This the first chapter of my book, The Ghost Box.

   They reached the bridge just before midnight. 

            Three vans, one truck pulling the RV and the twenty six foot long moving van.   Their headlights tunneled through the heavy night air as the sky flared with heat lightning and rumbled like a Harley. 

            “You’re sure the bridge can hold our weight?” asked Ashley.

            “Slow up,” said Michael.  “I’ll check it out.  Been a lot of rain lately and the water must be high.  I can’t tell if the bridge is under water or not from here.  Don’t want to get stuck at the bottom of this hill trying to find out.”

            “Be careful.”

            They were in the lead van, the rest of their nine man crew spread out through the remaining vehicles.

            “Aw shit, here it comes,” said Michael.

            The surrounding woods lit in jagged white light as a fireworks display of spidery lightning zigzagged across the sky.  Raindrops slapped the windshield seconds later.

            “Thunderstorms in October,” mused Ashley.  “Holes in the ozone and carbon emissions.”

            “Don’t start with the global warming stuff, will you?”

            Michael flicked on the overhead light and rummaged behind his seat for his raincoat.

            “Truth hurts.  You laughed at Al Gore.”

            He found the yellow slicker, wiggled into it and flipped the hood over his head.

            “I laughed at Al Gore even before he was accused of being a sex-crazed poodle, honey.”

            “Didn’t happen.  He says he’s innocent and I believe him.”

            “That’s what John Edward’s wife said before she heard about the sex tape.”

            She tried to backhand him but he covered the side of his face.

            “Knew it was coming,” he said.

            “Get out there and check that bridge.  I’m too idealistic to drown in a hick river.”

            He kissed her quickly on the cheek and hopped out into the rain.  A second later he opened the door again and said, “Throw me the flashlight will you?”

            She was ready for him and tossed it.  He caught it mid-air and vanished into the storm, slamming the door behind him.  Three years together and they knew each other like they’d been married forever.

            Rain pelted the van roof so hard she almost didn’t hear her cell phone ring.  She was too intent on watching Michael’s light circling and bobbing in the dark like a wobbly spotlight to answer it. They were maybe a hundred feet from the bridge, but even on high speed the wipers couldn’t clear away the raindrops fast enough for her to keep up with him.  She saw a brief vision of him slip on the muddy ground.

            “Be careful,” she yelled.

            She flipped the headlights to bright, which made it still harder to see.  Swore and turned them back to normal.  A glimpse of something like a man slipping and sliding in the wet mud.

            Get up, get up, get up, she thought.

            A flash of light in the tangled woods to her left and a startling crack as lightning exploded a tree trunk.  She covered her face and ducked instinctively.  When she lifted her arm to see how Michael was, he was already up and gone.  She hoped.

            Her phone trilled the “Men in Black” theme again.  She flipped it open, said, “Not now, damn it,” and quickly snapped it shut.

            Where was he?  What if he slipped and fell in the river?  Why didn’t he ever think things through before he did things? 

            More phone music.

            She picked it up and flipped it open while craning her head from side to side to catch a glimpse of her husband.

            “What is it?” she said irritably.

            “Don’t bite my head off,” Sheri said. “I’m calling to make sure you two are okay.  Why are we stopping on the side of this hill?  Way this rain is coming down we don’t get moving we’re going to be on a mudslide headed straight into the river and I for one don’t know how to swim.”

            “Michael is outside,” Ashley said.

            “Can’t he wait ‘til it quits raining to take a leak?”

            “He went down to make sure the bridge was safe.”

            “Larry says it’s too dangerous, honey.  We need to go back.”

            Like that settled it.

            “I’m not moving until Michael gets back.”

            And Ashley didn’t care what Larry said.

            “Can you see him?  Wait.  Larry wants to talk to you.”

            Before you she could tell Sheri No, Larry was on the phone.

            “How long’s he been gone?”
            “I can’t see him, Larry. Too dark and too much rain.”

            “Me and Bill are going out to get him.  We’ve got to move off this hill soon or we’re all going to be in trouble.”

            Larry wanted to be in charge.  Larry always wanted to be in charge.  But this was Michael’s documentary.

            “I’m going with you.”

            “You stay in the car in case we miss him.  We’re on our way.”

            Jackass.  But maybe for once he was right.

            “Take a rope, Larry, and run it down from the bumper so you can get back up.”

