When she spotted a bus screeching to a stop, Luna turned off her phone without closing the internet app. This had to be the one containing her dear friend of almost 5 years. They had been planning this for months now, with her friend, Tanner, saving up money to fly to Washington so they could meet.
There wasn't much in Wisconsin that either of them wanted Luna to go to see, but there was plenty to do in Seattle alone. Plus, this weekend there were going to be a ton of events.
Luna undid her loosening ponytail, gathering up her hair and retying it at the crown of her head with her scrunchie. Hopefully, the jumpsuit wasn't too much. She is always either overdressed or underdressed when having her girls' days with friends.
A girl with short hair and wearing all black stepped off the bus. She was looking around nervously and Luna shoved her phone into her purse to make sure the girl was her friend. Upon crossing the street and watching the girl's gaze pass over her form, Luna knew.
"Oh good, bus was on time!" She bound over with a little swing in her step. If the hips swing then the hair follows suit, something she discovered and loved about wearing her hair up. "Thought it would be easier to meet up with you at the bus stop than risk you getting lost."
Unable to contain her excitement, Luna rushed forward and all but tackled the other girl, squeezing her with the force of wanting to hug her for the last five years. She had a lot of hugging to make up during Tanner's trip. "Nice to finally see you in person, hun!"
She watched as Tanner let out a loud laugh, "Dude, seriously, this is the most exciting my life has been since Jake started school." She snickered. Luna still remembered the pictures Tanner had sent her of her son, plus the video of him saying "Bye auntie!" before running into the school. "We don't really have much to catch up on since we text daily."
"Well, I have the new update that I finally finished Bleach," Luna declared, taking out her phone and waving it with an eye roll. "I couldn't put my phone down last night after messaging you and… well, I finished that dumpster fire of an ending."
Poor Kubo. Pressured to finish his work when it really should have ended almost 200 chapters prior. Luna could barely remember the names of anyone introduced, and most of their designs were… underwhelming.
The two talked as they entered the cafe and Luna paid for their drinks. It was nice, calming even. Luna had spent the last couple of days staying up late into the night making sure her homework was caught up. Classes were eating her alive and this was her only chance to breathe.
Wincing at Tanner's loud curse and praying the sets of moms in the cafe didn't mind that their little Timmys and Amys were exposed to the swears, Luna's eyes drifted outside. There was a tweaker outside, pacing back and forth on the street across from the cafe. He was shouting nonsense and making gestures to any passing car.
Back in her city, Luna wouldn't have paid much mind. She would put in her earbuds and walk away from the area as quickly as possible. But a repeated gesture made her blood run cold.
The man kept putting his hand against his side. Luna knew enough about anatomy to know that unless there was something seriously wrong with his body, that man's hip did not start where his hand would stop.
She had to get her friend out of there.
"Let's leave. Now."
Luna paid little mind as Tanner failed to pronounce Uwajimaya. Making sure her wallet, phone, and drink were all with her, Luna quickly left the building through the optional side entrance and towards the bus stop that could take them to the shop.
"You still have your ticket so you don't have to pay for the bus fare. I know which stop we have to take." She sighed with relief when they could no longer hear the man's shouting. "Sorry, got a weird feeling about the dude across the street. I hate that Seattle is full of these tweakers. We need facilities to get them cleaned, honestly."
Tanner laughed. "No worries, this town I lived in around the time Jake was born was also full of tweaks." She shook her head. "Part of the reason I moved not long after his first birthday."
Still, there was something that didn't sit well in Luna's stomach. Feeling her mouth go dry, she took a sip of her drink. At this rate, the more nervous she gets, the faster the drink will be gone.
But Tanner was here to spend time with her, not worry about random druggies that decided that the world needed to hear their babble. So, Luna continued her conversation, teasing her friend about her attire for the hot, Washington summer. It hadn't rained in over a week and it's been brutal. People moved here to get away from anything above 75 degrees!
Luna let out a groan when, after talking about Tanner's choker, an image popped into her head. Bleach characters wearing chokers of different shapes and colors. Her brain was too active for this kind of thing. "Should probably try to get back into my Naruto phase, at least I remember that plot inside and out. Stupid manga and introducing a bunch of characters all at once with Spanish names despite them all being Japanese… Spent ten years memorizing Japanese names. The Espada were hard enough to remember."
