been completely invisible if not for the faint moonlight which filtered in through the trees. She looked at the bridge ,standing like a sentinel, a hundred yards away, and started walking towards it, a brave move for any 20 year old. The woods around her made strange noises, and the wind seemed to be toying with her, and once or twice she was sure she had seen something move in the shadows. But she soldiered on, and was soon at the entrance of the bridge, with a rusty board on the side which showed it had been inaugurated by a C.M back in the eighties.
The bridge and the road after it that stretched into the barren landscape seemed as deserted as the thick woods around her, and only if she squinted could she see the lights of the city behind her. Below the bridge, a gentle creek ran smoothly, but at a hundred feet deep, the fall from the bridge would be anything but smooth. She started walking on, hoping that the ghost would fail to turn up tonight, but Pree had told that the ghost never missed a date with destiny. She had almost reached halfway along the bridge when she thought she saw a white shape behind her and turned around suddenly, but it was just hr mind playing tricks. She walked the entire length of the bridge and turned around as instructed. She started walking back at a faster pace, a bit more confident now, her heart beat beginning to slow down. She had crossed nearly two thirds of the bridge towards the van when she heard the shrill voice which said , “Careful, my child, you don’t want to fall over”.
She turned around and gasped, for the woman was floating near the rails of the bridge, three feet from air, a gentle smile on her face. She was very pretty, but her white saree, illuminated by the moon, had a nasty red stain that ran from her belly to her feet. When she spoke, her voice bounced off the rails, and Pree was sure no human alive could speak like that. “ Strange that a pretty girl like you wandering in the woods at this ungodly hour. Its not safe. Come closer child, and I will guide you to light”. “ I am fine here, thanks” she said, not wanting to get any closer. “You want to hear my story child? How I died here seven years ago? I will tell you all about it, but only if you come jump with me later. I will free you child, taking you places you never been , showing you sights you have never seen, but only if you take this final leap of faith. Come child I wont be here for long.”Nooo she screamed, and ran towards the van , her hands clasped on her cross. She heard a shrill , high pitched laugh just as she reached ten feet from the entrance of the bridge and turned around in time to see the most ungodly sight she ever saw. The floating ghost had a big bindi on her forehead and her eyes flashed the devils red as she laughed, then stretched her hands to the side and jumped, like a swimmer into the pool.She felt her legs give away and was sure she had pissed herself. The last thing she saw was the white saree floating towards the creek as she passed out , a white light that filled her universe.
The van was speeding towards the city, with six girls hunched over a seventh, lying unconsius on the van floor. After the girl had passed out , the M girls had Driven up to the bridge and three of them had picked up the newbie lying on the road, when the other two went after The ghost.
The leader of the M, a final year named Samantha, was the president of the college adventure club. She loved the ghost part the most, and was glad she still played her part to perfection. The planks were just the right shade of black and were placed strategically on the rails, to give an illusion that she was floating right off the ground, and no one noticed it until they got close. The bungee chord was black, and easy to disguise under her white saree, which itself was a single piece wrap around. Samantha would hurtle towards the creek at breakneck speed, only to be clutched away from the jaws of death at the last moment. The wireframe glasses with red LEDs were not her idea, but they definitely seemed to add on to the overall effect.
Samantha was gently lowered into the creek, where another member of the gang guided her to the river bank and helped her pack the rope. She clambered back on to the bridge by the now familiar rocks, and was inside the Van within half an hour. “Guess the white ghost didn’t claim its eight victim tonight” , Samantha said, disheartened after their third continous failed attempt to find the next gang member. Getting into the M gang was, after all, a tricky business indeed…