by Shannon Cook
Kate figured out which direction it was traveling and continued watching other businesses ' security footage. She watched the bus enter the interstate and from there, she checked the traffic cameras from that night. She followed the bus using the cameras to the sharp curve. She watched in horror as the bus drove right off the road!
“GOT IT!” She said with excitement! She picked up her CB on her desk and radioed the local police from that area to investigate that area.
The police rushed to the scene, expecting to find the wreckage of the bus. Instead, they were baffled! They found tire tracks that suddenly vanished! “How is this possible?” one of the officers asked. They took a bunch of photos and emailed them to Kate.
When Kate received the photos, she couldn't believe it! She thought for sure she had located the missing bus! “How can a bus just vanish?!” she said to herself in disbelief!
Suddenly, a bunch of static sounds came over her CB radio on her desk. She could barely hear what that call was! It was broken up and hard to understand. She picked up her mic and said, “Please repeat.”
“Let…us…be,” Casey said over the radio.
“Who is this?!” Kate asked.
“Let us be,” Casey repeated.
A chill filled Kate's body. She stared at her radio. that voice almost didn't sound human. “Please state your name!" she demanded.
“Casey,” the voice replied before the radio completely cut out.
“Casey?” Kate asked herself. She looked down at the file on her desk and read that the ghostly driver's name was Casey! Her heart sank! She realized she just got a radio call from a ghost! That our someone was playing a dirty trick on her! She picked up her mic and asked “Did anyone just say Casey over the radio?”
The captain picked up his radio and replied, “I didn't hear anything." Nobody, except Kate, heard that radio call! She sat back in her chair in disbelief! Then she tried contacting the bus again. “Bus 340 come in,” she called.
The captain got on the radio and asked, “what are you doing?”
“I'm trying to see if I can contact the missing bus,” she replied.
“Not on this frequency,” he stated.
Kate tapped her fingers on her desk and looked at the report. Then she had a brilliant idea! She picked up the phone and called the bus garage.
Alma answered and Kate asked to talk to Luke. When Luke got on the phone Kate gave him the update on his missing bus. She told him she was able to track it down, but it vanished without a trace!
Luke was appalled, yet pleased. Kate had uncovered more information in the past 24 hours than anyone else! “What do you mean the bus vanished without a trace?” he asked.
“I followed it using traffic cameras,” Kate replied. “I watched it drive off the road and had the police in that area check out the scene. When they got there, the tire tracks just ended. No bus and it did not enter back onto the interstate.”
They continued talking for a while over the phone. Kate gave Luke her step-by-step plan to try to locate his missing bus, and bring Robin and Jayme back home safely if it wasn't already too late. She then asked to get the radio frequency the bus was channeled to. Luke gladly gave Kate that information.
When they got off the phone, Kate looked at her CB radio on her desk. She knew she wouldn't be able to use that one for this experiment. She had to keep it on the radio frequency it was on, just in case an officer had a lead on the investigation.
She got on her radio and told her Captain she was heading out into the field. She got onto the interstate and stopped at the first truck stop she came to and purchased a CB radio.
Later that night, in the hotel room, Kate set up and programmed her new CB radio to the same radio frequency of bus 340.
“What are you doing?” Lee asked.
“I have an idea!” Kate stated with enthusiasm! “Here goes nothing,” she took a deep breath and pressed the mic button. “Bus 340, do you read me?”
Kate and Lee sat quietly for a moment. Kate tried calling again. “Bus 340, come in."
Casey could hear Kate calling him, but he wasn't responding. He glanced down at the radio and turned it off.
“Wait a second!” Veronica yelled! “That's my ex-girlfriend!”
Veronica jumped out of her seat and ran to the front of the bus! She turned the radio back on and yelled, “Go straddle a porcupine!”
“Whoa!” everyone on the bus replied.
