𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚

xviii

short story
learn to be thankful of what you have

she was on a bus late at night, going home when she noticed a couple sitting in the corner of the bus holding hands. It was only her, the couple and the bus driver. the driver seemed to blend in with the shadows almost like he and the shadows were one. he was one with it although he looked like a normal old man. suddenly he glanced at her and their eyes met through the rear-view mirror and he extended his hand towards hers with three neatly wrapped candies –she suspected it was gum- and cute stickers on the wrappers.

she took them and inspected them further, the first one was pineapple flavoured, and the second was mango flavoured, and lastly an apple flavoured gum. she had taken all of them and started to eat them one by one, she didn't know what has possessed her at the time. for all she knew they could've been poisonous or drugged. yet she had already eaten two by the time she came to her senses and returned the last one to the old man "thank you but two are enough." the driver frowned and his face darkened, he looked absolutely terrifying, "you have to consume them all to become an immortal." petrified the girl says, "i appreciate the offer but I'd rather die as a normal human." she hadn't noticed that the bus had already stopped until she looked at her surroundings. she quickly gathered up her stuff and aimed to the door, 'i need to get away from this psychopath as fast as i can.' she thought.  as soon as her feet made contact with the ground she heard loud grunting and cracks behind her. she started to turn around to find the source of the sounds, suddenly she gasped and stumbled back a few steps. the man had turned into bones and his eyeballs were dangling from his skull as if he was a corpse –minus the flesh- his eyes seemed zoned out but scary nonetheless. She ran her eyes across the bus to glance at the rest of the bus, seeking the couple's attention.

the girl she had seen earlier had fainted and was basically transforming into a zombie, meanwhile the guy has turned into a skeleton and started screeching loudly that she questioned if his lungs and vocal chords were still intact. due to the windows being open she heard the guy say "what did you do to me?" in a dangerously low voice that carried itself through the pitch black night and into her ears. when she looked back to the driver, his whole body was twitching as if he's having a seizure. the guy yelled again, "what did you do to me?" and the driver suddenly stopped moving and snapped his head towards the boy and said in an eerily quiet voice, "you had taken the enchanted candy and became an immortal, but because another human decided to not be greedy and take the privilege of an immortal life as you, we are both suffering the consequences of such greediness. we became souls that are hanging on the thread between life and death. we're neither dead nor are we quite alive." silence took place. a million thoughts running in the four individuals' minds.

the girl understood the liberal human was actually her. the guy trained his gaze towards her –completely livid- he charged towards her, but to her luck the door was closed. he started smashing his skull through the glass of the door while she was rooted to the spot, too panicked-stricken, she couldn't move. finally, something clicks in her head and she started sprinting away from the scene. she glanced back quickly and saw that the boy broke the glass and was laying motionless on the ground. when she glanced back again she noticed the spirits roaming in the bus, screaming in agony because they were in the same situation as the driver and the boy, neither alive nor actually dead.

—
hey! sorry for being on a mini hiatus, i'm extremely busy with finals, but i dug up something old i've written for the meantime until i write again.

if you didn't understand the moral of this mini horror story— it basically shows that being greedy does us no good in the end.

fun fact; it was inspired by a nightmare i had.

~R.