Dawn Hollow

VI

The hum of the sweet yellow car's engine made him want to go back to sleep. It was a beautiful lullaby that calmed his mind more than he realized he needed. And though his mind was calm, his body was in absolute agony. Everything from his head to his feet hurt. Some things were just a dull throbbing roar like most of his body, but everything else, including his head, neck, and feet, were loud shrieks. Deadly banshees of the night that just grabbed hold of him and refused to let go. Pins and needles were knives and daggers. The circumference of his head was smashed inwards until he couldn't even think clearly. It was a lot, and it all aided in how he woke up.

His neck was a square wooden board refusing to be manipulated, along with him lifting his dead-weight head up to see nothing outside of the window. The bus's engine whirled in his ears like massive oceans with his feet in the wet sand, taking up all his thoughts and leaving him with nothing. The daze in his eyes began slowly fading with the halo-like light that did not aid his sight.

But the smoke cleared. He noticed something that had changed since boarding the locomotive. The bus was ghostly, now suddenly being empty. There was no one to his left or right, behind him or in front of. Just him and the bus driver, who was quietly humming along to the Italian music he was playing for himself. But those facts didn't scare him quite as much as the fact that he still had no idea where he was going.

A few struggling grunts escaped his soft lips, just pushing his body up more to catch a glimpse of anything outside the fingerprinted plastic windows. In his efforts, a heavyweight slipped from his chest to his lap. A neon orange hoodie with the dark blue text of some university name had been his own personal blanket for who knows how long. A stranger had probably given it to him out of pity, but PJ was cold and didn't really care, so with malice aforethought to whatever lice or diseases it could be carrying, he put it on.

The bus's incline shifted dramatically up a steep hill that PJ didn't recognize. They couldn't have been going out of town. The buses weren't allowed to leave town limits. So then, where the heck was he? The sun's westward glow shone heavenly in his eyes. But now, he could just barely make out the exterior of the surroundings through it. Acres of rolling cedars stretched as far as he could imagine, the peeling bark making jagged stabs into the perfect circle of the sun. It was oddly beautiful in the most twisted way possible. It was straight out of a painting. However, the beauty was nearly in spirit, for his own grim situation captured his neck rather quickly when the bus rolled to a stop at the top of the hill.

PJ ate away at the lump in his throat with nerves and panic sitting in his suicidal stomach acids that made his bellyache. Then, finally, the white overhead lights activated, and the vehicle sat closer to the ground. His curious head poked over the dozen seats in front of him. The driver was just looking at him, the lone wolf, the last passenger.

"Last stop, Ragazzo!" He shouted in his deep and tired voice. His shaking bones shimmed out of the velvet seat and into the bus line. He held his hands and nervously rang them out. Air was escaping him at an alarming rate. But that didn't seem to bother the driver, seeing him so distressed. If anything, he looked like he found it amusing.

"W-Where are we?"

"Top of Dawn Hollow Peak. It's the last bus stop. Now get off, Ragazzo!"

"But, c-can't you take me back down the mountain? I-I mean, all the buses are stationed back in town, so why c-can't you take me back?"

"It's against the rules to have passengers in the bus after the final stop. So now, get out of my bus!"

"P-Please, sir, y-you can't just leave me in the middle of nowhere!"

"Do you have any cash?" It took his still groggy mind to understand the question, but once it hit, he was deep in his pocket. He had to have something this man wanted. Whether it was his phone, the clothes on his back, or his minor pocket change. He'd do just about anything for this man if it meant he'd take him home.