Actually, she only remembered the names of maybe… half of the Espada. She could say a lot of their names, but lord forbid her if someone asked for the spelling.
She introduced her Spanish-speaking friend to Bleach not too long ago. Watching him struggle to grasp the logic behind Kubo's choices amused her to no end.
Tanner laughed out loud and for a moment, Luna forgot about her nerves. "Good thing I know the plot to Bleach inside and out. It is my favorite series altogether." She paused for a moment. "Although the Spanish all of a sudden with all the Japanese is definitely confusing."
"Well, Kubo found it sexy, I guess. Not that sexy when you read them in katakana. It's kind of messy to write. I still prefer Naruto." Luna looked up from her phone after checking the time, hearing a familiar engine. "Bus is here."
Tanner laughed at… whatever part Luna said that must have been funny to her. Tanner liked to laugh whenever she spat out facts. "Yay! I can't wait to look at all the merch I can't afford!"
Luna would be damned if Tanner left the bookstore part of Uwajimaya empty-handed. The second Tanner showed excitement for something and walked away, Luna would buy it and her friend could deal with it!
"Please have Q Poskets," Luna muttered to herself, tossing the drink she finished into the bus stop's trash bin since she stress-drank it all. Hopefully, she didn't have to use the restroom until after they got to the store. "Please have Q Poskets and have them not be Sailor Moon. Hi!" She greeted the bus driver with a large, friendly smile. "Just show him your ticket, hun."
The moment Luna looked into the bus, that cold feeling she felt in the cafe returned. The bus was deserted. Well, it wasn't the fact that it was empty that bothered Luna. No, it was the fact that the interior was clean! At the price of always being on time, give or take a few minutes, Washington buses are seldom expected to be sparkling clean.
The lack of the burnt devil's grass smell was another red flag.
But… it scanned her pass, removed funding, and beeped, and it was the right bus number if Google Maps was accurate.
"I've got a funny feeling about this." Luna heard Tanner say, but before Luna could reassure her, the bus jerked forward.
She grabbed the pole by the seats, grabbing Tanner's arm to hold her steady. Once their balance returned, Luna took her friend's hand and led her to the side-facing seats. Luna usually read on her phone, and since she was easily car sick, sitting facing the walls and doors was all for her sanity. "We're getting off on the next stop if the feeling doesn't change. We won't get charged for changing buses."
Luna eyed her right hand that the other girl was gripping tightly. Well, she could deal with this. Luna wasn't a hand-holding person. In fact, her hands, back, and legs were all in the "no touchy" zone unless you were trying to get her attention or hugged her. But… Tanner was freaked out about something, and if this provided comfort, Luna could set aside her own barriers for the time being.
Tanner's expression was intense. "Yeah, okay. I hate riding buses." The fact that the bus driver kept staring at them instead of paying attention to the road really didn't help.
"I'm used to riding the buses, you just gotta remember to count the stops. I don't see any stop request wires… must be the kind that stops at every point." Luna followed Tanner's gaze and spotted the bus driver. Blank eyes stared at them through the massive bus mirror, based on where his eyes were positioned. He wasn't looking at the road.
'I don't want to say anything…' Luna felt her cheeks heating up and her throat tightening. This wasn't good. They were alone, the driver wasn't paying attention to the road, and obviously, the girl next to her wasn't going to say anything. It's not the bus driver's fault they decided to get on his bus, he's just doing his job and he might be familiar with the road! But still… This is Seattle. "Could you keep your eyes on the road, please? Otherwise, we want off if you're gonna keep staring at us."
Okay, that didn't feel good. At all. Luna decided at that moment that when they got off that she would apologize to him for snapping.
Checking what street they were passing, along with the nearest small shop to the stop light, Luna sent their location to her best friend of almost 10 years. Copying the message, she sent it to two other friends and her mother, who wouldn't see the message for at least another couple of hours when on her break. She almost opened Messenger to message Tanner, remembered the girl was literally next to her and went to finish the wonderfully written… ahem, 10k one-shot "story."
She ran out of multi-chapter fics of her favorite Bleach ship, and until the phase went away, ships in other fandoms were insufficient for her mind. She's getting desperate. Maybe one of her friends could tell her a ship to read?
When she finished reading the story, she huffed. "And another Bleach ship picked clean of all its gems. God, I hate loving pairings that die off once a show ends." She looked up to see trees. "Eh?"
