Broken Bridge - A short story.

Raghav came rushing out from college with great excitement and ran across the road to his break time abode, his favourite petty shop. His friends,Akash and Rubin had been waiting for him for over a hour. Rubin yelled at raghav once he saw him  "enna macha,will ya pass?". "No way, the reason I took time to get out was because there was Sakshi sitting across to my desk, and I lost track of the time admiring her " replied Raghav. Akash quipped in by saying  " Yet another raghav love story,I wonder how long this would last !" . As they kept teasing, and taking digs at one another, Madhu made her way to the abode."Finally,the exams have got over and it is time to party and we have to party real hard this time.So guys,what's the plan - Shall we go to my house as my parents are out of town?" said Akash.

                               Raghav joked  " What would we do sitting at your house,you would probably show us another art movie from your totally weird collection of foreign language movies? I am not game for that and I have something else in my mind.There is this beach party happening in ECR and we could head there first and have a blast. So who is game for it? ". All of them rose their hands including Akash. "So shall I ask Tanya and Shiva to come to the resort directly or shall we pick them up?" asked Akash. Shiva and Tanya, studied at another college located in the central part of the city .All, six of them had studied  in the school and their bonding continued, even after they had entered college.They headed straight to the beach party, in Akash's car.The Party had just started, and the guys except Rubin started to booze , as Madhu stared at them.She took a sip from Akash's glass and remarked " how on earth do you drink that crap?" . Akash laughed and finished off what was left in his glass and jumped onto the dance floor as the DJ had put on his favourite song.By seven pm,their energy levels had dropped a bit and Raghav suggested that they could go on a drive to the beach.But Shiva and Tanya were yet to arrive and after several failed attempts to reach their mobile phones,madhu had literally given up.As they were pondering over the next step,Shiva and Tanya arrived at the scene."Sorry, there was some problem with my bike and it stopped midway and we kinda of skidded and fell on the road and I had to call in a mechanic and fix it and " said Shiva. Shiva and Tanya looked worn out and tired but both of them looked restless.Clad in a casual blue jean and black top,which had turned a bit brown on the sides due to the fall, Tanya requested for some water. Shiva made a quick trip to the bar inside and came out after five minutes. His eyes were bloodshot and his walk was unsteady. Shiva said “So where is the next stop ? I just refuelled my tank !”. Rubin replied “How about we going to the broken bridge? The place is a charm in the nights and with weather like this, it would be simply awesome” Akash was not taken in, and replied  “ That place is not safe even in the evenings, it is a crazy idea to go that sick place in the night, and the weather is not encouraging too !” It had rained heavily in the morning, and it had been quite windy in the evening, with signs of an impending downpour. The others were smitten with the idea of going to the broken bridge and persuaded akash. They managed to convince akash and it was  decided that Shiva would leave his bike and the resort and all six of them would travel in the car.

Raghav was looking out of the window as they passed by the beautiful Elliots beach, it was around 9 pm now and the crowds had dwindled. Rubin raced the car across the houses on the left as they entered the bumpy roads in the path to the broken bridge. The road leading to the bridge was always in a bad shape.  There was a strong breeze coming from the beach on the right side and to their left, there was the famous theosophical society – spread over many acres and full of greenery, it was a complete contrast to the concrete jungle outside. It had been raining cats and dogs in the morning and the sands were still wet. There were few curious looks from the fishermen as people don’t go to the bridge in the nights due to security reasons as there are absolutely no lights and even if you screamed from there,nobody could hear. A fisherman stopped them as they took a turn and screamed, “dei, niruthu,eppo poga kodathu !” .Rubin knew what exactly had to be done and stopped the car immediately and got down from the car .Raghav and Shiva followed suit.

