The Silver King

King On the Bus 2

"Don't look at it."

The voice was soft and it sounded like it belonged to a child. I stared at the person in front of me instead of the one who just passed behind.

"It?" I asked slowly.

"May I sit beside you?"

It was an odd request, but if I was talking to a child, I didn't see why not. Without waiting for an answer, the small child in front of me got up from his seat and walked to sit next to me. I was guessing it was a boy but it's hard to be sure of children. He was wearing gender neutral clothing. Just a big grey sweater, jeans, and I was shocked to see no shoes. Why was he out so late? Where was his parents? Why was he missing his shoes? I had put the other person on the bus out of my mind as I looked over at the child. He finally raised his head to look at me and under his long wavy white hair, pink eyes stared at me. I had never seen someone who was albino before. Aside from some photos. It was off putting for a second. But I focused on the more important questions.

"What are you doing out so late? Do you have a guardian I can call? Are you hurt? And where are your shoes?"

Each question made him looked slightly more annoyed. He had a very neutral look but his eyes narrowed just enough to make me stop and let him answer.

"In the past six months, ten people have disappeared from this bus route. Four have been bus drivers. Are you aware of this?"

He was speaking so softly he was hard to hear. But I got the idea. I had actually heard the stories in a way. I've over heard people at my job talking about some missing bus drivers on the last bus for the night. I've been so busy at work I never stopped to chat. I heard there was a post going around lone about the rules to survive the last bus, but I again, never cared enough to look it up.

"Aren't you too young to be scary story hunting? Is this for a video? You really should be in bed."

I let out a sigh and put my book away in my bag. I was reaching for my cell phone to see how to report a missing child when he slouched in his seat.

"Fine. If you do not believe me then look behind us at the figure sitting at the back of the bus. It's your life after all."

He sounded a little like he was pouting. And strangely, a little too mature for his face. I gave him a confused look. What on Earth did the other passenger on the bus have anything to do with this weird conversation? The bus stopped for a red light again. The driver looked in a mirror mounted at the front so he could see most of the bus. Since we were on an empty street, he felt safe enough to take his eyes off the road and look behind at us.

"Hey missy, who is your friend? And when did he get on? I don't remember him at all."

The driver said back to me looking genuinely confused over the boy's presence. That made me look from the driver to the boy a few times. He was still sulking. I gave his arm a very light poke to make sure he was really there and the both of us weren't sharing a hallucination.

"I don't know who he is. He got on a few stops ago. Like a few minutes before midnight."

The driver looked even more confused. The light had turned green so he started the bus back up just to pull off to the side of the street and out of the way in case any cars came past. He then got out of his seat and started to walk towards us. I mean, he honestly looked like he had no memory of letting the albino boy on. And he was a child out in the middle of the night. It was a good idea to stop and try and figure out where he was going and why he was alone.