Looking around, she checked her phone. No service? Luna opened Google Maps, only to be told their location couldn't be tracked. Opening her texts, four orange exclamation marks sat next to her most recently texted contacts. "Weird, Seattle always has service. Have we stopped at all since I started reading?"
Luna didn't feel the bus stop once while she was reading. From the stop they were at to Uwajimaya, there should have been six stops and they would have to walk the rest.
"Where even are we? This doesn't look like the city," Tanner asked in a strained voice.
Something flipped in Luna's mind. They were in danger. She took her hand from Tanner's and gave the girl her phone. "Get your knife ready. If he doesn't stop the bus right now, use my phone to text 911 telling them we were driving south of the street that I texted my friends in a red and yellow bus and we'll threaten him if he doesn't let us off."
Luna wasn't sure if Washington forgave people who used excessive force to defend themselves. But as far as she was concerned, this "bus driver" had taken them out of the city and their lives might be in danger.
She got up, using the poles to steady her as the riding wasn't as smooth. Dirt roads?! What bus goes on dirt roads?
Luna reached the driver and cleared her throat politely. No need to be rude to the driver… at least to his face, he's just doing his job. No matter how poorly it was done. "Hey, sorry to bug you, but I think we got on the wrong bus and want off. Now, please. We'll walk back to a different stop or call an uber to get to our destination."
It took all of Luna's willpower not to fidget with her hands when the driver looked at her, still driving. A smile that she had only seen in movies spread across his jaw and Luna's eyes followed his head as he nodded. "Sure, I'll let you off at the next stop." The voice was ethereal, nearly making Luna think the guy was a wannabe voice actor. Her willpower shifted to holding back her shiver as a chill crawled down her spine. Don't need Tanner to realize her shivers look like she's about to have a seizure, she's had enough friends worry about that. "It won't be much longer, please be patient and get back to your seat."
Luna's eyebrow rose and she contemplated tossing politeness out the road and just sock him in the temple right then and there. The emergency handbrake was right there, too. "Alright." She returned to her seat and took her phone back, texting 911. "Dude sounds like one of those autotuned deities in a triple-A budget film."
Keeping her expression cool, Luna began to call people. Her friends, her mother, siblings, classmates, anyone. Her eyes shifted to the driver and glared at him as yet another voicemail spoke to her. "Gonna kill someone if this is a kidnapping situation."
"Just don't kill me," Luna heard Tanner laugh nervously. Of course not! Tanner would just be helping her hide the body!
For the next several minutes, Luna switched between looking in her gallery for her picture on major arteries to stab, and checking her 911 text.
The bus didn't have any cameras, nor did it have the emergency stop button or exits that all Washington busses -at least on the western half- are required to have.
Her toes curled into her sandals. If they have to walk, the shoes were comfortable and she has gone on small hiking trails wearing them, but… sticker bushes were a problem. "The fuck is this place…?"
None of these trees looked native to Washington, and everything here looked way too old to be a newly planted forested area. There was no way this was a trail and Seattle was too far south to reach Canada and too far north for Oregon in a less-than half-hour drive.
Luna's body teetered to the side slightly when the bus reached its complete stop. The driver turned at a snail's pace, a grin that could put the Joker to shame on his face. "We've arrived."
Great, Autotunes McGee has a double-layered voice.
Luna took a quick picture of the driver from her phone and got up. "Thank you." She picked up Tanner's empty cup and threw it away in the little trash bin at the front of the bus. Sure, this was an unsafe situation, but she'd be damned if bad karma came her way because they littered on a bus.
Grabbing Tanner's arm, Luna dragged them off the bus. Forget apologizing, this guy shouldn't be driving a bus. "Fucking creep. Seen way too many horror movies for this kind of shit to play off. We should have been looking at manga and buying ramune by now. I'm taking a picture of the bus number."
They began to walk. Luna focused on the ground, kicking rocks as she did so, and made sure they skidded forward. Hopefully, Tanner knew what to keep an eye for above them. Horror movies weren't exactly a topic the two indulged in.
In reality, the most they have to worry about are spiders and maybe Big Foot if he decided to say hello to them.
Eventually, Tanner started to lead Luna. She was preoccupied calling 911. Over and over again she tried to get a signal. This shouldn't be possible! They had to have been no more than 10 minutes away from Seattle by bus. If services weren't available, legally her phone had to connect to the nearest tower and get her to emergency services!
