Sister’s Home 9

The Haunted Bus

Xu Si stood at the bus stop, the bitter wind slicing across her cheeks like blades of ice. She raised her wrist to check the time. The last bus should have departed long ago, yet the electronic display suddenly flickered to life, announcing that the next bus would arrive in five minutes.

Xu Si frowned. She was certain there were no more buses at this hour.

Just as she began to wonder, a bus slowly pulled into the station. It looked brand-new, its body gleaming beneath the streetlights, but the license plate was shrouded in mist and impossible to make out. Xu Si hesitated. The doors opened with agonizing slowness. Inside, the lights were dim, and a uniformed driver sat behind the wheel, staring straight ahead as though he had not seen her.

“Driver, is this the bus to Sunshine Residential Complex?” Xu Si asked.

The driver did not answer. He merely gave a slight nod.

Gritting her teeth, Xu Si boarded. She had no desire to walk the long way home on such a freezing night. After dropping her fare into the box, she found a window seat and sat down. Apart from herself and the driver, there were four other passengers on the bus. They sat silently in their separate seats, without exchanging a word.

The bus began to move. Xu Si gazed out the window and realized that the scenery had grown unfamiliar. At some point, the streets she knew so well had turned into a desolate field. Moonlight spilled across the land, giving it an eerie, silvery sheen.

A wave of unease rose within her. She stood and walked toward the driver, intending to ask what was happening.

“Driver, this doesn’t seem like the right route. Where are we going?” she asked, doing her best to keep her voice calm.

The driver still did not turn around. In a cold voice, he said, “Don’t worry. The route was changed temporarily. We’ll arrive soon.”

Helpless, Xu Si returned to her seat. That was when she noticed a slip of paper that had somehow appeared on the window. Written on it were the words:

When you realize that the bus has left its normal route, do not make a scene. Sit quietly back in your seat, or there will be danger.

Xu Si’s heartbeat quickened. Fighting down her fear, she sat back down and kept her eyes fixed on the road ahead.

Suddenly, the lights inside the bus began to flicker. A child’s voice rang through the carriage.

“Mommy, I saw someone without a face.”

Xu Si turned toward the voice in horror. It belonged to a little girl, whose mother was clamping a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were filled with fear and warning.

After flickering several more times, the lights returned to normal.

Xu Si drew a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. She began studying the other passengers carefully. In the front row sat a man wearing a black hat. His body trembled faintly, and both hands gripped the seat rails tightly. In the back sat a young couple, clinging to each other with pale faces.

The bus continued on. Xu Si had no idea how long they had been traveling when an intersection appeared ahead. The traffic lights flickered incessantly, never settling on any color. The driver showed no sign of slowing down. He drove straight toward the intersection.

Xu Si’s heart leapt into her throat.

“Driver, it’s a red light!” she shouted.

The driver seemed not to hear her. He continued accelerating.

Just as the bus was about to crash into a car crossing from the opposite direction, something impossible happened. The car—and all the pedestrians—vanished without warning. The bus passed safely through the intersection.

Xu Si collapsed into her seat, cold sweat soaking through her back. Then she discovered that her phone had somehow lost its signal. She tried to ask the others for help, but they were all sitting perfectly still, as though frozen in place, their vacant eyes staring straight ahead.

The bus stopped in front of an abandoned factory.

The driver finally spoke. “Everyone off. This is the terminal.”

Xu Si did not dare disobey. She stepped off with the others. The moment they had all left the bus, it sped away and disappeared into the darkness.

Xu Si looked around. The abandoned factory was dark and terrifying, and a pungent odor hung in the air. The main gate stood half open, with a faint light glowing from within.

She was still hesitating over whether to enter when the man in the black hat suddenly ran into the factory.

“I want to leave! I want to get out of here!”

His voice echoed across the empty night, harsh and desperate.

Xu Si wanted to stop him, but it was already too late. The instant he disappeared inside, a terrible scream rang out.

Xu Si and the remaining passengers all flinched. The couple clung tightly to each other, while the little girl and her mother hid behind Xu Si.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Si picked up a wooden stick from the ground and cautiously approached the factory. Since they had already come this far, she thought, they had to find some way to escape.

Inside, the air was thick with the heavy stench of blood.

By the dim light, Xu Si saw a trail of blood on the floor, leading deeper into the factory. She followed it and found the man in the black hat sprawled on the ground, already dead. His face was frozen in terror, his eyes wide open as though he had witnessed something unimaginably horrifying.

Suppressing her fear, Xu Si continued forward.

Suddenly, she heard a strange sound, like someone sobbing softly. She stopped and watched her surroundings warily.

A figure slowly emerged from the darkness.

It was a woman in a white dress, her face hidden behind a curtain of hair.

“Help me…” she whispered, her voice faint and miserable.

Xu Si felt a pang of pity, but the strange events that had already occurred kept her cautious.

“Who are you? Why are you here?” she asked.

The woman did not answer. She only continued moving slowly toward Xu Si.

Xu Si took several steps backward and raised the wooden stick.

At that moment, every light in the factory suddenly went out. The entire building plunged into darkness.

Strange noises rose around Xu Si, as though countless pairs of eyes were watching her from the shadows. Panicking, she switched on her phone’s flashlight—only to discover that the woman in the white dress had vanished.

Xu Si continued feeling her way through the darkness. Suddenly, her foot slipped, and she plunged into a deep pit.

A foul, rotten stench filled the bottom. Covering her nose, Xu Si searched desperately for a way out. She noticed several protruding stones along the wall and tried to climb up.

She was almost at the rim when an icy hand suddenly seized her ankle.

Xu Si looked down in terror.

A man whose face was covered in blood was reaching up from the darkness below. His eyes burned with resentment.

“Why did you come here? You’ll never leave either!” he roared.

Xu Si struggled with all her strength, kicking at his hand with her other foot. At last, she broke free of his grip and hauled herself over the edge.

She collapsed onto the ground.