Chapter 2: The Haunted Bus (2)
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Hour 3.

The lamp flickered and died out again...

Kirana held back her breath, her whole body tensed up. For a few minutes, there was no other sound around her. She hadn’t felt this sense of danger in a long while, after a simple and normal life mellowed her down.

Somehow, feeling the racing of her heart and the gloomy sensation all around her, she had an illusion that she had returned to her glory days.

“No, no! I don’t want to die!” A shrill voice of the teenager resounded. “I still have school... I...” The voice was slowly lowered and lowered until she could hear nothing.

It was that teenage boy, Indra. Kirana’s breath fastened with a bit of sadness and fear. Dying here meant dying forever, of that, she had no doubt. She recognized the voice’s maliciousness, which had a glint of glee in seeing them panicking.

Such a young soul…

Kirana kept holding on until the light turned on again. Her mental threshold had always been higher than normal people, so she was able to keep herself from shivering as she heard the squelch from the seat behind her. She didn’t have to look to know that it was that student.

“Ah, another died…” The old woman beside her said, with a hint of glee.

Kirana didn’t tremble, even though she wanted to.

 

Hour 4.

It was the next time the light died, after the hour turned midnight, that Kirana realized she couldn’t be in this passive state forever.

Just sitting back in her seat, waiting for horror to encroach upon her? It had never been her style. Countless people had kidnapped her, but she had always been able to escape. Many wanted to use her, but she maneuvered around them beautifully—even though she had to hide herself now.

After two rounds, she was sure that the players were chosen at random. So, sitting at her place had no influence. That student, Indra, died in his seat, after all.

So, when she heard the middle-aged woman player from earlier screamed, she moved.

Mrs. Bunga, the woman, was shouting, “let go of me! I still have a child at home… AHHH!”

The middle-aged woman sat a few seats in front of her, diagonally across the aisle. Kirana didn’t mean to save her. She could barely save herself. She snatched the baby from the old woman next to her.

“AH what are you doing?” The old woman bellowed, her voice hoarse and scary. Like a witch. “GIVE BACK MY CHILD!”

It was totally dark, of which Kirana was thankful for, since the sound of ripping skin and creaking bones were enough for her to imagine what horror was in front of her. She grabbed the baby in her hand and kicked the old woman, which was about to pounce on her. Kirana hadn’t used her skills in a while, since her current life had no need of it, but she never forgotten it.

The old woman… no, monster… groaned. “You…. Bastard, give me my baby back…”

The baby in her arms started to moved around like worm. Kirana of course realized, since the mother wasn’t human, the baby couldn’t be normal either. But this baby was the old woman’s weakness. She realized it with the way that woman protected it.

“BASTARD GIVE IT BACK!” The scream boomed in the dark bus.

She didn’t know since when, but Mrs. Bunga’s scream could no longer be heard. From the two previous victims, Kirana had counted the time and found that the light would came back on after five minutes. Therefore, she just avoided the woman’s attack and held onto the baby until the light turned back on.

When it did, the red-eyed monster in front of her startled her. The monster’s skin had started to ripple and came back to its original appearance, and her heart almost stopped at the horrific sight. It was like a worm was going around in the old woman’s face.

The old woman glared at Kirana. “Child, what are you doing with my baby?”

Kirana glanced at Mrs. Bunga’s position and found that the middle-aged woman was still alive. She was seriously injured, with blood all over her body and her torso half-opened, but she was alive. Kirana herself also managed to avoid most of the monster’s attack and survived.

So it wasn’t like someone had to die during the lights off.

And looking at the red-eyed old woman in front of her, who was so angry but couldn’t move, she confirmed that when the light was on, it was safe for the players.

Kirana glanced down at the baby in her arms, and almost dropped it when she saw the blue-faced little ghost. It looked like it died from strangulation, looking at the mark on its neck. But Kirana didn’t give it back to the old woman and only smiled. “I take it, so it’s mine.”

“Shameless bitch!” The old woman was so angry, but she couldn’t move. “You kidnapped my baby! Young people have no manners!”

“I kidnap your baby, but you killed another person’s child,” she said, looking back at Indra who sat behind her. “I don’t know which one is worse.”

The old woman was still glaring at her, but Kirana just sat back down with the dead baby in her arms. “Hey, old woman, so this whole bus is dead?”

Every eyes looked at her.

Especially the old woman. “Who are you calling dead, huh? Bastard!”

But Kirana wasn’t scared. Since there was restriction in place, the other monsters couldn’t attack her unless the lights went off.

So she stood and walked down the aisle to the front part. She was almost attacked by passing claws, but managed to avoid it.

Ah, so that was that. She couldn’t move during the lights on either, otherwise the monsters would be allowed to attack.

But looking at it, it didn’t seem that they realized they were all… dead.

Yes, one thing she observed, was that with each hour passing by, the passengers looked more and more dead. One man had half his head bashed, another started to have wounds on her torso, and someone even had a knife on his back.

How the hell did all these people die?

With her skills, she managed to avoid every claw, escape for a select few. Ah, her skills were rusty, after all. She wasn’t too seriously injured, but the claws got more and more fierce as time went on, so Kirana kept running forward until she stood next to the driver.

The clock was blinking at 12:30.

“Hello, Mr. Driver,” she said, the dead baby still in her arms.

The bus driver ignored her. He looked like a victim of car crash, with dusts and wounds started to appear on his body. Seemed like something impaled him to death.

Kirana ignored the bit of fear in her heart as all eyes of the monsters were on her. “Mr. Driver, can I get off?”

“No one can get off this bus,” the driver muttered.

The bus driver didn’t attack her, strangely, even though she wasn’t on her seat. “Girl, go back to your seat. You can only get off at the destination.”

That was, she had to survive seven hours.

The driver’s advice didn’t go unheard. When Kirana glanced back, her heart trembled and fell to her stomach. Those monsters, who got more and more horrific as time went on, started to move as if they were going to her.

Especially the old woman, whose baby she kidnapped.

“I’ll go back in a second, Mr. Driver. Can you answer my questions?”

The driver didn’t reply.

The deaths of all these people were too various for it to be a bus accident, but Kirana didn’t plan to get into it. She just glanced at the endless street from the front window, with darkness all around it. “Where does this bus go to?”

Receiving the driver’s answers, Kirana quickly ran back to her seat, and got a few new wounds. She could see the other two players looking at her, but she didn’t look back. The driver’s answer was spinning in her mind.

It wasn’t T City.

“The afterlife.”

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