The second her boots hit the cement and the hissing of the bus pulling away came to her senses, she felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety. Short brown hair whipping in the wind and somehow blinding her.
Tanner shoved her dark grey, large square glasses further up her nose and held her breath as her hazel blue eyes scanned her surroundings, looking for familiar long dark hair. She knew her best friend of 5 years was supposed to meet her somewhere around here but she didn't know where.
Tanner let out the breath she was holding and gripped her bag tighter. Time to find the Cafe they were supposed to meet at.
"Oh good, bus was on time!" A girl in a navy blue and white pinstripe jumpsuit, and black rectangle glasses strutted over to her. Her movement was purposefully done in a way to make her high pony swing. "Thought it would be easier to meet up with you at the bus stop than risk you getting lost."
Tanner wasn't given much time to prep when the girl suddenly ran forward, hugging her tightly.
"Nice to finally see you in person, hun!" The girl squeaked out as her arms all but became love pythons.
Tanner laughed loudly and hugged her back tightly. "Dude, seriously, this is the most exciting my life has been since Jake started school." She snickered, knowing full well her kid was in good hands with his godparents. "We don't really have much to catch up on since we text daily." A wide smirk on her pierced lips as she took a step back.
"Well, I have the new update that I finally finished Bleach," The girl said, waving her phone with a large eye roll. "I couldn't put my phone down last night after messaging you and… well, I finished that dumpster fire of an ending."
Tanner laughed loudly once again as they started walking towards the cafe. "Luna, you seriously couldn't even remember half of the new characters' names. Not that I blame you, what's even with all the ridiculous amount of Spanish in a Japanese manga in the first place?" Her face screwed up in confusion as she shook her head. "I honestly just finished reading last night too! Caught up finally. I didn't really like how it ended but at least not all of my favorite characters died." She sighed sadly, shaking her head.
The glare she had gotten from Luna could have set the world on fire. "Lucky you. Manga had to kill all my favorites and then make my actual favorite a zombie for two panels. I've just accepted the fact that anytime I have a favorite in a show that isn't the main character, they're gonna die. Bloody authors making the death flag characters likable."
"You're still in a Harry Potter phase, huh?" Tanner asked, a laugh in her voice which indicated that she was amused by her best friend's dilemma.
"Yeah, and there's kids nearby, don't want to cuss around them." Luna held open the door for Tanner and hopped in line. "Order whatever you want, my treat."
The sour look on Luna's face twisted into one of pure polite cheerfulness once they reached the barista. He smiled at the two of them. "Welcome in, what can I get for you?"
"Hi, could I have a grande mango dragon fruit, please? With extra juice, please." Luna reached into her purse and fished out a wallet covered in axolotls.
"And I'd like an Iced Mocha Frappe. Grande please." Tanner chirped, bouncing on her heels, knowing full well the caffeine and sugar were going to hype her up more than she usually is.
Luna paid for their drinks and the two claimed a seat. "Anyway, the only thing that's stuck to my mind is that part where Aizen is cracking his neck in chapter… uh." She opened her phone, flipping through her gallery. "I gotta delete these screenshots. This one, on chapter 624. Summarizes me every five minutes in class."
Tanner snorted, "Like when you're overstressed? I crack my neck when I'm overstressed." She honestly didn't remember the last time she didn't crack her neck when she was stressed.
Luna shrugged, grabbing her ponytail and pressing the hair against her lips. "Nah, when I'm overly stressed I fidget with the nearest thing I can. Mostly my hair." She tapped her pointer finger on the clump of hair covering her mouth. Hearing her name, Luna got up and collected their drinks. "When I'm in a high-stress situation that I don't know what to do, I start to hum or narrate to the tune of Once Upon a Dream. You know, from Sleeping Beauty. Anyway, we can go to Uwajimaya after we settle for a few minutes. You're gonna love it. It has all the snacks you can think of, plus a cute bookstore filled with manga and other stuff."
Tanner perked up. "Oh fuck yeah!" She cheered, causing Luna to wince because children, "I have been itching to go to a shop like that for years now!" She smiled sheepishly at Luna's expression. "Sorry, I cuss a lot when I'm excited."
"Ya don't fuckin' say," Luna drawled in a low tone. "We both know I cuss like a sailor when given the chance. I'm just still kinda in teacher's mode. Ran into one of my old volunteer students while waiting for you so my brain is taking a minute to rewire. God, I'm going to trust you to make sure I stay away from the Bleach merch. I think I'm still in a phase and I need to make sure I don't touch anything since merch is gonna be rare."
