|| School Bus Graveyard One Shots ||

Another close call P.2

"Ashlyn, hurry! It's only you that's left!" Taylor waved as she was about to step into the bus.

"I'm coming!" Ashlyn ignored her thoughts because she thought she was just overthinking and jogged towards the bus.

Tyler sat down on one of the seats; tired from arguing with Aiden, "Took you long enough, carrot-top".

Ashlyn stopped for a moment, processing what Tyler has just said, "What?" 

She later found herself frowning at him and facing towards the floor –almost contemplating life- with a face that said "Me? carrot-top?" written all over her face.

"HAHAHA, CARROT-TOP!" Aiden exploded into laughter. He laughed so much he fell on the floor from the seat and had his hand on his stomach, rolling around on the floor.

Everyone in the bus laughed at Ashlyn's easy to read expression as well as because of Aiden's exaggerated actions. Whilst Ashlyn looked around the bus confused and wondered why they were laughing.

"What is happening...?" Ashlyn finally said. She had not been this confused since the math lesson they had this morning at school about the Pythagoras Theorem. In fact, it was so boring and confusing that Ashlyn fell asleep through morning class (and afternoon class as well; she basically was sleeping all day at school).

TAT. TAT. TAT. TAT. TAT. TAT.

Ashlyn's expression instantly changed as she heard loud footsteps. She tried to cover her ears from her sensitive ears even though she had earplugs in, but the sounds gradually got louder and louder.

What is this...? Why are they so loud? What is happening? From whom and where?

"Haha, it's nothing–" Taylor suddenly paused, and her expression changed from laughter to terror.

"A-Ashlyn, t-the p-phantom!" Logan cried; pointing at the door, near where Ashlyn was standing with her ears covered.

Aiden was still rolling on the floor, laughing. He was completely unaware of the situation and did not notice everybody else in the bus suddenly go quiet. Ben had to pat on his shoulders and told him to be quiet. 

Ashlyn's heart instantly dropped. 

How?

She slowly turned her head towards the door. The skeleton-like built phantom towered over her with a wide and disturbing smile welcoming her with eyes that illuminate even in pure darkness, searching for a prey to eat next. Ashlyn looked at it in the eyes with absolute horror; the smile widened even more, happy to have finally caught its persistent prey that ran away.

"Why...are you here...?" were the words Ashlyn couldn't help but escape out of her speechless mouth. 

"How...?" it appears that Taylor also murmured something without her and the rest of the group even noticing. They were too focused on the phantom towering over Ashlyn that their body completely froze. 

It was clear what everybody was thinking:

Why? How?