Akash and the girls remained in the car and they watched the proceedings through the mirror in the front. The guys were trying to convince the fisherman and let them go to the bridge, but he was in no mood to relent and he seemed  quite furious. Madhu said, “why do we have to go to this place in the night, can’t we go somewhere else?” . “It would be so much fun out there with this sorta of weather, the perfect place on a night like this” said Tanya. They continued staring at the mirror and saw Rubin take out his purse and hand over few notes to the fisherman and he left the scene quite content. The guys came back to the car and got in. “ Money did the talking” exclaimed Rubin. “But I really don’t like the idea of going to the bridge, especially after what we heard from that creepy guy just now” Raghav said. “What did he say” enquired madhu. “Usual horror stories, it seems that there had been two murders in this area before three months and he claims that the dead had been haunting them recently.To hell with these dumb stories – let’s not waste time !” said shiva as he signaled Rubin to start the car. Madhu’s face turned pale , she had always been afraid of the places like these and the very idea of going to this bridge had given her the creeps and the recent developments had spooked her enough. “ I don’t want to go this place, please turn the car and lets go home” screamed Madhu.Tanya put her hand around her shoulders and this seemed to give her some sense of security .Akash said, “What do you think is going to happen ?, my dear. I could see logic if you had said that the fear is because of thugs or rowdies. We are going to go there and have a blast now”. Shiva, Tanya and others somehow managed to convince madhu to go to the bridge. Slowly the car made its way to the bridge. It was a wonderful sight ,with crescent shaped moon at the far end of the sky and the strong breeze and the sound of the waves adding to the charm of this place . The gang got down from the car and made its way into the bridge. They went to the end of the broken bridge and settled there with their bottles. Akash quietly poured some alchol in the madhu’s cup which had been half filled with pepsi. And madhu took the glass near her mouth, akash forced the glass near her mouth and made her gulp some. She started shouting and started hitting akash, and he stood up and started running along the bridge yelling, “ I made you booze, ha ha !”. Nobody was sober now except for madhu and tanya. Shiva refused to drink after coming to the bridge, as he had said that the shots, he had consumed back at the resort, had made him quite dizzy. There were sitting at the edge of the bridge, the river on their left and the ocean on their right. There were high tides today, and they could hear the sound of some big waves as it crashed on to land. Madhu’s phone rang and she signaled everyone to be quiet and she picked up the call. Others knew that it was her dad because the ringtone  “Call 911…” seemed to have conveyed the message. Her father wanted her to come home soon as her mother was having a bad bout of food poisoning , and he needed some help. Madhu yelled “ I am just near to Tanya’s house,pa. I shall come over in twenty minutes” and disconnected the call.” Rubin asked “ Should you really go?”. “ I don’t have a choice,dear. Now, who would be the lucky person to drop me home?” said Madhu. Shiva volunteered to take up the job. “Drop her soon and get back. Why don’t you buy some food while you get back. I am famished !” exclaimed raghav. Shiva gave a friendly pat on his huge belly and said “You do seem famished, I swear that it was much bigger last week ! Just text me the list and I shall get it”. Shiva and Madhu started off from the bridge. Akash looked on, as their figures disappeared into the darkness after they had got down from the bridge. They could hear the engine starting, and the headlights zoomed on their faces just before the car sped away. As they started on their short journey through the battered roads, Shiva remarked “we seem to be low on fuel, we would have to refuel at the nearest bunk”. Madhu nodded in agreement. The Elliots beach was about two kms from the broken brigde and there were no proper roads for about one km and then there were small fishing colonies before you could come to the main road that leads to the elliots beach. They were nearing the fishermen’s colony, when there was a loud ‘swish’ sound and shiva stopped the car and got down to check the tyres “ ****** the back tyre got gone flat.” Shiva proceeded to open the boot to check for the spare tyre and yelled out to madhu “ You stay inside, I would fix this in few minutes”

Rubin looked around and there was nobody in sight. Despite repeated attempts, he was not able to awake akash. He was sure that he had heard some strange noise from underneath the bridge. He suddenly saw a pale figure running on the shores with probably, what was a stick in its hands. He wondered who it could be, the noise from underneath the bridge was increasing, something came running on to the bridge. Rubin ran forward with fear. He looked on, what looked like a street dog. The dog looked normal except for the fact that blood was dripping from its mouth. Rubin could feel the pounding of his heart