The Bus to Somewhere Scary

If I hadn't been trapped on this bus, I would have probably run as far away as I could. To find out that Duppies were a real thing and that they were able to have almost human bodies was too much for me to handle. The man-child also said that these types dont like being called duppies but prefer the term Bounded Spirits. The man-child rolled his eyes when he told me this.

My stomach stung with the fading pain of his punch. He must have used his free hand to punch me as I noticed his hand with the knife fell to the side for the first time and this is where I felt the most idiotic. When a man-child jams a knife to your side, please ensure that it's an actual knife and don't just assume. The man-child held in his hand a toy blade. The edges seemed to have been sharpened but it was still a toy, so it would do some damage but not life-threatening ones, I hoped.

"Are you kidding me, did you force me onto this bus with a toy knife"

"Oh, so you finally realized. They said I should capture you but they didn't authorize force. Too bad for me" he said smirking.

"You grabbed the wrong person. There is no way I am involved in anything that is happening here" I quickly said.

"You are the right person, Jeremiah Weedling, age 17, Theft of the highest order" he listed as if reading my wrap sheet.

"A thief, there you go again sprouting lies"

"Wait, are you going to pretend that you don't know where you're headed?" he asked quizzically, and for the first, something other than his smugness ran across his face.

"No, I don't know why this is happening, where I am going, or why I just saw a family kill themselves to have their ghosts float above their bodies.

"Firstly...They are already dead. They were bound to the place where they died and it was my job to retrieve them. Those fake bodies are the only way for a bounded spirit to leave their place of death, and touching them without permission is a great offense" he said in a soft voice.

I looked over to the bodies once more and saw that the daughter and her mother were glaring at me. The father shaking his fist at me.

"Secondly... you're a wanted criminal and I am here to take you before the judges to be sentenced, if you can even call it that," he said adding his commentary at the end, his voice filled with pity.

" A criminal?!" I exclaimed and quickly lowered my voice. " I've never stolen anything of great value in my life. I have said this many times already".

"Well the court seems to think otherwise, and it must be something of great importance if they were willing to give you a trial so quickly. These things usually take months". "You are one brave criminal to steal from "The Seven".

"The what!!, Yo!! , listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth, I am no criminal" I said sternly.

"You can stop pretending, you will go down in history for this. You are the first person to ever succeed in doing so and at such a young age.

"Criminal....Thief... Me???" I was flabbergasted. "Are you sure you grabbed the right person?".

"Of course I did, I wouldn't mess up such an important task," he said proudly,

"This can't be right" I stuttered.

"Are you telling me you did not steal any items of great value from "The Seven"?

" No, I did not ".

"Well it doesn't matter as we will arrive in about another five minutes," he said shrugging his shoulders.

"Arrive where?" I asked but he didn't reply.

The spirits weren't the only ones to go through the shifting. Others on the bus started to morph into creatures I'd never thought I would see in my life. These creatures belonged in books and folklore. The lady in front of me took a face wipe and started removing makeup from her face. What was left was a deathly pale complexion and when she adjusted her jaw, two fangs popped out.

One man started growing hair everywhere and he just sat there as his mouth extended into that of a dog and his teeth grew to fill his mouth. A werewolf and this lady was a vampire. I am glad I didn't knee her.

Another man grew horns from the side of his head like a bull while the child beside him had her horns curled like that of a ram. One lady had a horn popped out of her forehead and flames ignited on it. The next person to shift had a second pair of arms popping out from his side. A little boy's skin turned green and when he removed his hat, a cup-sized dent was there. Someone got up quickly to pour some water on his head and he let out a huge sigh of relief. He rose to his feet and then bowed to the person causing the water to spill out onto the floor. More water was quickly added and this time he did a small nod.

I was shocked and amazed. I know a few of these creatures due to anime. There are from different races beliefs and cultures. I knew Jamaica was out of many people but who would have thought that applied to mythical creatures as well?

