by Shannon Cook
Lilly looked over at Jayme. “Jayme is our daughter,” she stated.
“Whoa!” Jayme snapped in disbelief! “Hold on!” She pointed a firm finger at Lilly! "You wanted to have sex with me before!”
Lilly nodded. “My mistake, I didn't realize you were who you were until I went back into my house to get the ice.” she began to laugh hysterically all of a sudden!
“I DON'T FIND THIS FUNNY!” Jayme snapped in fury!
“Pardon, I just remembered the man's face in the house when the freezer opened by itself and the ice pack floated across the room,” Lilly began to laugh even harder! “Then the front door opens on it's own and the ice pack float out the door!”
Everyone on the bus thought of that scenario for a moment and began cracking up as well!
“He crapped himself!” Lilly was laughing so hard she could barley get the words to come out! She took a deep breath, and told them that Jayme's adoptive parents sent her photos of Jayme until the age of eighteen.
She wouldn't look at the photos much because it made her depressed that she had to give Jayme up as an infant. She'd look at each photo once, then toss them away! “I couldn't afford to take care of you,” she said. “It wouldn't have been fair to you.” She told Jayme how suddenly, something clicked in her mind! “I remembered the last photo I received of you, your graduation photo. Your eyes have the same twinkle!” Lily smiled at Jayme, you have my father's eyes! That's when I knew you were my biological daughter!
Lilly reached out and tried giving Jayme a hug, but Jayme pulled away.
“I think I'm going to be sick,” Jayme stated. She ran up to the wastebasket on the bus and hurled!
“I'm sorry!” the woman pleaded. “I seriously didn't realize you were my daughter!”
“Hold up a moment!” Frank interrupted! “All I wanted to do was meet my child and she was on this bus the entire time?!” he tossed his arms up in disbelief! “I could have gotten off at any moment during this entire trip?! What kind of sick nonsense is this!?” He snapped as he glared at Casey, Eva and Irwin.
“We didn't know Jayme was your daughter, Frank,” Casey responded.
“I knew,” Irwin said under his breath. “I was the doctor who delivered Jayme.”
“What?” Eva asked in shock! “You're a psychologist, not an obstetrician!”
Irwin nodded. “Indeed, I'm not an obstetrician,” he stated. “However, many years ago, I was stuck in a traffic jam and this lady was stuck alongside me." He told everyone that the woman's father was driving her to the hospital so she could have her child. “I noticed she was in distress in the passenger seat. I rolled down my window and honked to get her attention.”
Lilly smiled at Irwin. “So, you're the doctor who helped me that morning?”
Irwin nodded. “I am,” he replied. He continued telling the story of how they knew she wasn't going to make it to the hospital in time before the baby arrived. They managed to get off at the next exit and found a nearby parking lot.
“Ten minutes later, you were born, Jayme,” Lilly smiled. “Thanks to him!”
Frank was still in disbelief! “Wait, she's my daughter?”
“Yes,” Lilly nodded.
Frank glared at his ex-wife. “We'll see if you are telling me the truth or not!”
He slowly began walking towards the passenger door of the bus. He looked back and said, “moment of truth!” Carefully, he took each step down, paused with each step. He carefully stuck his right foot out the door and onto the driveway. Then his left. The second both his ghostly feet touched the driveway, he was gone!
“Oh fuck!” Jayme stated as she grabbed ahold of her nauseous stomach, and sat down. “Frank was my father,” she said in disbelief!
Robin got up off the ground and sat down next to her wife, “are you okay?” she asked.
Jayme nodded. “I'll be fine,” she replied. “I think,”
Frank's ex-wife, Lilly, looked at everyone on the bus. “Thank you for this,” she said. “It was nice to finally meet my daughter again," she smiled at everyone and stepped off the bus. As they watched her walk back up the driveway, the woman vanished!
Robin and Jayme's eyes widened, and their jaws dropped! “What just happened there?!” Robin panicked!
