His hair fluttered in the breeze, he stood there with his hands in his pockets he stood there waiting for the bus. It was cold outside, barely above the freezing point, that didn’t bother him however. He was quite used to the cold and preferred it over hot sweltering summer weather. He was wearing light brown fur-lined leather boots, torn jeans, with a woollen lumberers jacket beneath a black leather coat. He wore a beanie over his shoulder-length hair, covering his ears was his Skull-crusher headphone.

Two other people waited for the bus at the same station as he was. One, a teenage girl about his age wore those typical uggs girls often wore in the winter. Her other clothing marked her as what he liked to call a Starbucks-girl. She had the long straight blond hair and everything. The other, a man, in his late twenties, appeared a bit rougher, but the guitar on his back marked him as a musician.

After a few minutes in the cold the bus finally arrived, the three showed the bus-driver their Tickets and got on. The driver looked like he came straight out of prison, with his powerful build, shaven head and the tattoos covering his body. The tattoos were visible beneath the rolled up sleeves of his jacket The year or two he had been driving the same bus however and the people around here knew him to be kind. His rough exterior covering his soft insides. He gave the bus-driver a nod and grinned at him, the man returning the grin.

He sat down as far back as he could, and a quick look around marked the same people in the bus as he always saw on a Tuesday morning. Only one unfamiliar man sat near the front. The bus took off moving/driving carefully through the snow covered streets, leaving the small town and heading through the mountains with what would be an hour drive to the nearest city, and most importantly his school. He just sat back closing his eyes, taking a nap and listening to the guitar-riff he had downloaded from a certain youtuber a few days ago. Man could that guy strum his guitar, he doze off relishing the electric sounds buzzing through his ears.

His head smacked against the window startling him awake, the bus slid through the snow. People screamed with fear painted their faces.  He gripped the bars in front of him with a white-knuckled grasp as he looked around confused. Through the window, He saw the bus careening down the road towards the mountain road’s edge. A split second of fear sent shock waves through his body as the bus tipped over the edge. Then calm realisation hit him, the corners of his mouth turned up as he smiled sadly.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

And I was finally getting my life back together, he thought.

Suddenly he smacked down onto a floor, looking around with white eyes he saw himself and the other people in the bus lying face down on the whitest marble floor he had ever seen. He quickly jumped up looking around him only to see nothing but more of the same in every direction. Around him the rest looked around just as confused as he was, a few of them sighed in relief however as they ran their hands along their bodies. Probably checking if they were still whole, he guessed. It seemed a stupid thing to do, but he had the urge to do the same strangely enough.

Suddenly a deep rumbling voice sounded out to them from every direction. The voice made his very cells tingle. The raw power in the voice’s acoustics straightened his hair and gave him goose-bumps. A quick scan of the area told him nothing; whoever the voice belonged to he had not deigned to make himself visible. Somehow he was sure that the owner of the voice could do so if willing.

“As yourbus slipped over the edge of the mountain, I decided to intercept you. As it turns out, the number of the people in the bus coincides with the amount of people I am in need of. I hope that you all take my offer at a new and different life. Should you refuse, as is your right, then I will simply put you back where you were. You might survive, you might not. Any choice you make is yours and yours alone.”

The voice dissipated, leaving the group looking at each other confused.

Panicking, the Starbucks girl asked, “What should we do?!”.

“Well I for one accept the offer,” the musician said. As soon as the words left his mouth, the man vanished. No poof or sparkle or blip of sound. He was simply there one moment then gone the next.

Everyone stared at where the man was with surprise. The bus-driver looked at them grimly. “I’m sorry guys, its my fault we are all either here or dead. But I'm positive that I'm dead if I choose to remain. I will take my chances.” Just like that, he disappeared as well. The others started voicing their acceptance and disappeared one by one. When only he and Starbuck remained, he smiled at her and nodded.

“ I accept,” he said, vanishing like the others.