That night, I had to head home pretty late after taking part in a campus event. For the first time, I decided to take the city bus home.
By the time I reached the bus stop, it was almost eight p.m. The stop was fairly deserted, with only a few people waiting.
A short while later, the bus arrived.
I got on and chose a seat by the window. There were only about six or seven passengers on the bus.
I was actually pretty tired. After checking the route on my phone, I put in my earbuds and leaned back.
The trip went smoothly. I hadn't gotten off yet because my house was still several stops away.
Then a voice came over the bus's speaker.
“Next stop...”
I removed one earbud. The stop it announced was a place I didn't recognize.
I looked out the window. There was no bus stop, no buildings. Just a dark road. I figured the announcement system must be malfunctioning.
The bus continued on.
A few minutes later, the voice sounded again.
“Next stop...”
This time, it named a different place. I started paying attention to my surroundings. All the passengers were still silent. None of them looked confused.
I asked a woman sitting in front of me.
“Ma'am, does this bus actually go this way?”
The woman looked at me, then shook her head.
I started to feel uneasy.
I opened my map app. The bus's location marker was still on the route it was supposed to be taking, so there shouldn't have been a problem. I tried to ignore it.
Until the announcement sounded again.
“Next stop... the old terminal.”
I fell silent immediately.
I knew that place.
The old terminal hadn't been used in years. I'd passed it with my parents once. The building had been empty.
I pressed the button to get off at the next stop.
The bus stopped and the doors opened. There was no bus stop, and no passengers got off.
I stayed on, and the doors closed again. The bus continued on.
I began to feel uncomfortable. Then I noticed something. I hadn't clearly heard the sound of the bus's engine for a while. There were no conversations, no sounds of anyone using their phones.
All the passengers were silent.
Too silent.
I looked toward the front. The driver was still driving. Then I looked through the windshield, but there was no road in sight, only darkness.
I started to panic.
I stood up and walked toward the front.
“Sir?”
The driver didn't answer.
“Sir, where are we going?”
Still no answer.
I moved closer, and suddenly a passenger behind me said,
“Don't bother the driver.”
I turned around and saw an old man staring at me.
I went back to my seat. Not long afterward, the bus stopped again. This time, the announcement came through loud and clear.
“Final stop.”
The doors opened.
I looked outside, and there I saw a bus stop I recognized. The stop near my house.
I got off immediately. As soon as my feet touched the sidewalk, I turned back.
The bus was already gone.
I went home and didn't think much about what had happened.
Until the next day, when I told my father about the experience.
“What number was the bus?”
I told him the number.
My father fell silent, then asked,
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
My father took out his phone and searched for something. A few moments later, he showed me an old news article.
I read the headline. A bus with the same number had been involved in an accident years ago. The accident had happened near the old terminal.
There had been no survivors, and the bus number had not been used since the accident.
I stared at my father's phone screen and remembered the ride from the night before. Six or seven passengers. A woman, an old man, a driver who never answered, and a bus that should have stopped operating years ago.
I never found out who they were. I also don't know how I managed to get on that bus, but there's one thing that still gives me chills.
When I got off at the bus stop near my house that night, I happened to look at the time on my phone.
9:47 p.m.
The trip should have taken only about twenty minutes, yet it felt as if it had lasted more than an hour. And ever since that night, whenever I see a bus with the same number...
I always make sure of one thing first.
“Never get on.”