My blood ran cold when a scary thought popped into my head and I gripped the bars even tighter as my legs started to shake and buckle. Sweat started running down my forehead and my hands trembled. My mind began to skip and I could tell I was on the verge of blacking out but that's when I felt a hold around my arm.

"Pull yourself together," the man-child said,

"Pull.. myself...together, bwoy are you crazy?" I glared at him. "There are monsters all around us," I said in a low whisper

"It makes no sense to lower your voice, most of the passengers here can hear a pin drop over twenty meters away. " he glared right back with a sense of indifference.

Oh god, oh god, how did I get myself into this? I am a good kid, I've never done any bad in my life. Am I going to be a sacrifice? Oh god, oh god, is that what has been happening to the children that have gone missing, what is going to happen to me? Thoughts raced through my head too fast for me to even comprehend. Too fast for me to lock onto a problem and come up with a solution. I was spiraling and soon I would reach the sea of blackness, The sea of despair. The one thought that kept nudging at the front of my mind was "Why did they suspect me of theft?".

"Mr. Weedling! Mr. Weedling...Jeremiah Weedling".

"Yes Here!". Oh my was that all just a dream, I thought but that notion was quickly shattered when even those around me started laughing. Strange voices, not those of children in my class laughing at me for dozing off.

I found myself in a miniature coliseum before seven strange beings, I'd never seen before.

"Huh" were the only words that left my mouth.

"You asked, what is it that brought you here, well if you pay attention, I would gladly tell you," the lady in the center of the crescent podium said. "The attention span of kids these days is so short".

I dont know if it was the frustration from early on, the thoughts that I was about to die but the word flew out my mouth before I could even stop myself.

"Oh! Sorry if I can't seem to wrap my head around being kidnapped and surrounded by creatures that shouldn't even exist" I blurted " My apologies Your Majesty" I continued sarcastically.

One man to the right of her shouted "The Audacity". Everyone in the coliseum jumped in.

"Kill him already! He's only human".

"Let feast on his Bones".

"We can't let this slide. Let's sacrifice him to Anansi!".

"Thief!".

"Order! Order!" The lady said but everyone was in an uproar at this point.

"Silence!" A ghostly-looking man on the podium bellowed through the room. He looked like a transparent white dementor from Harry Potter.

"Mr Weedling, I will not have you cause unrest in my courtroom. You are here on the charge of theft," she said and this was the first time I truly looked at her.

She was a very beautiful woman. I could tell she was older than she looked based on how she spoke but her features didn't portray any of that. She had flawless dark skin, with long black hair with Burgundy highlights at the end. Her eyes weren't human though, they shun like that of a cat, golden yellow. I got the sense that something was holding her back as if I should have been dead ten minutes ago.

"Theft?".

"Yes, theft... are you also hard at hearing?" she chuckled " Not surprising".

"This Bitch" I mumbled to myself.

This lady was working my last nerve.

Theft? I wondered to myself.

I have no idea what she's talking about. I glanced around the room and I could tell that everyone was convinced that I was some thief. No matter what I said, I knew I couldn't convince them without proof and that meant I was going to die.

"On the thirteenth day of September, You found yourself on the blue mountain....".

"I was on a school trip!" I quickly added.

"Don't you dare interrupt me again Mr. Weedling!" her eyes flared and I heard as claws dug into the furniture. I took a step back subconsciously.

"and during the hours of two to three in the morning, you stole our greatest secret and treasure". She paused and looked at me.

" Um...I never..." but my words were cut off.

" That tressure is owned by The Seven and you have no right to it," A guy with huge horns on his head said as he slammed his fists on the table, sitting next to the Dementor.

He was a burly man. I don't know if it was his size but he would give the man-child a run for his money. This guy was huge. His clothes looked as if they were having a hard time holding onto his body. The flames on his horns dance, ever-changing from a yellowish glow to deep orange and then to a darkish light blue.

" If it is not returned your death will not be swift" he continued.

"I never..." I was cut off again.

"That item cannot be in the possession of a human. No telling what kind of danger the world would be in with that kind of power" A man said. He said between the ghostly-looking man and the lady at the center.

