The Bus

It was a chilly night. Cold wind was slipping inside my jacket, making me shiver as I walked out of movie theater after watching the last show of the day. It was already midnight, and in a small town it was difficult to find any means of transport that late.

After walking for about a mile in search for transport, I took a break, and sat on a bench of a bus stop. I took a cigarette and was rummaging my pocket in search of the lighter. I saw a bus approaching towards me. I was glad to see a bus, but at that hour? Strange.

The bus stopped in front of me. I asked the conductor about its route. Fortunately, it had a stop nearby my home. With ecstasy I got on to the bus and was amazed to see that even that late almost every seat was occupied. I walked down the aisle and found a empty seat beside a child.

"Hey, can I sit here?" I asked the child.

"Yes, you can sit here." He said, and got busy sketching something.

I sat on the seat and asked the child, "Are you alone?"

He pointed his finger to a couple sitting on one of the seats behind ours.

"Those are my parents." He said, and continued sketching.

I didn't talk to him for the next couple of minutes until my eyes fell on his sketch, It was of a bus falling down into a trench. The bus he drew was similar to the one we were sitting in.

His sketch gave me goosebumps and I almost yelled at him, "What the hell are you sketching?"

The child looked at me and grinned. He gestured to me to come closer, I brought my head close to his and he whispered into my ear, "We all died this way."

His words left a chill in my body and my mind froze in fear. The people sitting to my front seat started to stare at me. All the eyes on the bus were staring at me, my heart started throbbing hard. Suddenly, a white light came from front and engulfed me.

****

Next morning, I woke-up on my bed and everything about last night was almost washed-up from my mind like a nightmare. I poured some cereals and milk in a bowl and was about to eat it when my eyes caught a headline on newspaper. I quickly grabbed the newspaper, it read,

'Dead body of a youngster found in trench.'

Below the headline there was my photograph with my name mentioned below it.

"Did you understand?" A feeble voice struck my ears. I looked to my side to find the same child who was in the bus besides me.

"What are doing in my house?" I screamed trembling in fear.

"Don't fear me. Come." The child said, and held my finger as he walked me out of the house, the same bus was standing outside my house.

"You are dead. Come join us." He grinned and got on to the bus. I followed him and sat beside him.

With the same gurgle of engine, the bus raced ahead.

Gasping, I woke-up on my bed.

"Nightmares." I mumbled.

- Kapil Bhawnani.