Back at the hotel, Kate and Lee's jaw dropped at that remark! Kate was even more appalled! “I recognized that voice!” she told Lee. “That's my ex-girlfriend, Veronica.” She walked over to the bed and sat down. “I believe there are more than two hostages on that bus,” she stated.
As far as everyone knew, there was only one spirit and two females on that bus. Nobody involved in the investigation was aware of the multiple spirits on that bus. Nor was Kate aware that her ex-girlfriend was dead! “I need a moment, I need to call Mandy,” she told Lee.
Lee nodded. “That's fine,” he said as he stepped out of the room.
Kate called Mandy and told her how things were going. She didn't give out any information about the missing bus, except that she heard her ex-girlfriend, Veronica. The two ladies talked for an hour, while Lee sat down at the hotel bar and had a drink.
Early the next morning, Lee got a cab and went to meet with the real estate agent to look at the house he was interested in buying. He took a bunch of photos and sent them to his wife Barb. Barb loved it!
Lee and the real estate agent went back to the office and filled out paperwork to apply for a mortgage. What he didn't know was, that house he was buying used to be Casey and Eva's home.
X
Later that morning, Robin and Jayme woke up to the bus traveling down a long country road with farm fields on either side. It was a nice sunny day without a cloud in the sky. The ride was smooth.
“Have a good sleep?” Eva asked.
“Pretty good,” Robin stated. “Considering it was in a bus seat.” She unbuckled and got up to stretch. “I could go for some coffee though,” she said.
Casey smiled. “Coffee it is!” He hit the accelerator to the floor and sent Robin falling onto her ass! “Whoops! Sorry dear!” he apologized as a fire-red vortex appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the road! Casey gripped the steering wheel tightly with his ghostly hands and yelled. “HOLD ON TIGHT!” as he entered the swirling vortex.
Inside the vortex, the bus began spinning. Robin and Jayme held on for dear life. Especially Robin because she was not buckled in! Robin gripped onto her seat as Jayme helped her wife get buckled back in.
All the spinning around didn't phase the spirits on the bus. Except for Frank, he was having too much fun with it!
They were only in that vortex for a mere thirty seconds, but it felt much longer than that to Robin and Jayme!
“Here we are!” Casey said as the bus was suddenly in front of a coffee shop in Paris.
“Where are we?” Jayme asked.
“Oh! Paris!” Eva said with enthusiasm! “Casey! I always wanted to go to Paris!” Eva got up from her seat and was about to run off the bus.
“Where do you think you're going?” Irwin laughed. “You can't get off this bus!”
“Oh, damn your right!" Eva sat back down and had a disgusted look on her face. “Some husband you are!”
“What do you mean by that?” Casey asked.
“Taking me to Paris when you know I can't enjoy it! Jerk!”
Casey laughed. “I know you can't drain our bank account this way!”
Irwin nodded in agreement. “For once, I agree with something Casey did!”
“Father,” Robin snapped “Why are we in Paris, I don't have any Euros on me!"
Casey smiled and snapped his fingers. Like magic, a large cup of coffee appeared in Jayme's, Robin's, and Casey's hands.
“How did you do that?” Jayme asked.
Jayme and Robin looked at each other in amazement! As Casey tried ta
king a drink of his coffee. Of course, the coffee went right through him!
“Oh hell!” Casey said with disappointment!
Irwin rolled his eyes. “The moment I start to think you might have brains, you do a stupid move like that!”
Robin and Jayme laughed.
Outside, Burke was walking by on the sidewalk. The bus caught his eye! There was something oddly familiar about it. He attempted to approach the bus, but before he could reach it, Casey yelled, “Hold onto your coffee's girls!”
Nobody noticed Burke.
“Oh great,” Robin sighed. “Not again!”
Robin and Jayme made sure they had a good grip on their coffee and held on for dear life. They closed their eyes tightly, bracing themselves for the vortex again!
“Almost there!” Casey said as the bus was suddenly traveling down that same country road as before.