This guy was dressed nicely. He wore a luxury suit. His hair was white and twisted like the man-child but longer.

A beastman?.

He has dark brown ears, that of a wolf on the side of his head.

From what I can tell it seems that these were their human forms mixed with their true forms. They weren't fully shifted.

"I Never...".

"You cannot..." she tried to say but I jumped in.

"I thought this was a trial, could I be mistaken because you seem to be the only one talking?".

An Audible gasp was heard throughout the coliseum and in just seconds everyone was stunned silent.

" If you are going to kill me the least you could do is allow me to talk and finish what I was saying like....

"I Never stole anything on my school trip to the Blue Mountains. This could be a common cause of mistaken identity". I said but there was only silence after.

"Are you finished..." she glared at me.

"Yes".

"You have been repeating the same line over and over "I never" but this isn't a case of mistaken identity. I assure you it's not".

"How can you be so certain?" I asked nervously.

She let out an exhausted sigh, everyone who interacted with me on the podium seemed to share this same expression. This was a complete waste of their time.

"Mr. Weedling, Can you tell me how the persons before you appear"?.

"Why are we dragging this out," The Dementor-looking man said. His voice sounded like a broken speaker. It rang in my ear like an itch I could not scratch. I was glad when he stopped talking. I tried to not let it show but I think I failed.

"He is only Human".

"That is exactly why we are doing this and should I remind you what needs to happen before we consider ending this person's life?

"Ending my life", those words ran a chill down my spine.

"Please continue Mr. Weedling. In order if you could".

From the left.

1. The Ram sorcerer

2. The Fish Lady

3. The Flame Mistress

4. Then you The Cat Lady with very sharp claws

5. The White Dementor

6. The Bull Hulk Man

7. The Wolf Gentleman

"And that's all of you" I ended.

"You have a Seer's sight. The fact you were able to even get a glimpse of what we truly were proves it. If you didn't come into contact with the artifact then all you would see would be seven normal individuals" She said.

"The only way for you to have the sight is to be born with it or for you to come into contact with a very powerful artifact. That belonging to a God."

"Sister Elizabeth!, I understand what you are trying to do but don't you think you are revealing too much?".

"Wait! You have names! Doesn't court normally start with the introduction of the judges" I asked. I don't know how I could get myself out of this situation but I am hoping if enough time passes they realize that I am not who they are looking for.

"All members on the podium were introduced to you at the start of the proceedings," a man standing at the podium said dressed in full black. Long fitted pants with a few pockets, t-shirts with a vest that wrapped around his chest like lightweight armor, A sword hung at his side. I looked around the room and noticed that there were many others like him.

"Could I request that we do it again, I seemed to have spaced out the first time".

"This boy is just trying to stall us". The Dementor bellowed.

"Let's indulge him a little while longer," the Wolf Gentleman said "It's good etiquette that you know the names of the ones who will be sentencing you to death".

"From the right" the man in black announced.

1. Hon. Demitri Johnson " Lagahoye"

2. Hon. Marcus Smith "Rolling Calf"

3. Representative Paul White "Jumbee"

"How fitting" I snickered to myself

4. Hon. Dionne Elizabeth Harrison " Ol' Hige"

5. Hon. Shanique Robinson "Soucouyant"

6. Hon. Rachel Edwards " River Mama"

7. Hon. Nicholas Wright " Papa Bois"

While he spoke the name, something strange started to happen. The name sounded familiar. Of course they did, these were the oldest mythical creatures and beings passed down through the ages. I knew them all except for the Lagahoye. That one was new.

I couldn't tell but they seemed like memories,

But memories I wasn't familiar with. This was strange. I flung my bag off my shoulder and started to rummage in it. I threw the clothes from within whichever way until I found what I was looking for.

"He has a weapon!!".

"Kill him now" persons shouted from their seats.

The man in black pulled his sword and as he did I continued to pull a ring from my bag.

"That is it!! " The Seven all rose from their seats.