The In-Between and After: A Ghost's Story

The Drop

While they slept, one of the passengers stood up to go to the restroom, in addition to his loud whisper, asking the person next to him that he needed to use the restroom, that was more attuned to a hushed scream than a whisper in the silence it interrupted and his heavy footsteps, and the windbreaker suit he was wearing, though terrible out of vogue, he managed to drop his water bottle that he had all but drank some of which spilt onto a man on the way. The commotion that ensued was more than enough to wake most of the bus.

The morning sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, it's light still strong enough to cast a purplish orange hue over the land allowing for a dim but visible view of the scene on the bus. The man who had spilled the water was trying not to bring too much attention though he was too late, the whole bus was staring at him, he apologized profusely, his voice shaking with embarrassment. After he tried to make amends and others offered napkins to the wet man, the man in the windbreaker suit, swish-swoshed off down the aisle toward the bathroom, phasing through Shelby on the way. Who sat up, stretched, and looked back at McGregor who was barely waking up.

"Damn, always during the best parts of the dream," Shelby growled. He pulled himself up and looked out the window. "You see a sign on that side?" he asked. McGregor squinted out from his tired eyes to look out the window but wasn't able to get a good look from his perch vantage point. He sleepily rolled off the perch, but his foot phased through the floor, followed quickly by the rest of him.

The next few seconds went like a blur. McGregor hit the ground hard and rolled forward as his body flailed and skidded on the asphalt road. Finally coming to a stop he laid on the road groaning. Back on the bus, Shelby yawned and stretched his arms and back.

"Anything?" Shelby asked as he rubbed his eyes and turned back. "McGregor?" Shelby muttered as he looked around. "McGregor!" he called out, waking up Bell, from her deep sleep.

"Why are you yelling?" Bell looked up at Shelby who was freaking out. "What's wrong?" she asked seeing the fear in Shelby's eyes. Shelby, searching anywhere possible, phased through the door for the bathroom. Though he only saw windbreaker or more accurately was assaulted by the foul stench of windbreaker.

"Goddamn!" He withdrew quickly, it took him a second to recoil from the what he just witnessed.

"Where's McGregor?" Bell asked sternly, snapping Shelby from his daze. "You don't think?" She looked down at the ground.

"No... he was doing so well... The roof!" Shelby scaled out and stepped onto the nearest set and quickly scaled up through the roof, followed shortly by Bell, her movements still shaky from just waking up.

McGregor let out a long and strained groan. A car phased over him causing him to flinch at the sudden sound and movement. The involuntary jolt sent shocks of pain through his body. He let out a wordless shout. Another car.

"Do we just jump?" Bell asked Shelby who was pacing back and forth looking back down the highway.

"No, but we need to hurry, let's get back down." The two quickly scaled back down inside the bus. Shelby ran to the door of the bus and phased his head through the door. He looked down at the ground. He figured the bus was going highway speeds around sixty miles-per-hour. He phased back in and turned to Bell.

"Look..." He took a breath, thinking how to word his thoughts. "I'll go, no need for all three of us to get hurt. You..." Another breath as his heart began to beat faster.

"I can wait for y'all at the next stati..."

"No." Shelby interrupted her thought. Bell cocked her head. "You know what the next station is, no need to put yourself in the even more danger. You aren't apart of this. If they are coming, they're coming for us, me and McGregor." He stared at her for a second, she didn't respond, she just mulled over his words in her mind. Shelby turned to look out of the bus's windshield, to see if there was anything up ahead that could possibly slow the bus down. At the same time, hiding the fear in his face. He had hoped to be able to fly under the radar until they reached Boston, now they would have to spend extra time in the next town which is crawling with Slavs and one of the few places usually avoided by wanderers if at all possible.