1
“God damn it!” Penny cried. “I’m not going to make it!”
She pedaled faster, her bike cruising down the sidewalk at top speed, and then tilted dangerously to one side as she rounded a corner.
Her stomach growled in want of attention. Penny’ expression soured in response. She hadn’t eaten anything all day. And, if she didn’t make it to the Food Bank in the next fifteen minutes, then she’d have no dinner,either.
Her stupid mom had, of course, taken off with her stupid boyfriend again. Leaving her daughter with an empty fridge and no money for groceries.
Her stomach growled again. Penny groaned in disgust.
Her legs were starting to hurt, so she let the bike coast, allowing the momentum to carry her forward.
Penny had pessimistically hoped that now that she was in high school ,things would be different. But, just like in junior high, she was invisible, had no friends, and the boys could care less about her. God, why does everything have to be so hard?
“Please,” she whispered, now, pedaling a little to keep the bike in motion. “I just need a friend. Someone I can rely on. Someone I can tell all my secrets too. Is that too much to ask? Just once, I want to be part of something bigger than myself…”
Suddenly, Penny skidded to a stop: nearly flinging herself over the bike’s handle bars in the process.
Someone was calling out to her.
Penny looked over her shoulder, and saw a girl racing to catch up.
“You’re pretty fast,” the girl said, out of breath. “I almost missed you.”
From a distance, Penny thought the girl couldn’t have been more than a couple of years her senior. Of course, when you are a kid, even an age gap of two years seemed impossibly old.
Up close, however, the girl looked bizarre.
With her sunken cheeks, her face cut narrow and sharp, ending in a point. She might have been pretty, if not for the fact that that her skin was a muddy yellow, making her looked like she was wasting away.
The girl’s body, however, appeared to be the picture of health. She was curvy in a way that would make all the boys drool and the all girls jealous.
But, it was all for show, Penny though.
To add to her strangeness, the girl had dressed completely in red: red skirt that modestly hid her legs; tight red sweater that left nothing to the imagination; red head band that rest in her reddish brown hair; and ruby red lipstick that stained the girl’s pink full lips.
“See something you like?” The girl asked, running a slender hand down the curve of her hip.
Penny quickly shook her head in answer, and now her own face flushed red. At the same time, Penny had to admit that deep down she envied the girl, and wish she had a body like that.
But her face and body don’t match, Penny thought. It’s all wrong...
“Here,” the girl offered, “let me show you something.”
The girl narrowed the gap between them.
Penny shivered. Despite the warm September air, she had never felt so cold in her life.
Run! Her mind screamed at her. Run!
“Look,” the girl said, holding up a silver pendant.
Penny’s eyes widened, as the pendant shimmered blue in the sunlight. That shimmer drew her in, holding her gaze.
At first, it looked like cheap: a simple design of a snake eating it’s own tail. Something you could probably pick up at a New Age bookstore.
But, the more she stared the more perverted the thing became. Penny was still too young and innocent to understand, or know the name of, the obscene act that the snake engaged in. She only knew that it was wrong, and that made her feel dirty on the inside.
The shame, however, was enough to make her look away.
Penny shivered again, her own breathe feeling cold in her mouth.
Run, her mind told her again. It sounded like a good idea, but Penny hesitated.
What about my bike?
“You think too much!” The girl cried. “The longer you live in your head, the more you become disconnected from the world around you. That’s going to drive you crazy, you know.”
Penny laughed nervously, but silently cursed herself.
If I had only stayed on my bike, Penny thought. There was no way this girl could have caught me.
But, she wasn’t on her bike. Instead, she stood next to it, holding the bike by the handle bars to keep it from falling.
“Stop thinking,” the girl cried again, giggling a little this time. “Talk to me.”
Penny cast her eyes down, unsure of what to say.
“You called,” the girl chided.
Penny looked up in surprised, just in time to see the girl smear her red lipstick with her tongue.
“And I came,” the girl said.
But the way girl said it, especially emphasizing the last word, made it sound dirty.
Penny shifted uncomfortably, feeling even more ashamed as she did so. Her face continued to burn red in embarrassment.
Run! Her mind screamed at her again.
I can’t, Penny shouted back at herself. This bike is all I have. The last thing dad bought me before he left...
“You’re so weird,” the girl said now, drawing attention to herself again.
“I’m not weird,” Penny snapped. The insult hurt more than it should have. It was one of her mother’s favorites.
The girl laughed and shook her head.
“And, you’re so wound up,” the girl chuckled. “Haven’t you heard, actions speak louder than words.”
Another blow, but this one didn’t sting as much.
“I like you, though,” the girl admitted. “You and I really aren’t that different, you know. In many ways, we are a lot alike...”
The girl let the words hang in the air, and Penny’s heart jumped for joy. Had she really made a friend?
Her elation only for second, however.
Being this close to the girl, proved to be unbearable. Penny couldn’t stop shaking, and again her mind told her to run.
“Let’s walk and talk, the girl suggested.
Despite her hesitation, Penny found herself nodding in response. Perhaps, in a vain hope that she made a new friend.
“Do you live around here?” The girl asked.
“Yeah,” Penny said quietly. “About ten minutes away.”
Run! Her mind told her again. Its pleas growing weaker with every passing step.
Not that she could run, even if she wanted to. Penny felt exhausted, like she was all wrung out, and her feet dragged as she and the girl continued forward.
The girl suddenly chuckled, but her laughter sounded forced.
“You need to say something now,” the girl told her. “That’s how conversations work.”
“Oh right, sorry,” Penny said, more to herself than to her companion.
Run! Her mind pleaded with her. Run, before it’s too late!
“D-D-Do you live around here?” Penny stammered.
