Paper Aeroplanes & Other Stories

:\: Safety Pin :\:

Part one:

Looking down at the bright screen on his phone, Luke picked up speed and broke into a slow jog; his mum would kill him for being late. "Make sure you're back by eleven-thirty," she'd said.

He'd intended on getting home on time, especially after what had happened the last time he was late. But somehow he'd found himself distracted, one minute it had barely been nine o'clock and the next; he knew that he'd be running all the way home to beat his curfew.

It wasn't even as if he'd been having a wild night at Jake's party; he wasn't drunk, he'd only had two beers. Luke had spent most of the evening trying to avoid Laura Green who it seemed had been hell bent on seducing him. Sure she was pretty enough, but her voice was too whiny, she was too needy and no matter how much he tried he just couldn't fancy her.

Luke checked the time again: '23:27.' All he had to do was cross the bridge and run up the hill, and then he'd be home. He'd done it in less that three minutes before, but it had been daylight, then.

He had lived in the same house his whole life; he'd crossed the bridge every day for seventeen years, but after dark, he avoided it unless he was confined to the safety of his mother's car. Luke shivered he wasn't sure if it was the chill in the early spring air or the thought of having to cross the bridge and the rumours that had circulated town for as long as he could remember.

People said that it was haunted. Apparently, some girl had jumped to her death in the early nineties. Rumour had it that she has been stood up by her prom date, and now her tortured soul walked the bridge trying to entice others to join her. They said that she was looking for someone to be her forever date, someone who would never stand her up.

Luke shivered again.

He'd never believed the rumours.

But then he saw her. She was illuminated by the light of the moon. He felt a wave of nausea wash over him; he was nervous and a little bit scared. Luke didn't want to cross the bridge, but it was the only way home, and he was already late.

She was sat with her legs dangling over the side of the bridge, her back to him, and Luke thought that he might be able to run past without her noticing him. He walked as quickly and quietly as he could, and he was nearly there, he was halfway across the bridge when his phone started ringing. It was probably his mother because he was late. He froze, waited for her to turn around, but she didn't.

He took another tentative step closer and as he did Luke realised that she wasn't a ghost at all. She was a girl, an actual real life, living girl. "Are you okay?" he asked her, ignoring his phone. "Are you okay?" he asked again when she didn't answer him

Luke's phone began to ring again and still he ignored it just as the girl had ignored him. "What are you doing out here, alone?"

But still, she wouldn't answer him.

Luke climbed under the metal barrier and sat down next to her; his phone rang again. "That'll be my mum," he said. "I'm late home, I'm going to be in so much trouble, it'll be okay, though, I can just stay here with you. If you want?" Luke noticed how loud his voice sounded compared to the quietness of the night.

She didn't even acknowledge his presence.

He watched as she got to her feet and balanced precariously on the edge. "What are you doing? You're not going to jump, are you?" he said trying to make a joke.

She still didn't answer him. "Are you going to jump?" he asked her again, this time, he reached his arm out and touched her gently — he didn't want to startle her.