Don't Take The Bridge Home

“This is Myra. Don’t take the bridge on the way home. The raven will take you.”

This was what Donna heard on the other end when she answered the call from an unknown number. Normally, she wouldn’t do such a thing, but she was driving home from a fight with her boyfriend, Brian. She needed to hear someone whose voice wasn’t sharp and disheartening like his. Despite expanding the drive home from twenty minutes to forty, the path she rarely took gave her the privacy and clarity she needed to calm down. Somehow, the sight of the scrawny trees gave her comfort. Even the raven that she was able to catch in the dark seemed like a friend to her. It was almost a shame when she made it out of the woods and to her house.

Since Donna decided to take her time, about fifty minutes had passed since she left Brian’s place. Her mother came flooding out of the house and grabbed hold of her.

“Where were you?” she exclaimed.

“I took the long way home. Brian and I got into this huge fight, and I needed more time to clear my head."

"Sweetie," her mom said with a pause in between, "Brian is dead."

Donna felt her knees shake as they struggled to stay balanced. Did his threats to hurt himself come true?

"What happened?" her voice quivered.

"He called me after he couldn't get a hold of you. He didn't sound like the sincere man I once knew him to be. He went on about how you were making a huge mistake, and then I heard him screaming and the sound of a crash. Your dad and the sheriff next door are there right now. The bridge collapsed with him on it."

Donna's knees finally gave out and she landed on the lawn. Her mother led her inside, set her on the couch and hurried to the kitchen to get her something to drink. Her eyes stared off into space as she tried to find the right words. She wanted Brian to leave her so badly, but not like this.

"Mom," Donna finally said, "I received a phone call from someone warning me not to take the bridge home. I don't know how she knew or if she was responsible, but that woman just saved my life."

"Do you know who she was?"

"She said her name was Myra, and she also mentioned something about a raven."

Now it was the mother's turn for her knees to give out. She grabbed the counter just in time to catch herself from crashing onto the floor.

"Honey," she said as she struggled with breathing, "I don't know if you remember this, but that exact same bridge collapsed six years ago today. A woman named Myra Jones was leaving her husband when she died. The last thing she said to him was that the raven of Death would be more likely to take her than him."