#MenageMonday Week 03×05 : A Halloween Story

James sat at the bus stop, wishing its glaring lights were off, as they hurt his eyes. “Besides. They perfectly illuminate everyone here, making us perfect targets for some idiot with a gun. Target practice. And we’d be the targets. Never see them, ‘cause they’re in the dark.”

Worse, he was alone, the only person at the stop. Sophie’s Halloween Party had ended, right at 11:00 that night. James wound up having to catch the bus. Everyone else had cars to drive, or ride in. Not James. No one even offered.

Sophie shooed him out, and locked the door behind him. All he could do was catch the midnight bus home. The last bus. If he missed that, he got to walk, or sleep on the bench at the bus stop. That didn’t work for him. The walk was 12 miles. He wouldn’t get home until damn near dawn. Staying at the bus stop all night wouldn’t work either. He’d be awake the entire time, and watch the sun come up.

James wasn’t scared of the dark, really. He was scared of what was in the dark. The things, the people, he couldn’t see. They could be there, just outside the reach of the bus stop lights, watching him already. Waiting for him to drop his guard so he’d be easy pickings. Maybe someone would sneak up behind him, and bash him over the head. Or perhaps a couple of giant rats would come out of the dark, teeth gnashing, and chew him up.

“Sometimes, I swear,” he stood up, and walked around the bench a few times. “It’s like my brain cells laugh at me.”

He imagined his brain cells, pointing out an endless of possible disasters that could happen, doing their best to make him anxious, cause him to panic. He could almost hear their evil laughter as they brought up endless ideas and thoughts on how he could end up dead, waiting for the bus.

In desperation, he pulled out his phone, and checked the time. 12:31 AM, and the bus still hadn’t arrived. Perhaps it had broken down somewhere. Or been hijacked by some dude with a gun. Maybe the driver had a heart attack, and was dead, inside the bus, somewhere down the road, and would never arrive.

“Fricking brain cells.” James shook his head. “Shut up!”

He sat down on the bench, and waited, as his brain cells declared he should find a sheet of paper, draw a target on it, and stick it on his chest.

When the sun came up, James was still there. Waiting. He woke up when someone poked him, “Dude! Let the lady sit down!”

The lady had winked at him, and giggled, “Somebody had a long night.”

“The bus. It never came.”

The lady laughed. It was almost like that evil laughter his brain keep repeating that night. “The bus doesn’t run after dark on Halloween, silly.”

486 Words

It’s week 03×05 of Cara Michaels‘s #MenageMonday flash fiction challenge. You can read about #MenageMonday here. Please, go read all the short tales from this week. The tales are always little works of art, crafted with words, meant to be shared, and enjoyed.

Leave a Reply


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s