The Tree Trunk Bridge

A Story by Z

A teen girl is a risk taker. To the point where she'll risk her life just to prove how tough and fearless she really is.

I remember as a young kid, I had this neighbor. Seth, the coolest kid on the block. We grew up together and though we weren't close in friendship, we were always hanging out. The only reason for that was the fact that I felt I needed to prove to him that I was cool enough to hang out with him. Damn that Seth. He was always trying to prove to me that boys were better than girls. I was the dumb one though. I always went out of my way to try and prove him wrong.

It started out with racing, wrestling, and other little silly contests. But as we grew older, our contests got more and more extreme. By the age of fourteen, I had both been arrested three times. The first time, we were caught spray painting the side of the school. We both got in trouble for that. The second time was when we tried stealing candy from the local gas station. Again, we were both held responsible. The third time though, I was alone. I was arrested due to a pretty gnarly fight.

Seth, he told me the toughest girl in the school, Laura, was still weak. He said that she had gotten into a fistfight with David, an athlete, and lost severely. She missed school for a week after that fight but nobody reported it so nobody got into trouble. I rolled my eyes at the idea. Laura? Was she really the "toughest girl in school?" There was no way. I had seen her sit on the floor and bawl her eyes out the time she got hit in the face with a dodgeball. Yeah, that was a few years prior, but could a girl really bulk up that much muscle? I bet Seth I could take out David easy. That surely didn't happen. Instead, I got one punch in before the cops put a stop to it.

This boy really angered me at times. But of course, I still hung around him. This was my ticket to the popular crowd. I really had an advantage since I lived right next door. But that advantage soon turned into a severe disadvantage. The age of sixteen, our contests had died out for the most part but still did exist. They happened on a rare occasion on our way to school or after school if we were both bored and happened to be outside at the same time.

"Come on! Or are you too weak?" He smirked at me. Those pale pink lips mocked me as his eyes stared directly into mine. "Ah...All these years I thought you had it in you. I guess I was wrong" his dramatic sigh caused me to roll my eyes sarcastically.

"Shut up Seth. I'll do it" this got his attention. He turned on his heel and walked toward his car. I followed close behind him until we parted ways to enter the opposite sides of the vehicle. I climbed into the passenger seat as he climbed into the driver's seat. In minutes, we were cruising.

We stopped on the side of a dirt road. He shut the car off and exited the vehicle as did I. I stared ahead as we walked to the edge of the cliff. He looked at me then his eyes shifted to glance past me. I turned my head, looking at the same thing he was. Just a few months prior, this tree had fallen from a nasty storm. The trunk reached far out past the cliff. Enough teenagers worked together to shift the trunk just enough to create a bridge between the two cliffs that surrounded the stream below. I smiled at him as I climbed up onto the trunk first, carefully moving to the middle. The only thing below me now was the trunk and the long fall to the stream below. He grinned at me and followed my lead. We were both standing there, face to face.

"No touching. No manipulating each other. We must find out who really has the best balance. But any time you want to chicken out, you may" he smirked at me.

"Shut up. I can stand here all night" I spat, a smirk growing on my face as well.

"Then let the contest begin"

We stood there for hours. The sun was setting, the air was getting cooler, and soon we could just barely see each other's outline.

"Giving up yet?" He mumbled. I could hear he was tired just from the sound of his voice.

"Nope!" I spoke in a chipper tone, holding back a yawn. His groan made me grin though.

So there we stood. More hours passed with us in silence. The sound of leaves rustling was really the only background noise. I guessed that it had to be nearing ten o'clock. Maybe even eleven. I didn't want to be the first to mention going home but I knew my parents would be flipping out by now.

"Seth...Can we call it a truce? We can resume tomorrow. My parents are going to murder me" I sighed, already guessing the stupid remarks he'd say back. But it was silent. "Seth?" I carefully reached out until my hand collided with cloth. "Seth seriously. It's so late" he started to chuckle.

"You've already won the contest" a dark voice rang in my ears. Then, the click of a flashlight was followed by a light, aiming down at the stream below. There laid Seth, eyes closed, limbs bent in odd ways, and the water around him dark and red. I stared in disbelief, my voice stuck in my throat as my scream couldn't escape. I looked up, following the light of the flashlight as it raised to the face in front of mine.

There was a bald man with black eyeless sockets and a mouth ripped apart with jagged teeth exposed between the parted lips. There were deep cuts spread across his pale leather-like face. His neck was long and bent so much that his head was resting over the side of his shoulder. With a simple shove, I too fell from the tree trunk bridge.