Dance with Darkness - Ghost Dance

Chapter 15

I ended up staying much longer than I had intended, and trudged out of the Hearne mansion sometime close to four.  The bitter November wind stung my cheeks as I struggled to get my headphones out of my bag for the bus trip home.  By now I was careful of the step from the yard path onto the curb, and navigated the tricky thing without going sprawling like I had on my first day here.

Looking down the hill to the bus stop, however, was the thing that caused me to stumble.  For, standing under the bus shelter and looking a bit lonely, was a scrawny, gray-bearded man in a navy blue mechanic’s uniform.  But his otherwise-common appearance did nothing to disguise the axe that sprouted from the side of his head.

I stared for a good long while, blinking furiously as my brain tried to process what I was seeing.  The bus ghost, outside his natural habitat?  I thought for a moment before remembering the nearby cemetery just up the street.  Did he visit his remains, or maybe his family?

It wasn’t until the bus appeared at the end of the street that I propelled my feet into motion, the fear of missing my ride overruling my fear of the spooky spirit.  As I arrived at the bus stop, gasping from my sprint and cursing my body’s inability to run, the ghost simply gave me an uninterested glance before gliding through the side of the bus and taking a seat.

I chose the more conventional way of getting on and walked through the doors instead, picking a seat somewhere in the middle and tuning out the world around me as my music started.

I had barely gotten halfway through the first song in my playlist when my phone began to ring.

It was Maggie, who, sweetly enough, had called to check up on how I was feeling after my “sick day” on Friday.

“You’re really feeling better?” she asked over the phone, and I felt a little guilty for having skipped yesterday.

“Yeah, I think it was just a bit of food poisoning,” I lied smoothly.  “Nothing to really worry about.  But thanks for calling!  It’s really sweet of you to check up on me like this.”

“Oh, no problem!”  Maggie laughed, relieved to hear I would be back on Monday.  “I missed you!  Work was such a bore yesterday.  Honestly, Mr. Webber drives me crazy because he can’t keep the schedules in order so I ended up having to re-do everything.  And then Natalie kept acting like an insufferable know-it-all when it came to the catering for the big conference next week.  She thinks truffle turtles would be better to go on the menu instead of sweet cream buns, and everyone knows that truffle turtles just wouldn’t go with the rest of the course.  Oh!  Did you know we got a call for an art show next month?  Isn’t that great?  I think it’ll be mostly abstract and postmodern stuff, which, you know, isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but it’ll still be fun!  The company will probably come up with a few new recipes to debut there.  And did you hear what Mason and Jeff did for the design…”

I listened to her ramble for about five more minutes, smiling at her cheery, carefree demeanor but not really processing much of what she said, as her sentences were all rushed with her enthusiasm.

“Oh, Henry’s going to pick me up in a few minutes, I’ve got to go!” she suddenly said.  “He and his coworker Jamal got some free passes for cosmic bowling, so we and a few others are going to try it out!  See you Monday!”

I laughed at her excitement.  “Okay, have fun!” I replied, staying on the phone until she hung up a second later.  Slowly, I lowered the device and put it back in my bag, suddenly remembering that I still had to call my parents back about Thanksgiving.

“You two.”

The voice was low and right in my ear, and when I looked up to find the speaker, I nearly had a heart-attack.  Bus-Ghost had moved to sit right next to me, and was staring out the window, index finger pointing at something outside.  I was just seconds away from jumping up and running to a different seat, but I slowly followed his gaze anyway.