An eerie chill cut through Robin's bones! Her face turned pale, her eyes stared blankly into space. A nauseous sensation came upon her at that moment! Her chest began moving rapidly in and out, as her breathing became louder!
Jayme noticed her wife was having an anxiety attack! She reached over and wrapped her arm around Robin. “Are you going to be alright?” She asked.
Robin was speechless! The shock of the realization that she was just faking making out with a ghost hit her hard!
“Robin, my dear,” Jayme softly said. “Answer me!”
Suddenly, Lilly appeared sitting in the seat that used to be Frank's. “Give her a moment,” she said. “It's not everyday you get kissed on the cheek by a ghost!” she laughed. She got up and walked over to Jayme. She gently placed her ghostly hand on Jayme's shoulder, and said, “there is one more thing I need to tell you.”
Jayme looked up at her mother and asked, “what is it?”
"The man I cheated on with frank left me, and he got me pregnant a few months after I had you," Lilly stated. "He left me the moment I became pregnant. My parents forced me to give both my daughters up for financial reasons! I was miserable and disoriented from the drinking habit I picked up. One night, when I was around your age, I walked in front of a train! Whops! My mistake!” Then she vanished again!
“I have a sister?” Jayme asked.
“Half-sister,” Robin replied.
“I have a sister?” Jayme asked again.
Jayme was having a very difficult time comprehending everything that just happened! Nothing really scary happened with this task, it just took a hard hit to Jayme's heart! She always wondered why she was given up by her birth parents, now she knew why!
She sat back in her seat, her mind was spinning! She glanced over at Robin, and grabbed her hand tightly.
“Are you going to be okay?” Robin asked her wife.
“Yes,” Jayme replied. “I'll be fine, I just wonder how my mother was able to do all that stuff even though she is dead!” She looked at Robin and asked, “how was she at kissing?”
Robin rolled her eyes. “didn't feel a thing," she replied. Then it really sunk in! “Oh shit!” Robin stated in shock! “I was making out with a ghost!”
Eva laughed, “we are more powerful than you know,” she stated.
“But how does she still own that house?” Robin asked. “If she's dead?”
“She doesn't,” Casey laughed. “Those poor homeowners put up with her hauntings every single night!”
Eva looked out of her window of the bus an noticed the male homeowner pacing back and forth on his phone in the front yard. “Does he know we're here?” she asked Casey.
“Not at all, I made the bus invisible again!” Casey replied. “As for the engine noise, he can't hear it, he's completely deaf.”
Robin and Jayme glanced at Casey in confusion. “Wait,” Jayme said. “When you made the bus invisible to us in the past, why didn't we hear the engine?” She asked.
Casey smiled, “I had my reasoning's," he stated.
XV
Meanwhile, back in Kate's office at the police station, Kate was busy trying to figure out why that bus was placed back into service! She contacted Detective Hugo, who had investigated the crash. Hugo emailed Kate all the photos from the crash site and faxed over the original accident report. Kate was sickened and appalled by the photos! The frame was completely snapped in half! “There's no way this bus could've been repaired!” she said to herself!
She read over the accident report and found out where the bus was taken to after the crash. “Okay, Dick,” she said. “I believe I have to pay you a little visit,” she snapped!
She printed off the photos, grabbed the accident report, and headed off on her long d
rive to Dick's auto shop.
Kate drove through the mountains and when she approached the site where the crash occurred, a lump formed in her throat! She noticed how the guard rail was much newer than the other sections. She pulled over her car and got out. Slowly, she walked over and looked down. Small scraps of the bus still littered the side of the mountain. A long trail of crushed brush still laid flat where the bus rolled over it!
“That bus rolled pretty far,” she stated. She turned around, walked back to her car, and continued down the road.
A few minutes later, she arrived at Dick's auto shop. The place was locked up with an “Out to Lunch” sign on the door. Kate looked around and decided to search the junkyard behind the garage. She noticed a stack of junked vehicles on top of a severely damaged truck-like frame. She crouched down and tried to get a good look at it. It was obvious, that frame was the bus's frame! But why was it there? And what was used to replace the frame on the bus? She wondered.