"Shit…" Luna cursed under her breath for the tenth time as her phone failed to connect to any kind of service. She gave Tanner's hand a reassuring squeeze. They were going to get out of here, one way or another.
In the corner of her eye, Luna spotted someone in the distance off the path. "Tanner, stay here and watch me. I'm going to talk to that person. Scream if you think something's up."
She let go of her friend's hand, not bothering to look back as she made careful work to walk off the path. There were prickly bushes everywhere and she had to lift her jumpsuit legs up to keep them from getting caught. "Should have sent Tanner here instead. Hey! Excuse me! Do you know where we are- Oh, it's you."
The bus driver looked at her. He was a twitching mess as Luna could see his skin parting like cracks on a cement pavement, revealing nothing but empty darkness.
"Hello, Luna," That hollow, dual voice made the hair on the back of Luna's neck raise. "It's a pleasure to finally get to talk to you-"
"Yeah, no. Nope," Luna raised her arms in the air and backed away, then she bent down and scooped up a rock the size of her hand. "You got five seconds to turn your ass around and git. I'll bash your skull in and use your brain's folds for a jump rope. And I'm not good at jump rope, so it's gonna get a lotta dirt and rocks in it while I step on it."
"You're rather creative with your threats," The driver mused blankly.
"Comes with being a writer, muses come at random times. Now fuck off you daft cretin before I actually get the motivation to follow on my threat. I'm not interested in freaking perverts whose sick fantasy is to take girls into a forest by bus." Luna backed away. Once she was certain he was too far away to actually chase her down, she turned and ran to the pathway, not caring much that stickers were pricking her feet.
"Tanner! We gotta go, that guy from the bus is here- eh?" Luna blinked and looked around with no sign of her friend. "Tanner? TANNER?!"
But there was no response, her voice swallowed by the forest and not a single echo reached her.
Luna cracked her neck. "Make it night time and I can think of… many… many scenarios that this could go." The hair on the back of her neck stood up again and she turned to come face-to-face with the bus driver. Her arm swung up to hit him with the rock, but a large, callous hand grabbed her wrist and she froze.
"There we go. It's easier to talk when you're not threatening violence with each breath. I can tell you're not one for gentle words, so I'll be forward. You are dead." The driver loosened his grip, not letting Luna go, but just enough to where if she tried, she could get away. "If it wasn't for me, you would be in heaven with your friend."
"Jokes on you, I don't believe in heaven or hell. Where's Tanner? What did you do with her?" Luna blinked and paused. This whole time, she felt… oddly calm, and she reached up to press her pointer and middle finger to her throat. Nothing. A growl escaped her throat and she threw her hand at the man's face, scratching with dulled nails that dug into his cracking face and pulled down. "What the fuck did you do?!"
The driver merely glanced down at Luna's hand and her body ceased to listen, merely standing there like a statue. "There we go. Tanner was much more agreeable. She's already been given her second chance at life."
"Second-? You stupid fuck, she's a mom! You took a mother from a child!" Luna shouted, trying to fight, to move.
"I had nothing to do with your death, Luna. I merely stepped in to offer you the same I did for Tanner. A second chance at life. I could put you in the same world as her." The driver's empty smile grew. "Would you like a second chance at life?"
"What's the catch? I don't like owing people things, makes me feel awkward." Luna frowned. Same world? What kind of isekai bullshit was this? Sure, reincarnations were her specialty, but that was all just a bunch of fiction unless that's how your religion functioned.
"You're more cautious than Tanner. You won't have a say in who you wake up as, but you'll have your memories. Of course, had you not run off, it would have been a world you loved dearly," The driver said, holding out his free hand. "You'll find each other. Now, take my hand and reunite with your friend."
"... If I have to go through puberty again, I'm going to hunt you down, skin you alive, and turn your flesh into a war flag." Regaining the ability to move again, Luna pulled away her arm.
"Your violent nature will be useful where you are going," The driver promised blankly.
"Oh, I don't have a single physically-talented bone in my body. You just make my blood boil, Mr. Not-God," Luna declared and clasped his outstretched hand with a vice grip. She felt it in her legs first, the feeling of weight pushing down on her and the world went white.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! This chapter takes place in my friend's POV. I'm super excited for it as well, let us know what you think!