            “Good idea.  Bye.”

            Ashley flipped the headlights back to low beam, but still could see nothing but rain.  Water sluiced down the windshield like they were in for forty days and forty nights.

            She started when Larry’s bearded face appeared at her window.

            “Jesus,” she said.

            He held up a coiled rope, pointed to it then moved toward the front of the van.  Bill lumbered behind him like a B movie zombie.  She watched them drop out of sight long enough to tie the rope, then get to their feet looking like they’d just come from a mud wrestling match.  Larry gave her a thumbs up, took a step and fell, but Bill grabbed him by the back of his raincoat and kept him from landing face first in the mud.

            The phone rang again as they held onto the rope and walked backwards on the muddy road like they were rappelling down the face of a mountain.

            “What?”

            “Did they find him yet?”

            “They just got the rope tied and are going down after him.”

            “Men are such idiots.  All of them, I mean.”

            “I’ll call you when I know something.”

            “You want me to come up there with you?”

            “No.”

            “I’m coming anyway.”

            “Maybe you better.  I’m getting nervous.”

            “I’ll be right there.”

            Sheri drew a single card from the deck before they left.  She drew cards before she did anything important.  This time she drew The Tower.  Bolts of lightning blasting a stone tower.  Arrogance and death.  Destruction.

            They should have stayed home.  They should never have come.  The Tower was bad luck.  Sharkey’s Park was bad luck.  Really, they should have stayed home.  Ashley didn’t believe in Tarot, but she had a very bad feeling about Sharkey’s Park.  Michael just never listened and she loved him too much to say no.

            The passenger door swung open and Sheri climbed in, the wet wind slapping at her back.

            “God, what a storm, it’s like being underwater out there,” she said.

            She flipped back the rain hood and shook her red hair free.

            “Take this,” said Ashley. 

            She handed her a wad of paper towels.

            “Thanks, girl.”

            “Did you see anything?  Could you see them?”

            Sheri reached over and placed a hand over Ashley’s.

            “Give Larry and Bill a chance.  Larry was a marine, you know.  He’ll find Michael.”

            Ashley didn’t look at her.  She didn’t want to know if Shari believed it or not.

            “I talked to the others,” said Shari.  “Told them not to call.  I said we’d call them.  You don’t need any more stress.”

            “What if he’s hurt?”

            “If he twisted a knee or something, Bill can carry him back up.  Got shoulders as big as you and me put together.”

            Ashley nodded.

            The rain kept coming down.  She didn’t want to turn on the radio.  Didn’t want to hear about flash flooding.

            “Michael can swim,” she said.  “He’s a good swimmer.”

            Shari patted her hand.

            A sudden blast of wind hit the van so hard it shuddered.

            Ashley gripped the steering wheel so hard her fingers hurt.

            “Where the hell are they?” said Shari.  “The bridge can’t be that far away.”

            “Wait,” said Ashley, “I can see somebody.”

            Yellow movement at the edge of head lights beam.

            Head down, burrowing into the wind as whoever it was pulled themselves forward hand over hand on the rope. 

            “Coming down so hard it’s hard to see,” said Sheri.

            She leaned forward and peered through rain that came at them like a waterfall.

            “I saw a yellow slicker.”

            “There,” said Sheri, pointing at the windshield.  “I saw something like you said.”

            “A smoke,’ said Ashley.  “I need a smoke.  Wish I’d never quit.”

            A tree somewhere up ahead burst into crackly white light like a giant sparkler.  The trunk fell forward.

            “Oh, God,” screamed Ashley.

            Before the light was quenched by the driving rain, she saw the yellow slicker again, pulling up the rope toward them, head still bent over maybe twenty feet away. 

            “Michael, I see Michael.  See there, right there.  Michael, get your ass up here.”

            The head lifted as though in recognition.

            Ashley recoiled hard back against the seat and Sheri let out a low wail as they hood fell back.

            It wasn’t Michael. Beneath the yellow hood something squirmed and twisted as it continued its way up the rope.  Pulling hand over skeletal hand, coming toward them, coming for them.  Eyes that pulsed scarlet red.

            Ashley pulled the shift lever into reverse and slammed on the gas pedal.  The transmission shrieked and the wheels spun for a second before catching.  They crashed straight back into Sheri’s truck. 