Tanner nodded and sipped her drink, humming and dancing a bit in her seat at the taste. "Yeah, I'll try, but it will probably fail cuz I'm gonna want to go and check out the merch." She smirked around her straw as she went to take another drink.
Luna's face suddenly shifted, eyes kept glancing out the window. "Let's leave. Now."
Tanner frowned and nodded, deciding to take her drink with her. "Alright." She stood up. "Let's head to that Ama...Whatever shop you were talking about then." She flushed when she realized she couldn't remember what it was called.
"You still have your ticket so you don't have to pay for the bus fare. I know which stop we have to take." Luna got up from her seat, tucking her phone into her purse, and speedily walked out of the cafe with Tanner on her tail. "Sorry, got a weird feeling about the dude across the street. I hate that Seattle is full of these tweakers."
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."
"They're starting to grow in my town too. No one's ever bothered me but I've been tempted to buy a taser lately just so I can walk during the daytime. Don't know what's worse, the tweakers or the weed smokers that think they can stink up the area." Luna had them walk a few blocks, taking some turns while sipping her drink every fifteen steps or so. She looked up at the bus number and then at her phone. "Cool, it should be here in a couple minutes."
Tanner snorted, "Growing up with weed smokers, I don't find the smell that repulsive. But I can definitely say I can't stand the smell of cigarettes despite growing up around that too. But yeah, all that is why I carry around my handy dandy pocket knife." She gestured to the all-black, totally legal blade clipped to the outermost pocket of her all-black zip-up hoodie. Her heavy, steel-toed black leather riding boots made a rather loud clang on a grate as they paused in front of the bus stop, causing the girl to wince. "These things are everywhere." She glared at the offending piece of metal like it was the bane of her existence.
"You chose to wear boots in Washington summer," said the girl with the open-toed hiking sandals. "Your feet are gonna reek by the end of this."
Tanner snorted. "Nah, believe it or not, my feet don't sweat in these. Although I am definitely going to sweat a lot wearing the rest of this outfit." She gestured to the black jacket, her black skinny jeans and dark brown band t-shirt with Hollywood Undead plastered on the front of it. "I shouldn't have worn my choker." She scratched at her neck where a black band rested. "Itches like crazy when it's hot out."
"Want me to hold onto it?" Luna gestured to her purse.
Tanner paused in her scratching as she thought for a moment. "Nah, knowing me I'd forget you had it and you'd be the proud owner of a brand new choker." She snickered. "I'll just stop complaining about it."
"Aw, but I like chokers…" Luna paused and snickered. "Sorry, phases makes me picture things based on what I'm thinking of and I just pictured most of the Bleach cast in chokers. Ahh, this is not going to leave my brain, I'll need to find a new phase soon! 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."
Tanner laughed out loud. "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." She lifted her head up. "Bus is here."
Tanner laughed at the Sexy comment. "Yay! I can't wait to look at all the merch I can't afford!" She was genuinely excited, completely used to just browsing and looking at things.
"Please have Q Poskets," Luna muttered to herself, tossing the drink she finished into the bus stop's trash bin. "Please have Q Poskets and have them not be Sailor Moon. Hi," She greeted the bus driver, scanning her pass. "Just show him your ticket, hun."
Tanner did as she was told and followed Luna through the surprisingly empty bus. "Is it always this spacious in here? I thought busses were usually jam-packed like a can of sardines in the afternoon."
Luna frowned and checked her phone, then at the back window. "Not for the bus to the Asian section of Seattle. Weird. But it's on time and it scanned my pass and everything."
Tanner frowned deeply. "I've got a funny feeling about this." It made her feel very uneasy.
But the bus already jerked forward. Luna grabbed a pole with one hand to keep herself steady and the other hand grabbing Tanner until she found her barring. She led Tanner to seats with their backs to the wall, but not immediately next to the doors. "We're getting off on the next stop if the feeling doesn't change. We won't get charged for changing buses."
Tanner gripped her hand tightly and refused to let go. Her other hand held her drink to her chest as she nodded, a serious look on her face, the same expression usually meant she was trying to get her anxiety under control as she concentrated hard. "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 busses, 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's cheeks were turning pink, neck muscles twitching as Tanner could almost feel her pumping herself up to speak out. "Could you keep your eyes on the road, please? Otherwise, we want off if you're gonna keep staring at us."
Luna turned on her phone, using one hand to send a text to someone. Tanner could see it was the last street they passed and one of the niche stores on it. Luna proceeded to copy the text and start sending it to at least three other numbers in ten seconds.
The man was eerily silent and slowly turned his gaze back to the road but would occasionally take long peeks at the girls.
