The Last Bus at Midnight
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Working late one night, Priya missed her usual evening bus and found herself waiting alone at a nearly empty station for the final midnight service, the only other passenger an elderly woman sitting silently near the very back of the otherwise deserted bus when it finally arrived. Settling into a seat near the front, Priya noticed the bus driver never once glanced in his rearview mirror or acknowledged either passenger throughout the entire ride, his eyes fixed forward with unusual, unblinking intensity as familiar streets passed by outside the windows. Something about the unnaturally quiet ride unsettled her deeply, and when she finally glanced back toward the elderly woman, she found the seat completely empty, despite no stop having occurred and no sound of movement having disturbed the silent bus since departure. Heart pounding, Priya pressed the bell for her stop two streets early, practically running down the aisle toward the doors the moment they opened, refusing to look back at either the driver or the strangely empty rear seats behind her. The next morning, mentioning the unsettling ride to a longtime coworker, she learned that the midnight bus route had been the site of a serious accident decades earlier, and that several other late-night passengers over the years had reported the exact same experience, an elderly woman who boarded but somehow never actually arrived anywhere at all.
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Working late one night, Priya missed her usual evening bus and found herself waiting alone at a nearly empty station for the final midnight service, the only other passenger an elderly woman sitting silently near the very back of the otherwise deserted bus when it finally arrived. Settling into a seat near the front, Priya noticed the bus driver never once glanced in his rearview mirror or acknowledged either passenger throughout the entire ride, his eyes fixed forward with unusual, unblinking intensity as familiar streets passed by outside the windows. Something about the unnaturally quiet ride unsettled her deeply, and when she finally glanced back toward the elderly woman, she found the seat completely empty, despite no stop having occurred and no sound of movement having disturbed the silent bus since departure. Heart pounding, Priya pressed the bell for her stop two streets early, practically running down the aisle toward the doors the moment they opened, refusing to look back at either the driver or the strangely empty rear seats behind her. The next morning, mentioning the unsettling ride to a longtime coworker, she learned that the midnight bus route had been the site of a serious accident decades earlier, and that several other late-night passengers over the years had reported the exact same experience, an elderly woman who boarded but somehow never actually arrived anywhere at all.
