A/N: My friend gave me the idea for this. I suppose I've thought about it before in the past as well but have never really had the guts to write it before.

Now, I have read the book Bridge to Terabithia but it was so long ago that most of the stuff will probably be based off the movie as I can't remember much from the book.

This fic is dedicated to Lisa Hill. If you know the story, you'll know why.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bridge To Terabithia.

Another day. Another novel.

Welcome to the life of Mr. and Mrs Burke.

Leslie passed her parents on the way out the door, barely capturing their attention as their heads stayed buried in their laptops, tapping away on the keypads. She found her parents' oblivious trait endearing more than offending, and she couldn't help smiling as she slipped out the door and crossed her garden. Her mother and father wouldn't have stopped her anyway. They believed in the freedom to move as you like and do as you want and would never stop Leslie on her path of enlightenment.

Plus, they liked Jesse. A lot.

Even merely thinking of his name made her heart stutter and her smile widen. He'd accepted her, became her friend so easily that she wondered if there was something wrong with him. Normally, no one could handle her general weirdness and tendancy to go a tad off track, letting her imaginative mind take ahold of her speech. This was when she'd normally scare people. But not Jesse.

Never Jesse.

Jesse accepted Terabithia.

Jesse accepted her.

Terabithia had lived in her mind ever since she was a child, nestled in the deep recesses of her brain, growing and expanding, begging to be released from it's cage and to be set free. Every school she'd ever attended, every person she'd ever met, was judged by the Terabithians and passed off on harsh judgement. Like there was only ever going to be one person who could be king of her world and the Terabithians knew who they wanted. And they wanted Jesse as king just as much as they wanted her as queen.

And when she'd finally brought him to the swing and told him about it, he accepted it so freely. So happily that Leslie couldn't believe it. He didn't spit 'freak' at her or call her crazy. He believed her and, bit by bit, they brought the world to life, Terabithia no longer being just her world, but his too. Their world. Together.

Leslie broke out into a run, just thinking of the infinite possibilites that could exist in their land, their world, their place. The things they could rise up, tear down, the things that could make real, the things they could wipe out . . . it was wonderous and scary and amazing and beautiful that she was dying to get across the road to Jesse as quickly as possible.

"Sorry, he's not here right now," one of his older sisters-was the name Glenda or Brenda?-as soon as she answered the door.

"Do you know when he'll be getting back?" Leslie asked. Jesse hadn't mentioned about going anywhere to her. Then again, not everything he did had to go through her but still Leslie had at least thought he would have told her.

His sister shook her head. "Nope, sorry. He took off early this morning. Don't know where the hell he's went."

Leslie nodded, not really having listened probably, the only thing she heard being, 'Nope, sorry.' "Well, thanks anyway," she said. She turned and started walking back across the road. What did she do now? So many of her hours had been spent with Jesse in Terabithia that she could barely remember what she had normally done in her spare time before she came here and met him. Write something? A short story to pass the time until he came back? Leslie sighed and kicked a rock across the road.

P.T lifted his head as she returned, head tilted questionally. "To Terabithia?" he seemed to ask.

Leslie shook her head and sat down in the wet grass beside him. "Nope Prince, sorry. Apparently the king is gone on a quest," she sighed. P.T whined and climbed into her lap. He nudged her thigh with his nose and whined again, trying to get her to move. "What is it Terrian?" she asked. P.T only whined like that when there were scrorges or trolls around. But they only existed in Terabithia, not in reality. So what was wrong with him?

She lay a gentle hand on his head and shushed him, softly stroking his fur. "It's okay," she soothed. "We'll go later. When Jesse gets back, yeah?" P.T whined. Leslie wondered what he was sensing. Something bad must be coming. What though, she wasn't exactly sure.

Leslie waited on Jesse coming back for an hour. She sat in the grass, comforting P.T and staring at the cloudless sky. It was strange, how quickly the weather could turn from relentless rain that would batter the ground with frightening abandon to a bright blue sky and shining sun that held the promise of humidity. Leslie didn't mind. She liked it when things were unpredictable.

Finally deciding that she'd have to catch Jesse some other time, Leslie upped sticks and went back inside. She had to coax P.T in with the promise of treats because the dog was seriously troubled. Probably the rapid weather change. That can mess with animals in all sorts of ways.

The sun was burning brightly in the middle of the sky, shining in through the sitting room window and setting the room on fire once more. Now completely furnished, the effect wasn't as nearly as magical as it had been when they'd first painted it. When the room was nothing but a bare canvas, ready to be made into something perfect. She remembered the gleam in Jesse's eyes when her father had told him he had an artist's hand and she smiled to herself.