The girl flashed her a sly smile, and then pointed down at ground—as if that explained everything.
They walked in silence. Although, silence might not be the most appropriate choice of words. Penny’s body shivered so much now that her teeth began to chatter.
They came to bridge, and at the sight, the girl’s eyes lit up like fire.
“We’re here,” the girl screamed, excitedly. So much so that spittle flew out of her mouth.
Again, Penny was a little taken aback.
Penny looked at the bridge, and this is what she saw:
The base was a series of metal grates: rusted in some places, new in others. Flagging the bridge on both sides were stone walls. About six feet below ran a tiny stream that flowed over a rock bed. Nothing to get excited about. At least not to Penny’s eyes.
In fact, she had crossed this very bridge this morning with little to no fanfare.
But, the girl danced wildly about. Thrusting, her body back and forth in increasingly crude and suggestive movements.
Despite how cold she felt, again Penny’s cheeks burned with embarrassment.
The girl ended her dance with a loud, shivery sigh, and then darted her tongue across her ruby red lips.
Penny’s heart beat a little faster, and that was a good feeling, as it set her in motion.
Discretely, Penny tilted her bike to the left, and began to straddle the seat.
“Wait,” the girl said, her voice now sounding low and throaty.
Penny froze.
“Don’t go,” the girl pleaded. “Not yet. It’s time for your initiation.
Penny must have looked confused, because now the girl explained.
“Everyone has to go through an initiation, silly. You want to be accepted, right?”
All her life, that’s only thing I’ve ever wanted, Penny mindlessly thought.
Seeing that she had a captive audience, the girl continued: “You desired to be part of something bigger than yourself, right?”
Without realizing what she was doing, Penny nodded.
“Good,” the girl cooed, a little too quickly. “That’s good.”
The girl now flashed her a weary smile, and then continued.
“And, because I like you, I’m going to make it easy for you.”
The girl leaned in close, and in a hushed, eager whisper she said: “And when it’s over, we can be the best of friends. We’ll be connected in ways that you can’t possibly imagine.”
But rather than take her into her confidence, Penny suddenly felt repulsed. It wasn’t so much the chill she felt around the girl that had repulsed her, either. No, that was only part of it. It was more that there was a phoniness about the girl that any smart kid probably could have easily pickup on. Despite living in her head, Penny never fancied herself that smart, but once you knew what to look for, then it was easy to see. The girl was too nice, too friendly, to the point that it came across as unnatural.
But what can I do?
If she tried to get away, now, the girl could easy snatch the bike away, sending Penny spiraling to the ground.
An image flashed in her mind, of the girl standing over her, and rising the bike high. Then violently bringing it down over and over again. The girl laughing wildly as she delivered the death blow.
Ironically, it was her mom who came to her rescue. Ironic, because Penny knew her mom would never dream of lifting a finger to help her wayward daughter, if push came to shove.
But Penny had dealt with her mom enough times—when the older woman was either in a drunken stupor or coming off a high—to know that if you wanted to survive crazy then it was best to just go with the flow.
“W-W-What do I have to do?” Penny asked, again stammering a little as she did so.
“I want you to cross the bridge,” the girl answered. She said it in such a matter-of-fact way that Penny wondered if she had offended the girl somehow.
But no, Penny remembered that her mom got like this too: high and full of life on moment, and then down the next—like a roller-coaster of emotion.
So, mostly to pacify the girl, and to put some between them, Penny started across the bridge.
“No,” the girl cried out. “Not that way stupid.”
Penny stood, a third of the way across.
Despite the chill in the air, her hands sweated, as she gripped the bike’s handlebars tight.
“This way,” the girl said, pointing to one of the stone walls that flanked the bridge. “I want you to walk across the top.”
Immediately, Penny shook her head.
“Oh come on!” The girl snarled. “My friends do it all the time, and you want to be my friend, right?”
Penny weighed her options, as she gazed over at the stone wall.
“Like I said, I’m trying to make this easy for you,” the girl said now. She was trying to be friendly again, but still came across as phony. “I’ll even watch your bike for you while you do it.”
Penny sighed. By her own logic, she should do it, just to placate the girl. What’s the big deal? It didn’t look too dangerous. And maybe after this the girl would just go away and leave her alone.
But something held her back. A budding intuition, perhaps, warning her that this was a bad idea.
If you do it, she’s going to push you off, and you’ll fall, and break your neck on the rock-bed below, and she’ll laugh, laugh the entire time, and laugh as she watches you die.
Suddenly, the girl screamed.
The viciousness of the cry, froze Penny in her tracks. Big mistake, as the girl now lashed out, punching her hard in the back.
Her book bag saved her. The school books absorbing most of the blow. But, the impact caused Penny to stumble forward, and that stumble was all she needed.
Still holding her bike, Penny ran.
As soon as she was clear of the bridge, she jumped on the bike, and pedaled for all her life.
“It’s only going to be worst for you, now,” the girl cried. Her voice booming like thunder.
Penny dared not look back.
The bike’s tires screeched to a stop at the crosswalk.
Some sort of inner moral compass, had taken hold, and left her at the mercy of the traffic light.
“Come on, come,” she panted, pressing the crosswalk button in rapid succession.
The light, however, was unmoved by her desperate attempts, and held fast to its red light.
The strange girl hadn’t followed her, at least not yet. But Penny felt a shiver run up her spine, warning her that the girl still lay in wait, nearby.
Screw this, Penny thought.
Her enemy, the red light continued to send out its mock warning of unseen danger. But, the street looked empty, with nary a car in sight. It looked safe, so she started to pedal across...
The car came out of nowhere...
Penny blacked out as soon as her head hit the pavement.
