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
