 I was looking forward to this trip for a long time. We both needed a vacation from work, school, just general life stress. This was one stop on our rapid paced adventure across the United States and was something both of us had always wanted to do. Bungie Jumping My friends said we had to find somewhere to do it before we continued on our vacation. It took a while to find someone near us who was willing to take us out last minute. Apparently they want you to go through some class or something first in most places. This guy didn't seem to mind though. The website only had a phone number on it and a picture of a canyon. Usual last minute things with these types of deals. Cash only. He said to show up early in the morning and don't eat beforehand. He seemed excited that we wanted to go out and was quick to tell us where to meet him. Just a short walk from where we parked. No big deal. We managed to arrive at the location sometime in the early morning of dawn, just after the sun began to rise. He was already there, waiting for us. Hey, glad you made it. Hopefully my instructions were good enough. Yeah, no problem at all. Are we good to park here? I gestured at the side of the road. We were just parked on the slump road shoulder, barely sitting above some soft dirt next to the roadway. No worries. No one ever comes up here except for the bungee jumping, of course. He had a giant grin on his face as he waved over at us, indicating to follow. He'd already started down a trail just off the road that seemed to head up into the nearby mountain range. We jogged over to catch up. So where are we going exactly? Just up the trail some leads to a bridge across the canyons in the area. Perfect spot for bungee jumping out here. I'm the only one who knows about it, though. Luckily, you found me. Yeah, yeah, thank you again. We appreciate this last minute trip out here. We really wanted to make sure we had an opportunity to do this before we continued on our vacation. Vacation? Where are you planning to go? Just traveling across the US and enjoying life is all. Just me and my friend. I glanced over at her and smiled. She had a slight upturn at the corner of her lips, but I could tell that the long trail was wearing on her. She wasn't the most talkative usually, but she seemed off today. I decided not to worry about it too much. The jump would help reinvigorate her. I'm sure of it. Sounds like fun. Well, I am glad to be considered as a part of your memories. I certainly don't forget any of my customers. Oh, that's right. Did you want the cash now? I forgot to give it to you before we started up the path. No, hold on to it for now. I can take it afterward. It's no trouble. The rest of the trip up the mountain continued similarly. Small talk here and there. It seemed like my friend wanted to stay tight-lipped the entire way. I tried to comfort her when I could, but she wanted to just focus on the climb ahead of us. I hope the jump would help improve her mood. At least I would make sure to record it so that she could watch it later and enjoy the memory. Before coming out today, I had already checked the camera equipment, so it was ready to go safe and stored in my pack. Before long, the trail widened out, and we were at the base of a hill that seemed to lead farther up the mountain. There was a bench to the side, and my friend quickly ran and sat down, catching her breath. I glanced over at the guide, and he had a thin smile on his face. Even as we'd struggled up the trail, he didn't have a single bead of sweat anywhere. In fact, he seemed even more excited than he had at the beginning of the trail. So we almost there yet? Yes, we are just about there. I installed that bench a while back to give everyone a chance for a break before the fun. It's time to lay some ground rules now, though, okay? Sure, I was expecting there would be some sort of guidelines. Okay. So, you need to listen to everything I say up there. I am the expert, alright? I will make sure you are safe and sound in your harness and prepared for your jump. The equipment is waiting for us up there, already prepped and tested. I hope you didn't eat this morning like I told you, otherwise this may be more unpleasant. You also need to leave all your equipment here at this bench. Oh, and one final rule. I can only take one of you at a time, okay? I glanced over at my friend, and she seemed just as confused as I was. Why can't you take only one of us at a time? We wanted to watch and enjoy the experience together. He was already shaking his head slowly back and forth. Ah, listen, the terrain up there isn't the greatest, and even though the bridge is secure, there are always risks. I can't be responsible for both of you simultaneously, not if I want to keep you safe. So if we are doing this, it's one at a time. I scrunched up my face as I thought about what we should do. We'd already taken most of the morning to climb up here, and we wouldn't find anyone else nearby any time soon we could bungee jump with. Probably wouldn't find anyone else on the other legs of the trip, not with where we planned on going. I shrugged as I glanced over at my friend. She nodded slightly. All right, all right, let's just do this one at a time. We already came all the way up here, it's no big deal. I gestured over to my friend to indicate for her to go first. She started to shake her head lightly without standing, and I rushed over to her to whisper in her ear. Listen, I want you to go first so I can record you, all right? I'm gonna sneak down with the camera and capture everything so we can watch it later. Then when we switch, you can record me as well. She seemed okay with that arrangement and headed up the hill with a guide. Once they were out of view, I quickly rummaged through our packs and retrieved the camera. It was a rough landscape, but I managed to climb through and around the rocks and small hills to a point where I could see the bridge. It looked old and made of wood, but seemed stable enough. There were long metal poles that jetted out from both sides of the canyon that created an archway in the center of the bridge, the support system for the bungee cord. I held the camera up and looked through the viewer screen, zooming in on the arch. It was a bit blurry, but I could see the guide getting my friend hooked up in the harness, checking all the buckles, and ensuring that the entire rig was secure. I glanced down at the canyon's bottom and noticed that it was a dry riverbed, sand strewn across the vast expanse. As I zoomed in closer, I noticed that all of the sand underneath the bridge had been disturbed. It was dingy and mixed with some sort of rusted red substance. I glanced up just as my friend was lining up to prepare