The Silver Bridge by Gray Barker Read Free Book Online Page B

as they turned off the side road onto the main highway, which would take them back into town. Route 62 is very crooked in that area, and they slowed to a comfortable 40 miles per hour. But Mothman’s reign of terror had just begun.
    As they rounded a bend and their lights reflected momentarily on a small hillside, they saw it again, standing there, as if waiting. That was where they got their terrifying, best look at it.
    “You couldn’t tell if it had a head or not, or if it had arms. I don’t think it had any, but it had wings. I mean you could tell the wings, for they came up and turned down, you know, and kind of wrapped around behind it!
    “Those eyes were about two inches in diameter, and six to eight inches apart.”
    Did you see its legs?” Ben directed this question to Roger, who was speaking, but Mary interrupted:
    “Yes, it definitely had legs. They seemed to be as thick as a man’s legs!”
    “You mean, not like a bird’s legs?”
    “They were muscular legs. You could tell that, somehow,” Steve declared.
    “Did you see any feathers, or skin, or clothing?”
    “Not that we could distinguish as such. I mean I couldn’t say if it were fur, feathers or what!”
    “What color was the thing?”
    “You couldn’t see exactly. We saw it only for a few brief moments, before it took off, as if it couldn’t stand the light, I guess you could say it had a grayish body.”
    “Did you see any knee, or bend in the legs?”
    “No, I did not.”
    Mothman’s departure was as novel as its appearance. When it left it did not flap its wings, but took off vertically, shooting upward into the air like a rocket at great speed, but without visible means of propulsion.
    Scarberry had hit the brake when he saw the apparition the second time. He didn’t know why, except that again the eyes had demonstrated a hypnotic effect, which held him “in its spell”. Upon the creature’s takeoff, however, the spell was broken, but supplanted with indescribable fright.
    He tried to drive the gas pedal into the floor, as the car quickly picked up speed and the wheels screamed on curves. As the road straightened he became aware that the speedometer was hitting 100, then 105. He didn’t know the old car would do it, but at the moment that didn’t impress him. He only knew he wanted to get out of there, and back into town. Linda clutched at him, sobbing.
    “Can’t you go any faster?”
    “I’m doing all this old car will do!”
    In the back seat, Mary screamed.
    “I see it, I see it!” It’s after us!”
    Clutching and tearing at the wheel, Roger saw the dark shadow, subtle and indistinct in the moonlight. Along with the shadow was the feeling that something was stalking them. He knew it was up there, following them, at incredible speed.
    The huge hulk of a trailer truck loomed suddenly; Roger swerved and screamed around it in a tight curve, careening almost into the ditch to avoid an oncoming car with its brights up.
    “I just had to get away from that thing,” he told us. “It’s a wonder we didn’t crack up!”
    He became a part of the speeding and complaining machinery that was the ’57 Chevy. Linda now gripped him like a madwoman. From behind, Steve leaned forward, grabbed his shoulders and shook him.
    “Get out of here! Get out of here!”
    Steve’s fingers, in terrified frenzy, dug into his shoulders. Then he pounded at him, and at the front seat.
    “I know it’s after us! Let’s make it! It’s keeping right up with us!” Mary cried.
    “I know my hair stood on end,” Steve declared, “and I was pushin’ and poundin’ at old Rog to make him go faster, and all that time that old junker was doin’ all she would do. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve been scared before, but nothing like that.”
    Ben asked Steve to describe his fear, but he couldn’t.
    “Seemed like you could feel it all around you; seemed like it left my mind a blank till we got to where we could talk about it. All I could