Chapter 3

Felice's heart raced as he darted out of the bus stop, his feet pounding against the damp pavement. The thick fog obscured his vision, making it difficult for him to see. But his lack of vision wasn't as important as getting away from that noise.

Just thinking about it made him pick up his pace, his eyes glued to the road ahead, determined to escape whatever lurked in the mist. But he never expected the disaster that awaited him.

Unbeknownst to Felice, his shoelaces had come undone in the rush. While this may be a minor inconvenience for some, for Felice it was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

And explode it did.

In what felt like slow motion, Felice's foot snagged on the lace, sending him toppling forward. Despite his best efforts to break his fall, Felice couldn't react fast enough. With a loud thud, his face met the damp surface of the concrete.

"Damn it," Felice muttered as he climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. As he did so, a concerned voice cut through the thick fog.

"Hey, you okay?" inquired a woman with a South African accent, her radiant dark skin drawing attention as she approached. Her short, curly brown hair bounced in rhythm with her steps. Behind her trailed a diverse group, their expressions a blend of confusion and curiosity as they glanced his way.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied with a sheepish grin.

"Mind you, that was quite a fall. You might want to sit down for a bit. Are you dizzy?" the woman asked. Her eyes reflected genuine concern.

Shaking his head, Felice chuckled, "No, I'm fine. I'm used to it; I fall quite often." A smile crossed his face, attempting to downplay the incident.

The woman's sharp gaze flicked over his body before settling on his face. She nodded in understanding and spoke, "Well, it's a good thing you're okay." Her tone held a hint of concern.

He grinned back, trying to ease some of the tension. "Yeah, getting hurt in this place sounds like a nightmare." Curiosity sparked in him as he asked, "By the way, where did all of you come from?"

She met his confusion with her own. "The same place as you, I guess."

Felice furrowed his brow. "You mean the bus stop?"

"Yeah," she admitted, sheepishly avoiding his gaze. "Sorry for ditching you, but we couldn't wake you up and we wanted to check where we were. Did something happen?"

Although that was logical, after all, they were seemingly in the middle of nowhere, they could have left one person with him. Just in case something happened.

His thoughts must have shown on his face because she quickly said, "We only left you for at most ten minutes."

"Ten minutes?" Felice repeated incredulously.

"That's what it feels like," she said with a shrug. "We only woke up about 15 minutes ago and found ourselves scattered around this bus stop. Our phones were missing, so we thought we'd explore a bit, but somehow, we keep ending up back here."

Felice's uneasiness grew as he took in the foggy surroundings and the strange occurrences they were experiencing. "What is going on here?" he voiced his thoughts aloud, feeling a sense of unease settle over him.

"Ye never gave her an answer," a red-haired man interjected. "Sumthin' went down, didn't it?"

Felice hesitated, then admitted, "Yeah, I heard this strange noise... it freaked me out."

"You mean that wailing sound? We heard it too while we're looking around," a burly guy chimed in, his deep voice resonating. "Scared the crap out of these softies." He nudged a smaller, wiry man playfully.

"Hey!" A petite girl protested, her voice sharp. "I saw you jump as well."

"Shut up, you Belle reject. Did I ask you to put your two cents in?" The muscular man snapped and glared at the petite girl. She retreated behind the dark-skinned woman.

The curly-haired woman shot a stern look at the man, her hand soothingly on the scared girl's shoulder. "I don't know who the hell you think you are speaking to her that way, but we can't waste our time fighting among ourselves."

"She's right," a slick-backed man added, his tone calm yet authoritative. "We can't lose our heads until we know what we're dealing with."

Confused, Felice asked, "What do you mean by dealing with?"

The curly-haired woman fixed Felice with a grave expression. She looked as though she was searching for the right words. "We might not be on earth anymore."

Although the thought lingered in the back of his mind, he didn't want it to be true. However, it would explain a lot if it were.

"Then where are we?" he asked, uncertainty seeping into his voice.

"That's what we would all like to know," the curly-haired woman replied. Her eyes reflected her bewilderment.

A sudden interruption came from a blonde girl behind them. "Maybe this is purgatory."

An Italian man bristled, snapping, "Shut up with that! We went over this. We're obviously not dead!"

"Then where are we?" the blonde pressed, her frustration evident.

Before anyone could respond, a horn echoed in the distance. The glow of approaching headlights accompanied it.

"It looks like we'll find out soon," Felice remarked, his gaze fixed on the oncoming bus.

After he said that, the group turned their gaze toward the approaching bus. Almost as if pulled by an invisible force, everyone gravitated back toward the bus stop. With each step, they were able to see the bus better. This was odd, considering the thick fog.

The bus, rusted as it was, resembled a relic from the early 1900s. It was extremely worn and battered to the point where it seemed like it could fall apart at any moment. As if that wasn't unsettling enough, its faded, almost sickly green color added to its overall creepiness.

As the bus approached, they were able to see the driver through the window. What they saw shocked them to their core.

The driver had an unearthly figure, with sunken cheeks that accentuated the skeletal appearance. His bulging eyeballs stared intensely, framed by thin, almost nonexistent lips. Sparse hair clung to his head, completing the strange visage. Although clad in a faded bus driver's uniform, he had an otherworldly aura.

Felice, along with the others, couldn't help but gape at the surreal sight. A tinge of fear crept into their collective consciousness. The burly guy in the group voiced what many were thinking.

"There's no way in hell I'm getting on that bus," he declared firmly, the sentiment echoed by the red-haired man beside him.

Even though he had extremely bad luck, Felice always thought his instincts made up for it. Right now, they were telling him that the person driving the bus might be scary as fuck, but probably wouldn't hurt them. 

As his initial fear slowly ebbed away he glanced at the others. He noticed they were all very much still afraid, except for the curly-haired woman, who was stoic.

Moments passed, and the aging bus finally grumbled to a stop in front of them. As the doors creaked open, the skeletal driver maintained an eerie focus on them, causing most to tense up as if expecting an attack.

"Are you getting on or not?" the bus driver asked. His voice was oddly mundane, a stark contradiction to his ghastly appearance. 

Felice was a little caught off guard by that. Who would expect such a normal voice to come out of that mouth? However, that wasn't what he should dwell on; the real question was whether or not he should get on the bus.

Author Says: Did you know a skeleton is made of more than 200 bones? I feel like we should have more.