She pulled out her phone and began snapping photos of the frame, as best as she could. Then, she continued to walk through the junkyard. Against the back fence, she spotted an old gutted-out truck. She slowly approached it, and discovered the frame was missing from it! Just from looking at the truck, she knew it was around the same length as the bus, and the tires were in the same location! “Gotcha!” she stated! She took her camera out again and took a bunch of photos of that truck.
Kate knew the evidence she had against Dick was compelling and undeniable! She walked back to her police car and drove to the local police station.
During her drive, a strange transmission came across her CB radio. It was full of static and hard to make out, but she clearly heard a male voice say “Kate!”
Kate slowly picked up her mic and replied, “please repeat,” she asked. She waiting for a reply, but nothing happened. “I must be out of range!” she said. “Have to be!” She put her CB mic back onto its hook and continued driving.
Then she began to wonder. How did my radio work out here in the first place?! Also, who knew my name?!
“Kate!" the same man's voice said from the backseat!
Kate panicked and quickly pulled over her police car! She turned around to see who was in her backseat! She couldn't see anyone! Her heart began to pound fiercely, as she broke into a cold sweat. “Who's there?!” she panicked!
“Are we going to get a move on here or what?” the male voice asked.
Still, Kate couldn't find anyone in the backseat! She slowly turned around, and when she did, she noticed a ghostly man in a white doctor's coat, the same ghostly man Robin encountered on her trip to the same town, sitting in her passenger seat that wasn't there before!
She let out a blood curtailing scream and grabbed ahold of the door handle! She tried her hardest to escape from her police car, but the door wasn't opening!
“Come on!” She panicked!
Suddenly, the ghostly man let out a guttural growl at her! Slowly, Kate turned her head to look at the ghostly man in her passenger seat. He had transformed into an evil-looking creature! Kate glanced down at the man's feet that had turned into hooves!
Complete terror came upon her, as she slowly looked back up at this horrifying creature! “Who are you?” she asked nervously.
“Devil,” the creature responded.
“What do you want?”
“Stop with this investigation!” he demanded! The devil reached its hand over and tried placing it on Kate's neck!
Frantically, Kate quickly pulled out her late brother, James's old religious necklace that she always carried with her in remembrance of her deceased brother. She held it between the devil and herself and shouted, “I DEMAND YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE!”
The devil laughed at Kate. “Did you really believe you can get rid of me that easily!” he asked. “I'll be back, I promise you!” Then, just like that, he was gone! But for how long?
Kate took a deep breath and continued onto the local police station.
When she arrived, she met with detective Hugo. Hugo could tell Kate was shaken up by something. “Is there something wrong?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Kate responded. She wasn't about to tell this man she just met what had occurred to her on her way over! Especially when she had a reputation to keep!
“Alright,” Hugo said. “You just look like you just saw a ghost or something.”
Kate looked at Hugo and gave him a nervous smile. “You do have a strange town here,” she stated.
“Follow me to my office,” Hugo instructed.
While they were walking down the long corridor to Hugo's office, Hugo mentioned something to Kate that was fascinating!
“This town is cursed,” he stated. He told her that there was a story of a man, Eli Irwin Gibbs, who was killed during the American Revolution. “It was a tragic death,” he said. He told Kate that it has been rumored around town that Eli collapsed on that mountainside while trying to run away from battle! “He laid there weak and dehydrated for weeks before someone finally found him! When they did, it was too late, he was already dead and his body was half-eaten by some demonic creature!”
“That's horrible!” Kate responded. “But how does that make this town cursed?”
They arrived at Hugo's office and entered. “Take a seat,” Hugo instructed Kate. “They found a note in his pocket,” he said. He told Kate that the note had some strange symbols on it with a message that read, “Every time a storm erupts upon this area, a tragic death will occur within thirteen miles!”
Hugo locked his eyes onto Kate's, his voice became stern, yet slightly somber. “It was storming when that bus crashed!”