Robin and Jayme opened their eyes. “Did we go through that vortex?” Jayme asked. The return ride seemed to be much less intense than the ride to the Paris coffee shop!
“No,” Casey said. “I took a different way back.”
Robin was disgusted. “Why didn't you take that way, to begin with?” She asked her father.
Casey shrugged. “Wasn't it fun though?” he laughed.
“NO!” Robin and Jayme simultaneously shouted!
“Where are we going now, father?” Robin asked.
“We're going to the cemetery where Royce's boyfriend is buried,” Casey informed them. He glanced in his mirror back at his passengers and focused his attention on Royce. Who was staring blankly out the window. Royce was responsible for his boyfriend's death and hasn't been right since. He lived with the painful guilt every day!
A sinister grin came upon Irwin's face when he found out where they were heading next. Even though the victims of the crash's spirits were trapped within the bus, they were still able to manipulate things outside of the bus, such as their dead bodies. Irwin knew his body was buried just a few graves away from Royce's boyfriend's grave. He let out an evil laugh.
“What was that for?” Eva asked.
Irwin quickly looked over at Eva. He didn't realize he had accidentally laughed out loud! “Nothing,” he quickly said. “I just thought of something funny.”
“That laugh sounded a little evil!” Eva snapped. “What do you have up your sleeve?”
“Nothing."
As they were getting closer to the cemetery, dark storm clouds began to roll in. The sky became dark, just like it had on that fateful morning when the bus rolled down the side of the mountain! Thunder began to rumble as the bus continued to speed down the road between lightning strikes hitting the pavement. The rainwater poured like a waterfall down the windshield!
Casey turned on his wiper blades and didn't slow down! “Hard to see!” he stated.
“Shouldn't you slow down a little?” Robin asked.
Casey shook his head. “We'll be fine,” he reassured his daughter.
Before they knew it, they were parked in the driveway of a cemetery. The storm had lightened up a little, but not by much.
“Alright,” Irwin said. “Who's going to be helping Royce?”
Robin got up from her seat and volunteered to take this one. “I'll do it,” she said. She watched Jayme help Cissy complete her unfinished business and now it was her turn. Robin looked at Royce and asked, “What is your unfinished business anyway?”
“I killed my boyfriend,” Royce responded. “I can't move on until I know if he forgives me or not. So, if you could, could you please have him come to the bus so I can talk to him?"
Robin nodded and stepped off the bus. The cemetery was massive! “How am I going to find the right grave?” she asked herself. She turned around and asked, “Which one is it?”
Casey told his daughter that it was right down the row they were parked by, thirty-eighth headstones in.
Robin walked carefully through the row of tombstones, counting each one as she went. When she stepped on the thirty-first grave, a decaying boney hand shot out of it, gripped tightly onto Robin's right calf, and began to pull her into the grave!
Back on the bus, everyone was startled by what they were watching! Except for Irwin, he was laughing hysterically at the entire situation.
Casey jumped out of the driver's seat and tried running out the passenger door, shouting “LEAVE YOUR DISGUSTING HANDS OFF MY DAUGHTER!” He managed to get down to the last step before some unseen force lifted him and tossed him to the back of the bus!
“WHAT WAS THAT!?” Jayme asked!
“Told you,” Irwin said. “We can't leave this bus!”
Jayme looked back at her wife who was struggling not to get pulled into the grave! She took a deep breath and ran off the bus to try to help her wife! By the time Jayme got to Robin, her right leg was already pulled into the grave up to her knee! Jayme grabbed onto her wife from behind and began to pull back as hard as she could!
An angry growl came from the grave beneath them as thick thorny vines shot out of the ground unbeknownst to them behind them! The vines wrapped tightly around Robin and Jayme, squeezing them tighter and tighter together! The thorns, like needles pierced into their bodies drawing blood!
Jayme and Robin struggled and Robin ended up falling face-forward onto the ground, causing Jayme to land on top of her. The vines began to suck them into the grave as the decaying hand let go of Robin's leg and grabbed ahold of Jayme's right leg instead!