to jump. While she had a nervous look on her face, the guide had a wide grin, his eyes tiny black beads on the camera. Then without warning, he seemed to shove her forward. I chuckled as I thought about the fact that she needed the encouragement. Her screams were echoing across the canyon as she fell, the bungee cord unfurling and flinging backward in the wind. I followed her down with the camera as she dived, her body threatening to twist and turn as it fell. I was preparing for the dip to raise the camera back up when I realized that there was still lots of slack in the cord. I felt my throat tighten as I saw that she was not stopping and was beyond the point where the line would prevent her body from smashing into the ground below. I was forced to only watch through the camera as her body collided into rocks and sand. The cord still unfurling around her. I turned to the side and started to vomit at the thought of what I saw through the viewfinder. The impact with the ground mangled her body and blood splashed outward in every direction, mixing with a dry sand. I wiped my mouth and forced myself to turn and look through the camera. My heart was pounding in my chest and I could barely breathe. I stared at her unmoving body and realized that she was already dead. Suddenly, the slack cord began to tighten and her body started to move upward. Even as her body rose through the air, some of her limbs decided to remain behind on the ground. I felt bile burn the base of my throat as I stared at her mutilated corpse. I started to move the camera back up to the top of the bridge to look at the guide. He had a sickening smile on his face as he pulled my friend up slowly. The smile only grew as he continued to bring her body higher and higher. Once at the top, it looked like he was inspecting her rendered body, looking down at the base of the canyon and frowning for a moment at the missing pieces. I could see everything through the camera, even blurred as I zoomed in further. However, I nearly dropped the camera when he turned to stare at me, the smile turning into a deep scowl. He began to run down the bridge towards the base of the hill. I knew before long he would realize what path I'd taken to get here. I sprinted off along the canyon wall as fast as I could, my chest threatening to burst. I knew that if he caught me, he'd kill me. There was no way that this was just an accident. I had to get away to find some way to contact law enforcement out here. I wasn't sure how far I'd gotten when I finally took a break. My limbs were shaking violently as I tried to relax, at least to catch my breath. Every creak and crack in the trails around me caused my head to jut rapidly around, thinking he was already behind me. As my heart finally stopped pounding, I was able to think and realized that I must have gotten away. I would have heard something by now if he was following me. Even as I caught my breath, I was still shuddering at the thought of what I'd seen. Tears began to roll down my face as I sobbed. My friend was dead. I should never have let her go with some strange man by herself. I should have insisted we go together or just left. Maybe she'd still be alive if I wasn't so obsessed with recording our adventure. I leaned back to stare at the treetops around me, just as a face popped around the corner of the trunk. I screamed as I saw that it was the guide, now face to face with me. His broad smile showed off the blood-red color of his gums striking against the shining white teeth. Before I could move to flee, he brought down a rock on my face and my vision faded to black. When I awoke, I could tell that I was hanging upside down. My head was pounding and it felt like my face was on fire. I tried to cough, but the cord around my chest was so tight I could barely breathe As I started to struggle, the guide appeared before me again, still smiling with his wide and creepy grin. Did you think that you could get away? Don't answer please, I just want to enjoy this. He took out some cloth and shoved it in my mouth before I could say anything. My heart was trying to break free from my ribs, attempting to be the only part of me to escape and survive, but we were all trapped here together. Your friend didn't stay together all too well, not as fun. I hope these cords help you stay together a bit better. Don't worry, soon you shall see your friend. Well, at least the parts in the bottom of the canyon. He leaned back and seemed to laugh at his joke as I tried to scream through the cloth at him. Suddenly, however, his head turned to the side and I heard multiple voices overlapping and shouting from down to the side of the bridge. I couldn't see what was going on, but the guide seemed to look around for somewhere to flee. Instead of running, he turned to face me and blew me a kiss before jumping off the edge of the bridge. Several uniformed men ran up in front of me and blocked my view as they stared off the edge. He had jumped without any sort of bungee cord. I quickly realized that I was looking at some kind of law enforcement. They all jumped as we heard the sickening flak of his body hitting the ground of the canyon. If it weren't for the cloth in my mouth, I would have vomited again. It was a long trip down the trails, but I was rapidly brought to a local hospital to be checked out once on the road. Outside of the wound on my face, I was uninjured. I later found out that the local law enforcement had been hunting for him for a while and heard them refer to him as mangler. Bodies had shown up the last couple of months, destroyed in an unknown manner. However, they recently got a lead from a strange girl who told them about a bungee jump guide in the area, but no one was licensed nearby. I quickly realized that it had been my friend and I realized why she looked so sick today. She must have known about this from the start and communicated with the local law enforcement. I later found the clippings in her pack after they finally returned it to me. Clippings of the killings that had happened in the area. How long had she known about him? Was the purpose of our trip to find out what was going on? I'm left with so many questions and no answers because she's dead and I'm alive. Did she hope that law enforcement would save us up there? If I hadn't run, we'd both be dead and that man would have been long gone, but instead they were both dead and I now had to find some way to keep on living. I didn't know what I was going to do to live through this. All I knew was that I needed to finish the trip. I needed to do it for both of us. I hadn't looked at the other clippings she'd stored away, not yet. No matter what happens though, you can't stop if life leads you in odd directions.