            “Go, go, go,” screamed Sheri. “Turn the wheel, do something.”

            No traction, just spinning tires and the smell of something burning.

            A panicked grab for the shift lever.  Ashley yanked it back into drive and jammed her foot on the pedal again.  The van shuddered as the wheels spun.  Suddenly they caught and the van shot forward.

            Another flash of lightning and they drove straight through an empty yellow rain slicker.  It flattened on the windshield and suddenly they were speeding forward blind.

            “Stop,” screamed Sheri.

            Ashley stomped on the brake, pressing into so hard into the floorboards she stood up in her seat.  Her head bumped against the ceiling as the van began to turn sideways and over.  She felt her back twist hard right before she smacked against the driver’s side window and blacked out.  A metal rod crashed through Sheri’s window, piercing one temple and pushing straight through the other before she could scream.

            The van went up sideways and over.  Water bottles tumbled and CD’s flew from the visor rack.  Ashley fell back hard against Sheri’s body and water rushed in through the broken window. 

            She fell through heavy darkness for a few seconds, but the cold water shocked her eyes open.  The headlights still worked.  Straight ahead of her she saw two long blurry cones of light disappearing into the river.  Fear clamped her chest so hard she could hardly breathe.

            Going to drown, she thought.  Got to get out.

            The water came up to her breastbone and was moving higher.

            Her coat was tangled up in something.  The water was rising.  She had to get free.  Had to get out of the van.  She yanked and twisted, but she couldn’t get loose.  She would die there, she just knew it.  No room in her head for any other thought.  Pushing on her, pushing on her.  You’re going to die.  You’re going to die.  Like a crazy woman she reached up with her free hand and clawed at the door handle.  The van was lying on its side, but if she could get the driver’s side door open maybe she had a chance.  Finally she realized that her coat sleeve was tangled around the shift lever.

            Despair flooded over her like the cold water.

            Water rose as high as her heart.  Michael and his friends were missing and probably dead.  Sheri was dead.  Ashley didn’t know what was happening to the others. 

            That face, that hideous face.  That monstrosity she ran over.  Her face tightened with fear.

            It hit her before she could think of anything else.  Take the coat off.  Just wiggle out of the coat.  Then she could get the van door open.

            Sheri was dead.  Ashley wanted to live.  She kept struggling to get out of her coat.

            Water to her chin.  No room to look down.

            Suddenly her coat was off and she was free. 

            As she groped for the door handle, something large and dark slithered through the head light beams.  Suddenly, Ashley wished she had drowned.

            Two thuds and the van slid.  Her frantic fingers clawed to get hold of the armrest, or the door handle, or anything.  She found the window control buttons and pressed them til her fingertips hurt.  Nothing happened.  She tried to punch the door window but because of the water she couldn’t get enough speed crack it.

            “Get away from the window.”

            A warning shout hushed by wind and rain, but she knew she heard it.  Didn’t imagine it.  Knew what it said.  She tried moving away from the window, but there was really nowhere to hide.  The driver’s side of the van was now on top, and to get away from it she would have to take a big breath and maneuver to the back of the van or plunge downward into the passenger side of the car, where Shari’s body was held in place by something metal sticking out the side of her head.

            “Last warning.  I’ve got a—“

            She couldn’t hear the last part of what they were saying, so she took a breath and submerged, trying not to think how close she was to the body of her dead friend.

            Something smashed through the window with a sound like breaking bottles underwater.  Ashley recoiled but twisted her body to one side to avoid getting hit.  The flat edge of the axe slid along her face as someone pulled it back up.  Panicked, she grabbed at it, hanging on, yanking it, pulling on it until it broke free and moved. 

            She tucked her legs and pushed off after it.  Her head hit a crooked edge of glass.  The sharp warmth of a jagged cut.  She was bleeding. Air. Had to have air. She had her lips up near the airspace two inches from the door and sucked in a lungful.

            An arm hooked around under her shoulder, and she felt herself being pulled toward the broken window and hauled upward into the dark rain.

            “Hold on,” said the man’s voice. 

            He had a flashlight in his raincoat pocket that bobbed every time he moved.  She saw his face briefly in its spastic movements.  Hard to say who he was.  Ashley knew she was cold and scared and maybe going into shock.

            “Christ, you’re bleeding,” he said.

            “Glass,” she said and began to cough so hard she saw stars.