Tanner gulped down her drink before realizing the caffeine wasn't helping her anxiety and she suddenly wished she had gotten a juice instead. Her brows creased deeply as she concentrated on her breathing.
The minutes passed and little had changed in their situation. Tanner noticed that trees were becoming more common and the number of cars outside began to shrink.
Luna was nose-deep into fanfiction, not once bothered by Tanner holding her hand. "And another Bleach ship picked clean of all its gems. God, I hate loving pairings that die off once a show ends. Eh?" She paused, looking around the bus with almost bird-like jerks of her head. She then looked down at her phone, turned on her map function, then checked her texts. "Weird, Seattle always has service. Have we stopped at all since I started reading?"
Tanner shook her head quickly and tried gulping down her drink but all she could do was hold the straw in her mouth as she tried to take in air, but it felt like she had a ball in her throat. She couldn't breathe at all, her hazel blue eyes darted around anxiously. "Where even are we? This doesn't look like the city." She wheezed out.
"..." Luna let go of Tanner's hand and replaced it with 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."
Tanner nodded, having honestly forgotten about her precious knife still clipped to her jacket. She pulled it off and effortlessly opened it one-handed. Relaxing just a little with the small blade in her hand. It really did bring her a lot of comforts to have it.
Luna got up and walked to the driver, staying out of their arms' reach. "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."
The driver turned and looked at her, an almost blank look on his face as he sized her up. An empty smile spread across his face as he nodded. "Sure, I'll let you off at the next stop." His voice had an echoey undertone like it wasn't really him speaking and it sent chills down the girls' spines. "It won't be much longer, please be patient and get back in your seat."
Tanner watched as one of Luna's Roman arched brows shot up and she gave the driver an unimpressed glance. "Alright." She returned to her seat and then took her phone, texting 911 anyway. "Dude sounds like one of those autotuned deities in a triple-A budget film."
Luna also began trying to call people, glaring a hole into the back of the driver's head as each call went to voicemail. "Gonna kill someone if this is a kidnapping situation."
"Just don't kill me." Tanner laughed nervously.
"Hang on," Luna muttered, going through her gallery again. "I think I screenshotted where you're supposed to stab someone for maximum damage."
"Um… Why do you have that saved?" Tanner asked, eyeing her friend cautiously.
"Murder is going to be common in my writing soon," Luna replied, but put her phone away and focused on staring out the window. "The 911 text is taking a while."
She then looked around the bus. The poles, the ceiling, and even the back wall. "Where are the cameras and emergency stop buttons…?"
Tanner finally gulped down the rest of her drink, setting the cup on the empty seat beside her as she gently fiddled with the blade of her knife. "When is the next stop supposed to be?" She looked out the window to try and spot it in the distance. "This guy is really creeping me out."
Luna glared at the windows, and Tanner spotted her friend's toes curling around the sandals' padding. Considering they were in a forested area, it was getting obvious that Luna was regretting her choice of outfits. "The fuck is this place…?"
The trees in the surrounding area were unfamiliar to the local flora. The bus slowly eased to a stop. It was so slow that the two didn't even notice it was slowing down until it stopped completely.
A creaking sound from the front of the bus was the only indication that the man had moved, he slowly turned to the two and smiled an impossibly wide and eerie grin. "We've arrived." His voice sounded different somehow, like two people were speaking at once.
Tanner let out a little squeak as she stood rigidly to her feet, her knife gripped so tightly in her hand that she could feel the clip digging into her skin.
Luna opened the camera on her phone and snapped a picture of the driver. "Thank you." She went to the front of the bus to throw away Tanner's drink, grabbed her friend's arm, and dragged her off the 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."
The bus slowly pulled away. Tanner gulped as she stuck close to Luna as the other girl was preoccupied trying to text and call people, looking around and trying to figure out where they were. "Maybe we should go back the way we came?"
"Yeah. Where the hell did that asshole drop us off? I can't even reach 911. I've never heard of a place in Washington of all spots that didn't connect you to the emergency line. Pretty sure I could climb the top of Mt. Rainier and still be able to reach someone." Luna started walking in the opposite direction of the bus, staying in the straight middle of the dirt road and heading down. "Keep your head up, I'll watch the ground."
"Horror movie?" Tanner asked with a strained laugh but did as she was told.
"Yeah, we either have inbred cannibals, a freaky child of Loki that's not actually a child of Loki, a witch, or Slenderman lurking around." Luna's voice was so deadpan that Tanner struggled to know if she was kidding or not. "I have a few others in mind but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't kidnap just two girls for it. They'd need at least anywhere between four to thirty people."
