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

The Warning

The trip into town was relatively uneventful, McGregor and Shelby listened to country music and a few occasional comments between the two living people in the front seats. Either about something innocuous about a cousin getting married or about some new scandal rocking her friend circle making their weekly canasta game rather awkward or some snide and cutting remark pointed at one of them personally which fortunately didn't land and cause any real problems. A few relevant details came up about the destination and plan. They were on their way back into Buffalo from some family reunion in some town outside of Erie but needed to hit up a tire shop at some point. Though they don't know if they could find one open this early so they might just head home first and handle it later.

As the sign saying that they entered the city limits passed by Shelby spoke up.

"Look, we need to talk before we get any farther into town," Shelby announced. "We need to keep our heads down and get to the bus station as quickly as we can."

"Why?" McGregor asked.

"Buffalo is usually avoided, it's a pretty dangerous place for wanderers." Shelby's serious warning rose above the cheerful music spouting lyrics about the awesome feelings you get when you party near farms or some other such cliche.

"The Slavs?" McGregor asked. Shelby nodded.

"We would have only spent a few minutes there, but now.." He paused before he said anything more, not wanting to bring up the setback and add hurt feelings to their already staggering list of shit-to-deal-with. McGregor knew what he meant but also didn't want to dwell on it either.

"Be wary of everybody." Shelby continued. "Hopefully, we get close to the bus station, I don't want to spend much time out in the open." McGregor nodded.