            “Come on, give me your hand.  Help me get you out of there.”

            Her hand was too slippery so the man grabbed her by the back of her shirt and finally got her through opening in the driver’s side window and up to her feet.  The van was slick and unstable.  Her feet went out from underneath her.  Pinpoints of light flashed.  Her back slammed against the van.  She would have screamed, but the air had been knocked straight out of her.

            “Easy, easy,” said the man.  “This thing ain’t stable.”

            She gulped in air, and tried to sit up.  A restraining hand pushed her back.  A noise of metal scraping along rock came from beneath them and the van shifted again.

            “Steady,” said the man. 

            Ray.  Lying on the ground looking up at his ridiculously thing face, she finally recognized him.  Ray was their electrical man.

            “Michael,” she gasped.  “Is he all right?”

            Ray coiled a thick yellow rope around her waist and cinched it. 

            “Just in case.  It’s tied to the winch-cable on my monster truck up the hill.  And I have that tied to a tree big as a telephone pole. You understand?”

            Ashley nodded as best she could.

            “Now I ain’t going to lie to you.  I don’t know where Michael is or where this shitty-ass weather came from or what’s going on here.  I’m just going to try and get me and you back up the hill before we drown.  You ready?”

            Ashley looked around at the rising water, the sudden bursts of white fire in the air.  She felt the slap of cold rain and wind trying to shove them in the water.

            “I said are you ready?  Because if you ain’t I’m taking you back anyway.”

            She remembered the feel of Shari’s hair tangling in her fingers when she’d ducked herself underwater to avoid Ray’s axe blade.  A sudden shudder shook her spine.

            “Get me out of here,” she yelled.

            Ray pulled her back to a sitting position, and then helped her to her feet.  He put one arm around her waist and she leaned against him as they moved step by step to the edge of the van.  Ray’s flashlight roamed unsteadily in front of them as they clambered over and into water that came only to their hips.

            The van had slid to the edge of the river, then a little further.  If Ray hadn’t gotten her out she would have drowned for sure.

            “Hold the flashlight,” he said.

            As he pressed the button on his CB radio-phone, Ashley played the flashlight toward the other side of the river. The noise of the rain was worse than ever.  She could see nothing beyond a few feet even with Ray’s flashlight.  Somewhere past the swollen waters was the haunted park they had come to investigate.

            “I said, turn on the damned winch,” Ray yelled into his CB radio-phone.

            Then, in the rain swept blackness on the far side of the river, Ashley saw red fires rise up into the night, as though the abandoned park were burning.  Flames danced and snapped.  Ashley cowered and stepped back. 

            Not real, not real, she thought.  Nothing burns when it’s pouring like this.

            She felt a sudden tug on her waist. 

            “Hang on,” said Ray.

            They made it up the embankment and ten feet into weeds and water up their ankles before she dropped Ray’s flashlight.  It hit the water with a splash and its light extinguished in the liquid blackness of the water.

            “Wait,” she yelled.  “I have to find it.”

            Ray’s hand fell on her shoulder.

            “No.  We keep going.  Look up there, look on the hill.  See those headlights?  That’s where we going, flashlight or no flashlight.”

            The darkness was all around them like a wet cape.

            “I’m afraid.”

            “We just keep moving toward those lights up there and we’ll be okay.  Grab my coat if it helps.”

            Ashley kept one hand on the rope and the other clutched tightly to Ray’s coat.  Together, they took step after sopping step through weeds and rocks that they couldn’t see.

            “We going to make it,” yelled Ray after five or ten minutes more of blind walking.

            A faint smell of roasted meat passed near her and, for just a moment, she thought she heard screams coming from Sharkey’s Park.

            “Did you hear that?” she said.

            “Keeping walking.  Don’t look back.  They want you to look back.”

            “Did you smell that?”

            “Don’t think about it.  They want you to think about it.”

            “Who are they?”

            “Things we don’t want to know.  Now keep up.  Keep walking.  Keep your eyes on the lights up the hill.”

            “What are you talking about?” she asked.  “What things?”

            He didn’t answer immediately.  The steady pull from the rope around her waist kept her moving through the wet darkness like a sleep\walker.

            “What things?” she asked again.

            “Just keep moving,” Ray said.

            More screams filled her head.  She was sure now they were from Sharkey’s Park.

            Ashley closed her eyes and kept walking.