Tanner went quiet. Her piercing in her bottom lip tugged up into her teeth, the corner of her mouth on the same side of the piercing was not spared of the nervous chewing habit.
"I'm kidding, we don't have those kinds of rumored situations in this state… not anywhere within two hours of Seattle. We weren't even on that bus for thirty minutes…" Luna glared up at the trees. "Wished I spent more time studying native trees, but none of these kinds look familiar to this part of the state."
As the girls walked, their positions slowly changed, with Tanner leading while Luna would keep slowing down to look at things off the road. Mossy trees, grass that would cover their ankles, and somewhere in the distance, Tanner could hear a stream. Every few minutes, Tanner would hear Luna turn on her phone, try to call 911, then curse.
But, just as Luna was saying something, Tanner felt like she was underwater. The noise was muted and when the water left her mind, four footsteps were reduced to two, and Tanner's hand was empty of her friend's.
"Luna?!" Tanner shrieked, turning around but her friend was nowhere to be seen. Everything in this forest was green, brown, and grey. The navy blue of Luna's jumpsuit would have stuck out like a sore thumb. "Luna, this isn't funny, where did you go?!"
All Tanner got was empty silence. There weren't even any birds, despite the many messages from Luna about the city birds non-stop chirping.
Tanner felt the lump in her throat grow as tears pricked the corner of her eyes. She hated being alone. But alone and lost? That's even worse in her books. Where did her friend go? How did she miss her hand slipping from her own?
"Luna?" Her voice cracked, it hurt to talk as she tried to speak around the lump in her throat. She felt like her knees were going to give out at any second. The screaming in the distance suddenly started up again. Tanner was relieved only because it didn't sound like Luna at all, it was a man screaming.
Tanner forced herself to keep walking even though with every step it felt as though her legs were going to give out. "Maybe she's further ahead…" She knew it was wishful thinking but she would rather hang onto the quickly fraying thread of hope than despair and give up entirely.
She kept walking for what felt like hours, which was probably only a few minutes, when she spotted a figure up ahead… A rather familiar figure.
Squeaking softly she gripped at her pocket knife so tightly she actually managed to cut into her skin with the clip.
The bus driver from before smiled emptily at her, his eyes a hollow black color. The skin around them is actually cracking a bit, scarlet running down his cheeks.
Tanner squeezed her eyes shut tightly and shook her head, gulping down mouthfuls of air before she opened her eyes again. He still stood there, but instead, his eyes were that same blank brown color as they were on the bus. The skin around them is smooth and blood free.
"Hello, Tanner." His voice sounded again, like two people talking at once. "How pleasant it is to see you here."
Tanner felt her gut wrench painfully with fear and anxiety as she grits her teeth. "Cut to the chase." She hissed. "Where's Luna?"
"Luna?" He cocked his head to the side, still smiling that empty smile. "Ah, the long-haired girl you were with? She's safe. That's all you really need to know."
Tanner grit her teeth harder and jerked the hand with the pocket knife in it. "Shut up. Where is she? Why did she disappear all of a sudden? I know you have something to do with it."
The man tsked and shook his head, still smiling even if it was a little dimmer as he closed his eyes. "Now Tanner, is that any way to speak to your savior?"
"Savior?!" Tanner shouted. "You're the reason we wound up here and separated in the first place!"
The bus driver chuckled lowly. "If it weren't for me you'd be on your way to heaven at this moment."
Tanner's face screwed up in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"What I mean, dear Tanner, is that you're dead." The man chuckled once more.
The feeling of hot fear as well as ice-cold realization crossed Tanner's body at once. Like she swallowed a ball of fire while simultaneously being shoved into an ice bath. "No. No way. No. You're lying." But she knew he wasn't. She somehow knew he was right.
"Am I?" The man asked.
Tanner dropped to her knees. A dead and vacant look in her eyes.
"What if I told you, I can give you another chance at life?" The man began walking up to the short brown-haired girl.
"What?" She looked up at him through the lenses of her glasses.
"What if I told you, it could be in a world you love very dearly." The man stopped in front of her.
"A world I love?" She thought for a moment, Hundreds of books, tv shows, and comics flashed through her mind. "I'd tell you that you were lying, there's no way."
"Oh, but there is dear Tanner and all you have to do... Is take my hand." He held his hand out to her with a smile.
Tanner looked at his open hand and back up to his vacant brown eyes. "That simple huh?"
The man nodded. "It's as easy as that."
Tanner took in a deep breath and nodded. "Fine, the worst you can do is kill me." She sighed softly, placing her hand into his before the world went black.
So this is cross posted on AO3! I got permission from my co-author SlytherinLife to post it on here. I hope you enjoyed this!