The Night Bus

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.

The candle was surprisingly light and full of life - unlike its surroundings. The forest was dark and gloomy, and no one had been seen walking under their droopy boughs for decades. The cabin had likewise stood empty, for more years than anyone still living could say. That changed today. A mysterious figure was perched in the rocking chair on the front porch and he waited. He had always done this. He would always do this. He understood the simple truth about these woods. They were not of this earth, but somewhere entirely different.

Sadie was on her way back from school, sitting alone on the top tier of the double decker bus. The weather - as usual - was poor, but today it had taken a turn for the worse. The 15 year old lived at the far end of the bus route, and she was always the last one off. All her friends had left at their usual stops, leaving her alone for the final ten minutes of the journey. She didn't mind. She liked the serenity that came with being alone.

It was December 22nd, the final day of school this year, so it wasn't too surprising that the weather was as bad as it was.The sun had managed to shine through the clouds, casting moving shadows across her school over the last few days. But that doesn’t mean it was warm, the bleak chill that could only come from a British winter had frozen the air. No matter how hard the sun tried, it couldn't heat up the day.

The weather on the way home was quite different - it was dark, wet, and miserable; and thanks to the winter solstice, it was also the shortest day of the year. Sadie couldn’t wait to get home and wrap the presents she’d got for her parents and younger sister. It was only a few minutes now.

Sadie frowned. She usually ran a fairly accurate mental clock in her head once the other people left the bus, and she should have been at her stop by now. She looked out of the window to see if she recognised where she was, peering through the murky dusk, she couldn’t see outside. It was too dark. The rain was slamming itself into the window creating a wall of water that was impossible to see through.

The rain hit hard, and Sadie thought fleetingly that it was almost as if it was trying its best to get inside the vehicle, trying to break the seals that held the windows in place, trying to force its way through the cracks, with no luck, the window was holding its own. Keeping her safe.

She could hear the wind outside, howling, whipping around, left and right, as fierce as a hurricane, rocking the bus on its axles. It felt like the wind was channelling all its force onto this bus.

There was a clap of thunder that bellowed so loudly outside, that it sounded as though it was inside the bus. Its low, rumbling, booming voice could be heard over the high pitched scream of the wind. It was like they were fighting each other, to see which of them could topple the double decker first. Sadie gulped.

She saw lightning forking beautifully out across the dark sky, carving through the night, like a hot knife through butter, lighting up the world around her. It lasted only a second, probably less, but it showed dark and ominous clouds, casting their shadows gloomily across the sky above Sadie’s head. She felt an unsettling fear unravel inside her, chilling her bones, but she brushed it off. It’s just weather, she thought. Get a grip.

The lightning stopped, and the world around her enveloped back into a blinding darkness. It seemed ever darker than before, as if a large blanket had been thrown over the bus, blocking the view from outside, leaving her more alone than ever on her empty top deck.

And the trees, God, the trees. Their branches, clawing at the windows, scraping the glass with

talons longer than arms and legs combined. Their limbs, scratching at the panes, trying so very hard to find purchase, and rip the windows away from their seals, to finally let in the wind and the rain, drenching the lonely passenger, but to no avail. The seals held their ground in this battle of strength, but Sadie was afraid now, truly afraid, and her mind was screaming at her that something was wrong. For the life of her, she couldn’t work out what it was.

There was something wrong with the bus.

There was something wrong with the sky.

Something was wrong.

Sadie forced herself to stand, picked her bag up from the seat next to her, slung it over her shoulder and walked hurriedly down the aisle towards the staircase, and took the steps two at a time easily. She had gone down these steps a thousand times before.

This time should be no different.

Except it was.

There were no passengers - not unusual, as Sadie’s house was the last stop on the route. But - there was no driver either. The door was shut, and locked, but the lights were still on, and the engine was running.

Maybe he’s gone for a toilet break? She thought. That’s the most obvious thing, right? The engine’s still running. Do bus drivers leave them like that for loo breaks? She chewed on her lip, uncertain. And then - where were the other passengers?

It hit her, finally, what the nagging voice inside her head was trying to tell her, she worked out what was wrong.

The trees.

The lightning outside, it had lit up enough to show that her surroundings were fields on her side of the bus, as far as she could see. Which wasn't far due to the pelting of the rain.

But there were no trees.

Not one.

So what had been scratching at the window?