Kate's jaw nearly hit the floor! “So, are you saying the curse caused the crash?” she asked.
Hugo shrugged. “Who knows," he responded. “What I do know is, I've lived in this town my entire life! I'm nearing retirement age now, and every single time we have a massive storm, someone either gets killed or tragically loses their lives in a horrific accident!”
“That is freaky!” Kate stated.
“What do you have for me?” Hugo asked as he glanced at the bag in Kate's hands.
Kate placed the bag on Hugo's desk, pulled out her camera, and showed him the photos she took from Dick's junkyard.
As he scanned through the photos Kate took and compared them to the photos from the crash site, Hugo could tell, without a doubt that the frame at the bottom of the stacked junked vehicles was that of the bus that was involved in the crash in the mountains! He was appalled that Dick fixed that bus up! “It was supposed to be junked!” he snapped. Then he got serious. “Did you have a search warrant?" He asked Kate.
“Well,” Kate responded. “No, but I didn't come all this way to not get any evidence!” She explained to Hugo that she operates to a different standard than the normal. That's how she'd been able to find many missing people in her career! “If someone is guilty of something, or is hiding something, they may not be willing for you to look around," she stated. She told Hugo that she was quote-on-quote “scavenging” through the junkyard.
Hugo smiled, “good one!” He looked back at the photos Kate had taken at Dick's junkyard. “I will get the arrest warrant printed and we will pay him a little visit!”
A half-hour later, Detective Hugo, Detective Kate, and four police officers pulled into Dick's auto shop. The four officers stood by the garage and back doors while Kate and Hugo stood by the front door. The place was surrounded! Kate made sure she was geared up, in case of any confrontation! She opened the door and walked in.
Dick's office door was open and he was sitting at his desk. Kate slowly approached Dick's office and knocked at the door. “Dick?” Kate asked.
“Good afternoon!” Dick cheerfully greeted! “Looking to buy a vehicle today?” He paused, “officer,”
“Detective,” Kate corrected as she flashed her badge. “Sir, you're coming with me!” She pulled handcuffs off of her belt and approached Dick.
Dick quickly jum
ped from his chair! “Hold up, what is this all about?”
“You tampered with evidence of a fatal bus crash that occurred a few miles up the mountain!” Kate snapped! “You put a dangerous vehicle back onto the roadways and have put many lives in danger!”
“You can't prove anything!” Dick snapped. “You're just a silly girl!”
“Sir, you are under arrest!” Kate snapped.
Dick looked around and barged past Kate, knocking her to the floor! Quickly, Kate picked herself up and began chasing Dick through the repair shop!
Dick tried to escape, but all the exits were guarded! While they were running between the vehicles in the garage, Dick knocked over a stack of tires!
“Whoa!” Kate exclaimed as she hurtled over a tire that came barreling at her! She gained her composure back and looked around the garage for Dick. “You're only digging yourself in deeper!” she shouted! She bent down and looked under the vehicles. At the opposite side of the garage, she noticed his feet behind a wheel of a vehicle. She smiled and slowly approached him.
When she got to where she saw his feet, she was stunned to find that he had taken off his shoes and placed them there as a decoy! Furious! Kate looked around the garage again. She didn't see any sign of Dick! “That bastard!” she huffed! She walked back into the office part of the building and noticed the men's restroom door shutting. A grin came upon her face and she walked into the men's room.
Inside, Dick had locked himself in a stall and was standing on the toilet. “I know you're in there!” Kate scolded!
“You can't be in here!” Dick yelled! “This is the men's room!”
Kate took a deep breath and kicked the stall door right off its hinges! She blocked Dick's only way out!
Dick was hopeless as he looked around. “I did nothing wrong!” he snapped!
Kate grabbed her handcuffs and placed them on Dick and read him his Miranda Rights.
“This is ridiculous!” Dick snarled as Kate grabbed his arm and walked him outside.
One of the officers opened the back door of their police car and Kate eased Dick into the backseat.
Dick was taken to the local jail where he awaited his trial.