Jayme let out a blood curtailing scream as the corpse's other hand grabbed her leg, and began to forcefully pull her into the ground!
“This hurts!" Robin grunted as her body was being pressed into the ground!
“I'm sorry!” Jayme cried. “So this is it? This is how we go?" Jayme asked.
“My entire body is throbbing!” Robin complained.
“Mine too," Jayme said.
Back in the bus, Irwin continued to laugh hysterically as Casey and Eva cringed.
“This is priceless!” Irwin laughed.
“Why are you getting such enjoyment out of watching my daughter and her wife in that state?!” Casey snapped!
Irwin rolled his eyes and looked out his window. He wasn't telling anyone that it was his corpse causing all the ruckus! He telepathically told his corps to let go of the two ladies. Within a second later, the vines unwrapped from around Robin and Jayme, and Irwin's corpse's hands went back down into the grave!
Robin and Jayme got back to their feet and brushed themselves off. “That's something I don't ever want to do again!” Robin complained.
“Agreed!”
They continued down the row of graves, with great caution with every step they took. When they got to the thirty-eighth grave, they saw a man sitting by a tree nearby.
“Robin,” Jayme whispered. “Why is there a man sitting there?"
Robin looked over. The man looked alive. A young man in his mid to late 20s. “Maybe he's homeless?” she said.
They turned back and looked at the tombstone in front of them. “Now what do we do?” Robin asked.
Jayme shrugged. “I have no clue, I've never had to talk to someone at their grave before,” she replied.
Robin took her hand and knocked on the tombstone.
“This isn't some door!” Jayme snapped!
“Have a better suggestion?” Robin snapped back! As she continued knocking on the tombstone.
The man sitting by the tree got up and walked towards the two ladies. “Would you keep it down!” the man snapped. “People are trying to sleep!”
“Sorry, sir,” Robin apologized. “We need to talk to this man Martin, who is buried here,” she informed him.
“Then start talking,” Martin said. “I'm him, and I've been expecting you.”
Robin took a deep breath and said, “You're boyfriend, Royce, is on that bus. He needs you to come over to the bus so he can talk to you.”
Martin's eyes narrowed with anger. “I have nothing I want to say to him!” he snapped! “He took
my life away from me!”
“But sir,” Jayme pleaded. “His soul is trapped on that bus! He can't move on until he talks to you!”
“Then I guess his soul will just have to,” Martin stopped himself. “Hold on, his soul?” He had no clue his boyfriend was now dead also. “What happened?”
“My father's bus rolled down the side of a mountain, and Royce was one of the passengers," Robin replied.
Martin chuckled. “Guess he got his payback,” he said.
“My father and mother were killed on that bus too,” Robin quietly said back.
Martin's eyes grew softer. He felt terrible for Robin! “My deepest condolences,” he said. “Anything I can do to help? I know it won't bring your parents back.”
“Actually, yes,” Robin said. “Go talk to Royce.”
Martin shook his head. “No can do,” he said. “I will not do such a thing!”
“Please, sir,” Jayme begged. “Do it for us, you see, we can't escape that bus either until we help every single one of the victim's spirits move on.”
Martin sighed. “Fine,” he said reluctantly. “But I'm doing this for you two ladies! Not for him!”
The three of them made their way to the bus as Royce watched nervously from within. Royce got up out of his seat and made his way to the bottom step of the bus, and waited.
“It's nice to finally see you again, Martin," Royce said with a smile.
“Make it quick,” Martin said. The last thing he wanted to do was talk to Royce ever again! Especially after what Royce did to him many years ago!
“I'm sorry for what I did,” Royce stated. “I wasn't in my right of mind that night. Can you ever forgive me?” he softly asked.
“Forgive you?” Marin scoffed. “Why would I do a ridiculous thing like that!” he laughed.
“I didn't mean to kill you!”
“Oh, sure you didn't!” Martin responded sarcastically.