She looked towards the front of the bus and couldn’t see any rain through the windscreen. But she could still hear it slapping furiously at the window next to her, as if it had followed her through the bus.

Sadie swore silently. She wanted to scream, she was in a nightmare, she must be, but her voice refused her.

She heard the clap of the thunder once more, and saw a flash of lightning. She thought it had been beautiful before, but the shadows that it cast now seemed ominous and terrifying.

What could she do? She couldn't get out, she didn’t know how to open the bus door. She ran up to it, and pushed and pulled at it, but it refused to budge.

The driver was still nowhere to be seen.

She was alone, truly.

She had never felt more alone.

The windscreen smashed, Sadie’s lost voice rushed back and she screamed, more loudly than she ever had in her life, eyes wide, and legs stumbling as she moved backwards through the bus, away from the smoky tendrils snaking through the windscreen. The part of her that was still thinking rationally wondered where they came from, but she paid it no mind, keeping her eyes fixated on the horror before her - there were so many of them, too many of them.

She stared, open mouthed at the eerie, horrifying arm-like tendrils that came towards her.

They were like nothing she had ever seen before, thick, sharp, blood red tree branches, and - before she could force her unwilling limbs to move - they wrapped around her, covering her mouth, stifling her screams. She tried to bite it, but that only hurt her teeth, it did nothing to the demon that held her.

In the midst of her struggle she saw it. The thing. The being behind the arms. A monstrous, jagged shape that could only be its face emerged from the darkness, and its endless eyes were staring directly at her. It looked sharp and rough, like the roots of an upturned tree, but it was blood red, and -like its arms - visceral and hideous.

Sadie had no time to wonder why, or how she had become this demon's target, but she was, and it hadn’t missed.

It removed the tendril from around Sadie’s mouth and throat and she found her voice, screaming for help, as loudly as she could. The demon in front of her opened a mouth she hadn’t seen before. She could see its teeth, brown, rotten and…. Smiling?

It was enjoying the moment, Sadie thought, it’s going to eat me.

She squirmed in its grip. The demon opened its mouth, showing Sadie the true horrors of her imminent demise. She expected to see a disfigured gruesome tongue, inside an equally hideous mouth. What she saw instead could only be described as a portal to a dark and hellish dimension.

She could see a cabin, surrounded by gnarled, dead trees. It was dark, creepy and rotting. The woods almost scared Sadie more than the monster did. I do not want to go there, don’t make me go there!

The limb that had been removed from Sadie’s throat thrust forward, sharp and unstoppable, straight through her stomach, and out through her back, stopping her scream dead in its tracks. It lifted her up into the air, and she could feel the appendage inside her, forcing her to move. There was nothing she could do. Blood was pouring out of her stomach, dripping to the floor below, and she could feel herself losing consciousness, her vision dimming as the arm brought her closer and closer to the monster's open mouth.

The demon raised her far above itself, and let her slip off the end of its tendril, straight down into the gaping jaws, towards the abandoned cabin. She was drained of her strength. She had nothing left to try and fight where she was going. The creature folded her into its mouth, chucked its head back, and swallowed. Sadie was gone.

She was cold, and tired, mentally and physically drained, and unable to do anything more than cry silent tears as she landed in an unceremonious heap on the ground in front of the cabin. She laid there for a while, disorientated, trying to regain her senses and figure out where, exactly, she was.

She could see a candle in the window of the cabin. It was dim, and getting dimmer by the second. She coughed, and spluttered, blood came shooting out of her mouth as she did. As she was wiping her mouth with her sleeve, she frowned.

She’d heard a noise to her right, where the front of the cabin would be. She moved her head as best as she could towards it. A figure shifted, moving closer towards her. It looked vaguely human, but it seemed more interested in the candle, than the frail, broken, dying girl on the cold ground.The flame was blowing in the wind, flickering defiantly, clutching to the last little bit of oxygen it could.

Sadie was dying, she knew that. She was losing blood, energy and she could do nothing other than wait in agonising pain. Sadie and the figure watched the candle together, it flickered, and flickered again, it dimmed, and then got bright, and then spluttered, wavered, and finally after what seemed like hours, the candle blinked out.

It had lost its fight, and so had she, her now unseeing eyes would stare forevermore into darkness.

The mysterious figure sat back down on his rocking chair, and waited for the candle to light itself again.