The Last Seat on the Bus

Hey, can I tell you something that still gives me chills?

You know how buses always feel kind of weird when it’s cloudy? Like everything is quiet and you can’t see outside, and the windows fog up like the world just… disappeared?

That’s how it was the day Mina got on the bus.

Except... we didn’t see her get on.

And that’s the part I can’t stop thinking about.

The Beginning: Ordinary, Until It Wasn’t
It started like any other school day.

I was sitting in the back of Bus 6, middle row, left side—my usual spot. My best friend Kevin was next to me, chewing on a pen cap like always.

We had just finished the science test and were half-asleep from boredom.

It was foggy outside, like the kind of fog that wraps around trees and makes them look like they're floating. The sun couldn’t get through it. Everything looked gray and weird, like the world had been erased.

Mr. Ahmed, the bus driver, kept the headlights on, and we all joked about how he couldn’t even see the road.

That’s when Mina was suddenly sitting beside me.

Who’s Mina?
Mina was a quiet girl. Really quiet. Like, whisper-when-she-talks kind of quiet. She always wore the same navy blue hoodie with a small rip on the sleeve and carried a faded pink backpack.

She was new that year. Nobody really knew her.

We never saw her eat lunch.
She didn’t talk to teachers much.
She was just... there.

But that day? She hadn’t been at school. I knew she hadn’t. Kevin even said, “Yo, Mina’s out sick again, right?”

And yet… here she was, sitting next to me.

No one remembered her getting on. Not even the driver.

She Was Too Still
I looked at her. She was staring straight ahead, not blinking, not moving. Her hoodie was pulled low over her face.

“Mina?” I whispered.

She turned slowly and looked at me.

Her eyes were dark. I don’t mean brown—I mean dark, like when you look into a tunnel and you can’t see the end.

She didn’t say anything. She just stared.

“Are you okay?”

Still nothing.

That’s when I noticed something...

Her hoodie was damp. Like she had just come in from the rain. But it hadn’t rained all day.

And her backpack?

It was dripping.

Everything Got Cold
Kevin leaned over. “Dude... why is it so cold?”

He was right. The bus had gotten freezing.

All the windows fogged up completely, even though they were already shut. The heaters were on, but they weren’t doing anything.

Mr. Ahmed muttered something under his breath. “Stupid bus…”

Then the radio started hissing.

Not music. Not talking. Just static.

Everyone looked around. Some kids joked, “It’s ghosts!” But their laughs didn’t sound real.

I looked back at Mina.

She hadn’t moved.

Something in the Window
I wiped the fog off the window with my sleeve. Outside was just trees… all gray… all dead-looking.

But for a second—I saw something behind the bus.

A shadow. Running. On all fours. Fast. But with long arms, like a person crawling backwards.

It was too quick to be a person.

Kevin saw it too. He grabbed my sleeve. “Tell me you saw that.”

I nodded slowly. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.

We both turned to Mina.

And she was smiling.

Only it wasn’t a happy smile.

It was too wide. Like her cheeks had been pulled. Her lips cracked at the corners.

That was the first time she spoke.

“He’s almost here.”

Emergency Stop
I yelled, “Stop the bus! Something’s chasing us!”

Mr. Ahmed pulled the emergency brake. The bus screeched to a halt. Kids screamed. Bags flew. Someone hit their head on the seat in front of them.

Kevin and I turned back to Mina—but her seat?

Empty.

Like completely empty.

Her backpack was gone.
Her hoodie—gone.
She was just… not there anymore.

I looked at the window where she’d been sitting.

And written in the fog, in what looked like a finger dipped in mud, were the words:

“Too late.”

Into the Woods
We begged Mr. Ahmed to drive. “Something’s out there!”

But the bus wouldn’t start.

We heard footsteps on the roof.
THUMP.
THUMP.
Then silence.

And then—a hand slapped the side window.

Not a normal hand. Long fingers. Black nails. Wet, like it had just crawled out of a swamp.

All the kids were screaming now. One girl threw up. Someone fainted.

But I grabbed Kevin’s arm, and we ducked low. I don’t know why—instinct maybe.

When we looked up again… the fog was gone.

Just like that.

Sunlight. Clear skies. The heater working again.

And the bus? Started right up like nothing ever happened.

But Where’s Mina?
We made it home.

The police were called. Our parents thought we were all pranking the school or making up a “group hallucination.”

But here's the thing: Mina was never on the attendance list.

Not for that day.
Not for that year.
Not at all.

She never existed.

They even checked school photos. Class rosters. Nothing.

No Mina.

But I remember her.
Her voice.
That hoodie.
The way she whispered “He’s almost here.”
And that smile...

Kevin remembers too.
We still talk about it sometimes, late at night, when neither of us can sleep.

The Final Surprise
Two weeks ago, I was cleaning out my backpack when I found something at the bottom:

A pink pencil case.

With Mina’s name written inside.

I didn’t put it there. Kevin didn’t either.

And now?

Sometimes, when I look out the back window of the bus...

I swear I see her.

Just sitting in the last seat.

Waiting.

Smiling.

So What Did We See?
A ghost? A monster? A girl who never existed?

I don’t know.

All I know is this:

If your bus ever goes quiet on a foggy day… and someone sits beside you who wasn’t there before...

Don’t look them in the eye.

Don’t talk.

And whatever you do…

Don’t read what they write in the window.