"No Jess today?" her mother asked as Leslie sat down on the sofa and threw her feet up to prop them up against the arm rest. She was taking a brief break from her writing to have a cup of tea to help clear her head while her father continued to type away on his laptop as if no-one else was in the room but himself.

"No," Leslie answered, giggling as P.T leapt onto her lap and buried his face into her shoulder. "He's gone somewhere. I'm gonna call on him later." Her mother nodded, accepting the answer, tugging her laptop back into her lap to continue her work.

Leslie let her head fall back against the arm rest and let her eyes slide closed, letting herself to get wholly consumed into her imagination for a while.

~T.T.E.O.L.B~

She was awakened by P.T's barking. The dog was desperate, his barks harsh and high pitched. When Leslie sat up, she noticed her parents were no longer in the room, probably having migrated to another room to proceed with their work. It was nearing evening by now, the sun just beginning to set and the sky starting to tint pink.

"What's wrong, Prince?" she asked. P.T barked again, his tail wagging frantically as he pawed at the front door, nails creating thin scratches along the wood. Hmpf, typical. He must need to pee. He continued to bark as Leslie heaved off the sofa and approached the door, unlatched the lock and pulled the door open. P.T bolted out, taking off across the grass. Leslie watched, momentarliy thinking that he was going to pee, before realizing that this was not the case.

P.T ran out just as an ambulance sped past, down the dirtpath in the direction she'd normally go in with Jesse when they dumped their bags after school. Curious, she followed P.T as he ran off after the vechile. His paws kicked up dirt as he sprinted after it, and her boots crunched against the gravel as she stayed hot on his heels.

Leslie wondered what had happened. A farm accident? Some animal running rampand and hurting people? The possibilities were endless as she came to a slowing stop by the tree near the Terabithian rope. P.T didn't stop until he reached the police tape that was stretched out between two trees and ran right out and around the river bank where the rope normally hung.

Leslie ducked underneath it and slipped between two police officers without them noticing. Her heart pounded in excitment as she walked along the path to pass the river bank. Only she didn't pass it. She stopped. She stopped dead in her tracks.

Parked by the river bank was the ambulance that had sped past, and a grunery was set up right by the bank's edge. The paramedics were pulling someone up. Pulling someone up from the bottom. Leslie looked up and her heart stopped.

The Terabithian rope had snapped.

"No," she murmered under her breath. She watched in a panic as a paramedic emerged from the river with a body in his arms. A body as limp and as lifeless as a rag doll. A body she recognized well.

Jesse.

His head hung over the end of the paramedic's elbow, eyes locked open and mouth parted in a silent scream. His skin was pale as snow, almost like porcelin, and his clothes were sopping wet. A lump forced it's way up Leslie's throat as she watched the paramedic fully appear from the bottom of the river.

"Is he gone?" one of the paramedics asked.

"I think he hit his head and drowned. There's no heartbeat," another answered. "He's gone."

"May God have mercy on his poor soul."

Jesse, dead? No. That wasn't right. That couldn't be right. Jesse wasn't dead. He was away out, like his sister had told her. "Jesse," she whispered under her breath. Unable to control it, her voice rose like water breaking out of a dam with full force, "JESSE!"

A police officer appeared by her side and took her arm. "I'm sorry Miss, you're going to have to step back behind the-"

"JESSE!" Leslie screamed, wrenching her arm free and running towards the paramedic. Prince Terrian bolted out from under the tape, seeing her in distress, and went straight for the paramedic, thinking he was the one at fault. He bit the man's ankle, ripping a scream of pain from him and causing him to drop the body in his arms.

Leslie leapt forward and caught Jesse, unable to hold his weight and immediately crumpling to her knees. He was cold in her arms. Stiff. Dead. "Come on Jesse, you're not dead. Stop scaring me and wake up." She half expected him to do so. For his eyes to gain their life again and for him to say, "Hey Leslie! I was just kidding! I'm not dead!"

But he didn't.

His hazel eyes bored into her, clouded over and dead. He didn't blink, didn't breathe, didn't shiver in her arms from the chill of the cold water that soaked his clothes and body.

P.T whined and nudged Jesse's arm with his nose, licking his cheek and nuzzling his neck. Fat tears spurted down Leslie's cheeks as the truth finally came to her. This was her fault. All her fault. She told him to swing the rope, she taught him the ways of Terabithia. This was her fault, her fault, all her goddamn fault.

"I'm sorry Miss," one of the paramedics said. "He's gone."

He's gone.

Jesse's gone.

And it's all her fault.

A/N: Waste of time? Good, bad, horrible? Worth continuing? Let me know! But be nice about it, okay? Thanks!

Please R&R! :)