There are always stories everywhere you live about local haunted places. Haunted hospitals, haunted houses, graveyards filled with the souls of the restless, etc. Well when I was a kid, I didn't really believe in that stuff. I didn't think it was real, so I just didn't care. Well, that is, until the day my brother and his friend took me to a local haunted place called Spook Bridge. That was when I started to believe in the paranormal, and that we are never truly gone.
It all went down 20 or so years ago. My brother was hanging out with a buddy of his, for the sake of the story, I'll call him Tye. My brother and Tye would drive around a lot, getting into trouble and doing typical teenage boy stuff. Well one day, they heard from their group of friends of this rundown bridge that everyone calls Spook Bridge. Now you ask anyone where we lived about this bridge, and they all would say the same things; 'Oh That bridge! Hell yeah it's haunted!' 'I hear tell there's cult stuff that goes on at night on that bridge.' And most importantly, they'd all say 'Don't go to Spook Bridge at night!' So my brother and Tye thought up some 'fun times'.
It was around 6:45pm when my brother and Tye decided to tell me 'Hey! We're going somewhere super cool! Wanna tag along?' Now, if you're a younger sibling, you know how happy you get when your older sibling asks if you wanna hang out with them. So obviously I said I'd tag along. So we let our parents know we were heading out, we all hop in my brothers truck and he drives off. The sun is just starting to set when my brother pulls up to the roads that leads to the bridge, and I'm just happy to be included, not catching my brother and Tye grinning at each other the entire time my brother takes the long road to the bridge.
It was around 9:30 or so, so the only light we had was my brothers headlights showing us the road, when it finally came into view. Spook Bridge. It looks like a very old bridge covering a fairly low river. With the headlights, we could tell around half way down the bridge was a massive hole where it collapsed, probably due to wear and time. But that's when my brother turned off his truck and lights, and brought out his flashlight, looked at me and said 'Ok. We're gonna go check out this bridge. All we gotta do it walk to the center then back to the truck. Think you can do that?'
Now, before I continue, I didn't find out until years later that my brother and Tye planned this whole trip a few days beforehand. They had a trick Flashlight that has a button to flicker the light, a recorder with fake ghost noises recorded, everything to try to make me cry in fear. The only thing they didn't plan, was what really happened. Now, with that out of the way, let's continue.
The three of us stood in front of the truck, my brothers flashlight scanning the bridge, gang markings and other graffiti sprayed everywhere on the bridge. It wasn't until we took our first steps onto the bridge that I felt something was off. I felt like there were eyes in the darkness watching us as we walked slowly to the center of the bridge as I'm nervously holding my brothers hand. About a quarter of the way, the bridge's age revealed itself as holes appear in our path.
That's when the first thing happened. We heard a 4th set of footprints. All 3 of us heard it clearly, but as my brother shined his light around, we realized it wasn't next to us, behind us, or in front of us. It was under us. We all stopped a few feet from a fairly big hole in the bridge, and chills ran down my spine as the other footprints kept going for a few seconds, before it too stopped. Tye, now understandably on edge, took my brothers light and slowly went to the hole to look down. When he looked, I could see his body relax as he could tell there was no one there. After a few seconds of playing it cool, my brother and Tye decided to keep going since we were nearly to the center of the bridge.
As we walked past the hole, I decided to peak over into the hole, and my grip on my brothers hand tightened. He asked if I was ok, and I just nodded, moving closer to him, refusing to tell him what I saw. In the hole, I saw a person, their face mangled with bits dangling off. It's mouth twisted in this sickly smile, as if it was happy to be noticed.
After a few more feet, we managed to make it to the center of the bridge, where the major damage was clear. Tye, trying to be the cool one, went right up to the edge and looked over. I was expecting him to make some dumb joke, but to my shock, he just stared. After a few seconds, he slowly stepped back, looking at me and my brother saying 'this bridge isn't that tall, so why can't I see the bottom?' Curious, my brother told me to stay put and he went to look over the bridge with his flashlight. As they were looking, I heard something that nearly made my heart stop. I heard 2 voices I've never heard before whispering 'they're so close' 'shall we give them a push?' 'yes let's kill them.'
It was at that point I started crying and telling my brother that I wanted to go home. My brother shined his light at me and looked like he was gonna say something, but instead just nodded and told Tye we needed to leave. As we made our way to the truck, holding my brothers hand tight, I kept hearing the voices whispering and all 3 of us kept hearing the 4th footsteps under the bridge, seeming to be right under us, no matter how fast we moved. As I frantically looked around to find the sources of the voices, I noticed what seemed to be dozens of shadowy people twisting around in the darkness.
After what felt like hours, we finally got to the truck. As we got in, my brother went to start the truck, but it stalled. His truck never stalled up to this point. He tried starting it a few more times, all the while Tye yelling at him to 'knock it off!' and 'hurry up man!' Finally after a few seconds, his truck started, the headlights lighting up the bridge. My brother and Tye weren't looking at the bridge, so I was the only one that saw what looked like dozens of shadowy figures slithering away into the darkness before we drove off and headed back home.
To this day, neither my brother nor Tye know what I saw on that bridge, and it's a secret I share with you. And yes. This is 100% true. Whether you believe it or not, is up to you.