Bridge: a shade short story Read Online Free

last,
    biggest,
    scariest
    detour.
     
    Behind me I hear Krista say,
    Something-something “lifeguard stand,”
    and I want to run
    or swim
    or just disappear.
    But I stay.
     
    As the next song starts, it’s missing
    one voice.
    Soft feet thump the sand behind me,
    one pair.
     
    I don’t turn,
    don’t hope,
    don’t dare.
     
    My brother stands beside me,
    alone.
    He takes a deep, soft breath,
    and speaks my name.
     
    The End
     

Interview with Mickey and Logan
     
    For the re-release of his short story, “Bridge,” Logan sat down to have a revealing conversation with his brother Mickey and the Shade fan site Kilt & Keeley. A post-Shifter translator was provided so that everyone could understand one another.
     
    Kilt & Keeley: Hey, guys, thanks for talking to us. This is the first time you’ve done a joint interview, right?
     
    Mickey (glances at Logan’s seemingly empty chair): Yeah.
     
    Logan: My brother doesn’t talk much to the press, or to anyone, for that matter. But that’s okay—I talk enough for both of us. So, thanks for doing this interview! I’ve been dying to ramble on about “Bridge.”
     
    Mickey (mutters): You, starving for attention? Shocker.
     
    Logan (flips him off): Dude, guess how many fingers I’m holding up.
     
    K&K: Okay! Let’s get started. Logan, your story flows very much like a song. Do you find storytelling to be similar to songwriting? Which do you prefer? Why?
     
    Logan: For me the two are similar. I like songs that tell stories, where the singer is at a different place emotionally at the final chorus than they are at the first verse. Where there’s evolution, you know?
     
    “ Forever ,” for instance, starts off really dark and despairing but ends with a wistful sort of optimism. That was my idea from the start, so I had a structure to plan around, the same way a storyteller has a beginning, middle, and end in mind. The chorus repeats, but each time it’s a little different, because it reflects the emotional progress made in the verse before it.
     
    As for the story, I tried writing “Bridge” in regular prose and it was incredibly flat and lifeless (no pun intended). On my second attempt, I thought, okay, it’ll be a verse story but I’ll write a prose version first, then “translate” it into verse. Nope, that didn’t work either.
     
    So on the third try, I took it from the top writing in verse, and it just flowed. Maybe one of these days I’ll write something with paragraphs. But probably not.
     
    I don’t know which I prefer. I like the in-your-face audience feedback from songwriting, but at the same time, with a story it’s cool to be able to create something, put it out there, and then step back behind the curtain. Maybe that shield lets me be more honest.
     
    K&K: Wow, that’s a very thorough answer. Your turn, Mickey: Do you think you were seriously considering killing yourself?
     
    Mickey (glares): ………………………
     
    K&K: OK, next question. Hmm, that was a follow-up to the first question, so we’ll skip it. How about: why do you shoulder so much of the responsibility for Logan’s death? There were other family members there that night, and you know that Logan had an independent streak that couldn’t be controlled.
     
    Mickey (sighs, crosses his arms, looks away): I guess. Whatever.
     
    K&K: Ooookay. Logan, back to you. Having experienced two very different perspectives, is it better to be a pre-Shifter or post-Shifter? 
     
    Logan: It depends on the person. A lot of grownups I know would freak if they saw a ghost. They have a hard enough time dealing with the fact that we exist. But maybe that’s because they haven’t been around ghosts their whole lives like post-Shifters have.
     
    So maybe it’s like asking, “Is it better to be a boy or a girl?” You just are what you are, and it’s what’s right for you because it’s what’ve always known. Then again, there are people born as boys who are really girls and